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The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2023-91
Last week's post on Moon of Alabama:
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Other issues:
Iran:
China:
Fake Peng Shuai 'scandal':
> Now, after a 16-month-long stalemate, the WTA has blinked. Steve Simon, its chief executive, said he expected to hold eight tournaments in China this year. He said that the WTA would take a “different approach” because it did not feel that its inquiry was making progress under the current strategy. <
Previous Peng Shuai debunking:
Use as open (not Ukraine related) thread …
China thus acted as a buffer for those regions to its South to remain mostly peaceful over millennia, allowing their populations to grow and grow.
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 17 2023 16:20 utc | 79
There is scattered and controversial evidence of large civilizations long in the past – like VERY long. Most likely serial cataclysms have occurred every 50,000 years or so – including perhaps Hapgood’s axis tilt business – which essentially plows under most of the current surface crust. This might explain artifacts found in supposedly 5 million year old coal seams and suchlike, not to mention huge institutional stone city buildings in the deep ocean off the coast of Japan. In other words, there have been a few civilizational growth cycles but our history, being written by descendants of a tiny number of survivors of the last one, knows little and tells less about them. Because presumably they had to start from scratch – back in the stone age again.
Perhaps China is mainly a product of good timing after the last cataclysm due to a combination of climate and favorable conditions afterwards and perhaps a head start population-wise – maybe they had 20,000 instead of a few dozen as seems to have been the case in other zones.
No matter how, but clearly they and India are the most densely peopled and thus highly socialized polities on the planet being used to managing tens and even hundreds of millions for millenia now, whereas in the West we Johnny-come-after-the-ice-age-latelies have only been doing it for a century or so.
I seem to recall reading that the population of London during the time of Shakespeare was only 60,000 but a quick search states 200,000 including Greater London. Still not very many (and almost 10% of them attended a play every week apparently).
In any case, with China I suspect it’s a case of post-disaster serendipity giving them a head start in growing populations back but also plus merited good fortune in that they honored basic norms of sanity and decency enough to keep growing even when they went astray from time to time – warring tribes periods and so on. Confucianism, for example, is a product of already well developed politico-social-philosophical-yogic wisdoms. He systemetized what was already long in the tooth cultural wisdom, put it that way (though he pissed off many of the wild and free yogic lineages who to this day are still angry with him!). I just spent a few hours this weekend going through old I Ching source material, all of which is pre-Confucian. Though the origins are no longer known, the philosophical structures have been in place for a very long time, probably many thousands, if not tens of thousands of years, before Confucius came along.
In Indian mytho-history, the last golden age is said to have taken place around the time of the Buddha, so about 500 BC. At this point both India and China were very advanced, sophisticated civilizations. Upper class Indians equivalent of television was sitting around a pleasure grove of an afternoon following a sumptious feast debating niceties of meditation and philosophy, debunking materialist superstitions, arguing about the traps in various advanced trance states and so on. (Wars, famines, invasions and television have put a stop to all that.) There are still records in their histories of such sessions. Many names are still known, just as many Chinese family trees go back to those times. Probably also Persia-Iraq area and part of Africa including Egypt, not to mention perhaps many flourishing civilizations in the Americas.
We grew up as by-products of a faded Roman Empire which died well over a millenia ago, truth be told almost two. There are many great aspects in European culture, but certainly not the stable continuity and depth of the great Asian societies especially therefore as regards generationally transmitted socialization. Moreover, we generally had very little awareness of them due in no small part to deliberate obfuscation on the part of the post-Roman empire educated classes nearly all of whom were religious zealots.
But this lack of awareness was true even in Alexander the Great’s day. I read that his great army dissolved into emptiness not simply because of defeat in battle or depletion from disease but because they found themselves in an extended civilizational space so much more developed and refined than where they came from that there was simply no motivation to keep conquering; it was far more fun to just join in. Over the years they contributed greatly to the refined Buddhist sculptural tradition known as Gandharvan. They also contributed greatly to the development of medicine in several Asian countries. They just blended in, like the Mongols did in China.
Early settler communities in the US founded by English religious exiles had a hard time getting going in part because many of their most able hunter-trapper type men kept joining the Indian tribes who enjoyed far better physical, mental and spiritual life styles. (Fun again.) Put another way: once they were feasted nicely and bedded down with a friendly squaw, life in the stockade under the stern eye of some never-smiling Puritan zealot quickly lost its appeal.
Personally, I love what Putin says about treasuring the world’s cultures. I will now go to look more at your links from China you posted earlier to see if they chime in nicely.
As I’ve said here earlier, am extremely skeptical of the UN being used to create a new and different form of hegemony, and the global rush to develop digital money. Such things make me nervous. But all could be well handled in theory. It’s just too early to say and after a life time in the Empire of Lies, colour me cynical, even when it comes to China and Russia, though again I do like what they say and they seem to be handling themselves masterfully. I think Xi understated it when he said they are doing things which haven’t been seen in 100 years. I’d say this is up there with Genghis Khan level geopolitic sweep and heft. It’s millenial.
Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 18 2023 0:08 utc | 129
Forgive if already pasted in but cannot keep up. This is excerpt from
BEIJING, March 15 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a keynote address at the CPC in Dialogue with World Political Parties High-Level Meeting via video link on Wednesday
The CPC will continue to safeguard international fairness and justice and promote world peace and stability. In advancing modernization, China will neither tread the old path of colonization and plunder, nor the crooked path taken by some countries to seek hegemony once they grow strong. What China pursues is the right course of peaceful development. We seek to settle differences through dialogue and resolve disputes through cooperation. We firmly oppose hegemony and power politics in all their forms. We advocate solidarity and win-win mentality in handling complex and intertwined security challenges to set up a fair and just security architecture that is built and shared by all. The world does not need a new Cold War. The practice of stoking division and confrontation in the name of democracy is in itself a violation of the spirit of democracy. It will not receive any support. What it brings is only endless harm. A modernized China will strengthen the force for world peace and international justice. No matter what level of development China achieves, it will never seek hegemony or expansion.
The CPC will continue to promote inter-civilization exchanges and mutual learning and advance the progress of human civilizations. Around the world, countries and regions have chosen different paths to modernization, which are rooted in their unique and long civilizations. All civilizations created by human society are splendid. They are where each country’s modernization drive draws its strength and where its unique feature comes from. They, transcending time and space, have jointly made important contribution to humanity’s modernization process. Chinese modernization, as a new form of human advancement, will draw upon the merits of other civilizations and make the garden of world civilizations more vibrant.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Friends,
A single flower does not make spring, while one hundred flowers in full blossom bring spring to the garden. As the future of all countries are closely connected, tolerance, coexistence, exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations play an irreplaceable role in advancing humanity’s modernization process and making the garden of world civilizations flourish. Here, I wish to propose the Global Civilization Initiative.
We advocate the respect for the diversity of civilizations. Countries need to uphold the principles of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and inclusiveness among civilizations, and let cultural exchanges transcend estrangement, mutual learning transcend clashes, and coexistence transcend feelings of superiority.
We advocate the common values of humanity. Peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom are the common aspirations of all peoples. Countries need to keep an open mind in appreciating the perceptions of values by different civilizations, and refrain from imposing their own values or models on others and from stoking ideological confrontation.
We advocate the importance of inheritance and innovation of civilizations. Countries need to fully harness the relevance of their histories and cultures to the present times, and push for creative transformation and innovative development of their fine traditional cultures.
We advocate robust international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation. Countries need to explore the building of a global network for inter-civilization dialogue and cooperation, enrich the contents of exchanges and expand avenues of cooperation to promote mutual understanding and friendship among people of all countries and jointly advance the progress of human civilizations.
We are ready to work together with the international community to open up a new prospect of enhanced exchanges and understanding among different peoples and better interactions and integration of diversified cultures. Together we can make the garden of world civilizations colorful and vibrant.
The CPC is committed to strengthening exchanges and cooperation with other political parties to pursue the just cause together. We are ready to deepen interactions with political parties and organizations in other countries to expand the convergence of ideas and interests. Let us leverage the strength of a new type of party-to-party relations for the building of a new type of international relations and expand global partnerships by fostering stronger partners with world political parties. The CPC stands ready to share governance experience with political parties and organizations of other countries so that together we can make big strides on the path to modernization toward the goal of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Friends,
There are bound to be setbacks on humanity’s journey to modernization, but the future is bright. The CPC is willing to work with all of you to ensure that different modernization drives form a mighty force driving prosperity and progress of the world and forge ahead nonstop in the long river of history!
Thank you.
It all sounds excellent and I remember now reading this when it was first published and being a little dismissive on the materialist emphasis on modernization as the be all and end all. But he does say more than that, much more. Basically, he says only very good things which all reasonable people should agree with. At the same time, there are no particulars, only generalities, as was appropriate for such an address.
But the Devil, as is well said, is in the details. That said, I must say that have been surprised the past period – basically since the Putin-Xi alliance began a decade or more ago – at how much China has been walking their talk, offering win-win cooperation and development with minimal blackmail and plundering. No doubt there are some sweetheart deals here and there for various big players – we are still on planet Earth after all – but generally what has been ongoing has been slowly and steadily taking the high ground.
At this point, the old song of ‘democracy and freedom’ touted and tooted by the West for decades sounds tinny, canned. They have bombed too many poor people in the name of ‘freedom and democracy’ whilst conducting increasingly divisive and fraudulent democracy themselves. Just on the level of very basic optics the West is now floundering and Asia is looking better and better. The corner has been turned, now it just remains to be seen how it all plays out.
Two more little points:
“No matter what level of development China achieves, it will never seek hegemony or expansion.” May this prove true. A great leap forward of multi-millenial import if so. A consummation devoutly to be wished.
And what about all those references to the garden, eh?! I guess that Westerner struck a nerve. It was a stupid remark of course. But anyhoo, Xi’s got alot of gardening imagery himself to toss back with his post-communist pitchfork.
Thanks again to karlov for putting all this stuff out there this week.
Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 18 2023 7:25 utc | 146
Lavrov’s tour of South America continues with much occurring yesterday in Caracas. A full presser was held which I’ll reproduce completely, including Lavrov’s opening remarks which IMO are quite critical regarding understanding Russia’s reenergized diplomatic drive that’s being done in concert with China. IMO, it’s finally become clear that one of the main goals is to hammer the point that the USA is an Outlaw Nation along with its tribe of vassals in Russia’s message to the RoW, what Desai called the World Majority, which IMO is a better term, although RoW is easier to type. Lavrov invokes the UN Charter a dozen times with Lavrov citing one of the very important additions made to the Charter. And now the Presser:
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to subscribe to what my colleague Ivan Gil said. We had substantive talks. He will also meet with Executive Vice President Donald Rodriguez and President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro. We will continue to discuss the tasks agreed upon by our leaders and which are now being implemented through various mechanisms of our cooperation, including the most important of them – the Russian-Venezuelan High-Level Intergovernmental Commission, which held a useful and productive meeting in December 2022, approving eleven new documents on the development of our partnership.
We agreed on practical measures to expand trade and investment cooperation and contacts between business circles, taking into account the current realities. We have plans for numerous projects in the field of oil production, the development of gas fields, in agriculture, medicine and pharmaceuticals, communications, space, and in the field of new technologies. We will increase the volume and pace of cooperation in all these areas. For this purpose, we are vigorously using existing mechanisms, including the Russian-Venezuelan High-Level Intergovernmental Commission.
We agreed to speed up the approval of a number of new intergovernmental documents. We have outlined additional goals for the development of cultural and humanitarian ties. Intensive cultural exchanges are carried out, which are very popular among our citizens. Due to the increased interest of young people in studying at Russian universities, we decided to double the quota of scholarships provided to Venezuelan citizens at the expense of our budget for the upcoming 2023/2024 academic year. Now it will be 200 scholarships for the next academic year. On the agenda are the resumption of the activities of the Russian Center for Science and Culture in Venezuela, the participation of Russian athletes in the ALBA Sports Games, which open on April 21 this year, and the creation of the Center for Russian Language and Pre-University Training in Venezuela through the RUDN University named after Patrice Lumumba.
We also discussed the situation in the international arena. Venezuela is one of Russia’s most reliable partners. Our states have close strategic partnerships. They are based on the conceptual closeness of approaches to key issues on the global agenda, mutually beneficial projects, strong ties of friendship and mutual sympathy between peoples. These relations have been tested by all sorts of crises and attempts at pressure from outside, and in spite of everything, they are successfully developing and will continue to develop, regardless of the political situation.
We work closely together in international affairs. Both Russia and Venezuela are committed to the basic principles of the UN Charter, including the sovereign equality of states and non-interference in their internal affairs. In solidarity with our Venezuelan friends, we stand with one voice in defence of the right of peoples to determine their own future and destiny without outside interference, without diktat or blackmail, without attempts to influence them through illegal unilateral restrictive measures practiced by the “collective West.”
As my colleague said, at the initiative of Venezuela, the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter has been working in New York for a couple of years. The number of States wishing to participate is growing. In addition, in addition to the New York platform, the Group recently held its inaugural meeting in Geneva at the European headquarters of the United Nations. We will develop this practice in other capitals as well. The Group will continue its work. It adopts joint statements and declarations. Its main goal, as its name implies, is to protect the UN Charter in its entirety.
We talked about how long after the creation of the UN, discussions continued on which principle of the Charter takes precedence: respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity or the right of nations to self-determination. We recalled that in 1970, the UN General Assembly, after many years of negotiations, approved by consensus the Declaration on Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, which, among other important conclusions, recognizes that every country is obliged to respect the principle of the territorial integrity of states whose governments represent the interests of all people. living in this territory.
In this context, we discussed what is happening in Ukraine. How can we hope that the Kiev regime represents the interests of Crimeans or residents of southeastern Ukraine? It is the return of these territories by force from Kiev that its Western masters demand. Let us recall the recent statements by representatives of Vladimir Zelensky’s regime, who demanded the return of the peninsula and happily promised that as soon as this happens, they will destroy the Russian language and Russian culture in Crimea and make Ukrainian and global culture dominate there.
We have already seen what refractions occur with global culture. I am convinced that these demagogic statements are understandable, as well as their purpose and meaning. Today, we spoke in favour of resolving the Ukrainian situation and any other conflicts, which, unfortunately, persist in the world in huge numbers, on the basis of the principles of the UN Charter on the sovereign equality of states, the indivisibility of security on a global scale, when no country should strengthen its security at the expense of others, create threats to anyone, on the basis of the principle of rejecting illegitimate unilateral economic measures. which our Western partners were “carried away” to an unprecedented extent. In this sense, the approach to establishing justice in world affairs is a call to return to the roots, to respect the UN Charter in its entirety.
In this context, we noted China’s recent position on these issues. We also talked about the discussions that took place yesterday with our delegation in Brazil. All this is useful because it allows us to accumulate a critical mass of ideas and analytical assessments in favor of solving problems in this world not in isolation according to the principle that “everything that the West considers important is discussed”, but everything else “does not fit” into Western rules. The critical mass of attitudes to the processes taking place in the world from the point of view of their consistency is growing. I am convinced that the development of such structures as CELAC and other regional platforms aimed at upholding the identity of the relevant region of the world and ensuring its rightful place in discussions about the future of the world order is healthy. We appreciate the role that Venezuela plays in them, both by actively supporting the formation of new positive processes within the framework of CELAC and by promoting the initiative of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called “Big Motherland”.
I am sincerely grateful for our meeting. I invited Mr. Minister I. Gil to visit the Russian Federation at any time convenient for him. Today we will continue our work in other “offices” of Caracas.
Question (retranslated from Spanish): The Russian government has always defended the sovereignty of Latin American countries. How do you assess the current situation in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua? What can be done to support cooperation between these countries and Russia?
Sergey Lavrov: The states you mentioned are among the countries in the region that choose their own paths on their own, proudly carry the memory of their history, ancestors and their achievements, and the results of the liberation struggle. In practice, they no longer want to become dependent on anyone.
April 19 is the Day of the Beginning of the Struggle for Independence in Venezuela. We congratulated our friends on the holiday and stated that this struggle continues. On the part of the “collective West”, many attempts are being made to stop independent actions and positions in your and other regions of the world. Therefore, it is important to unite efforts, including within the framework of the Group of Friends in Defense of the UN Charter and other formats, to counter attempts at diktat, blackmail and illegal unilateral pressure.
We have a rich agenda with Venezuela. Many practical projects are being implemented. We discussed this in detail today. This cooperation actually contributes to strengthening the foundations of an independent national economy, which does not depend on the “whims” and blackmail of Western “colleagues”.
We have the same relations with Nicaragua and Cuba. On April 20 and 21, we will continue our dialogue with the leaders of these countries. The economic component also plays an important role there.
Over the past few years, everyone has already realized that dependence on the US dollar and the principles of globalization, which the Americans themselves have been introducing into the life of the world community for many years, does not lead to “good”. At any moment, these principles, including the free market, fair competition, the inviolability of property, the presumption of innocence, the Americans and their allies can “tear apart” overnight if they need to punish someone for “disobedience.” They need to get out of their way (their goal is global dominance) competitors – Russia (this is stated in their doctrinal documents), and the next goal is declared the People’s Republic of China. We remember how the region of Latin America and the Caribbean was freed from the consequences of the Monroe Doctrine. Although a few years ago, there were again calls from Washington to resume it.
Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and other countries (there are more than three of them in Latin America) defend the identity of their region, the right to create their own organizations based on the principle of inclusiveness and not excluding anyone for ideological reasons, as well as a legitimate, equal place in the objectively emerging system of a more democratic, multipolar world order. Developing mutually beneficial cooperation with each of these countries, we will do everything to make them more successful in solving problems that reflect the aspirations and interests of their peoples.
Question: The United States recently hinted at the possibility of lifting sanctions against Venezuela, but then threatened to exert even more pressure. Will Russia be able to help the country overcome this, given that we have a successful experience?
Sergey Lavrov: I will not take up much time. I would like to stress that everyone knows perfectly well that the United States can deceive at any time. They are much more likely to cheat than to fulfill their own promises and offers. You can start with the “history” when Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin were assured that NATO would not expand (and further down the list). It’s going to be exhausting to listen to. Everyone knows this well.
We fully support the position of our Venezuelan friends. It is their country, hydrocarbons and economy that are subject to the strongest illegal sanctions. They must decide for themselves how to continue to work and develop their state. We will do our best to ensure that the Venezuelan economy becomes less and less dependent on the whims and geopolitical games of the United States and other players from the Western camp.
I am convinced that our experience will be useful to our Venezuelan friends, because we are now world champions in terms of the number of sanctions. We accumulate experience quickly. We will share it with our Venezuelan colleagues.
Question: The United States has issued visas to the Russian delegation to participate in UN events, but is delaying the issuance of visas for the media. Given the time, apparently, they will not give it out at all. Can this be called pressure on our country, especially given that Russia is currently chairing the UN Security Council?
Sergey Lavrov: Yes, we were given visas. But, as always, this was done with a gross abuse of the position of the host country of the UN headquarters. They “purred” for a long time and then issued visas, but not to the entire delegation. Some of our employees were not included in this list. The journalists were not extradited at all. There was no explanation for this. But it doesn’t surprise me.
If you look at the approaches of the United States and almost all Europeans to the implementation of the principle of freedom of the media in practice, you will see that it operates only in “one gate”. The offices of many media outlets present here in a number of Western countries are either closed or discriminated against in various forms. Mournfully.
We appealed to the relevant agencies, primarily UNESCO, which has a corresponding agreement on freedom of access to information. The same agreement exists in the OSCE. Observing the coverage of events taking place in the world by the Western media, we can make an unequivocal conclusion that they show only the perception of events that Western official propaganda imposes on citizens of various countries.
Don’t worry. We will defend our rights. There is not much time, but it still remains. I don’t know how this confrontation will end. We will share with you the results of our efforts.
Question (retranslated from Spanish): You mentioned the multilateral agenda. What is the role of Russia and Venezuela in the new world?
Sergey Lavrov (after Ilya Khil): Together with Venezuela, we are part of a large group of states (its number is growing) that advocate the democratisation of international relations on the basis of the full implementation of the UN Charter in all its diversity.
It is no coincidence that the United States and its allies invented a new term. They do not say “international law” but “rules-based world order”. And what are they? If there was a referendum in Crimea, then they do not recognize its results. If, without any referendum, Kosovo declared independence and the International Court of Justice said that this could be done without the consent of the central authorities, then the West is satisfied with this.
Recently, John Cleverly, head of the British Foreign Office, was asked about what is happening in the Falkland Islands and whether it is necessary to negotiate with Argentina. He said: Why? After all, there was a referendum. They chose the fate of being together with the British crown.
Three examples. Completely different standards, double, triple, characterizing, in fact, the position of the West on any issue that is more or less important for modern international relations.
Our task is to ensure that the UN Charter is implemented in its entirety, so that the right to self-determination is not pulled out of it when the West needs it. And territorial integrity was not unilaterally pulled out, when part of the people living in the corresponding territory is subjected to extermination. As it happened in the Crimea and especially in the east of Ukraine. I quoted the leaders of the Kiev regime who promised, as soon as they conquer Crimea, to exterminate the Russian language, culture and everything Russian in general. Vladimir Zelensky himself, who is now supported and awarded prizes for the “main democrat of the planet”, said in August 2021, long before the start of the special military operation (when we still hoped that an agreement could be reached on the basis of the implementation of the UN Security Council resolution approving the Minsk Agreements), that those who feel like Russians living in Ukraine , for the sake of their children and grandchildren, let them go to the Russian Federation. Did anyone react to this? Does this somehow fit into the Western understanding of the UN Charter?
If we talk about the integrity of the UN Charter, it requires, among other things, the implementation of all Security Council resolutions. None of the Western countries was going to implement the resolution that decided to implement the Minsk agreements. They frankly admitted this in 2022.
Just as there is a huge block of UN resolutions that the West is not going to implement, including those related to the completion of the decolonization process. A number of territories in Africa belonging to France and Great Britain were to be liberated according to the relevant decisions of the UN General Assembly. I’m not talking about how the West implements the resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly, for example, on the Middle East settlement on the need to create a Palestinian state.
If there are guardians of the truth in the West, then it is necessary to talk to them harshly and demand from them an answer to all the questions, a small fraction of which I have just mentioned.
Question (retranslated from Spanish): What do you think about what the United States said about President of Brazil Lula da Silva about Ukraine?
Sergey Lavrov: Are you referring to the comment in which it was said that Brazil is making a mistake by supporting Russia and China? Is that what we’re talking about?
If about this, then there is nothing to comment on. The United States considers itself entitled to make a verdict on any occasion. They themselves are not subject to jurisdiction, as it seems to them. I am convinced that the process of forming a just multipolar world order, which is now and is gaining momentum every day, will necessarily end with results that are positive for the overwhelming majority of humanity. This process is objective, but it will not be completed immediately. This is a historical era that precedes the formation of a polycentric world order.
Question: At what stage is the connection of Venezuelan banks to the Russian payment financial system? What are the prospects for the work of the MIR card in the country? Were these issues discussed during the talks today? What are the deadlines?
Sergey Lavrov: We discussed this today in the context of the need to give political impetus to our ministries on the implementation of the agreements and the continuation of the ongoing discussions within the framework of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation. For obvious reasons, we did not and could not discuss specific deadlines and mechanisms for implementing these tasks, which are important in order to protect our economic cooperation from Western dictates. This is done by professional departments, primarily ministries of finance and central banks. On their line, in their contacts, the issues of transmitting financial messages are considered, as well as the possibility and mechanics of using the MIR payment system.
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 19 2023 15:54 utc | 168
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