Global school reopenings pose massive threat to children

Evan Blake

The global surge of the COVID-19 Delta variant, the most infectious so far, poses particular dangers to children who remain largely unvaccinated globally. Well aware of these risks, governments worldwide are nevertheless deepening their drive to fully open schools for the fall semester.

Peyton Copeland, 5, was hospitalized with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C). Photo: (Twtiter/@Cleavon_MD via Tara Copeland)

In Brazil, where the Gamma variant has been dominant and the Delta variant is now spreading rapidly, a July 20 report from Uol noted that COVID-19 has already killed 1,581 young people aged 10 to 19 in just the first six months of 2021, becoming the leading cause of death by disease for that age group. An additional 1,187 children under 10 years old have succumbed to the virus since the start of the pandemic, with Brazil experiencing the highest number of child fatalities from COVID-19 in the world.

In the UK, where daily new cases have skyrocketed by over 1,600 percent in the past two months, one in seven of all UK students, 1.05 million children, are presently either infected with COVID-19 or in isolation due to exposure to the virus. Childrens’ hospitals are filling up, with roughly 30 more children hospitalized with severe symptoms each day. Studies conducted in the UK have found that as many as 20 percent of children develop Long COVID, in which symptoms persist months after an initial infection, while a new study has found that roughly 5 percent of children hospitalized with COVID-19 develop brain or nerve complications.

On Wednesday, the United States recorded 56,525 new COVID-19 cases, the highest official tally of any country and an increase of 565 percent in just one month as the Delta variant has become dominant. Last week, cases among children under 12 years old surged by 87 percent in Florida. Dr. Joseph Pernot, the chief medical officer at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, told FOX 13 News, “Our last seven days, we’ve seen more patients than any other seven days since the pandemic began. So we’re seeing a dramatic increase in kids.”

Children’s hospitals in Arkansas, Missouri and a growing number of states are also reporting the highest numbers of children hospitalized with COVID-19 since last winter’s surge. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, for the week ending July 15 there were 23,551 child COVID-19 cases, nearly doubling from the week prior, while an additional 236 children were hospitalized that week.

Despite the surge of infections and hospitalizations among young people, the Biden administration is pressing ahead with its campaign to fully open all schools this fall. Two weeks ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new guidelines promoting this policy while encouraging vaccinated teachers and students not to wear masks. According to a recent survey, roughly 30 percent of the 200 largest school districts in the US will not offer any remote learning option, including the first- and third-largest districts in New York City and Chicago, which serve a combined 1.4 million children.

On Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated at a White House press briefing, “The delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains.” She added, “This virus has no incentive to let up, and it remains in search of the next vulnerable person to infect.”

Walensky failed to reconcile these statements with the reality that roughly 42 million school-aged children remain unvaccinated, with no vaccines expected to be approved for children under 12 years old until the start of 2022 at the earliest. When this was noted in an interview last week, Walensky stated callously, “I remain emphatic that our schools need to open in the fall. They need to open for full, in-person learning.”

Speaking at a CNN town hall on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden said that children under 12 years old “should probably be wearing a mask in school,” while those over 12 years old who are vaccinated “shouldn’t wear a mask.”

Biden went on to directly lie about breakthrough infections and deaths among fully vaccinated people, stating, “You’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.” In fact, the CDC has already logged at least 791 deaths and over 5,000 hospitalization from COVID-19 among fully vaccinated people in the US.

This was not Biden’s first time lying about the pandemic. At a CNN town hall in February, Biden lied directly to a second-grader, saying “Kids don't get … COVID very often. It’s unusual for that to happen.”

The same lies are being told by the ruling class in every country to carry out the reckless reopening of schools. In the face of mounting opposition among parents, students, educators and the broader working class, the fascistic Bolsonaro administration is spearheading a drive to fully reopen schools across Brazil in the coming weeks, with the support of state governors from all political parties. In São Paulo, the largest school district in South America with roughly two million students, all students will be expected to attend in person with spacing between students reduced from 1.5 meters to one meter.

The global character of the drive to fully open schools arises out of a common objective necessity for the capitalist class to send working class parents back to unsafe factories and other workplaces to produce corporate profits.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this week that roughly 9.5 million Americans were unemployed and looking for work in June. Economists note that some of the primary factors behind continued high rates of unemployment are a lack of access to affordable child care, safety concerns over COVID-19, and the extension of federal unemployment benefits.

The school reopening drive coincides with the ending of the federal moratorium on evictions on July 31 and the cutoff of federal unemployment benefits on September 6, placing enormous financial pressures on parents to send their children to unsafe schools and return themselves to unsafe workplaces.

In response to this ruling class offensive, the pro-capitalist American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and National Education Association (NEA), and their counterparts globally, continue to facilitate the campaign to fully open schools. NEA President Becky Pringle recently stated, “There is no substitute for in-person learning,” while AFT President Randi Weingarten stated as early as May, “There is no doubt: Schools must be open. In person. Five days a week.”

In justifying these policies, the politicians and union bureaucrats refer to the very real mental health crisis facing youth. But their feigned concern for the well-being of children is a smokescreen to provide cover for their homicidal policies. These same figures have said nothing of the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that roughly 1.5 million children worldwide have lost a parent or guardian from COVID-19, with an untold number of these deaths attributable to the spread of the virus through schools.

The United States Underestimates China’s Economic Challenge at Its Own Peril

Richard Wolff

The economy of the People’s Republic of China has been growing much faster than that of the United States for decades. So too has China’s average real wage. China is now the world’s second superpower, catching up to the United States economically if not (yet) militarily. Its political influence grew alongside its GDP. Where once the chief scapegoat for the U.S. was the USSR/Russia, China has replaced the latter in that position. The global tourist industry courts Chinese big spenders.

China’s technical advances continue to amaze and impress most of the world.

The basic story here replicates in large part the story of the United States and the British Empire. The United States was once a mere colony, humiliated as well as economically abused by its colonizer. China suffered similarly at the hands of its colonizing abusers, although it was able to avoid formal colonial status, except for some enclaves. Resentment and bitterness accumulated in the American revolutionary break from its colonial status in the late 18th century. The same happened in China in the middle of the 20th. In the War of 1812, the new United States proved that the British Empire could not undo the American Revolution. In the Korean War, the new People’s Republic of China proved that the U.S. empire could not undo the Chinese Revolution.

Independence unleashed rapid economic growth in the United States, which caught up to and overtook its colonizer economically across the 19th century. World War I marked the reversal of roles between the United States and the UK. On many levels—political and cultural as well as economic—the dominator and the dominated changed places. Across the 20th century, the United States displaced (and itself replaced) the British and other European empires to become the global hegemon. After stumbling badly in the Great Depression, it responded with the New Deal’s burst of social democracy. On that basis, the United States undertook to make the rest of the world copy what it labeled a “people’s” or a “welfare” capitalism that represented the epitome of human development. By the beginning of the 21st century, critics labeled UK Prime Minister Tony Blair as “America’s poodle” for his slavish subordination to the George W. Bush regime in the United States.

China’s 1949 revolution likewise unleashed a stunning economic recovery from the sequential scourges of Japanese invasion, World War II, and the civil war. The economic recovery enabled a political maturation that transformed the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China from disciples of the Soviet Party and of the USSR into equals with their own agenda, values, and interpretation of Marxism. Culturally, China gained a remarkable self-confidence as an awakening giant retaking its hegemonic position in Asia and beyond that in the entire world. Changing global conditions and a certain exhaustion of the recovery phase of its development led China to change course with Mao Zedong’s passing. It crafted a new Chinese economy and labeled it socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Not only did that economy achieve the unprecedented growth feats mentioned above, but it also did so without most of the foreign aid given to many other developing nations. The active enmity of the United States imposed that deprivation on China. It thereby also made self-reliance a crucial basis for China’s development. For the last half-century, China has been a model of how a determined developing nation can mobilize its surplus for development. China’s workers produced a surplus used primarily to build and expand the Chinese economy via huge investments in infrastructure, industrial capacity, productivity growth, education, and research and development. This deliberate investment program continued even after China opened itself to (1) foreign private capitalist investments, (2) private Chinese capitalist enterprise development and growth, and (3) partnerships between them. The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese state apparatus controlled and maneuvered the resulting acceleration of surplus production to tilt investments toward the growth goals set by the party and the state. China’s surplus was also used, secondarily, to reproduce the complex class structures of private and state enterprises and of foreign and domestic private capitalists, and finally to undertake the regulation of markets and governmental economic planning.

Today, the challenge offered by China to the United States and indeed the capitalist world economy is a model that departs sharply from the private laissez-faire model of capitalism that has prevailed in global capitalism to date. In the latter model, the government is called in (à la Keynes) only when crises hit and threaten private capitalism. And then the government’s economic interventions are constricted in scope and reach and are temporary in time. Minimal government regulation and minimal direct production of goods and services by government are the key rules.

In contrast, in China, the Communist Party and the state intervene much more in economic affairs by regulating private businesses (foreign and domestic) more and also by having the state own and operate businesses. What results for the party and the state is an overarching control of economic development. That control, in its extent and duration, far exceeds the governments’ role in western Europe, North America, and Japan. Having the party and state as collaborative entities pushing determined policies enables the regular mobilization of most private and public resources to achieve agreed goals. Chief among the goals has been economic development to escape the endemic poverty of southern Asia. The mobilization to stop the spread of COVID-19 via lockdowns in Wuhan and elsewhere was another example. So too was the achievement of technical parity with and sometimes superiority to the United States in many fields.

Keynesian economics enjoyed a meteoric rise within the discipline of economics when it enabled government policies clearly to assist capitalism’s survival and recovery from the 1930s Great Depression. Neoclassical economics could return to dominance within the profession in the 1970s when it enabled government policies (neoliberalism) clearly to assist in rolling back the Keynesian regulations of and constraints on private capitalists (such as the New Deal and social democracy). China’s remarkable economic growth over the last 30-40 years will likely provoke and be further enabled by corresponding developments in the discipline of economics. These will entail the rediscovery, embrace, and strengthening of governments’ economic interventions as means to achieve socially prioritized goals.

As denials of what China continues to accomplish economically lose their rhetorical power, attention likely will turn increasingly to the Chinese model, to exploring whether and how the capitalisms of western Europe, North America, and Japan can learn from and coexist with China. Demonizations and threats (a new cold war) directed at real and false political and cultural problems in China will also likely fade in favor of mutual accommodation with China. Chinese leaders have made clear their view that they have accommodated and will continue to accommodate trade with and investments by private capitalists alongside and interacting with enterprises owned and run by the state. That was an engine of their remarkable development, and they see no reason to change that approach.

It is rather parts of the United States that consider a military confrontation with China as needed and rationally possible now. If it happens, the Chinese will see it for what the United States has in fact opposed, namely the continuation of the power of the Chinese Communist Party and the social structure over which it and the Chinese state preside. The Chinese leadership has said it will fight that totally.

China has more than four times the population of the United States. Its economy’s total output may well surpass that of the United States in a few years. Its global political influence is rising fast. Allies of the United States must increasingly rethink their foreign relations in light of China’s ascendancy. Meanwhile, the economic problems of the United States (such as instability cycles, inequalities of wealth and income, political divisions, and explosive debt accumulation) mount. The ability of the United States to change China, to move it away from the path and structures that took it so far and so fast, has proved less than impressive to virtually everyone who pays attention.

Ratcheting up demonizations of China seems a poor and likely counterproductive response. Yes, it does replicate the demonization of the USSR that served effectively to cover the rollback of the New Deal. But for the United States to roll back another country’s progressive period is a project quite different from doing that domestically. Also, the conditions (economic, political, and cultural) of today’s world differ drastically from those after 1945. Yet Biden’s repetition of post-1945 Cold War policies is much closer to that original than his economic policies are to those of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And that will prove to be exactly the reverse of what today’s crisis needs.

COVID in Malaysia

Chandra Muzaffar

Malaysia

The significant increase in Covid 19 infections in our country in the last one week has prompted concerned Malaysians to ask the authorities to re-strategize their approach towards the fight against the spread of the virus. A total lockdown, some feel, where most movements are severely curbed is not the solution. They prefer a targeted lockdown which is focused upon specific areas or clusters. Since infection numbers are increasing at an alarming rate the blanket approach they are convinced is not working. The proponents of the total approach argue that only such an approach will break the rapid transmission of the virus. Besides, the accelerated transmission is caused by a new variant of the virus which will happen even if a targeted approach is adopted.

On the question of vaccinations there is also diversity of opinions. Since factory workers are among those who have been infected in large numbers, they should have been given the vaccine first according to some critics. The government on the other hand prioritized senior citizens and those with disabilities, apart from front liners such as health workers who were at the head of the queue.

The distribution of aid packages has also sparked some differences. The government initiated a range of aid packages which on the whole appear to have reached their targets. However there are others who feel that the victims of the economic crisis would have been better served if assistance had been consolidated and delivered through a single channel.

These differences have been further complicated by the old and new media. There are media outlets and media commentators and opinion makers who are clearly aligned to certain political actors and entities. The positions they take on different aspects of the Covid 19 crisis and their solutions are more often than not conditioned by their affiliations. These biases are more pronounced today than before partly because political alignments are more rigid in the current political scenario.

This is what one should expect in a robust democracy. However differences of opinion should not lead to extreme positions which are not supported by facts or realities on the ground. An example of this is the reckless description of Malaysia as a failed state in a foreign journal which was quickly echoed by a handful of unthinking Malaysians including some veteran journalists and former politicians. The notion of “a failed state” has become political science jargon largely through its misuse. Right from the outset it was directed at one’s ideological adversary though the term has certain features which are more or less widely accepted. The inability to exercise effective territorial jurisdiction, enforce law and order, and provide for the necessities of life over a long period of time are some of the characteristics of a failed state. By no stretch of the imagination is Malaysia such a state.

Avoiding extreme stances aside, a discourse on Covid 19 and its solutions would also benefit from a willingness to listen and even learn from the views of the other. An inclusive rather than an exclusive attitude which accommodates the other would strengthen the discourse. An adherence to scientific methodology would be of immense help. Respect for empirical evidence would also be an asset.

There is another reason why a rational attitude in formulating solutions to the Covid 19 crisis is imperative. Solutions are being propounded in Malaysia and elsewhere which are actually designed to undermine our societies. A brief look at what transpired in Cuba on 11 July 2021 would be instructive. Taking advantage of the economic difficulties facing the Cuban people, the United States using stooges and proxies in Cuba tried to foment riots which it hoped would create instability leading to the fall of the government. The Cuban government and people thwarted the diabolical move. Let it not be forgotten that Cuba has not only managed the Covid crisis reasonably well; it has also manufactured two vaccines on its own and exported them to some other poor countries in Latin America and Africa.

Of course, the Malaysian situation is different from Cuba though there are some parallels. Our management of the crisis is being constantly criticised by some of the same media outlets from the West. While some of the criticisms are justified there is also a systematic attempt to distort and exaggerate what is happening to give the impression that there is mass disaffection with the government. For instance, I have asked media personnel to give me information on how widespread the “white flag “protest is; its geographical locations ; the socio-economic backgrounds of the families and individuals involved ; their access to,( or lack of access to), state and community aid programmes and so forth and yet they have not been able to respond.

What is obvious is that the loudest condemnations of the state’s handling of the crisis are coming from opposition politicians and their sympathisers and supporters in the media, among NGOs, in cultural and ethnic organisations, within universities and the like. The motives behind these condemnations become suspect when we realise that at the same time the US drive to tighten its grip upon Southeast Asia is getting stronger. This is related to the US’s primary goal in the region at this point in time which is to curb and curtail China’s phenomenal rise. The US elite knows that Southeast Asia which contains two vital waterways — the South China Sea and the Straits of Melaka — is that one crucial neighbourhood that is essential to China’s global ascendancy. Which is why the US is determined to frustrate China’s dominant role in the region. Control over Malaysia in particular which resides at the centre of the region and is contiguous to both waterways is important for a superpower with its hegemonic agenda.

It explains the role that the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) — through its own admission — played in promoting a change of regime in the 2018 General Election in Malaysia. The NED it is worth observing is an important instrument of US hegemonic power whose overt agenda mirrors the covert role of the CIA. It is known to have funded a number of NGOs and media outlets in Malaysia. The positions adopted by these outfits in recent months in the midst of the dual health and economic crises provide some indication of how they are trying to shape the future of Malaysian society.

Eternal vigilance Malaysians should never forget is the price we have to pay to protect our sovereignty and preserve our independence .

Decline and Fall of Western Civilization

Evaggelos Vallianatos

I have argued for decades that Western civilization has been an invisible worldwide blessing. Democracy, science-based decisions, courts and laws, widespread schooling and respect for the natural world are good things that make civilization possible.

I am pleased and proud that my Hellenic ancestors’ science, technology, philosophy, and culture sparked these blessings all over the world, especially to Western European societies, helping their metamorphosis from feudalism to enlightened democracies.

Historical decline of the West

I noticed, however, that these Western societies, including that of America, have been shedding their Greek origins and reverting to their tyrannical roots.

The industrialization of the nineteenth century was the first blow against the science and humanism Western societies discovered in the Greek-inspired Renaissance of the fifteenth century. Then came the two World Wars of the twentieth century and the atomic bomb. The West almost drowned in medieval barbarism.

America survived the holocaust of WWII. In fact, it thrived. The smashing of Nazi Germany and the American victory over imperial and aggressive Japan boosted American power the world over. America was the new Rome.

Russia and China

The only resistance to America came out of nuclear weapons-armed Soviet Union

(Russia) and, eventually, in late twentieth century, China, also armed with nukes. Russia discarded its 70-year communist government for capitalism in the 1990s. China did not abandon communism. Instead, it created a hybrid communist-capitalist political economy and government.

Russia has always been closer to the West. It is a Christian country that received its Christianity in the ninth century from medieval Greece. China, however, was never a Christian country. In the early twenty-first century, it retains its communist-capitalist government but, as civilization, it is returning to its Confucian, Buddhist and Taoist traditions.

Both Russia and China did not participate in the Renaissance of the fifteenth century, though they have been borrowing heavily from the West. China in particular has been borrowing so much from the United States that it is an almost American clone.

Western occupation of Greece

A strong sign that the West has been in deep trouble emerged from its recent encounters with Greece. In fact, the treatment of Greece by the financial center of the West – the European Union and America’s International Monetary Fund, strongly suggest decline and fall of Western civilization.

Debt precipitated the violent confrontation between Greece and the West. Greece borrowed money from French, German and American banks.

The American financial tsunami of 2008 triggered forces of violence covered up by the polite shine of civilization. The American-European condominium of the West abandoned any pretense of cooperation even among the countries of the European “Union,” which include Greece.

The bankers of Germany and France, imitating their big American Wall Street brothers, were almost bankrupt and needed immediate state support. But EU law prohibits states from bailing out their banks.

As if by divine intervention, Greece owned money to those banks. Working closely with America’s IMF, the EU leadership proceeded to treat Greece like a lab animal in order to save its banks and to send a strong undemocratic message to other countries about the absolute rule of money.

IMF sent to Athens a Greek employee to take over the Greek statistical service. This man, Andreas Georgiou, was a statistics guru. The Greek Supreme Court accused him of harming the Greek national interest. He was said to have increased the 2009 budget deficit figure, thus triggering the recent debt tragedy of his own country at the hands of IMF. The 2015 Truth Commission / committee of the Greek parliament put it more diplomatically, and correctly connected the crime to the October 4, 2009 election of George Papandreou who deceived the Greeks with fake socialist promises of ending the austerity and fixing the economy.

The parliamentary report of the Truth Commission said Papandreou assured the Greeks their country had money, promising increased employment and more redistribution of wealth. However, the report says, “ just a few weeks after the [2009] elections, a series of substantial revisions of statistical data took place. As a result, the political climate changed sharply.”

No doubt about that. The revised statistics had dire consequences for Greece.

According to the Greek economics professor, Zoe Georganta, Georgiou probably massaged the Greek budget and debt statistics. Georganta says the man was arbitrary and authoritarian, not allowing transparency or staff discussion of the integrity of statistics. He was doing the bidding of Papandreou and IMF. She should know. She worked at the Greek statistical service under the direction of Georgiou.

In addition to IMF, Georganta says, the other primary actors responsible for the West’s aggression against Greece include the European Commission and the European Statistical Service. She says the EU bureaucracy and, indeed, the EU countries are rife with corruption. They, including Germany, fiddled with their deficit and debt statistics in order to satisfy the EU requirements for forming the EU.

Georganta did not limit her criticism to the European-American political class. She expressed the same contempt for the Greek elite. She said Greek politicians for the most part are traitors, reigning over parties that are by no means patriotic.

Illegal, illegitimate, odious, and unsustainable debt

In 2015, the president of the Greek parliament, Zoe Konstantopoulou, empowered a special audit committee to investigate the debt. The committee declared the debt “illegal, illegitimate, odious, and unsustainable.”

In her speech to the United Nations in New York, September 3, 2015, Konstantopoulou assured the world parliamentarians that the

Greek sovereign debt was “illegal, illegitimate, odious and unsustainable.” The procedures used for figuring out the amount of the debt (meaning the statistical manipulation of the deficit and debt figures) grossly violated constitutional law, parliamentary procedures, and  human rights and freedoms guaranteed by international law.

The debt owned to IMF, the Truth Commission concluded, was illegal. It contradicted the statues of IMF. But more importantly, it violated the Greek Constitution as well as international customary law and treaties signed by Greece. The Greek debt to IMF was also illegitimate because the IMF demands to Greece for debt repayment infringed on the obligations of Greece to respect and protect human rights.

Furthermore, the audit parliamentary committee said, the debt to IMF was “odious” because everything IMF did to collect its loans was undemocratic, with harmful consequences on the ecological and public health and wellbeing of the Greek people.

The parliamentary report added that states under the political stress of sovereign debt, and especially when the debt is illegal, illegitimate, odious and unsustainable, can repudiate it without violating norms of international law.

In the case of Greece, the committee said, repudiating the debt was easy. Creditors and the EU-IMF were tainted by hostility towards the country. Besides, the creditors’ bad faith forced Greece to violate its own laws and its international human rights obligations. In addition, creditors and the EU-IMF had exercised coercion against a sovereign nation, their unfair requirements, the committee said,  “flagrantly violating Greek sovereignty and violating the Constitution.”

The parliamentary committee emphasized that international law gives the right of self-defense to states threatened by illegal, illegitimate, odious and unsustainable debt. This means an indebted country can declare itself insolvent without liability. In other words, a state has the legal right to “invoke necessity in exceptional situations in order to safeguard those essential interests threatened by a grave and imminent [debt] peril.”

Konstantopoulou appealed in vain to the world parliamentarians and the United Nations to reject and oppose the EU-IMF violence against Greece.

The eclipse of the West

At that moment, from 2009 to 2015, when IMF and EU took over Greece, Western civilization eclipsed by the giant rising star of multinational banking oligarchy. The European and American bureaucrats and politicians used the loans to Greece to help their banks, starving the Greek economy to near paralysis and dissolution. Such illegal acts essentially abolished the Greek Constitution and international law, both crimes against humanity.

The violence of the pre-Renaissance days became the new West. This outrageous subversion of democracy climaxed in the United States with the administration of Donald Trump, 2017-2021. This president intensified America’s class war. He chose billionaires for his cabinet, and embraced billionaires; he refused to admit the flaming danger of climate change, and, simultaneously, all but he wiped out America’s environmental regulations and protection. The election of Joe Biden to the presidency triggered Trump’s revenge by inciting the US Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021. Trump was the first “legal” tyrant in America who tried to subvert the American Constitution and take over the government.

The IMF-EU “memoranda” to Greece from Washington, DC, Brussels and Berlin were Trump-like tyrannical orders, empowering foreigners to do as they pleased to prostrate Greece. Greek “prime ministers” and “parliament” became a façade and the whip of foreign occupiers.

The results of this onslaught on Greece “saved” the EU-American banks. The starvation diet EU-IMF imposed on the very country that gave the West civilization and the Europeans their name, will not be forgotten or forgiven.

No less important, the ferocious attack against Greece shows the collapse of capitalism. The money oligarchs have no love for their country, unless they control its wheels of power. They imposed austerity to the people of the West, too. America’s central bank, the Fed, pumped billions primarily into the pockets of the very rich during the pandemic year of 2020. The excuse was to “stabilize and boost” the shut-down economy, but the winners were bankers and billionaires.

Westerners, including Americans, like the Greeks, are struggling to find better alternatives to the unethical banking oligarchy managing the world.

What to do

The Greeks need a new patriotic government to set their house in order. Abolish the corrupt political parties and return to the classical Athenian model of direct democracy. Abandon industrialized farming for small-scale ecological agriculture, carbon neutral, and sufficient to raise nutritious and pesticides-free food for all, including tourists. Turn to the Sun (Helios) for fueling the country’s electricity needs, transportation, and industry. Revive traditional crafts and appropriate, but not polluting, industries for the production of necessities like defensive weapons, pharmaceuticals, clothes, shoes, bicycles, electric cars and electric bullet trains and trams.

At the same time, Greeks must wake up to the danger from the new money oligarchy of the West. Georganta says Greeks must resist foreign and domestic agendas designed for their disappearance. She is not saying this lightly.

Greeks need to stand up and be counted. Expel all EU-IMF representatives from the country and restore national sovereignty and authority of the Constitution and international law. Take back the national property “sold” to foreigners. Stop paying the illegal, illegitimate, odious, and unsustainable debt. And if the EU-IMF threaten to cut off euros to Greece, the country should return to its own currency, the drachma.

Use the international and Greek system of laws to collect the huge debt Germany owns Greece. If Germany continues to deny its debt, confiscate any German property in Greece and cease importing German goods. Maria Negroponti-Delivanis, emeritus professor of economics at the University of Macedonia, has calculated the costs of WWII German occupation of Greece to equal about 1 (one) trillion euros.

The Germans in Greece, 1941-1944, were ferocious bordering on barbarism. They nearly starved the country to death. They killed the domesticated animals of the peasants; they cut off cities from the countryside, and wiped out dozens of villages. They looted the country’s archaeological treasures and destroyed Greek infrastructure. They also took a forced loan from the occupied Greek government.

America knows this history, but for Cold War reasons it supports Germany. Greek Americans can lobby American politicians to the justice of the Greek cause for German reparations. Israel and the Jewish American lobby are excellent models for enlisting the American government for forcing the Germans to pay up for their crimes.

America also supports Turkey, which remains the nearly unspoken factor behind the efforts of the West to diminish Greece, and worse: dismember the country as they did in the aftermath of the fourth crusade of 1204. Several Greek academics and intellectuals see Turkey as a mortal enemy on whose behalf the West (EU-IMF) has been undermining Greece.

Nevertheless, Greece must stand up to this danger. Stop the illegal Turkish export of Moslem migrants to the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos. Close the Greek sea border to Turkey and repatriate all illegal migrants in Greece.

Draft all young Greeks to military service for two to three years — and strengthen the Greek armed forces. Again, Israel is the model.

This agenda demands that Greeks are working together, not against each other. Merchants funded the Greek Revolution of 1821. They (in Greece and America and Europe) can do it again for the remaking of Greece into Hellas: a self-reliant, democratic, green, strong, and free country, once again, at the center of Hellenic civilization.

Finally, the government must revive education, immersing the young into ancient Greek, Latin, Hellenic history, as well as the knowledge and achievements of their ancient ancestors. This will make it possible for the flourishing of young people who have the ideas, intelligence, courage and love to make the country the best it can become.

Sri Lanka’s Falling Economy And Failing Good Governance

Thambu Kanagasabai

President Gotabaya acclaimed as un uncrowned king of Sri Lanka after defeating the Liberation of Tigers in the genocidal war with the assistance of 22 countries particularly from India, Pakistan and China as confirmed by his brother Mahinda Rajapakshae [Gotabaya’s brother] while he was on a visit to India in May 2009 is now facing an unpalatable deafening voices of protests emanating from every corners of Sri Lanka.

His Government crowned in 2019 is now sliding fast to be labelled as a failed state. His failures are accumulating in all fronts, economy, political management, human rights, rule of law, international relations and foreign policy. Though he inherited a mismanaged legacy from a lame Government run by then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe and the then President Maithiripala Sirisena, his Government has also failed to take any meaningful steps to reverse and change the course with a better management of economy, efficient political management and administrative machinery. Covid-19 pandemic has also played its part in adding to the woes of the economy, particularly hitting the tourism industry, a major source of earnings and local employment sharing 5% of the GDP.

Some statistics of the current state of the economy are: for year 2021 out of 3.9 billions of dollars repayment only 1.3 billions has been paid leaving a balance of 2.6 billions to be settled before the end of 2021. Foreign reserves stand at 4.9 billions which is enough to pay for three months imports while foreign outstanding debts is 7.1 billions. Sri Lanka in order to settle the above debts has secured 400 millions from India, 1.5 billion from China and 250 million from the poor Bangladesh. The above outstanding indebtedness has led to the downgrading of Sri Lanka by Finch to CCC grade which confirms the real possibilities of default in repayment. To worsen this situation is the looming cancellation of the GSP+ concession by European Union when it meets at its next session. Also Sri Lanka is maintaining a deadly silence as to the implementation of 27 UN Conventions as referred by European Union which is the other condition of European Union to restore the GSP+ concession. Besides, European Union has also demanded the repealing of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act [PTA] and replacing it with acceptable international provisions. It is far from certain that Sri Lanka will fully comply with these demands risking its political fortunes and future.

Sri Lanka is now scrambling for damage control exercises by initiating palliative and eye washing steps like promising to bring amendments to the dreaded draconian PTA without repealing as demanded by European Union. It is unlikely that this mollification will cut any ice with European Union as Sri Lanka’s past promises have always been just occasional to meet the facing exigencies.

In the political front, the Government also has failed totally to meet the expectations of Tamils, Muslims and even the victims of state oppression. It is to be noted that the draconian PTA is defended by the Government and let loosely against its political opponents and groups like the recent arbitrary arrests and detention of Richard Baduideen MP, and his brother.

The simmering 72 years old ethnic problem is left untouched and remains intact growing for a blow up situation while paving way for the total isolation of Tamils and Muslims to search for alternative means. The much expected constitution is nowhere in sight and the hopes of Tamils that it would incorporate acceptable political settlement proposals appears to be like the dream of a dumb

The current Covid-19 pandemic has slowed down the agenda of Sinhalisisation and Buddhisisation but as a blessing in disguise for the Government, it has opened an unchecked and undeterred militarization in the state administrative machinery  with military officials taking control of the civil administration positions and messy handling them with unquestionable inefficiency due to nil experience in administration and without proper interactions with ordinary citizens. Even Covid-19 vaccination program has been shifted to Army compounds and Army Barracks, discarding the health officials’  participation.

The President is also exercising his powers of appointments and promotions at his will and absolute discretion like pardoning convicted criminals and sending some of his dislikings to jails. In this respect, the statement of British Commonwealth & Developments Office in its Human Rights and Democracy Report is worth quoting:-

“The continued appointments of controversial military figures of war crimes to Government roles while civilian functions such as Secretariat of NGO’s were brought under the control of the Military of Defence. PTA has been disproportionately used against Tamils and Muslims. The Report described the actions recently taken by Gotabaya’s Government “As leading to democracy decay” like the passing of the 20th Amendment which extended judicial powers and powers over independent institutions to the President. Though this Report confirms the “Continuing deterioration of human rights in Sri Lanka”, the British Government has so far not acted on this Report, not even censured Sri Lanka.

ITJP has published the names of six Rajapakshas holding ministerial posts and controlling 16 Government Departments and three Presidential Task Forces controlling the wealth and their management aided by a muted, meek and disunited nervous Opposition Leader and parties. President Rajapaksha’s high handed actions are let off with unconcern like the pardon and release of Duminda de Silva, a convicted murder criminal discarding the prescribed procedures and appointing him as Chairman of National Housing Authority is an act of gross insult to all norms of justice, rule of law and good governance. After all, like the birds of the same feather flock together, all alleged war criminals aligning and assisting another criminal is not a surprise.

Gotabaya’s under mentioned acts of arresting and keeping in isolation the protesting Ceylon Teachers Union’s Secretary Joseph Stalin is simply an act of pure arbitrariness and naked usurpation of fundamental rights. With plummeting popularity and dwindling support of the general population, a lurking danger is a consolidation and concentration of powers and entrenching the family group on the legislative, judicial and executive functions.

Consequently the fabric of democratic functioning is being eroded and shredded with the following evils of good governance which are slowly and steadily enveloping the island:-

1. Dictatorial actions and moves
2. Nepotism, family control and rule
3. Bribery and corruption
4. Impunity
5. Racial policies
6. Discarding accountability, justice and rule of law
7. Break down of international relationship
8. Disregarding UN and UNHRC and their Resolutions.

Another impending scenario is the slow and steady erosion and slicing of sovereignty of Sri Lanka by China which has already planted its feet in the South, West and North netting Sri Lanka under an irredeemable debt trap. With a trade deficit of 10 billion Dollars, Sri Lanka’s crumbling economy has to be saved and China has taken the role of Saviour, a Frankenstein monster which is coolly expanding its dominance in South Asia mostly playing the role of a Messiah.

To sum up, Rajapakshas and Company Unlimited is facing bankruptcy in politics and economy and a full redemption is like an oasis in the desert due to its mauling by six Rajapakahas.

However, there is no iota of doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has come as a blessing and has provided a golden opportunity for the Government of Rajapaksha’s to lock down the country militarily and politically allowing it to unleash unilateral and unquestionable dictatorial actions opening the passage for dictatorial governance.

In short, it is a Rajapaksha and Brothers Company ruling with unlimited liabilities while enjoying exemptions from all liabilities to the victims of all alleged crimes.

The Strange Math of Corruption

Bharat Dogra

If Rs. 50 crore  ( 500 million)  is allocated for spending on an irrigation project and Rs. 10 crore is snatched up by corruption at various levels, then what is the amount that remains for actual development work?

The most obvious answer would be Rs. 40 crore, but more often than not this is likely to be wrong. The reason is that the powerful persons including key decision makers involved are likely to be so involved in siphoning off the corruption money that the quality of the construction work gets much less importance. As long as the official is getting his money, he may be much less caring for the quality of the work. Regardless of  the proper location of the work, both the contractor and the officials may be interested in pushing it towards a place of less visibility. They are likely to avoid all efforts at improving transparency and participation of people, and thereby the most important way of ensuring good quality and cost effectiveness is avoided. The official may be in a hurry to avoid a completion certificate to the contractor so that both can quickly collect their booty, and for this reason important aspects of proper work completion may be missed. Hence due to all these factors, the actual public loss is much greater than the commission or corruption money taken by the official.

Now let us take another example of a much bigger project that costs Rs. 20000 crore or Rs. 200 billlion. Assuming that corruption of around 20 per cent is also involved here, Rs. 4000 crore will go directly this but will Rs. 16000 crore will be spent for the benefit of people? Very unlikely, as all that was stated earlier is valid here also . Additionally, as in such a case the amounts involved are much bigger and are shared at much higher levels a situation is created by powerful persons that this project must go on, come what may. If it is revealed in studies, or on the basis of the experience of some very well-informed persons, that this project may turn out to be harmful, then this possibility is simply  brushed aside and such voices are silenced in various ways. In this way undesirable and unsafe projects also come up. So in such a case the strange math of corruption may say that Rs. 200 billion minus Rs. 40 billion is not Rs. 160 billion at all; in fact it may even turn out to be a negative figure as the project turns out to be harmful to people. Hence the strange math of corruption may say, for example, that Rs. 160 billion minus Rs. 40 billion ( in the case of such a project) equals minus Rs 100 billion!

Now consider another situation in which most farmers already have access to some irrigation and all that is needed is to allocate the available budget is to divide this equally among all farmers so that they cam take up some repair work as well as water  conservation work on their farmland. But this option has least room for corruption so the official ignores this best option and anyway decides to use the entire budget for a new project not really needed . Again the real benefit may be extreme low or a minus figure.

Or take an example where an official has enough money for improving paths of 100 villages by equally dividing budget among them. But the corruption possibility is either very low , or too many people are involved which may also lead to exposure. So he devotes this entire money to the widening of a big city road which is not really needed. Widening leads to  cutting many big trees which creates opportunities of more earnings for him. Again there may be minus benefit and the village paths remain in bad shape.

Let us take a situation where several schools have satisfactory buildings but there is need for devoting more attention at several levels for improving education. However there is no money to be made in this. So an official somehow finds a justification to build a new hall in all schools which actually reduced the playing space for children, while the real educational work also suffers.

Due to high impact of corruption a situation can arise where those aspects of development which involve payment of commission are prioritized and speeded up, while those very important aspects which have no room for this get neglected.

Progress or War: On Islamophobia and Europe’s Demographic Shifts

Ramzy Baroud

Europe’s identity crisis is not confined to the ceaseless squabbles by Europeans over the EU, Brexit or football. It goes much deeper, reaching sensitive and dangerous territory, including that of culture and religion. Once more, Muslims stand at the heart of the continent’s identity debate.

Of course, anti-Muslim sentiments are rarely framed to appear anti-Muslim. While Europe’s right-wing parties remain committed to the ridiculous notion that Muslims, immigrants and refugees pose a threat to Europe’s overall security and unique secular identities, the left is not entirely immune from such chauvinistic notions.

The right’s political discourse is familiar and is often condemned for its repugnantly ultra-nationalistic, if not outright racist, tone and rhetoric. The left, on the other hand, is a different story. The European left, notably in countries like France and Belgium, frame their ‘problem’ with Islam as fundamental to their supposed dedication to the secular values of the State.

“A problem arises when, in the name of religion, some want to separate themselves from the Republic and therefore not respect its laws,” Macron said during a speech in October 2020.

Leftist politicians and intellectuals were just as eager as the right to prevent Ihsane Haouach, a Belgian government representative, from serving as a commissioner at the Institute for the Equality of Women and Men (IEFH). Again, both sides joined forces, although without an official declaration of unity, to ensure Haouach had no place in the country’s democratic process.

It was a repeat of a similar scenario in France last May when Sara Zemmahi was removed from the ruling party’s candidates list for seemingly violating France’s valeurs de la République – the values of the Republic.

These are but mere examples, and are hardly restricted to French-speaking countries. There are many such disquieting events pointing to a deep-seated problem that remains unresolved. In Britain, Rakhia Ismail, who was celebrated as the country’s first hijab-wearing mayor in May 2019, resigned from her post less than a year and a half later, citing racism and marginalization.

While the Belgian, French, and British media elaborated on these stories as if unique to each specific country, in truth, they are all related. Indeed, they are all the outcome of an overriding phenomenon of anti-Muslim prejudice, coupled with a wave of racism that has plagued Europe for many years, especially in the last decade.

Though Europe’s official institutions, mainstream media, sports clubs and so on, continue to pay lip service to the need for diversity and inclusion, the reality on the ground is entirely different. A recent example was the horrific outcome of England’s defeat in the EURO2020 final against Italy. Gangs of white English, mostly males, attacked people of color, especially black people, whether on the street or online. The extent of cyber-bullying, in particular, targeting dark-skinned athletes is almost unprecedented in the country’s recent history.

Various British officials, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, condemned the widespread racism. Interestingly, many of these officials have said or done very little to combat anti-Muslim hate and violence in the past, which often targeted Muslim women for their head or face covering.

Strikingly, Johnson, purportedly now leading the anti-racist charge, was one of the most disparaging officials who spoke demeaningly of Muslim women in the past. “Muslim women wearing burka look like letter boxes,” he said, according to the BBC.

Of course, Islamophobia must be seen within the larger context of the toxic anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiments, now defining factors in shaping modern European politics. It is this hate and racism that served as the fuel for rising political parties like Le Front National in France, Vlaams Belang in Belgium, The Freedom Party in Austria and the Lega in Italy. In fact, there is a whole intellectual discourse, complete with brand new theories that are used to channel yet more hate, violence and racism against immigrants.

And where is the left in all of this? With a few exceptions, much of the left is still trapped in its own intellectual hubris, adding yet more fuel to the fire while veiling their criticism of Islam as if genuine concern for secularism.

Oddly, in Europe, as in much of the West, crosses and Stars of David as necklaces, or the Catholic nuns’ head covering, velo delle suore, let alone the kippahs, the religious tattoos and many other such symbols are all part of Europe’s everyday culture. Why do we never hear of such controversy of a Jewish man being tossed out of a public building because of his kippah or a white French woman being expelled from university for wearing a cross? The matter has less to do with religious symbols, in general, than of the religious symbols of races and peoples who are simply unwanted in Europe.

Also, limiting the discussion to refugees and immigrants may give the impression that the debate is mostly concerned with the non-European ‘others’ who are ‘invading’ Europe’s shores, determined to ‘replace’ Europe’s original, white, Christian inhabitants. This is hardly the case, since a sizable percentage of Belgians and French, for example, are themselves Muslims, estimated at 6 percent and 5% respectively. Namely, these Muslims are European citizens.

Haouach, Zemmahi and Ismail actually wanted to be a part of – not break apart from – these societies by honoring their country’s most cherished political traditions, yet without erasing their own cultural heritage and religious identities in the process. Alas, they were all vehemently rejected, as if Europe has made a collective decision to ensure that Muslims subsist in the margins forever. And when Muslim communities try to fight back, using Europe’s own judicial systems as their supposed saviors, they are, once again, rejected. The latest of such spurns was in June, when Belgium’s constitutional court resolved that prohibiting the wearing of hijab does not constitute a violation of freedom of religion or the right to education.

It is time for European countries to understand that their demographics are fundamentally changing, and that such change can, in fact, be beneficial to the health of these nations. Without true diversity and meaningful inclusion, there can be no real progress in any society, anywhere.

But while demographic shifts can offer an opportunity for growth, it can also inspire fear, racism and, predictably, violence as well.

Europe, which has fought two horrendous wars in the last century, should know better.

Trade unions and Syriza collude in Greek herd immunity policy

John Vasilopoulos

A total of 3,565 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in Greece on Tuesday. This is the highest number of cases recorded this month—surpassing last week’s peak of 3,109—when more than 2,500 new cases were recorded each day. Just under a third of cases occurred in Attica, the country’s most populous region which includes the capital Athens. Cases have been rising exponentially since the beginning of July, with over 26,000 new cases recorded in the first 15 days.

While deaths are relatively low at present, averaging around 10 a day since the beginning of the month, these will also begin to rise, given that there is typically a two to eight week lag between a rise of new cases and an increase in new deaths. According to an analysis of official data published by medical news site iatronet.gr on Monday, daily COVID-19 hospitalisations increased by 247.3 percent since the start of July, while according to the government’s own figures just over 28 percent of COVID-19 beds are currently occupied.

Local residents wait for their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 outside a vaccination center on the Aegean island of Iraklia, Greece, Thursday, May 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Like in the rest of Europe the rise in cases is a direct result of the homicidal policy of “herd immunity”, with the economy opened up just as the new more contagious and more deadly Delta variant is spreading all over the continent. Speaking to Skai TV July 16, Greek epidemiologist Gkikas Magiorkinis stated that “the Delta variant is currently 60 percent prevalent in Greece and it is unlikely that it won’t become the dominant strain.”

Greece began to gradually lift its restrictions at the start of May even though daily cases were still hitting an average of 2,000. On May 13, to great fanfare, New Democracy Minister for Tourism Haris Theoharis announced to the world in front of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion outside Athens, 'We are opening our tourist industry to the world.' According to the rules unveiled by the government, tourists could travel to Greece from May 14 onwards provided they proof that they had either been vaccinated, recently recovered from the virus, or had a negative test result. The rules were a precursor to the European Union-wide digital vaccine certificate launched at start of this month to facilitate freedom of movement throughout the continent.

Even as the Delta variant was spreading throughout the rest of Europe, and despite less than half of adults over 18 having been fully vaccinated, the government pressed ahead with its plans to open everything up. At the beginning of this month, bars and night clubs were opened while the guest limit for weddings, christenings and other catered events was raised to 300 people.

Like in the rest of Europe and internationally, the government’s response has been to allow the virus to spread unabated to safeguard the profit interests of the ruling elite while presenting the vaccine as a one-stop solution to the pandemic. The chief response by the government to the surge in cases has been to require proof of vaccination or recovery from COVID-19 for people to enter indoor restaurants, bars and cafes. The same applies for bars and nightclubs, which in addition require patrons to be seated.

That the virus can still spread among the vaccinated is highlighted by the case of the island of Mykonos. The total number of active recorded cases quadrupled on Mykonos last week, despite most of its population being vaccinated as part of the government’s drive to vaccinate all adults in the Greek islands by the end of June before the peak of the tourist season.

The digital monitoring checks in place are also reportedly in shambles, with many infected tourists slipping through the cracks. Mykonos’ Deputy Mayor Alexandros Koukas admitted in an interview with state broadcaster ERT that “we were caught slightly off guard.”

According to the latest figures Mykonos now has 365 recorded cases per 100,000 of population, the highest such concentration of cases in the country. Other hotspots are the island of Santorini with 307 cases per 100,000 of population and the island of Paros with 227 cases per 100,000 of population.

Allowing the virus to spread places at risk a large proportion of the population, while raising the possibility of new vaccine-resistant variants developing. But in an interview to Antenna TV on July 16, Development and Investment Minister Adonis Georgiadis made clear that any limit on economic activity is considered a step too far. “If it was winter we would have had a 15 day lockdown. However, we are in the middle of the tourist season and without tourism there is no money while at the same time we could not morally implement [a lockdown] since half of the citizens have been vaccinated.”

“This summer we will live with a virus upsurge,” he declared.

The government is only able to act with impunity because the trade union bureaucracy supports the policy of herd immunity. Private sector trade union confederation GSEE has refused to mobilise its membership of hundreds of thousands to demand the implementation of adequate public health measures to safeguard the population and halt the spread of the virus until enough people have been vaccinated. Instead in a press statement published July 13 it pointlessly called for “information initiatives in order to reach the desired vaccination levels of our fellow citizens in order to achieve the ‘wall of protection’,” as if the majority of the population needed convincing of the necessity of being vaccinated!

No less pernicious a role is played by the pseudo-left parties, with Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left–Progressive Alliance) in mid-April presenting its own proposals for opening-up the economy. Such is the pro-business character of the party that Greek daily Ta Nea recently commented on the absence of the party’s previous left posturing:

“Ordinarily after such a deep crisis in the global economy as a result of the public health measures as well as after such a traumatic experience like that of the pandemic, one would have expected that a supposedly radical left party would have moved to multi-faceted programmatic and ideological counter-attack, speaking of the limits of the market, promoting the centrality of state intervention, underlying the explosion of inequalities, and demanding a radical reorientation of policy. However, Syriza has not moved in this direction. It acquiesced to the core of the pandemic’s handling and has only recently started to differentiate its message.”

Any such “differentiation” is of a purely tactical and face-saving character, as underscored by Syriza’s critique of the government’s plans to re-open the economy in May expressing “concern for the lack of a plan to kick-start the economy and a roadmap from the part of the government.”