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SCHILLER INSTITUTE CONFERENCE

Building A World Land-Bridge:
Realizing Mankind's True Humanity

Thursday, April 7, 2016, 9:00am - 9:30pm
NEW YORK CITY

The Rest of the World Is Joining the New Silk Road, Where Is the United States? Helga Zepp-LaRouche Q&A Panel 1

Program and video

Invitation

Invitation in PDF format

Program in PDF format

 

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: On the question of how to get the United States away from this imperial orientation and join the Silk Road, I said in the beginning of my remarks that that is probably going to be the question which will decide if humanity will exist. Because right now, we are on a course towards World War III. I only touched upon some of the crises, but that is a fact. You have a first-use doctrine; the Prompt Global Strike doctrine of the United States and NATO is a first-use doctrine. The modernization of tactical and other -- actually all nuclear weapons systems, for $1 trillion in the next 30 years: Why do you do this? Why would you modernize your weapons systems if you're not planning to use them?

President Obama promise that he would work towards a nuclear free world, for which he got the Nobel Peace Prize. You know, people have short memories so they forget these things. I think there are other candidates who deserve the Nobel Peace Prize much more than President Obama.

So I think the only way how we are going to get a change in the policy is, you and us, we have to mobilize the American people. Because, you know, the United States -- I don't know if you are aware of it, or some of you may be -- but the United States is undergoing right now a genocidal collapse, like Russia in the '90s under Yeltsin. It may shock you, but that is the reality, because in the '90s, the demographic curve of Russia collapsed by 1 million per year; the economy was shrunk to one-third, in four years, from '91-'94; and people in Russia remember this decades as the horrible, horrible decade, out of which Putin slowly was able to bring Russia back to a better position.

And what is the situation in the United States today? In all age brackets, white Americans have quadrupled their suicides since 2001, that is, since George W. Bush came into office, and it continues to the present day with Obama. People are killing themselves because of heroin addiction, overdose, alcoholism, despair, depression,. That is not exactly a sign of a prospering society.

And I have said many times, the Americans remind me of the Germans. Because in Germany, when you go out with a plan, you want to build the Silk Road into southern Europe because Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, all these countries are collapsing, we must bring the Silk Road there; and German response is "Ohh, you can't do anything anyway." You know? [laughter] And I've already said, I want to put that sentence under a fine of 10 years in dungeon. [applause] Because that sentence makes people so impotent that they then become the slaves and victims of whatever circumstances.

And Americans are becoming like that! Americans used to be the "can do" countries. They used to say, "Yeah, sure! We can do it! We can go to the Moon. We can develop Africa! We can do everything." Listen to the speeches of John F. Kennedy where he said, the human being is capable of no limits; we can conquer any problem with technology and science. Where is this spirit?

And I think that the purpose, as I said, of this conference, and other conferences like that, is we have to mobilize the American people that they know that there is an alternative. Because when people don't think there is any hope, that Wall Street is all-powerful, that there is nothing you can do, the election process is the laughingstock of the whole world by now; the outbursts of Trump, you know, people they don't believe that this is possible in a civilized country!

So I think it's important that you help us, to make known the fact that there is an absolute, easy alternative. And it would be very easy! All the United States would have to do, is convoke a summit; get on the telephone, call up President Xi Jinping, call up a couple of other leaders, General el-Sisi; Modi, who would be open, because Modi -- and I know this because I was in India just four weeks ago.

Modi would love to have the Chinese model in India. He would like to do it. He really would like to do it. Why can he not do it? Well, because of democracy, or what people think is democracy. China has the advantage of having a meritocracy, that is, a system where basically people who have merit get into better positions. And the fact that President Xi Jinping is now trying to get rid of some problems, is just a healthy thing, because people are happy that there is at least one country that is taking the leadership on new economic policies. And that is China.

So, India, on the other side, would like to have canals, corridors, but what happens, since Modi is from the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party], the Congress Party goes and immediately organizes the farmers and says, "no, you should not sell your land for this development corridor," and they're using it for stupid, narrow-minded reasons, like between the Democrats and the Republicans in the United States. That's why the country doesn't function: Everybody is just looking at their small-minded little project, and that way they stymie the development of the common good for the whole country!

So what we need to do, -- you know, Lyn at his 90th birthday made a beautiful speech and he said, we should abandon the party system. Parties are something very, very dangerous. And that's what I think President George Washington said when he went out of office, he warned people! He said, Look at what parties, when they become interest groups will do to this country, beware of it.

So I really want to appeal to you, you have to become an activists, an organizer, you have to help us build the Manhattan Project into a really powerful organization, and then have resemblance of that all over the United States, of people who say, "We want jobs, we want to do what Egypt is doing!" When have you seen a movie coming out of the United States like the promotion for the Suez Canal? I think the last time was with Kennedy, 50 years ago, or 52 years by now.

So what we need to have is a mass movement for development. We have this pamphlet: This is a supplement of our World Land-Bridge report, which by the way, just to emphasize this again, is already now in English, in Chinese, in Arabic; the Egyptian transport minister was so kind to present this program about two weeks ago in an international press conference together with one of our representatives; and he said at that press conference that Egypt will commit $100 billion to building the Silk Road in Egypt.

Now, we need people who say, "This is the Silk Road for the United States." It has some concrete projects which can be and have been elaborated elsewhere already: how to build railways, how to build development corridors, how to build new science, how to get the United States space program to join with China, India and Russia, and ESA, rather than cutting it back, which we will hear in the next panel. But we need a mass movement of people who will fight for development of the United States! And then, it is easy not to feel China rising as a competition.

And the only way how we will survive, and I'm deadly serious: You know, we are so close to World War III that if you think about it, you could not sleep! And just because people don't know about it, and don't care about it, doesn't mean it's not true: We could all be dead in a matter of hours, or in a matter of days, or weeks. The situation internationally is so tense, I only touched upon it a little bit, but it's much, much worse than most people have even an inkling of!

So either we, in the face of this very, very dramatic danger, mobilize every moral substance in this country to say, We do not want do not want to be the cause of World War III. And remember, at the Nuremberg trial, which was basically judging the Nazis having caused tremendous horrors in the Second World War, the judges said the excuse of people that they didn't know is not valid. The ruing of Nuremberg was: they knew, or should have known. So there is no excuse for Americans that they didn't know: They should have known, and I can only appeal to you: Become a peace movement, become a mass movement for development. The whole world is looking at us, at you.

You know, the rest of the world has problems, many problems, but they're not an existential threat. The United States right now is existential threat. [applause]

             DENNIS SPEED: The pamphlet and the report are available at the literature table, and everyone who does not have it, should get it there. ...

I have not forgotten the question that was asked about 9/11. Helga, I talked to Ramsey [Clark] and he preferred that you start off the answer which is about the 28 pages and if that he'll add something to that.

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, it is a known fact that the reason why we have ISIS, and before mujahideen, al-Qaeda, Al Nusra and all of these organizations, is because there was a very unholy and is a very unholy alliance between the British Monarchy and Saudi Royal Family; and that has been condoned by all administrations from the United States, going back Brzezinski. Because it Brzezinski in '75 who said, let's use the "Muslim card" against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. So the problem was, when the Soviet Union disintegrated, these networks which had been used by the United States, by the British, they didn't disappear, they distributed themselves to Dagestan, to Tajikistan, to Pakistan, and all over the place; and they have been used continuously for geopolitical reasons: for regime change against Saddam Hussein, the attempt against Assad, the killing and barbaric murder of Qaddafi, the destabilization and murder of people in Yemen right now! This is an atrocity the world doesn't talk about: Children are being killed every day in Yemen! And this is complete horror show!

So the 9/11 question in this context pertains to the fact that the Joint Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 led by Senator Bob Graham, made a report and 28 pages of this report were classified and remain so until the present day.

Now, a whole number of Congressmen, including Walter Jones, Thomas Massie, and various others, have read these 28 pages and they came to the conclusion, there is nothing in these 28 pages which deserves to be secret because it's a cover-up for illegal activities and not national security. So there is a big demand that these 289 pages should be published, and then you would start coming to the roots of what went wrong with September 11th!

And all the people, including Sen. Bob Graham have said, that the role of the Saudi Royal Family is very, very big on that. And that right now is what makes the peace in Syria very fragile, because Turkey also is still supporting ISIS.

So this is a very urgent question and it needs to be addressed. ...

            Q: I'm from Montreal, Canada: I want to ask a question about culture and spirit of humanity, in particular, as you said before in your speech, agapë; and one of the attributes of agapë being immortality. How do individuals within the organization go out and organize in such a way that for lack of better words, to almost "save" the next generations, and in particular my [youth] generation, from a certain degenerative education system and cultural system? ...

HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: I would just like to add -- there are many things one can say to young people who are suffering from a very degenerated culture and that the youth culture in the United States and in Europe right now is totally Satanic. And people have gotten accustomed to things which, if you had met these things 50 years ago (if you were alive then) you would say, "this is completely disgusting, this is Satanic, is this is horrible." But now, Pussy Riot is being upheld as an American value -- why? Because it's against Putin!

So all of these things have become so -- you know most of the pop music is Satanic, and every time you think the bottom has been reached, in terms of perversion, they come up with something even worse. So it's like the frog in the hot water, you know, you're getting boiled and you don't even notice any more, because the culture becomes more Satanic by the day.

The antidote against that is exactly what you said: for example, when I was in Lanzhou two years ago on the ancient Silk Road, we met with a couple of Chinese students and we into a very good discussion about the new Silk Road, and they said "Yeah! We want to go to Africa and help to develop Africa with the New Silk Road." And that is the spirit young people should have. Because young people, at least in my generation, when I could leave school, when my schooling was finished, I wanted to see the world! I wanted to go to every country, and I've traveled to many; I've travelled really a lot in my whole life. And the more you learn to know about these other cultures, the more you get excited, because you realize the world is, indeed, very beautiful, as Ramsey was saying. The world is a very beautiful place! And the fact that there are so many cultures is an enrichment! Because you study Chinese painting, or Chinese poetry, and you realize, they have a completely different way, than, let's say, European, Italian, German poetry, but it's enriching! Or you go to Egypt, and you find out, "Oh, wait a second, monotheology was really discovered in Egypt by some old pharoahs in very ancient period of Egyptian history." Then you go to India, and you find out that in the Vedic writings, there are mythologies about the creation of the universe which our scientists today can confirm!

And all these things! There are so many things to discover, and the agapë, the love for other people comes from knowing them. If you don't know them, then you are fearful, then you are like Trump, a brute, a complete brute! [laughter] He doesn't know anything, so therefore, he says sentences which are on the level of second grader!