Med formand Tom Gillesberg
Video 1. del:
Video 2. del:
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Af Helga Zepp-LaRouche, den 28. juli 2018
Inspireret af Kinas fabelagtige fremskridt finder der nu for tiden en strategisk nyorientering sted blandt udviklingslandene, hvorved der skridt for skridt opstår en økonomisk verdensorden baseret på helt andre principper. Medens Vesten forgæves forsøger at opretholde det neoliberale økonomiske systems gamle verdensorden, arbejder flere og flere nationer sammen med BRIKS-staterne, Shanghai-samarbejdsorganisationen (SCO) og andre regionale organisationer inden for rammerne af det nye silkevejsinitiativ på grundlag af et samarbejde til gensidig fordel. Man demonstrerer derved, at verden kan udformes meget mere menneskeligt, end EU demonstrerer med sin barbariske flygtningepolitik,
“Jeg vil have den kinesiske model, fordi det, som Kina har opnået, er utroligt. Den måde, Kina har overvundet fattigdommen på, har intet sidestykke i historien!” – dette er en udtalelse fra Pakistans nyvalgte statsminister, Imran Khan, der samtidigt meddelte, at han vil besvare ethvert positivt skridt fra Indiens side for at forbedre forholdet til Pakistan med to skridt fra hans side. Præcist den samme stemning gjorde sig gældende ved det netop afsluttede topmøde for BRIKS — altså Brasilien, Rusland, Indien, Kina og Sydafrika – i Johannesburg, der var fuldstændigt præget af Den nye Silkevejs ånd, der hævder ikke mindre end, at alle verdens nationer har ret til at udvikle sig på grundlag af videnskabelige og teknologiske fremskridt, og at der er opstået en ny ære for menneskeheden.
Den kinesiske præsident Xi Jinping understregede i sin tale på topmødet, hvor også Indonesien, Tyrkiet, Argentina og rigtigt mange afrikanske statsoverhovder deltog, at det internationale samfund befandt sig ved en skillevej og måtte udvikle en helt ny form for internationale forhold. Med en begejstret kulturoptimisme, der er helt forsvundet i Europa, betonede Xi det videnskabelige fremskridts afgørende rolle som drivkraft for den økonomiske opbygning. “Videnskab og teknik udgør som de primære produktivkræfter en uudtømmelig kraft, der driver den menneskelige civilisations udvikling fremad.” Menneskeheden har foretaget kæmpe udviklingsspring fra landbrugs- til industrisamfund og står nu foran nye videnskabelige og teknologiske revolutioner og industrielle forvandlinger. Hvis staterne griber de chancer, der frembyder sig, kan de opnå en dynamisk økonomisk vækst og dermed et bedre liv for deres befolkninger.
Xi fortsatte med at sige, at der lå større udviklingsmuligheder i Afrika end på noget andet kontinent, og derfor havde det et større udviklingspotentiale end noget andet område i verden. BRIKS ønskede derfor at forstærke samarbejdet med Afrika og lade dette samarbejde blive til forbillede for udviklingen af syd-syd-forholdene. Denne intensivering vil forstærkes yderligere på det forestående forum for Kina-Afrika-samarbejde i Beijing til september, hvor integrationen med det økonomiske bælte-initiativ skal føres videre. Også den indiske statsminister Modi fremførte, at fredsbevarelse og Afrikas udvikling havde den højeste prioritet for hans regering. Man meddelte også, at man agtede at oprette et Mahatma Gandhi – Nelson Mandela – center. Præsident Putin berettede i sin tale, at Rusland agtede at “tænde lyset” på det afrikanske kontinent og forsyne det med energi, fremfor alt med atomenergi, hvor Rusland for tiden har udviklet sig til den teknologiske fører i verden.
Stigningen i handelen mellem Kina og Afrika inden for de sidste 40 år er enorm: Fra 765 millioner $ i 1978 har samhandelen allerede nået 170 milliarder $ i 2017 for at ligge på 400 milliarder årligt i de kommende år. I det hele taget stiger BRIKS-landenes økonomiske betydning voldsomt: i det forløbne år androg disse landes samlede bruttonationalprodukt over 17 billioner $ og dermed mere end EU’s. Præsident Xi havde før topmødet ud over de Forenede arabiske Emirater også aflagt statsbesøg i Senegal, Rwanda og Sydafrika fulgt af Mauritius i tilknytning til topmødet. Kinas og Indiens regeringer har også besluttet sig for fælles investeringer i Afrika i sammenhæng med det Nye Silkevejsinitiativ. En yderligere byggesten til den nye økonomiske orden er konceptet “BRIKS-plus”, en platform, der skal udbygge det økonomiske og også strategiske samarbejde mellem endnu flere stater og regioner. Det er blandt andet de deltagende landes hensigt at skaffe stemmeret i IMF til et stadigt større antal medlemsstater fra denne blok for at kunne påvirke afgørende beslutninger.
Samarbejde eller konfrontation
Xi Jinping understregede under topmødet også energisk det synspunkt, med en tydelig henvisning til Donald Trumps trusler om importtold, at der ikke gives nogen vindere i en handelskrig. Man stod foren valget mellem samarbejde eller konfrontation, mellem gensidige fordele eller muligheden for at gøre sin nabo til tigger, men at de, der fulgte denne kurs, i sidste ende blot ville skade sig selv.
Netop denne effekt har man allerede kunne iagttage ved sanktionerne mod Rusland, som flere eksperter her i landet anser for en ulykke, da de har tvunget Rusland til at genopbygge flere af de produktionsområder, der ødelagdes under Jeltsin-årenes chokterapi, og samtidigt til at fordybe forholdet til Kina og Asien. Og ligesom ved de (af den amerikanske kongres) påtvungne sanktioner fra USA’s og EU’s side mod Rusland, har Trumps trusler om importtold over for Kina øjensynligt den af ophavsmændene oversete virkning, at de blot fremmer BRIKS-landenes samarbejde og øger deres ønske om en mere retfærdig og afbalanceret verdensorden.
På et seminar hos Chongyang Finansinstitut på Renmin-universitetet i Beijing påpegede Putins økonomiske rådgiver Sergej Glazjev, at det i betragtning af den dårlige tilstand i de vestlige økonomier, der stadig havde stærk fokus på spekulation frem for produktiv økonomi, burde komme til et stadig tættere samarbejde mellem de nye silkevejsinitiativer, mellem BRIKS og SCO. Og hvis trykket på disse stater skulle vokse yderligere, så ville det blot fremskynde tendensen til ikke længere at afvikle den internationale handel i dollars, men i de pågældende landes valutaer.
Af den kinesiske regerings årsberetning, som statsminister Li Keqiang for nylig fremlagde under et ledelsesmøde i statsrådet, fremgik det tydeligt, at Kina vil gøre alt for at beskytte landet mod virkningerne fra et nyt sammenbrud i det transatlantiske finanssystem. Stillet over for store internationale udfordringer vil Kina vedtage en hel pakke af forholdsregler for at styrke den produktive økonomi, heriblandt skattelettelser for investeringer i grundforskningen, 200 milliarder $ til infrastruktur, et krav om kreditudstedelse til små og mellemstore virksomheder, såvel som en entydig bekæmpelse af “zombiefirmaer” og enhver form for spekulation.
Den dynamik, der for tiden udvikles med den kinesiske model og BRIKS som centrum, er resultatet af en årtierlang politik fra IMF’s og Verdensbankens side, der med deres krav om såkaldte strukturtilpasninger og betingelser for udviklingslandene ikke blot har forhindret disse landes udvikling, men derudover har gennemført en gigantisk kapitaloverførsel fra disse lande til det neoliberale finanssystems banker. Af denne politik, som vi blandt andet har en stor del af flygtningekrisen at takke for såvel som de på løgne byggede krige i Sydvestasien og Nordafrika, har BRIKS og mange udviklingslande draget en lignende slutning som af Asien-krisen i 1997, hvor megaspekulanter som George Soros spekulerede adskillige asiatiske landes valutaer ned til indtil 80% af deres tidligere værdi.
Vi i Vesten har lige præcist det valg, som Xi Jinping har præciseret. Vi kan tage mod Kinas mangehånde tilbud og sammen med BRIKS og andre stater hjælpe med til at opbygge Afrika, Sydvestasien og Latinamerika industrielt og dermed samtidigt virkeliggøre et fremtidsperspektiv for os selv. Dette vil under alle forhold kræve et farvel til kasinoøkonomien og indførelse af en Glass-Steagall-bankopdeling såvel som oprettelsen af nationalbanker og oprettelsen af et nyt Bretton-Woods-kreditsystem.
Eller vi kan forsøge at holde fast i det nuværende, håbløst bankerotte, neoliberale finanssystem, der er indrettet på profitmaksimering for eliten på bekostning af en stor del af befolkningen samt udviklingslandene. Så har vi valget mellem et nyt krak, denne gang langt værre end i 2008, og et af dollarsammenbruddet udløst finanssammenbrud, såfremt staterne i den nye økonomiske blok værger sig i fællesskab mod en konfrontation fra USA’s side.
Vi har følgende valg: Enten genopfrisker vi her i USA og Europa vore bedste traditioner, det vil sige Alexander Hamiltons amerikanske økonomiske system og principperne fra det tyske økonomiske mirakel efter anden verdenskrig og traditionerne fra vor klassiske kultur — og så arbejder vi sammen med Kina og BRIKS med på at udvikle verden. – Eller vi vil selv være skyld i, at vore kulturer snart opstilles i de afrikanske og asiatiske museer som eksempler på samfund, der ikke var overlevelsesegnede i moralsk henseende.
zepp-larouche at eir.de
Med formand Tom Gillesberg
Video 2. del 5 min.:
Lyd:
Så, hvad enten du er flygtning, en indfødt, en borger, er bosiddende i Europa eller USA eller et andet sted, så bør du gå med i Schiller Instituttet: For dette er den eneste måde, som jeg har erfaret, at skabe forandring i verden på, og som har en indvirkning på alle levende skabninger på planeten.
Nu er vi mange. Vi har hele nationer, der også tilslutter sig det Nye Paradigme, og vi kan alle se, at udsigterne til en fremgangsrig og smuk fremtid for alle nationer er inden for rækkevidde. Jeg beder derfor hver og én af jer til, at, midt i den værste lidelse, må vi altid have vort blik rettet, ikke på mudderet under vore fødder, men mod de lysende stjerner foroven.
Mange tak.
Jason Ross: »Vi har virkelig en utrolig mulighed netop nu for at ændre de koncepter, der udgør grundlaget for, hvordan vi træffer beslutninger – politiske beslutninger, økonomiske beslutninger, selv kulturelle beslutninger. Der har været et angreb på det aspekt af os, der gør os menneskelige. Hvis vi ikke havde en forbindelse til udødelighed; hvis vore liv ikke var i stand til at efterlade noget, til at gøre noget, der går ud over vores egen død, ville vi faktisk, rent kulturelt, ikke være andet end dyr. Vi ville være ligesom en slags dyr; vi ville udsøge os dejlige ting, og det er da rart at have god mad, jeg kan godt lide god mad, og det er en god ting, det er dejligt at have det sjovt; men uden denne evne til at leve på en måde, så man, mens man lever sit liv, ved, at det vil have værdi for altid, så er man ikke et helt menneske. Og man kan ikke fylde det tomrum ved at forsøge at have travlt for at skubbe denne følelse af tomhed væk, eller at forsøge at købe ting for at skubbe denne følelse af tomhed væk; man må adressere det ved at gøre noget meningsfuldt. Og jeg mener, det er den største grusomhed ved det nuværende økonomiske system, som vi har i de fleste vestlige nationer; det skader økonomien; det gør folk fattigere; det koncentrerer rigdom hos mennesker, der arbejder i finansverdenen og assisterer den; det fortsætter Det britiske Imperium; og dets mest tragiske aspekt er, at det stjæler fra os, det tager fra mennesker det, der var blevet udviklet hen over århundreder som en kultur; en kultur, der gjorde det muligt for folk at gøre noget, der ville have mening efter deres død. Og det er det, vi må bringe tilbage som en del af at skabe et nyt paradigme. Det betyder, at vi har koncepter, der går længere end til det, Kina har foreslået med Bælte & Vej Initiativet. Det er et godt forslag. Der er mere at gøre. Det vil jeg komme nærmere ind på, og jeg vil, som denne rapport viser, specifikt tale lidt om Afrika som en case study, ved at sammenligne, hvordan det gamle paradigme har relateret til dette kontinent, og hvordan det nye paradigme relaterer til det.«
Video I: Jason Ross’ præsentation
Video II: Diskussion
Se også den danske introduktion til rapporten:
»Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien og Afrika: en vision for en økonomisk renæssance«.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Er det virkelig OK med narkoepidemien, der i USA har ført til et fald i den generelle levetid; guvernør Bevin påpegede det faktum, at nogle af disse sataniske budskaber også er i teksterne i popmusikken, i filmene, i videospillene – bør vi tillade alt dette, og få vore samfund totalt ødelagt? Der er en virkning af alt dette på de kognitive evner! Hvis man ønsker Lyndon LaRouches Fire Love som den eneste løsning til at undgå systemets kollaps, jamen, især den fjerde lov kræver et forceret program for fusionskraft, for international rumforskning og rumrejser. Man kan ikke have folk med ødelagte hjerner, fordi de er afhængige af disse ting, og så få dem til at blive kreativ, produktiv arbejdskraft.
Så det er én og samme diskussion, vi har brug for – vi har brug for et Nyt Paradigme, og vi må have et uddannelsessystem, der understreger skønheden i klassisk kultur, der understreger karakterens skønhed som et udviklingsmål. Det var Wilhelm von Humboldts idé, som trods alt havde indflydelse på meget af undervisningssystemet i Europa og USA i det 19. århundrede, og det holdt sig endda til langt ind i det 20. århundrede, og han havde den idé, at formålet med uddannelse må være karakterens skønhed. Hvem taler om dette nu om stunder? Hvis man tager nogle af disse børn, der er afhængige af disse voldsvideospil, eller endnu værre, der kigger på forfærdeligt materiale på Internettet, hvor der bruges tortur og sådanne ting, og som virkelig bliver ødelagt. Deres hjerner bliver fuldstændig ødelagt!
Eftersom guvernør Bevin har krævet en national debat om dette, og præsident Trump heldigvis også ønsker at tage dette spørgsmål op, mener jeg, vi må have en sådan debat, for det er efter min mening en integreret del af USA’s tilslutning til det Nye Paradigme og den Nye Silkevej, for vi kan ikke have, at dette fortsætter.
Schiller Instituttet har i mange år bevist, at, med klassisk musik, med klassisk poesi, med Schiller, med Shakespeare, kan man transformere folk og få en æstetisk opdragelse, og det er præcis, hvad vi har brug for lige nu.
Glæd dig til en optimistisk og konstruktiv løsning på det forfærdelige fattigdoms- og underudviklingsproblem, som denne verdensdel er så hårdt ramt af, og, som Helga Zepp-LaRouche så ofte har nævnt, den eneste humane og retfærdige løsning på det umenneskelige flygtningeproblem, der nu også har ramt Europa.
Vi introducerer her Schiller Instituttets nye, danske specialrapport, “Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien og Afrika; en vision for en økonomisk renæssance”, som er en grundig indføring i den 246 sider lange, engelske rapport, af rapportens forfattere, Hussein Askary og Jason Ross.
Vi introducerer her Schiller Instituttets nye, danske specialrapport, “Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien og Afrika; en vision for en økonomisk renæssance”, som er en grundig indføring i den 246 sider lange, engelske rapport, af rapportens forfattere, Hussein Askary og Jason Ross.
Glæd dig til en optimistisk og konstruktiv løsning på det forfærdelige fattigdoms- og underudviklingsproblem, som denne verdensdel er så hårdt ramt af, og, som Helga Zepp-LaRouche så ofte har nævnt, den eneste humane og retfærdige løsning på det umenneskelige flygtningeproblem, der nu også har ramt Europa.
Vi har et helt særligt program i dag; med mig i studiet har jeg Jason Ross, og via video fra Sverige har jeg Hussein Askary. Jason og Hussein er begge medforfattere af en ny rapport, der netop er udgivet, med titlen, »Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien og Afrika: En vision for en økonomisk renæssance«.
(OBS! Se invitation til seminar i København 5. febr. med Hussein Askary)
[Bemærk: Der er mange billeder, der hver er separat nummererede af de forskellige talere; det er selvfølgelig bedst at se videoen, -red.]
Vært Matthew Ogden: Det er 19. januar, og dette er vores ugentlige fredags-webcast fra larouchepac.com.
Vi har et helt særligt program i dag; med mig i studiet har jeg Jason Ross, og via video fra Sverige har jeg Hussein Askary. Jason og Hussein er begge medforfattere af en ny rapport, der netop er udgivet, med titlen, »Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien og Afrika: En vision for en økonomisk renæssance«.
Det bliver emnet for aftenens udsendelse; men før vi kommer til det, vil jeg gerne lægge ud med at sige, at LaRouche Political Action Committee har indledt en national kampagne for at sætte betingelserne for valgene 2018. Som I ser her, er titlen for vores kampagne »Kampagnen for at vinde fremtiden«, og det er titlen på en erklæring, der nu cirkuleres i hele landet. Erklæringens indhold fremlægger de politiske prioriteter, der vil bestemme udfaldet af valgene her i USA i år, med hensyn til dette lands overlevelse. Vi er i det indledende stadie for at indsamle underskrifter på denne erklæring, og vi opfordrer seerne, især her i USA, til at underskrive denne kampagne. URL ses her på skærmen, og I kan også få organisationer i valgkredsene, medlemmer af delstatskongresserne, siddende medlemmer af USA’s Kongres og i særdeleshed kandidater til offentligt (føderalt) embede, til at underskrive denne kampagne.
Indholdet af denne programerklæring er meget signifikant. Den kræver, at USA vedtager Lyndon LaRouches Fire Økonomiske Love, dvs.: Vedtag Glass-Steagall for at rejse en brandmur mellem kommerciel, produktiv bankaktivitet og spekulativ bankaktivitet på Wall Street; for det andet, at indføre et nationalbanksystem (statsligt banksystem) i Alexander Hamiltons tradition; for det tredje, brug billioner af dollar i føderal (statslig) kredit til at løfte det amerikanske folk og for at skabe produktiv beskæftigelse på det højeste og mest avancerede teknologiske niveau; og for det fjerde, sæt et forceret program i gang, der går i retning af udvikling af fusionskraft og udvidelsen af bemandet rumfart.
Det er meget, meget vigtigt, at vi har indledt denne kampagne nu, for vi går nu ind i de sidste 11-dages nedtælling fra nu og frem til præsident Trumps State of the Union-tale den 30. jan. Indholdet af dette politiske programforslag må være bestemmende for præsidentskabets politiske program her i USA. Som I ser, er vore to punkter på dagsordenen 1) Vedtag Lyndon LaRouches Fire Love, og 2) Gå med i den Nye Silkevej.
Det bliver emnet for vores diskussion i dag. For de seere, der evt. ikke ved det, så blev ideen om den Nye Silkevej først udarbejdet af Lyndon og Helga LaRouche i 1980’erne. Det var den daværende Eurasiske Landbro for at udvikle det eurasiske kontinents indlandsområder, som forbinder Øst og Vest. Det blev til den Nye Silkevej og blev kaldt således af præsident Xi Jinping i Kina, da han i 2013 vedtog dette. Det udviklede sig så til Bælte & Vej Initiativet, som var en forbindelse mellem den landbaserede Silkevej og udviklingen af en Maritim Silkevej.
Gennem LaRouche-bevægelsens lederskab udvides dette nu til ikke blot en eurasisk Ny Silkevej, men en Verdenslandbro, der omfatter alle Jordens kontinenter, inklusive Vesteuropa, Central- og Sydamerika, Nordamerika og for vores udsendelse her i dag i særdeleshed, Afrika.
Udviklingen af Afrika har ligesom været en slags lakmusprøve for menneskeheden i dag: Kina har taget denne udfordring op og har bestået prøven og sat standarden, som resten af verden må følge. Vi har set dette inspirere andre nationer, og for nylig har vi haft et meget signifikant gennembrud med den franske præsident Emmanuel Macrons besøg i Kina, hvor han mødtes med præsident Xi Jinping og erklærede, at Frankrig favner billedet af udvikling af verden gennem den Nye Silkevej, inklusive, at Frankrig ønsker at arbejde sammen med Kina om Afrikas udvikling. Dette er måske en bodsgang for Frankrigs kolonialistiske imperiefortid, men det, præsident Macron havde at sige, var meget signifikant.
Som I ser, så holdt han en meget signifikant tale i Xi’an, og i denne tale diskuterede han, hvad Kina har gjort for at udvikle Afrika og for at løfte 700 millioner af sin egen befolkning ud af fattigdom, og at Frankrig nu må imødekomme opfordringen til at deltage i denne udvikling, især udviklingen i Afrika, i partnerskab med Kina. Her følger et par citater af, hvad præsident Macron havde at sige:
»Det er lykkedes Kina i de seneste par årtier at løfte 700 millioner mennesker ud af fattigdom … Men jeg tænker også på Afrika. Kina har i de seneste par år investeret stort i infrastruktur og råmaterialer med en finansiel styrke, som europæiske lande ikke har. Samtidig har Frankrig historisk og kulturel viden om Afrika, som giver det mange aktiver for fremtiden.
Vi må ikke gentage fortidens fejltagelser, med at skabe politisk og finansiel afhængighed under påskud af udvikling … det turde være unødvendigt at sige, at denne udvikling kun vil ske i fællesskab … Frankrig har erfaringen med en ensidig imperialisme i Afrika, der undertiden har ført til det værste, og i dag, med disse nye Silkeveje, der åbner op … Jeg mener, at partnerskabet mellem Frankrig og Kina kan gøre det muligt at undgå en gentagelse af disse fejltagelser … Det er en moralsk udfordring, og jeg håber oprigtigt, at vi kan imødekomme den sammen … Det enorme arbejde, der gøres med infrastruktur og økonomisk udvikling, vil give et nyt ansigt til disse nye Silkeveje på det afrikanske kontinent.«
Som præsident Macron sagde, »det er en moralsk udfordring«; og nu får Afrika, der har været et af de mest underudviklede, fejlernærede, forarmede og tilbagestående steder på planeten, muligheden for en renæssance og for at blive et knudepunkt for udvikling for hele dette område af planeten.
Som jeg sagde, så er titlen på aftenens udsendelse »Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien og Afrika«, og jeg vil lade Jason Ross introducere jer til Hussein Askary, og vi kan diskutere indholdet af denne specialrapport, der netop er udgivet.
Jason Ross: Jeg tror, vi skal gå direkte til Hussein nu. Hussein Askary har arbejdet i området i mange år. Han er den, der oversatte EIR’s Specialrapport, »Den Nye Silkevej bliver til Verdenslandbroen« til arabisk og lancerede denne oversættelse i Kairo på et møde med den egyptiske transportminister.
Hussein har arbejdet meget på dette. Sammen har vi skrevet denne 274-siders rapport, I ser her. I kan få en kopi af denne rapport på Amazon og direkte gennem vores site også, [LPAC.CO/ExtendedSilkRoad], I ser linket her for neden, for at få en kopi.
Og hermed, lad os høre fra Hussein.
(Her følger et engelsk udskrift af resten af udsendelsen).
HUSSEIN ASKARY: Thank you, Jason and Matt. I’m very happy
to be on this show. The writing of this report, actually, which
took us several months last year, together with you, Jason, and a
great team of collaborators in the Schiller Institute, it was a
bit of a paradox, because we were writing this report from the
standpoint of the future, and therefore the tone is optimism in
the report. But at the same time, when you look at the news
from Southwest Asia, which people wrongly call the “Middle East,”
and Africa, the news that these regions are, you know,
hell-holes and people are fleeing from there by tens of
thousands, there’s famines, there’s wars, and all kinds of
things. But, if you keep digging your feet into that so-called
“reality,” which is artificially created by geopolitics, you will
never come out and you will never be able to think clearly to
solve the problem.
And therefore, as Lyndon LaRouche always says, it’s the
future that determines the present. It’s our vision of the
future which gives us the inspiration and the means of thinking
to change our behavior today. And this is something which we
hope that with this report, too, and all the other campaigns we
are having, to change the minds of people, and of leadership,
whether it’s in the United States or Europe, or Southwest Asia,
or Africa — anywhere.
At the same time, we are not naïve, we are not in the ivory
tower, sitting and drawing nice baths, but this is a very
scientific study, based on LaRouche’s idea of physical economy,
but also they are philosophical and humanist principles
throughout this whole report and the project we are designing,
which goes both humanist Christian tradition and also the
Confucian humanist Chinese tradition. We have provided for the
readers of this report, a complete picture of what are the tools
needed, whether physically, or intellectually, scientifically and
morally, to be able to reach this future we are outlining in the
report.
And we are not simply just reporting on “great things” that
have already happened, that China is doing, but we are drawing a
map towards the future: A future which Lyndon LaRouche already,
more than 30 years ago, when the African Union published the
Lagos Plan of Action for the development of Africa, he criticized
the reaction to that policy by saying that you cannot adhere to
the existing financial and economic and moral policies of the
existing order, and at the same time achieve the development
goals of Africa. You have to have a complete shift. And that
shift is what Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the president of the Schiller
Institute now says is the New Paradigm, the New Paradigm which
has been launched by China and its partners in the BRICS, Russia
and other nations, and many more nations are joining.
Now, if we look at the first slide, the Silk Road, this is
what Matt said in terms of our development of the idea — the
LaRouches’ development of the idea of the World Land-Bridge, to
bring all the continents together. Now, the New Silk Road is
already reaching West Asia and Africa. Egypt has been building
the new Suez Canal to adapt to the Maritime Silk Road, and the
other nations, like Ethiopia, Kenya, and others are already in
collaboration and new railway systems have been built. So
already on the ground, that’s taking place.
But what is needed is a larger vision which we provide.
Now, also we have to reverse many of the old policies which have
been followed, which have kept Africa impoverished, such as, for
more than 200 years, Africa has been considered by the European
colonialists and their partners across the Atlantic, as a looting
ground — whether it is slavery, whether it is raw materials,
plantations, and so on. And unfortunately, after World War II,
the vision of Franklin Roosevelt was not implemented, because he
died before the end of the war, and a wholly new type of
creatures took over in the United States. And the United States
also, with the “special relationship” with the British Empire
became a partner in the looting of Africa. And companies we have,
like Anglo American, which is a corporation called Anglo
American, very active in mining in Africa — I mean, the name
tells you all about it.
But we just take a look at what has been happening in Africa
in at least the last 10-15 years, the attitude, — that’s what
is fascinating with the New Paradigm — the attitude of Europe
and the United States toward Africa has always been that “Africa
is a problem,” while the Chinese see Africa as an “opportunity.”
Therefore, the focus by Europe and the United States, while they
were looting the continent, were just pushing aid programs. Now,
the slide we have, number 2, here, is the “Foreign Direct
Investments in Africa,” where we see the United States is the
blue line on the top, and China is the red line, which is
increasing steadily. The United States, something funny happened
in 2008 — there was the financial/economic crisis — then you
have a dip in investments in Africa, but also what happens in the
United States is that the first African-American President is
elected. And you see, from 2009, U.S. investments in Africa
completely collapsed and came down to zero by 2015, while the
Chinese investments increased.
Now, there’s a flip side to this argument, is because most
of the U.S. investments in Africa are in the oil and mining
sector. And with the collapse of the oil and mining prices, there
was no more interest; and Mr. Obama also launched the largest
fracking operation on Earth in the United States, to make the
United States the biggest producers of fossil fuels in the world.
But China’s investments continued all the same.
In the next slide, number 3, we see the level of investments
by the Export Import Banks of the United States on the one hand,
which is the blue line which is completely dead, on the bottom;
the United States does not issue credit for exports any more to
Africa. But then we have the China Exim Bank increasing its
investments, and more interestingly, is that the World Bank,
which is the top, and you see where the failure of Western policy
in Africa has been: The World Bank has been investing more than
China in Africa, but it’s a completely misdirected investment.
It’s on tiny, tiny, small programs, there is no financing of
large-scale infrastructure as China does; there are no
transformative projects, and no new technology.
In the next slide, we can see we have a lot of hypocrisy,
saying that the Chinese want to come into Africa to loot African
natural resources, and this image, number 4, shows a very clear
picture that it is actually the United States and the Western
countries, but with the United States, the investments in Africa
have been mostly in the mining sector and the Chinese investments
have been very diversified, in construction, manufacturing,
mining, and others, such as agriculture, for example.
We can see also, the next slide, is Britain. Now, China is
the largest, and people think, is not the largest investor in
Africa, yet. It’s the United States and Britain which have been
the biggest investors in Africa. But as we showed the United
States is mostly interested in mining, energy, and metals; and
here we have Britain, you can see the last 10 years of
investments. [“U.K. Foreign Direct Investment Positions in
Africa, 2005-2014”] And the last two columns in the breakdown
into types of investments: The red one is mining, and the light
blue is in the financial sector, which is also looting Africa’s
financial resources.
So that’s really the picture. And in the final slide in this
group, number 5, we have where the investments of the Import
Export Banks have gone: The United States has 71% of all loans
from the Exim Bank, although it has been very, very little, but
70% of it is in the mining sector; while China, the greatest
chunk of the Exim Bank investments has been in the transportation
sector. And of course, there’s mining and energy,
communications, water, and other — very, very important sectors
for Africa’s development.
Now, what we have, in addition to this looting of Africa, we
have the hypocrisy which is very rampant in the West, like in
Europe and the United States, that “we have to help Africa.” Now,
when they talk about “helping Africa” is simply very small relief
projects to keep things as they are. And they usually talk about
“sustainable development.” Now, “sustainable development” does
not mean that you build modern technology, technologies that we
have in the United States or in Europe, whether it’s in transport
or power generation; it is absolutely forbidden to support roads,
railways, nuclear power, hydropower — there is nothing like
that. What they are proposing is simply, as President Obama, as
we show in one of the slides, when he went to Africa, his idea,
he had projects called “Power Africa,” for power generation in
Africa, and we looked at the numbers and you know, the goal of
Obama’s Power Africa is to keep Africa exactly as it is, with
very, very slight changes here and there. And also what was
being proposed was this idea of using solar energy, which
everybody knows is not efficient to have a modern, industrialized
economy.
So this has been a real problem in dealing with Africa. And
as we have seen, that China has completely different idea about
Africa —
ROSS: Hussein, why don’t we switch over to a clip we have
of President Obama explaining what he thinks about African energy
development?
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It’s going to be your generation
that suffers the most. Ultimately, if you think about all the
youth that everybody’s mentioned here in Africa, if everybody’s
raising living standards to the point where everybody’s got a
car, and everybody’s got air conditioning and everybody’s got a
big house, well, the planet will boil over. [end video]
ROSS: That was President Obama in South Africa.
ASKARY: And in fact, that’s really revealing, because
that’s his soul speaking, because they consider human beings as a
burden. Now, the United Nations statistics say that by 2050, the
bulk of the world’s population growth will take place in Africa.
And of the additional 2.5 billion new people, projected to be
born between 2015 and 2050, 1.3 billion will be added in Africa,
which means Africa’s population will reach about 3 billion
people. Now, for Obama and the Malthusians this is a huge
problem. But for China, this is a great opportunity!
And if we look, in 2015, which is very interesting, a
complete contrast with what Obama’s saying, when President Xi
Jinping went to South Africa, the same place where Obama was
speaking, in December 2015 at the Forum on China-Africa
Cooperation (FOCAC), this is slide number 10, President Xi
Jinping said something very interesting, which is really the
spirit of the New Paradigm: What he told the African leaders is,
I quote, “Industrialization is an inevitable path to a country’s
economic success. Within a short span of several decades, China
has accomplished what took developed countries hundreds of years
to accomplish and put in place a complete industrial system with
an enormous productive capacity.” And then he continues and says,
“It is entirely possible for Africa, as the world’s most
promising region in terms of development potential, to bring into
play its advantages and achieve great success. The achievement
of inclusive and sustainable development within Africa, hinges on
industrialization, which holds the key to creating jobs,
eradicating poverty, and improving people’s living standards.”
Now, wow! What a contrast! President Xi Jinping said that
by using modern technology as scientific development, we have
achieved miracles in China and this really applies to Africa,
too, as developing nations. And he means it. So the Chinese now
have turned the whole idea of :sustainable development” upside
down. What people think in Europe and the United States about
sustainable development means, pumps for water, the small solar
panels — no! China’s talking about [industrialization] and it’s
also the latest, the state-of-the-art technology available.
Because this is also interesting from a economic-scientific
standpoint, because what China experienced that instead of going
back to square one, going back to the industrialization process
where the United States and Europe started, with the steam engine
— no, you start not with that, you start with the best
technology available today, and that’s high-speed railway for
example. The same thing applies to Africa.
ROSS: You know, Hussein, you and I were both at a
conference in November in Germany, in Bad Soden, and one of the
speakers there was a Chinese professor He Wenping, who gave some
talks about Chinese approach towards Africa. And since you’re
bringing up what China’s policy is, why don’t run a short clip of
what she had to say, to hear it from a Chinese person directly?
DR. HE WINPING: But now, I think One Belt, One Road is
entering 2.0 version–that is, now facing all the countries in
the world. As President Xi Jinping mentioned to the Latin
American countries, “you are all welcome to join the Belt and
Road.” In the Chinese “40 Minutes,” Xi said, all the African
continent is now on the map of the One Belt, One Road, the whole
African continent, especially after the May Belt and Road Summit
in Beijing had taken place. …
China’s One Belt, One Road initiative is relevant to
countries, their own development strategy. For example, Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has now been named as the “next China” on the African
continent. It’s not my invention, these words–many scholars have
been published talking about which country in Africa is going to
be the China in Africa, which means, developing faster! Faster
and leading other countries forward. Most of them refer to
Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has now reached an GDP growth rate, last year, as
high as 8%…
So very quickly, let’s move to Africa. In Africa, we have
commitment, that is the FOCAC, the full name is the Forum on
China-Africa Cooperation. This forum was established in 2000, and
every three years there is a FOCAC meeting. The FOCAC meeting in
2015 took place in Johannesburg, South Africa. In that meeting,
President Xi Jinping joined the meeting, put forward ten
cooperation plans, and pledged the money–as high as $60
billion–to cover all ten areas: industrialization, agriculture,
infrastructure, finance, environmental protection, and more.
The Belt and Road is very good for Africa’s job creation. A
lot of money has been earmarked to use for the industrialization
of Africa. Let me just highlight in my last two minutes, the two
areas, like two engines–like in an airplane, if you want to take
off, you need two engines: One is industrialization, another is
infrastructure. Without good infrastructure, there’s no basis for
industrialization–short of electricity, short of power, short of
roads, and then it’s very hard to make industry take off.
We have done a lot. Africa now is rising. Before, Africa was
regarded as a hopeless continent, more than 15 years ago. But
now, with kite flying over, now it’s Africa’s rising time….
Just to show you another infrastructure map: the Mombasa to
Nairobi railway that was just finished at the end of May. We are
going to build the second phase, from Nairobi all the way to
Malaba in Uganda, and then that’s an East African Community
network. When this railway was finished–this is President Uhuru
Kenyatta, saying this laid the foundation for industrialization.
This shows people celebrating this railway connection, and this
shows a man holding a paper saying “Comfortable, convenient, very
soft, safe, and very beautiful.” And here, very beautiful at 100
years old, a grandmother. [applause] [end video]
ASKARY: Yes, that’s the spirit, that’s the spirit of things
that are happening in Africa, which is fantastic. But it’s also
a certain projection of the happiness of the Chinese people and
their leadership in what they have achieved in their own country.
So China’s saying, we have done this ourselves, you can do it,
and we are committed to offering you everything we have achieved,
so you can also achieve yours. It’s a win-win policy: It’s good
for you, it’s good for us.
It’s completely different from what we have seen in the
Western policy, which hopefully will change — what we mentioned
about President Macron, what he had said is really shocking for
me, too. And you see that the New Paradigm, it changes people’s
souls. And this is very, very important that we are becoming
more human than before, with these great achievements
So in any case, what we do in this report is, we took for
example, if you look at slide 12, this is a map which the African
Union put together in the Lagos Plan of Action in 1982. But
nothing has been done. This is for highways. Now, we don’t
prefer to have trucks travelling 10,000km from north to south; we
prefer more high-speed railway, standard gauge railways, and so
on. But this is the kind of vision which existed, but it was
never implemented.
Our vision of connecting the whole African continent, and
also with the so-called Middle East, that this could be done now.
We also believe that the Chinese intention is the same: To
integrate all of the African nations, the populations and the
natural resources of these nations, and utilize them for the
development of Africa itself. Now, in 2014, which is my next
slide [slide 13], the Prime Minister of China, Li Keqiang, went
on a tour in Africa. This picture is his meeting with the
leaders of the East African Community, which Professor He Wenping
just mentioned in her speech in the video you showed. He told
the African leaders that China’s intention is to help connect all
the African capitals with high-speed railway. One interesting
thing which the Africans themselves say, is that when the Chinese
want to do something here economically, when they want to help,
they are not like the Europeans. The President of Uganda said,
they don’t come here with lessons in democracy; they come here to
build things, they are not lecturing us. This is very
interesting because China is not imposing anything on any nation.
It’s inviting others and offering its capabilities. This was in
May 2014, and in just three years, we have the first standard
gauge railway which is in the next slide [slide 14]; Uhuru
Kenyatta, very proud, inaugurating the railway from Mombasa to
Kenya. There was a British line which was called the Lunatic
train, which was very slow, but it was designed to loot African
wealth. And also the Djibouti to Addis Ababa railway was built,
also in three years in record time, and so on and so forth. So,
China is winning African hearts and minds by doing these
investments, but doing them in record time and with no
conditionalities involved.
In addition of course, some of the mega-projects which we
are demanding be built and encouraging being built in Africa with
China’s help, for example we have in slide 15 the Transaqua
Project, which is an Italian-designed project to both refill Lake
Chad, which is drying up and threatening 30 million people’s
lives with drought. To bring just 5% of the water of the
tributaries of the Congo River to Lake Chad through an artificial
canal. But at the same time, connect East and West Africa with
railway and roads to open these countries, which are Rwanda,
Burundi, and Eastern Congo, the Central African Republic, Chad,
and so on. These nations need outlets to world markets and also
to import useful machines and so on. So, we have been
propagating, as the Schiller Institute, for many years and trying
to get the European Union and the United States to support this
project; but they rejected it. Now China is proposing to start
looking at this project, and a Memorandum of Understanding was
signed with the Lake Chad Commission to have a feasibility study
of this project; which is a huge project, but it will transform
large parts of Africa, not because of the water itself, but
because of the old infrastructure involved in the central part of
Africa. The next slide [slide 15] outlines the impact area of
this whole project. It will create massive agro-industrial
centers in that part of Africa which is suffering the most. The
biggest migration from Africa is from these regions into Europe.
But instead of having all those young people drowning in the
Mediterranean, trying to flee to Europe looking for a decent
life, they can stay in their countries now and build their
countries by giving them the tools to do that.
Of course, there are also other projects, but what’s
interesting about the Belt and Road is that it’s also inspiring,
not just helping countries, but inspiring countries to undertake
plans which have been dormant for many years. But now the time
has come; for example, the new Suez Canal project. There is also
connecting to Europe from Morocco, which is the next slide [slide
16]; building a tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar, connecting
Morocco and Spain; and building a high-speed railway, the first
high-speed railway in Africa is being built now in Morocco.
There are new ports being built, and also a scientific,
industrial city being built in cooperation with China. We have
another connection between Africa and Europe; we have still not
given up on Europe. We want Europe to its and technological
potential to contribute to this project and help itself by
contributing to Africa’s development. We have the Sicily to
Tunis tunnel and bridge connection to connect North Africa also
to Europe; this is a mega-project, and so on and so forth. We
have also the Grand Inga Dam which China is now interested in
building on the Congo River, which will produce a huge amount of
hydropower — 40,000MW of power — which is twice as big as the
biggest dam in the world which the Chinese built in China; the
Three Gorges Dam. The Inga Dam, or series of dams, will be twice
as big as the Chinese Three Gorges Dam, and a Chinese company has
made an offer to the government of the Democratic Republic of
Congo; and there’s also a counterbid by a Spanish company.
People should read the report; they should look at all the
content and try to understand it with a completely new eye. The
eye of the New Paradigm, which I think is very important. In
conclusion, what I wanted to say initially, is that as we have in
the last slide [slide 19] is this region which people call the
Middle East; we call is Southwest Asia. It has been a horrific
scene for the worst results of geopolitics and power politics.
Regime change in Libya; regime change in Iraq; attempted regime
change in Syria supporting terrorist groups. We have a horrible
war in Yemen which should end immediately. It’s the worst
humanitarian catastrophe in the world right now, taking place in
Yemen. You look at this region and say “How could this region
get out of this Hell?” This is what Helga Zepp-LaRouche said:
This year we should kill geopolitics. We should end geopolitics.
The idea that nations have to undermine other nations; that
nations are in competition with each other; that you have to
weaken your adversaries; you have to undermine them, you have to
kill them, you have to ruin their economy, destroy their
infrastructure, so you can become a winner. That ideology is not
really human. This has to end now and be replaced by the
“win-win” idea, which is the more human kind of idea. The
potential for enormous development exists in this region. It’s
the crossroads of the continents. Both the Belt and the Road
pass through there. Forty percent of world trade passes through
there. You have natural resources, you have human resources, you
have rivers; you have every element necessary to have a massive
development process in this region, which will be the basis for
establishing peace among the nations of this region and also the
big powers. If the United States joins Russia and China in
developing this region, this would be the biggest test for
mankind. Of course, Africa is very important, but we have things
happening in Africa. But, we still have a horrible situation in
Southwest Asia, which can lead into new and maybe bigger wars
than before. Therefore, I think what Helga is saying that if we
use the Belt and Road idea, the idea of “win-win”, to crush
geopolitics, this would be victory not only for the countries of
this region; this will be a victory for all humankind.
ROSS: Absolutely! It’s a victory for a concept of mankind.
One example that comes to mind is Yemen. Yemen is under constant
Saudi bombardment; they’ve been victims of a war by the Saudis
for some time now. Yemen has a very powerful movement within it
for integration with the BRICS; a real sense of “Hey! Even
though our conditions right now are what they are, this is our
future; and we’ve got to have that future in mind. That’s what
we’re going to make happen.”
You think about the economic potential of Africa, and as you
said, it’s so clear, it’s so obvious the economic potential in
West Asia and Africa. Geopolitics is what has prevented this
development. It’s not that Africa didn’t get the help that it
needed; China is showing that it’s an obvious thing to do. It
was a deliberate decision to prevent development and to hold
Africa back for the purposes — as you described — of looting.
A couple of examples that you brought up, just to bring out the
contrast a little bit more: You brought up the Grand Inga Dam
which would be located in the Democratic Republic of Congo; one
of the poorest, most energy-poor per capita, very low energy
availability. It’s got the perfect site for a hydroelectric dam
complex, making enough electricity for tens of millions of
people. The World Bank pulls out funding on it, because it’s a
big project which of course, they’re not going to touch because
it would have a major development impact.
What I’d like to actually show is another voice from Africa.
Professor He Wenping had mentioned that Ethiopia is sort of the
China of Africa, and other African diplomats will say this as
well; that Addis Ababa is sort of the unofficial capital of
Africa. I don’t know if everyone in Africa agrees with that.
But I’d like to hear from Dr. Alexander Demissie, who also spoke
at the Schiller Institute conference in November, and hear from
him from a direct African perspective, what the impact of Chinese
investment has been and what the future can be in Africa.
DR. ALEXANDER DEMISSIE: So today, what I’m trying to
discuss with you, or to present to you, is what is actually this
Belt and Road Initiative and how is that connected to Africa?
What kind of long-term impacts when we talk about the Belt and
Road Initiative and Africa?
So, this is a map [Fig. 1] I always present when I do
presentations, and I ask people, “What do you see here?” It’s a
very simple question. But what do you see here? Yes, you should
see something. So, it’s a rhetorical question; I’m not expecting
you to answer me. But it takes usually several minutes until
people realize what they see here. You see the absence of the
American continent; that’s what you see here. The absence of the
American continent. By saying this, you see that the Belt and
Road Initiative, the Chinese version of the Belt and Road
Initiative, is absolutely Eurasian-oriented; meaning that
starting in China, it is primarily Eurasian-oriented. The idea
of the Belt and Road Initiative — probably even your idea back
in the ’70s — is the Land-Bridge that we have been discussing
yesterday and today. Within this picture or map, you will see
also Africa. Africa is prominent, Africa is not entirely in the
center, but on the left side; and it should be part of the Belt
and Road idea. It’s primarily an infrastructural undertaking, so
the Belt and Road Initiative we don’t have yet political
institutionalization. We have infrastructural ideas, we have
corridors; but we don’t have yet political institutions. If we
talk about the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank or the Silk
Road Bank, these are just connected to infrastructure; they are
not political ideas. And interestingly, this idea fits perfectly
into the current African needs. What are the current African
needs? The current Africa need is infrastructure development.
Africa wants infrastructure and the aspiration — I’m going back
here to the Agenda 2063, that has also coincidentally been coming
up 2013 together with the Belt and Road Initiative. Africa wants
a good infrastructure connection, a good internal
interconnectivity. So, the idea coming from China is perfectly
fitting into the idea actually happening or discussed within the
Africa continent.
We see now an actor coming in. China is an actor coming in
and literally taking or doing part of those needed works. This
is a huge — at least from the African perspective — this is a
huge plus for many African countries. The idea of the Belt and
Road Initiative, which is actually coming only in 2013; we see
that it is helping what has been taking place on the continent
between China and African countries since the year 2000. We see
this that China has clearly declared that they would like to see
Chinese-African cooperation moving into development of highways,
regional aviation networks, or industrialization. Also we see
that China has been given a lot of clarity to the African Union’s
infrastructure development for Africa. This program has
approximately 51 different programs, and this is translated into
400 different physical projects. I speak about ports, and
streets, and telecommunication lines, whatever you require for a
nation to function, or for a continent to function.
What we see in Africa now is that since at least two years,
there is a growing corridorization in the China-Africa
relationship. As corridorization, I mean that not single
countries are any more important, but entire regions are becoming
more important for China. This is a huge departure from a
single, bilateral country-based approach towards corridor
development. If you look at Africa corridors, the map on the
right [Fig. 2], we see right now as we speak today, there are
around 33 different corridors that have either been developed, or
are under development, or are thought out and need to be
developed. Corridors do nothing else than combine two different
areas, and by doing so also creating a development initiative, a
development paradigm.
Let’s go to East Africa. So now, this is Africa; I’m aware
that the plans for these things have been in the drawer for a
long time. We know also that a lot of American research
institutes played a very good role in creating those plans in the
’50s and ’60s, especially in Ethiopia. The Grand Renaissance Dam
that is being built in Ethiopia, goes back to American scientists
that have been creating those ideas in the ’60s. It’s being
built already now. So, a lot of ideas in East Africa have been
already on the table for decades, but no one was able or willing
to pay for it. But now a lot of money is coming out of China, so
these infrastructure — and how this can change the life of the
people is easily described. The transportation of cargo from the
Djibouti port to Addis Ababa used to take three days. Now, with
the train, it’s already 10 hours. So now we can imagine what
kind of economic activity will happen to this one corridor
development, or one infrastructure within this community. [end
video]
ROSS: I just wanted to read another short excerpt from
Alexander Demissie. Towards the end of his presentation, he
said, “The problem as I see it, is that the traditional partners
are still in the old paradigm of thinking. They still think with
traditional assumptions. Africa is seen as an aid-dependent
continent; not a continent full of opportunities. It is still
seen with the wrong mindset. This is one of the biggest
problems, and it has to change.”
So, I think our report does a very thorough job of
addressing the whole gamut of issues here. What the historical
errors have been, or not errors, but cruelties or injustices that
have occurred towards Africa, towards Southwest Asia with the use
of geopolitics, with the use of looting rather than development.
As well as what some of the ideas are today that hold back the
potential for development. The ways that environmentalism is
used; the ways that there shouldn’t be any net growth of the
human species are used. This is the basis, for example, for the
World Bank refusing any loans to coal or to large hydro plants.
But you’re not going to develop a continent with solar panels, as
much as Obama might have wanted to have done that.
The other issues are in regards to economics. That there is
this prevailing and totally wrong view about economics that looks
for financial returns as being the metric; as opposed to going
beyond GDP and saying how are we changing life expectancies? How
are we changing productive potential? What’s the long-term value
of helping a nation to develop in a partnership? This is the
sort of thing. So, the report goes through all of this; it goes
through what the specific projects are that are needed. It goes
through something that’s very important for policymakers — how
to finance it. How the hopes of trying to get investment, of
trying to get loans from private banks for these big projects;
it’s simply not going to fly. The use of national banking, as
China has done both domestically as well as with its ExIm Bank
with these two large rail projects in Africa in particular in
Kenya and the Addis Ababa to Djibouti railroad.
So, I think we’ve heard from China, we’ve heard from
Southwest Asia, we’ve heard from Africa. Let me ask you,
Hussein, if you have any words that you would like to direct
towards our American viewers. What would you tell Americans?
What should we be doing?
ASKARY: Exactly! I had also in mind to say that, because
we need to hear from Americans. I don’t think it’s a good idea
that the United States is not on the map of the Belt and Road;
but I think a different United States should be involved. I’m
very sure that if President Franklin Roosevelt, President
Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King must be very happy now for what
is now already starting to happen in Africa. They might feel
sorry for the lost time, but I’m sure they are happy. Americans
should look back at that best of American tradition and work with
ideas of Lyndon LaRouche and the LaRouche PAC and LaRouche’s
associates, because the United States will not become great again
with the team that President Trump has. America will be great
again with the ideas that the LaRouche PAC, the ideas of Franklin
Roosevelt, the Hamiltonian idea of a national credit system,
rather than depending on Wall Street. These things will make
America great again, but it also will help the United States to
have a completely different policy in the world; which will make
the people around the world see the United States with completely
different eyes. Right now, the United States is not so liked
around the world; not because of Trump, but because of previous
administrations’ war policies, their hypocrisy. As you showed in
Obama’s case, their policies would lead to genocide. So, the
United States is not really a popular country around the world,
but this can shift. In order for that shift to happen, there
should be a shift inside the United States in the mind and the
soul of the American people. I’m sure the kind of work you are
doing in LaRouche PAC would help greatly.
OGDEN: And that’s exactly what we are doing with this
campaign to win the future statement. As I said in the beginning
of the show, we’re initiating a national mobilization to bring
together all of the constituent layers — regardless of party,
political orientation — around a vision of economic development
for the United States and for the world. If you just imagine the
kind of way that the world could be transformed in the next 15 or
20 years with what China has begun doing in Africa; something
that people thought was impossible. They just disregarded Africa
and said well, this is just where you’re going to have
impoverishment and backwardness. Now, this could seriously
become a hub of development for the planet. But take that and
extend it across the Bering Strait into the Americas; have a rail
link between Eurasia and North America. Then imagine an entire
development corridor down through the central part of North
America, through the heartland, the farm country in the Midwest;
down through Mexico, across the Darien Gap into Central and South
America. Then also, extend the Maritime Silk Road to the
Caribbean. That vision of what could happen in the Western
Hemisphere is the extension of the sort of optimism that you now
see China bringing to Africa.
So, as I said, I think it’s the great moral test. Emmanuel
Macron was absolutely right; he said it’s a moral challenge what
the nations of the world do to collaborate to bring development
to the African continent. I think we can be very happy that it’s
because of the leadership over decades of the LaRouche movement,
of you Hussein. What you’ve been doing; what you did to
collaborate with Jason to put together this extraordinary Special
Report. I know that this is being listened to in the highest
levels of power across the African continent and in Southwest
Asia; we have evidence of that. The invitation that you
received, Hussein, from the Egyptian Transportation Ministry, and
other examples. So, we have to proceed with that kind of
confidence that we are, indeed, shaping the policy for the
future.
So, let me put on the screen one more time; this is the
vision of an economic renaissance — this is the Special Report
that Jason and Hussein collaborated in authoring. That is
available; you can find the link to that on the screen here —
LPAC.CO/ExtendedSilkRoad. It’s a very thorough, book-length
Special Report. This is something that is not just important for
the African leaders and for China. This is something that is
very important for the United States. This is something that we
should be considering when we talk about what is US foreign
policy, and those disgraceful graphics about the plummeting of US
investment into Africa over the course of the last eight years
during the Obama administration. That needs to be reversed; and
it needs to be reversed by bringing the United States and China
into a “win-win” collaboration for the development of these
areas.
We are going to proceed with this campaign to win the
future. And we’re asking you to endorse this, to join our
mobilization, and to make sure that this becomes the policy
parameter for the 2018 election. None of the melodrama, not the
soap operas, not all of the secondary and tertiary issues. These
are the questions which will determine the future of the United
States and the survival of our country and what our role is in
respect to this New Paradigm that we’ve just been discussing on
the show today.
So, again, we have 11 days between now and President Trump’s
State of the Union address. We are putting these two items on
the agenda. The United States must adopt LaRouche’s Four
Economic Laws, and the United States must join the New Silk Road.
So, Hussein, is there anything that you want to say in
conclusion before we end this show today? Any special messages
for our viewers, both in the United States and internationally?
ASKARY: I think it’s a great opportunity for people now to
get this report, take to themselves the scientific, even
philosophical and other ideas that are in the report which are
necessary. As you said, it’s for everyone; it’s not only for
Africans. I think the main target of the report should be
Europeans and Americans, because we need these kinds of ideas
more than at any time before. We have problems here in Europe
with the infrastructure, with unemployment. You have massive
problems in the United States. You need to have these ideas for
your own sake, too; but there is enormous potential that exists
in Europe and the United States that could be revived. But that
has to be done in the right way; and the right way was outlined
by Mr. LaRouche, but we put it in very clear terms in this
report. I hope people will get the report and learn something
and push the policymakers in the United States to also do the
same.
OGDEN: Wonderful. Thank you very much, Hussein, for
joining us. And thank you to Jason for joining me here. I think
we have a lot more to come. So, a very exciting report here
today. Help us circulate this video; send it out to everybody
that you know; share it on social media. Let’s get these ideas
to permeate the United States. Thank you very much and please
stay tuned to larouchepac.com.
Tiden er nu inde til, at Danmark, resten af Europa og USA aktivt tilslutter sig Kinas Bælte & Vej Initiativ og tager del i den økonomiske udvikling af Vestasien og Afrika. Dette ville ligeledes være en konstruktiv respons til immigrationen fra disse områder, såvel som også til terrorismen.
Schiller Instituttet og Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) inviterer dig hermed til at deltage i et seminar med fokus på vores nye rapport:
»Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien og Afrika«
Dato: mandag, 5. februar, 2018
Tid. Kl. 19:00
Sted: Valby Kulturhus, lokale 3, 3. sal
Valgårdsvej 4-8
2500 Valby
(ved Valby Station)
Fri entré.
(Mødet afholdes på engelsk; dansk tolkning er muligt.)
International gæstetaler: Hussein Askary, medforfatter af rapporten; koordinator for Vestasien for Schiller Instituttet og EIR’s redaktør for arabiske anliggender.
Taler: Tom Gillesberg, formand for Schiller Instituttet i Danmark; EIR’s bureauchef i Danmark og tidligere kandidat til Københavns borgmester med sloganet, »København skal med i den Nye Silkevej«.
Information:
Feride Istogu Gillesberg: 25 12 50 33 eller 35 43 00 33
Michelle Rasmussen: 53 57 00 51 eller 35 43 00 33 eller si@schillerinstitut.dk
Kinas Nye Silkevejsprojekt er i færd med at frigøre det utrolige vækstpotentiale, der findes i Afrika og Vestasien. Dette seminar vil præsentere nogle af de væsentlige aspekter i Schiller Instituttets nye rapport: »Forlæng den Nye Silkevej til Vestasien (Mellemøsten) og Afrika: En vision for en økonomisk renæssance«.
Rapporten forklarer projekter, der er foreslået, og dem, der er under opførelse og kommer med forslag til et nyt niveau for konnektivitet og økonomisk infrastruktur for området. Den diskuterer ligeledes det nødvendige, videnskabelig-økonomiske livssyn og de metoder til finansiering, der kræves for at virkeliggøre disse programmer.
Den fremtidsvision for Sydvestasien og Afrika, der præsenteres her, er af en helt anden karakter end noget, læseren har modtaget fra de almene mediers eller tænketankes beskrivelser af disse to områder.
Her følger et uddrag af introduktionen:
»Gennem Bælte & Vej Initiativet (BVI) tilbyder Kina resten af verden sin knowhow, erfaring og teknologi, støttet af et finansielt arsenal på $3 bio. Dette er en stor mulighed for Vestasien og Afrika til at virkeliggøre drømmene fra æraen efter Anden Verdenskrig, drømme, der desværre er blevet saboteret i årtier. Det dramatiske infrastrukturunderskud både nationalt og interregionalt i Vestasien og Afrika kan, ironisk nok, i dette nye lys anses for en stor mulighed. Selvom mange andre industrinationer i Europa, Asien og de amerikanske lande har teknologiske og arbejdskraftkapaciteter ligesom dem i Kina, så mangler de visionen og den politiske vilje til at anvende disse kapaciteter, og til at finansiere deres anvendelse. Eftersom Vestasien og Afrika i kombination er et så strategisk vigtigt område for både Øst og Vest, er det således et perfekt sted til at bringe kapaciteterne i verdens nationer ind i et konkret projekt for fredeligt samarbejde og udvikling.«
Schiller Instituttet og Executive Intelligence Review, samt dets stiftere og internationale ledere, Lyndon LaRouche og Helga Zepp-LaRouche, har ført kampagne for, at Europa og USA aktivt skal tilslutte sig Bælte & Vej Initiativet, siden dettes begyndelse i 2013. Schiller Instituttet har leveret de fundamentale, konceptuelle principper, som blev udviklet efter Berlinmurens fald og Sovjetunionens kollaps, der gav verden en gylden mulighed for fred gennem udvikling. På trods af afvisning fra den vestlige politiske og finansielle elites side, så fortsatte vi med at føre en international kampagne for dets vedtagelse.
I øjeblikket omfatter BVI’s økonomiske alliance 70 lande i Asien, Afrika, Øst- og Sydeuropa, og Syd- og Mellemamerika.
Tiden er nu inde til, at Danmark, resten af Europa og USA aktivt tilslutter sig Kinas Bælte & Vej Initiativ og tager del i den økonomiske udvikling af Vestasien og Afrika. Dette ville ligeledes være en konstruktiv respons til immigrationen fra disse områder, såvel som også terrorismen.
I denne sammenhæng vil seminaret også udforske den internationale, strategiske betydning af den franske præsident Macrons udtalelse, den 8. januar, om, at Frankrig fuldt og helt vil gå sammen med Kina for at bygge den Nye Silkevej, samt handle for at få hele Europa med om bord. Dette sender nu chokbølger igennem hele verden, idet det repræsenterer en politisk vending. Macron sagde bl.a. i sin tale:
»Jeg mener, at det Nye Silkevejsinitiativ kan imødekomme vore interesser, Frankrigs og Europas, hvis vi giver os selv midlerne til virkelig at arbejde sammen. Silkevejene var trods alt aldrig rent kinesiske … disse veje er altid fælles. Og, hvis de er ruter, kan de ikke kun være ensrettede. De må gå frem og tilbage. Jeg er således rede til at arbejde hen imod de annoncerede mål. Programmerne for veje, jernbaner, lufthavne, maritim og teknologi langs Silkevejene kan bibringe respons til infrastrukturunderskuddet … At gøre vore finansielle resurser fælles, offentlige såvel som private, til projekter på tværs af grænser kan styrke konnektiviteten mellem Europa og Asien og videre endnu, til Mellemøsten og Afrika … Det er op til Frankrig, og med Frankrig, op til Europa at bidrage med sin egen forestillingsevne til dette forslag, og at arbejde på det i de kommende måneder og år.«
Macron hyldede Kinas arbejde i Afrika og opfordrede Europa til at deltage i det, som en konstruktiv respons til sine forbrydelser, begået i sin historie som kolonimagt i Vestasien og Afrika. Vesten må overvinde den »ensidige imperialisme«, som blev ført af Frankrig og andre europæiske magter i Afrika og andre steder, og gå med i det nye paradigme.
Macrons tale har allerede skabt en ny geometri i Europa. Tre dage efter talen meddelte EU’s ambassadør til Kina, Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, at EU vil komme med et forslag til et »udkast til en sammenkobling for det eurasiske kontinent«, der skal sammenflettes med Bælte & Vej Initiativet.
Schiller Instituttet understreger, at tilslutningen til den Nye Silkevej må gå hånd i hånd med en vedtagelse af Lyndon LaRouches Fire Økonomiske Love, for at undgå et nyt finanskrak, værre end i 2008, gennem en Glass/Steagall-bankopdeling og en forøgelse af den nationale produktivitet gennem udstedelse af statslige kreditter til moderne infrastruktur og videnskabeligt og teknologisk fremskridt.
Vi håber, alle vil være i stand til at deltage i dette tankevækkende seminar, hvor der også bliver tid til diskussion.
Rapporten kan købes før eller på seminaret.
En dansk introduktion til rapporten vil ligeledes være tilgængelig.
En detaljeret indholdsfortegnelse og den engelske introduktion til rapporten kan ses her: http://schillerinstitut.dk/si/?p=22868
Se den korte version nedenfor.
Information til bestilling: The Schiller Institute’s Special Report
Extending the New Silk Road to West Asia (Middle East) and Africa:
A Vision of an Economic Renaissance
Af Hussein Askary og Jason Ross.
November, 2017, 246 sider. (A4-format)
Pris:
Afhentning: 375 DKK; almindelig post: 400 DKK; quick mail: 420 DKK. Elektronisk pdf: 200 DKK
Telefon 53 57 00 51; 35 43 00 33, si@schillerinstitut.dk
Betaling til Schiller Instituttet i Danmark:
Homebanking: 551-5648408
Giro: 564-8408
Eller købes kontant på, før eller efter seminaret.
Indholdsfortegnelse, kort version:
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 2: The Silk Road Reaches Africa
Chapter 3: The Economic Science behind the World Land Bridge
Chapter 4: Financing Regional and National Infrastructure
Chapter 5: Demography and Development
Chapter 6: Integration of West Asia with the New Silk Road
Appendix—Case Study: Syria’s Reconstruction Project Phoenix 103
Chapter 7: Africa — Transport Network Integration
A. The Nile Basin and East Africa
B. Southern Africa
C. West and Central Africa
Chapter 8: Africa — Water Resources Development
Chapter 9: To Power Africa, Go Nuclear!
Chapter 10: Africa — Food Security: Realizing Africa’s Vast Agricultural Potential
Chapter 11: Africa in Space
Chapter 12: Conclusions and Recommendations
Chapter 13: Selection of Proposed Mega Projects in Africa
Homepages:
Dansk: www.schillerinstitut.dk
English: www.newparadigm.schillerinstitute.com
www.schillerinstitute.org
www.larouchepub.com
www.larouchepub.com/eiw
Andre sprog: Click here
Schiller Instituttet i Danmark:
Sankt Knuds Vej 11. kld., t.v., 1903 Frederiksberg C.
Der er intet urealistisk ved det, jeg her fremlægger om Sydvestasien og Afrika. Grunden til, at jeg er forhåbningsfuld, er, at det nye paradigme inden for internationale relationer har fået fodfæste, og den gamle imperieorden blegner. Den anden, mere subjektive grund til at være optimistisk er, at vi vil fortsætte med at kæmpe for at få dette til at ske.
Imperiet lurer stadig farligt, som en såret tiger, og kunne angribe. Imperiets ideologi med dets aksiomer og overbevisninger om forholdet mellem menneske og natur, mellem menneske og menneske og mellem nation og nation, vil fortsat være en kilde til fare for den menneskelige race. For eksempel, den overbevisning, at penge får ting til at ske. Eller miljøforkæmpernes idé om, at menneskelige aktiviteter for at hæve samfundets levestandard altid har en negativ virkning på naturen og miljøet, og at menneskene simpelt hen bør forhindres i at vokse i antal, og i en voksende levestandard.
I Europa ser det endnu mere dystert ud, for de europæiske nationer befinder sig i en totalt kaotisk tilstand. Der er de øst- og sydeuropæiske nationer, der ønsker at gå sammen med Kina i Bælte & Vej Initiativet; der er et totalt hysteri fra EU’s side og også i vid udstrækning fra den tyske regerings side – hvad der så er tilbage af den – og som siger, »Kina opsplitter Europa«. Hvilket ikke er sandt! Kinesernes svar på denne anklage var, at Kina ikke behøver opsplitte Europa, det har det allerede selv gjort. Men der finder ingen diskussion sted i Europa om bankopdeling. Faktisk traf EU for blot et par uger siden beslutning om nye retningslinjer, der forbyder bankopdeling. De europæiske nationers overlevelse og disse EU-politikker er således uforenelige.
Vi må have en offentlig diskussion i Tyskland om f.eks., at vi må vende tilbage til den form for kreditpolitik, vi havde i perioden efter krigen med Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (Kreditanstalt for genopbygning); men, vi må have finansiering af realøkonomien, og hele denne kasinoøkonomi må lukkes ned.
Jeg mener, at den største fare lige nu består i et ukontrolleret kollaps. Disse advarsler fra Bundesbank og BIS er virkelig en advarsel om, at folk må se at vågne op og ændre politik, før det er for sent: Så gå sammen med os i kampen for at få Glass-Steagall på dagsordenen, også i de europæiske lande.
Introduction:
Table of Contents:
Preface
Introduction
A New Global Paradigm 11
China’s Role in the Economic Renaissance of West Asia and Africa 14
What is Win-Win Philosophy? 16
The Age of Mega-Projects Is Back 21
Redefining ‘Sustainable Development’ 22
‘Helping’ or Empowering Africa 24
The African Union Aims High 25
Africa Must Leap Ahead, Not Crawl Forward! 28
Chapter 1: West Asia: The Silk Road’s Crossroads to the Mediterranean and Africa 29
Egypt: A Bridge between Asia, Europe and Africa 30
Chapter 2: The Silk Road Reaches Africa 33
China in Africa: Myths or Facts 36
Europe, not China, Is Engaged in Land Grabbing in Africa 37
Defining an African Future 40
Chapter 3: The Economic Science Behind the World LandBridge 41
What is Infrastructure, Really? 41
Economics: The Ultimate Science 41
Platforms: Artificial Environments 44
Energy Flux Density 45
Power and Energy 45
Promethean ‘Fire’ 46
Aspects of the ‘Synthetic Environment’48
Materials 48
Water 49
Transportation 50
Energy 53
Space 55
A Future Platform: Nuclear Fusion 56
Nuclear Power: Fission and Fusion 56
Benefits of Fusion 58
New, Unique Applications of Fusion 59
Conclusion 60
Chapter 4: Financing Regional and National Infrastructure 63
Money vs. Credit 63
Credit and Productivity 64
Invariance of Historical and Modern Examples 66
President Roosevelt’s RFC 68
A Southwest Asia/Africa Regional Infrastructure Bank 69
Cooperation with International Development Banks 70
Public-Private Partnerships Cannot Substitute 73
Appendix: Egypt: Internal financing of development 74
A National Reconstruction and Development Bank 74
Appendix: “LaRouche on Money vs. Credit” 75
Chapter 5: Demography and Development 77
Case Study: Egypt—Myth of Overpopulation 79
Moving Forward and Outward 80
Egypt Reclaims the Desert 81
The New Nile Valley 82
Chapter 6: Integration of West Asia with the New Silk Road 85
The Bridge Among Continents 85
Completing the Land-Bridge Westward 87
Proposed Corridors Integrating Arab States 90
A Common Enemy: The Desert 91
Attacking the Desert from the Fertile Crescent 91
Petrochemicals: Industry of the Future 99
Plastics 100
Appendix—Case Study: Syria’s Reconstruction Project Phoenix 103
Financing Reconstruction in a Nation Ruined by War? 105
Physical-Economic Development 106
Syria and the New Silk Road 106
Conclusion 108
Chapter 7: Africa — Transport Network Integration 111
Colonial Legacy 113
Dependency on Roads 114
Landlocked Nations 116
Turning a Crisis Into an Opportunity 118
A. The Nile Basin and East Africa 119
Creating a Powerful North-South Axis 119
East Africa’s Economic Corridors 125
B. Southern Africa 134
Roads, Rails and Ports in Southern Africa 134
The South African High-Speed Rail Project 135
Gautrain 137
When Will South Africa Convert to Standard Gauge?138
Africa’s North-South Corridor 138
Africa Tomorrow 142
C. West and Central Africa 142
Fast Track Development Perspective for West and Central Africa 142
Ports Connecting to the BRI 144
Development of West Africa 145
Development of Central Africa 147
Mechanized Agriculture: Africa Can Feed Itself and the Rest of the World 147
D. North Africa 147
Dreams and Setbacks 149
Highway Networks 149
Maghreb Railway Networks 151
Trans-Maghreb High-Speed Rail 152
Morocco Joins the BRI: Tanger-Med Port and Technopolis 154
Algeria Joins, Too156
Bridging the Gap Between Europe and Africa 157
Chapter 8: Africa — Water Resources Development 161
Managing the Water Cycle as a Cycle 163
Category 1: Management of Land Flow 165
Into the Future: How Africa Can Lead the World 169
Category 2: Weather Control 170
Category 3: Desalination of Ocean Water 174
Africa’s Water Future 175
Case study: The Nile Basin 175
The Linear Facts 176
Lost to Evaporation 177
Hydropower, Water Management, Agricultural Development 181
Chapter 9: To Power Africa, Go Nuclear! 185
Energy Requirements 185
An African Visionary: Diop 189
Chapter 10: Africa — Food Security: Realizing Africa’s Vast Agricultural Potential 193
Land and Yield 195
China’s Contributions 197
Lake Chad Basin 198
Sudan 200
Commitment to Transformation 200
Chapter 11: Africa in Space 203
New Space Nations 204
Space as a Driver for Development 205
A World-Class Science Project
206 Case Study — South Africa: Looking to the Heavens to Develop the Continent 208 Scientific Orientation 209
Imagination and Wonder 211
Space Technology Can Support Africa’s Development Goals 212
Working with China and the BRICS 213
Chapter 12: Conclusions and Recommendations 215
The Political and Economic Context 215
Some Necessary Axiomatic Shifts 217
Recommendation: Understanding Physical Economics 218
Recommendation: Financing Infrastructure 219
Recommendation: Science and Technology 220
Recommendation: Transport 220
Recommendation: Power 221
Recommendation: Water 221
Recommendation: Agriculture 222
Chapter 13: Selection of Proposed Mega Projects in Africa 225
Pan-African High-Speed Rail Network 225
Regional and Continental Corridors 227
New Suez Canal and Industrial Zone 229
Transaqua: The Centerpiece of Africa’s Development 231
Grand Inga Dam Project 237
South African Nuclear Program 239
Sicily–Tunis Connector — TUNeIT 242
Gibraltar Euro-African Tunnel 245
This is an edited transcript of a presentation by Mrs. Moni Abdullah to the Nov. 25-26 Schiller Institute Conference. She is the Executive Manager of Pyramids International, Cairo, Egypt.
Transcript
Good afternoon. Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests, Dear Friends:
My name is Moni Abdullah. I am the general manager of Pyramids International group, which is a private sector company. First I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to be invited as a speaker today at such an important event. I would further extend my gratitude to the Schiller Institute, and Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche in particular, for taking an interest in our company and in Egypt, and in an initiative and willingness to cooperate with the New Silk Road Project, for sharing the same courageous spirit of the Egyptians that human reason will be able to find the higher level where problems can be solved, and defending the rights of humanity to progress economically, morally, and intellectually, by development and connectivity.
My children are actually Swiss and I live in Geneva and in Egypt. I would like very much to see connectivity through Egypt to all of Africa, and possibly for the three continents to connect Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Our company is an events organizer. We organize conferences and exhibitions worldwide. We are an ISO-certified company and accredited with UFI, the global association of the exhibition industry.
Pyramids International group was established in 1993 and specializes in organizing, planning, and holding all kinds of large-scale international activities, such as conference, exhibitions, and trade shows. We work with different sectors, and organize around 115 events worldwide, basically in oil and gas, energy, and renewable energy, transportation, maritime and ports, shipping, and logistics, fashion, leather, furniture, health, real estate, general trade shows, auto shows, building and construction, household, food, machinery, and more.
In the continuous development of its business the company has established wide cooperation and interactive relations with the related governmental departments, trade associations, nongovernmental organizations, and scientific research institutes.
As a diversified service company, it also offers media services, digital information consulting services, research capacity and marketing solutions. Hence, our database marketing capacity and business connections help our worldwide international customers do business and to succeed in reaching new markets.
We organized the First Suez Canal Global Conference, last February, under the patronage of His Excellency President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Egyptian President. Here are some photos of the exhibition and the conference at the same time.
This is the Suez Canal parallel dredging waterway canal. It’s a megaproject that was concluded in one year, to increase the depth of the canal and to have a double, parallel waterway. It reduces the time of transport, for example, from Asia to Europe, and it reduces the cost as well. It can now accommodate the biggest vessels, thanks to its greater depth. These are some photos of the different container ships. That is the Suez Canal Economic Zone, or corridor.
The conference we organized, was to market the megaprojects in Egypt, for international investors who would like to engage in the megaprojects taking place. The megaprojects taking place are in different sectors, and as Mr. Hussein kindly mentioned, Egypt wants to leap to develop, we don’t want to crawl; so in parallel, there are megaprojects in transport, in industry, in agriculture and so on.
The Suez Canal Global Conference was followed by a Suez Canal tour, where the attendees could come and engage in debates, discussing the maritime field, and then go on a tour of the Suez Canal to see it in reality.
The function of our conferences was to foster discussions of a variety of issues affecting the Suez Canal and its development, clarify the opportunities for investment, the role of the megaprojects, and how it will serve to boost the traffic handled by the canal. The Conference aimed to help develop a Suez Canal Zone area, transforming it into a world-class global logistic hub and industrial processing center to serve the global market.
The importance and invention of the Suez Canal: The Suez Canal is considered to be shortest link between east and west, compared with the Cape of Good Hope. Due to its unique geographic locale, it’s an important international navigational canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said and the Red Sea at Suez.
The distinctive location of the Suez Canal makes it of special significance to the world and to Egypt as well. This importance is augmented with the evolution of maritime transport and world trade. Maritime transport is the cheapest means of transport. More than 80% of the world trade volume via waterways, seaborne. The canal route achieves savings in distance between the ports north and south of the canal, and that is converted into other savings for the shipping industries. These savings are reflected in saving time and saving money. Fuel consumption and operations costs are markedly reduced for vessels that transit the Suez Canal. It’s the longest canal in the world without locks, having a high level of safety and security measures, compared to other, alternative routes. Transit navigation there goes on day and night.
The Suez Canal, as I mentioned, accommodates the biggest shipping fleets now. Creating a new canal parallel to the existing one, has maximized benefits from the present canal, and its bypass, doubling the longest possible parts of the waterway, facilitates traffic in the two directions, and minimizing the waiting time for transiting ships. This certainly reduces the time needed for the trip from one end of the canal to the other, and increase the numerical capacity of the waterway, In anticipation of the expected growth in world trade.
The project goes hand in hand with the Suez Canal area development project. The two projects will add to the importance of the Suez Canal and will make it the route of choice for shipowners the world over, putting any alternative routes out of competition—hopefully. The Suez Canal Area Development Project is now a preferential market, because of the bilateral and multilateral agreements that Egypt benefits from, with Africa, with the Middle East, with Europe, and with the U.S.A., through the case agreements, for example; and then extending the operation of this law to the Suez Canal region is an important step towards transforming the Suez Canal to a global trade hub and world trade gateway.
The New Silk Road is an enormous Chinese project, which has gone global. It is composed of land routes, known as the Silk Road Economic Belt, and sea routes known as the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road, and both pass, actually, through the Suez Canal. It goes to Nairobi, Kenya and then afterwards to the Suez Canal. Together they make up the One Belt, One Road, creating a link among the three continents. Egypt has taken steps forwards towards the New Silk Road global vision: The New Silk Road will boost trade, productivity, investment, and cultural exchange, of course.
The 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road crosses the Indian Ocean, and then it goes through the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal Corridor Area Project is a megaproject in Egypt that has been launched by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. The project’s aim is to increase the role of the Suez Canal region in international trading, and to develop the three canal cities located around it. The project involves building a new city, Ismailia, and fish farms, industrial zones, technology valleys, seven new tunnels—many, many, many megaprojects that Dr. Saad Elgioshy, former Egyptian transport minister mentioned before.
Building on that, the project will transform the canal cities into important trading centers globally. The purpose of this project is to make the region a global industrial center and a logistics services and maritime transport hub, making the Suez Canal a world trade gateway between east and west.
A number of key priorities are identified, including the Port Said port, which aims to develop all of the ports, logistics services, maritime activities and an industrial cluster on the eastern side of the canal. In addition, there are port expansion projects— expansion of Port Said West Port, Ras Sadr Port, and many other ports.
And then there’s Ismailia Technology Valley, establishing high-tech projects in the fields of electronics, communications, IT, biotechnology, medical components, and pharma-technology.
And then northwest of the Gulf of Suez, the project comprises a large industrial zone in close proximity to Ras Sadr Port covering 200 km, including industrial parks and many previously mentioned megaprojects.
Investment opportunities. And this is why I’m here: Egypt is has many opportunities for investment in different ways, with the government, or with the private sector. As previously mentioned by former Egyptian Minister Dr. Saad, Egypt is offering for the first time opportunities for development and investment in the long-term plan, to transform Egypt 2013 to a leading country in the region, a major global trading hub, and place it as a landmark on the global investment map as one of the most promising and attractive countries for investment in logistics and transport sectors. Many of its future multi-billion-dollar national projects rank it third in the Middle East and Africa region, in terms of the volume of investment availability. Egypt will also take offers for global and domestic investment in existing and prospective projects starting soon in various sectors within the medium-term plan until 2020, with investment exceeding 300 billion Egyptian pounds.
One of the most important topics of the conference was to discuss the investment opportunities in the New Silk Road, to enable Egypt to link between the continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa, to create new opportunities for countries with development wishes. Egypt has taken steps forward towards a global vision and has already signed contracts with the Chinese government for cooperation on Egyptian railway projects, because the New Silk Road promotes trade, productivity, investment, and cultural exchange.
TEDA, which is the Chinese-Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone based in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, is a fine example of how the Chinese are engaged in Egypt, and is actually considered to be one of the best overseas economic and trade cooperation zones of China. It has established a good overseas development platform for Chinese enterprises, going global with the aim of creating an international capacity cooperation model of how the overseas economic and trade cooperation zones can be “win-win” situations.
Any manufacturer based in the Suez Canal Economic Zone has so many facilities and incentives to benefit from. For example now, Egypt is making many reforms, such as the new investment law, with “one-stop shop”— better licensing procedures, faster, you don’t have to go through government bureaucracy any more to get licensing. Also there is the floatation of the Egyptian currency, so now there’s no black market—there’s one currency rate. There are bilateral agreements and the multilateral agreements, as I mentioned before, and many industrial areas and free zones available.
There’s a lot of legislative reform and social reform going on as well in Egypt.
Now, I would like to talk about our upcoming events in the transport sector: for whoever is interested in participating and learning more about the megaprojects that are taking place there, and how Egypt is trying to connect the three continents. We are having one on April 16-17: It’s called the 2030 Megaprojects and it’s about means of transport in Egypt.
In tandem with the conference, there will be two exhibitions: Pharos, the International Exhibition of Maritime Transport Logistics and Shipping; and the Middle East and Africa Rail Show, the International Exhibition for Railway Systems Underground Metro and Mass Transportation. The conference and two exhibitions are being organized by our company. The conference with its two international exhibitions will be a very important event for investors, developers, professionals, and stakeholders as the Egyptian Ministry of Transport will present, for the first time, a comprehensive vision of its entire plan for megaprojects in inter-modal and multimodal transportation connecting Egypt locally and internationally, based on Egypt’s strategic location, linking Africa, Europe, and Asia, and the Middle East, of course, all in accordance with the strategy of sustainable development, the vision Egypt 2030.
The conference will be a global gathering for international experts from the east and west, with the support of many international organizations, associations, financial authorities, and government entities around the world.
Egypt now is trying to develop its rail system, as we said. Years of underdevelopment, and now, all of a sudden, there is a boost in all of the transport sectors. We’re trying to have an efficient railway system that connects Egypt internally, supported by good, proper service for truck fleets, and increasing river transport services, and development in all of the ports and the logistics centers. So Egypt will have a complete, new network, which is safe, reduces cost, and is efficient. That will enable Egypt to be able to connect internationally. Egypt-based manufacturers in the new industrial areas can actually reduce the cost of transfer and the time of products to the three different continents.
Egypt is trying to brand itself and position itself to be a world trade hub. The objective of Pharos is to emphasize the role of the private sector and investment in maritime transport and logistics, multimodal transport and logistics centers in the Arab region in Africa, and the role of dryland and river ports and logistics centers in supporting and developing the economy, elaborating the role and use of information technology, and infrastructure in the maritime transport sector, and intensifying the role of green ports and its impact on the environment.
Following Pharos, we will have the Middle East and Africa Exhibition for Infrastructure, underground roads, bridges, transportation. And in cooperation with the Schiller Institute, we will have the EWTH, Egypt World Trade Hub East and West Connectivity conference, proposed for July. That conference will focus on Egypt being a good and desirable place for world trade connectivity, and not only between East and West, but also between the northern and southern regions of Africa.
Egypt World Trade Hub is connecting east and west is proposed to take place in July. It will discuss development investment opportunities in Egypt’s infrastructure, railways, roads, underground bridges, tunnels in land transport, ports, logistics centers, maritime and shipping services, all transforming Egypt into a major world-class trade hub, and placing it on the map of one of the top potential investment countries in the logistics and transport sectors. Due to its strategic location, Egypt aims to connect the Middle East and Africa, Europe, and Asia, to become a prominent leader in the new era. The conference will discuss the Marshall Plan of intermodal and multimodal connectivity of Egypt to the three continents.
The Egypt World Trade Hub Conference will discuss ways of connecting and increasing global trade, examining latest trends in global trade with an outlook on alternative routes, and discussing the importance of Egypt’s strategic location that connects the three continents. Panel discussions will cover Egypt’s local and foreign investment opportunities in Egyptian industrial areas, free trade zones, and all of the Egyptian transport sectors that are witnessing major expansion and development, creating a wider vista of commerce for Africa, Europe, and Asia.
Inviting investors and developers to relocate to Egypt to benefit from the many incentives and facilities, Egypt is now offering and benefiting from the reduction in cargo transport costs and transfer time, by the parallel way dredging megaproject of the Suez Canal. Egypt is pursuing existing means that encourage export to east and west, and the whole region, acting as a great big hub for logistics and world trade.
China and Egypt agreed to cooperate on the New Silk Road and signed a five-year agreement to that end, calling for redoubled efforts to develop the ChinaEgypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone. Egypt has taken steps toward a global vision, and has already signed agreements and contracts with the Chinese government. [applause]
For more details, there are brochures at the table in the back of the conference hall and outside at the registration area for the 2030 Megaprojects and for the Egypt World Trade Hub conference.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Mehreteab Mulugeta Haile is Consul General of Ethiopia in Frankfurt. This is an edited transcript of his address to the International Schiller Institute conference on “Fulfilling the Dream of Mankind,” Nov. 25-26, 2017, in Bad Soden/ Taunus, Germany. Subtitles have been added.
Transcript
Mrs. Helga Zepp-LaRouche, President and Founder of the Schiller Institute, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen, at the outset, allow me to thank and express my appreciation to the Schiller Institute for organizing conferences that help shed light on current political and economic developments in the world. I feel honored and I am thankful to be invited and to make a speech at this august gathering.
Today, I will talk about Ethiopia’s rapid economic development and its involvement in regional cooperation, and contributions made by Europe and China to enhance these developments.
Ethiopia is one of the largest Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a population of about 100 million people. After suffering economic stagnation for decades, its economy began to grow in the mid-1990s after a new administration led by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took the helm of government.
For the last 15 years, Ethiopia has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, with an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of about 11% per annum. To continue with this rapid economic growth, the Ethiopian Government rolled out, in 2010, an ambitious five-year Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP) that aims to attain a lower-middle-income status by 2025. Currently the country is implementing the second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II), which is built on Sectoral Policies, Strategies & Program and Lessons drawn from the implementation of the first GTP and the post-2015 “sustainable development goals” (SDGs). It has also taken into account global and regional economic situations having direct or indirect bearing on the Ethiopian economy.
GTP II aims, for the coming 8 to 10 years, to continue achieving an annual average real GDP growth rate of 11% within a stable macroeconomic environment, while at the same time pursuing aggressive measures towards rapid industrialization and structural transformation. To this end, concerted and coordinated effort will be made so that equitable economic growth translates into creating job opportunities accompanied by significant poverty reduction. Agriculture will be maintained as a major source of growth, while the development of industries by accelerating industrial development will be supplemented with the promotion of the service sector, so as to enhance growth. To this effect, coordinated and strong forward and backward production linkages will be strengthened. Private sector investment will be promoted through providing the necessary incentives and support, to enhance private sector participation in allowed investment areas.
Expansion of infrastructure development—such as road, railway, dry port, air transport, energy, telecommunications, water, and irrigation schemes—will have special consideration in GTP II.
During GTP II, industrial development and structural transformation is expected to bring significant growth of the manufacturing industry, so that it plays the leading role in the overall economic development of the country. Implementation strategies mainly focus on implementation of projects and programs which are geared towards attracting quality investment, enhancing production and productivity, boosting export shares, accelerating technological learning, and strengthening the linkage among industries. To this end, establishing 12 industrial parks and clusters has been undertaken in the country, with 7 million square meters of land made available for investors engaged in manufacturing and related sectors. Four agro-industrial parks will also be established which will be linked with millions of smallholder farmers supplying input. Regional administrative areas, cities and towns will get the necessary support to develop standardized industrial clusters and parks for those investors promoting small to medium-size industries, and hence generate employment opportunities.
Expanding the manufacturing sector will focus on identifying new investment areas such as biotechnology, petrochemicals, electricity and electronics, information and communication technologies (hardware and software production industries).
In the infrastructure sector, the overall strategic direction is to ensure the creation of infrastructure that supports rapid economic growth and structural transformation. This direction will create mass employment opportunities, an institution having strong implementation capacity, ensure public participation and benefit, construct decentralized infrastructure development systems, solve financial constraints, ensure fairness and profitability, and ensure integrated planning and administration of infrastructure development.
Within infrastructure overall, rural roads are given high focus—to help reduce poverty by facilitating easy access of agricultural products, at low transportation cost, to the market, improving access to basic socioeconomic services, and strengthening rural-urban linkages.
Thus, the major strategic directions of the road development sector during GTP II will be ensuring the existence and sustainability of road infrastructure network with quality and safety, as well as to improve the provision of road infrastructure, by expanding the road network both in terms of quantity and quality, to sustain and ensure current and future economic growth.
The other area that has been given major emphasis is the energy sector. The main objective of the sector during GTP II is increasing national energy generation, transmission, and distribution capacity to fully satisfy domestic energy demand with production surplus ready for the export market. Implementation strategies are set, to increase electric power generating capacity through initiatives in hydro power, wind power, geothermal power, and solar power.
The other major project in the area of infrastructure building is railway development. The major strategic direction of railways infrastructure development during GTP II is to continue the network expansion started under GTP I, build capacity by establishing a modern railway industry academy, and make it operational; develop various railway industry standards; ensure that railway transport services are in accordance with standards, and conduct problem solving research on railway infrastructure building, operations, and service provision.
The objectives of the construction industry during the GTP II period are to build the capacity of the industry in a sustainable way, ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of construction procurement and contract management, develop internationally competent contractors and design & construction consultants, and improve the availability of construction raw materials and machinery for those engaged in construction and housing development programs.
We in Ethiopia believe that economic development in a secluded situation cannot be sustainable and attainable. To this end, Ethiopia, through the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), is increasingly collaborating with its neighbors—notably Kenya, Sudan, Djibouti, Sudan, and South Sudan—in the areas of trade, tourism, industry, infrastructure development, and energy, among others. The Ethiopian private sector is increasingly encouraged to invest in those countries and all these countries are thus enhancing their economic cooperation. We in Ethiopia are striving to bring regional economic integration to create a larger regional market for trade and investment and make use of the advantages of efficiency, productivity gains, and competitiveness. In recent years the Ethiopian government has taken steps to enhance non-trade aspects of economic cooperation, which could strengthen economic ties among the countries in the region.
IGAD’s focus on regional economic cooperation and integration is to create an open, unified, regional economic space for the business community—a single market open to competitive entry and well integrated into the continental and global economies. This focus requires both regional infrastructure as well as the gradual harmonization of policies for the removal of barriers to inter-state communications.
The European Union and other development partners are actively supporting and participating in economic development activities in Ethiopia. Through its development cooperation, the EU stands by Ethiopia in addressing its key challenges, such as food insecurity, rapidly growing population, environmental pressures exacerbated by climate change, low industrial output, and a range of governance issues. In recent years, the EU+ group disbursed annually around 1 billion euros in official development assistance (ODA), equivalent to roughly a quarter of the total external aid to Ethiopia, and it may reach up to 10% of the country’s annual federal budget in certain years. In this context, joint programming is not only about aid effectiveness, but most importantly, has a strong political dimension and is one of the instruments in support of the implementation of the wider EU-Ethiopia strategic engagement. The European Union supports the efforts of Ethiopia to eradicate poverty, and to foster inclusive and sustainable economic, social, and environmental development while promoting human rights, democracy, and other elements of good governance.
For the last three years, much focus has been given to the issue of migration and its management by European countries. Ethiopia is a key partner in the stability and management of migratory flows in the region, due to its role in hosting large numbers of refugees from neighboring countries, its proactive policy of fighting traffickers and smugglers, and the interest of Ethiopians in migrating to neighboring countries and regions in search of work. Ethiopia is one of the five priority countries identified in the Communication on Establishing a New Partnership Framework with Third Countries under the European Agenda on Migration. Through the EU Trust Fund for Africa, EU actions address the root causes of irregular migration in the most migrant-prone regions of the country, promoting economic and employment opportunities, particularly for vulnerable people, through vocational training, access to micro-finance, or by creating industrial parks. Actions also aim to strengthen resilience and combat the drivers of instability, to improve long-term development and protection needs of refugees and their host communities, and to better manage migration at regional level.
When we look at the role Germany is playing in the relationship of African countries with EU countries, in general, and Ethiopia in particular, we find that Germany has made cooperation with Africa a core element of its G-20 Presidency. The German government advocates for a G-20 Africa Partnership and has put in place the G-20 Compact with Africa, which aims to promote private investment, sustainable infrastructure, and job creation in African countries. Germany’s Minister of Finance describes the Compact with Africa as a “long-term, demand-driven process” in which “African countries will determine what they want to do to improve conditions for private investment, with whom they want to cooperate, and in what form.”
Last year, during its G-20 Presidency, China made Africa a prominent part of the G-20 agenda, with an unprecedented number of African leaders participating in the G-20 Summit in Hangzhou and with commitments to support industrialization and the proliferation of renewable energy in African countries.
According to data from China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the stock of Chinese direct investment in Africa was $32 billion at the end of 2014. Of course, direct investment is not the only form of foreign financing. The Export-Import Bank of China and China Development Bank have made large loans in Africa, mostly to fund infrastructure projects. In recent years, China has provided about one-sixth of the external infrastructure financing for Africa. In short, Chinese financing is substantial enough to contribute meaningfully to African investment and growth. However, the notion that China has provided an overwhelming amount of finance and is buying up the whole continent is inaccurate.
If we take my country, Ethiopia, as an example of Chinese cooperation and involvement in Africa, we find that what has been said above is false. According to the Ethiopian Investment Commission, Chinese companies, with close to 379 projects that were either operational or under implementation in the 2012-2017 period, are on top of Ethiopia’s investment landscape, both in number and financial capital. Among these companies, 279 were operational with projects that are worth over 13.16 billion Ethiopian birr (over 572 million U.S. dollars) during the reported period, while the remaining 100 are under implementation.
In terms of employment creation, Chinese companies have created more than 28,300 jobs in various sectors in Ethiopia during the reported period, of which over 19,000 were created in Ethiopia’s manufacturing, as it is the leading sector in attracting companies from China. China brings not only investment, knowhow, and transfer of technology, but also skills and entrepreneurship.
At this point, I would like to mention the initiative taken by His Excellency President Xi Jinping in 2013, the “One Belt, One Road” (OBOR) Initiative. This is President Xi’s “project of the century.” It is based on the legendary Silk Road, which connected Europe and China for one and a half millennia. The aim of China’s OBOR project is to open up and expand old Silk Road trade routes through Central Asia and on to Europe, as well as Southeast Asian maritime links through the Strait of Malacca and around India to the Middle East. Xi’s ambitious goals do sound inspiring indeed: “We should build the Belt and Road into a road of peace . .. of prosperity … of opening up .. . of innovation . .. connecting civilizations,” he said. The total trade between China and other Belt and Road countries has exceeded $3 trillion. China’s investment has surpassed $50 billion. Chinese companies have created almost 200,000 jobs and over $1 billion of tax revenue. China is generating mutual benefits by creating jobs and supporting the domestic economy of those countries in which it is investing.
The Jamestown Foundation’s China Brief stated this month (paraphrase):
OBOR will bring a greater effect on local and regional integration along the way, especially for Ethiopia and other countries in the region. The Maritime Silk Road will have a significant impact both because of economic integration on a local level, and by forging connections between East Africa and neighboring regions. It also connects regional centers to each other. OBOR could partly ease a problem that has bedeviled African development since the end of the colonial era. It also has the potential to facilitate trade and shared manufacturing between different East African economies. In this sense, the OBOR initiative has the potential to achieve a certain amount of regional integration—a long-held ideal of African development. OBOR presents an intriguing perspective on the sometimes highly unequal nature of south-south cooperation, and raises questions about the nature of African agency in the 21st Century.
It is estimated that Africa needs to create about 20 million jobs per year to employ its expanding workforce. Africa’s demographics present both an opportunity and a challenge to the rest of the world. It is unrealistic to expect Europe or China to tackle the problems of African countries alone and bring a change overnight. Nor would it be reasonable to expect large volumes of Chinese or European manufacturing to move to the continent in the near future. Therefore, it is useful to have a long-term vision of economic relationship that very much centers on the utilization of natural resources of Africa and the shift over time to a greater focus on human resources development by creating jobs. To this end, trilateral cooperation would provide an ideal opportunity for Germany and China, as the current and previous G-20 Presidencies, to jointly demonstrate their commitments under the G-20 to increase support for African countries. This form of cooperation complements and brings together the traditional NorthSouth and South-South cooperation models. In line with the Compact with Africa, such cooperation needs to be guided by the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and African countries’ national development plans in order to be successful.
The launch of the Sino-German Center for Sustainable Development in Beijing in May is a promising step in this direction, as the center plans to support sustainable infrastructure development in African countries. This can, indeed, be an area in which African countries can benefit from joint cooperation between Germany and China. China has a comparative advantage in the provision of cost-effective infrastructure development, while the sustainability of such projects can be ensured by making use of Germany’s expertise in project management, social and environmental impact assessments, and quality assurance.
Germany and China should also foster trilateral cooperation with African countries on industrialization and renewable energy. The joint establishment of special economic zones (SEZs) in African countries would be a good starting point. SEZs were a key component of China’s economic development and are also starting to play an important role for industrialization in African countries such as Ethiopia. A trilateral SEZ project should utilize China’s profound experience in financing, developing, and managing SEZs, while Germany would contribute its expertise in preparing and delivering tailored technical vocational education and training programs for different sectors. Germany’s understanding of social and environmental standards and its international marketing insights would also help ensure that SEZs are attractive for investors and suitable for global supply chains.
There is also a huge potential for effective trilateral cooperation between Germany, China, and African countries on the proliferation of renewable energy in Africa. The African Union’s recently launched Africa Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) provides a possible entry point, as both China and Germany have individually pledged their support for the initiative. Both countries are global leaders in renewable energy policy and technology, and have considerable experience working with African countries bilaterally in these areas. A trilateral project should focus on a so far overlooked, but crucial component in the establishment of the Africa Renewable Energy Institute, namely, to serve as the initiative’s backbone for research and training. Germany and China could build on the experiences from the establishment and operation of similar institutes in China, such as the China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy, and engage these institutes and their networks to build new partnerships.
Thank you.
This is an edited transcript of a presentation by Franco Persio Bocchetto describing the Transaqua project to the Nov. 25-26 Schiller Institute Conference.
Transcript
Good afternoon to everybody, and to Ladies and Gentleman. I’m very glad to be here at this very interesting conference. I was really amazed listening this morning, especially to the speeches of Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche, and the one of the enthusiastic Professor He Wenping. And also I was interested in hearing the speech of Professor Askary, who introduced the Transaqua project that I would like to show and present here.
The Transaqua project is perfectly in line with the vision of this conference, which is “To Fulfill the Dream of Mankind.” Transaqua, as maybe you know, was conceived more or less about 30 years ago, by our firm Bonifica. Perhaps at that time, it was too innovative; maybe in that time nobody was really interested in developing Africa. But nowadays conditions are really different and maybe this is the time to revive the project: Maybe we can call it “Transaqua 2.0” in order to start the development of this great dream for Africa.
Maybe most people think Transaqua is only a problem of transferring water from the Congo Basin to Lake Chad, but this is not the vision of Transaqua. First of all, everything starts from the problems that are related to Lake Chad. We are going to show you the actual situation of Lake Chad.
Lake Chad was one of the largest endorheic lakes in the world, and maybe the largest in Africa. The lake is situated in the Sahel region, at the crossing of the borders of four countries: Niger, Chad, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The total catchment area of Lake Chad is very huge: 2,434,000 sq km. Eight countries, including Algeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, and Sudan are using the water resources from Lake Chad. The main inflows of Lake Chad are from the Chari River, and Chari and Longone River, and the main outflows are evaporation and infiltration. For this reason, it’s an endorheic lake, because it does not drain to the sea.
The Chari River and Longone River flow from south to north, and this is the actual Lake Chad. The lake basin has a very unstable equilibrium as there is no surplus water flowing to the sea. The only outflows are infiltration and evaporation. If water is used upstream, the lake cannot but shrink.
Lake Chad always had great oscillations, due to natural climatic fluctuations. Now, especially in this period of climate change, we must follow very closely what will be the future of Lake Chad. Lake Chad is suffering from the increase in population and subsequent water consumption, mainly for irrigation, and in addition, the decrease of rainfall. Lake Chad’s surface in 1973 was more or less 25,000 sq. km. As you see, in 2015, it decreased to 2,500 sq. km, while the population within the basin has grown from 8 million to 30 million people, more or less.
As a consequence of this drought and drying up of the lake, agriculture development increases pollution, ecological destruction, and extinction of rare species. The economy of the surrounding countries and region is severely threatened by reduction of the lake’s surface levels and volumes. Average food production and household purchasing power have been continuously reduced since the 1980s. Humanitarian, ecological, and economic crises are developing rapidly as the volume and surface of Lake Chad are drastically reduced at an alarming and accelerated pace.
Also, it’s important to show the evidence that in this region, the consequences of this are also all the problems related to Boko Haram, which is really active in this region due to the poverty of this region.
How to mitigate the Lake Chad drought: Well, thinking of the problems of Lake Chad, we have to think about the future. And the future in 30 to 50 years will be very, very dramatic for Africa in a certain way. As you see, it is forecast that real growth of the population, between today and the year 2200, will grow by 400%. So the problem is, what will happen when, within 30-40 years you will have the doubling of the population in Africa, and also in those Sahel regions.
We heard today in the earlier speeches, about the New Deal and the optimistic vision of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and we really hope that, due to the positive strength of China, they will really succeed in helping the world help to develop, and that these regions will have help from the Chinese for development. There are a lot of projects that are going on as Mr. Askary has showed us in the context for all of Africa. But, it is important, also to set up and improve the Transaqua project in Central Africa, in the middle of Africa, the part which is poorest and where the desert is continuing to make inroads.
The consequence of not doing this is a huge migration into the rich countries, and of course, Italy and Europe are suffering from these consequences. Most of the people come from the Sahel region, so I think that Europe has to help to improve the Transaqua project, in order to develop all these countries, and bring food, agriculture, and fisheries as a way to eliminate poverty in this region.
Over the years, the Lake Chad Basin Commission, created by the states around Lake Chad has really done great work in facing up to the shrinking of the lake, and for the realization of numerous national and transnational projects, to optimize the use of water resources and mitigate possible disputes between the states.
What to do next? What will the next challenges be for the Lake Chad Basin Commission? First of all, in the medium term, there are projects that are going on to mitigate the Lake Chad drought, of course, projects that tend to sustain the existence of people, improve the efficiency of water use, through new research, innovative organization, based on the use of smart technologies to improve the efficiency of system coordination and control. First of all, a very big monitoring system should be set up in order to control the consequences of climate change, control all the problems related to agricultural use, and control the consequences of national and transnational projects that are being done in this region.
We can be very optimistic, but due to the growth of the population, the long-term measures cannot be other than to think how to transfer large volumes of water from the Congo River Basin to Lake Chad.
Well, water transfer to drying up endorheic lakes is not merely a “nature conservation measure.” Environment and wildlife deserve to be protected—human beings, too. A drying endorheic lake is proof that the water resources in its catchment area are overexploited with respect to incoming run-off. Transfering water from adjacent river basins that have surplus water flowing into the sea, is a way of increasing water availability, especially for agriculture, in the context of the increasing population and declining rainfall, and to restore wildlife.
When water is in short supply in a given place, either you bring it there, or people will migrate elsewhere.
Near Lake Chad, there is an immense, scarcely populated river basin, which discharges into the Atlantic Ocean an average of 40,000 cubic meters/second—the equivalent to 1,250 billion m3 /year. That discharge is 200 times the discharge of the Main River [in Germany], or 14 times that of the Rhine at its mouth. How much of this volume could be possibly and safely diverted into Lake Chad has yet to be studied.
Can we think of a “win-win” project, where all countries involved have their advantages, which is perhaps, one of the basic conditions for developing this project?
Bringing water from the Congo River Basin to the thirsty Chad region and increasing irrigated agriculture, restoring the lake, producing hydropower and improving inter-African transport and commerce, is the vision of this Transaqua Project.
A canal would have to intercept part of the discharge of the right-hand tributaries of the Congo River, and convey them across the watershed between the Congo Basin and the Chari Basin. The diverted flow would reach Lake Chad through one of the Chari tributaries, properly reshaped. A very preliminary estimate gives an amount up to 100 billion m3 /year could be diverted. That this less than 8% of the Congo discharge, ensuring thus the restoration of Lake Chad and irrigation of up to 3 million hectares.
In its fall toward Chad, the diverted flow could be used for hydropower production. Along the canal, a road should be built which would become the backbone of inter-African land transport. The hypothesis that the canal could also be suitable for navigation has been made. Those ideas stemming from the early 1920s, have been studied by Bonifica, and are presently being considered by the Lake Chad Basin Commission as a possible project for the future.
The idea of Bonifica is to transfer about 100 million cubic meters of water per year from the Congo River Basin to the Lake Chad and Sahel district. This is the Congo Basin as you can see in red, which is the alignment more or less of the canal. You cross the watershed and you go into the water catchment area of the River Chari.
What is important to note is that the Transaqua formula is not simply to replenish Lake Chad, but to give access to drinking water, revive agricultural activity, irrigation, fish farming, a navigable waterway, trade, transport, regulate flows, produce electric power, river ports, commerce, and road connections—thus creating an economic development system along the Transaqua waterway.
With the regeneration of Lake Chad’s natural resources, we can show the shape of the lake in 2087. Characteristic of this project is that navigable infrastructure systems can be realized through modules. We don’t need to realize the whole project at the same time, so we start from the part which is most near to the watershed, and the development of the first 500 km of the canal.
The Transaqua water project is a combination of situations. In order to produce hydropower, we will construct small dams along the tributaries of the river, in order to catch some part of the water for the Transaqua canal. By connecting different lakes with canals, we can realize a waterway which will have a maximum extent of up to 2,400 km, reaching Lake Tanganyika on the east side of Africa.
Road connection: As you can see, the Transaqua corridor intersects the Lagos-Mombasa Road, which is one of the principal roads that was shown by Professor Askary in his speech. And as you can see, in the Mombasa-Nairobi link, it is one of the hubs of the One Belt, One Road project.
It is very interesting to think that this Transaqua Project can become one of the projects that can be developed within the One Belt, One Road project.
Some final considerations: Having for years pursued a dream, now is the time to take action. From this point of view, what is interesting and new is the fact that the Chinese have begun to get interested in the project. Last year, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Lake Chad Basin Commission, and ChinaPower, which is one of the big infrastructure companies of China. The scope of the MOU was to start the feasibility study of the water transfer project, by trying to construct one of the first elements of the project, which is the CIMA Project. I don’t have time now to explain this CIMA project, but it is certainly one of the modules of Transaqua, although it is only part of it, because the CIMA project, developed by the Canadian CIMA company, is a project to pump water from the Ubangi River over the watershed into the Chari River, which is a different vision from Transaqua, which is to construct a corridor crossing Africa, and bringing development to all the regions that are crossed by the project.
It is important at this point to show that Bonifica, in the context of the signing of this MOU, decided to go to China and to speak to ChinaPower, in order to offer the collaboration of Europeans, of Italians, to jointly develop the feasibility study. We found a great interest from the Chinese, so we signed an MOU and now we are taking action in order to jointly develop this feasibility project together with the Chinese. This may be the first break in the construction of this important infrastructure in the center of Africa.
Thank you. [applause]
New York City er nu officielt gået ind i »Helvedessommeren«, skabt af reparationsarbejde, der for længst burde have været udført, omkring Penn Station. Dette arbejde vil reducere pendlernes adgang til dette afgørende omdrejningspunkt med 20 % af den halve million, daglige pendlere. For et par uger siden efterlod en togafsporing af et A-tog i New York dusinvis af sårede og forstyrrede hundrede tusinder af togrejser. Om to år vil den planlagte nedlægning af L-toget forstyrre 200.000 daglige togrejser i halvandet år. I dag er der 2,5 gange så mange forsinkelser i New Yorks undergrundsbane som for blot 5 år siden. Det er tydeligt, at transport i Amerikas førende by er på randen af sammenbrud. Og dette bør ikke komme som nogen overraskelse for dem, der har fulgt manglen på infrastrukturinvestering i løbet af de seneste årtier. Og slet ikke for Lyndon LaRouche, der kæmpede imod 1970’ernes ødelæggelse og under-investering i New York City, og Big Mac Kommunale Bistandsselskabs finansielle diktatur, der overtog det.
Mange af de umiddelbart nødvendige udbedringer er fuldstændigt åbenlyse for enhver, der kender til situationen. Erstat de 100 år gamle tunneller, der krydser Hudson- og East-floderne; opgrader koblingssystemet, som stammer tilbage fra Franklin Roosevelts præsidentskab, og forøg vedligeholdelse og reparationer, eftersyn af spor og udstyr; men det, der virkelig kræves, er et langsigtet perspektiv for det næste niveau af infrastruktur, det langsigtede perspektiv, hvis fravær forårsagede den krise, vi nu befinder os i. En krise, hvor New York City blot er et førende eksempel i USA. Uden at kæmpe for at vinde en forpligtelse over for et sådant langsigtet perspektiv for en ny platform, vil alle kortsigtede udbedringer, selv om de er nødvendige, blot være at ’sparke dåsen hen ad gaden’.
For at gøre dette langsigtede perspektiv klart, lad os se på, hvad vi kan lære af Afrika og Kina.
Med et par af de lidt mere udviklede nationer, såsom Egypten og Sydafrika, som undtagelse, befinder afrikansk infrastruktur sig på et ynkeligt underudviklet niveau. Overvej engang disse tal:
Den totale transport af fragt via jernbane er i Afrika mindre end 10 % af det, den er i USA, Kina eller Europa.
Energiforbrug pr. person i Afrika: Kun 10 % af USA’s, kun en tredjedel af Kinas. Det bliver tydeligere, når vi fokuserer på den højere form for energi, repræsenteret af elektricitet: Forbruget pr. person i Afrika er kun 6 % af det, det er i USA, og kun en fjerdedel af Kinas forbrug. Ja, faktisk har under halvdelen af afrikanere adgang til elektricitet overhovedet. Et typisk, amerikansk køleskab bruger mere end det dobbelte af det gennemsnitlige elektricitetsforbrug hos borgere i Nigeria eller Kenya.
Med en sådan utilstrækkelig infrastrukturplatform er udbredt økonomisk fremskridt simpelt hen umuligt. Og alligevel siger visse mennesker – og med ’visse mennesker’ mener jeg Afrikas tidligere koloniherrer, med briterne i spidsen – at udvikling i Afrika bør ske ved hjælp af ’tilpassede teknologier’; at man bør have en trinvis fremgangsmåde over for forbedringer; at vandpumper, betjent med fødderne, eller solpaneller på en hytte, ville være nyttige opgraderinger. Det er nonsens. For eksempel den ynkelige ’Power Africa’-plan, som præsident Obama foreslog; det ville knap nok efterlade et mærke i de uhyrligt lave udviklingsniveauer.
(Obama): ’Det bliver jeres generation, der kommer til at lide mest. Hvis man sluttelig tænker på alle de unge mennesker, som alle her i Afrika talte om; hvis alle får en forhøjet levestandard i en grad, hvor alle har en bil, og alle har aircondition, og alle har et stort hus, ja, så vil planeten koge over’.
Afrika må gå frem i store spring, ikke kravle fremad, og dette kan ske. Alene Congofloden vil kunne skabe skønsmæssigt 100.000 MW elektricitet; tilstrækkeligt til 100 millioner mennesker, eller flere. Med 40.000 MW alene fra den planlagte Grand Inga-dæmning. Transaqua for Vand-programmet, der ville bruge vand fra Congofloden og dens bifloder til at genopfylde, og sikre sejlads på, Tchadsøen, der nu er ved at tørre ud; dette ville være i en størrelsesorden, der ikke har sin lige nogetsteds i verden. Udvidelse af jernbanelinjer i Afrika indtager i dag en førende plads i verden. Det vokser; nye transportruter i hele Afrika vil forbinde oplandet omkring moderne udvikling, og dette vil ændre situationen for nogle af indlandsområdernes nuværende isolation. For at give et eksempel: de nuværende fragtomkostninger ved at bringe en container gødning fra Singapore til Rwanda eller Burundi, er mere end 2,5 gange omkostningerne, forbundet med at bringe det til havnebyen Alexandria i Egypten pga. den forfærdelige, utilstrækkelige kvalitet af transportinfrastrukturen over land på hele kontinentet. Så, ved at skabe adgang til effektiv transport, har regioner fordel af mulighederne for at bringe udstyr og forsyninger ind, for at eksportere deres produkter og ideer, og for indbyggerne til at rejse. Med elektricitet til rådighed, frigøres en højere evne til produktivitet, og værdien af landet, og befolkningen, stiger. Det er der nogle mennesker, der indser. Ulig synspunktet i den transatlantiske verden, ser Kina Afrika som, ikke simpelt hen en kilde til råmaterialer; som et kontinent, det er bedst at holde nede i en tilstand af underudvikling; men derimod som en mulighed for massiv, hurtig, intens, generel, økonomisk udvikling; som potentielle partnere og fælles fremgang; som nye markeder, nye samarbejdspartnere.
Så, alt imens amerikanske og europæiske investeringer i Afrika er tungt orienteret mod udvinding af mineraler og resurser, så går kinesiske investeringer primært til infrastruktur og små og mellemstore foretagender. I 2010 overhalede Kinas handel med Afrika USA’s handel med Afrika og er i øjeblikket mere end dobbelt så stor som USA’s handel med Afrika. Og Kina finansierer store projekter; den næsten 500 km (300 miles) lange jernbane med standardspor i Kenya, bygget på 3 år; den 750 km (500 miles) lange jernbane mellem Djibouti og Addis Abeba, som vil blive forlænget; den reducerer rejsetiden fra dage til timer, mens den farer forbi med 100 miles/timen. Sådanne store investeringer, sammen med den fremtidige færdiggørelse af Grand Inga-dæmningen, af Transaqua-vandsystemet; de vil fuldstændigt transformere Afrikas økonomi, og alle lokaliteterne i den, og bringe adgang til vand, energi og transport og gøre et højere niveau af industri, udvinding, landbrug, videnskabelige og kulturelle satsninger muligt; produktiviteten vil vokse.
Lad os nu vende tilbage til New York City. Hvad er det, der har manglet i New York City? Vedligeholdelse? Nej. Det, der har manglet, er en forpligtelse til at opdage og bygge den næste platform for infrastruktur for området. I sammenhæng med et statsligt kreditsystem, med højhastighedsjernbaner, udført af en statslig jernbanemyndighed, med opgraderede og pålidelige vandveje, med højteknologiske, nye designs af kernekraftværker, og alt dette bygget med et potentielt internationalt samarbejde. Og i denne sammenhæng, hvordan passer så New York City ind i dette større område, som det eksisterer i? Hvor vil den næste generation af transport- og udviklingsknudepunkter komme til at ligge? På hvilke teknologier vil de være baseret? Hvordan kan magnetisk svævetogs-teknologi ændre vores syn på transport? Hvordan vil kommerciel fusionskraft, der virkeliggøres inden for et årti gennem et gennemfinansieret forskningsprogram; hvordan kan dette ændre vores forhold til energi, til materialer, til produktion, til transport? Hvordan vil den udvidede adgang til vand, energi og transport åbne nye områder i landet for udvikling, og for højere former for udvikling? Hvordan vil Beringstræde-forbindelsen ændre verdens handelsruter? Vil New York City stadig være nationens førende metropol om hundrede år?
Så, jo, reparér L-toget; ja, byg de nye tunneller under Hudsonfloden; udbedr absolut katastrofen, kendt som Penn Station. Men gør det alt sammen i en national og international sammenhæng; en sammenhæng, der har et fremtidsorienteret, økonomisk standpunkt om at foretage spring til en højere infrastrukturplatform. I takt med, at vores fremtidige, nationale jernbanemyndighed bygger et togsystem, der kører 300 miles/timen, med start i hele det nordøstlige område; i takt med, at transit og byer opgraderes til at gøre det muligt for pendlertiden at være en halv time snarere end halvanden time; i takt med, at Verdenslandbroen bliver forbundet med Nordamerika og gør det muligt at rejse over land fra New York til Beijing, fra Nordamerika til Asien; i takt med, at alt dette sker, hvilke totalt nye projekter vil så ske i New York City? Hvad vil byens fremtid være, og hvad vil byens mission være? Fortidens fejltagelse var den, ikke at have en fremtid, og denne fejltagelse må slutte.
Offentliggjort den 14. jul. 2017
Kommer senere på dansk.
Hussein Askary Speech in Copenhagen to the Schiller Institute-EIR
Seminar “Extend the World Land-Bridge to Southwest Asia and
Africa,” April 18, 2016
{Hussein Askary had fair number of graphics and charts, which he
used to illustrate his presentation.}
TOM GILLESBERG: The next speaker is somebody very unique
and unusual, Hussein Askary originally comes from Iraq and had
to get out under very nasty circumstances, as many others. But
that became a blessing at least for our organization, because
Hussein, through Norway, ended up to become part of the
international LaRouche organization in 1994, and has since then
been contributing quite fantastically to our international work.
And he is one of the authors of the original {New Silk Road
Becomes the World Land-Bridge} report; but then also made a
decision, that this cannot simply stay in the English language,
or Chinese. This also has to be in the Arabic language. So
Hussein took it upon himself to translate this into the Arabic
language and then also of course, write some extra parts to it,
which is necessary for the present circumstances in Southwest
Asia to have.
This report just came out. It was release on March 17, in
Cairo, in a meeting presided over by the Egyptian Transportation
Minister who then introduced Hussein, and the hope of course is
that this will become something read and studied and acted on in
the whole Arabic world, as well as the rest of the world. So
Hussein?
HUSSEIN ASKARY: You have heard Helga today, giving a very
stern and sobering warning about the state of affairs in the
world, the dangers are very real to the world today. What I am
going to do, and please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not going to
give you a picture of how rosy and nice things are, either in
Southwest Asia, the so-called Middle East, or in Africa, but, as
they say in sports, you have to keep your eye on the ball. What
Helga just said, is that there is a new paradigm in the world,
which can lead to a completely different, and new world order.
And it’s that paradigm, within which myself, the Schiller
Institute, and the people we are talking to, we want to direct
their attention to that new paradigm.
I’m thankful to Leena Malkki for her beautiful singing, and,
especially, the {Aida} aria. It was actually performed at the
opening of the Suez Canal, the second Suez Canal, last year.
The idea of great projects, the idea of great challenges,
like Hela was explaining, this idea of being in space, looking at
the world from space, and, also, the idea of major projects, like
the Suez Canal, like the Three Gorges Dam in China, the New Silk
Road, the effect they have on people, is that they challenge
their imagination, and challenge their creativity, because they
represent major difficulties, major technical problems,
intellectual problems, that have to be solved, before you achieve
these major projects. And that transforms the idea of people. It
also gives people an idea of a creative constructive identity,
and the position of man in the world, on this Earth, and also in
the universe. That is why we try to work on these concepts of the
New Silk Road, the extension of the New Silk Road, to {inspire}
people to think outside of the box, outside of the box of
geopolitics, which Helga was trying to explain. We have to get
out of geopolitics. We have to act {human} again. But that has
practical implications. There are practical problems, and other
issues, and even scientific issues we have to resolve.
So, for those who are not familiar, this is the extension of
the New Silk Road. The New Silk Road has existed as the new
strategic policy of China since 1996, but we want to expand this
into a global collaboration, a blueprint, as Tom said, a concept
for peace and cooperation among nations. We have to connect the
Economic Belt of the Silk Road (the one with the yellow), which
is already being built. As Helga said, the first train arrived
from China to Tehran last month. There are projects going on in
Siberia. So there are trains going from Asia to Europe. There is
no problem with that. We need to extend it into the Southwest
Asia region, the so-called Middle East (I can explain later why I
say Southwest Asia, and not the Middle East), and into Africa,
and of course, into the Americas.
So, you can see that the red lines are where we have the
biggest deficits, the biggest deficits in infrastructure, both
transportation infrastructure, but also in other needs, deficits
in water, and deficits in electricity.
What is different in the Arabic part, which I rewrote
certain parts of it, like the Southwest Asia part, we also added
the Arabian Peninsula, also, to the idea of the connection to the
New Silk Road. This is no longer simply a Silk Road; this is the
World Land-Bridge, which can unite all the continents of the
world.
In 1996, I had the great fortune to work with Helga
Zepp-LaRouche and the team of {EIR} to make the first major study
of the New Silk Road, and it was that one which was adopted by
the Chinese government as the strategic policy of China. It was
also a thick report like this.
This work is being done, mostly in East Asia, Central Asia,
Iran, Turkey, Russia, all these nations are involved, but what is
lacking is the connection to the rest. So it has been 20 years
since that idea emerged, but there was no response from the
countries in the Arab world, for example, or in Africa.
Now, the idea with all these lines is not only about trade.
We want to warn people, that we are not talking about moving
goods from China to Europe. That’s not our concept. That’s a
byproduct. What we mean by the New Silk Road, the World
Land-Bridge, that we need to create development corridors: a
development corridor where you bring power, water, and technology
to areas that are landlocked, that are far from industrial zones,
and, explore the resources, human and natural resources of that
region, to develop new centers of economic activity. Like
landlocked nations, like in Central Asia, or the Great Lakes
region in Africa. That’s the concept. It’s not about trade,
although trade is an important aspect of this.
In 2002, Mr. Lyndon LaRouche, the American economist and
political leader, the husband of Mrs. LaRouche, was in Abu Dhabi,
in a conference about oil, and the role of oil in world politics,
and the future of oil. And there were many ministers of oil
actually from the Arab countries — the gentleman to the right is
the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates — and Mr.
LaRouche shocked everybody, and said that the Arab countries, or
the Gulf countries, have to gradually stop exporting raw oil, and
actually use raw oil and gas as an industrial product, for
petrochemicals, plastics, where every barrel of oil will give
many times its value, rather than burning it as energy. He said
that you should use your position in the world, as a crossroads
of continents. You have to utilize that position as a crossroads
for world trade, but also, the connection between Africa, Asia
and Europe.
So I added these to the Arabic version, because I think that
this is a very unique area in the world, not only that its
strategic location is very unique, no other part of the world has
that; you also have two-thirds of the world’s energy resources,
so-called, oil and gas in that region, but also, most
importantly, you have about 450 million people. Most of them are
young people. And actually, many of them have a good education.
You also have nations with a very ancient history and culture,
and a very historical identity, like Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and
so on, and they also have an idea of themselves as becoming key
players in the world, but we hope that they will become key
players in the world in the economic, scientific and cultural
sense.
The problem is that all these advantages have been turned
into disadvantages. So this region has become a center for global
politics, for global geopolitics, and that is why we see the
conditions we have in the whole Middle East region becoming like
this.
Our idea is, now we have this new situation with the Russian
intervention, the prospect, the possibility of having a peaceful
political solution in Syria, the prospect of uniting many powers
to fight ISIS and al-Qaeda, and so on, both in Iraq and Syria,
and also in Libya. But this should be followed, as Helga said, we
need a Marshall Plan, we need an economic development plan, to
establish peace on a true basis.
The reason I joined the Schiller Institute in 1994, was that
I was in Oslo, and I was working as a translator, and there was a
Palestinian children’s delegation coming with Yasser Arafat; and
I was going around with them, and, at that time, you had the Oslo
peace agreement. A week later, I saw a sign that the Schiller
Institute was having a meeting in Oslo. They had a very
interesting title. They said in the meeting that if you don’t
start with the economic development of the Palestinian people,
the people in Jordan, Syria, Israel, and so on, if you don’t base
the peace process on a solid economic basis, this whole thing
will fail. And the peace process is, of course, dead now, both
because of that, but also because of geopolitics which has
prevented reaching a true peace.
So, therefore, to establish true peace, we need an economic
and scientific program. Helga referred to president Xi Jinping’s
visit to the region in January this year. I consider this as an
historic turning point, actually, because at that point, in late
January, Saudi Arabia and Iran were at the point where there was
a big risk of a direct war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, because
of the beheading of a Shi’a clergy in Saudi Arabia, which led to
demonstrations, the burning of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran, and
so on. So the Chinese intervention came at a very crucial point,
where they said, “Look, all these religious conflicts and
problems you have with each other, can lead the whole world into
a disaster. Why don’t we work on our method? We offer you to join
the New Silk Road. We offer economic development, and technology,
and even financing, so we can connect all of your countries which
are in conflict with each other together into this global
process.” And this is very, very important. And nations in the
region have to really grasp that opportunity now, and, instead of
discussing the fate of President Assad, they should discuss what
kinds of economic projects they should work together on.
One of the issues that I didn’t mention, is that, for
example, even as Helga said, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, they can
join this, if they stop this other policy, because we also have
one of the largest concentrations of financial power in the Gulf
countries; the so-called sovereign funds of the Gulf Cooperation
Council countries is about $2 trillion. This can be transformed
into credit.
In the report, I propose the establishment of the Arab
Infrastructure Investment Bank. A bank which will be financed by
these rich countries, which would have a capital of $100-200
billion, and that capital will only be earmarked for
infrastructure and development projects.
So every nation has a role in this. And in the report, we
have also added, which is not in the English report, a plan, a
general outline for the reconstruction of Syria, by utilizing
Syria’s position also as a bridge for the Silk Road, both from
Asia, and from Europe, into Africa. We also propose the
construction of a Syrian National Reconstruction Bank, which is
very important. We have a very important chapter in the report
about how nations can internally finance major infrastructure
programs. Because, the big question, which comes all the time
when I am in Arab countries, or in Africa, is, they say “OK. This
sounds good. Who will pay for this? Where will the money come
from?” Actually, you don’t really need money, in that sense. You
can create the money, but you have to know where to use that
money. As Helga said, the central banks in Europe and the United
States are pumping massive amounts of liquidity into the
financial and banking system. But none of that is transformed
into technologies or projects, public projects, or housing
projects, or industrial projects in Europe or anywhere. So money
is being printed, but it is not being used.
But there is a method, which we call the Hamiltonian
national credit system, which every nation can actually
internally generate credit to finance part of its national
development plans, and this is one thing we put in the Syria
plan. Because every time there is a war like in Bosnia, in
Lebanon, and so on, you have donor conferences, where every
nation says that we will give you so much money, 100 million, 50
million, but there is no centralized idea about how to rebuild
the whole country. It all depends on donations, small drops which
come. We want something massive. We want something big. Foreign
governments should contribute to that by exporting technology to
Syria, for example, which Syria cannot afford to build, or afford
to buy, in the current situation.
Also, a part of our plan for Southwest Asia is to fight
against desertification, by managing and creating new water
resources, stopping the expansion of the desert. This is the
Iraqi Green Belt project to stop the effect of sand and dust
storms, which actually is a big problem for many cities in Iraq,
sometimes even reaching into Iran, by building a Green Belt,
planting trees in a large scale, a belt by using both ground
water and water from the rivers. This is a kind of national
program which can unite the people of Iraq for an idea of their
future together. Not Sunni, Shi’a, Kurdish, Turkish, and so on,
and so forth. These are the kinds of projects, real physical
projects, which will challenge people to work together in a
country like Iraq.
Now, I took this Egyptian model, because in Egypt, you have
a very terrible situation, which is the accumulation of 30 years
of destructive economic and financial policies, mostly caused by
former President Mubarak’s and Anwar Sadat’s collaboration with
the IMF and the World Bank. There should be a shift in the way
Egyptians consider their economy. Because Egypt always waits for
the IMF or the World Bank, the EU or the United States to give
some money so that they can start something new. And usually
money does not go to large scale. Europe, the United States, the
UN, the IMF and the World Bank will {never} finance large
infrastructure projects. That’s the policy. Small, small, small
is beautiful. That’s what they say.
But in Egypt, with the new leadership in Egypt, you have the
focus on mega-projects, which is a necessity. If you want to save
Egypt’s economy, Egypt’s entire infrastructure has to be built
from scratch again. There should be new industrial and
agricultural centers, which they are focusing on.
Using high technology, they try to attract the highest
levels of technology, and internal financing. You know, President
el-Sisi, when they wanted to build the Suez Canal, there was no
money, as usual, they said. So what he did was something unique.
He went outside the central bank. He went outside the budget, and
said, “I will go on TV, and I will tell the Egyptian people that
we want to build this canal. It’s crucial for our nation. We want
you to give the money.”
In 2013 I wrote a memorandum for Egypt, an Egyptian Economic
Independence Document, I called it. Actually, inside Egypt, you
can raise more than $100 billion, because there are resources
inside Egypt. People, even today, buy dollars. They take part of
their salary, and buy dollars or gold, and keep it at home, so
that financing disappears from the system. It’s not reinvested in
the system. People keep their money because of the unstable
economic situation.
But if you encourage the Egyptian people with this kind of
national development projects, which will put their kids to work,
unemployed young people, they would come out with the money. And
this is what el-Sisi did. I wrote at the time, that they should
build a National Development Bank, not just one fund for the Suez
Canal, as they did. But as soon as President el-Sisi came on TV
and said, “We want to build this canal, but we don’t have the
money. We want the Egyptian people to pay for it.” So they went
out, and in one week they raised $8 billion. And people were
queuing late into the night; I met a banker last year, who said,
“We had to stay open into the night, because people were queuing
at the banks to buy the bonds!” Egyptians are real patriots. They
love their country, but if they are encouraged by good
leadership.
Of course, the Suez Canal is not giving back what was
supposed to be already from the beginning, because world trade
has collapsed. The level of transit in the Suez Canal has gone
down, not because of Egypt’s policy, but because the world
economy is going down. Global trade has been collapsing. But the
idea is to use the Suez Canal as a development zone. And this is
what I got from people in the Suez Canal Authority — that they
are not only thinking about transport of goods, but they want to
utilize that route to build new industrial zones around the
canal, like we showed in the development corridor idea. And, of
course, Egypt has a very key role, both in the Arab world — it’s
the most important Arab country — and also in Africa.
Now Egypt has one big problem — it’s the demographic
problem. People say that Egypt is overpopulated. That’s not true.
Egypt is not overpopulated. Cairo is overcrowded! Ninety million
people live on only 5% of the land of Egypt; 95% of the land of
Egypt is empty. It’s not used, but it’s not overpopulated. The
United States and Europe have been financing the Egyptian
government with hundreds of millions of dollars for family
planning, so that women will have fewer children. But no projects
were built to expand Egypt’s economic potential to accommodate to
the new generations, so that they can have new agricultural and
urban centers out in the desert!
After I was in Egypt last year, I wrote a report for a major
economic conference in Egypt to attract investment; but these are
the ideas which came out of both the conference, and my
observations about Egypt’s role in the New Silk Road. In Egypt,
people were very negative to the idea of the New Silk Road,
because they said that the transshipment on the Silk Road will
take away trade from the Suez Canal — that shipments will go
from Asia to Europe by land, and we will lose. So there are a lot
of people in Egypt who are actually against the idea. But I was
telling people, “Look. It’s not about trade. If you have economic
development, you will need more Suez Canals to accommodate the
trade. But if the world economy is not growing, there is no
development, there will be no trade. And people will compete on
attracting trade into other areas.”
So the idea is to develop Egypt’s economy, but also
contribute to more development and more trade among nations. And
it’s in utilizing Egypt’s position to connect to Sub-Saharan
Africa, to North Africa, the Middle East, and to the Arabian
Peninsula. Interestingly, after I was in Egypt, last week the
Saudi King was in Egypt, and they decided to build this bridge.
At Sharm el-Sheikh, there is a connection over the Gulf of Aqaba.
I think that the Egyptian President invited the Saudi King to
support the building of this bridge between the Saudi territories
and southern Sinai, which will turn Sinai from an isolated area,
suddenly into becoming the center between two major economies.
There are now big problems in Egypt, because the President
made a terrible mistake by conceding sovereignty over the Tiran
and Sanafir islands to the Saudis. There was a dispute between
the two countries for many years, but President el-Sisi suddenly
declared that they are Saudi islands, and now there is a big
uproar in Egypt. And the mistake was that there was no public
discussion about it. The parliament didn’t have anything to say
about this. So, now there will be a review of the agreement. But
the idea of this project is very important.
Now, for Egypt to get out of that demographic box, is for
Egypt to expand its economic activities into the desert. This is
the development corridor proposed by Dr. Farouk El-Baz, who is a
space scientist, and he is right now an advisor to the President.
And he designed this idea of creating the new valley, the new
Nile Valley, by building railways, roads, and new urban centers.
I added these green zones, because these are actually becoming
new agricultural areas that the Egyptian government wants to
invest in, by creating new farmlands — they are talking about 4
million acres of land, and settling young people into these
regions, and building new agro-industrial centers. But what is
needed is to extend the development corridor, the black line,
into the economic zones.
This is the Africa Pass. One of our Egyptian friends, an
engineer, presented this at our conference in 2012, it’s the same
idea, connecting Egypt to North Africa, to Europe, and into the
Great Lakes region of Africa. Now, the Great Lakes region
countries, like Rwanda, Burundi, the eastern Congo, Uganda, they
have massive problems of economic development, also because they
are very far from the transport corridors of the world. We wrote
a series of reports two years ago about the cost of shipment of a
container. The Danish shipping company A.P. Møller-Mærsk has
statistics that the cost of a shipment of a container from
Singapore to Alexandria is $4,000, to Mombasa in eastern Kenya,
it becomes $5,000; but to the capital of Uganda, it goes to
$8,000, because there are no good roads to ship that container!
Into Rwanda and Burundi it reaches $10,600 per container. So they
cannot bear the cost of shipment of containers that maybe have
technology inside them, and machines, and that is a major problem
for these so-called land-locked countries. So you need to have
new lines of transport which will reduce the cost of the
transport.
Now these are ideas which the African nations, the African
Union, have had for many years. There are many very nice plans,
but the attitude of the rest of the world to Africa, because
Africa, by itself, does not have the technology, at least, to
build these projects, and there has been no willingness in
Europe, or the United States, to finance, or contribute to
building the projects proposed in any of these major reports, to
integrate the infrastructure of Africa and enhance economic
development. Because without infrastructure, you cannot have
economic development.
But some of these lines are now coming on the agenda, thanks
to the intervention of the BRICS nations, and also of China. For
example, the Cairo-Cape Town highway idea, President Jacob Zuma
of South Africa, presented this actually twice at the BRICS
summit in 2013 and 2014, and he said, “This is a crucial, a key
element in the development of Africa. We need to work with the
BRICS nations and China, Russia and India to build these
projects.” There are 400 road and rail projects involved in this.
But this is a big challenge, both in terms of financing, and in
terms of technology.
There is also the possibility of connecting the river
systems of Africa for river transport, like in Europe, the
Main-Rhine-Danube Rivers are an important transport artery, and
development artery. In the same way, you can connect the Nile to
the Great Lakes, to the Zambezi River through a number of canals,
and so-called trans-modal transport systems, where you can ship
from rivers to rail, and back to rivers, to lakes, and so on, in
an easy way.
Filling the gap which the United States and Europe have left
for many, many years, now the Chinese–. Well, in Europe, we
have a very problematic and twisted relationship to poverty, to
poor countries, to underdeveloped countries. Europeans look at
Africa as a burden. It’s a problem. How do we solve this problem?
But the problem is that the whole focus has been on aid,
emergency relief, and so on, and so forth, but that really
doesn’t solve problems. I mean, people talk about genocide. In
Africa, every year there are 4 million children who die. Now,
talk about a war crime. There are 700,000 children before the
age of five who die every year in Africa. So, you cannot solve
these problems with small aid projects here and there. You need
to think big. You need to provide those people with adequate
transport, electricity, water systems, and this cannot be done by
so-called aid programs. In Africa 600 million people don’t have
access to electricity, out of 1 billion.
But you look at the Chinese, when they look at an
underdeveloped country, they see an opportunity. They see
potential. They see a “win-win” strategy — new markets, new
areas of development, and they should intervene in that
situation.
It is the same idea that President Franklin Roosevelt of the
United States had. All of his fights with Churchill were exactly
about this problem. Roosevelt told Churchill in the middle of
World War II, that you British are very stupid, because you suck
the blood of the Africans, and you get pennies, you get nothing,
by sucking their blood. But if you develop Africa, as independent
nations, as modern nations, as we did with the United States,
then you will gain much, much more; if you treat them as humans,
if you develop their infrastructure, schools and hospitals.
And this is exactly what the Chinese are thinking about. Out
of the problem, they see an opportunity. Prime Minister Li
Keqiang was in East Africa, and also Nigeria in May 2014, and
immediately said, “We want to help Africa to connect all the
capitals with railways,” which is a big deficit problem. And they
started from East Africa. And now there are projects being built
from Lamu, a new port, into the land-locked South Sudan, into
Uganda, into Rwanda and Burundi. And China is both financing
major parts of this, but also contributing to building it, to
solve the problems of the land-locked countries and the need for
development.
China recently completed, it’s not running yet, but part of
the railway is running, from Djibouti to Addis Ababa. There is an
old railway, which is not functional, built by the French
colonialists, but now there is a new, electrified railway, which
goes from Djibouti to Addis Ababa.
Two interesting things about this railway are, firstly, that
Ethiopia is always associated with famine and food problems. Some
of these problems still exist. These are on the way to being
solved, but to bring food from the ports to inside the country
usually took two months, because of the lack of infrastructure.
So starving people could not have food in time. Even if the food
existed in the port, coming from around the world to Djibouti, it
was almost impossible to bring the food to the people who needed
it. Now, that food can be shipped in 10 hours, to the capital,
and also to other areas. The other interesting fact about this
railway is that China is not just building the railway, and
financing it, but training and educating engineers and workers to
run these systems.
Now, Ethiopia has a massive infrastructure plan for
connecting all the major cities of Ethiopia, with the railway and
roads. The other thing about the railway is that it is all
electrified. And the Ethiopians will use all these new dams they
are building, to electrify the railway. So they don’t need import
oil, and gas and diesel to run the railway system. They will
domestically provide the energy to run the trains.
So, Ethiopia, I am very sure it will never be associated
anymore with famine and poverty. Ethiopia is a great nation, a
very proud nation. They have massive resources, but these
resources have been dormant, have not been utilized. But now,
with the Chinese intervention, and also India is active there,
these resources will be developed.
This is just a metaphorical picture. This is the
Mombasa-Nairobi railway being built by a Chinese and a Kenyan
worker. In Africa, the propaganda goes that the Chinese never let
the locals work in these projects. They bring their own workers,
they bring their own engineers, their own technology, they build
the thing, and then they leave. It’s not true. They always
involve local workers. They train them, because they cannot run
these systems; the locals will have to run these systems
themselves.
But they are also training the labor force in Uganda. They
are building an Army Corps of Engineers, so that the Army can
play a positive role in the development of the country.
Traditionally, the Army Corps of Engineers played a very
important role, even in advanced countries. So this is part of
the same project.
Another important infrastructure project for Africa is
Transaqua. Lake Chad is drying up, which is a known fact, and 30
million people are affected, because they live as fishermen, or
they have grazing land around the lake in Chad and Nigeria, and
Niger. All these countries are affected. There are 30 million
people around that region, and there will be massive migration
actually from the Lake Chad region. So there is an idea called
Transaqua, which was developed by one of our friends, an Italian
engineer, to bring 5% of the water from the Congo River, or the
tributaries of the Congo River, and build a 2,800 km.-long canal
into the Chari River, and then flow downwards into Lake Chad, to
refill the lake; but also to have a new economic zone, and build
the Mombasa-Lagos highway, which was one of the plans I showed
earlier.
So you can transform that part of Africa, which in people’s
minds is a complete jungle, into a new economic zone, but also to
bring water to the Lake Chad region.
Now, there are some other issues I want to address. One of
the big deficits of course in Africa, is the energy consumption.
And as I said not everybody has that; the average international
level of energy consumption is about 2,800 [kw?] but that’s not
equal. The only two countries which are exception are South
Africa and Libya, before that. So the energy needs in Africa are
{enormous}! I mean Africa has a lot of wealth, but also the
hydropower potential which has never been built. But the
attitude of the Western countries, like the Obama administration,
they have something called “Power Africa Initiative,” that
certain nations in Africa will get energy provided. But they’re
not talking about hydropower, they’re not talking about nuclear
power, they’re not talking about coal or gas or so on. They’re
talking about so-called “renewable” or “sustainable energy.” And
the International Energy Agency has a criteria for access to
energy, which is a modern access to energy is about 100kw-hours
per year per person. And this diagram shows very ironically,
that that amount will be consumed by an American in three days!
But they expect Africans to live with that for a whole year!
Here’s just one more ironical idea: My refrigerator can consume
many times as much as an Ethiopian individual.
These are the criteria for President Obama’s Power Africa
plan, that the plan will eventually help these nations come to
this line, while the real needs are that big now, and they will
be that big in a few years. So, all these ideas to help Africa
from the Obama administration, they’re not adequate! It’s just a
complete bluff. It does not help, if you just look at the
numbers.
And this is also another irony of the Obama administration
policy. These are the sources of energy for the American people,
the American economy, and these are what the Obama administration
{doesn’t} want you to do. So it’s “do as we say, not as we do.”
So the United States produced 37% of its energy from coal, that’s
forbidden for Africa; 30% produced by natural gas, that’s a very
suspicious policy, because there’s the carbon problem; 19%
nuclear — absolutely no nuclear for Africa; 7% hydropower — the
United States is very suspicious of hydropower projects, and so
on and so on. So what is left is solar, so-called geothermal,
and biomass, which the United States produced only 0.1% of its
needs. But that’s recommended for Africa. [laughter]
So anyway, the idea is that if Africa joins the new paradigm
shift, African nations, they have exactly, in African families
and African individuals, they have exactly the same needs as we
have; as we have in Europe or in the United States. There is
absolutely no difference. So they’re trying to convince the
Africans that they should just, maybe, if they’re lucky they
could get a lightbulb at home, so the kids can read, by having a
solar battery. They will not bite!
I mean, if you bring electricity to a village, what people
will do, is not simply have a lightbulb, if you bring electricity
to a village, — and one of our friends made a study in India —
is that people will start to want to use new devices. They have
to have other appliances at home, you need to have a stove, so
women don’t have to many hours and cut trees and come home and
cook with the wood, and suffocate with the smoke. Farmers will
have to have tractors. They will need to have workshops which
use electricity; people will want to have TV sets, computers.
They want to build industrial projects. They will need
refrigeration which is a big problem in Africa, because most of
the food produced in the Sub-Saharan goes wasted because there’s
no refrigeration.
So just to give yourself an illusion that you will provide
every African lightbulb, just forget about it! Because the needs
of those people are so immense, and they will not give up on
their right to have a living standard which is similar to ours.
Why shouldn’t they have it? And this is what — here, in the
ideology in Europe and the United States I know, they should not
have this kind of technology, they should not have this kind of
development in Africa, because that’s not “sustainable.” Which is
not true. It is sustainable, if you provide the tools and the
technology to do that. Actually in Africa, there are more
resources than in Japan or in the United States and Europe, to
sustain industrial development!
So the problem is in the policy. The problem is how they
look at Africa, and how they look at the problem of poverty and
so on. And that has also to change, exactly as we changed with
geopolitics, we have to change our attitude to the problems of
Africa, and have really the right methods to solving them, and
treating African nations as equal to us, and African families as
equal to us, and African individuals as equal to us.
Nobody here will give up their living standard, and live in
the forest — maybe some people who do, there are some Danes and
Norwegians… [laughter] But we want to have education. We want
to have warm housing, we want to have clean water; we want to
have a future for our kids; we want to have trains which go on
time. This is what the Africans want. You know, there’s nothing
different, we’re all one human race!
So, when you design policy and you say, “No, Africans should
have ‘sustainable energy,’ not nuclear power,” then you are
breaking with that idea of a real human family and equality. So
I think I’ll stop here. [applause]
Dias til talen:
The English and Arabic version is below the Danish.
På et tidspunkt, hvor flygtningekrisen truer med at blive til en hidtil uset humanitær krise, og som sprænger Den europæiske Unions sammenhængskraft og endda muligvis selve dens eksistens i stumper og stykker, er en vision om håb for udvikling af Sydvestasien og Afrika den eneste måde, hvorpå situationen kan vendes til det bedre. På et tidspunkt, hvor den transatlantiske verdens finanssystem står umiddelbart foran at krakke, er udviklingsperspektivet for en genopbygning af Mellemøsten og resten af Sydvestasien til at udgøre en bro mellem Asien, Europa og Afrika den eneste drivkraft for økonomisk vækst, der kan forhindre Europa og USA i at synke ned i kaos.
På dette programs virkeliggørelse beror således hele menneskehedens skæbne.
28. februar 2016 – Den arabiske version af EIR’s specialrapport, »Den Nye Silkevej bliver til Verdenslandbroen«, i sin fulde udstrækning, er nu færdig og klar til udgivelse og distribuering. Den 400 sider lange rapport (med et appendiks del 6 om Sydvestasien, der omfatter EIR’s Projekt Føniks: En genopbygningsplan for Syrien) er blevet oversat af Hussein Askary (med færdigt layout af Ali Sharaf), og »Den Nye Silkvejs-lady«, alias Helga Zepp-LaRouche, har på smukkeste vis skrevet forordet, som følger:
Det er muligvis et udslag af et lykkeligt sammentræf eller af Forsynets indgriben, at den arabiske oversættelse af rapporten om Verdenslandbroen udkommer netop nu, hvor udsigten til en våbenhvile i Syrien er ved at blive en realitet. Overenskomsten mellem den amerikanske udenrigsminister John Kerry og den russiske udenrigsminister Sergei Lavrov har et potentiale til at bringe den fem år lange krig, der har kostet hundreder tusinder af mennesker livet, til en afslutning. Men i betragtning af de enormt komplekse omstændigheder i regionen bør det også stå klart, at en blot og bar kontrakt om at standse kampene vil være for skrøbelig til at vare ved og overleve nye provokationer fra de samme kræfters side, der oprindeligt var ansvarlige for krigen.
Den eneste måde, hvorpå en varig fred kan garanteres, er den omgående iværksættelse af en omfattende udviklingsplan for hele Sydvestasien, med en udviklingsplan for integreret infrastruktur; en plan, der ikke alene genopbygger krigens ødelagte byer og landsbyer, men som anviser en langt mere fundamental fremgangsmåde for atter at forvandle denne region, der engang var en af den menneskelige civilisations vugger, og som på forskellige tidspunkter i historien var hjemsted for tidens mest fremskredent udviklede kulturer, til en af verdens mest avancerede. Målet må være at udløse regionens folks kreativitet og bringe deres produktivitet op på samme niveau som Europas, USA’s eller Kinas.
Dette er absolut muligt, og i særdeleshed, fordi Ruslands og Kinas samarbejde repræsenterer magtfulde naboer, der, sammen med lande i regionen, kan udvirke denne udvikling. Hvis de udviklingsprojekter, som foreslås i rapporten, i bogstavelig forstand bliver gennemført med start fra i morgen, således, at udbyttet ved fred bliver synligt for alle parter i regionen, så kan våbenhvilen i Syrien og gennemførelsen af det, man kunne kalde en Silkevejs-Marshallplan, dog uden denne betegnelses tilknytning til en kold krig, blive en agent for et nyt scenarie for hele verden.
På et tidspunkt, hvor flygtningekrisen truer med at blive til en hidtil uset humanitær krise, og som sprænger Den europæiske Unions sammenhængskraft og endda muligvis selve dens eksistens i stumper og stykker, er en vision om håb for udvikling af Sydvestasien og Afrika den eneste måde, hvorpå situationen kan vendes til det bedre. På et tidspunkt, hvor den transatlantiske verdens finanssystem står umiddelbart foran at krakke, er udviklingsperspektivet for en genopbygning af Mellemøsten og resten af Sydvestasien til at udgøre en bro mellem Asien, Europa og Afrika den eneste drivkraft for økonomisk vækst, der kan forhindre Europa og USA i at synke ned i kaos.
På dette programs virkeliggørelse beror således hele menneskehedens skæbne.
Den arabiske EIR-rapport kan bestilles (kun i papirudgave) gennem EIR News Service og alle internationale institutioner, der er associeret med LaRouche-bevægelsen, herunder Schiller Instituttet i Danmark.
The English and Arabic version pdf. of
A Peace Plan for Southwest Asia
by Helga Zepp-LaRouche.
EIR press release in English and Arabic on the occassion of the release of the arabic version of “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge.”
(The English, Arabic, and Chinese versions of the report are available from The Schiller Institute in Denmark at: +45 53 57 00 51 or +45 35 43 00 33, or si@schillerinstitut.dk
Flygtningekrisen kan kun løses på en eneste måde: Der må omgående sættes et reelt udviklingsperspektiv for Sydvestasien og Afrika på dagsordenen, som vi i vores rapport, »Den Nye Silkevej bliver til Verdenslandbroen« har foreslået. Potentialet hertil eksisterer allerede gennem Kinas politik om opbygningen af Den nye Silkevej, også kaldet »Ét bælte, én vej«. Fr. Merkel bad under sit seneste besøg til Kina den kinesiske premierminister Li Keqiang om hjælp til at klare flygtningekrisen, og denne gav en garanti for, at Kina ville hjælpe med til at stabilisere de lande, hvorfra flygtningene kom.
– Egypten har bevæget sig afgørende i retning af at tilslutte sig det nye økonomiske paradigme, som er i færd med at fremkomme under BRIKS’ lederskab: Brasilien, Rusland, Indien, Kina og Sydafrika. Valgt sidste juni træder den egyptiske præsident og tidligere øverstbefalende for hæren, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, nu i sin berømte forgængers, den egyptiske præsident Abdel Gamal Nassers, fodspor, som også var en af grundlæggerne af Den alliancefri Bevægelse, NAM.
4. juni 2013, Af Donielle DeToy – For halvtreds år siden, den 25. maj, 1963, mødtes afrikanske ledere fra 32 nyligt dannede nationer i Addis Abeba, Etiopien, for at danne Organisationen af den Afrikanske Union (OAU). Ghanas præsident, dr. Kwame Nkrumah, en af OAU’s stiftende ’fædre’, fremlagde en klar og nødvendig vision om et forenet Afrika, der samledes om et uafhængigt banksystem, økonomisk samarbejde og store infrastrukturprojekter som fælles mål for kontinentet. Laurence Freeman, EIR’s afrikanske redaktion, genopvækkede den 28. maj denne vision i sin tale: »Afrikas store underskud: Udfordringen om infrastrukturens forfald, fred og økonomisk udvikling« på OAU’s hovedkontor i New York City.
»Afrika@50 Topmøde«-konferencen sponsoreredes af Centeret for mediernes Fredsinitiativ (CMPI) for at højtideligholde grundlæggelsen af OAU. Dr. Uchenna Ekwo, præsident og grundlægger af CMPI, inviterede Freeman til at tale på det første panel, »Demokrati, udvikling og forsvar«. Freeman præsenterede nogle af EIR’s forslag til store infrastrukturprojekter for Afrika og fremkaldte en intens diskussion om Amerikas første finansminister, Alexander Hamiltons, kreditpolitik.
Freeman mindede tilhørerne om Afrikas mest berygtede, britiske imperialist, Cecil Rhodes’ brutale mentalitet, den Cecil Rhodes, som var mesteren bag »plyndringen af de rigelige ressourcer, der ligger i kontinentets undergrund, med tilføjelse af drabene på et tocifret milliontal af ’indfødte’ over jorden.« Ulykkeligvis fortsætter, efter 50 år, den samme politik, sagde han. De to mekanismer, der bruges til at opnå disse ønskede formål, er:
1) den bevidste afvisning af opbygning af regionale og transkontinentale infrastrukturprojekter inden for de vitale kategorier: energi, vand og jernbaner; og
2) manipuleringen, skabelsen og næringen af ’etnisk-religiøse’ forskelligheder.
Den tilsigtede konsekvens har været sårbare eller svækkede stater over hele kontinentet. Desperate mennesker, der lider under mangel på livets basale nødvendigheder, kaster sig forudsigeligt nok over hinanden og dræber deres brødre og søstre for mad, jord og vand, for simpelt hen at overleve. Vi er i dag vidne til disse vilkår i Sudan og Sydsudan, Den centralafrikanske Republik, Den demokratiske republik Congo, Nigeria og Mali.«
Nkrumahs vision
Hvordan bringer man konflikterne, krigene, hungersnøden og opstandene til en afslutning? Freeman insisterede på, at de underliggende årsager må udryddes og erstattes af et nyt, økonomisk princip, baseret på Hamiltons kreditsystem og kontinentalt samarbejde om store infrastrukturprojekter. Dette koncept er ikke nyt for OAU; ved den stiftende konference i 1963 talte præsident Nkrumah om et lignende tema:
»Det er sandt, at vi nu kaster kolonialismens åg af os så hurtigt som muligt, men vor succes på dette område imødegås af de succesfulde, intense bestræbelser fra imperialismens side for at fortsætte udnyttelsen af vore ressourcer ved at skabe splittelse blandt os … «
»Det var kolonialismen, der oprindeligt forhindrede os i at samle den virksomme kapital; men det var os selv, for hvem det mislykkedes at tage den fulde magt, som uafhængighed gav os, i anvendelse for at mobilisere vore ressourcer. Det er kun ved at forene vor produktive kapacitet og den resulterende produktion, at vi kan samle kapital. Og når vi først får begyndt, vil momentet øges. Med kapital, der kontrolleres af vore egne banker, spændt for vor egen, virkelige udvikling inden for industri og landbrug, vil vi gøre fremskridt. Vi vil akkumulere maskineri og etablere stålværker, jernstøberier og fabrikker; vi vil forbinde vort kontinents forskellige stater gennem transportforbindelser; vi vil forbløffe verden med vore vandkraftværker; vi vil dræne marsk og sump, rydde befængte områder, ernære de underernærede og fri vort folk for parasitter og sygdomme. Det ligger inden for videnskabens og teknologiens muligheder at få selv Sahara til at blomstre op som en udstrakt mark med grøn vegetation, til udvikling af landbrug og industri.«
»En lysende fremtid«
At få Sahara til at blomtre var nøjagtig, hvad EIR dernæst præsenterede for tilhørerne. Freeman viste kort over fire, store, kontinentale projekter – to forslag til vandinfrastruktur, Transaqua-projektet og kanalen fra det østlige Congo til Qattara-sænkningen, og to transportkorridorer, Afrika-passet og en øst-vest-jernbane.
Et kort over vandressourcerne i Afrika viser tydeligt problemet: en overflod af vand i Congobassinet og et ekstremt tørt ørkenområde, inklusiv den hastigt svindende Tchad-sø. Transaqua (se EIR, 8. okt. 2010) ville bygge en sejlbar kanal fra den mægtige Congoflod, mod nord for at mødes med Obanguifloden og dernæst krydse over Den centralafrikanske Republik ind i Charifloden for at fylde Tchad-søen op. Dette ville forbedre livsbetingelserne for mere end 50 millioner afrikanere fra Tchad, Cameroun, Niger og Nigeria og dermed skabe et nyt, økonomisk potentiale for Sahel-området. Kanalen fra det østlige Congo til Qattara-sænkningen (EIR 8. juni 2012) begynder også ved Congofloden; dette forslag til en overvandingskanal løber gennem Den centralafrikanske Republik, Sydsudan, Sudan og Egypten. De to transportnet vil forbinde mere end 20 lande på det afrikanske kontinent.
Freeman talte dernæst om ungdommen i Afrika, det kontinent, der
»rapporteres at have verdens hastigst voksende befolkning i aldersgruppen 15-24, som udgør 20 % af kontinentets totale befolkning, eller 200 millioner mennesker, og 60 % af de arbejdsløse. Konstruktionen af disse infrastrukturprojekter vil ikke alene være den mest effektive måde at skaffe Afrikas »ungdomspukkel« arbejde på, men vil også nødvendiggøre uddannelse og træning af et tocifret milliontal af unge mennesker som arbejdere, ingeniører og videnskabsfolk. Et sådant handlingsforløb vil skaffe alle afrikanere en lysende fremtid og være til gavn for hele verden.«
Lyndon LaRouche har advaret om, at det nuværende, globale finanssystem er ved at disintegrere, og at USA må tage føringen ved at genindsætte Glass/Steagall-loven og etablere et kreditsystem efter Hamiltons principper. Det var denne idé, der skabte en yderst intens dialog under konferencen. En konferencedeltager, der påberåbte sig at være en efterkommer af Hamilton, udfordrede alle til at tage til Wall Street for at beskue statuen af Hamilton og studere hans skrifter for at forstå, hvordan det gik til, at Amerika var i stand til at befri sig selv fra Det britiske Imperium ved at skabe en ny form for bank. Dette omhandlede det spørgsmål, der ofte stilles: »Hvordan vil man betale for disse projekter?«
Om eftermiddagen begyndte en af paneldeltagerne sin tale med at referere til Freemans tidligere præsentation og gav dernæst en kort gennemgang af Hamiltons nationale banksystem. Hans improviserede erklæring afsluttedes med en opfordring til den omgående etablering af First National Bank of Africa. De ’grundlæggende fædre’ af OAU og USA ville helt sikkert have været enige heri.
Foto: Kwame Nkruma (1909 – 1972)