The home secretary, Suella Braverman, in parliament on 31 October, where she spoke of an ‘invasion’ on the south coast. (Photograph: Jessica Taylor/UK Parliament/AFP/Getty Images)
For hundreds of years, Great Britain had the biggest navy in the world. It kept all invaders out of the British Isles and kept them away from Britain’s vast colonial empire as well. Chief amongst its enemies were Spain and France, two Catholic powers that wanted to restore Britain to the church. More recently, there was Germany. In two world wars Britain kept the German invader out and maintained the country’s independence.
But everything is different now. The Royal Navy was the great protector of Great Britain, keeping out the Germans, before them, the French and Spanish. But now they are being defeated by an irregular force of Albanians, who, apparently want to expand their criminal activities to England (human trafficking, gambling and drugs). At least one thousand people a week arrive in dinghies, claiming asylum. It should be noted here that there is absolutely no reason for them to seek asylum, as Albania is a democracy. It’s been a member of NATO since 2009. And since most arrivals are young men (and not women and children), these new arrivals are clearly economic migrants, simply out to better themselves.
The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) rescues them, gives them a hot cup of tea, and brings them safely to shore where they are then housed in 3- or 4-star hotels at tax-payer expense. They are given three meals a day and 38 pounds spending money a week. This, at a time when many people in Britain do not have enough to eat.
Suella Braverman, Home Secretary (Interior Minister) in the UK, described what is happening as an “invasion.” She was criticized in parliament for using that word, but what word should she use? The waves of immigrants in recent years are changing Great Britain out of recognition; making it worse is that people have been silenced through repressive laws that limit their freedom to speak on this issue.
Once again, Britain is asking the French to help stop the flow. They are to pay France 72.2 million euros (the dollar and the euro are on a par right now), up from 63 million last year. One question: If it didn’t work then, why should it work now?
A solution might be to bring some royal naval commanders out of retirement. They will know what to do and take great pleasure in doing it!
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PS: It’s just been announced that only 46% of the British people, in a recent survey, consider themselves Christian. In the US it’s 71% Coincidentally, my electronic Bible opened up at the following verse this morning: “The LORD your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. ” (Deut 28)
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US MIDTERMS
The Republicans had a disappointing electoral result in the Midterms. Inflation did not turn people against the Democrats. Many commentators said it was the female vote that did it. More specifically women who support abortion.
For the GOP, it’s an opportunity to launch investigations on stuff like the origins of COVID, the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the Republicans’ favorite target: Biden’s own son, Hunter. It might even lead to impeaching the president. On foreign policy, expect the GOP to penny-pinch US aid to Ukraine and make Congress get even tougher on China — perhaps not the best idea after Biden and Xi Jinping decided to cool things down at the G-20 in Bali. (Gzero Signal, 11/17/2022)
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UN Mideast envoy warns West Bank ‘reaching a boiling point’The UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland,warns the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is “reaching a boiling point.” (Times of Israel, by Luke Tress, 28 Nov 2022)
“The high level of violence in the occupied West Bank and Israel in recent months including attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians,” Wennesland says, “have caused grave human suffering.”
“The targeting of civilians can never be justified and the violence must stop,” Wennesland says at a Security Council briefing, calling for a return to a political process for a resolution to the conflict. He condemns the recent terror attacks in Jerusalem and Ariel, as well as settler violence against Palestinians in Hebron. He warns that “demography is moving faster than politics,” and that the rapid population growth in Gaza and the West Bank will make it “increasingly difficult” to manage the conflict. The US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, condemns the terror attacks against Israelis and settler violence. The US “is deeply concerned about the sharp escalation,” Thomas-Greenfield says. “This has been the deadliest year in the West Bank since 2004.” She condemns the Palestinian Authority’s payments to terrorists and the “disruption to the historic status quo of holy sites.” Thomas-Greenfield blasts the UN for its “lopsided focus” on Israel, including the open-ended Commission of Inquiry and the request for the International Court of Justice to weigh in on the conflict. “The UN system is replete with anti-Israel actions and bodies,” she says. “Instead of grandstanding and pursuing unproductive measures, we hope the UN will start focusing on concrete steps that improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians.”
The German Bundestag wants to declare the 1932/33 famine in Ukraine a genocide and is thus adopting a politically motivated classification from the milieu of the former Ukrainian Nazi collaboration. As research by historians shows, the claim that the famine was a deliberately planned “Ukrainian Holocaust” originated within the Ukrainian exile community in Canada, where former Nazi-collaborators set the tone. In the late 1980s, this claim was subsumed under the newly coined term “Holdomor.” Historians overwhelmingly reject this claim, particularly because the famine affected the populations of agrarian regions throughout the Soviet Union. The Bundestag plans to pass its resolution on the “Holdomor” already on Wednesday. This also threatens to have serious domestic consequences. Last Friday the Bundesrat had approved the recent tightening of §130 of the German penal code, according to which “the public condoning, denying, or grossly trivializing” of war crimes and genocide will be punishable by law. (German Foreign Policy, 11/28/2022)
This is, in fact, a war between two superpowers … of agriculture. The world’s number one exporter of wheat has invaded the world’s number five exporter of the grain – together Russia and Ukraine provide about 30% of wheat in global markets. Ukraine has now banned exports entirely as a wartime security measure, and financial sanctions on Russia are making global buyers wary of purchasing Russian bushels at all.
The sunflower side of it. That yellow band on the Ukrainian flag is meant to depict the country’s vast golden fields of sunflowers. Ukraine is the single largest exporter of sunflower oil, accounting for more than 40% of the global supply. Russia isn’t far behind at about a quarter of the market. Sunflower oil is a crucial cooking oil for households in many developing countries (and it’s also the source of the crisp in potato chips.) The war has already halted activity at Ukraine’s sunflower crushing plants, causing a knock-on surge in demand for substitutes like palm oil, which is now also seeing soaring prices. (Gzero Signal, 3/16/2022)
“When Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, he dreamed of restoring the glory of the Russian empire. He has ended up restoring the terror of Josef Stalin.” (The Economist, 3/12/2022)
“Today Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is unleashing the biggest commodity shock since 1973, and one of the worst disruptions to wheat supplies since the first world war. Although commodity exchanges are already in chaos, ordinary folk are yet to feel the full effects of rising petrol bills, empty stomachs and political instability. But make no mistake, those things are coming. – and dramatically so, if sanctions on Russia tighten further, and if Vladimir Putin retaliates. Western governments need to respond to the commodity threat. as determinedly as to Mr. Putin’s aggression.” (The Economist, 3/12/2022)
The global food system could be tipped into “disaster” as a result of the war in Ukraine, experts have warned, leaving millions facing severe hunger.
The Covid-19 pandemic had already pushed up the cost of food prices before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But the “additional strain of war” could be catastrophic for global food supplies as it threatens “supplies of key staple crops”, said The Guardian.
“We were already having problems with food prices,” Maximo Torero, chief economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, told the paper. “What countries are doing now is exacerbating that, and the war is putting us in a situation where we could easily fall into a food crisis.”
UN Secretary General António Guterres also warned that the crisis in Ukraine, a country often described as “the breadbasket of the world,” would impact food supplies, saying there is a “sword of Damocles” hanging over the global economy, especially in the developing world. (The Week, 3/21/2022)
CHINA CLOSER TO DOMINATING SE ASIA
“[T]his presents a security risk to all countries in southeast Asia… where China has now built itself the capacity to control the skies and control the sea lanes through that region very effectively… It reflects the overall growth of the Chinese military… control of the South China Sea would be a major step for the PRC in prosecuting a military campaign against Taiwan. It certainly makes it much harder for the United States for example to get its military forces closer to Taiwan… it really becomes a mechanism to control all of southeast Asia, this is a region of ten countries, 650 million people… if you are the military dominant power in the South China Sea you dominate south east Asia. That at least was the strategic thinking of the Japanese in the Second World War and I think it is the strategic thinking of China right now.” — Peter Jennings, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, interview with ABC Radio Australia, March 22/2022)
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TO THE POINT
Vladimir Putin’s press secretary has refused to deny that Russia could resort to using nuclear weapons. Speaking to CNN, Dmitry Peskov was asked under what conditions Putin would use Russia’s nuclear capability. He replied: “If it is an existential threat for our country, then it can be.” The Pentagon denounced the statement as reckless, saying “it’s not the way a responsible nuclear power should act” – but also said its officials “haven’t seen anything that would lead us to conclude that we need to change our strategic deterrent posture.” (The Week, 3/23/2022)
Official forecasts have shown that Britain is facing the biggest fall in living standards since records began in 1956. The Office for Budget Responsibility said they would fall by 2.2% in the next tax year, the largest reduction in a year and twice the size of the falls during the oil shocks of the 1970s and 1980s. It also predicted that household energy bills will surge to about £2,800 a year from October, when the price cap on standard tariffs is expected to rise by a record £830. (The Week, 3/24/2022)
Prince William has spoken of his “profound sorrow” about slavery during a speech at a dinner in Jamaica. The Duke of Cambridge said slavery “should never have happened” and “forever stains our history.” His words followed protests in Jamaica, and an open letter written by 100 prominent citizens, calling for William to apologise for the royal family’s role in the slave trade. “Some will be disappointed” that the Prince did not give a formal apology, said the BBC. (The Week, 3/24/2022)
Editor of Saudi Daily: ‘Biden Is Becoming A Master At Losing Friends And Alienating Allies’; Everyone Harmed By The Current Oil Crisis Should Realize Biden’s Foreign Policy Is Responsible For Their Plight (MEMRI, 3/24/2022)
As NATO leaders arrive in Brussels for today’s NATO summit, there’s a big question: which side is Turkey on? Its president, Recep Erdogan, regards himself as a Putin ally but that hasn’t stopped his son-in-law selling drones to Ukraine. Joe Biden wants Turkey to fully side with the West. The power map of Europe is being redrawn, says Owen Matthews in his cover article – but Turkey is positioning itself as the powerbroker. (The Spectator, 3/24/2022)
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PRINCE WILLIAM AND SLAVERY
It wasn’t his first official visit to Commonwealth countries but it was certainly the most difficult for Prince William and his wife, Kate. Quite a baptism of fire, in fact.
The second in line to the throne and his wife were sent on a visit to commemorate the queen’s Platinum Jubilee. They were visiting Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas, all Commonwealth Realms, meaning the Queen is Head of State of each country.
The threat of a demonstration against slavery forced a change to the itinerary in Belize; while in Jamaica, the Prime Minister of the country chose to give them a public dressing down, an almost unheard of diplomatic insult.
There’s just one problem, those intent on disrupting the royal tour are 250 years too late.
It’s exactly 250 years since the famous Somerset decision made it a crime to keep anybody as a slave in the United Kingdom. That was a first for the UK. 35 years later the UK became the first European country to abolish the slave trade. A quarter of a century further on and slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire. From 1810 until 1861 the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron stopped ships of all nationalities and freed 250,000 slaves. Britain’s progressive credentials cannot be beaten by any other nation.
Note the following letter from the Washington Post:
The July 4 editorial “What ‘America First’ should really mean” portrayed the United States as “a nation that long ago set itself against tyranny.” But this ignored the elephant in the room: The American Revolution was motivated in part to preserve slavery.
In 1772, four years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the English court decision Somerset v. Stewart was generally interpreted to mean that slavery had no legal basis in England. In contrast, the laws of the southern American colonies defined slaves not as people but as property. The contrast between these laws and the public’s view of the Somerset decision could not be starker. The southern colonies feared that Somerset would eventually apply to them and abolish their way of life. In their view, the only way to preserve slavery was to become independent of Britain. Their support for independence was essential to the Revolution’s success.
The moral impact of Somerset eventually led Britain to abolish slavery in nearly all of its colonies. It did that in 1833, 32 years before slavery was abolished in the United States by the 13th Amendment. Had Britain succeeded in suppressing the Revolution, slaves in the United States might have been freed a lot sooner. John L Hodge, Jamaica Plain, Mass.
Certainly, in the 16th and 17th centuries Britain profited from slavery, but so did every other nation. And it wasn’t just European nations that benefitted. Europeans simply cashed in on an already thriving African slave trade. John Kufour, President of Ghana, reminded Ghanaians of their role in the slave trade on the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trade by the British government. The expression “sold down the river” emanates from this time, when African chiefs would sell captives of other tribes, “sold down the river” to meet the slavers taking them to the New World.
Additionally, we should mention that at least one million white people were held as slaves mostly by Arabs in the Middle East. The book “White Gold” tells their story. The book is by Giles Milton and was published in 2004. (He puts the figure at between one million and 1.25 million.)
Perhaps Caribbean leaders could read up more on their own history before they embarrass more royals on future visits!
Remember: “The truth will set you free” (John 8:32). By denying these facts the Caribbean could be in danger of replacing the Brits with another nation, which would be far worse, maybe China?
President Donald Trump walks to the Abraham Accords signing ceremony at the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)AP
It’s not just the giddying signs that other Arab states may now follow suit and thus transform the prospects of a durable peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Even Saudi Arabia, the epicentre of the Sunni Muslim world and without whose approval the agreement would never have happened, may also openly “normalize” its relationship with Israel.
The Palestinian cause, supposedly the sticking point for the Arab rejection of Israel, is now receiving merely lip-service from Arab moderates, if that. Saudi writers are being allowed to write openly against the Palestinians. Hitherto suppressed truths are now being told in the Arab world in a way that was previously unthinkable.
Arab writers are saying they were wrong to believe that Israel was the aggressor in the region since it’s clearly Iran and Turkey that are guilty of aggressive expansionism. These writers are saying that peace and co-operation with Israel will bring them great benefits in terms of modernity and development.
A Bahraini activist wrote: “There is growing awareness among many in the Arab world that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in the Land of Israel, they are part of this land, and part of our region . . .” (“Healing the ancient fracture,” Melanie Phillips, 9/18/2020)
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ISRAEL INDISPENSIBLE TO STAND AGAINST IRAN
“Recognition of Israel by the UAE and Bahrain will, it is predicted, be followed by recognition of Israel by Oman and other Gulf states, perhaps even Saudi Arabia. But the idea that peace is at hand appears to be, as Mark Twain said of reports of his death, premature.
“Indeed, the Gulf Arabs could be signing up to recognize Israel because they see the Jewish state as an indispensable ally in the Arab Sunni clash with the larger and more powerful Shiite Iran.” (PB, 9/18/2020)
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WHAT PUTIN FEARS
“Nothing is as inspiring as seeing people take to the streets to demand their freedoms – and nothing is as terrifying for the dictators they are defying. In Belarus, among scenes that recall the revolts of 1989, people are turning out in their hundreds of thousands after a blatantly rigged election, heedless of the threat of state violence. In the Russian city of Khabarovsk tens of thousands march week after week to protest against the arrest of the local governor and the imposition of Moscow’s rules. Vladimir Putin is rattled. Why else is Alexei Navalny, an anti-curruption crusader and Mr. Putin’s greatest popular rival for the Russian presidency, lying poisoned in a Berlin hospital bed?
“Regimes that rule by fear live in fear. They fear that one day the people will no longer tolerate their lies, thieving and brutality. They try to hang on with propaganda, persecution and patronage. But it looks increasingly as if Mr. Putin is running out of tricks, and as if Alexander Lukashenko, his troublesome ally in Minsk, is running out of road. That is why, despite the Kremlin’s denials, they are falling back on the truncheon and the syringe. And it is why, as the protests roll on, they must be wondering whether state violence can secure their regimes.” (“What Putin fears,” The Economist, 8/29/2020)
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AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE CONCERNS
THE head of Australia’s powerful Intelligence & Security Joint Committee has called for the reinstatement of National Service as Australia’s strategic position continues to deteriorate. With rising concerns about a “strategic miscalculation” within the region, Committee chairman Andrew Hastie warned the risk of conflict was also increasing. And rebuilding Australia’s Reserves was vital. (Politico, 9/22/2020)
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DEMOCRATS ARE THE PARTY OF THE WEALTHY INTELLECTUAL ELITES
The Democrats are currently spending ten times as much money as the Republicans on advertising. Their support comes mainly from the intellectual elite who are on high incomes, plus celebrities. Yet many people still believe the Dems represent the common man. Joe Biden was shaking his head at a town hall meeting when a medical worker said he is paid less than $15 an hour. (In comparison, Mr. Biden could have reminded people that his son Hunter, was paid $50,000 a month when he sat on the board of a Ukrainian company.) In an interview with Harvard professor Michael Sandel, Mr. Sandel explains how the Democrats lost the support of the working class. — editor
They (the Democrats) should have shown more humility. Think of Hillary Clinton’s use of the word “deplorables.” She used it in the last election campaign in reference to Trump voters, blue-collar workers. It showed an arrogance toward the less educated. Obama spoke of people who “cling to guns or religion.” The liberals emphasize rising based on merit. But we don’t live up to the meritocratic principles we proclaim. Of course, you have to pass difficult entrance exams to get into Harvard, but some people are groomed for it throughout their childhood and youth, with hockey lessons, piano lessons, foreign language classes, and their parents pay for it. Other parents can’t afford it at all. So, good performance depends heavily on family background and a good deal of luck. By realizing this, we can develop a sense of humility and identify more easily with those less fortunate than ourselves. (Der Spiegel interview with Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel, interviewed by Susanne Beyer, 9/18/2020)
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PELOSI AND BIDEN – NO FRIENDS OF UK
Biden warns the UK over Northern Ireland and Brexit —
Democratic nominee Joe Biden says he will not allow peace in Northern Ireland to become a “casualty of Brexit” if he becomes US president. He said any UK-US trade deal had to be “contingent” on respect for the Good Friday Agreement in final Brexit arrangements. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also applied pressure on the issue, saying he trusted the UK to “get this right.” (The Week, 9/17/2020)
Both Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are Catholic and sympathetic to Irish republicanism. It should be noted that they are not very good Catholics, supporting US abortion laws. –– editor
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ON ABORTION
It’s difficult to understand Christians saying anything positive about Ruth Bader Ginsburg (see following):
“RIP to the more than 30 million innocent babies that have been murdered during the decades that Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended pro-abortion laws,” Collins tweeted. “With @realDonaldTrump nominating a replacement that values human life, generations of unborn children have a chance to live.” (GOP Rep Doug Collins)
The numbers of COVID-19 related deaths are announced each day. They are now up to 200,000 in the US alone (which is disputed). During the same six months that people have been allegedly dying from the coronavirus, 650,000 babies in the US have been aborted. That’s three times as many deaths, most of which were solely for convenience. — editor
BBC SHOWS CLEAR BIAS – Katty Kay, BBC’s anchor on Monday evening, wore a very formal black outfit. I’ve never seen her in black before. One can only assume she was mourning the death of RBG. — editor
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ARABS ARE LEARNING THEY NEED THE JEWS
Emirati writer Salam Hamid, founder and head of the Al-Mezmaah Studies and Research Center in Dubai, published an article titled “The Cost of the Expulsion of the Arab Jews” in the UAE daily Al-Ittihad, in which he lamented the expulsion of the Jews from the Arab countries following the establishment of Israel in 1948. This expulsion, he said, was a grave mistake, since the Arab countries thereby “lost an elite population with significant wealth, property, influence, knowledge, and culture,” which could have helped them, including against Israel, and lost the potential contribution of the Jews in many spheres, especially in the financial sphere. The Arabs, he added, should have learned a lesson from the expulsion of the Jews of Spain in 1492, and from Hitler’s expulsion of the Jews of Europe, which eventually harmed the countries that lost their Jews. He stated further that antisemitism, which is deeply entrenched in Arab societies, stems from the books that teach Islamic heritage, studied in schools throughout the Arab world, and therefore called for an overhaul of the curricula in order to strengthen tolerance and banish extremism. (MEMRI # 8939)
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EU-CHINA TRADE TALKS
The EU and China intend to reach an accord on a bilateral investment agreement before the end of the year. This is the main result of yesterday’s video conference between the European Union’s leaders and China’s President Xi Jinping. The bilateral negotiations, therefore, have been making significant progress and their conclusion before the end of the year seems realistic. German enterprises, in particular, are very interested in the treaty. Unlike media reports to the contrary, the majority of these enterprises are not leaving the People’s Republic of China due to current political tensions, but in many cases are even “strengthening” their presence, as the European Chamber of Commerce in China notes. Whereas EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell warns against “Chinese expansionism” and demands that the EU close ranks against Beijing, the Minister of State in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Niels Annen, pleads for “maintaining dialog” with China: independence from the USA should be preserved in the conflict with Beijing. (German Foreign Policy, 9/17/2020)
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US DEBT EXCEEDS GNP
The federal government is about to hit a regrettable post-World War II milestone, as government debt will meet, or exceed, the size of the entire U.S. economy. The last time U.S. government debt was bigger than U.S. GDP was 1946, as the nation wrapped up its war-time spending surge.
“As of July, the public debt of the United States was $26.48 trillion, up $4.45 trillion from the previous year. Americans credit card debt is nearly $1 trillion, a record high. Some 43 million adult Americans carry a combined student debt of $1.5 trillion.” (“Thrift and Simplicity: a Pathway to Happiness,” The Epoch Times, 9/9/2020).
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IMPERIAL REDUX
BEST ARTICLE ON SLAVERY – “The Real reason our statues are under attack”, by Richard Palmer. (9/20). “The slave trade was incredibly profitable. A slave in the Americas would sell for about eight times the price he cost in Africa. And in 1805, Britain became the undisputed master of the world’s oceans after winning the Battle of Trafalgar. The stage seemed set for Britain to profit more than ever from this evil trade.
“Instead. The opposite happened. In March 1807, Britain outlawed the slave trade. In his book “Empire” Niall Ferguson called it an “astonishing volte-face.” “Towards the end of the 18th century, something changed dramatically,” he writes, “it was almost as if a switch was flicked in the British psyche.”
“It is not easy to explain so profound a change in the ethics of a people,” he continues. “It used to be argued that slavery was abolished simply because it had ceased to be profitable, but all the evidence points the other way: In fact, it was abolished despite the fact that it was still profitable. “Instead, Britain had a “collective change of heart.”
“But Britain did more than simply stop participating in this trade. It used its diplomatic clout to ensure other nations ended slavery . . . No other nation was going around the world cajoling other nations to end the slave trade . . .
“But abolishing the slave trade didn’t free the slaves already at work. Thus, Britain’s anti-slavery campaigners pushed on. In 1833, the United Kingdom passed the Slavery Abolition Act, outlawing the practice within British colonies. When this law came into effect, 800,000 slaves were freed.
“To pass this law through Parliament, it had to be “compensated emancipation,” meaning slave owners were paid for the slaves they had to free. Many on the left criticize this today. But the fact is, uncompensated emancipation would have taken much longer. The reformers chose to be pragmatic and freed the slaves as soon as they could. Britain had to take out a loan so massive that it only finished paying it off in 2015.
“The UK, alone in all nations of the world, put forth a huge effort to shut this trade down. In 1808, during the Napoleonic War, with the nation still fighting for survival, Britain set up the West Africa Squadron. It patrolled the sea of Africa’s west coast looking for slave ships.
“Britain’s naval dominance was now assured, and so “for the first 30 years of Victoria’s reign, the Royal Navy’s chief task was the interception of slavers.” (Heaven’s Command, Jan Morris)
“In theory, Britain was leading a multinational effort; but in practice, no one else made any significant contributions.” (The Philadelphia Trumpet)
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BARBADOS TO BECOME A REPUBLIC
Not a US style republic, but an Irish one, where the Queen is simply replaced as Head of State by an appointed president. The people will not have a say in this. They have been talking about a republic for twenty years. When my wife and I visited the country in the year 2000 local radio was discussing the issue. One young, black Barbadian, told us she was very concerned about a potential loss of freedom when the Queen is removed. The Barbadian Labour Party controls all but one seat in parliament. A simple two thirds majority is required to approve the change. This makes dictatorship much easier. A republic always gives more power to politicians.
There is also speculation that China is behind the move, as its ties to Barbados are growing.
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German Development Bank earmark R96 million for Cape Town by Marvin Charles, Cape Town
The Republic of Germany and the German Development Bank announced they would give the City €5 million (R96 million) for relief aid, for identified communities within the metro. The German Development Bank, KfW, has sent a written request to mayor Dan Plato, outlining the offer to support communities within the City.
The City said the funds would not be disbursed to the City, and will not be incorporated into the City’s budget, in the conditions laid out as part of the agreement signed by the City and the German ambassador. KfW’s Silke Stadtmann and Peter Weinert said in a letter to Plato: “Through these emergency measures, about 25000 families and pregnant women in need could be supported with a digital food voucher worth about R600 per month, for about three months.
”The focus of the aid would be families and single parents with children under the age of seven “as well as foreign families who do not qualify to receive government support grants.”
The areas that would be receiving relief include Khayelitsha, Hanover Park, Manenberg, Gugulethu and Nyanga and, if funds are still available, Bonteheuwel. KfW said some of the money would be used to support informal businesses, such as urban vegetable gardens and early childhood development centres. In a report that was tabled by the mayoral committee, the City said the relief was the latest development in a successful relationship with the German Development Bank, which had seen 15.5m contributed since 2007. The money went into a programme called Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading, which aims to prevent crime through environmental design, as well as social programmes.
Further comment was sought from the City but they were unable to respond to questions by the time of publication.
* €1 is equivalent to R19.34 as of 19 September 2020. (by Marvin Charles, IOL, Cape Town)
EU SUMMIT CANCELLED – as President Charles Michel has to self-isolate.
Pubs in England face 10pm closing time: Pubs, bars, restaurants and other hospitality venues in England will have to close at 10pm from Thursday, as the UK’s Covid-19 alert level moved to four. The upgrade in severity means the risk of transmission is now “high or rising exponentially,” with Boris Johnson set to announce the new measures in the House of Commons before addressing the nation in a live broadcast at 8pm this evening. (The Week, 9/22/2020)
STRENGTHENING TIES BETWEEN CHINA, RUSSIA AND IRAN: China’s defense ministry announced Friday it would conduct the “Caucus 2020” military drills alongside Russia and Iran. According to China’s state-run The Global Times, Beijing hopes to use the joint drills with Russia as a way to strengthen diplomatic and strategic co-operation between Moscow and Beijing. The military drills that are causing anxiety in the West will run throughout next week. (Daily Express, 9/20/2020)
LOSS OF FREEDOM: PETER HITCHENS: “Most people have far too readily accepted limits to their lives which the world’s tyrannies would once have hesitated to impose on their citizens. Well, have you had enough yet? ” (Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail, 9/20/2020)
LANSING POLICE MORE LIKELY TO ARREST BLACK KIDS – a front page headline in the Lansing State Journal on Sunday. ‘Blacks are about 28% of youth, but 70% of arrests.” Not mentioned in the article is the comment made by African-American writer Shelby Steele last week, that 75% of black children do not have a father living with them. Could that be the reason African-American teens are more likely to get into crime? And consequently more likely to be arrested?
TWISTED THINKING — Iranian Preacher Condemns Charlie Hebdo: The West Spreads Islamophobia, Westerners Will Be Annihilated; Iranian Ayatollah: Why Is Insulting The Prophet Considered Free Speech While Europe Executes People For Investigating The False Holocaust? (Memri #8288) It should be noted that no western country executes people for “investigating the false Holocaust.” Except for some states in the US, the death penalty has been abolished in every western nation. — editor
I wrote recently about the British Empire abolishing the slave trade in 1807, the first major country to do so. I overlooked the Somerset ruling, a decision by a British court which ruled that nobody could be held as a slave within the British Isles. This effectively ended slavery in Great Britain. It had a profound effect on the colonies.
“The year 1772 was a watershed of sorts in the history of slavery-it might be called the beginning of its end, as the legal framework upon which slavery was based began to crumble, at least in England, beginning with the landmark decision in Somerset v. Stewart. James Somerset was a slave bought in Virginia by Charles Stewart, a Scots merchant and customs official with quite close Chesapeake ties. Stewart left Virginia for England in 1768, taking Somerset with him. In 1771, Somerset took his leave of Stewart and refused to return to a state of permanent servitude. He was soon arrested and imprisoned, but his case was taken up by Granville Sharp, an inveterate opponent to the institution of slavery as antithetical to the British constitution and English common law. In a decision handed down by William Murray, Baron (later Earl) of Mansfield and Chief Justice of the Court of King’s Bench, the court narrowly held that “a master could not seize a slave in England and detain him preparatory to sending him out of the realm to be sold” and that habeas corpus was a constitutional right available to slaves to forestall such seizure, deportation and sale because they were not chattel, or mere property, they were servants and thus persons invested with certain (but certainly limited) constitutional protections. Although Mansfield took great care to phrase his holding in such a way that it could not be used for a broader precedent in determining the legal status of slaves or their rights, it was widely perceived quite differently on both sides of the Atlantic: Many, including many slaves, understood Somerset to have effectively abolished slavery in England (Somerset himself believed so). Its impact was profound in the colonies as some slaves invoked it to seek their own freedom. ” (ouramericanrevolution.org)
This decision sparked a revolution on the other side of the Atlantic. American land-owners, including many of the founding fathers of the United States, were not about to give up their slaves. A book by two American historians, Alfred W. Blumrosen and Ruth G. Blumrosen, reveals the panic that went through the colonies after the Somerset decision. The book is “Slave Nation: How slavery united the colonies and sparked the American Revolution”.
If it were not for the Somerset decision, slavery could very well still be the norm across the world. Is there any wonder that the British-Israelites, who came to prominence in the nineteenth century, saw this as one of the blessings that came to the world through the British Empire?
Genesis 12:2-3 — 2”I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So, why then are people demanding the British pay reparations for slavery? This includes Prince Harry, dabbling in politics over this issue.
“Jamaica’s High Commissioner has joined Prince Harry‘s call for an ‘open discussion’ on Britain’s role in the slave trade, saying Commonwealth countries ‘need to address the elephant in the room.’
Seth George Ramocan said that while today’s generation is not responsible for ‘dehumanizing’ people taken into slavery from Africa and the Caribbean, the same mindset ‘still exists in a more subtle form’.
He told the Today program: ‘This really should be a matter of open discussion and acknowledgement of what the wrongs were, particularly through the slave trade and how we come to a common understanding about this.’
It comes a day after the Duke faced criticism for an apparent swipe at the British Empire by saying the history of the Commonwealth ‘must be acknowledged’, even if it’s ‘uncomfortable’. “ (Daily Mail, 7/15/2020)
The Duke of Sussex, who made himself irrelevant by leaving the Royal Family earlier this year, and the High Commissioner for Jamaica (equivalent of Ambassador), are overlooking Britain’s leading role in the abolishing of slavery. The High Commissioner represents Jamaica, an influential Commonwealth Realm. He is also a minister in the Church of God, International, which gives him further influence beyond his ambassadorial role. Both men should think about the ramifications of what they are saying, before making such a demand.
I have a solution.
Why doesn’t the British government use ALL of its money devoted to overseas aid to end the present–day slave trade, estimated to be three times as big as the slave trade of the eighteenth century?
This would continue Britain’s historic role as THE leader in the anti-slavery movement.
After the Somerset decision and William Wilberforce’s successful campaign to end the slave trade, the British West African Squadron patrolled the coast of West Africa stopping all ships (of every nationality) and freeing the slaves. In a fifty-year period, a quarter of a million slaves were freed.
Men like David Livingstone went into Africa in the nineteenth century specifically to end slavery.
The power of the Royal Navy also helped end the white slave trade in North Africa. One million white people were being held by Arab slave traders.
With the end of the British Empire, slavery is now back in every single African country, according to UNESCO.
What would money for reparations buy? Flashy cars and lots of consumer goods! Far more important is to end slavery again, just as Britain did before!
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A NEW ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA?
New Zealand’s Deputy PM has suggested that the royal family should have a new Royal Yacht, over twenty years after Tony Blair scrapped the old one. It would help sell Britain and restore Britain’s image around the world, particularly in Commonwealth Realms like New Zealand and Australia.
Why not take it a step further?
Strengthen the ties that bind Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Britain? These four Commonwealth countries are all constitutional monarchies, sharing Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State.
They need to strengthen trade ties, weakened when Britain joined the EU.
They need to strengthen defense and intelligence cooperation.
Eighty years ago, together with South Africa and Rhodesia, they were the only countries fighting Nazi Germany. It was the same in World War I when fighting the Kaiser.
They made a great difference.
They were an “association of free peoples.” They can still be.
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Hard up: American banks brace for losses
This will be a grim week for America’s banks, which today start reporting their second-quarter earnings. The four biggest booked almost $25bn in provisions for loan losses—expected to pile up as firms and households struggle to stay afloat through the pandemic—in their first-quarter results. They are expected to double this in their second-quarter accounting. These anticipated defaults will not bankrupt the banks, but they will hurt profits. Earnings are forecast to drop by more than 60% year-on-year at Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, three of the top four; the other, Wells Fargo, is expected to incur a loss. The relative bright spot should be supplied by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
Principally investment banks, they make fewer direct loans and therefore need not book large provisions. Morgan Stanley’s profits are expected to fall by just 15%. Some banks are more immune to the pandemic than others. (The Economist, 7/14/2020)
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TURKEY TURNS HAGIA SOPHIA INTO A MOSQUE (AGAIN)
Turkey’s nationalist and Islamic fundamentalist government is moving to reopen the Hagia Sophia as a mosque. Originally built in 537 by the Emperor Justinian, the church remained a Christian church until the Ottoman conquest in 1453. It was then turned into a mosque and continued until Ataturk’s secular movement made it a museum. It’s now a mosque again, reflecting Turkey’s new priorities.
Other anti-Christian measures taken by Turkey include:
“The Turkish government has seized the historic Armenian Surp Giragos Church, a number of other churches and large swaths of property in the heavily damaged Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, saying it wants to restore the area but alarming residents who fear the government is secretly aiming to drive them out.
Turkish tourism companies have built a lucrative industry exploiting “Christian tourism.” Yet it’s very clear the Turkish government has no respect for Christianity or its history. In fact, it’s clear Turkey has blatant disdain for the Christian faith.”
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QUEEN DID NOT DISMISS AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT
For 45 years, Queen Elizabeth II was blamed by Australian Republicans, for dismissing the government of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Now, it turns out it was not her decision. The following exchange of letters proves that Sir John Kerr, the Governor –General, the Queen’s representative in Australia, dismissed Whitlam and then notified the Queen.
On November 11, 1975, Kerr wrote to Buckingham Palace: “I decided to take the step I took without informing the Palace in advance because under the Constitution the responsibility is mine and I was of the opinion that it was better for Her Majesty not to know in advance, though it is, of course, my duty to tell her immediately.”
On November 17, Sir Martin Charteris, the Queen’s private secretary, wrote back: “I believe that in NOT informing The Queen what you intended to do before doing it, you acted not only with perfect constitutional propriety but also with admirable consideration for Her Majesty’s position.” (The Australian, 7/15/2020)
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TO THE POINT
‘Jaw-dropping’ global crash in children being born A global drop in births is set to have a “jaw-dropping” impact on societies, say researchers. As fertility rates fall, nearly every country could have a shrinking population by the end of the century and 23 nations are expected to see their populations halve by 2100. The study also found that countries will age significantly, with as many people turning 80 as there are being born. (The Week, 7/15/2020)
Rishi Sunak: the next Tory leader in waiting? As recently as six months ago, few outside of the Westminster bubble had heard of Rishi Sunak. But since taking over from his mentor Sajid Javid at 11 Downing Street, Sunak has seen his status rocket amid widespread approval of his handling of the coronavirus economic fallout. Indeed, a poll last week put the free-spending chancellor’s approval rating “ahead of everyone in the government – including Boris Johnson”, The Telegraph reports. (The Week, 7/10/2020)
Behind Britain’s ‘shock and awe’ Brexit campaign Boris Johnson’s government will urge the UK to prepare for the “changes and opportunities” of Brexit in a £93m campaign to draw attention to the consequences of leaving the EU. Behavioral scientists have been called in to draw up a “shock and awe” program of messages intended to provoke action from businesses and the broader public. “The term, more often used to describe a military strategy of overwhelming force and closely associated with the Iraq War, is contained in a document setting out the government’s communications plan,” Politico says. (The Week, 7/13/2020)
A poster advertising a special chapel service to celebrate the Abolition of Slavery in 1838.
Some little-known facts on slavery:
Before 1800 slavery was universally practiced.
Britain became the first major power to abolish the slave trade in 1807. (Haiti and Denmark had already abolished it in 1804-5). Britain went on to abolish slavery completely in 1833, with a four year transition period.
The British West Africa Squadron of the Royal Navy patrolled the coast of West Africa for almost 60 years, stopping ships and freeing slaves from 1808-67. It is estimated that 250,000 slaves were freed.
David Livingstone was a famous Scottish missionary who went out to central Africa determined to bring Christianity to the people and to end slavery in that part of the world.
In the eighteenth century there were one million white slaves held in Muslim countries.
The US abolished the slave trade in 1808, only one year after Britain. It was not able to abolish slavery itself until it had fought a four-year civil war (1861-65). Over 400,000 men are now believed to have died in the War fighting for the Union. That’s 400,000 mostly white men who all died to free the slaves.
It was the US Republican Party that supported the abolition of slavery. The Democrats took a pro-slavery position and held back the development of African-Americans until well into the 1960s.
Since the end of the British Empire in Africa sixty years ago, slavery is back in every single African country, according to UNESCO.
The modern slave trade is considered the biggest trade in the world, accounting for over 10% of global business. The Bible talks about this universal trading system. Revelation 18:13, NIV: “cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.”
If the United States and Britain are brought down by riots and revolution, there will be no restraint on the practice of slavery.
The irony is that Black Lives Matter and other groups will have taken the world back over 200 years to a time when slavery was universally practiced.
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THE DANGERS OF VILIFYING ALL POLICE
“The people condemning law enforcement in America and advocating for the defunding of police are not the ones who will have to face the deadly results of their proposals, says former civil rights activist Bob Woodson.
“Let’s do a survey of these communities where crime is the highest and find out what the people there want, before we rush to accept the recommendations of people who don’t have to suffer the consequences,” Woodson said.
“The killing of George Floyd, a black man, at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests demanding reform as well as cases of looting, arson and vandalism. Reform proposals vary, with some groups such as Black Lives Matter and Democratic Socialists of America calling for a nationwide defunding of police.
“In Woodson’s view, crime will likely increase without funding cuts, because vilification of the police as agents of white suppression makes them more reluctant to enforce the law.
“After surveying 200 officers across six agencies in the southern United States, Shetali Patil, an assistant professor of management at the University of Texas-Austin, found that when officers felt the public didn’t understand or appreciate them, they became less proactive.
“The result is more blacks being killed by other blacks, Woodson said.” (The Dangers of Vilifying all police,” Epoch Times, 6/11/2020).
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LANSING MAYOR AGREES TO SIGN POLICE REFORM PLEDGES
“Mayor Andy Schor is promising to sign national police reform pledges, increase transparency in the police department and hire a diversity officer to address racial injustice in the city.
“The announcement Tuesday follows weeks of local protests against police brutality. Some residents, including members of Black Lives Matter Lansing, have been calling for Schor’s resignation after he was criticized for defensiveness in response to questions from the group about the treatment of Black residents by police.
“Schor’s plans include: “Promoting a city employee to the position of “diversity and inclusion officer”……..improve transparency…..hire an attorney to create a citywide diversity, equity and inclusion plan…..” (Sarah Lehr, Lansing State Journal, 6/17/2020).
It should be noted that all of this will cost money, which will mean a raise in taxes or cuts to the police.
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DEMOCRACY IN DANGER
“The corruption of its democracy is one of America’s oldest yet most surprising habits. Edgar Allan Poe, it is believed, died after the ordeal of ‘cooping’: an informal exercise in getting out the vote, in which an often forcibly inebriated man was marched from booth to booth and made to vote for the same candidate each time.
“The voters of Massachusetts 4th District, compelled by a party machine to endorse Joseph P. Kennedy III, will know the feeling. Indeed, John F. Kennedy’s victory in the 1960 elections is said to have depended on the stuffing of ballots in the Chicago of Mayor Richard J. Daley – and possibly on the intervention in Cook County by the crime boss Sam Giancana. Kennedy went on to win Illinois by 8,000 votes and to take the White House.
“However endemic electoral corruption was in the past, nothing quite matches the scale of today’s disillusionment with democracy. Americans are raging against the electoral machine in a way they have never done before. Whoever wins the White House in November is going to have an uphill struggle convincing a skeptical public that he or she is the genuine choice of the American people and has got there by fair means.” (Democracy in Danger, The Spectator (US edition), March 2020).
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U.S. National Pride Falls to Record Low by Megan Brenan, 15 June 2020
WASHINGTON, D.C. — American pride has continued its downward trajectory reaching the lowest point in the two decades of Gallup measurement. The new low comes at a time when the U.S. faces public health and economic crises brought on by the coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest following the death of George Floyd in police custody.
* 42% “extremely,” and 21% “very,” proud to be an American.* Republicans’ pride is down sharply in the past year.* First time extreme pride among whites below 50%; nonwhites’ is now 24%.
At the same time, 15% of Americans say they are “moderately proud,” 12% “only a little proud” and 9% “not at all proud.”
These latest data are from a May 28-June 4 poll, which also found 20% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the U.S., and presidential approval fell back to 39%. The poll’s field period encompassed the arrests of the police officers charged in Floyd’s death as well as the nationwide protests that were sparked by the incident and President Donald Trump’s controversial responses to them.
The United States of America will never be the same, it will be a much worse place to live and work. Amid a three-month pandemic there has been a three-week cultural revolution, ignited by the brutal death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis, that has changed our country forever.
Our country is a great experiment, a diverse nation of 50 states united by a founding document that enshrines God given rights that people in other countries can only dream of realizing. The United States has become not only the world’s only superpower, but also a country that has been a beacon of hope and freedom to the world. (America is “Gone with the wind,” Canada Free Press, 6/14/2020)
Gone with the Wind has been banned by HBO.
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NORTH KOREA BLOWS UP
First, they stop taking your calls. Then they blow up the house. But this isn’t a love affair gone wrong, it’s what’s happening right now along one of the tensest borders in the world, between North and South Korea. Last week Pyongyang quit answering a daily phone call from the South that was set up in 2018 to keep the peace and further reconciliation. Then, yesterday, North Korea quite literally blew up a building just north of the border which both sides had used for the past two years as a meeting place for officials from the North and the South. And earlier today, for good measure, Kim Jong-un moved some of his troops into several recently-shuttered inter-Korean economic cooperation sites located just north of the border.
Why now?
The immediate issue seems to be Seoul’s failure to stop North Korean defectors (“human scum” as they’re known in Pyongyang’s state media) from sending anti-Kim leaflets over the border using balloons and drones.
But there’s a larger context. North Korea’s economy is suffering under crippling international sanctions tied to its nuclear program, and the coronavirus pandemic almost certainly isn’t helping. With nuclear talks largely stalled, there’s no relief in sight. (Gzero Signal, 6/17/2020)
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Virus-Immune Rioters Latest Coronavirus Con
Something the mainstream and social media hope you will never come to realize: Most everyone other than the street protesters remains under coronavirus lockdown.
While the majority of civilized society is held under government-imposed lockdown, meaning with no place to work, no place to worship, no place to go—purportedly for their own safety in a raging pandemic—hundreds of thousands of ‘protesters’ — (millions if counted worldwide) are allowed out to protest, pillage and burn cities down.
Let that sink in if only in order to clearly see how a pandemic panic can be used to help take down Western society. (Canada Free Press, 6/17/2020)
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TO THE POINT
“Liberals will fight for the right of Marxist radicals to burn the American flag to show their hatred of it but cannot tolerate working folks flying the battle flag of the Confederacy to show their love of it.” (Pat Buchanan, 6/16/2020)
NEW PARTY FOR AUSTRALIA: “On immigration, it says our annual intake is “unsustainably high”, multiculturalism is “cumbersome and inorganic” and refugees should be given temporary asylum rather than permanent homes. It also calls for “ethnic enclaves” in our cities and schools to be “broken up.” (The Sensible Center, Michael Koziol, Sydney Morning Herald, 6/14/2020)
The two destabilizing events recently occurring back-to-back, the response to the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic and the George Floyd rioting, illustrate well how America is now institutionally incapable of making decisions in her own best interests. That is, the overreaction to the disease and under-reaction to the rioting reflect a country long demoralized. Moreover, if that’s not troubling enough, know that this is a state of being that usually leads to tyranny. (2020-06-11, Selwyn Duke, Canada Free Press, 6/12/2020)
Meanwhile the World Health Organization warned that the coronavirus pandemic was “accelerating” in Africa. Hitherto the continent has escaped relatively lightly, recording just 200,000 or so cases and 5,000 deaths (compared with over 170,000 deaths, for instance, in Europe). The WHO mentioned South Africa, Cameroon and Algeria as likely hotspots for the spread of the disease. (The Economist, 6/12/2020)
British GDP plunged by 20.4% in April—by far the biggest month-on-month drop since the series began in 1997 (see main stories). This followed a 5.8% shrinkage in March, itself the previous record drop. The construction industry was particularly badly affected, showing a 40.1% fall. May’s figures should be better, as some economic activity was able to return. (The Economist, 6/12/2020)
Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s autocratic president, sacked his prime minister, Imad Khamis. The country has been hit by five days of protests, centred around the city of Suweida, as a collapsing currency has led to stinging price increases. Civil war, Western economic sanctions, covid-19 and a crisis in neighbouring Lebanon have all helped to impoverish the country. (The Economist, 6/12/2020)
“At the heart of the Democrats’ problems is a growing spirit of insurgency against political elites.” (Spectator, March 2020)
Michigan’s Governor Gretchen Whitmer has taken draconian steps to stop the spread of the corona virus. The restrictions she has imposed on Michigan are unprecedented. Cartoons like this one illustrate the public’s distrust of government, though most people seem to support the measures she has taken. At the same time, North Korea’s leader was missing, presumed dead.
In the US, there have been over 70,000 corona virus deaths; in the UK over 32,000 (proportionately the UK is worse than the US). What this could mean remains to be seen.
Two months ago, Britain looked on in horror as deaths from Covid-19 skyrocketed in Italy. Now, the UK’s own death toll from the disease has eclipsed its continental neighbor to become the worst in Europe.
Yet with the true figure likely to be significantly higher due to missed cases and a lag in reporting, the country is braced for worse news to come. (The Week, 5/6/2020)
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RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT
The latest unemployment figures came out this morning (Thursday). An additional 3.2 million people filed for unemployment benefit last week. That brings the total number of Americans without a job to 33.5 million.
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RESISTANCE MOUNTS
From Maine to California, Americans are defying government officials and reclaiming their First Amendment rights to assemble and protest. They are opening up their businesses in open defiance of the authoritarian political leaders. The resistance is building and thankfully remains (mostly) peaceful. How long until the dam breaks and the lockdown regime comes crashing down?(https://patriotpowerednews.com/resistance-to-lockdown-builds-coronavirus-tyrants-losing-their-grip/)
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BRITISH ECONOMY HITS ROCK BOTTOM
In recent weeks economic data have forced statisticians to change the scale on their charts by hitting new lows. This week they showed a record drop in construction activity, and the car industry’s trade body reported that new registrations fell by 97% year-on-year in April. The good news is that the last month probably represented the bottom for Britain’s economy, with lockdown restrictions likely to ease in coming weeks. The bad news is that the shape of the recovery remains uncertain. Today’s Bank of England announcements did not include new policy changes—interest rates are already at record lows, quantitative easing has restarted, and new schemes have been put in place to support business lending — but they did update their forecasts. The bank’s economists now expect the economy to contract by 14% in 2020, the largest annual fall since the early 1700s, followed by a 15% bounce in 2021. The worry though is that while the scale of the decline looks pretty clear, the speed of the recovery is subject to much more uncertainty. (The Economist, 5/7/2020)
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FEARS PANDEMIC MAY HASTEN WEST’S DECLINE
The corona crisis could accelerate Germany and the western powers’ economic and political decline, according to recent economic projections by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and analyses by US foreign policy experts. As the US magazine Foreign Policy writes, Trump’s handling of the crisis has been an “embarrassing debacle” that tarnished the United States’ reputation as a country “that knows how to do things effectively.” Other states are more willing to orient themselves on countries which are “past the peak of infection,” such as China, concludes the president of the Council on Foreign Relations. The EU has also failed in the crisis. According to the IMF, China will economically suffer less under the pandemic than western countries: its economic performance will bypass that of the eurozone quicker than expected and will approach that of the United States. In the West, this emerging shift in power is being accompanied by aggressive anti-Chinese propaganda. (German Foreign Policy, 4/16/2020)
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TEST OF AMERICAN LEADERSHIP, POST-VIRUS
You can see why china might sniff an opportunity in this crisis. Coronavirus has targeted America’s weaknesses, while making many of its strengths temporarily irrelevant. The world’s most powerful military machine is not much use against a virus. But a lack of universal healthcare coverage is suddenly a threat not just to the poor but to the whole of US society.
Question one is: what currency in the world do you most trust? Question two: where, outside your home country, would you most like your children to go to university or to work? For a majority of the global middle-class, the answers to those questions have been, respectively, the dollar and the us. If that continues to be the case after the pandemic, then American primacy will continue.
(Gideon Rachman, FT, 5/6)
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FEARS GROW BREXIT TALKS COULD COLLAPSE IN JUNE
Brexit talks with the European Union could collapse in June unless Brussels abandons its demands for a common fisheries policy and a level playing field, says a source close to the UK’s negotiating team.
The source told The Guardian that only “limited progress in bridging the gaps between us” had been made at last week’s talks, but there was “confidence that progress can be made quite quickly.”
He added that he was “quite positive” over the chances of a trade deal before the end of the year, when the UK’s transition period ends. Boris Johnson is expected to take a more active role in trying to help unblock talks if there is no breakthrough in the months ahead. (The Week, 5/1/2020)
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Britain’s new aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth sets sail 30 April 2020, Defense News
LONDON — Britain’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth departed its Portsmouth base April 29 for training, but only after its crew was tested for the new coronavirus, the Royal Navy announced. The 65,000-ton warship is currently in an isolation period at sea ahead of training off the south coast of England. The ship’s departure from the Portsmouth naval base was delayed by a few days to enable the entire crew of about 800 to be tested for COVID-19. The warship is expected to be at sea for up to eight weeks conducting the Flag Officer Sea Training assessment required to certify that HMS Queen Elizabeth is competent to join the fleet for operational tasking. Britain is targeting next year for the ship’s first operational deployment, and the FOST assessment is a key element in achieving that plan. Training with F-35 fighter jets, simulated battle damage, fires and flood training, and mission rehearsals will be part of the process, the Royal Navy said in a statement. “This will prepare the ship for further training later in the year with other Royal Navy ships to ensure they are ready to deploy as a task group next year,” the service said.(https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/04/30/britains-new-carrier-queen-elizabeth-sets-sail-prepared-to-train-amid-pandemic/)
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EUROZONE ECONOMY SHRINKS AT RECORD RATE
The eurozone economy shrank at its sharpest rate on record in the first quarter of the year, with the continent set to enter a deep recession triggered by the coronavirus lockdown.
Eurostat data published yesterday showed that eurozone GDP shrank by 3.8% in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the final quarter of last year. The contraction is worse than that experienced by the US over the same period and deeper than the financial crisis over a decade ago. Market Watch says it means “three years of the eurozone’s economic activity have been wiped away, and it is likely going to get worse.” (The Week, 5/1/2020)
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COULD ISRAEL AND IRAN GO TO WAR?
The undeclared war between Iran and Israel has reached new heights.
Or more specifically, a height of 270 miles, which is the altitude of Iran’s first spy satellite. It’s more than a nice vantage point for Iran to keep an eye on its arch-enemy Israel. Lacking advanced reconnaissance aircraft and drones to penetrate Israeli air defenses, a satellite may be the only way for Tehran to gather real-time intelligence on Israel.
Which raises the question: will Israel be tempted to destroy Iran’s eye in the sky? (Michael Peck, Middle East Forum, 5/5/2020)
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DISENGAGEMENT FROM CHINA
The United States and transatlantic oriented circles in Germany are increasing pressure on Berlin to participate in the West’s “disengagement” from China. “The alliance question” is “ripe for decision,” declared Mathias Döpfner, CEO of the Axel Springer SE media group. Germany must cease the “aberration” of economic cooperation with the People’s Republic of China and formally position itself in opposition to Beijing. This is the result of the global shift in power that is becoming apparent through the Corona crisis. Whereas China has obviously overcome the low-point of this crisis and is already headed back to economic growth, an improvement of the situation in the USA and Europe is not yet on the horizon. Observers are speculating that the western powers’ “influence and significance” will probably “continue to dwindle.” Whereas Washington is mulling whether to lift China’s sovereign immunity, to permit damage lawsuits, powerful forces in the German economy are seeing their crisis exit in business with China. (German Foreign Policy, 5/4/2020)
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SCOTTISH COMMENT ON CHINESE BEHAVIOR
“No country with a skerrick of self-respect can allow this behavior to go unpunished. I have already suggested some punitive measures designed to wound the regime’s pride without harming the Chinese people: cancel the Huawei deal; pass a Magnitsky-style Act targeting senior CPC figures; champion the Uyghurs at every opportunity (e.g. rename the London street that houses the Chinese embassy after a Uyghur political prisoner); and recognize Taiwan as an independent nation. All I would add, upon reflection, is this: grant British citizenship to Hong Kongers born before 1 July 1997, their children and grandchildren.” — Scottish political commentator Stephen Daisley. (Gatestone, 5/7)
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CORONA ECONOMIC GAP
Foreign policy experts in Germany and the EU’s Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell are warning that Brussels’ corona relief measures could widen the EU’s economic gap. So far, the EU’s reaction to the Corona crisis has led to companies in economically stronger countries receiving more relief assistance than their competitors in more heavily indebted countries, according to a proximate analysis by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). After the crisis, German companies will probably be in a stronger position than, for example, their Italian competitors. “The north-south divide that was already in place before the crisis, could become even more pronounced afterwards,” Borrell predicts. The growing inequality could threaten the EU’s “political project” in the foreseeable future, the DGAP writes. In the competition within the EU, German companies are benefiting from the fact that, by fostering a bottom-to-top redistribution, national corona relief measures are already to their advantage – a development that exacerbates the crisis. (German Foreign Policy, 5/6/2020)
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POPE PIUS XII KNEW OF HOLOCAUST Researchers say Vatican archives show Pope Pius XII knew of WWII killing of Jews
German scholars exploring newly opened trove of documents find letter indicating pope was aware of massacre of Jews in Warsaw and Lviv from own sources, but denied it to Americans.
Researchers studying the newly opened Vatican archives of pope Pius XII have already found evidence that the World War II-era pope knew about the mass killing of Jews from his own sources but kept it from the US government, the Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing interviews with German scholars. The archives were opened March 2, but closed soon after due to the coronavirus crisis. Many of the 200 scholars who had applied for access delayed their trips. However, a German team lead by award-winning religious historian Hubert Wolf from the University of Münster made a start and has already found some damning discoveries. (Times of Israel, 30 April 2020).
Polygamy is a major social problem in Africa and other parts of the world. In Africa, it plays a major role in the wars fought in some areas. Where men have to provide 30 or more cows as the bride price to buy a wife, cattle raids on neighboring tribes and villages have become a regular occurrence. As some men have multiple wives, so others have none. This leads to desperation, to violence and the taking of wives from other tribes.
“Overall, polygamy is in retreat. However, its supporters are fighting to preserve or even extend it. Two-fifths of Khazakhstanis want to re-legalize the practice (it was banned by the Bolsheviks). In 2008 they were thwarted, at least temporarily, when a female MP amended a pro-polygamy bill to say that polyandry – the taking of multiple husbands – would be allowed as well; Muslim greybeards balked at that.” (“The Perils of Polygamy,” The Economist, 12/23/17).
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TO THE POINT
ISRAEL ALLOWS CHRISTIAN TV CHANNEL – A new evangelical Christian channel whose mission is to “take the message of Yeshua our Messiah to all of Israel 24/7, 365 days a year” began broadcasting in Israel in Hebrew last week, after signing a seven-year contract with Israeli cable provider HOT. The Shelanu (Hebrew for “Ours”) TV channel is a branch of GOD TV, which broadcasts missionary programming in 200 countries around the world. The new deal will give the channel access to over 700,000 Israeli households. GOD TV CEO Ward Simpson said in a video announcing the launch that his network had received permission from the Israeli government to “broadcast the gospel of Jesus Christ – Yeshua the Messiah – in Israel on cable TV in the Hebrew language. Never before, as far as we know in the history of the world, has this ever been done.” (jns. 5/5/2020)
The leaders of the European Union and dozens of states and donors pledged €7.4bn ($8.1bn) to fund the fight against covid-19. Most of the money will go towards developing a vaccine, the rest to finding a cure and better testing. More cash could be forthcoming. America declined to take part (or say why). “A pity,” said Norway’s prime minister. (The Economist, 5/5/2020)
CHINA WARNS OF WAR WITH THE US – An internal report presented to Chinese President Xi Jinping and other top leaders concludes that global anti-China sentiment is at a level not seen since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, and recommends preparing for a worst-case scenario of armed conflict with the United States, according to Reuters, citing people familiar with the content of the document.
Eleven European ambassadors to Israel on Thursday warned Jerusalem of severe consequences if it moves ahead with plans to annex parts of the West Bank as part of a government coalition deal. The envoys from the UK, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, Finland and the EU issued a formal objection to the Foreign Ministry against the move, Channel 13 reported. (Times of Israel, 5/1/2020)
Kuwaiti economist Saeed Tawfiqi said in a March 30, 2020 interview on Diwan Al-Mulla Internet TV (Kuwait) that in light of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. and Europe will enter a sharp decline, and China will become stronger. He advised people in the Gulf states to start learning Chinese instead of English and using yuans instead of dollars. (MEMRI 7921)
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AFTER THOUGHT
America has held the pre-eminent position in the world for seventy years. History shows us that it will not always be the case. Indeed, the corona virus could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
The first recorded recognition that the British Empire no longer ranked at number one was in 1948. But it wasn’t until 1956, with the Suez Canal crisis, that it was fully realized. Decline (and fall) is not always overnight as in the fall of Babylon – it can be longer and protracted.
The outcome of the virus and the economic reality of its aftermath, remain to be seen. But the article by Gideon Rachman, of the Financial Times, quoted elsewhere in this blog, gives us a simple test. After it’s all over, will the US dollar still be the currency of choice for the world’s nations? And will people around the world still send their children to US colleges?
We should know the answer to the first question soon; the second may take longer.
Over-spending by the US government has always been a problem. The late President DeGaulle of France dismissively referred to the “Anglo-Saxon debtor countries”, whose economic systems relied on deficit spending. But that over-spending has been a big factor in ensuring the prosperity of both the British and the Americans for the last 50 years.
That will likely change. Borrowing for the stimulus will run into the trillions of dollars. In the UK, we see the same thing happening with massive spending to help the people in a time of trouble.
This must weaken the dollar (and the pound), against other currencies. We may even have reached the full extent of our capacity to borrow, that no more borrowing is possible. At the very least, our children and grandchildren will be buried in debt for generations.
Other nations may decide that the two currencies are not reliable, that they will not hold their value. In which case, they will have to find an alternative (the euro? The Chinese yuan? Gold?). If that’s the case, the US will lose its global leadership position overnight.
Daniel 2:21 says: “He removes kings and raises up kings” (Daniel 2:21). God is behind the rise and fall of nations. Seventy years is about the average for any nation to stay at the top. It was longer for the British, but not the French or the Spanish, who held the ascendant position earlier. Seventy years is about the average lifespan, by which time people have forgotten the lessons of the past, which includes the need to balance the books and stabilize the currency.
Whether this is the time for a major global change is not clear yet. But it soon will be.
Let’s remember God is in charge and not despair. The same chapter of Daniel assures us of the greatest event in history, the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” (Daniel 2:44)
The kingdoms (and republics) of this world must end for God to establish His Kingdom.
Overview of domestic legislation prohibiting human exploitation. Many of the 193 U.N. member states have not gone on to explicitly criminalise slavery and other exploitation. Researchers noted that almost all countries had some form of domestic anti-trafficking legislation in place. Image: Katarina Schwarz and Jean Allain
Slavery is not a crime for almost half the countries in the world. Although laws allowing slavery have been scrapped worldwide, many of the 193 U.N. member states have not gone on to explicitly criminalise slavery. by Sonia Elks | @SoniaElks | Thomson Reuters Foundation, 12 Feb 2020
“Slavery is far from being illegal everywhere and we hope our research will move the conversation beyond this popular myth,” said Katarina Schwarz, a researcher at the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab, which led work on the slavery database.
“It will surprise many people to learn that in all of these countries there are no criminal laws in place to prosecute, convict and punish people for subjecting people to the most extreme forms of exploitation.” More than 40 million people are held in modern slavery, which includes forced labor and forced marriage, according to estimates by the International Labour Organization and the anti-slavery group the Walk Free Foundation.
There is no criminal law against slavery in 94 countries – almost half of U.N. states – said researchers at Rights Lab, which reviewed the study’s findings with the Castan Centre for Human Rights at Monash University in Australia. It found almost two thirds of countries apparently failed to criminalize any of the main four practices associated with slavery – serfdom, debt bondage, forced marriage, and child trafficking – except in the context of human trafficking.
“Slavery in its nature looks to exploit people who fall slightly outside the rule of law,” Jakub Sobik, a spokesman for the charity Anti-Slavery International told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “There is a need for wide-ranging policies that address the wider context and systemic reasons why people are made vulnerable to being tricked and trapped and controlled by another person.” (http://news.trust.org/item/20200212132545-vdpzu)
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GM PULLS OUT OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND, THAILAND
General Motors has been in Australia since 1856 when it first sold saddles to Australians. In the 1960’s and 70’s they produced Holden cars, a popular brand that really caught on. Now, they are selling up and moving out. The big benefactor?
China.
It’s symbolic of what’s happening to American capitalism. The US is losing out to competitors, especially the Chinese.
And it’s not just cars. In the same week, President Duterte of the Philippines tore up the defense treaty with the US, preferring Beijing over Washington. One reason may be Duterte’s stance on human rights, which has led to criticism from Americans. China doesn’t care about human rights.
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CORONAVIRUS “MADE IN CHINA”
The Chinese Communist Party calls it “discourse management.” It’s more than mere censorship and bigger than propaganda. And Beijing is pretty good at it. The party uses it to control its own people, but also to manage foreign governments.
Take the new coronavirus, for instance. It may be a made-in-China global pandemic, and China might have bungled its handling of it, but that’s somehow irrelevant and China’s government says it’s “unhappy” with Australia. Come again?
The outbreak is classified by the World Health Organization as a global health emergency. It was created in China, of course. The consensus among virologists is that the likely cause was the Chinese authorities’ persistent tolerance of unsafe animal and food handling practices.
After the 2003 outbreak of a novel coronavirus, the SARS epidemic, the Chinese government banned all trade in wild animals. Once the crisis had passed, the authorities relaxed the ban, announcing 54 types of exemption. In other words, it was going to happen again one day. Then, once this outbreak was discovered, the Chinese authorities seriously mismanaged it. This is now the subject of frenetic blame-shifting inside China.
When the first cases started turning up in the city of Wuhan in mid-December, two weeks before the official disclosure on December 31 that there was a new virus, sick people were turned away from local hospitals and sent home to infect other people and die. The hospitals were told to report “zero infections.”
Why? Because an important meeting of provincial and city officials was under way in Wuhan and only good news was permitted. The cover-ups and delays were “reprehensible” according to an eminent Australian virologist, John Mackenzie. (Peter Hartcher, Sydney Morning Herald, 2/18/2020)
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GOG AND MAGOG — COULD RUSSIA ATTACK ISRAEL?
Russia’s ambassador to Syria this week issued what some saw as a veiled threat should Israel continue bombing Iranian assets in the war-torn country.
On February 6, an aerial attack on a target near Damascus killed 20 Syrian and Iranian military officials. It also caused Syrian air defenses to inadvertently fire on an airplane carrying 172 passengers. The plane managed to safely land at a nearby airport.
Israel Defense Minister Naftali Bennett later hinted that the attack was just another in a long series of Israeli strikes against Iranian assets that are admittedly in Syria for the purpose of threatening the Jewish state.
But Russian Ambassador Alexander Yefimov wasn’t interested in Israeli justifications.
In an interview with Sputnik Arabic, Yefimov called the Israeli raids “provocative and very dangerous.” He further cautioned that “this increases the possibility of conflict over Syria.”
Since Syria is already in conflict, his warning was taken to mean that the ongoing Israeli raids could eventually result in an armed clash between the Jewish state and Russian forces in the region.
Israeli political and military officials have never been shy about referencing the biblical “War of Gog and Magog.” It’s something they believe is going to happen. (Israel Today, 2/17)
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GERMAN CRITICISM OF US BREAKING INTERNATIONAL LAW
In reference to the US drone-murder of Iran’s General Qassem Suleimani, German government advisors are warning against a growing number of violations of international law by the United States. For years, “the foreign policy of the Trump administration has demonstrated that it has been a particular strain on international law,” observes an analysis published by Berlin’s German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). Suleimani’s murder suggests that Washington is now beginning to extend its “war on terror” tactics, that had already become common-place under President Barack Obama – such as drone-murders – to leading representatives of foreign nations, it considers to be “a threat.” In the future, “state representatives should fear for their lives, when they travel outside their country,” because “the consequences for international diplomacy are hardly predictable.” The SWP advises the German government to take a clear stand. Of course, in its attempts to implement its globalist policies over the past few decades, Berlin, too, has repeatedly violated international law, often as an accomplice of the USA. (German Foreign Policy, 1/28)
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Watch Israel’s new laser weapon shoot drones out of sky by Yaron Steinbuch, 12 Feb 2020
An Israeli drone defense system fit for “Star Wars” has shot down multiple maneuvering targets with a high-powered laser beam, according to reports. “The system achieved 100 percent success in all test scenarios,” defense technology company Rafael said in a statement about its Drone Dome C-UAS, or Counter-Unmanned Aerial System, the Times of Israel reported. “The stages of the interception included target detection, identification and interception” with the laser beam, it said in a video of a recent demo of the system. In the footage, a vehicle-mounted system is shown engaging the targets, including zigzagging drones. In one test, three drones flying in formation were downed in rapid succession. “Drone Dome is designed to address threats posed by hostile drones both in military and civilian sites,” Rafael said.
Drone Dome refers to a package that includes a search radar, drone radio command detector, an electro-optical sensor, and command-and-control system, according to Popular Mechanics.The system can detect objects as small as 0.021 square feet at 2.1 miles. Once detected, it locks onto the drone, keeping it in its cross hairs as it maneuvers in any direction. When the laser is blasted, it melts away the drone’s plastic housing and destroys its electronics, sending it to the ground. (https://nypost.com/2020/02/12/watch-israels-wild-new-laser-weapon-shoot-drones-out-of-sky/)
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Munich Security Conference: France’s Macron envisions new era of European strength The French president projected a vision of a Europe with new military power at the Munich Security Conference. As the only nuclear power in the EU, he also foresaw greater European sovereignty.
“We cannot always go through the United States, no, we have to think in a European way as well,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on stage at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) on Saturday as he continued a theme of his presidency: projecting bold European sovereignty onto the international stage.
He was referring specifically to Europe’s nuclear assets, pointing out a key difference to the Cold War era when Europe’s nuclear shield was primarily coordinated by the US. “Now we have to be able to say clearly that if we want a sovereign Europe, if we want to protect our citizens, then we do need to look at that aspect, also with a view to Germany,” he said. To show his commitment, Macron has already invited Germany to take part in a strategic dialogue over France’s nuclear weapon policy.
The UK’s exit from the European Union has shifted added responsibility onto France. Though the UK and France are of course still NATO partners, along with the US and Germany, France is now the only nuclear power in the EU, which leaves the Paris government balancing its nuclear defense strategy between, as Macron put it, “the ambitions of NATO and Europe.” (Deutsche Welle, 15 Feb, 2020) (– Extract from: (https://www.dw.com/en/munich-security-conference-frances-macron-envisions-new-era-of-european-strength/a-52389586)
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Munich Security Conference: African leaders absent from Sahel talks Germany and other world powers meeting in Munich raised concerns about the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel region. But African heads of state who had been invited were conspicuously absent.
Not a single head of state from the continent attended, despite the growing threat of terrorism and the armed conflicts tearing it apart.
A report by Save the Children, published as world leaders convened in Munich, Germany, said at least 95,000 children had been killed or maimed across the world since 2005. Tens of thousands were abducted and millions were denied access to education.
Germany makes a case for the Sahel: In the absence of African leaders, to bring the matter to the table, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer called for an increased effort in the fight against Islamists in Africa. “The Sahel is a key region for Europe, for example, when it comes to migration or the threat of terrorism,” she said, adding: “That is why it is so important that Germany remains committed there, militarily as well.” Kramp-Karrenbauer’s statement was encouraging to the Central African Republic’s defense minister, Marie-Noelle Koyara. “I take this opportunity to thank the German government for making such a wise decision,” the CAR defense minister told DW.
African children were the worst affected, according to Save the Children. Some 170 million across Africa and the Middle East are living in war zones. “You will see that most of the violent conflicts do not feature,” Dan Smith, director of SIPRI, an international think tank dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control, and disarmament, told DW.
Smith is disappointed the international community is not paying attention to the crisis unfolding in Africa.
EU’s Franco-German axis will stutter without the Brits, says Vestager “I think we will see a new dynamic in the union, but it will take some time before we fully recover,” the EU competition and digital chief said. by Simon Van Dorpe, Politico.eu, 30 Jan 2020
France and Germany will struggle to drive the EU without the British “energy” that helped Paris and Berlin work together, EU competition and digital chief Margrethe Vestager said today. “One of the things we will be missing is of course the energy. Because we have a French-German axis – but part of the energy to make that axis work comes from, came from, the U.K.,” Vestager said when asked what she would miss about Britain. Vestager said that other member countries, “maybe changing coalitions of member states,” would have to step into that void. “I think we will see a new dynamic in the union, but it will take some time before we fully recover,” she said. Vestager attended the Brexit vote in the parliament on Wednesday, which she said was “really touching because you see it is real.” Vestager also said she would miss the sense of humor of the Brits, which she said was similar to the Danish.
“I was very close to [former U.K. Commissioner] Jonathan Hill; I was sitting next to [Hill’s successor] Julian King when he was the Commissioner here and I miss them, because they come with a U.K. culture,” she said. She told an anecdote of how she struggled to communicate in English at the start of her first mandate and when she asked Hill if he didn’t find it exhausting how the other commissioners treated his language, he said: “Of course not, I’m so honored that you’re all trying.”
(https://www.politico.eu/article/eus-franco-german-axis-will-stutter-without-the-brits-says-vestager/)
Brexit punches 12-bln-euro hole in EU finances
by Agence France-Presse, 30 Jan, 2020
Brussels – When Britain leaves the European Union at midnight on Friday the bloc will lose the second-biggest net contributor to its budget, leaving a 12-billion-euro ($13-billion) hole in its finances. The United Kingdom will continue making budget contributions this year under an agreed post-Brexit transition period. But from 2021 Europe will have to look elsewhere. This further complicates an already fraught debate between the remaining member states over the EU’s 2021-2027 long-term budget, called the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The European Commission has had a proposed MFF on the table since May 2018, and its new president Ursula von der Leyen is keen to get it approved soon. But a so-called “Frugal Five” of wealthy mainly northern countries — Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden — are seeking to limit EU expenditure. And a rival “Friends of Cohesion” group of 16 eastern and Mediterranean countries wants to defend the budget rules.
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Frustrated by liberal policies, some Oregon residents petitioned to leave the state – by moving the border with Idaho westward.
The movement secured initial approval from two counties and aims to get enough signatures to put the proposal on ballots in November, according to the group called Greater Idaho. If the group succeeds, voters in southeast Oregon may see a question on whether their county should become part of Idaho by redrawing the border. “Rural counties have become increasingly outraged by laws coming out of the Oregon Legislature that threaten our livelihoods, our industries, our wallet, our gun rights, and our values,” Mike McCarter, one of the chief petitioners, said in a news release. “We tried voting those legislators out, but rural Oregon is outnumbered and our voices are now ignored. This is our last resort.” (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/02/17/oregon-idaho-border-petition-secede/4789936002/)
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TO THE POINT
After a five-month delay, Afghanistan’s electoral commission named Ashraf Ghani as the winner of the country’s presidential election. The result was delayed after supporters of Mr. Ghani’s leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, accused the commission of bias and threatened to form a parallel government. The victory gives Mr. Ghani a second five-year term as president. (The Economist 2/19/2020)
Three of Britain’s remaining overseas territories are under constant threat from Spain (Gibraltar), Argentina (Falkland Islands) and Mauritius (Diego Garcia, home of a big US naval base in the Indian Ocean). Vladimir Putin, soon to be proclaimed dictator of Russia, has given his support to Argentina’s claim on the Falklands. At one time, the three territories would have had nothing to fear as they would have been protected by the Royal Navy. Not any more – Italy’s navy is now bigger than Britain’s. Quite a comedown for what was the world’s greatest navy before World War II. The navy is not even going to be big enough to stop Europeans fishing in British waters, post-Brexit.
The British government announced the first details of its post-Brexit plans for immigration policy. It promised that there would be no more visas for low-skilled workers and no freedom of movement between Britain and the rest of the European Union. Visa applications will instead be judged on a “points-based” immigration system. (The Economist 2/19/2020)
German man leaves €7 million fortune to far-right AfD — An engineer who died in 2018 has donated his entire estate of gold, property and patents to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The endowment is one of the largest ever given to a German political party.
Syria’s state media released images of what they say are destroyed houses near Damascus (AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
Israel says it has hit dozens of targets in Syria belonging to the government and allied Iranian forces.
The Israeli military says the “wide-scale strikes” responded to rockets fired by an Iranian unit into Israel. Syria says two civilians died and that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles over Damascus. Other reports say the death toll was higher. Local reports said loud explosions were heard in the capital. Pictures on social media showed a number of fires.
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PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
“It’s easy to go about our lives and forget that in places like Nigeria, Iran and North Korea being a Christian can often lead to death.” — Vernon Brewer, founder and CEO of World Help, Fox News, November 4, 2019
“4,136 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons. On average, that’s 11 Christians killed every day for their faith.” — Open Doors, World Watch List 2019
More than 245 million Christians around the world are currently suffering from persecution. — Open Doors, World Watch List, 2019 (Gatestone 11/15/2019)
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CHANGES AHEAD IF CORBYN WINS
The United Kingdom has a general election on December 12th. It is considered the most important election in 80 years. It will determine the issue of Brexit, the future direction of the British economy and even of the United Kingdom itself.
“By far the most likely casualty of a Corbyn government would be the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, where there is a strong likelihood that other member states of the alliance will be deeply reluctant to share highly sensitive material with a British prime minister who has spent his entire political career openly associating with regimes and groups that are utterly hostile to the West and its allies.
At the heart of his hard Left approach to foreign policy lies a deep hatred for the US and its role in safeguarding the interests of the Western democracies.
Thus Mr. Corbyn’s instinct is to be more sympathetic to the views of Russia, Iran, North Korea and the Assad regime in Syria than Britain’s long-standing allies in Washington and Europe. (Con Coughlin, Gatestone, 11/16/2019)
JEREMY CORBYN’S BIG NEGATIVE EFFECT ON FOREIGN POLICY
“A Corbyn-led government would quickly lead to the biggest change in Britain’s defense posture since the second world war. Even if the country stayed in NATO, as is likely, it would be a passive member, reluctant to push back against Russian expansionism and hostile to the idea of a nuclear deterrent. Given that NATO depends on confidence that it means what it says, this would be a severe blow to its credibility. Britain’s Middle East policy would be revolutionized, with a more hostile stance toward Israel and the Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia, and a friendlier one to Iran. America would almost certainly stop sharing critical intelligence with Downing Street, for fears that such secrets would find their way into Russian or Iranian hands. Given Britain’s membership of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, that would harm Europe’s ability to combat hostile states and non-state actors.
“Such a revolution would come at a sensitive time. Mr. Trump is already disrupting established security relations (for all their differences, he and Mr. Corbyn share a common hostility to the multinational institutions that have kept the peace since 1945). Brexit is straining relations with Britain’s European allies, while gobbling up the political class’s available bandwidth. The Foreign Office is demoralized by decades of cuts, and the security establishment is still tainted by the weapons-of-mass-destruction fiasco.
All this is taking place at a time when Mr. Putin is on the march and Islamic State is shifting its focus from state-building to global terror. A Dangerous world may be about to become more dangerous.” (“Security questions,” Bagehot, The Economist, 11/9,2019).
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MACRON ON RUSSIA
“. . . consider Mr. Macron’s Russia policy. He has long argued that rogue powers are more dangerous when isolated. To this end, he has hosted Vladimir Putin at both Versailles, near Paris, and Bregancon, on the Mediterranean. But his call for a “rapprochement” with Russia, in order to keep it out of China’s arms, has alarmed Poland and the Baltics. “My idea is not in the least naïve,” argues Mr. Macron. He insists that any movement would be conditional on respect for the Minsk peace accords in Ukraine. He has not called for sanctions to be lifted. And he sees this as a long-term strategy, that “might take ten years.” Mr. Macron’s belief is that, eventually, Europe will need to try to find common ground with its near neighbor. Not doing so would be a “huge mistake”.” (Briefing, The Economist, 11/9/2019)
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WHO WILL PAY FOR ENDLESS WARS?
“Future generations will pay for them: the wars have been funded by debt. Most Americans have had little reason to think their country is even at war. And lucky them because war is hell. But this disconnect helps explain why the country’s civil-military relations are as distant as they are. It also helps explain how America came to be locked in such long and largely unproductive conflicts in the first place. Its voters started to reckon with the rights and wrongs of the Vietnam War – then demand accountability for it – only after they felt its sting. By contrast Donald Trump, who almost alone among national politicians decries the latest conflicts, has struggled to interest voters in them – or indeed end them.
“Though mostly wrong on the details, the president raises an important question of the long wars. What have they achieved?” (Lexington, The Economist, 11/9/2019).
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TEMPLE MOUNT NO LONGER
154 UN nations call Temple Mount solely by Muslim name Haram al-Sharif – EU approves text, but warns it may not do so in the future by Tovah Lazaroff, November 17, 2019
The UN gave its preliminary approval to a resolution that referred to the Temple Mount solely by its Muslim name of Haram al-Sharif.
The resolution passed at the UN’s Fourth Committee in New York 154-8, with 14 abstentions and 17 absences. It was one of eight pro-Palestinian resolutions approved on Friday, out of a slate of more than 15 such texts the committee is expected to approve. The UN General Assembly will take a final vote on the texts in December.
. . . Acting US Deputy Representative to the United Nations Cherith Norman Chalet told the Fourth Committee it opposed the “annual submission of more than a dozen resolutions biased against Israel.
. . . “As the United States has repeatedly made clear, this dynamic is unacceptable,” Chalet continued. “We see resolutions that are quick to condemn all manner of Israeli actions, but say nothing or almost nothing about terrorist attacks against innocent civilians. And so the United States will once again vote against these one-sided resolutions and encourages other nations to do so.”
(https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/154-UN-nations-call-Temple-Mount-solely-by-Muslim-name-Haram-al-Sharif-608135)
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GERMAN MILITIAS
Right-wing militia groups say they patrol where police turn a blind eye. But with criminality dropping and more police than ever in Germany, analysts and politicians say their motives are more sinister. Deutsche Welle, 18/11/2019
Sebastian Niedrich is one of about 20 militiamen in Berlin with a “citizen patrol” initiative. In groups of two or three, the red-vested men patrol neighborhoods in Berlin they claim are areas where petty crime is rife. Their initiative is called “Establish Protection Zones” (“Schafft Schutzzone”). It is abbreviated as “SS,” which in Germany immediately brings to mind the notorious Nazi-era “SS” – the paramilitary “Protection Squadron” that persecuted millions and was directly responsible for genocide. Niedrich rejects any such connection. Right-wing extremist initiative: The “Establish Protection Zones” initiative, an offshoot of Germany’s extreme-right National Democratic Party (NPD), says the areas it patrols are often popular tourist areas, as well as those with growing immigrant communities.
The first subheading of the NPD’s party platform in Berlin reads “The Problem of Foreigners” and lays out ways to close Germany’s borders, bar immigrants from receiving jobs and social benefits, and preserve Germany’s national identity. The party’s website also prominently displays images of its logo-wearing patrols, superimposed with slogans like “Protect Germans!” and “Germans helping Germans!” Multiple attempts to disband or ban the party entirely have failed in courts. The extreme-right NPD in western Germany, has made it their task to protest against Islam. A study on German society’s biggest fears released earlier this year by the Berlin Social Science Center showed that one in three respondents feared “foreign infiltration” on account of too many immigrants. Over half feared criminality.
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GERMANY-TAIPEI LINKS
German politician urges military links with Taipei Taipei Times, 19 Nov 2019
Germany and Taiwan should conduct military exchanges, which would be more meaningful than exchanges with China, German lawmaker Ulrich Lechte, a member of the Bundestag Committee on Foreign Affairs, said on Sunday. “The free world should stand together,” the Free Democratic Party lawmaker wrote on Facebook. The Taipei Representative Office in Germany’s Munich office shared Lechte’s post on its Facebook page, and thanked him for his continuing support of Taiwan. The German newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported that 62 nations, including China, are to receive training from the Bundeswehr, Germany’s military.
Amnesty International arms and human rights expert Mathias John criticized the plans to train Chinese soldiers, telling the paper that doing so was “incomprehensible” given China’s “human rights situation and the role the Chinese People’s Liberation Army plays” in human rights violations in China. John also brought up the protests in Hong Kong and the Hong Kong police’s response to them. Germany should “send a clear message and immediately cease all military cooperation with China,” he said. A spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense told the paper that Chinese soldiers regularly participate in educational events organized by the German military, including international officer courses, as well as officer training courses offered at military schools, universities and military leadership academies. The weekly news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday reported that the German government is planning to send warships into the South China Sea and through the Taiwan Strait as a way of “refuting Chinese territorial claims” in those areas (http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2019/11/19/2003726106)
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ADMIRAL HORATIO NELSON and THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR
214 Years Ago
The Battle of Trafalgar, fought 21 October 1805, was one of the most important and decisive Naval engagements of all time, decisively establishing the supremacy of the Royal Navy on the high seas. Rather than a conventional engagement between lines of battle with gunnery duels, the English made a bold attack that allowed them to gain local superiority over the enemy and raked their ships with devastating broadsides. The Franco-Spanish fleet was decisively defeated and British supremacy on the high seas was decisively established for the rest of the 19th century. Lord Nelson’s defeat of the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar allowed British trade to flourish around the world, laying the foundations for Britain’s emergence as an economic superpower. It also made possible the Greatest Century of Missions, as Protestant missionaries were able to sail to every corner of the world. The Royal Navy’s domination of the high seas brought an end to the slave trade in the 19th Century. (Reformation SA, 2019)
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TO THE POINT
The Chinese Ambassador to the UK has accused both the UK and the US of interfering in Chinese domestic affairs. He is referring to British and American support for student protesters in Hong Kong. He has a point. Democracy isn’t working too well right now in the US or the UK. Perhaps we should shut up until things calm down at home!
“The escalation of the unrest in Hong Kong coincides with recent mass protests around the world. These protests – in Bolivia, Iran and elsewhere – are not connected. However, they are loosely linked thematically in that they concern inequality, political freedoms, corruption and climate change.” (“Protests catch fire,” USA Today, 11/19/2019)
Prince Andrew’s BBC interview in which he denies having had a relationship with a 17- year-old girl, courtesy of Jeffrey Epstein, has failed to convince many. Members of the royal family rarely give interviews. It’s difficult to remember one, which was advantageous to the royals. Perhaps they just haven’t had as much practice at lying as politicians! (Prince Andrew has since withdrawn from public duties, “for the foreseeable future”.)
A 55-year-old man in China’s Inner Mongolia region has been diagnosed with bubonic plague after eating wild rabbit, the third recorded case of the deadly disease in the country.
A famous person I’ve never heard of is complaining about the patriotic song “Rule Britannia,” which dates back to the days when the British Royal Navy governed the world. Is she objecting to the fact that the royal navy did more than any other institution to end the slave trade? From 1810 to 1860 the West Africa Squadron freed 250,000 slaves. (see article above on Horatio Nelson; last sentence) “Slavery was a fact of life in the sixteenth century. The African slave trade was already the largest form of commerce in the world. No one had the least qualms about it, least of all Africa’s own tribal rulers.” (“To Rule the Waves,” page 2, Arthur Herman, 2004)
“The global debt ballooned to a record high of more than $250 trillion and shows no sign of slowing down, according to a new report from the Institute of International Finance (IIF). . . . Extended low interest rates and easy money has facilitated the accumulation of a bone crushing amount of debt over the last decade or so,” Dylan Riddle, a spokesperson for the IIF told ABC News in a statement. “This debt has helped fuel global growth, however, we must focus on managing the current debt load, and deploying resources for more productive means — like fighting climate change or investing in growth.” (ABC News)
I spent a couple of evenings this week watching “The War That Made America,” a 4-hour PBS special made in 2006, to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the French and Indian War. The intro added the words: “And it’s not the war you think.”
It is, arguably, the most significant war in American history. If it had ended differently, we might have been French and Catholic. Instead, we speak English and have freedom of religion.
Prior to 1754 the British had control of the eastern seaboard. The French were in control of the “Ohio country.” From Canada to Louisiana, they had a series of forts that controlled the center of what is now the US. These forts stopped Americans from moving westward. They were trying to strengthen these forts when conflict arose between Britain and France.
George Washington fired the first shot, as a member of the colonial Virginia Regiment, a provincial militia. It was the first shot in what was really the first world war, a war that saw fighting in India, the Philippines, Africa and Europe as well as North America. Outside of the US, the war is known as the Seven Years War.
After more than seven years of brutal fighting, the French were driven out of North America. The threat from the Roman Catholic Church, which did not tolerate freedom of religion, was over. The French king no longer ruled over North America, replaced by an English king who was a constitutional monarch.
When told the news that he had lost Canada, Louis XV was talking to Voltaire, the famous French philosopher. In an attempt to console him, Voltaire asked what the French had actually lost. It was, he said, just “a few acres of snow.”
Fast forward fifteen years, to 1775. This was the year that saw the beginning of major changes that lay the groundwork for the world we now live in.
From Wikipedia: “In the Hebrew Bible, forty is often used for time periods, forty days or forty years, which separate “two distinct epochs.” Several Jewish leaders and kings are said to have ruled for “forty years,” that is, a generation.”
1775 was truly the end of one epoch. 1815 was the beginning of another.
MANASSEH SEPARATED FROM EPHRAIM
The forty-year period began with the separation from the “multitude of nations,” of a ”great people,” Manasseh. The multitude remained united under the Crown.
“Then Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said: “God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has fed me all my life long to this day, The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; Let my name be named upon them, And the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
“Now when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him; so he took hold of his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.”
But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”
“So he blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will bless, saying, ‘May God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh!’ ” And thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.” (Genesis 48:14-20)
2. CANADA ALSO BECAME A NATION.
One of the consequences of the US victory at Yorktown was the expansion of Canada and of it becoming its very own nation. The British had control of the 14th colony, Quebec (Lower Canada), which refused to join the “Protestant Republic” forming to the south. Britain had conquered Quebec in 1759, guaranteeing the French their Roman Catholicism. Many of America’s Tories fled to Ontario, then Upper Canada, and, with Lower Canada, formed a new nation of Canada. Later, in 1867, they would be given independence under the Crown, forming the Dominion of Canada, the first nation of the British Commonwealth.
3. FRANCE LOSES ITS SUPREMACY TO ENGLAND
The first blow against French domination was struck in 1759 when the British gained Montreal and Quebec. But it was the 22-year period of on-again, off again, military conflict with France that led to a century of British domination. The Napoleonic Wars weakened France and strengthened England. The defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, on 18th June, 1815, saw the end of France as a great military power.
4. The LOUISIANA PURCHASE of 1803, financed by a British bank, gave America the Ohio country and enabled it to expand westward.
5. NAVAL SUPREMACY
The Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805, one of the greatest British victories of all time, gave Britain naval supremacy. For over a century, the Royal Navy ruled the seas, protected British territories and the US and ensured the peace.
ABOLISHMENT OF THE SLAVE TRADE
The trade in slaves ended for the British Empire in 1807. The US followed a year later. It wasn’t until 1833 that the British ended slavery throughout their empire. For the US it was thirty years later during the Civil War. But the end of the slave trade boosted the growth of the British Empire, which was seen throughout Africa as a Liberator. The West Africa Squadron of the British Royal Navy patrolled the Gulf of Guinea, and was authorized to stop any naval vessel (of whatever country) and free their slaves. In the fifty years of the Squadron it is estimated that 150,000 slaves were freed.
During the Revolutionary War, the British were supported by most of the slaves in the thirteen colonies, slaves who were promised their freedom at the end of the war. With defeat, they took those slaves on board ships, many of which went to found a new nation, Sierra Leone, in West Africa.
Three new countries emerged in the 40-year period we are looking at – the United States, Canada and Sierra Leone.
WAR OF 1812
This war showed that the US was a serious nation. Canada was, too. The two fought and established their separate identities. Canadians made it clear they wanted to stay under the Crown.
THE COST OF ARROGANCE
The PBS documentary showed quite clearly the role of the Indians in the struggle for North America. The French started the war with great advantage – most of the Indian tribes were on their side. But their arrogance toward the Indians caused that to change.
At the same time, British arrogance toward George Washington cost them the American colonies twenty years later. They refused to allow Washington advancement in the ranks because he was a “provincial.” He quit the military in 1758, returning in 1775 to lead the Patriots” against the British.
The DVD is well worth four hours. You could also read the book “A Few Acres of Snow” by Robert Leckie, “the saga of the French and Indian Wars.” Published in 2006.
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MAY VISITS GRIMSBY
Mrs. Theresa May, Prime Minister of the UK, visited my hometown of Grimsby this morning. She was there to make a pitch for her latest Brexit proposals, to be voted on in parliament on Tuesday. Grimsby is one of the towns that most supported Brexit. She made it clear that, if her proposals are rejected, the UK might have to remain in the EU.
Even if her proposals receive the support of parliament (a big IF), there is no guarantee that the EU will go along with them.
The people voted to leave the European Union. Now they are being told it’s not as simple as that. Why not let the people have what they voted for? That will never do!
We had all nine grandchildren in the house last week, Monday through Friday. Hence, the lack of a blog post a week ago. Visits to the grocery store were frequent, as was taking them places. There was no time to write, or even watch the news.
After our mini-family reunion, I really hope they will want to see each other after my wife and I are no longer around to host the gathering. I’m sure they will!
I was struck (again) by how much louder the five younger ones, all boys, were, than their four older female sisters and cousins. Noise, noise, noise! Can’t boys do anything quietly? Clearly not.
I found myself walking through the daily debris silently reminding myself that “children are a blessing!” They certainly are and I’m already looking forward to when we can all be together again.
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THEN AND NOW
When everybody was gone, I started reading Boris Johnson’s “The Churchill Factor: How one man made history.”
You may have heard of Boris Johnson. He’s sometimes been described as “Britain’s Donald Trump.” On his recent visit to England, Trump expressed the opinion that Boris would make “a great prime minister.” A poll earlier this week showed him to be the favorite to succeed Theresa May. Donald Trump and Boris Johnson have known each other for some time and are good friends.
Boris served two terms as a very successful Mayor of London. More recently, he was Britain’s Foreign Secretary, the equivalent of Secretary of State.
He resigned a few weeks ago over Brexit. His objection, supported by many, is that Mrs. May, the Prime Minister, seems to want to compromise with the European Union. This would not deliver the Brexit (total independence) from the EU that was promised after the referendum over two years ago. There is still no agreement between the UK and the EU over future trade. Boris Johnson’s point is that the United Kingdom doesn’t need one – that new trade deals can be signed after breaking away from Brussels. Have faith – it will all work out.
I must admit to sympathy with his stance. Get out quick. Don’t hesitate.
His book on Churchill was written a few years ago and published in 2014. I’m now reading chapter 17 (there are 23 chapters). The chapter is titled “The Wooing of America” and details Churchill’s relationship with Franklin Roosevelt. His single-minded mission was to bring the United States into the war against Hitler. At their first wartime meeting, the two leaders were concerned that Hitler had recently invaded Russia. But Churchill knew that after Russia, he would come after Britain; and that if Britain fell and Hitler sank the Royal Navy, America would be next. The whole world would very quickly descend into the barbarism of fascism.
A lot was at stake when they met in Newfoundland on August 10th, 1941. This was the handshake that was to change the history of the twentieth century.
“As he stretches out that elegant white hand he knows he is reaching for his only lifeline; and yet there is nothing about him to convey the gloom of his position. On the contrary, his face is suddenly wreathed in smiles, babyish, irresistible.
“Roosevelt smiles back; they grip hands, for ages, each reluctant to be the first to let go, and for the next two days Churchill maintains his schmoozathon. We don’t know exactly what they say to each other at the first such Atlantic conference — the direct ancestor of NATO; but we know that Churchill lays it on thick. His mission is to build up a sense of common destiny; to work with the grain of Roosevelt’s natural instincts, and to turn the USA from distant sympathizers into full-blown allies in bloodshed.” (page 235)
This was a family reunion, only the second time a President of the United States had shaken the hand of a British prime minister in office. 160 years after Yorktown. 160 years after the United States had separated itself from the rest of the English speaking world. Now the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon world (the two sons of Joseph) were to be united in a common purpose. They met in Canada, the oldest Dominion of the British Empire, a nation founded by Loyalists at the end of the Revolutionary War. The alliance that was forming has remained the foundation of global peace and order for 77 years.
As I read Johnson’s book, I could see parallels with today. There’s no fighting this time (not yet, anyway), but once again Britain is trying to free itself from European despotism, as it has so often in history. There are those, like the current prime minister, who want to compromise; but others, like Boris Johnson, who are in a Churchillian mood, wanting to raise two fingers to the German-dominated EU (the two fingers were “V for Victory” in WWII, but, reversed, they have another meaning in England, which you will have to Google!)
History may repeat itself.
Confidence in Mrs. May is waning. The Opposition Labour Party is scandalizing Britain with its anti-semitism. The smaller parties are not credible. An internal coup in the Conservative Party could replace Mrs. May with Boris Johnson, just as Chamberlain was replaced with Winston Churchill.
There’s another analogy.
Mr. Trump repeated a commitment to Mrs. May that the US will offer a free trade deal to the United Kingdom when Britain leaves the EU. (EU rules mean that no deal can be signed until D-Day on 29th March next year; D for Departure!) American farmers, losing markets in the current trade dispute with the EU, will benefit from a new trade deal with the UK; Britain will benefit with plentiful supplies of cheap food.
Once again, the New World may come to the aid of the Old.
Once again, a family reunion could make a big difference in the world.
There’s another lesson from Churchill’s meeting with FDR. After the historic meeting of president and prime minister, there was a “divine service” on the Sunday morning. Sailors of the two nations sang hymns together – “chosen by Churchill – that express that single heritage: two broadly Protestant nations bound together against a vile and above all a pagan regime.” (pages 235-6)
This was just a few weeks after the National Day of Prayer called by King George VI during Dunkirk.
At such a critical time, today’s leaders should follow the example of their predecessors and ask God for divine help through a very challenging time.
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BEWARE OF CHINESE TIES
Britain is keen for a sweet deal with China after Brexit – but watch out for Beijing’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, says Michael Auslin. For decades we’ve heard dire warnings about China’s growing military power, but these doom-mongers have missed the point. China isn’t on the war path. Where old empires would start by invading, it starts by trading. Only when an economy has become dependent on trade does Beijing begin to demand more, with the aim of creating an ever-expanding ‘Greater China’ in its near abroad. (Freddy Gray, The Spectator, 8/2)
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FARMERS IN CRISIS
There’s increasing talk of land redistribution in South Africa, the wealthiest nation on the African continent. It’s been almost a quarter of a century since the end of apartheid, a period in which few black South Africans have seen any benefits. A wealthy elite has been created through corruption at the highest level, but little has been done to help the average person.
Neighboring Zimbabwe confiscated land from white farmers at the turn of this century. The result was mass starvation, the collapse of the currency and economic chaos.
The European farmers who colonized southern Africa in the nineteenth century brought a great deal of development to the region. Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was the ‘breadbasket of Africa;” now, after almost forty years of independence, it’s the “basket case of Africa.” The white farmers who once dominated Rhodesia were “commercial farmers,” similar to their American and Canadian counter-parts. African farmers are “subsistence” farmers, who just grow enough food for their own families. This is a major cultural difference the world does not understand. Confiscating white farmland can only have one consequence – a dramatic drop in food production (Zimbabwe saw a 90% drop, with a consequent famine).
Farmers in South Africa are being murdered at an alarming rate. Many have chosen to leave the country. Western Australia is one area that is attracting them. Other parts of Africa are offering the farmers 99-year leases to boost their own agricultural production. Even Russia is encouraging them to relocate.
Other farmers from Europe moved to North America, Australia and New Zealand in the nineteenth century. These commercial farmers produce a disproportionate percentage of the world’s food. Higher tariffs on agricultural produce could affect this, along with changes in the weather and massive fires that seem to be a permanent fixture of our landscape. All of these threaten today’s farmers.
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AFRICAN ELECTION
Zimbabwe’s woes never seem to end. The “first free election” held at the weekend, has been followed by riots and violence as the losing party claims to have won. It’s not possible to determine who really won, but after 38 years, ZANU-PF is still in power. Most people will not be surprised.
Prior to Zimbabwe, Rhodesia had elections for decades without any violence. Zimbabwe has not been able to achieve that. As is the case elsewhere in Africa, tribalism and corruption have led to democracy being compromised. Zimbabwe’s first leader, Robert Mugabe, was in power for almost 38 years, leading a very corrupt regime.
It’s doubtful there will be any significant change.
"Once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened." — Sir Winston Churchill
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