We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
In the race (and millions of dollars in funding) to convince the world how evil China is they neglect one important point. Which is that everywhere outside of the USA looks like paradise now. Not only China. Everywhere.
It’s cheaper, cleaner, politer, calmer, nicer, with better infrastructure, and all the rest. The only people that don’t see this are the hypnotized American zombies glued to FOX “news”, CNN, Alex Jones and Hal Turner.
Here we talk about what it is like outside the prison walls, and at the other end of the computer screen.
Consider these examples. Obtained from "These 7 expats left the U.S. to start over—here’s how they earn an income overseas: ‘We spend less on all expenses’" which was Janet Blaser, Contributor@WhyWeLeftAmerica
All rights and credit to her, and all the standard disclaimers apply.
Catalina Viviel
Catalina Viviel
Catalina Viviel interviewed for jobs at several South American countries before finally getting an offer in Colombia.
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More and more people are discovering that not only can they live abroad and be happy, safe and comfortable, but that they can successfully earn an income.
That’s exactly what I did when I left the U.S. for Mazatlán, Mexico in 2006. I lived off a steady income from freelance editing jobs and running M!, a local arts and entertainment magazine I started.
Colin Bucell, 47
Colin Bucell
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Currently in Morocco, Colin Bucell lives on his sailboat, which doubles as an income source via private tours and excursions.
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Hometown: Los Angeles, California Currently an expat in: Morocco Occupation: Sailboat excursions Annual income: $12,000
In 2011, Colin Bucell had a dream to sail around the world. He took early retirement at age 37 and went first to Mexico. Since then, he’s lived in more than 60 countries.
“Every day is an exciting new adventure!” Bucell tells CNBC Make It from his sailboat in Morocco. “And all for a fraction of what my California expenses were.”
Bucell lives on his sailboat, which doubles as an income source via private tours and excursions — advertised through word of mouth — wherever he is. He’s found health care and food to be much cheaper everywhere he goes.
Spain, Thailand and Mexico are countries where he could happily settle down if he wanted to; he says it’s great that he’s been able to thoroughly test the livability of all of them.
Shawn Supra, 45
Shawn Supra
Shawn Supra, a musician and furniture restorer, currently lives in Australia with his wife Diana.
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Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee Currently an expat in: Sydney, Australia Occupation: Musician and furniture restorer Annual income: $32,500
Love was the motivating factor behind musician Shawn Supra’s move to Australia in 2020, where he met his future wife Diana while on tour. They first settled in the U.S., but as things began to change politically and socially, they decided it was time to move to Australia.
“Living in the U.S., there’s such a sense of fear. It’s almost drilled into you that there’s danger around every corner. I don’t feel that here. Everyone is more relaxed,” Supra says.
He also likes the free health care in Australia, and that the income from his furniture restoration business entitles him to superannuation from the government — similar to U.S. Social Security benefits.
Kema Ward-Hopper, 39
Kema Ward-Hopper
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“We love our lives here. We’re treated as humans first,” says Kema Ward-Hopper, who now lives in Costa Rica with her family.
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Hometown: Houston, Texas Currently an expat in: Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica Occupation: English teacher and yoga instructor Annual income: $24,000 to $33,000
In 2017, after Kema Ward-Hopper was diagnosed with breast cancer and when Hurricane Harvey destroyed her Houston home, a family trip to Costa Rica turned into a permanent move.
“We love our lives here,” she says. “We’re treated as humans first. We didn’t always have the luxury of been seen as people in the U.S.”
Although the pandemic shut down Ward-Hopper and husband Willie’s income streams for months, they’re disciplined savers and their expenses in Costa Rica are low.
An added bonus was the birth of her son last year, even after doctors said chemotherapy had rendered her unable to conceive. “Health-wise, I did a complete 180 after moving here,” says Ward-Hopper. “I healed both physically and emotionally.”
Chasity Diggs, 37
Chasity Diggs
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“We’ve been able to exceed our goals without having to make sacrifices in our daily lives,” says Chasity Diggs, who now lives in Singapore with her family.
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Hometown: Greensboro, North Carolina Currently an expat in: Singapore Occupation: Behavior intervention specialist Annual income: $170,000
Chasity Diggs is no stranger to living outside the U.S. Before moving to Singapore about six months ago, she and her family lived in China.
The primary reason was so their oldest daughter could attend an international school. The family also wanted a better work-life balance and to be in a more diverse country.
“However, the best part of living overseas are the financial benefits. We’ve been able to exceed our goals without having to make sacrifices in our daily lives. Housing costs are covered by my employer, so we’re able to save a considerable amount of money each month,” says Diggs.
Carol Markino, 52
Carol Markino
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Carol Markino lives in Rome and works as an English teacher.
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Hometown: Dover, Ohio Currently an expat in: Rome, Italy Occupation: English teacher and language consultant Annual income: $13,500
Having visited Italy many times when she was in college, Carol Markino always knew that someday she wanted to stay there long-term. It’s now been 30 years since she moved to Rome.
“As an Italian-American, I’ve always been attracted to my roots,” says Markino. “I love that I live in a city that’s full of beauty — not just museums, but wonderful buildings, architecture and style.”
She also appreciates the culture: “Italians work hard, but they understand there’s more to life than just work.”
Tim Leffel, 57
Originally from: Tampa, Florida Currently an expat in: Guanajuato, Mexico Occupation: Travel writer Annual income: $60,000
Tim Leffel
Many factors drew Tim Leffel to Mexico, particularly the “perfect weather all year” and low cost of living.
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“It was one of those love-at-first-sight visits,” says Tim Leffel. “I was in a few central Mexico cities on assignment, and Guanajuato really struck a chord.”
Many factors drew him to Mexico, particularly the “perfect weather all year” and low cost of living. “We spend less on all expenses — including private school for our daughter — than we did just on rent and utilities in Tampa,” he says.
Well-traveled family and friends admire their lifestyle. Some were even inspired to move abroad themselves, while others “seem afraid of the scary world beyond the borders.”
“It’s the message that has been pounded into their heads. They’ve probably expected us to be kidnapped or robbed by now. I hope that by seeing a steady stream of happy photos as we live and travel around, they’re getting a bit of balance.”
Catalina Viviel, 48
Catalina Viviel
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Originally from New York, Catalina Viviel now lives in Bogota, Colombia.
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Hometown: Long Island, New York Currently an expat in: Bogota, Colombia Occupation: Teacher and resource room coordinator Annual income: $75,000
“I’d only been to Colombia once, when I met my dad’s entire side of the family for the first time,” says Catalina Viviel. “I never forgot that trip and the warmth of the people.”
Working in education, Viviel began her expat life with a two-year contract in Marrakech, Morocco. Then she went back to the U.S., where she found herself “itching to go abroad again.” She interviewed for jobs at several South American countries before finally getting an offer in Colombia.
“People thought I was crazy to change countries and become a single mom, all the while navigating a new language during a pandemic,” says Viviel. “Were there days I cried? Absolutely.”
Now halfway into her two-year commitment, Viviel says she’s not ready to leave and has requested to extend her contract.
“It’s amazing being able to reconnect with my Colombian roots, especially watching my daughter thrive in the country of our heritage,” she says.
Metallicman comments
Zhuhai City
The general comments from American expats that reside around the world are similar. It does not matter if you live in China (like MM here) or elsewhere. All of us share similar experiences.
[1] It’s a calmer; easier place to live.
The news” is not barking at as filling us with fear. The commercials are not screaming at us to buy things. We are not hearing about shootings, accidents, murders, rapes, government corruption, and all the rest. There are no advertisements for mind altering drugs, lawyers for legal settlements, bail bonding, or pawn shops.
People pretty much live their lives in peace.
[2] It’s a cheaper place to live.
You can live cheaper, and buy basic foods, local meals, and rent or own a house at a fraction of what it costs in the USA. Not only that, there aren’t the crazy taxes, regulations and fees tacked on to everything. You can get buy and live a simpler life either on retirement or working a simple part-time job.
Drawer slide
For instance, a drawer slide made in China is $3 a pair. It sells in the United States for $106 per pair. Unfriggin’ believable.
[3] The Government is concerned about domestic issues.
You don’t ever hear about the need to go to war!
You don’t hear about government troops in this nation or that country. You never hear about how “we must do something now about XXXXX!”. The government is focused on the lives of the people that in in the country. That’s it.
All in all, Americans have been corralled. They are in a pen within the geographic confines of the United States, and filled with fear of what lies outside of it. They are constantly bombarded with the idea that they are “special” and that the government is “exceptional” and “superior”.
It’s all a big lie.
And it is obvious to everyone who is paying attention. In the world today, it is common knowledge that the USA is undergoing a spectacular collapse.
What will happen is anyone’s guess, but the future for America does NOT look bright.
If you have been paying a little attention at the International scene, you will be aware that China “clamped down” on the for-profit school model that was working inside of China. By the singular ‘stroke of a pen”, many Chinese billionaires suddenly lost a ton-load of money. And the West (read: America and the UK) are all in Shock. “What are they thinking” they holler.
They don’t “get it”. They do not understand. They think that making billions of dollars in profits is a sign of success and vibrancy. But no. It is not.
Again, China is showing the world, that it’s primary role is to take care of it’s citizens first. And if a few billionaires are crushed in the process, then so be it.
China’s hammer blow to private education shows it will do whatever it takes to meet its goals
Perceived as promoting inequality and a hindrance to birth rates, tutoring in China has suddenly been transformed into a non-profit industry. It’s a ruthless reminder that Xi Jinping will always put the needs of society first.
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In a spectacular display of government authority, China has, with the stroke of a pen, demolished its $120-billion private education industry by forcing it to reform into a non-profit initiative.
The move has cost at least one billionaire his fortune.
It follows a number of crackdowns waged by Beijing against various sectors of the economy which were deemed to contravene the national interest. The ruthlessness of such sudden decision-making has undoubtedly shocked Western observers and capitalist advocates, yet its purpose appears to be twofold.
As highlighted by Reuters, Beijing is dismantling a sector which is not only exacerbating the inequality of education among rich and poor, but is also increasingly perceived as an obstacle to the country’s fertility rates.
So now the hammer has come down on it as a social disruption. It shows that Beijing is prepared to do whatever it takes to meet its national goals, and is another example of how the Chinese Communist Party’s authority has stiffened against the creeping liberalization which the West once welcomed.
Education is of exceptional importance in east Asian societies, and is often considered a determining factor in a family’s status. Parents invest heavily in their children’s future, and as a result the systems in these countries often turn out to be extremely competitive, resulting in an intense commitment towards extra-curricular and out-of-school private study.
This has sparked the development of a huge private education and tutoring sector, with parents investing vast amounts of money to ensure that their children can be among the very best. It is admirable yet strenuous, and it inevitably has a knock-on effect on fertility rates, as each child effectively becomes a massive investment.
The example of neighboring South Korea, which is fully developed, illustrates how in a capitalist society, the zealous over-competitiveness of the education system is having negative effects on society. High-school-age children typically go to school, only to attend private ‘Hagwon’ classes afterwards, which often offer miserable working conditions for the teachers involved.
As a country that is developing fast, China has increasingly been heading in the same direction. Despite being a communist state, this has created a growing urban-rural divide, where the wealthy children of cities such as Shanghai are able to afford these educational boosters, but the poorer children of the provinces are left behind.
This is an obstacle for future growth.
Beijing also now sees this arrangement as dragging down its birth rate, which has become a national priority. A new white paper called for extensive reforms to enable people to be able to afford more children, including in education and healthcare.
As a result, Beijing has clamped down hard on this sector by instantaneously transforming it into a non-profit, sending shares plunging. The goal is not to end tutoring, but to make it more affordable and accessible to all, so the vices of inequality and capitalism cannot strangle society.
It’s a stark reminder that although China embraces market economics, it is nonetheless still a communist – state and under Xi Jinping, it is in many ways hardening its resolve to be so.
And this is, of course, precisely why the West does not like Xi.
The CPC chairman has reversed the trajectory of liberalisation in society, which Western observers once hoped would see China ‘evolve’ into a democracy. Instead, Xi has centralized and consolidated CPC rule.
His strategy is not so much tyranny, as has been caricatured, but based on an increasing belief that if China’s problems are to be overcome, the political will invested into it needs to more resolute.
The education saga helps explain why.
If the private education system was simply allowed to spiral out of control as a capitalist initiative – which is acceptable from a Western point of view – it would become an obstacle for the country’s other socio-economic goals and development.
Increasingly, we see this kind of ruthlessness shape Xi’s leadership of the country – such as at the start of the pandemic, when he imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, which was condemned by the West at the time, yet ultimately paid off.
Although the uncompromising nature of the Xi era has put China on a collision course with the West, it nonetheless may be what the country truly needs to move forward.
Many of his actions are arguably ‘necessary evils’ in the pursuit of a longer strategy, even if one believes they are morally troubling or even unacceptable.
The South Korean model of education is a warning sign of what can happen if an over-competitive educational culture is superseded by the demands of profit. Xi has just made sure this will not happen in China. It shows how the state is continuing to dominate Chinese society and drive forward its vision for the future, even if it means culling billionaires along that road.
Here’s some comments at the end of the article.
Tutoring, healing, feeding humans, providing water and energy should be non profit. Why?
Why should someone profit by providing basic services?
Tell me why?
Remark, non profit does not mean low wages nor free... it could mean efficient, fair, good and appreciated by customers, who would choose the best for them.
Hear! Hear!
Well I agree with the Chinese President because he believes that every child should have equal opportunity at the educational level.
A poor family cannot afford expensive private tutoring maybe leaving the child from that poor family at a disadvantage when it comes to performance in exams, and the opportunity for a place at university.
This is the best way to produce the best talent and China as a country will benefit in the future because of this policy.
I have always believed that countries should provide free education based on ability especially in science, technology, maths and medicine. Let them pay for their airy fairy degrees themselves. This is exactly what farmers have done forever, cultivate for best yield.
A brilliant management move by China.
As it will stop a lot of inequalities, people will blend better with 0ne streamline education, much of one class people, unlike in many countries private schools with troublesome, violent separate races, of different castes. And private schools tend to stretch the boundaries with different courses, subjects and outlandish thinking---not good for a society.
So much better to have one good public system only- let China show the way. The benefits for all people are ENORMOUS. I bet more than half of the people in the world will applaud 'the one education system.'
The corrosive capitalist mindset will surely turn China into a failed state like the US. It is a relief to see China protect itself and its people from the cancer that will subvert China and lead to its fall.
Keeping an eye on the pro-West cabals inside China will protect it from suffering the same fate as the Soviet Union. Learn from History!
American and Western media are shocked!
And you can tell how they just don’t have a clue as to what is going on. Reading it, it sounds so “breathless”, “gasping”, “exasperated”, and “frustrated”. Read this article from HERE.
Jeeze! Get a fucking life woman.
I highlighted the “kill words and phrases“.
Can you possibly tell me that this wasn’t processed through AI to develop a thoroughly negative impression of China? And this is just one example of how Americans are manipulated to hate and demonize China.
Check it out. Learn something.
China is extending its regulatory storm from tech to education
Just as China’s regulatory storm against big tech came abruptly and brutally, Beijing’s deepening crackdown on private education companies is plunging the entire sector into an existential crisis.
China’s State Council and the Party’s central committee have jointly issueda set of rules(link in Chinese) aimed at curtailing the sprawling sector that has flourished thanks to massive funding from global investors and ever increasing spending from families fighting to help their children gain a better footing in life. After years of high growth, the size of the after-school tutoring sector has reached upwards of $100 billion, of which online tutoring services account for around $40 billion.
“The timing is also interesting as it coincides with the crackdown on the tech companies, and further confirms the intention of the government to regain control [of] and restructure the economy,” said Henry Gao, an associate professor of law at Singapore Management University, referring to Beijing’s sweeping regulatory overhaul of tech companies including Alibaba and Tencent, which have either been fined for monopolistic practices, ordered to give up their exclusive rights in certain sectors, or, in the case of Didi, have fallen afoul of national security rules.
China’s “double reduction” policy
The rules, released over the weekend, aim to ease homework and after-school study hours for students, which the policy dubbed the “double reduction.” They stipulate that companies teaching subjects covered in primary and middle school, which are compulsory in China, should register as “nonprofit institutions,” essentially banning them from making returns for investors. No new private tutoring firms can register, while online education platforms also need to seek new approval from regulators despite their previous credentials.
Meanwhile, companies are also banned from raising capital, going public, or allowing foreign investors to hold stakes in the firms, posing a major legal puzzle for funds like US firm Tiger Global and Singapore state fund Temasek that have invested billions in the sector. In a further blow to China’s ed-tech startups, the rules also say that the education department should push for free online tutoring services across the country.
The companies are also banned from teaching on public holidays or weekends.
Double-digit reductions in Chinese stocks
The looming rules, first reported by Bloomberg last Friday (July 23), immediately led to a sell-off last week in US-listed veteran education players such as New Oriental Education & Technology and TAL Education. In trading in Hong Kong today, where Oriental floated a secondary listing last year, shares of the company plunged 47% today. Meanwhile, Larry Chen, the former schoolteacher who founded Gaotu Techedu, a major online education player, fell out of the ranks of China’s billionaires.
Major education companies have been quick to say they will comply with the new government rules. New Oriental, the largest Chinese player in this space, said that the new regulations will “have material adverse impact” on after-school tutoring services, a sentiment echoed by TAL.
The regulatory developments also spurred a broader $2 billion selloff in Chinese stocks, as the bar on foreign investment for education firms coupled with the crackdown on foreign IPOs after ride-hailing giant Didi confirmed to foreign investors just how exposed their investments are from China’s regulatory actions. Social media and gaming Tencent was down 7.7% in Hong Kong today after China told it to unwind its monopoly on exclusive music licensing rights, while food delivery giant Meitu was down nearly 14% after Chinese regulators today ordered better protections for delivery workers.
Why is China cracking down on education?
While the harshness of the new measures is surprising, the fact that they were coming wasn’t. In March, president Xi Jinping called after-school tutoring services a “social problem,” and in May he again lashed out at the industry’s “disorderly development.” Following Xi’s criticism of the sector, authorities set up a dedicated department to supervise it, including examining tutor qualifications and fees, as well as imposing a ban on teaching preschoolers primary school materials.
In addition to Beijing’s desire to put the brakes on tech sectors that it believes expanded too chaotically, the turn to education indicates the government’s worries about China’s dropping birth rate. One of the major purposes of the new rules is to “effectively ease the anxieties of parents,” as well as reduce family spending on education, according to the government document. A major obstacle for Chinese citizens to have more than one child is the sheer cost of doing so, and in particular the difficulty of securing a quality education, which authorities promised to address in May, when introducing the third-child policy.
One Chinese teacher Quartz spoke to noted that it may be middle-class families who feel this policy the most, given they are most likely to push their kids into tutoring. Affluent families, after all, can still engage private tutors or send their children abroad to elite schools.
“The new rules will benefit those who are in the grassroots class that don’t have much time or energy to supervise children’s studies,” said the teacher. “But for people like us who are in the middle-class bracket, we will be hit the hardest.”
The next target of China’s infinite crackdown
The new rules are yet another razor-sharp warning to global investors that high returns from investment in China Inc can turn into huge losses overnight.
Yuanfudao, one of China’s largest online tutoring service startups, raised $2.2 billion in two funding rounds partly led by Tencent in October, pushing its valuation to over $15.5 billion. But now it is unclear what will happen to the stakes held by investment firms, especially foreign ones, after the new rules dashed hopes of cashing out through upcoming IPOs.
“This incident highlights the crucial importance for global investors to have people who understand China, who can decipher investment risks from minor nuances in mundane government documents…Any company that wish to operate in China should put China’s regulatory uncertainties as the biggest risk factor,” said Gao, the professor.
The education sector is not the only one that needs to worry about government scrutiny, however.
On Weibo, many commentators have pointed at the housing market, whose skyrocketing prices have been cited often by citizens as a major difficulty to having children, as the next target of crackdown. In an analysis, Chinese financial columnist Jin Lun argues that any industry that is seen as contributing to people delaying having children will be a potential target. “High housing prices will also be cracked down as an ‘enemy’ that has been weighing down the birth rate. While the industry will continue to exist to meet demand, there is basically no hope of continuing to see housing prices rise,” wrote Jin.
Conclusion
This little article combines two other articles. The first was one from RT written by a long time Chinese observer. He describes what is going on and why. China is trying to avoid the “death traps that has so violently polluted the West.
The second article is how the event is “reported” in the American “news”. In this case MSM. It’ reads like a breathless hysterical document, and when you highlight the “Kill Phrases and words” the enormous density of them is strongly suggestive of AI processing.
How American “news” is written.
And as I have reported in the past, the “millions of dollars” to “control the anti-China” narrative funded by neocons is pretty relentless. This is just one such example. Can you possibly imagine what others might be?
Currently, Western Media is mostly inundated with lies about China since it's being demonized as the Enemy du Jour by the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals, so much of what's published is rubbish.
...Chinese media has much greater credibility. I'll close by saying this older publication detailing China's national plan for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as promoted by the UN contains the underlying rationale for many of China's policies.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 26 2021 20:32 utc
Meanwhile, in China, all is good.
I took some videos today. Enjoy. It’s a video (in five parts) of me walking out of my house, down the street, and getting a breakfast at Burger King. It’s everyday MM, but it will give you all a glimpse of what the “real” China is like.
I was in China teaching English in universities and to private students for much of the last fifteen years. I tried to go to a different province every year in an effort to understand China better. My subject was Oral English, and so my classes were entirely conversation.
Some things I saw:
1) Chinese generally are intensely patriotic although they may disagree with certain aspects of Chinese systems.
2) Class leaders and local leaders are ELECTED. Higher level leaders are selected by committees.
3) Chinese fashion looks longingly Westward, imitating hip-hop and clothing and even playing some latest Western hits to attract people into stores.
4) China has 95% eliminated paper and coin currency.
5) Chinese somehow think Western faces are more beautiful. Nose and eye jobs are common. I tell them their features are considered beautiful in the West. They are unfazed.
6) A mask is commonly worn for issues like a big pimple, a cough, or heavy pollution.
7) People generally follow rules without a problem, except when they don't. Cheating happens.
8) China has large land masses of designated minority areas with nominal or actual autonomous government. The population in these areas is not large, however.
9) Many many of those pushing their children in after school programs are hoping their children can go study abroad, and even maybe move abroad eventually.
10) Chinese by and large don't know how high their standard of living is compared to other areas. The world ranking don't actually compare cost of living. With good public transportation, well-planned neighborhoods, cheap medical care and top notch education, I admire China.
Posted by: HelenB | Jul 26 2021 23:19 utc | 63
China resembles the America that I grew up in.
What America was.
Not the America of today, a land ruled by psychopaths, serviced by zombie-serfs and slaves, and decay all around.
This situation, where the stark difference is a “bitch slap” to the American government, the American leadership, and the American structure is too alarming. And the evil, corrupt leadership dos not like it one single bit.
America used to be a land with factories. Real. Honest to goodness factories. Places where things, parts were fabricated and made. Like this…
America used to have real factories.
Today, America has precious few factories. Most of what constitutes as a factory (on the government listings) are best described as “design centers”, and “corporate headquarters”. The buildings look nice, and it’s all so shiny, new and clean. But, it’s a land of cubicles, and accountants. Of lawyers, and Human Resources. It’s staffed by finance and marketing types. Very few actual engineers or workers.
Anyways…
You have heard it all before. Haven’t you?
It just makes me want to get with a beloved pet, a cat and just hang out or snuggle.
Just some pictures of people snuggling with their cats…
Yeah. It’s pretty silly. According to the MSM (American Main Stream Media) all those expats who talk about China, and show videos about China are lying. The real “truth” (they say) is that China is evil and dirty and nasty. So they warn their audiences to ignore anyone who is saying anything good about China.
"Some vloggers are suspected of co-operating with state-owned outlets to spread China's rhetoric to the world. But it's far from clear what really motivates them, or how effective this strategy is."
What strategy? We just film our lives and talk about our experiences. And those that don’t like it can howl all they want to.
It’s all so silly.
My Life
The following are some videos that I have taken as I live my life in Zhuhai, China. And I’ll just let you watch the videos and come to your own conclusions. This is what my life in China looks like.
I am not…
"...co-operating with state-owned outlets to spread China's rhetoric to the world."
I have spent 40 years in the United States, and 20 years in China. And I can tell you that my quality of life within China is SUBSTANTIALLY better than anything that the United States has.
And my videos show this.
It is so spellbindingly better, that I just cannot contain myself. All those things that I hated about America, but lived with, simply because I was told “there isn’t anything better” was a big fat lie.
And I am gonna shove that lie back in your faces.
A nice fish meal
Here’s one of my meals that I eat in China. This is a fish. It’s very tender, fresh, and tasty with all kinds of seasonings. I never had anything like this in the United States. At best I would get a small brook trout, or a river fish full of bones. But more often than not, it would be some kind of dethawed, deboned fish that was deep fried.
This is fresh fish. So tender. Cooked in spices and sauce. Eaten well with rice, and delicious vegetables.
Click on the picture to see the video.
Riding a Bus in Zhuhai China
Here’s a video that I took on a weekend when I rode a bus. It’s just a typical bus in China. Notice how quiet it is? Yes, all buses in China are electric and quiet. Notice the great air conditioning. Notice the relaxed atmosphere, and even though Coronavirus is pretty much under control, everyone is still wearing masks.
Lover’s Road
This is the road in front of my house. It’s called “Lover’s Road”, and many couples walk up and down it. I filmed it while riding a bus, and you can see one of the town bus stops in the front of the picture here.
Local Wines
I am not a “wine connoisseur” like you might find in the higher class circles of society. I just know my wines because I drink a substantial amount of wine all the time. Not the super expensive stuff. Just the low to mid quality stuff. And You could say that I am an expert on it. Not like there are “experts” who own a Ferrari, but rather “experts” because they work on the Ferrari’s.
Definition - What does WineConnoisseur mean? A wineconnoisseur is an individual who has deep knowledge of the subject of wine. This knowledge goes beyond knowing how to taste wine or having a deep appreciation. A seasoned connoisseur will, for instance, have the ability to assess a young wine and know its aging potential.What is a Wine Connoisseur? - Definition from WineFrog
A school for one year old babies
In China, education starts early. Here is a school for toddlers up to three years old. The prices tend to be prohibitive for MM (personally), but I do like their programs and the subjects they teach and the general positive atmosphere. Click on the picture to watch the video.
Hunan Beef
I do enjoy a nice Hunan beef. This meat is cooked in tender little bite sizes and smothered in hot peppers which gives it that distinctive spicy flavor. I personally like it a lot.
Night time bus ride
This is the Jida city center area at around 8:00 pm at night. Jida is a section of Zhuhai where I happen to live. This video kind of shows what it is like at night. Notice all the people that are out. China is very, very safe. I personally believe that it is the safest nation on the planet.
Hunan Cauliflower
The best cauliflower is made Hunan style. It is cooked in bacon, with leeks, garlic, and spices. Very, very delicious.
A “birds eye view” of Jida in Zhuhai
This video is from Douxing. Also known as TicTok which is it’s “pale shadow” version available out in the West.
I live off to the left. This area is now being completely demolished. The road is being torn up and made into a nice lawn with walking paths. And there is a tunnel under construction that will go under this little hill and bypass all the traffic away from this park.
In fact, the entire sea coast is nothing but new construction for parks, malls, and scenic areas. In my entire time in the United States I have never, and I do mean NEVER, seen such an emphasis in parks, and human friendly free areas. In fact, the only thing that anyone ever cared for through my entire childhood was tearing down things to make money-making parking lots, and the like.
Outside of a mall at 6:00pm
This is the outside of one of the many malls in Zhuhai. The noise is the speaker telling people to line up and go through the temp checks, the QR location verification, the facial scanning, and the mask wearing prior to entering the mall.
To the right is a pile of construction machinery. They are a digging deep down. I suspect that it is part of the new Zhuhai to Zhongshan high speed rail, that will go underground in this section of the city. But I do not know for sure.
Notice the people. Do they seem like they are starving, and clamoring for “rescue” for the “American way of life”, and democracy™ and freedom™?
Cheaper than a cheap American “Value Meal” at Burger King
I eat very well in China. The food is good, tasty, prepared with care. There are no GMO’s. The establishments are sanitary, and clean, and the prices are cheap. Or said better, not exorbitant.
You see, the Chinese government believes that to serve the people best, they need to have affordable housing, affordable food, affordable medical care, and reasonable and affordable transportation. Which is quite unlike what is provided in America; the “for profit nation” where there is always a thousand tiny, tiny hands in your wallet. Check out the video…
And now for something different…
The USA has been probing Chinese defenses for years now. And China has “taken it on the chin”. But the latest bullshit about violating airspace and flying into Taiwan is pretty fucking ballsy and very dangerous. This next video is a depiction of an event that actually happened earlier this year (2021). Of course, you would never see this ever in the United States media.
Meanwhile in the United States…
My A#1 top posts are hard-running stuff on my SHTF indexes. Sure I get periodic hits on my KTV indexes, and some surprises out of the blue here and there. But the longest and most reliable source of new visitors are the SHTF articles. And the vast majority of the visitors come from America, and to a lessor extent Europe.
This video pretty much illustrates what Americans are “looking forward to”, and I am sure that it scares the living Dejesus out of them.
Putting it all together
I am absolutely convinced that American has been plundered by psychopathic personalities that took control of the government and “ran it into the ground”. They converted free citizens to a mixture of debit serfs, and slaves, and they are now scraping the bottom of the barrel (figuratively). The endless spending on go-nowhere wars, the lack of infrastructure repair, the decline in education, and the rise of radical utopians, have all contributed to a dangerous slew of events.
What would normally occur at this juncture in time is that the people would rise up (one way or the other) and kill the leadership and start over fresh.
But the evil psychopaths in Washington DC know history, they might be evil, but they are not ignorant. So they have made it especially difficult for internal domestic resurrection. The only options that now lie available to them are;
Start World War III and direct the domestic anger outward to a figurehead. (Which is either China or Russia).
Or, a peaceful restructuring of the government like what happened with the Soviet Union to Russia.
What I am seeing is that Biden is trying to move America towards the second option, while there are enormously powerful self-interests inside of America that are pushing for the first option; World War III.
It’s a scary time for certain.
Discomfort is what happens as the population waltzes towards disaster. It happens each and every time. Consider the years leading up to the first American Civil War…
William J. Cooper has written a magnificently researched account of the political atmosphere that prevailed in the United States immediately after the election of Abraham Lincoln and through the first shots of the Civil War at Fort Sumter.
What individual elements made up the call to arms on both sides of the Mason Dixon line?
Which persons were conciliatory and which were belligerent?
What contribution did the nuances of the several political parties play in the mood of the population?
Was the Civil War inevitable no matter what action was taken by Lincoln?
Many eminent American Civil War historians tend to move quickly throughout the three year period preceding the onset of the War, as they move on the War itself, however Wm. Cooper's work has has been devoted entirely to a study of this critical era, and provides significant insight as to the period's ultimate result-- namely, the War itself.
Cooper has devoted much effort to a study of the era's significant and influential caste of characters, including an newspaper editor, abolitionists, radical Republicans,, members of both houses of Congress,and each of the Presidents---both sitting and newly -elected..
-Amazon reviews of "We Have the War Upon Us: The Onset of the Civil War, November 1860-April 1861" by Cooper, William J. (2012) Hardcover
Examining the three prior Fourth Turnings may give us a window into where we stand and what may happen in the coming year.
We are in the thirteenth year of this Crisis. (The eleven-year anniversary was in September 2019.) Here we look at the three previous events.
The American Revolution Crisis
The Civil War Crisis
The Great Depression/World War II Crisis
A comparison of the last three “Fourth Turnings” in the United States. Full-scale war is shown in black. The vertical line running through them is 2019 when I made the graphic, and the comparative date in the previous turnings. .
You can see that in both the American Revolution crisis and the Civil War crisis, the wars took place BEFORE the target crisis date. And the events of World War II were immediately afterwards. .
If this was The Revolutionary War, we would be in the thick of it, right now and celebrating American independence. If we compare to the Civil war, you move the line over two years (2021) and you discover that we are in the middle of the “reconstruction period”. And if you compare to World War II, you would find that we are right before Pearl Harbor bombing and the destruction of the Pacific Fleet. .
Taking note of “The Fourth Turning” and the Strauss and Howe generational theory of predictive behavior in America, we note that their dates are close but seem to be off by a few years. In our case, the “Crisis catalyst” did not occur in 2005 as predicted. It occurred in 2008 with the Wall Street “too big to fail” debacle. That is three years later.Adjusting the Strauss and Howe dates to account for the delay in the catalyst, messes things up a bit. They predicted…
If the Crisis catalyst comes on schedule, around the year 2005, then the climax will be due around 2020, the resolution around 2026. What will America be like as it exits the Fourth Turning? History offers no guarantees. Obviously, things could go horribly wrong—the possibilities ranging from a nuclear exchange to incurable plagues, from terrorist anarchy to high-tech dictatorship. We should not assume that Providence will always exempt our nation from the irreversible tragedies that have overtaken so many others: not just temporary hardship, but debasement and total ruin. Since Vietnam, many Americans suppose they know what it means to lose a war. Losing in the next Fourth Turning, however, could mean something incomparably worse. It could mean a lasting defeat from which our national innocence—and perhaps even our nation—might never recover. As many Americans know from their own ancestral backgrounds, history provides numerous examples of societies that have been wiped off the map, ground into submission, or beaten so badly they revert to barbarism.
There is a nice graphic that I composed for your purposes of planning out the next few years. I hope that it is helpful. Adding three years, gives us…
“Crisis catalyst” in 2008.
Climax in 2023.
Resolution in 2029.
.
But is that correct? Maybe it is really wrong…
Of course, you could argue the 2020 was the “climax” simply because it was one Hell of a shitty year. But you all know, it was a shitty year for everyone on the globe. Not just Americans. I argue that it was just foreplay for bigger stuff to come.
And it makes sense if you argue that 2020 was the climax. After all, if you include the “not ever reported” bio-weapons attacks as war, then the actual map looks like this…
But none of that matters. We are in the “thick of it” right now. We are smack dab in the middle of it.
We are in the middle of it right now.
Seriously, just because no one is reporting on what is actually going one doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. America carpet bombed China with eight (8x) strains of biological weapons from 2016 through to 2019 (John Bolton plan to create starvation), and three strains of human-lethal bio-weapons in 2020. Not to mention all the other “hybrid-war” activities that they were involved in.
We are not out of the danger zone.
But I think that we are gliding in and on the hot zone.
Therefore, we are living in the tranquil period that America was in right before World War II. We cannot be passive about it. We must all conduct our affirmation prayers, and make sure that the nightmare that is being set up is contained to an area outside of our personal lives.
And with this in mind, now we can see why it is important for the American (and British) “news” to demonize China. As the dream of a long drawn out war in far-away distant lands, safe and protected is an ignorant “pipe dream”. But that is why us “bloggers” and expats in China are all disparaged.
We upset the narrative that nuclear war is a good thing.
One of the problems with a social media “echo chamber” is that you are unable to compare things.
That’s what an “echo chamber” is.
It’s talk and “news” about what you want to hear, and fences and barriers to what you do not want to hear.
You listen (day in, and day out) all about how great you are, and how bad everyone else is. And you know, there are no REAL comparisons. Just “rah, rah for us“. And those “other guys…” Well, “they are bad because of [place reason here].”
It’s a problem with all social media. And all these efforts to get rid of “hate” and other opinions that might offend tends to further strengthen the walls that surround these echo chambers. Eventually, all you and your friends within the chambers here is what you want to hear.
Well, we are going to make some comparisons to illustrate the dangers of echo chambers. Whether it is alt-right, or alt-left. And we are going to do it using something neutral.
Let’s look at school lunches.
We will start with a nation that is doing it right. We are going to talk about France. On a scale of 0 to 10, I rate them a 9. Why a 9? Well, they used to serve wine with the school lunches, don’t you know. But stopped doing so in the 1970’s.
Many parents would place one alcoholic drink of their choice in the child’s basket to take to school. Often half a litre of wine, cider, or beer depending on the region. Where there were cases of head teachers disallowing the drink be given to children, it’s said that some parents encouraged the children to drink their wine before they go to school, over breakfast.
...
As recent as it may seem, it was only in September 1981, shortly after the election of François Mitterrand, that alcoholic drinks were banned from high schools once and for all, when water became the only drink encouraged at the table. “In canteens and school restaurants, no alcoholic beverages are to be served, even if water is cut off,” said Alain Savary, Minister of National Education at the time.
-Culture Trip
So it’s a 9, not a 10.
France used to allowschoolchildren to sup wine in betweenlessons, which is almost unbelievable compared to today’ssociety. In fact, before the 1950s, Frenchchildrenwere not only allowed to drinkwine, beer or cider inthe canteen, but they were encouragedto do so.
-Why French Schoolchildren UsedToDrinkWineBetweenL…
France
Maybe no one is drinking wine, but they do actually have nice lunches and a generous amount of time to enjoy and savor them.
School lunch in France at a country school.
Eventhe approach to lunch is different. For instance, a typical school lunch inFranceincludes“courses”,including an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert, accompaniedby water or milk. On any given day, a French school lunch could include: A TypicalSchoolLunch in France. Fresh bread and salad; Veal scallops or baked fishwithlemonsauce
-French vs American SchoolLunches - BistroChic
French school lunches are very different from those in most other countries, especially those in the U.S.
French children are in school all day, even in the maternelle (roughly equivalent to U.S. kindergarden) and in the pre-school before that. Education covers life at large, including nutrition and meals.
For the French, learning how to eat a meal and appreciate diverse foods is like learning how to read, write and do arithmetic. It’s not an after-thought, or a thing that you must do as you rush from task to task, as is done in America today.
Another typical French elementary school meal.
Lunch is the main meal of the day for children. In French schools this meal has four courses:
Vegetable starter: leafy green salad or sliced or grated vegetables.
The warm main dish, which includes a vegetable side dish.
Cheese course.
Dessert is fresh fruit four times a week with a sweet treat on the fifth day.
The Ministry of National Education requires that the children sit at the lunch table for at least 30 minutes, in order to eat a civilized meal.
The municipal government is responsible for operating the cantine, now more appropriately called the restaurant scolaire, and adhering to the national nutritional requirements which include:
Within any four-week period (20 meals), only a maximum of four main dishes and three desserts can be high fat.
Similarly, fried food is limited to four meals per month, likely the same four high-fat main dishes.
Ketchup can only be served once per week, typically with the once-per-week fries, and only a limited amount provided with the meal. Many school simply don’t serve the high-sugar high-salt ketchup at all.
No sweetened and flavored milk, water is served.
No daily menu may be repeated within a month.
The municipal government can set prices within the constraints of the national law’s maximum limit and sliding scale.
The result is that, on average, a school lunch costs something like €2.30–2.80. The very wealthiest families might pay €5.40 per meal while those with the lowest of incomes pay €0.15 and free meals are available for those who can’t pay.
A typical lunch meal at a school in France.
American expats have been commenting on how different the rest of the world is compared to America “the best nation”. And they are very angry at being so “hood winked” and lied to.
Growing up, I never really paid attention to the nutritional content in my school’s lunch program. But now, after having children of my own, I’m concerned about what food they are eating at daycare, and eventually, what they will be eating in their elementary school.The US standards for school food are extremely low. Much lower than that of some European countries, particularly France.Let’s just say if there was a World Cup for school lunch nutrition, France would be kicking our tails right now! When you compare French and American school lunches, it is quite apparent why childhood obesity rates are growing in the US.
American schools serve lunches that consist of highly processed foods, loaded with sodium, calories, saturated fat, preservatives, etc. And very little of what they serve even resembles real food.
Typical French elementary school lunch.
I walked into the dining room to see tables of four already set—silverware, silver breadbasket, off-white ceramic plates, cloth napkins, clear glasses, and water pitchers laid out ready for lunch. I was standing inside my children's public elementary school cafeteria, or "cantine" as the French call it, in our local town near Annecy, France. As part of my research into why French kids are better able to support healthy weight, the local city council gave me a tour of the public school's cantine and kitchen and let me ask any question that came to mind.
There are many theories as to why French people, and French children in particular, do not suffer from weight problems, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension like their American counterparts. Eating moderate quantities of fresh and freshly prepared food at set times of the day is definitely one of the most convincing reasons why. Daily exercise, in the form of three recess periods (two 15-minute and one 60-minute recess every day) and walking or biking to and from school, is another.
So what do French kids eat at school?
Menus are set up two months in advance by the cantine management staff and then sent to a certified dietitian who makes small "corrections." The dietitian might take out a small chocolate éclair and replace it with a kiwi for dessert if she thinks there's too much sugar that week. Or she may modify suggested menus by adding more or fewer carbohydrates, vegetables, fruits, or protein to keep the balance right.
Almost all foods are prepared right in the kitchen; they're not ready-made frozen. This means mashed potatoes, most desserts, salads, soups, and certainly the main dishes are prepared daily. Treats are included—the occasional slice of tart, a dollop of ice cream, a delicacy from the local pastry shop. (Check out these photos of a school lunch being prepared on premises.)
Of note: French elementary school students don't go to school on Wednesdays, so that's why there are only four meals.
Another plus for France. Wednesdays are off.
Conversely, in France all school lunches are freshly prepared with real food, not prepackaged. Even the approach to lunch is different. For instance, a typical school lunch in France includes “courses”, including an appetizer, an entrée, and a dessert, accompanied by water or milk. On any given day, a French school lunch could include:
A Typical School Lunch in France…
Fresh bread and salad
Veal scallops or baked fish with lemon sauce
Fruit and yogurt
Water or white milk
Compare that to…
A Typical School Lunch in the US…
Frozen cheesey bread
Frozen chicken fingers or fish sticks and fries
Fried apples or chocolate pudding
Flavored milk, juice, or soda
Furthermore, a typical school lunch in France lasts about an hour, reinforcing the French tradition of eating slowly and savoring your food.
In the US, children get roughly 20 minutes to finish their meal and socialize with friends, reinforcing the habit of eating fast and not really recognizing what your eating, let along the signs that you’re full.
French elementary school lunch.
Obviously, school lunch programs are not only to blame for childhood obesity rates and unhealthy childhood eating habits.
Children learn from their family and friends and even from television what is “good” and what is “bad” in regard to food and nutrition.
Still, what they learn in school and from their classmates about nutrition can stay with them for the rest of their lives…
Americans in Walmart.
In elementary and high school, my family could never really afford the daily school-provided lunches, which included sloppy joes, French fries, and chicken fingers. At the time, I really wished that I could afford the hot lunch so that I could be like everyone else.But what I realize now is how lucky I am that I did NOT eat those lunches.Instead, I would brown bag my lunch with a salad or a sandwich and whatever fruit or dessert we had in the house. By doing this, I not only saved money, but I learned the basics of healthy eating at a very young age and how to differentiate processed food from real, nutritious food.Fast forward 50 years and I am nearly disgusted to think about what was served to my classmates back then, and even more disgusted that they still serve such unhealthy food in schools today.I understand that American schools and districts have certain policies about food and that any food is better than none for kids whose parents can’t afford to feed them. But there’s no reason why we can’t serve our children healthy and real food.
From preschool through highschool, the meals served at school cafeterias (les cantines) in France usually consist of five-course meals. An appetizer, main dish, salad or vegetable, cheese or yogurt and dessert. Bread may or may not be an option depending on the meal. (Pictured above is a school lunch from a high school).
"All our fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat are sourced locally, some of them from local farms," according to Dany Cahuzac, the city counselor in charge of school matters, including the cantine. The local bakery delivers bread, a staple of every French meal, every morning. And every two days, there is at least one organic item on the menu. Once a month, an entirely organic meal is served. The only drink offered at lunchtime is filtered tap water, served in glass pitchers.
If you’re not from France, you might be surprised to learn that the cafeteria meals in French schools are normal meals a French family might serve at home. French fries are also a popular food item in France but is not served more than once or twice a week as part of a school lunch.
Consider the CBS News story “Why my child will be your child’s boss”, which explained how Swiss school children are regularly taken into the forest and allowed — no, required — to use saws.
Or the Lenore Skenzay’s book Free-Range Kids describes how a U.S. high school principal threatened to suspend a group of seniors (that is, 18 years old, in their final year of school) for the “dangerous act” of riding their bicycles to school, and a group of parents protested because their 17- and 18-year old children were sent home from school on a train without an adult supervisor.
Meanwhile Swiss children as young as three are given saws to play with, and their kindergarten system advises parents to let 4- and 5-year-old children walk to school alone.
As the children come streaming into the cantine, they sit down at tables of four that are already set and wait for older student volunteers to bring the first course to their table. The child who sits in the designated "red" chair is the only one who is allowed to get up to fetch more water in the pitcher, extra bread for the breadbasket, or to ask for extra food for the table. After finishing the first course (often a salad), volunteers bring the main course platter to the table and the children serve themselves. A cheese course follows (often a yogurt or small piece of Camembert, for example), and then dessert (more often than not, fresh fruit).
"Eating a balanced meal while sitting down calmly is important in the development of a healthy child," adds Cahuzac. "It helps them to digest food properly, avoid stomachaches, and avoid sapped energy levels in the afternoon."
Then there are American school lunches and the concept of ketchup as a vegetable and frozen pizza as a vegetable.
Ronald Reagan’s FY1982 budget proposed US$57 billion in spending cuts, This budget was modified and passed as the Gramm-Latta Budget, cutting US$1 billion from the school lunch program while significantly increasing military spending.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture or USDA was then tasked with the impossible task of maintaining nutritional requirements for school lunches despite the loss of a billion dollars in funding.
On September 3, 1981, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture announced a joint proposal by the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration to reclassify ketchup and pickle relish as vegetables.
Public outrage led to the eventual retirement of this specific proposal. However…
By 2011, USDA standards accepted just two tablespoons or 30 ml of tomato paste as counting for a full serving of vegetables. This allows a slice of cheese and meat pizza to also count as a full serving of vegetables.
Under American rules, this counts as a serving of salad.
The USDA wanted to change this to require at least a half-cup or 118 ml of tomato paste before counting it as a full serving of vegetables, also requiring more green vegetables and limiting the amount of potatoes served to one cup per week and thus significantly cutting back on the amount of French fries.
But…
The U.S. Congress would have nothing to do with that healthy nonsense, and quickly passed a bill barring the USDA from changing its existing nutritional guidelines.
This was an enormous victory for manufacturers of pre-processed French fries and frozen pizza!
The American Frozen Food Institute is a trade association that lobbied heavily and successfully on behalf of frozen pizza manufacturers including ConAgra and Schwan Food Company, and French fry manufacturers McCain Foods Ltd and J.R. Simplot Company, the last of which was already a supplier to McDonald’s.
Typical Americans.
Meanwhile the actual French people, including their school children, eat only a tiny fraction of the amount of “French fries” consumed by their American equivalents.
So what DO American school children eat?
United States
I suppose that this picture is the IDEAL American lunch meal…
The ideal consists of processed meat, pre-processed instant potatoes with sugar-laden ketchup, a sugar cookie, dessert of canned fruit in a sugar sauce, and a serving of vegetables.
The IDEAL, that is.
American schoolchildren, in general, aren’t as accustomed to eating the same fresh, healthy meals as some of their global neighbors. In the photo series above, the American meal includes chicken nuggets, peas, mixed fruit, mashed potatoes, and a cookie. While that satisfies certain federal guidelines for nutrition, there’s plenty here (preservatives, processed sugar) that’s less than ideal.
Still, the meal doesn’t look that bad.
Of course, as anyone who went to US public schools knows, the meals are rarely this aesthetically appealing.
For an explanation of the #ThanksMichelleObama hashtag, read this piece by Vox’s Libby Nelson.
Throughout the United States, the classic milk carton of white milk is served to the children; The classic milk carton.
"Unfortunately, the variety served at the schools my children went to in the U.S. was usually a rotating menu of burgers, burritos, and tacos. Some middle schools and high schools in California even served McDonald’s."
Because healthy eating, particularly for kids, is one of the Michelle Obama’s signature issues, it makes sense that she’d be associated with changes to the federal school lunch program.
But those changes actually started with Congress and were put into place by the US Department of Agriculture.
An “improved” lunch meal served to American Children in the United States. Milk, vegetable, meat. Viola!
The regulations from the US Department of Agriculture require school lunches to meet higher nutritional standards. Which is a good thing.
Meals are now supposed to have more whole grains, less meat and less sodium than in the past, and they have to include at least one fruit or vegetable.
Schools also have to offer a wide variety of vegetables — in one week, they have to offer starches (such as potatoes), dark green vegetables (spinach, kale, and other greens), red or orange vegetables (such as carrots or beets), and beans or peas.
If students refuse to put a vegetable or fruit on their tray, the school isn’t reimbursed for that meal.
Thus it results in all sorts of strange looking meals…
Anybody who went to school can tell you that gross-looking school lunches aren’t new. But the new school lunch guidelines sound like they should lead to healthy, whole-grain rich meals — not the pizza, chicken nuggets, and hamburgers that were mainstays of school lunches in the past.
But…
But…
Why hasn’t it worked out that way?
Partly it’s because school lunches need to be cheap.
When California began a pilot program of serving fresh, local food one day a week, one district learned that two free-range chicken drumsticks for a high school student would cost 80 cents, more than the 60 cents they’re supposed to spend on an entree.
Healthier meals also require equipment that school kitchens, set up to reheat and serve batches of processed foods, sometimes don’t have.
That's correct, boys and girls, the modern schools have kitchens that do not make and cook food. they are designed to reheat pre-processed synthetic food elements.
Districts are also allowed to make agreements with food companies to turn the raw ingredients they get from the US Department of Agriculture into processed foods…
… ensuring they have a constant supply of chicken nuggets.
Schools didn’t stop offering pizza at lunch, a study in the journal Childhood Obesity found: they just started offering healthier pizza, whatever “healthier pizza” means. (It probably doesn’t taste as good.)
Does anyone know what a “healthier pizza” is?
A “healthier pizza” meal in an American elementary school.
Why American school vending machines are empty
Why are the kids emptying out the vending machines, and throwing away their lunches?
#ThanksMichelleObama is almost accurate here, if you can imagine Michelle Obama standing in for the US Department of Agriculture. (It is part of the executive branch!)
For the first time, the USDA now regulates foods that schools sell outside of the school lunch program — the sweet, salty snacks in vending machines and a la carte lines.
A fine American school lunch of Doritos with salsa, plain rice and milk. Yum! And people wonder why I am not sending my Children to America for an education!
American students are used to eat a lot of unhealthy food during the school day.
In the 2005 school year, the USDA says, students drank 452 million sodas, 26 million diet sodas, and 864 million fruit drinks. They ate 763 million candy bars and 1.4 billion desserts.
On average, high school students who ate those foods consumed an extra 277 calories a day, the majority of them empty calories from foods without much nutritional value.
To compensate, we can see the great healthy meals that are offered in the American school dining halls…
Delicious salt and fat laden hot dog, ketchup (it’s a vegetable don’t you know), a small tomato, apple and milk. Yum!
But beginning this school year, everything sold in schools — even outside the national school lunch program — has to meet nutrition guidelines.
Snacks must be under 200 calories, and foods must have some nutritional value — rich in whole grains, or have fruit, vegetables, protein, or dairy as a main ingredient, or contain 10 percent of the recommended daily value of important nutrients.
Sounds good.
But when you have a central bureaucracy dictating everything and bureaucrats deciding adaptation of policy guidelines, along with the toxic influences of big-food, big-education, and big-unions you end up getting what we see here.
So it’s not just Michelle Obama to blame — in fact, technically, she had nothing to do with the regulations.
But that’s the way America is today.
And that is why we see Americans are they are today.
The 2006 cult comedy Idiocracy is having its moment in the sun. Written and directed by Mike Judge, creator of “Beavis & Butthead,” Idiocracy envisions a future corporate American wasteland where Costco is as large as a small city, the food pyramid consists entirely of fast food, and the president of the United States (Terry Crews) is a five-time "Ultimate Smackdown" professional wrestling champion and ex-porn star.
“So you’re smart, huh?” President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho says to hapless time traveler Joe “Not Sure” Bauers (Luke Wilson), an Average Joe chagrined to discover he’s now the smartest man in the country. “I thought your head would be bigger,” Camacho bellows. “Looks like a peanut!”
Donald Trump's political ascendancy has made Idiocracy seem like prophecy. (Or, per a viral tweet by the film’s screenwriter, a “documentary.”)
As satire, however, Idiocracy is uneven, precisely because recent events have already exceeded its most trenchant bits of lunacy. In the fictional Idiocracy future, Congress is full of idiots who do nothing but yell, “You’re a dick!” at the president.
But those antics pale in comparison to stunts pulled by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Trump, a billionaire real-estate developer and reality TV show star whose foreign policy proposals include telling China, Listen, you motherfuckers, we’re going to tax you 25 percent!
In 2009, Trump purchased the rights to pro-wrestling show “Monday Night Raw” and then sold them back to the previous owner “for twice the price,” according to the World Wrestling Entertainment website. “Since then, the WWE Hall of Famer [has] focused on his ever-expanding real estate empire, his Emmy-nominated reality television show ‘The Apprentice’ and running for president of the United States.”
Mike Judge may be a funny guy, but his mind isn’t exactly subtle. A decade ago when Idiocracy was released, he was already treading well-worn ground by envisioning a future where being unable to pay debts is a crime (see: the return of debtor’s prison), the Violence Channel dominates the networks (see: all of cable), and a plotless film about a farting white ass wins Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards (see: Swiss Army Man, starring Daniel Radcliffe as a farting corpse).
To be sure, there is more than a grain of truth in Judge’s worry that educated people sound like “fags” to a population that speaks “a hybrid of hillbilly, valley girl, inner-city slang, and various grunts.”
But in order to get the laughs, he went for low-hanging fruit, using eugenics as a plot device, romanticizing the effects of social engineering and coming perilously close to validating the dubious notion of IQ as a social sorting tool.
The film opens with a voiceover explaining that rampant breeding among the dimwitted has undone civilization. After 500 years of exponential idiocy, corporate America has responded by catering to the lowest common denominator.
Thus, future Starbucks offers hand jobs.
Fuddruckers has become Buttfuckers. Fox News is anchored by pro-wrestlers. Costco gives out law degrees. And the company behind the energy drink Brawndo owns the FDA, FCC and USDA.
But the film got the power dynamic backward, thereby softballing its critique. As Adam Johnson pointed out on AlterNet, it decided to highlight “the problem—in this case political ignorance—without addressing its primary culprit: the consolidation of media into large corporations, a PR-fueled think tank industry fed by billionaires designed to promote toxic right-wing canards… and a decades-long corporate assault on K-12 and postsecondary education.”
In my opinion, Idiocracy is one of the great science-fiction films of the past decade. When most people think of science-fiction it’s an action packed Star Wars or Star Trek style space opera with space ships, robots, lasers and lots of action. While these films can be extremely entertaining, the actual “science” part of the equation is somewhat lacking. In my opinion the the most interesting science-fiction films are those based on an event or series of events occurring on Earth and the impact of these events on society.
What makes this form of science-fiction particularly interesting is that a memorable world is set up to allow the film to provide an insight on our current society.
Idiocracy vividly creates a future version of a polluted America where a handful of corporations seemingly run all commerce and social services, advertising is all pervasive and the media is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Idiocracy is a very funny film, but also one that asks a lot of uncomfortable questions about where society is heading…
U.K. school lunch
Now for comparison purposes let’s look at one of the “five eye” nations. This is the United Kingdom. You see, the group of five nations share culture, intelligence, society and other aspects of life with some minor differences (as long as it is permitted by the Untied States leadership).
These nations are;
United States
Canada
UK
Australia
New Zealand
So you would assume that these nations would have a similar lunch menu, but exercise some degree of autonomy in it’s selection…
And that is exactly what happened.
UK Lunch in schools.
A fine copy of American lunches, only with greater portion sizes, less sugars, and less salt. I am going to go out on a limp and say that the UK is on the right path, and following the right direction. No it’s not perfect. But they are trying. They do care.
Other nations have been revamping their school food programs with more nutritious, sustainable food for the better part of the past decade.
Years before Jamie Oliver did his thing, East Ayrshire, Scotland launched a pilot program called Hungry for Success. That program went far beyond boosting nutrition. It also focused on nutrition education; trained cooks; put organic, local food in school meals; and made the cafeteria a cooler place to hang out.
So how’d it go over? A Worldwatch Institute report says 67 percent of the town’s children said school meals tasted better.
It was later adopted nationwide, and elements of the program were later picked up by the UK.
Granted it is much better than what is offered in the Untied States, but it is still heavily laden with salts, sugars and other unhealthy elements and typically devoid of fruits and raw vegetables.
Let’s look at Japan.
Japan
In response to growing obesity rates among children, Japan passed The Basic Law of Shokuiku in 2005. It requires kids to get nutrition and food origin education at all public schools.
Japanese school lunch.
Fittingly for a country with its own rich traditional cuisine, Japan takes its catered elementary school lunches very seriously.
More than just a meal, lunchtime is considered on par with school lessons in its educational importance. It also helps create a bond between schoolmates in a way that perhaps only sharing a meal can do.
Tokyo school lunches are planned by the school’s nutritionist and cooked onsite by a group of staff hired specifically for that task. They prepare big pots of soup and rice and such, which the students on lunch duty retrieve from the kitchen, wheel into the classroom on a big trolley and then dish out to their classmates—it’s a bit like a portable canteen. Outside Tokyo, school lunch centers will make and distribute the food to schools.
Japanese school lunch.
The students on lunch duty dress for the part, in a white kitchen cap and a long white smock-style apron. They also don a regular, flu-use medical mask. As the other students pass by with their trays they accept a bowl of each dish from the lunch-duty kids and take them back to their desks.
Utensils are also provided.
When the children return to their seats, they place their tray on the luncheon mat that they have brought from home and laid out on their desk. Also on the desk should be a pocket pack of tissues, a small hand towel and a cup. Students bring these items from home daily in a little bag that they usually hang off the side of their backpacks. Recently some schools are asking students to bring a toothbrush, too, for a post-lunch brush-up. Teachers eat the same kyuushoku catered lunch at their desks along with the students.
So what do they eat?
Most often rice, soup, a salad and a meat or fish dish.
A 200-milliliter bottle of milk is included daily, but once or twice a month coffee milk or a yogurt drink is served instead.
Japanese school lunches.
The rice dish is rarely plain white rice. Instead it will have something such as mushrooms or wakame kelp mixed through it. It also gets served as fried rice or pilaf. Occasionally the kids get noodles instead. Bread appears as the staple about once a month and almost certainly is sweet. Dessert is served once or twice a week, most often as a piece of fruit, but occasionally as a jelly or pudding.
The soup is most often miso soup, but a variety of soups are served, including other Japanese soups, such as the clear sumashi jiru, as well as Western-style pumpkin soup and Chinese-style egg soup, which make regular, monthly appearances.
Salads appear most days and come in a wide variety—wakame salad, bean sprout salad, French salad, potato salad—but all ingredients, even cucumber, are cooked to prevent an outbreak of stomach virus.
Meat dishes are often served atop rice as a donburi.
Fish is the main dish on average about once a week.
Typical Japanese school lunch.
This is a rough guide, though, as the menu and the frequency of each type of dish differ according to the menu plan arranged by each school’s nutritionist.
The meals often reflect various festive events—both Japanese ones, with pumpkin served at the winter solstice, for example—and non-native ones, such as with a chocolate dessert on Valentine’s Day.
Parents pay for their children’s school lunches, but they don’t pay much; about ¥250 a meal in first and second grade, just under ¥300 in fifth and sixth grade, and midway between those in the middle years.
In line with broader Japanese society, schools here have become very aware of food allergies. The school entrance paperwork will include your child’s allergy information. Schools will likely cater for an allergic child by preparing her lunch without the allergic ingredients and placing it upon the kyuushoku trolley with her name on it.
Japan’s school-lunch system is said to have begun in Yamagata prefecture’s Tsuruoka city in 1889 when a priest-run elementary school served rice balls, grilled fish and pickles to students too poor to bring lunch to school. The move was widely recognized as a good thing, and schools across the nation began to follow suit.
The school lunch system teaches children etiquette, serving and clearing up skills, and aims to teach them to make healthy food choices and positive lifelong eating habits.
Japanese school lunch.
Since it also aims to have students try a wide range of food, teachers have traditionally encouraged them to eat all the food served to them.
Anecdotal accounts from sempai moms include a teacher insisting a student complete his lunch and him sitting there in front of it all the way through the post-lunch playtime and into the next lesson. Even back then the strictness to which the “please eat everything” rule was enforced varied according to the teacher, and today—in line with a shift in wider social values—such an extreme example is unlikely to be found.
Ideally, sharing a meal should be an enjoyable experience that unites a class by helping classmates get to know each other more intimately and understand one another better.
When Japanese parents reminisce together about their own elementary school days, talk of school lunches invariably emerges and, although spoken of fondly, the tastelessness of the dishes is usually the main topic.
It is a palpable bond for them.
Today’s school lunches have improved in taste, with both teachers and students praising them. It is amazing what happens when parents, and local administrators work side by side and maintain tradition and healthy care for the future of society.
And let’s look at China…
China
In China, the kids eat well, healthy food. The portions tend to be gargantuan. Seriously, but you are not going to get fat on rice, vegetables and fish, are you?
Chinese school lunch.Chinese school lunch. Notice that the portions are enormous!
Dave took his China images at a college cafeteria in Chengdu. It was school holidays and the campus was nearly deserted, but the cafeteria appeared fully operational. And we were astounded to find at least 30 items -- not including mantou (steamed bread) and rice -- on offer.Fifteen yuan (a little over two US dollars) bought us the two meals above. With rice and mantou it was far more than we could eat. Mantou (which got hard as soon as it began to lose its heat in the unheated cafeteria) excepted the dishes were all quite good, delicious even. The stir-fried egg and tomato -- slightly sweet and very flavorful -- cauliflower (perfectly crisp-tender and touched with chili heat) and the baby bok choy (also perfectly done, tangled with tender strips of pork) were the stand-outs.If I were in Chengdu and keeping to a very strict budget I'd be frequenting university dining halls. Think of it -- a day's worth of well-prepared and decently healthy meals for about U$3.
The Global Times ran a nice photo collage on the meals that children eat throughout China it’s a pretty good essay. From the article, (and all credit to the writer)…
Brazil School Lunch
And Brazil…
Brazil’s school feeding program, the second largest in the world feeds 42 million of the country’s school children. Part of Brazil’s Zero Hunger Program, the school lunch program has not only helped reduce child hunger and malnutrition, but it has also started to change how children relate to and understand food, while promoting local agriculture.
Brazil’s constitution requires that 30 percent of the ingredients for school meals be sourced from local, family farms. In so doing, the country has helped some four million of the country’s small farmers and promoted rural development.
As do many countries around the world, Brazil has the double burden of malnutrition and obesity. Poor kids without access to sufficient, nutritious food have a growing access to junk food, and, as a result, obesity is on the rise. Public schools in Brazil are trying to tackle the problem—one of their most effective tools is school gardens. Kids grow their own food and decide what produce to use for their daily school meals, all while building a better understanding of their food and what it means to eat healthy.
Brazil school lunch.
The Brazil lunch program has been praised the world over. Here’s some “take-a-ways” from The Tyee…
Lesson 1: Delegate decision-making power to local governments
For most of its history, Brazil’s school feeding program was run from the capital, Brasilia. A federal agency bought the food and distributed it using large food service companies. Menus were more or less the same across the country.
Then, in the mid-1990s, the federal government decentralized the program. It provided dedicated funding to states based on the number of students. State education departments control this account, and the purchasing of food. But school cooks and principals get to craft menus (according to state guidelines and with help from state nutritionists) and report back to the state on the quality of food received.
In the state of Paraná in southern Brazil, local producers have begun to enrich their bread with vegetables, including beets, carrots and cassava, a tuber native to South America and an important part of the traditional diet in the region.
“We want to rescue traditional and healthier eating habits,” explained Andrea Bruginski, co-ordinator of student food and nutrition for the state’s education department. “Cassava, for example, is a traditional food that also offers more fibre, more vitamin B and complex carbohydrates.”
“Different schools have different menu requirements, depending on what grows in the region, depending on what the culture of the school is like, depending on what students are used it,” said Bruginski. “For us as nutritionists, we feel students should be familiar and comfortable with what they’re eating.”
Brazil school lunches compared to American school lunches.
Lesson 2: Craft policies to support small farmers
Brazil has a long history of agrarian activism rooted in the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) — Landless Workers’ Movement — that emerged in the 1970s to fight for the rights of rural families pushed off their land during years of military dictatorship. The movement is known for bold direct actions, like the massive demonstrations it has organized, but it’s also an effective political force.
In the mid-1990s, it pushed to ensure small farmers could benefit from agricultural policies — like loans, insurance, price stabilization and market access — already enjoyed by big agribusinesses. The government responded with the National Program to Strengthen Family Agriculture — and created a separate ministry for small-scale farming, the Ministry of Agrarian Development. The ministry and the MST were crucial stakeholders in drafting the law mandating 30 per cent local purchasing.
The law has provided an incentive for farmers to organize in co-operatives so they can meet schools’ demands for large quantities of high quality produce.
The AOPA co-operative in Paraná sold about $2 million worth of produce to 382 schools in the state this year. The co-op works with 400 farmers in Paraná and three neighboring states.
Brazil school lunch. This is a vegetarian meal that is provided to elementary school students.
José Antônio da Silva Marfil, the co-op director, told me it has been able to “expand and access more and more opportunities” because of the new demand from schools. The co-op has been able to build new cold storage facilities at its warehouse, and the office now employs a full-time staff of five, including two administrators, two bookkeepers and a floor manager — the people who “make the wheels go ’round.”
“What’s important is that the administrative organization is polished,” Marfil told me. “That’s what makes us work.”
Lesson 3: Regional and local government commitment means more success
Although the PNAE is a national program, state and municipal governments are responsible for implementing it. All states are expected to supplement funding for food (which they do, to varying degrees). Some municipal governments also contribute. State education departments are responsible for food purchasing and maintaining cafeteria infrastructure.
So the program’s level of success depends heavily on how much state and municipal governments consider student nutrition a priority.
In Paraná, for instance, state officials can brag about having one of the highest rates of local food purchasing in the country (40 per cent of food served to students is from local farmers and processors) and one of the highest rates of organic food purchasing. In 2011, they delivered nine tonnes of organic produce to schools; now they deliver 2,414 tonnes.
Brazil school lunch.
Buying local required a big shift on the part of farmers, nutritionists and school administrators here. The two biggest challenges for farmers who wanted to participate in the program were getting through the application process (which consists of about 28 different forms) and then figuring out distribution logistics. Although non-perishable items go to a central warehouse, perishables must be delivered by the producer directly to schools once or twice per week.
In response, program administrators tried to simplify the process. They revamped regional boundaries to better match participating farmers with schools near them. They created YouTube videos to walk farmers through the application process. And they adjusted produce prices monthly, instead of annually, to better reflect market rates.
Lesson 4: Change can be slow, but will pay off
Brazil’s legislature passed the 30-per-cent local law in 2009. Implementing it required a major logistical shift for state education departments that were used to working with large food manufacturers and distributors. Farmers had to become accustomed to the paperwork required to do business with the state.
Even in states where progress has been slower, the school food program is having positive effects. Bahia, in northeastern Brazil, has not met the legislated goal of purchasing 30 per cent of food from family farmers — last year, it was around 20 per cent. But the year before it, it was only six per cent.
Eleneiole Alves Cordeiro is the manager of a farmers’ co-op in Bahia, Arco Sertão Central, that launched three years ago and now has 47 members producing everything from cassava and papaya to bread and the tapioca crackers that are so popular in the region. She said that although the prices offered by the state government through the program are too low, “it is opening doors for our product, spreading our products and interests in different markets.”
And this exposure is proving that small agriculture can produce good quality processed products — the kind of value-added products that can make farming more profitable.
“This spread, this growth, is breaking a paradigm… the stereotype that people believe that family agriculture does not have good products,” said Cordeiro. “That’s a lie. We know we are able and capable of producing quality products, good, dignified products that can contribute to the school feeding program.”
Lesson 5: There must be broad public support
When Brazil created its national student nutrition program in 1954, it was out of dire necessity. At the time, more than half the children in the country suffered from malnutrition. Much of the food used in the program was a commodity donated by USAID and other wealthy countries. For much of its history, the focus was on feeding kids, not feeding kids well, according to Daniel Silva Balaban, director of the World Food Program’s Center of Excellence Against Hunger.
Brazil school lunch.
Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva began reforming the national school meal program in the early 2000s as part of a much broader vision for food security known as Fome Zero (Zero Hunger).
By then, Brazil had become an economic powerhouse. Industrial agriculture was booming and there was a rising middle class, but many Brazilians, particularly in rural areas, weren’t seeing much improvement in quality of life. Hunger, although not as prevalent, was still a big problem. People were hungry for change — hungry for a more equitable distribution of resources.
Taiwan (elementary school)
School lunch in Taiwan.
On the left: mushroom and minced pork, in the middle: Chinese chives stir fry with tempura, on the right: eggplant (probably stirfry), soup with radish and pork, and steamed white rice.
Singapore
Singapore school lunch.
The Singaporean school lunch looks very appetizing with the colorful plate. Singapore, a multicultural society where diverse cultures, languages and religions coexist, has its strength when it comes to food choices and quality. Although Marina Bay Sands is often recognized as the city’s modern landmark, Singapore is also known for its delicious street food.
People buy meals from outside food courts, and Singaporean students enjoy their lunches in the same way. Students in a Singaporean school go to a tuckshop, a collection of different stalls rented to a private cook, and choose between Singaporean and Western food.
Spain
From Medideas… Titled “School Lunch in Spain vs. School Lunch in the US” (all credit to the author)…
My memories of cafeteria food from public school in North Carolina are less than glamorous. I recall plenty of fish sticks, powdered mashed potatoes, questionable ground beef, and the occasional cup of bright green sherbet.
But at Colegio Santa María del Bosque, lunchtime is a very different experience. Every meal consists of two courses, served family-style in huge metal bowls.
Some aspects of school lunches in Spain are similar: the never-ending noise, the barely contained chaos, and the long tables reminiscent of those I used to sit at as a student. However, at lunchtime in Spain, there are no lines, no trays, and definitely no neon dessert.
Not to mention the fact that a team of sweet, smiling women prepares and serves the food. Indeed, these women take pride in feeding the army of kids and teachers that descends upon them each day; a far cry from the perpetually grumpy lunch ladies of my childhood.
What Are Spanish School Lunches Like?
On my very first day of school, I sat down with the other teachers at a table across the room from our students. I was entirely unsure of what to expect, as it was my first school lunch in Spain.
Within a few minutes, one of the lunch ladies brought out a heaping dish of paella: steaming yellow rice dotted with carrots, peas, potatoes, and tender pieces of bacalao (cod).
Of course, this wasn’t the same as the version I’d eaten in Barcelona at a touristy waterfront café; no cast iron skillet, no plump prawns, no mussels or clams, or sprigs of parsley. And I’m sure it bears little resemblance to the authentic delicacy you can only truly taste in Valencia, where the dish originated.
But on my first day of teaching, after trying to keep a group of exuberant eight-year-olds under control for an hour, this paella could not have tasted any better.
Typical School Lunches in Spain
In the months that have passed since that first day, school meals in Spain have rarely been disappointing. Generally, I enjoyed the food laid in front of me each afternoon. I have feasted on the simplest “tortilla española” in all its greasy delight; and warmed my soul with “solferino” and “crema de calabaza”, thick and hearty vegetable soups. I have stuffed myself with salty slabs of thinly sliced pork atop lettuce and tomatoes drowning in vinegar and olive oil.
I have been introduced to “cocido”, the classic “madrileño” comfort food consisting of broth, noodles, stewed chickpeas, garlicky cabbage, various meats, and chunks of pure fat. And I have ended every meal with a piece of fresh fruit: apples, bananas, mandarin oranges, plump green grapes, and slices of juicy melon.
This alone is enough to forever cement in my mind the superiority of school lunch in Spain. Who needs powdered chocolate pudding when you’ve got good old-fashioned produce?
The Not-So-Great Side of School Lunch in Spain
Of course, there have been a couple of dishes that even I—a fairly adventurous and open-minded eater—have regarded with suspicion. Hard-boiled eggs covered in mayonnaise? Maybe not.
Pasta salad with tuna and black olives? Not my personal favorite.
And there’s no doubt that one would enjoy some of the typical Spanish dishes at my school more if they didn’t prepare them in industrial-sized batches. However, I am determined to give all of it a try, at least once.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from my time in the comedor (cafeteria), it’s that sometimes the most delicious and satisfying meals are truly found in the most unexpected of places. Namely, on plastic plates at a kid-sized table in an underground room filled with dozens of shouting children. ¡Buen provecho!
Today I want to talk a little about the steps students go through to eat at school. As you can see in the top picture, the students are all lined up to receive a bowl of rice soup from one of the serving ladies. What makes this a little different to Western countries is that the students will “wai’ and say thank you before they take the bowl of food. This is ingrained into the students. They must always “wai” first before receiving anything.
Thailand school lunch.
Other schools, particularly the secondary schools, are a little different to us. They might have lots of little stalls in the canteen and the students can choose what they want to eat every day. At my school, the menu is set and there is a four week rotation. In total we have 20 meals which I will tell you more about later. So, the students all eat the same. No-one brings food in from home. By far the majority are Buddhists and maybe only a handful are Muslims.
On most days, there will be a tray of condiments which the students will use to make their meal more tastier. In some ways you have to be a bit of a scientist to get the proportions right of sweet, sour and spicy. But the students know what they are doing and some like adding chili until the soup runs red. Actually, this is one of the good things about eating noodle soups in Thailand. What the vendor will give you is bland and not spicy at all. It is then up to you to add the different sauces to your own satisfaction. I will go into more detail another day.
Back in the classroom, the students wait for their friends to sit down. We now have too many students and it is easier for everyone to eat their lunch in the classroom. Once everyone is sitting down, the students will then say a kind of grace. This is not really religious but more ethical. It is reminding them that they should eat properly and that they should be grateful to the people who provided them with the food. The following translation of the grace was done by Gor when he was my Primary 6 student a number of years ago.
“During the time that we eat lunch, don’t speak or say things that aren’t good. Don’t make a noise. Take enough food for only one mouthful. Chew the food into little pieces so that you can digest the food properly. Before you get up from your seat, clean up your desk. Put the plate or a bowl orderly into the enameled basin. You mustn’t waste any food. You must eat it all. There are many starving children in the world. Pity all of the children that don’t have anything to eat. All of the food has a worth. When you eat food you must have good manners. Don’t chew the food loudly. Don’t talk when you are eating and don’t say something that is bad. Don’t laugh when you are eating. Thank you to our teachers that take care of us and all of the cooks that make us the food we eat. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.”
After that they then start eating. Everything is done very orderly and the students eat quietly. When they have finished, they put any waste food in a plastic bucket and their plates in an enamel bowl. Students who are on duty for that day will clean the classroom and then take the dirty plates and waste food down to the kitchen. Waste food is later fed to the stray dogs.
Thailand school lunch.
The plates are washed by the kitchen staff. However, the spoons and forks (they don’t use knives or chopsticks) are washed by the students on duty. After they have finished eating, many of the students then go to brush their teeth.
This is what the students eat over a four week period. There are actually three different menus: kindergarten, junior school and senior school. As there are some repeats I will just give you the menu for the older students. Not everyone eats the same thing at the same time. There are 1,800 students (and one small kitchen) so not everyone can have a rice based meal at the same time. So, half of the school have rice while the other half have some kind of soup.
Lunch usually consists of soup and a main course. Usually, there is a salad or some sort of fruit along with something sweet for dessert. There is always tea and water with sweet syrup on tap and cacao if sweet buns are for lunch.
Most of the kids eat at the school canteen (cafeteria). It’s convenient and cheaper for many parents.
Finland
In the beginning of the 20th century Finland developed an incredible social innovation: free school meals. Many of its other national success stories have been made possible thanks to our education and school meal system. Its goal is to make the world’s best school meals even better and help others in their work.
During 70 years, Finland has come a long way to become the international forerunner we are today. There is now a versatile and unique food education agenda that has grown around the school lunch. The basis has still remained the same: to each equally, during every school day.
Potatoes and sausage bites with gravy, rice & corn tuna salad, Iceberg lettuce with tangerines and dressing. Served with a slice of bread, butter and skim or low fat milk.
The Finnish government (like most European nations) provides children with free school lunch. Finnish children have been receiving free food for over 60 years, and some cities extend free food service to people who can’t afford for the adequate nutrition intakes.
Food is very important for child development mentally and physically, and Finland obviously knows how to take a wholesome care of citizens. There is no wonder Finnish kids exceed academically among those in other countries. In general, the winter in Finland may be colder than your cities, but those people are big-hearted.
South Korea
School lunch in South Korea.
The Korean lunch looks very healthy, as expected. Korean people are very health-conscious, and this well-balanced lunch explains it well. The menu contains raw vegetables, spicy marinated pork, soup and rice. At a Korean restaurant, you are often served with Banchan, small dishes of food in the middle of a table to share. This lunch reflects the idea of Banchan: small portions of everything.
Sweden
Swedish school lunch.
Swedish lunch is typically served with a warm main dish, like a stew with potatoes, with a side dish. The side dish contains “knäckebröd,” the famous Swedish crispy bread, and salad or cooked vegetables. Students can choose to drink water, milk or lingonberry juice, which is known as mountain cranberries or partridge berries in North America. Swedish students get more than 2000 school lunches during their years of compulsory education.
Ukraine
Malaysia
To get his Malaysia photographs Dave talked his way into the cafeteria at an elementary school in Brickfields, more popularly known as one of Kuala Lumpur’s Little Indias. I didn’t accompany him on this adventure, and Dave didn’t taste the food; he remembers each lunch costing around 2 ringgit, or about 60 US cents.
The meals look decent enough, though the roti — which Dave notes wasn’t freshly made (he did arrive close to the end of lunch hour) may be a bit tired. A bowl of asam laksa makes for a fairly well-rounded meal … but candy bars and super-sweet pink drinks?
Both of these lunches say much about what figures large in the local cuisine. In Sichuan, as we found at humble restaurants in Chengdu, rice (or other starch) is still an important part of the meal, and is eaten in great quantities. Vegetables too — not just because they’re cheap, but because Sichuanese love them (and do wonderful things with them). Chilies are present in decent quantities in two out of four dishes, and when there’s meat it’s pork.
In Malaysia eating chilies from an early age is a given, and strong flavors too (but not alot of vegetables). How many American kids would opt to eat a spicy, fish-based noodle soup if they had a choice? And the Malaysian palate, viewed through these two randomly chosen school lunches at least, is truly multi-cultural — a southern Indian bread and a noodle soup with Malay and Chinese culinary roots.
Italy
Conclusions
Yeah. It appears that the United States has the unhealthiest meals for its’ children, managed in such a way to allow for massive graft and corruption, and distant unmonitored control.
The idea that there are “nutrition experts” concocting the meals at American schools is ludicrous.
What we see when you step out of the United States Pro-America “echo chamber” is a world where America appears pathetically inept, to a point of being cruel. And we can see this.
Obviously since this has been going on for decades and any efforts to change the system has failed. It appears that the entire system is beyond redemption and must be scrapped and changes implemented on the local level with no external influences or input.
The only way that this type of innate and obvious criminal activity can be allowed to continue for so long, with so little change, implies that the leadership controlling these system are themselves corrupt, corrupted, or being lead by greedy psychopaths.
There is no way that a reheated salt and fat laden hotdog with a dab of sugar-saturated ketchup qualifies for a “healthy nutritious” meal.
And when you see enormously obese Americans riding government supplied electric carts to buy 24-packs of soda, you can rest assured that the American leadership wants this situation;
They planned for it, and they created it. It’s intentional. It is impossible for this condition; this situation to be accidental.
The only way out…
…is to nuke from orbit.
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This is something that I threw together after another mindless clone started repeating the Mike Pompeo “talking points” about China. I mistakenly tried to explain that he didn’t have all the information that he was coming to conclusions based on fraudulent and partial data sets. But, boy oh boy did that set him off! I should have known better, but whatever… it just serves me right for arguing with a fool; a manipulated fool, but a fool never-the-less.
So I threw this post together.
Personally, I believe that if you cannot make something simple to understand, then you either don't know how to communicate, or you simply don't understand the issues.
I suggested that he “discern” and “think”, and stop repeating the same tired narratives.
But that is not how the world actually works.
Most people are sheep. Humans are herd animals. Nothing more. And, in a way, you can say that this is bread into us intentionally.
So when I tell a person to “discern”, their minds switch off , and they don’t know what to say.
It’s got electrolytes.
.
When I tell people to “discern”, or to use “discernment”, what I actually refer to is for them to see the full totality of any given issue. Not a little bit here, or some opinions there, but to look at a much, much larger picture.
This goes with just about everything.
Look at the bigger picture.
Always.
Look at the larger picture and then work your way down, cut through the bullshit and get to the rich nuggets at the bottom level.
Don’t just blunder about, repeating the choice bits of information that is shoveled to you in your trough and just regurgitate them at will.
Let’s consider all “news”. But let’s really focus on “news” related to [1] politics (I will use the American media in this regards for illustration purposes) and [2] Top Secret disclosures (such as MAJestic) to [3] OOPARTS, and [4] social-cultural re-engineering efforts.
In all cases there are very vocal “camps” of believers or disbelievers of all types and “stripes” and pedigrees. They take their points of view, and violently stand by their opinions in the matter no matter what information or ideas that they are confronted with. I know. I was one of them.
They do so because they have accepted others as “gatekeepers” of “news”, and only listen to those “journalists” and “media outlets”. And that person, over time, becomes the sole source of “news” for them. “News” which they regurgitate verbatim as “the gospel”.
But there is a work around.
It’s quite simple, actually…
Provide some “news”, quite interesting and factual, that their approved news sources are not providing.
Then provide another, and then another…
Add those elements of “news” to the already robust collection of information that they have at hand.
Let them come to their own conclusions, and leave it at that.
In all cases we need to collect a very broad and wide-ranging assortment of ideas, facts, details and contexts, and then we need the intelligence to intentionally structure them together by sifting though the nonsense to get to the actual “juicy” bits of value.
Thus the first key to discernment is to recognize that the PTB are not concerned with what “news” is available. They are concerned with how it is disseminated to the population.
The PTB are not concerned with the details in the “news”. They are concerned with how it is disseminated.
And that is the key, as well as the reason why everyone is so contentious in America today.
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The media don’t really care about what the actual “news” is, whether it is factually correct or not, or what the source of the information actually is. They are concerned with one thing, how to disseminate the “news” in a proper manner so as to manipulate and control it’s consumption.
So if you consider the “news” to be a hodge podge of information, you can consider it to be like an enormous puzzle box with millions of pieces. and Scattered in those pieces are fake “news” and lies. Or in other words, an entirely different puzzle, similar in appearance and puzzle-piece-part-size to the original puzzle, but intended to confuse.
But, what is “news”?
But, before we go any further let’s discuss what the “news” actually is, and what it isn’t.
The “news” is not what everyone thinks it is.
It’s a mixture of selected facts, and incident reports (traditional news), with great quantities of personal opinions, narratives, and theories interspersed, along with outright lies and deceptions. It hasn’t been pure and pristine unbiased reports for many, many decades, if not centuries. Instead, it’s just a mountain of information with zero quality control.
So the first thing you need to do in discernment, is become the QC manager for what you read and absorb.
Let’s continue with our analogy of a puzzle box.
Modern contemporaneous “news” is more like a couple of puzzles that are all mixed together. And the “journalists” concentrate on the individual pieces and they have no care if they are factual, truthful, actual, or beneficial. They just collect the “items”, package it for public consumption and then move on to the next “news item”.
Now, you all need to appreciate that almost all the puzzle pieces made in the world are cut out of the same cutting blades. A puzzle for dinosaurs uses the same cutting blade for a Walt Disney Princess puzzle. And because of this, the puzzle piece shapes are identical. If you are not careful, you can (if you were careless) mix the puzzle boxes together and create a mess.
When people try to fit separate groups of puzzle pieces together, they can fit, but the results are nonsensical. This happens often.
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You would need to be very creative in assembling the puzzle. But no matter how hard you try, it will not be what was intended. And we see that all the time with some really bizarre stories that have been popularized in American media.
Such as…
Robert Kardashian and Ted Cruz are the same person.
5G will cause brain cancer.
Fossilized reptiles are on Mars and are being covered up by the US government.
Princess Di did not die and is a sexual slave in Saudi Arabia.
And thusly, that methodology is intentionally used when it comes to “news”.
It is important to the PTB that the people are herded together and allow to roam at will within the fencing that they have created. It is important to them that the people are given an overwhelming amount of information so that the people would never be able to see the real and accurate picture of what is going on. People are herd animals, and are being shepherded effectively by others at many levels.
So rather than try to control each and every item of information, real or not, the control lies in the dissemination of the news. The objective is to maintain a fragmentation of news so that it is difficult to piece together the actual situation(s) and what is going on.
How the “news” is disseminated
So, let’s consider how the “news” is disseminated.
In short, and in America, there are three major groupings of “news”. It is pretty well established now, and came about sometime in the middle 1990’s. The groups are…
Mainstream media (also known as “traditional” media).
Alt-Right (with such notable personalities and Rush Limbaugh and FOX News)
Alt-Left (with examples being Salon.com and the Huffington Post.)
Additionally, over the last ten years these media outlets have splinted off some rather “extreme” outlets which include…
Hard-Right (Such as Alex Jones and Hall Turner).
Hard-Left (Such as Current Affairs.)
And in general, you can be well assured that the United States government has control of all the major “players” in these dissemination venues. Because by controlling them, they can control what you (the people) read, consume, and believe.
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This level of control is absolute. I was first exposed to it when I noticed that my Metallicman postings to Free Republic (an Alt-Right website) were deleted without notice, and then I was banned without care or concern that I had over 10,000 posted articles over a 20 year time span. The reason? My articles no longer fit in the “ideal desired” framework.
Anyone who has tried to run through the gauntlet of publishers to get their book or manuscript published, or had an article or two rejected by someone can well understand this horror.
The PTB, through the United States government, controls the dissemination of articles and “news” through approved and heavily monitored venues. If you are unable to fit within the “approved guidelines for content” you will not be able to publish.
In my case, the reason that I was banned was that I (tried to) post an article that said that the “pro-Democracy” riots in HK were NID / NED sponsored, and that the Chinese have the entire city bugged. They know who is doing what, why and when, and unless the United States stops and reassess their position, they will forever lose access to Hong Kong as a staging location for international bedevilment.
Well…?
What happened?
Did I call it, or what?
But that is not want the United States government wants the citizen-cattle to be exposed to. They are not to be exposed to “news” and information. They are to be manipulated and cajoled. And at that time, the sole purpose of the Alt-Right “news” venues was to enrage the American population to hate China, so that they can be justified in having a long drawn out hot war with them.
And how do they do this…
The various media groups establish a pre-defined narrative that they harp on continuously over and over…
Actually, it’s numerous narratives.
When Trump was elected in 2016, he was a walking “soapbox” of Alt-Right narratives.
Hillary Clinton is corrupt.
The “invasion” of the South Americans is stealing “our” jobs.
China is ripping us off blindly and we must do something!
And when he came into office, he tried to implement policies that reflected the alt-Right narratives.
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The thing is that the various groups (mainstream, alt-right, alt-left, etc.) only concentrate on the things that will maintain their audiences. If it lies outside of what the audience wants to hear, it is ignored or suppressed. This is necessary. Because if they didn’t do that they risk losing their audience, and thus their customer base for their advertising supporters.
So the media outlets do not want “the truth”. They want to package information (correct or lies) and sell it (via advertising revenue) to a voracious audience. Which is why I always say that…
The worst and most dangerous propaganda is that which we want to believe.
And this environment, when you have individuals that only listen to alt-left, or alt-right, or hard-right news…
…end up living inside an “echo chamber”, where they only hear what they want to hear.
The echo chamber in politics refers to a group of people who share the same political views. In this group, forum or arena, they share their identical views with each other while at the same time condemn other views regardless as to whether they have a point.
In America, for example, people who are very conservative (e.g. a lot of Republicans aged 70 or older) watch Fox News on TV while many liberals (young Democrats, for example) read things like the New York Times or Los Angeles Times or HuffingtonPost.com.
A lot of these people stay in their echo chamber and never mix with others. As a result and in consequence, over a long period of time, they no longer understand each other at all. Or, worse, some begin to hate each other.
The upshot is, people become intolerant of each other, be it due to party affiliation, religion, skin color, sexual orientation or what have you. Society as a whole becomes divided and fragmented.
Tensions ensue and, needless to say, any social progress becomes difficult of accomplishment in this type of environment.
Yes, but what does “echo chamber” mean exactly?
Oh, an echo chamber is originally a hollow room (chamber) used to produce reverberated sounds (echoes), usually for recording purposes. In this enclosed room, if you make a sound, this sound will, like a ball bouncing off the walls and the floor, reverberate, producing echoes. In other words, you hear the same sound again and again.
Hence and therefore in a political echo chamber, you hear the same arguments over and over again, ad infinitum.
Or ad nauseam because, as a matter of fact, echo-chamber arguments can become nauseating.
-Echo Chamber?
But…
But what happens when a person is exposed to ideas that lie outside of the various “bubbles” or “echo chambers” that exist? What happens when, by accident, they hear something, or read something as resonates with them? What then?
Stepping outside the echo chamber…
You step outside the echo chamber.
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They will discover something unique and special.
And they will become excited.
They will try to find other information that would confirm their beliefs and associations, and they would go through all sorts of websites and news organizations to do so. But they will be disappointed. They won’t find much of anything.
That is because the information that lies outside of those approved narratives are very difficult to find, and very difficult to accept.
And this will cause them to question themselves, and when they mention their discoveries to others, they will be shocked at how contrary others are regarding their discoveries. And while they might go along with the opinions of others, for the most part they will keep their thoughts to themselves.
And start putting the puzzle pieces together.
Putting the pieces together.
Normally, it’s difficult to see patterns in all the jumbled mess. You see an incident here, and then hear of another one there, and then you remember an article from a few years back, and then this other event reminds you of…
You start putting things together.
But it is only when you put a large number of events together, and compare it with historical incidents, do you actually start to see what is going on…
In the examples above, you can see that that study of the issues (per article) goes far, far beyond the typical three paragraph narrative so popular in the various news outlets. It involves a study of all elements of the issue, and then places them in context.
This is what discernment is.
A detailed study of an issue within context.
But how do you do that?
How do you put the pieces together?
The way to put all the pieces together is to use history, education, the known sciences and then work outward. I suppose that politics is as good as a place (as any) to start with.
It usually starts where two or twelve elements of “news” seemingly resembles something else. It could be an item, a person, a statement, or an event from history.
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The discerning individual would see that while the situation is different, there are fundamental elements that stay the same. Such as (for instance) how the United States today closely resembles the fall of Rome…
When read together, striking parallels emerge -- between our failings and the failings that destroyed the Roman Republic. As with Rome just before the Republic's fall, America has seen:
1 -- Staggering Increase in the Cost of Elections, with Dubious Campaign Funding Sources: Our 2012 election reportedly cost $3 billion. All of it was raised from private sources - often creating the appearance, or the reality, that our leaders are beholden to special interest groups. During the late Roman Republic, elections became staggeringly expensive, with equally deplorable results. Caesar reportedly borrowed so heavily for one political campaign, he feared he would be ruined, if not elected.
2 -- Politics as the Road to Personal Wealth: During the late Roman Republic period, one of the main roads to wealth was holding public office, and exploiting such positions to accumulate personal wealth. As Lessig notes: Congressman, Senators and their staffs leverage their government service to move to private sector positions - that pay three to ten times their government compensation. Given this financial arrangement, "Their focus is therefore not so much on the people who sent them to Washington. Their focus is instead on those who will make them rich." (Republic Lost)
3 -- Continuous War: A national state of security arises, distracting attention from domestic challenges with foreign wars. Similar to the late Roman Republic, the US - for the past 100 years -- has either been fighting a war, recovering from a war, or preparing for a new war: WW I (1917-18), WW II (1941-1945), Cold War (1947-1991), Korean War (1950-1953), Vietnam (1953-1975), Gulf War (1990-1991), Afghanistan (2001-ongoing), and Iraq (2003-2011). And, this list is far from complete.
4 -- Foreign Powers Lavish Money/Attention on the Republic's Leaders: Foreign wars lead to growing influence, by foreign powers and interests, on the Republic's political leaders -- true for Rome and true for us. In the past century, foreign embassies, agents and lobbyists have proliferated in our nation's capital. As one specific example: A foreign businessman donated $100 million to Bill Clinton's various activities. Clinton "opened doors" for him, and sometimes acted in ways contrary to stated American interests and foreign policy.
5 -- Profits Made Overseas Shape the Republic's Internal Policies: As the fortunes of Rome's aristocracy increasingly derived from foreign lands, Roman policy was shaped to facilitate these fortunes. American billionaires and corporations increasingly influence our elections. In many cases, they are only nominally American - with interests not aligned with those of the American public. For example, Fox News is part of international media group News Corp., with over $30 billion in revenues worldwide. Is Fox News' jingoism a product of News Corp.'s non-U.S. interests?
6 -- Collapse of the Middle Class: In the period just before the Roman Republic's fall, the Roman middle class was crushed -- destroyed by cheap overseas slave labor. In our own day, we've witnessed rising income inequality, a stagnating middle class, and the loss of American jobs to overseas workers who are paid less and have fewer rights.
7 -- Gerrymandering: Rome's late Republic used various methods to reduce the power of common citizens. The GOP has so effectively gerrymandered Congressional districts that, even though House Republican candidates received only about 48 percent of the popular vote in the 2012 election -- they ended up with the majority (53 percent) of the seats.
8 -- Loss of the Spirit of Compromise: The Roman Republic, like ours, relied on a system of checks and balances. Compromise is needed for this type of system to function. In the end, the Roman Republic lost that spirit of compromise, with politics increasingly polarized between Optimates (the rich, entrenched elites) and Populares (the common people). Sound familiar? Compromise is in noticeably short supply in our own time also. For example, "There were more filibusters between 2009 and 2010 than there were in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s combined."
As Benjamin Franklin observed, we have a Republic -- but only if we can keep it.
-8 striking parallels between the U.S. and the Roman Empire
And one you come up with a theory, it becomes easier and easier to find details that fit in with your premise. And also… ones that do not.
But you know, not everyone will welcome your conclusions.
New ideas = Bad
Most people do not want their illusions shattered. They want to believe what they believe. And even if what they believe is something horrible and disgusting, they will hold on to it like tar on a baby.
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Just because you see something, doe not mean that the rest of the world can see it as well. The fact is, that you have now walked through a very special door. It is the door of the outcast, and the pariah. And as such, your happiness will be wholly dependent on how quiet you are and whether or not you “upset the apple cart”.
To spoil or disrupt a plan or arrangement.
This great idiom originated as "upset the cart" and it has been in use since Roman times which has similar meaning: "mess up the whole thing" though, the exact dates of this phrase were from the late 1700s.
So, this idiom is originally derived from a Roman phrase "upset the cart" and it is to be believed that later, it becomes "upset the applecart".
Source: theidioms.com
But that doesn’t matter.
You just need to understand things as you see fit. it is not your job, or business or concern what others might think.
So you fill in the blank spots.
And a full pattern emerges.
Yes.
As you work the various puzzle pieces, you will start to see an entire puzzle. And things will start to make a lot of sense to you.
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Of course there will always be areas that you will not be able to “fill in the blacks” with. And there will always be questions about the picture that you are able to compile and compose.
I advise keeping your discoveries to yourself. You certainly don’t need any aggravation. Right?
The trolls, whether paid (many actually are), ‘bots, bored youth, or just assholes, will do everything they can to disparage your ideas, your thoughts and your presentation.
One of the biggest things that they will try to do (and it is often successful) is to argue that you don’t have all the information…
The “you don’t have enough information” argument.
Oh those funny and silly guys; always trying to yell down and disparage that which they do not understand. Here is one of their techniques. And, it is, indeed a powerful technique. This is quite often used by disinformation organizations, as well as individuals. Here, in this method, they avoid the key and important issues. They do this by requiring opponents to solve the incident or question at hand completely. They demand that this be done immediately, at hand, on the spot. It is absolutely ridiculous. But that is what happens. It is rude; impossible to comply to, and insulting. But is is a very common techniques.
Here is an example for this. It was found in an Internet debate over a subject inquiring “how the Universe came to be”:
“…It can also be noted that evolutionists only discuss this subject in the broadest terms. If evolution is true, why don’t they give us answers to our many questions? Where did all the 90-plus elements (iron, barium, calcium, silver, nickel, neon, chlorine, etc.) come from? How do you explain the precision in the design of the elements, with increasing numbers of electrons in orbit around the nucleus? Where did the thousands of compounds we find in the world come from—carbon dioxide, sodium chloride, calcium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, oxalic acid, chlorophyll, sucrose, hydrogen sulfide, benzene, aluminum silicate, mercaptans, propane, silicon dioxide, boric acid, etc. come from?
This list continues from the macro of “where did the Universe come from”, if not from (the huge) divine intervention down to the (smallest detail) the micro of every detail of minutia of the Universe.
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In reality, as in my case, no one ever has “complete solutions”, we can only provide glimpses into specific details or a very broad overview of a given situation, abet in a blurred and unfocused manner. This is, such as what I provide here. You will find no exact and greatly detailed solutions or details, as that would thwart 99% of the core readership and simply regulate this manuscript into the heaps of obscurity.
Ah, but it’s just a tool of argument.
Do not get caught up in the techniques of disparagement
Just don’t. For you own sanity. Don’t.
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You will have more than enough information.
And with the information that you have, you will be able to see other trends and other patterns and other information.
And as you do so…
You can pretty much expect people to attack you, your thoughts, and your conclusions. And they will use all sorts of techniques.
Seriously, that is the reason behind this. It is to make you doubt your ideas, your conclusions and your process.
So, for the purposes of YOUR sanity, keep in mind…
You will never have the full picture.
You never will.
So forget about perfection. It’s an unobtainable objective.
Perfection is not possible. Perfection is an age-old myth that creates more pain than joy, more confusion than calm, more angst than creative productivity. Being perfect is a farcical fantasy that distracts us from being present. Constantly driving toward perfection creates a sort of black and white, all or nothing perspective that invariably leaves us colorblind. We are forced to forget the beauty that lies between failure and perfection if we think in such binary terms, if we uphold one way of being as the gold standard… a myopic worldview bound to disappoint.
Perfection is not possible.
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Why Perfection is Not Possible
Striving, in and of itself, can be chock-full of rewarding jubilant health. It’s when we chase perfection with tunnel vision as if it’s the only option that we drain our life force. When we strive for excellence while acknowledging our humanity we are less likely to plummet into a dark depression if things don’t turn out as we originally planned. It is maladaptive perfectionism that sets the stage for inevitable failure whereas adaptive standards for high achievement can result in productivity and a measured response when ideals are not attained.
Finding the beauty in not being perfect, or in imperfection, means we are taking an active role in changing the polarizing zeitgeist. The roots of perfectionistic characteristics begin to loosen as we explore basic aspects of identity, such as self-esteem, groundedness, and what it means to be imperfect. We dare to step into our own humanity and experiment with what it feels like to walk away from self-doubt and loathing. Striving toward understanding who we are and why we are who we are might reveal pockets of enlivening imperfection—a textured humanness that is refreshingly real and surprisingly interesting. It is a revolutionary act to embrace who we are, just as we are.
-Dr. Jessica Zucker is a clinical psychologist specializing in women’s reproductive and maternal mental health. She has a Los Angeles based practice and is a prolific writer and speaker in the areas of women’s health.
So…
What you need to do is be able to see the patterns in what ever you have stitched and pieced together. Then, by using personal examples, or historical examples, you will be able to see the big picture.
And it will be a glorious moment.
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And you shouldn’t need to worry about what others might think. They are not you. They have their own ideas, ways of doing things, and thoughts. There might be a singular issue (like a swear word, for instance), or a misunderstanding regarding their religion (“blowing up mud huts” might anger a person from a poor, rural nation), or some other trigger often hidden deep down inside.
So stop allowing others to define your reality, or control your thoughts.
They will not be able to see what you can do.
Here’s my “rule of thumb”…
If they can correctly guess the color of your underwear, they are permitted to hear your thoughts. If not, then they are not worthy.
Remember…
The world is filled with all sorts of people. Everyone is different. And that is a good, no it is a great thing.
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Know what you can control and what you cannot.
If you are unable to correctly guess the color of the underwear of the person that you are talking with, then they are not deserving of your counsel.
It’s a pretty good rule, I think.
It’s important to be open minded to thoughts and ideas, for that is how you are able to expand your picture and your ideas. And that is what you WANT. What you don’t want is to waste your time on the echo-chamber narratives that have saturated the various media outlets. For not only do they irritate, but they distract and waste your time.
Over the years, I have found that when it comes to being receptive to ideas and perspectives other than their own, most people gravitate toward one of these tendencies:
A need for the opinions of others. These individuals have not yet learned to value their own ideas and viewpoints. They are especially vulnerable to being swayed by others. When asked, they have a hard time expressing their own beliefs and convictions.
A rejection of the opinions of others. People in this category are generally high achievers who have worked very hard to get where they are in life. For some they view not having all the answers as a weakness, and their ego guards against this by rejecting the ideas of others. For others their egos are so big, they think they know it all, and just aren’t open to the ideas of others. If they do listen, they place little value on what’s being said.
An interest in the opinions of others. Striking a balance between those who rely too heavily on the ideas of others and those who reject the opinions of others, these individuals welcome collaboration and actively seek it out. They understand the benefits of the wisdom that comes from the life experiences of others. These people would participate well on any type of team.
What’s important to realize is that whatever your natural tendency may be, it is possible to learn to appreciate the ideas of others. When you do, you’ll find that your ability to envision and implement new ideas will flourish and you’ll build stronger relationships in the process. Let’s take a look at how this works.
-Be Open to the Ideas of Others
Not everyone will understand, though…
Some will use techniques to drive your off track.
I don’t know why this it, but it’s a common enough “thing”. There are others that will purposefully argue that you are missing a “key element” of the picture and that you need to to be able to reach the kinds of conclusions that you are working towards.
They might use “Gaslighting”…
“Gaslighting or gas-lighting is a form of psychological abuse in which a victim is manipulated into doubting their own memory, perception, and sanity.
Instances may range from the denial by an abuser that previous abusive incidents ever occurred up to the staging of bizarre events by the abuser with the intention of disorienting the victim. Sociopaths and narcissists frequently use gaslighting tactics.
Sociopaths consistently transgress social mores, break laws, and exploit others, but typically are also charming and convincing liars who consistently deny wrongdoing. Thus, some who have been victimized by sociopaths may doubt their perceptions.”
Regardless of what material may be presented by an opponent in public forums, claim the material irrelevant and demand proof that is impossible for the opponent to come by. Here is a response to an article I found on the Internet regarding witnesses recanting their testimony in a famous Brazilian UFO case:
“This is absolutely preposterous. The amount of evidence about the Varginha Case, including thousands of hours of investigations by a few dozen men, and hundreds interviews with witnesses, such as the military who did the capture, guarantee otherwise completely. You are basing most of the story on Badan Palhares account. Amazing. Would you expect that he confirms that he dealt with alien corpses? Come on?!”
This comment came from an editor of Brazilian UFO magazine. Does he have an agenda to keep the question of this case open?
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There’s often a reason behind all of this.
And in itself, the arguments against what picture that you are trying to piece together might themselves open you up to some very interesting venues of investigation. You never know.
There are many, many arguments that a person can use, and in general the best thing is to keep your thoughts to yourself and live life as the best you can. Just know that many others have agendas, and thoughts and often you are unaware of them. Just like they are unaware of the color of your underwear.
“When a wise man points out the moon, an imbecile examines the finger.”
-Confucius
In all cases remember what you are doing, and why. Accept information as best you can and be open to new ideas. Try your best to de-emotionalize the content and just look at things as objectively as possible, and don’t get too caught up in all the distortions, lies, and confusion. Life is far too short.
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So with all of that in mind, let’s get to our final conclusion…
Conclusion
The key to understanding your reality and your place in this universe is to [1] observe and [2] read everything. Be like a sponge and get as much information as you can, and when you are ready, start putting the pieces together. At first it will look like a big mess, but you will start to sift though the lies and get to the nuggets, and then you can start fitting the puzzle pieces together.
Look for coincidences.
Six brand new, never before seen, viruses that attack livestock were discovered in China during a two year time period. Very unusual. Very odd.
Drones were spreading the lethal virus(es). Very, very odd.
A bat-coin minted and released in America just when a “bat originated” COVID-19 is raging though China as a pandemic. Unusual.
A COVID-19 license plate in an abandoned BMW at an airport BEFORE the COVID-19 even existed. Very incredulously odd.
You look for strange coincidences that point to other suggested events.
And most ESPECIALLY look for things that have zero coverage. Things that have “dropped off the radar”. Things that the PTB want to keep suppressed.
The Oxia Palus facility.
Don’t worry too much what other people think or say. Just gather the information as you feel the need. And look way outside of the normal venues. remember that long before the “Alt-right” came into existence it was the Drudge Report that discovered the “blue stain” on the dress of Bill Clinton’s Intern.
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Remember, that we are all on the same side. Left, right, or center and anything in between. Most of us want justice, to be left alone to live life as we choose, and hate bad people doing bad things. It’s that we just differ in what information that we have at our fingertips.
Good and happy hunting.
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Empires are a real pain in the ass, don’t you know. They are always off concocting one war or the other. Bombing places into oblivion, and just threatening others with all sorts of trouble. They collapse trade, invention, scientific development, society, religion and the environment. But yet, it all continues.
What stops all this madness?
Internal collapse. That’s what historically ends the insanity.
You can tell a empire from a normally peaceful nation by it’s “telltales”. Which are uniformly, and historically stable;
Military bases everywhere.
The most powerful military in the areas that they occupy.
The use of their currency for financial transactions.
On-going wars or conflicts.
Justification for war using “righteous and just” excuses.
Disruption of trade.
Now, it’s pretty obvious to everyone (except the most bone-headed ignorant) that the USA today is a military empire and it is going “down” shooting as it collapses internally. The signs are all there and obvious.
But we are not going to talk about THAT, right now.
John Whitehead.
We are going to talk about something else. We are going to talk about the crimes of the empire when it is still functioning. Because, as soon as it collapses, everything is forgotten and forgiven (apparently). And that is really, really bad, and a serious problem. For how can you learn form your mistakes if you always conveniently forget the past?
“Oh, let by-gones be by-gones.”
Now, one of the big things about these military empires is that they are always invading the “little guy”. They are always invading and taking over smaller and peaceful nations. Either directly or indirectly (like the CIA and it’s many tentacles).
Hey!
Fun fact! Did you know that the United States is currently fighting eight simultaneous wars right now? Yeah. It is. Bet you cannot name them all. And you also wanna know something else? They are all smaller and unable to defend themselves from the nuclear super-power.
Harry Dunn
Well…
Perhaps it’s time for me to butt-in and say a few word about all of this. Eh?
The scarlet pimpernel.
When the British Empire was at it’s peak, it too invaded nations on the slightest whim. And the excuses were the same as they are today “because we should take precautions”. And so, let’s look at one of those little nations states that the British Empire overran and conquered…
The following is a reprint of an article titled “British Invasion of Madagascar” and Authored by John W. Osborn, Jr.. It is reprinted as found with only minor editing to fit this venue. All credit to the author and his work.
British forces were compelled to invade the island Madagascar off the coast of East Africa amid fears of a Japanese invasion.
By John W. Osborn, Jr.
“The first I saw of Madagascar and the last after adventurous months ashore was the eerie color of the soil,”
…a British novelist turned security sergeant would write a decade later.
“It gave to the sky, the vegetation, and the people a strangeness, even a deathliness which still shadows my recollections of the island. For the soil and the dust which rose from it to cake our skins and clothes, our eyelids and nostrils was not brick-colored or terra cotta but the color of dried blood.”
Lying 240 miles off the southeast coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, at 226,658 square miles Madagascar ranks just behind Greenland, New Guinea, and Borneo in size among the world’s islands.
But with a population in 1942 of just 3.4 million, it had one of the world’s smallest densities, five persons per square mile.
Only 25,000 were French, the rest a mixture of African with ancient arrivals from Malaya and Polynesia dizzyingly divided into 18 sub-ethnic groups such as the Antandroy, the “people of the bush brambles,” and the Tsmimihety, the “people who do not cut their hair.”
Madagascar
Though discovered by Europeans in 1506, its French rulers did not bother to take possession until 1897. Under the rule of Vichy collaborators, the island was ignored and isolated for most of the war; however, events in the Pacific brought it briefly into the action.
As World War II raged on all over the globe, the people of Madagascar lived their lives in peace and tranquility. Knowing full well that they were safe as being uninteresting and of little importance int he grand scheme of things.
When he heard of the attack on Pearl Harbor in his London headquarters, the leader of the Free French, General Charles de Gaulle, asked an aide what he thought the consequences would be for France.
“The Indian Ocean becomes a major theater of operations, and Madagascar suddenly takes on strategic importance. The Japanese will try to seize it,”
…the aide astutely answered.
In Japanese hands, the magnificent harbor of Diego Suarez at the northeast tip of the island and the naval base a mile to the south at Antisare could choke off Allied supply lines to India and Egypt.
De Gaulle appealed to the Allies to take Madagascar, but British Prime Minister Winston Churchill vetoed the idea.
“Our hands are too full,”
…he cabled President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and told his chief of staff,
“Madagascar must still have low priority.”
But then the Japanese captured Singapore and Burma. They landed on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. With Ceylon threatened, the British war cabinet decided on July 12, 1942, to seize only Diego Suarez rather than all of Madagascar.
“The rest of the enormous island was of less strategic importance,” Churchill later explained. “With the memories of Dakar in our mind, we could not complicate the operation by admitting the Free French. The decision was taken for a purely British expedition.”
Churchill called the campaign for Madagascar …
“our first large-scale amphibious operation since the Dardanelles.”
Operation Ironclad got underway just 12 nights later, winter clothing seen loaded amid rumors of a commando operation against occupied Norway. Rear Admiral Neville Syfret commanded the aircraft carriers Illustrious and Indomitable,the battleship Ramillies, a pair of cruisers, nine destroyers, six corvettes, and an equal number of minesweepers.
Maj. Gen. Robert Sturges commanded 13,000 troops.
During the effort to gain control of the port of Diego Suarez on the island of Madagascar, British soldiers come ashore with their equipment on May 5, 1942.
“It was the nearest I would come to realizing a conception of ‘adventure,’”
…Sergeant Rupert Croft-Cooke later wrote. He had already had his share of extraordinary experiences, working in a circus, traveling with a horse-drawn gypsy caravan, and wandering Europe in an old bus. The writer was now heading for the strangest of all.
The convoy rounded the Cape of Good Hope, spent five days docked in Durban, South Africa, to load supplies, then headed north into the Mozambique Channel separating Madagascar from the African mainland.
Facing the British would be 8,000 unenthusiastic local conscripts along with Foreign Legionnaires and tough Senegalese soldiers from West Africa. “We were told in a whisper that we had agents ashore keeping us informed of every defensive measure of the enemy,” Croft-Cooke wrote. The top British agent on Madagascar since November 1940 was Percy Mayer, a businessman whose work took him all over the island, while his wife, much admired in what passed for society with her looks and piano playing, tapped out his messages to Durban in their bathroom.
“But,” Croft-Cooke recalled, “when the last night came and we realized that in the small hours, the landing would start, the prospect, viewed in the tropical sunlight, suddenly seemed forlorn, uncertain of success, exceedingly dangerous.”
The campaign for Madagascar opened at 4:40 amon May 5, 1942, with the attack at Diego Suarez.
Fairey Swordfish and Albacore aircraft from the carriers bombed shipping at anchor in the harbor and destroyed most of Vichy’s 30 aircraft on the ground, while the fleet shelled the town and paratroopers descended.
Caught in town, Percy Mayer rushed from his hotel room into the street. Unluckily for him, he ran right into a Vichy patrol. When he was searched, secret messages were located on him. He quickly found himself in a cell at Antisare’s naval base, told he would be summarily executed, and was at least offered a priest.
Only the air strikes had been real. The naval bombardment had been star shells and signal rockets, light instead of heat, the “paratroopers” merely dummies. The real attack was taking place on the island’s western side, at Courier Bay and Ambarata.
“Firing at night is not to be contemplated, the entrance to the bay being considered impossible,” a French staff report confidently concluded. Royal Navy minesweepers were nonetheless able to skillfully navigate the shoals, reefs, and mines and then drop buoys for the troopships to follow.
After coming ashore on Madagascar, British soldiers of the King’s African Rifles assemble on the beach.
Commandos and East Lancashire regulars proceeded to scale the 50-foot cliff overlooking Courier Bay. “We moved up to a gun position which we could see clearly in the moonlight,” a Royal Artillery captain serving as a forward observer related.
“Strangely enough, all was quiet and deserted, no sentries were posted, and no sign of life of at all. As dawn broke, we saw some buildings and went in to investigate. There we found the gunners all in bed.”
There was little initial opposition. “In sweltering heat, loaded like pack mules with ammo and grenades, we marched against a hot wind across the 8-mile isthmus to Diego Suarez,” one Commando remembered. When the Commandos and the Lancashire troops reached Diego Suarez at 4:30 pm they finally met bitter resistance.
Sergeant Rupert Croft-Cooke and the 29th Independent Brigade, in the meantime, had come ashore at Ambarate. He dragged his motorcycle to shore, kicked it to life, then joined the advance up the single, dusty road 21 miles east toward Antisare.
“There was no sound of firing, no glimpse of the enemy,” he wrote. “Ten miles or more distance were covered before we saw anything but red earth and florid vegetation.”
“Soon after noon, the battle started,” he continued. He had been traveling 20 yards behind the Bren carrier that the 29th’s commander, Brigadier Fredrick Festing, was riding in. Known as Frontline Frankie, he was, as usual, hundreds of yards ahead of the column when firing suddenly broke out. The British rushed to cover behind the roadside trees and bushes. After five minutes, one of a half-dozen supporting Valentine tanks clanked up. As he walked toward it, Festing saw Croft-Cooke and yelled, “Been fired on much, sergeant?”
“No sir, not at all.”
“I’ve got to speak to that tank,” Festing said and started whacking the turret with his walking stick. More irritated than impressed, Croft-Cooke rode back down the road to rejoin his security section.
The prospect of a Japanese invasion of Madagascar threatened the security of British interests in the western reaches of the Indian Ocean and along the coast of East Africa. However, Vichy French resistance to the British occupation of the island resulted in some difficult fighting before Madagascar was secured.
Festing drove the Vichy defenders back with armor, then a bayonet charge. Hours later, descending a hill and coming to a bridge across a stream, the British vanguard came upon a dilapidated corrugated iron building with a sign that said “Robinson’s Hotel.”
It was actually a store.
“In every village of Madagascar, we afterward learned, there was a Chinaman’s store, usually a tin shanty,”
Croft-Cooke recalled. It was quickly taken over as field headquarters for Festing and Sturges, with Croft-Cooke in charge of the guard detail. All the while, the ancient Chinese proprietor served tea, chattering in his unique brand of French.
Three miles from Antisare, the surprised British ran into a network of pillboxes and trenches the Vichy soldiers called the Joffre Line. Percy Mayer, still sweating out his appointment with the firing squad, had reported on it, but the information had never reached Sturges.
“The firing was now intense and from all sides,” Croft-Cooke related. “Our own artillery and the French 75s were audible in the universal racket of mortars, machine-gun and rifle fire.” Festing threw in his armor, only to have it stopped by a 2,000-yard-long antitank ditch. The last four of the Valentines and two of the six light Tetrarch tanks making up the rest of the operation’s armor were knocked out by artillery fire. Their crews leaped out and fought Senegalese soldiers hand to hand to reach safety. Festing recommended Captain Peter Palmer, killed trying to save his wounded driver, for what would have produced the campaign’s only Victoria Cross, but he was instead awarded the Military Cross.
A long day came to a merciful end at 6:30 pm. “Now, it was deep night, and the crowded stars of the southern hemisphere shone brightly,” Croft-Cooke wrote. To prevent snipers from crawling up in the darkness, the British set the surrounding grass on fire. “I watched the blazing hills and the black shapes of our men against them, and tried to realize that this was a battle, and not merely a rather fantastic night in a strange country.”
Sturges prepared to launch a predawn attack, expecting “a good scrape which would end when we were at breakfast in Antisare.” Actually, he was having his breakfast at 7:30, still at Robinson’s. “It was quite clear that the attack had failed. It was an unhappy moment,” he admitted.
There were more unhappy moments to come. Despite the fires, snipers got through—a naval signalman sitting next to Croft-Cooke fell forward without a sound, a bullet between his eyes. Then, Robinson’s came under heavy artillery shelling, sending everyone but the Chinese owner dashing to cover. Sturges headed back to the coast to board Syfret’s flagship Ramilliesat 2 pm, “hot, begrimed, and unhappy,” in Syfret’s words, and requesting a diversionary seaborne raid against Antisare.
In less than 30 minutes, the destroyer Anthonywas setting out to race 100 miles around Madagascar with Captain Martin Price and 30 Royal Marines. One of them was Syfret’s valet, who begged to go, Syfret agreeing only with reluctance. He later admitted, “I did not expect a score to survive the night. The next hours were not happy ones.”
Lieutenant Commander John Hodges took the Anthonyinto Antisare Bay in pitch darkness at 8 pm, hoping to make a surprise landing, but searchlights on shore came on. Hodges steadily maneuvered through a gauntlet of fire at 30 knots toward the docks. With no time to stop, he overshot the dock, reversed in by the stern while Price and his Marines jumped off, and then headed full speed back out to sea.
Price divided his Marines to seize objectives. Those rushing the gate at the naval depot where Percy Mayer was taken for execution came under rifle fire. Grenades tossed in response soon had the commander emerging with a white flag. A bugler beside him started to sound the ceasefire. The Marines, mistaking it for an alarm, knocked him down and then apologized. Inside, 50 British prisoners taken in the morning’s failed assault on the Joffre Line were liberated, but not Percy Mayer. Luckily, he had not been shot: sensing defeat, the French had ostensibly paroled him.
Price armed the prisoners and soon had Antisare under control, and despite Syfret’s fears, he had not lost even a single Marine. “This was a brilliant diversion,” wrote Churchill. Price was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for it. Sturges ordered a final assault on the Joffre Line at 8:30. Phone calls from Antisare reported that Price’s raid had broken Vichy morale, and at 11 pm, the burst of signal rockets illuminated the black sky, announcing that the Joffre Line had fallen.
The last holdouts in Diego Suarez gave up in the morning. “It was as though we had won a hard game of rugger, and neither team appeared to have any ill feeling,” Price commented.
Rupert Croft-Cooke saw nothing sporting about the score in losses, for 105 British had been killed and 283 wounded, while Vichy French losses were 145 dead and 336 wounded. “There was little for triumph in our entry,” he wrote. “We were angry at the idiotic obstinacy of the French, who had fought and killed many a good fellow. And why? Because an octogenarian marechal at home had ordered them to do so.”
Another soldier was just as angry: Charles De Gaulle. He was in Washington, D.C., to mend relations with President Roosevelt when a reporter awakened him at midnight for a comment—the first word he had received of the invasion. For the moment, the British preferred to deal with the local Vichy authorities. They would find them as hard to handle as De Gaulle, but for a different reason.
A Grumman Martlet fighter aircraft of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm No. 888 Squadron flies past the old Queen Elizabeth-class battleship HMS Warspite off the coast of Madagascar.A Grumman Martlet fighter aircraft of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm No. 888 Squadron flies past the old Queen Elizabeth-class battleship HMS Warspite off the coast of Madagascar.
When the police, customs officers, teachers, and other assorted necessary functionaries were summoned to the town hall in Diego Suarez and asked by the British to continue working, they protested, one of them asking how it would endanger their pensions to, ironically, collaborate with the occupiers.
The British made the gesture of threatening to jail them so they could claim later they served under duress. Croft-Cooke, for one, could not hide his disdain for such people “who, thinking that their pensions might be lost or their good name obscured in the eyes of their government, refused to admit the one consideration which should have counted with a Frenchman as it did with an Englishman: the defeat of the Boche who sprawled across France and of the Jap who occupied Indo-China.”
Croft-Cooke got on with his own security work, freeing imprisoned Gaullists, rounding up Vichy sympathizers for questioning, and starting a dogged pursuit of two German agents. He even governed for a while as an acting district officer. “I came to like the Malagasy, his innocent mendacity, his primitive timidity, his talent for storytelling, his indolence, courtesy, and sweetness,” he later wrote.
In the meantime, the British left the French in control of central and southern Madagascar, to his irritation. He wrote in 1953,
“One day, I suppose, we shall be told why it was that having taken the only strongly defended port in Madagascar, we remained precariously within an area of 100 square miles before attacking and controlling the rest of the island.”
Three years before, Winston Churchill had explained why. In the fourth volume of his World War II history, The Hinge of Fate,he included a telegram to Admiral Syfret regarding Madagascar. “It must be a help and not a hindrance. It must be a security and not a burden. We cannot lock up field troops there for any length of time,” it read. Syfret had, in fact, concurred. “I think, as far as our occupation of Diego Suarez is concerned, the French will adopt a policy of live and let live.”
Before long, though, the Japanese again forced Churchill to change his mind, this time directly.
“We had settled down to life in that scruffy little seaport as though we would remain there forever,” wrote Croft-Cooke. On the night of May 29, 1942, sudden explosions in the harbor shattered that tranquility.
Ramillieshad a 20-foot hole blown it its side. An oil tanker was sunk. “Where had they come from? What did it portend?” worried Churchill.
It had been a Japanese midget submarine. Attempting to escape after doing the damage, it ran aground on a reef, the two crewmen swimming ashore to be cornered and killed two days later.
During the next two months, several more midget submarine attacks destroyed 34 ships totaling 150,000 tons. The (erroneous) assumption—the midgets actually launched from Japanese fleet submarines—was that the Japanese were operating from the ports still in Vichy hands: Majunga on the west coast, Tamatave on the east. The premier of South Africa, Jan Smuts, put particular political pressure on Churchill, cabling, “Madagascar is the key to the safety of the Indian Ocean. It all points to the necessity of eliminating Vichy control from the whole island as soon as possible.”
The British first responded with bombing missions into Vichy territory by the South African Air Force. One aircraft with a pilot named Jones went down, and Croft-Cooke was sent on a rescue mission to get him back. Jones, though, had salvaged a machine gun from his wrecked bomber and was leading his crew to safety when they were suddenly faced with a French officer and 40 men.
As operations to secure Madagascar continue in November 1942, British soldiers dismantle a roadblock that has been erected to impede their overland progress.
“I must ask you, gentlemen, to consider yourselves my prisoners,” said Jones, firing a burst from the machine gun into the air. The Malagasy accompanying the French officer scattered.
The Frenchman responded, “I surrender unconditionally.” With his prisoner in tow, Jones reached the coast to be picked up by the Royal Navy. Croft-Cooke also found the German agents he was hunting. After receiving a tip, he nabbed them before dawn while they were sleeping in a hut.
“The west coast ports were needed for control of the Mozambique Channel where our convoys were molested by the U-boats. The governor-general remained obdurate. Further operations had to take place,”
…wrote Churchill. In the end, the decision was finally made to occupy the remainder of Madagascar in a three-stage operation named Stream Line Jane.
Stream would be a landing at Majunga, followed immediately by Line, a march on Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, finishing with Jane, a landing at Tamatave. A convoy of reinforcements including the famed King’s African Rifles (KAR) sailed from Mombasa to rendezvous in the Mozambique Channel with Croft-Cooke and the 29th Brigade on the night of September 9, 1942.
Another writer, Kenneth C. Gandar-Dower, was with the reinforcing troops that night. He had flown a rickety two-seater from England to India, later exploring Kenya and the Belgian Congo and publishing accounts of his exploits. The war provided him more opportunity for exotic adventure as a correspondent covering first the invasion of Ethiopia and now Madagascar.
“The world was dark and empty for us—and Madagascar,” he wrote of that night at sea. “I did not know what lay ahead.” What did lie ahead was an episode that would go down in British lore as the Battle Before Breakfast.
The invasion force appeared off Majunga at 3 am. “Between the troopships, something was moving, a little black blob that seemed to have no shape,” Gandar-Dower wrote. “After a while, I realized it was not alone. There was another, and another, and another.”
They were assault craft carrying East Lancashire troops and Welsh Fusiliers to the beach nine miles out of town. When daylight came, his ship moved to 400 yards from shore, and he watched “little figures crawl slowly up cliffs of white chalk, following the convolutions of a winding track, halting, going on…. It was if we cut away half an ant hill, replaced by a pane of glass, and through the glass, were watching ants at war.”
In fact, he was watching a feint attack like the one at Diego Suarez.
Croft-Cooke was coming in with the real landing force, headed straight for the docks. “It took an hour and a half to reach the shore,” he related, “and before we had done, dawn had arrived. We could see Majunga in the rosy light of sunrise, a white city among palms. At first, it seemed peaceful enough, but as we were within earshot, we could hear the sound of machine guns, and we knew the French were resisting. We caught a glimpse of the Commandos hurrying up a narrow street and saw our men along the white sand of the beach.”
The Commandos landed at 5:20, quickly overwhelmed the machine guns then swarmed into the town. Croft-Cooke followed, pushing his ever-present motorcycle through the surf and sand. “The fighting was almost over, but a few shots were still audible to give me the illusion of taking part in a fight for the town,” he recalled.
The Commandos met only scattered resistance as they occupied the bank, post office, and residence of the regional administrator, and in 90 minutes, the battle—such as it was—ended with a dozen British dead. Commandos trying to flank the town had run into a far different, more determined opponent.
“As we traveled up the river,” Fred Munson remembered, “the tide began to go out, and we began to run aground on a sandbank. The river was full of crocodiles, so before we could get into the water to lighten the craft and push them off the sandbanks, hand grenades were thrown into the river to keep the crocodiles at bay.”
In Majunga, the garrison commander, Major Didier Martins, got caught in bed at the time of the attack but managed to get himself slightly wounded in the left elbow and, no doubt for the benefit of his Vichy superiors, made a show of presenting himself with a theatrically oversized sling.
“Did my men fight well?” he asked.
“Magnificently!” the British commander played along.
As at Antisare, finding a bugle to call surrender proved difficult. A young British officer was sent to the Martins home for a white flag. He found Madame Martins hysterically barricaded in her bedroom.
From outside the door, the officer explained why he was there and assured her that he was not going to rape her. The door finally creaked open, and a trembling hand passed out a broomstick and bed sheet. “A curious gaiety spread through the town at lunchtime,” Croft-Cooke observed. “We were openly welcomed, and the hope was expressed we should occupy the capital before long.”
By then, the KAR and a South African armored car column had set out 250 miles southeast to do just that. They covered 131 miles in just 18 hours, only to be slowed to a crawl by the first of some 3,000 roadblocks Vichy forces were eventually to put up all over Madagascar. The KAR worked around the clock dismantling the obstacles and met their only serious opposition 150 miles from Atananarivo, at the mountain village of Ariba.
Senegalese troops kept the KAR under heavy machine-gun fire until a sergeant named Odillo, whose British officer had been killed, led his platoon around the Senegalese and then came screaming down on them wielding three-foot-long, curved panga machetes.
“After firing to the last, one of the Senegalese would jump out and try to scuttle through our lines. We dropped a number of them like rabbits,” the KAR colonel said. Four of the KAR died in the fight, while the eight wounded were laid without rancor or bitterness alongside Senegalese casualties, though neither would accept being put next to a Malagasy conscript.
British colonial troops fire their field artillery pieces toward Vichy French entrenchments on Madagascar. Defending their government’s sovereign territory, the Vichy soldiers were defeated after several sharp fights with the British forces. This action took place near the village of Ambositra.
After 13 days, the column reached Atananarivo to be met by a Special Operations Executive operative, Royal Navy Lieutenant Peter Simpson Jones, standing by a Renault in a crisp, new tropical suit. He and a companion had delivered a radio set to another agent, but their dinghy had capsized in Madagascar’s notoriously shark-infested waters while they were rowing out for pickup. The companion drowned, but Jones was rescued by a fisherman. At his court-martial, at which he was sentenced to five years in prison, the Vichy prosecutor had suggested, “Don’t you think in the next world war,you might do better to join the artillery?”
Percy Mayer’s piano-playing, radio key-tapping wife, who spent several anxious weeks expecting arrest, was also safe. Governor General Armand Annet had fled, and with no one to take the surrender, a British officer walked into the radio station to politely request airtime for a not quite historic announcement:
“At 5 pm, our troops occupied Atananrivo. Everything is quiet. That is all.”
Five days earlier, the Jane portion of the operation had taken place. With the surf at Tamatave too rough for landings in the dark, the plan was to intimidate the town into surrender with an overwhelming show of naval force. “They might bluff up to the last minute, but not beyond it. The guns would never have to fire,” Gandar-Dower believed, but he was proven wrong—for three minutes.
That was how long the British bombardment went on after the French had rejected a 10 AM ultimatum. They hoisted a white flag at 10:03. Gandar-Dower sloshed ashore, bowler hat on head, camera in one hand, typewriter in the other, to witness a great deal of activity—soldiers in firing positions, rushing about, kicking in doors–but no action. “It was,” he wrote, “like a Hollywood assault, which was being held up by the failure of the other side to put in an appearance.”
An old woman shuffled up to him to ask if the battle was over. It was, he said, and soon he and the British were marching into town, at their head, a young lady “in the shortest of bathing costumes and pair of first-class legs.”
Even though Stream Line Jane had been successfully completed, the campaign for Madagascar would drag on for six senseless weeks. With a mix of defiance and delusion, Governor General Annet had sent off a crazed cable to Vichy: “Our available troops are preparing to resist every enemy advance with the same spirit which inspired our soldiers at Diego Suarez, at Majunga, at Atananarivo, where each time the defense became a page of heroism written by La France.”
British troops affected widespread landing don the West coast of Madagascar, including the ports of Majunga and Morondava. At Majunga, opposition, which was only slight, was soon overcome and the civil and military authorities arranged the surrender of the town. British Bren gun carrier on the road in Majunga, Madagascar, Oct. 5, 1942. (AP Photo)
He had fled 190 miles south to Finanarantsoa, and the KAR had set off in pursuit. Gandar-Dower followed in a confiscated Citroen truck, bicycle, and pirogue, admitting, “We saw little of the war, but met with a great deal of curious adventure.”
Rupert Croft-Cooke was having his own adventure with a lieutenant and a half-dozen soldiers searching for a French lieutenant with 100 conscripts. Along the way, they had encountered crocodiles, chasing them off with rifle shots. They later came upon a female English missionary, alone, forgotten, and resigned to staying after over 40 years.
“Five hours of being paddled up a crocodile-infested river in Madagascar to a collection of native huts does not prepare one for such an encounter,” Croft-Cooke wrote. Then he and the lieutenant finally had their discussion with the French officer:
“You have, of course, some soldiers?” the Frenchman asked.
“Yes,” the British one replied. “We have some soldiers.”
“Naturally, they are armed?”
“Naturally.”
“Automatic weapons, I presume?”
“Tommy guns.”
“You have, perhaps, some other forces in the area?”
“We have.”
“With some artillery, no doubt?”
“Certainly.” It was back at the coast.
“Ah. You will excuse me a moment.” He immediately wired Annet, “Occupied today by British forces armed with automatic weapons and supported by artillery.”
The campaign became one more of annoyance than action as the stubborn Vichy put up hundreds more roadblocks. “When I shut my eyes and think of Madagascar, I see one enormous roadblock,” Gandar-Dower remembered.
The French laid melon-sized rocks exactly 20 yards apart for miles and erected 18-foot stone walls. In the last significant action, the KAR turned an attempted ambush on itself, marching 30 miles around to attack from the rear, killing 40 and taking 800 prisoners. The Malagasy, always quick to run from battle, were now running away for good, deserting in droves. Even worse for the Vichy, law and order were breaking down. Croft-Cooke was an official witness at the execution by firing squad of a Malagasy for the unprecedented murder of a French settler.
After a five-week march, the KAR reached Finanarantsoa, only to find that Annet had fled another 190 miles southwest. With the KAR still in pursuit and after almost being killed when his staff car was strafed from the air, Annet finally sent his aide, Captain Louis Fauche, to negotiate surrender. In a 650-mile march, the KAR had routed 6,000 defenders for a loss of five British officers killed, six wounded and 20 Africans killed, 76 wounded.
Fauche agreed to surrender with the curious condition that it did not go into effect for another 10 hours, until 12:01 amon November 6, 1942.
The reason turned out to be, to the very end, about career concerns. Having the campaign last for exactly six months qualified the French for medals, promotions, and even cash awards, but any chance was dashed days later. To cap the fruitless futility of it all in Madagascar, the Germans occupied Vichy France.
Churchill was modestly satisfied with the campaign for Madagascar. “We had gained full military control over an island of high strategic importance to the safety of our communication with the Near and Far East,” he noted. “The Madagascar episode was in its secrecy of planning and tactical execution a model of amphibious operations. The news arrived at a time when we sorely needed success. It was in fact for long months the only sign of good and efficient war direction of which the British public were conscious.”
De Gaulle was angered at being left out. Kenneth Gandar-Dower, by contrast, later wrote, “It was for me a fascinating experience, an isolated six weeks of strange adventure.” He admitted that it was “certainly more than an exercise, but very much less than a war…. The French consciously or unconsciously conducted their defense according to formula. The first was ‘maximum results for minimum expenditure.’ The second: ‘resist as long and as fiercely as you can without loss of life—either French or British.’” Gandar-Dower’s exotic adventuring and writing ended when his transport was torpedoed en route to Ceylon on February 12, 1944.
Rupert Croft-Cooke soon left Madagascar for his next and last wartime posting, India. He spent most of his postwar life in other out-of-the-way locales, including Morocco and Tunisia, after serving six months in prison for homosexual activity in England in 1953, but he was through with Madagascar. He later wrote, “I shall never go back to Madagascar with its blood-red earth and creeping shadows.”
He continued with his prolific, if ultimately forgotten, writing and in 1953 published his account of events in Madagascar titled The Blood-Red Island. Tragically, Madagascar would become that, and not just from the soil. An uprising in 1947 against the French was crushed with perhaps 100,000 dead, and independence in 1958 was marked by more violence and tribal strife.
Empires come and go.
No empire stays around for long. They all have a half-life. This is simply because humanity cannot exist, let alone thrive under an empire. It just cannot.
Empires come and go.
Some thoughts…
It is easy, so very easy, to get caught up in the history of the past. So and so, directing troops of Mr. XYZ and using the artillery of ABC attacked the hamlet of ZZZZ. So exciting. So interesting. So fascinating.
And the geo-political issues… well it is often simplified to “it had to happen, as other decisions were in motion”. Like “we had to invade Madagascar to stop the Japs (the Japanese) from invading Africa, or the Middle East, or the Mediterranean sea.” It was a necessity. They all argue.
Now…
Pause.
Think.
Look at a bigger, a much bigger picture.
No, I’m not talking about the Japanese Empire fighting the British Empire. Or the Russian Empire fighting the German Empire. Or the American empire fighting the world.
Nor, am I talking about the bankers and their control of the finances of the world. (For they tend to be the major players in all this nasty wars and fighting nonsense.)
I am talking about something, much bigger.
Something much bigger than earth-wide politics.
There are so many people, involved in so many aspects of human society that it is one big enormous mess. Everyone is fighting and striving for the bits and crumbs left over on the ground. The “news” is off yelling and screeching one narrative after the other in rapid and rabid succession. And even though you have a kind of allegiance to one side of a complex social-economic coin, the truth of the matter is something else entirely.
We are all puppets.
The American oligarchy has created factions that they pit against one another so that the peasants (debit serfs = you) will not rise up and kill them all.
And with all this confusion going on…
…and all this turmoil, just how can anyone sort any thing out?
The owners of the Earth have a say on what goes on…
What if you were an extraterrestrial looking at this entire event. What if you were watching dispassionately. What would you think about all of this? What would you think of the British invading a tiny island (ok, maybe not so tiny) off the coast of Africa?
What would you think?
Why was the UK busy invading Madagascar?
Why?
Why was the British busy invading Madagascar?
Why, indeed.
What was all this about?
At that time, the entire globe was plunged into war. Empires fought empires. And there were a bunch of them. Don’t you know.
And afterwards…
The British Empire collapsed in stages.
Leaving only two empires remaining. The Soviet Union Empire, and the United States Empire.
In the late 1980’s the Soviet Union Empire collapsed, and that left the United States Empire that maintained sole dominance of much of the globe.
From the 1980’s to today (2020), forty years…
It’s been non stop military wars, military development, military bases. All either open or covert. And while all this has been going on, the internal structure, and balance of what America was founded upon has rotted away. And what is left?
Nothing much.
Americans (and the rest of the world) are “burned out”. They want all this fighting, bickering, and torment to end. They just want to live their lives in peace.
And now today…
You all have a Casino owner for a President, and a cabal of war-mongering neocons that are gonna show the world that America is still the toughest bully in the world. Meanwhile, the media is full of fear, fear fear to control an increasingly upset population of debit serfs, and modern slaves in the urban centers.
Conflict is all but certain…
All of the indicators are pointing to this in alarm!
From 2020 through 2025, will be a very testy and trying time for America and for Americans. However, things will start to get much better and by 2030, everything will be just fine.
We know what is going on.
We know what is happening and why.
But…
You know, if I was an extraterrestrial, and my species was in charge of the earth I would look at things quite differently. I really would.
An extraterrestrial head’s up.
In fact, I would not care at all about the details. Let the humans fight among each other. Let them sort things out. My concern would be long term and everlasting damage. But even at that, there would be some leeway provided.
I would do the following…
I would isolate the biggest troublemaker (the USA from the rest of the world).
Economically, and by trade.
By treaties with other nations.
Keep the citizens of that nation fighting among themselves.
I would allow the nation to collapse.
No support for new technology.
No intervention of any type.
Instead, I’d make new alliances with healthier nations.
In fact, all things being equal, I would permit limited global war engagement.
Sometimes it’s better to kill the rabid dog before it infects others.
Isolation of the battlefield(s) to the American nation.
Permit and encourage shunning or isolation of the rabid nation.
Change the system
I would permit and encourage the development of other forms of commerce.
And, other forms of finance.
And, other forms and systems of society.
Allowing traditional governance with a heavily monitored presence.
Now, with this under consideration, is that not what is going on now?
Sentience selection and sorting. A fight for the dominant sentience for humans. Shall it be “Service for self” (The American neocon, and Oligarchy preference), “Service for others” (Which is more Buddhist, and representative of China, and Russia.) or a continuation of the current state with a segregated humanity. One that has two sentience’s for mankind; a ruling “Service for self”, and a subservient, servant class “Service for another” sentience?
What is going on today…
Let’s look, shall we…
For Americans
it’s confusing. The rabid dog is barking up a storm, jumping around all over, and has started to rollover and over on the dirt, causing you and your fellow fleas great discomfort. To make matters worse, some fleas actually cheer the dog on. Telling everyone else that they have never had it so good, and that the dog must bark to preserve their “flea society”.
It’s all a big mess on the back of that nasty rabid dog.
You are here.
So to understand how to survive and get through the next couple of decades, understand that you all (if you are Americas) are fleas on a very sick and rabid dog. He’s running around everywhere, barking up a storm and digging holes all over the yard. The other dogs are afraid of him, and the farmer has got his shotgun out because he doesn’t want his prized poodle, and collie torn up by the rabid pit bull. Will he pull the trigger?
For the rest of the world
Well, you are a flea on the back of one of the other dogs in the yard. You know that the farmer probably will not shoot your dog. But that crazed rabid dog has been barking and snarling at your dog for some some time now. If the farmer does not shoot, the crazed rabid dog will tear your dog to pieces…
Whats going to happen?
Well…
Time is our friend. Not our enemy.
And the invasion by America of another nation will only accelerate the coming end of the United States. Not delay it.
MAKE NO MISTAKE. Things are falling into place as they should. And do not get too caught up on all the details, and the lies spewing forth from the dying nation.
A big reminder…
What you think the universe is, what you think reality is, and what science is … well, it’s all wrong. The reality that we inhabit is quite different than what you all think. And when I say that things are happening and following a plan because that’s the way it is …
… well, believe me. OK.
Strange coincidences…
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“At some point, a crisis of confidence in this so-called money is inevitable. People aren’t going to trust it forever if you continue to create trillions and trillions backed by nothing but a promise from a central bank and a promise from governments. That’s the flaw in all of this. You can’t sustain the perceptions of moneyness forever. History has many examples of how money is destroyed by over-issuance, and now we’re watching it in real time.”Doug NolandDoug Noland: It’s Too Late To Turn Back Now… I Believe You Should Take Cover!
August 5, 2020
It has begun.
Nations are running away from using the United States dollar. Instead they are choosing to use other methods to pay back their debts and engage in trade. They are using such things a as gold, eyuan, or commodity trading (like oil, wheat or rice).
A new world monetary system is being set up right now which will completely kill the US dollar, which is the world’s reserve currency. At least 23 countries (60% of the world’s GDP) are setting up swap lines which bypass the dollar and SWIFT, which is the dollar-based worldwide financial transaction system. These countries include Russia, China, India, and even Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.
Kevin: You know, I think about where the two of them agree. They would both say that we’re past the point of no return, that money turned into credit, and we’re now in a credit expansion. Noland would say kicking the can down the road is ultimately going to end in dystopia. What Duncan would say is, it’s our only chance at utopia. And they both know that credit probably ends badly, but I think Duncan would just like to have it end badly after he passes away.
David: That may be, so if we have a shot at utopia, let’s spend a little bit more. And that’s a little bit like looking at the hair of the dog as the real solution to a problem with alcoholism.
You’re right. It will take away some of the consequence in the short run.
Kevin: Do you remember Ian McAvity said that a doctor told him to not stop smoking because he had smoked so much that it would probably kill him.
David: That’s right. “You quit now and you’re dead.” That’s really what we’re talking about.
Doug NolandDoug Noland: It’s Too Late To Turn Back Now… I Believe You Should Take Cover!
August 5, 2020
For several years, financial analysts, primarily those outside the mainstream of academia, have been warning that any day could be the black swan event that collapses the dollar. This collapse will end U.S. hegemony as caretaker of the world’s reserve currency.
That day had arrived last year on 18NOV19 when a former head trader for a major financial institution issued a harbinger. He stated that 23 countries, and 60% of the world’s GDP, are or have setting up new swap lines which bypass the dollar. These systems not only bypass the USD, but they bypass SWIFT, and the BIS.
All of this is ushering in a new global currency system. It is a system that will kill the US dollar.
Who’s abandoning the USD?
Countries are growing weary of losing money on the falling dollar. Many of them want to protect their financial interests, and a number of them want to end the US oversight that comes with using the dollar. Although it’s not clear how many of these countries will actually follow through on an abandonment of the dollar, it is clear that its status as a world currency is in trouble.
Obviously, an abandonment of the dollar is bad news for the currency. Simply put, as demand lessens, its value drops. Additionally, the revenue generated from the use of the dollar will be sorely missed if it’s lost. The dollar’s status as a cheaply-produced US export is a vital part of our economy. Losing this status could rock the financial lives of both Americans and the worldwide economy.
Here’s just a few of the numerous nations that are running away from using the United States Dollar…
Saudi Arabia
The Telegraph reports that for the first time, Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates along with the US Federal Reserve.
This is seen as a signal that a break from the dollar currency peg is imminent. The kingdom is taking “appropriate measures” to protect itself from letting the dollar cause problems for their own economy.
They’re concerned about the threat of inflation and don’t want to deal with “recessionary conditions” in the US.
Hans Redeker of BNP Paribas believes this creates a “very dangerous situation for the dollar,” as Saudi Arabia alone has management of $800 billion. Experts fear that a break from the dollar in Saudi Arabia could set off a “stampede” from the dollar in the Middle East, a region that manages $3,500 billion.
Sudan
Sudan is, once again, planning to convert its dollar holdings to the euro and other currencies. Additionally, they’ve recommended to commercial banks, government departments, and private businesses to do the same.
In 1997, the Central Bank of Sudan made a similar recommendation in reaction to US sactions from former President Clinton, but the implementation failed. This time around, 31 Sudanese companies have become subject to sanctions, preventing them from doing trade or financial transactions with the US. Officially, the sanctions are reported to have little effect, but there are indications that the economy is suffering due to these restrictions.
A decision to move Sudan away from the dollar is intended to allow the country to work around these sanctions as well as any implemented in the future. However, a Khartoum committee recently concluded that proposals for a reduced dependence on the dollar are “not feasible.” Regardless, it is clear that Sudan’s intent is to attempt a break from the dollar in the future.
Russia
In 2006, Russian President Vladmir Putin expressed interest in establishing a Russian stock exchange which would allow “oil, gas, and other goods to be paid for in Roubles.”
Russia’s intentions are no secret–in the past, they’ve made it clear that they’re wary of holding too many dollar reserves.
In 2004, Russian central bank First Deputy Chairmain Alexei Ulyukayev remarked, “Most of our reserves are in dollars, and that’s a cause for concern.”
He went on to explain that, after considering the dollar’s rate against the euro, Russia is “discussing the possibility of changing the reserve structure.” Then in 2005, Russia put an end to its dollar peg, opting instead to move towards a euro alignment. They’ve discussed pricing oil in euros, a move that could provide a large shift away from the dollar and towards the euro, as Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter.
In 2005, Korea announced its intention to shift its investments to currencies of countries other than the US.
Although they’re simply making plans to diversify for the future, that doesn’t mean a large dollar drop isn’t in the works. There are whispers that the Bank of Korea is planning on selling $1 billion US bonds in the near future, after a $100 million sale this past August.
China just announced that it will stop purchasing our debt (holding dollars in reserve). This will force The Federal Reserve to print even more dollars than the $85 billion it’s currently printing.
A few months ago, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media. The following is from a BBC report about that agreement:
“China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade. The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other. Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.”
Way back in 2016, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media. The following is from a BBC report about that agreement:
“China and Japan have unveiled plans to promote direct exchange of their currencies in a bid to cut costs for companies and boost bilateral trade. The deal will allow firms to convert the Chinese and Japanese currencies directly into each other. Currently businesses in both countries need to buy US dollars before converting them into the desired currency, adding extra costs.”
India
In December 2018, India and the United Arab Emirates sealed a bilateral exchange swap agreement to boost trade and investment in their own currencies.
A swap is an international contract that is sealed off from a stock exchange and states that the two parties agree to exchange one financial instrument for another within a predetermined term and conditions.
Iran
China (in particular) appears determined to risk US sanctions in order to make a huge investment in the Iranian economy.
The US Treasury Department can only sanction firms that trade in dollars with Iran or that also trade with the US.
China intends its projects in Iran to be funded with soft-money currencies it has accumulated through its vast global trade. In accepting those African and other currencies, Iran will suffer a 30% loss, but it will escape the American net. Rendering American sanctions worthless.
Turkey
In 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his plans to end the US dollar monopoly by pursuing a policy aimed at excluding the dollar from trading with its partners. According to the president, Ankara is preparing to carry out commercial transactions with China, Russia and Ukraine using national currencies. In addition, it is possible that Turkey will replace the dollar in trade with Iran.
This decision was prompted by both political and economic reasons. Relations between Ankara and Washington deteriorated after the failed coup attempt of July 2016. That year, several media outlets reported that Erdogan suspected that the US was involved in the coup attempt. The Turkish leader also accused Washington of harboring the exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, who, according to the Turkish authorities, orchestrated the attempted coup.
Venezuela
Venezuela holds little loyalty to the dollar. In fact, they’ve shown overt disapproval, choosing to establish barter deals for oil.
These barter deals, established under Hugo Chavez, allow Venezuela to trade oil with 12 Latin American countries and Cuba without using the dollar, shorting the US its usual subsidy.
Chavez is not shy about this decision, and has publicly encouraged others to adopt similar arrangements. In 2000, Chavez recommended to OPEC that they “take advantage of high-tech electronic barter and bi-lateral exchanges of its oil with its developing country customers,” or in other words, stop using the dollar, or even the euro, for oil transactions.
In September, Chavez instructed Venezuela’s state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA to change its dollar investments to euros and other currencies in order to mitigate risk.
Why are they abandoning the USD?
Historically, new world reserve currencies are backed by gold.
China surpassed the US in terms of GDP based onpurchasing power parity (PPP), becoming the largest in the world by this measure, International Monetary Fund data show. In 2014 China reached $17.6 trillion or 16.48 percent of the world’s purchasing-power-adjusted GDP, while the US made slightly less, 16.28 percent or $17.4 trillion, the FT reported citing IMF data.
China is sitting there and wondering why the U.S. dollar should continue to be so preeminent if the Chinese economy is about to become the number one economy on the planet.
It’s an advantage for China. It’s an advantage for the rest of the world, and yes even for the USA it’s an advantage…
And so, China, and other emerging powers such as Russia, have been quietly making agreements to move away from the U.S. dollar in international trade over the past few years [and, as such,] the supremacy of the U.S. dollar is not nearly as solid as most Americans believe it to be.
As most Americans have this fantasy where America is empowered by GOD to exist and lord over the rest of the world. It is what all that “exceptionalism” means and refers to…
But, like the elephant in the room, sooner or later, you have to face up to the facts.
As the U.S. economy continues to fade, it is going to be really hard to argue that the U.S. dollar should continue to function as the primary reserve currency of the world. Things are rapidly changing, and most Americans have no idea where these trends are taking the nation.
Most Americans are in a state of denial.
They cannot believe that any other nation would have a currency as important or as valuable as the vaulted US Dollar.
But you know, all you need to do is sit down and reason it all out. It makes quite a bit of sense when you get down to it…
The Ten Reasons
The following are 10 reasons why the reign of the dollar as the world reserve currency is about to come to an end:
#1: China And Japan To Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade
Way back in 2016, the second largest economy on earth (China) and the third largest economy on earth (Japan) struck a deal which will promote the use of their own currencies (rather than the U.S. dollar) when trading with each other. This was an incredibly important agreement that was virtually totally ignored by the U.S. media.
#2: The BRICS Plan To Use Own Currencies When Trading With Each Other
The BRICS continue to flex their muscles. A new agreement will promote the use of their own national currencies when trading with each other rather than the U.S. dollar. The following is from a news source in India:
“The five major emerging economies of BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are set to inject greater economic momentum into their grouping by signing two pacts for promoting intra-BRICS trade…
The two agreements will enable credit facility in local currency for businesses of BRICS countries…[which is] expected to scale up intra-BRICS trade that has been growing at the rate of 28% over the last few years but, at $230 billion, remains much below the potential of the five economic powerhouses.”
#3: China and Russia Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade
Leaders from both Russia and China have been strongly advocating for a new global reserve currency for several years, and both nations seem determined to break the power that the U.S. dollar has over international trade.
In fact, both Russia and China have been using their own national currencies when trading with each other for a couple of years now.
Who do you think is Africa’s biggest trading partner? It isn’t the United States. In 2009, China became Africa’s biggest trading partner, and China is now aggressively seeking to expand the use of Chinese currency on that continent.
China seems absolutely determined to change the way that international trade is done. At this point, almost all Chinese companies in Africa are using Chinese currency in cross-border transactions.
#5: China and United Arab Emirates To Use Own Currencies In Bilateral Trade
China and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to ditch the U.S. dollar and use their own currencies in oil transactions with each other.
The UAE is a fairly small player, but this is definitely a threat to the petrodollar system. What will happen to the petrodollar if other oil producing countries in the Middle East follow suit?
Iran has been one of the most aggressive nations when it comes to moving away from the U.S. dollar in international trade. For example, it has been reported that India will begin to use gold to buy oil from Iran.
#7: Saudi Arabia Likely to Abandon Use of Petrodollar in Dealings With China
Who imports the most oil from Saudi Arabia? It is not the United States, it is China…Saudi Arabia and China have teamed up to construct a massive new oil refinery in Saudi Arabia…so how long is Saudi Arabia going to stick with the petrodollar if China is their most important customer?
#8: The United Nations Continues to Push For A New World Reserve Currency
The United Nations has been issuing reports that openly call for an alternative to the U.S. dollar as the reserve currency of the world. In particular, one UN report envisions “a new global reserve system…that no longer relies on the United States dollar as the single major reserve currency.”
#9: The IMF Has Been Pushing For A New World Reserve Currency
The International Monetary Fund has also published a series of reports calling for the U.S. dollar to be replaced as the reserve currency of the world. In particular, one IMF paper entitled “Reserve Accumulation and International Monetary Stability” actually proposed that a future global currency be named the “Bancor” and that a future global central bank could be put in charge of issuing it….
“A global currency, bancor, issued by a global central bank (see Supplement 1, section V) would be designed as a stable store of value that is not tied exclusively to the conditions of any particular economy. As trade and finance continue to grow rapidly and global integration increases, the importance of this broader perspective is expected to continue growing.”
#10: Most Of The Rest Of The World Hates The United States
Global sentiment toward the United States has dramatically shifted, and this should not be underestimated. Decades ago, we were one of the most loved nations on earth [but] bow we are one of the most hated.
I've said for decades now that the US needs shut down the CIA and close ALL its foreign military bases and bring the troops, planes, ships, and drones home. The CIA has toppled democratically elected governments all over the globe and as a result created hatred for the US. The CIA is the exact opposite of what we believe the US should stand for and support. We need to stop being an empire and start taking care of business right here at home. If we actually do that, maybe in a few decades the rest of the world might forgive us… might… maybe…
-pimaC Aug 17
If you doubt this, just do some international traveling. Even in Europe (where we are supposed to have friends), Americans are treated like dirt. Many American travelers have resorted to wearing Canadian pins so that they will not be treated like garbage while traveling over there.
If the rest of the world still loved us, they would probably be glad to continue using the U.S. dollar but because we are now so unpopular, that gives other nations even more incentive to dump the dollar in international trade.
An Acceleration of the abandonment of the USD
Well, since Donald Trump became President, his foreign policy has been reckless, ruthless and a complete disaster. Other nations now view the United States as a very unstable nation with many problems, that breaks long-standing treaties and contracts, and tries to imposes it’s own rules and laws in areas where it has no authority. In their mind, it’s best to just be isolated from this “train wreck” of a nation.
Trump’s Six-Point Legacy
Bully Allies
Belittle Friends
Break Good Deals
Invoke Disastrous Trade and Sanction Policies
Amplify Racial Hatred
Drive Countries Into Deals With China
In regard to points 4 and 6, Trump’s trade and sanction policies have been a disaster on every front.
Most Americans are unaware of this, and they are myopic and are only concerned with the Donald Trump domestic agenda. The Left hate’s it, and the Right love’s it. Only a very small fraction of Americans care about what goes on outside the confines of the United States.
What to expect…
What will happen if the U.S. dollar’s reign as the world reserve currency comes to an end? The answer is simple, as it is clear. The demise of the dollar will also bring radical changes to the American lifestyle.
When this economic tsunami hits America, it will make the 2008 recession and its aftermath look like no more than a slight bump in the road. It will bring very undesirable changes to the American lifestyle through:
massive inflation,
high interest rates on mortgages and cars,
substantial increases in the cost of food, clothing and gasoline and
a much harder time financing its debt.
Right now, there is a huge demand for U.S. dollars and for U.S. government debt since countries around the world have to keep huge reserves of U.S. currency lying around for the sake of international trade but what if… the appetite for U.S. dollars and U.S. debt dried up dramatically? That is something to think about.
What happens when fewer and fewer nations use the USD?
As more of these countries realize how irrelevant we have become, I would imagine Americans are about to find out the hard way about the huge trading advantage we have had all along--the world's reserve currency. When they dump the dollar as the main trading tool…
-Rocky Raccoon
17AUG20
A dollar collapse is when the value of the U.S. dollar plummets.
In that scenario, anyone who holds dollar-denominated assets will sell them at any cost. That includes foreign governments that own U.S. Treasurys. It also affects foreign exchange futures traders. Last but not least, it will hit individual investors.
When the crash occurs, these parties will demand assets denominated in anything other than dollars. The collapse of the dollar means that everyone is trying to sell their dollar-denominated assets, and no one wants to buy them.
This will drive the value of the dollar down to near zero. It would make hyperinflation look like a day in the park.
The following is compiled from “Explaining How Hyperinflation Could Come To The US” By Andrew Bieszad on August 14, 2020. Reprinted in it’s entirety with very little in the way of editing except to fit this venue.
There are no Americans alive today who remember as older adults the Great Depression. I speak of working men in their thirties or forties already on jobs here. By comparison, the Great Depression was very short, since from the decadence of the 1920s to the crash of 1929, and then twelve years to the entrance of the US in a serious way into World War II, the time from misery to true recovery was twelve years. In fact, the US recovered so well that massive industries grew, people found work, debt was paid down, families were able to settle down, and the country truly grew. The US victory in World War II that followed took the World War II induced economic boom and amplified it many times over, providing a wave of true prosperity that ushered in a small “golden age” in America which lasted until about 1965 if one considers the true effects, and until 2007 if one considers the expansion of credit as a way to prolong the economic effects of World War II through financialization at the expense of the integrity of the dollar.
It is known that around 1965, the post-World War II prosperity boom came to an end. This is also the same time where over the next decade, from 1965 to 1975, there were several major social changes, which for our purposes we will focus on the massive welfare expansions through Johnson’s “great society” reforms and then the subsequent decoupling of the US dollar from the gold standard with the opening up of “free trade” with China in 1973 under the Nixon administration that lead to the decline and death of most US manufacturing alongside the expansion of credit. Since this was all intentional, one can argue that the very towns which the US built up during and after World War II- the famous “mill towns” throughout semi-rural areas that today now are too often defined by drugs, crime, degeneracy, broken families, poverty, and misery compiled upon hopelessness -were manufactured from prosperity to decline per economic policy, knowing this would happen but not caring for the consequences because the economic ability to manipulate trade balances was valued more than the people who would be consuming the traded goods.
As one who grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s before the economic crisis, I saw a lot of this decadence and credit spending as a child, but would not have called it such. Rather, I and many others would have called it “life as normal”, for this is what Millennials and some late Gen-Xers, as well as Zoomers, the arguable children of mostly Boomers and early Gen-Xers, knew to be normal. Life had a certain “pattern” to it, and it was one to follow this pattern if one wanted success. Indeed, there is an argument that can be made that such a pattern was not a bad thing for a time because it was based on a Boomer model of prosperity created by the Silent Generation as a result of World War II prosperity- essentially, one could call it exploiting the benefits of the spoils of war for public use.
But this was not normal, and given the generational gap, few could not have been expected to know otherwise. This is a reason why there is so much anger directed towards Boomers, for giving their children material goods and a pattern of life but not explaining how or why things work, and not giving them a way to fend for themselves if the pattern should fail (because they believed that it would not fail) and that life would continue to go on as normal. In a sense, life always does- even in a war torn zone such as Iraq. The problem is that life is very difficult when one does not know what to do if all one knows is one paradigm to be true.
This was violently exposed in 2007 and into 2008 when after six decades and two years since World War II, and four decades and two years since the Great Society Reforms, and thirty-four years after the dropping of the gold standards and the liberalization of free trade with China that the US dollar was exposed as being insolvent. The reasons for this are simple to understand- a combination of lots of bad debt, questionable financial practices that involved taking debt in the form of mortgages regardless of the viability of the owner to pay back his mortgage, “cutting up pieces” of the mortgage, mixing those pieces in with other mortgages “cut up” in the same way, and selling “bundles” as debt made up of untraceable ownership and questionable stability presented just as good as a Treasury bond but with no way to “re-piece” the trail of ownership if one “link” in the “chain” should default, created a crisis of liquidity and ownership. Nobody could get loans because nobody knew what monies went to who for what, and when this is combined with public debt loads on account of simple overspending and bad financial practices, the result is always the same- default and chaos.
At this point, the US had two theoretical options- she could either allow the economy to slow down naturally and in a Japanese-like scenario, see fluctuating prices along with falling wages and decreased purchasing power that could last decades, or she could service the debts as the way that governments throughout history have traditionally done in such a case, which is to create the money that was needed in circulation to keep people spending, but at a cost of lowering, even if only slightly, the value of the currency itself.
This is the reason why ever since the economy was declared “recovered” in 2009, the US has been theoretically in the middle of deflation. Since it is really a global depression, for the last decade one has seen the manipulation of aggregate demand levels and aggregate asset prices as never before arguably in history. In other words, since 2008, the U.S. and world economies have been slowly circling around the proverbial drain waiting to be flushed into the sewer, a process that if played out, would result in a Japan-like scenario that could last for decades.
However, the U.S. government has been continuing to run massive deficits as it seeks to prop up demand levels by way of “stimulus” spending, but this has simply not been enough to offset the fall in consumer spending. Since 2007, the government has become the “supporter” of all things business, and until recently, propping up all assets, including U.S. Treasuries, by way of “quantitative easing”, which is another way of saying “money printing”.
The Federal Reserve Bank- a private corporation not owned by the government but who controls the money the government issues -knows that a deflationary “death-spiral” as defined by a lack of liquidity (no available cash) will cause less spending, which leads to diminished demand, which leads to more unemployment, which leads to lower consumption, to still lower spending, until the economic machine goes to a halt.
In response, the Federal Reserve Bank bought up assets of all kinds in order to inject liquidity into the system and support prices so as to prevent this deflationary deep-freeze. This has been policy since 2010, and is a “one-size-fits-all” approach”. The danger of this is it sort of like a plumber whose only tool is a wrench- and every problem looks like a bolt or a nut to be turned.
Call it what you want- money printing, quantitative easing, price stabilization -it is all the same result, which is turning on the printing presses and printing money as fast as the machines can put it out (theoretically speaking- most of this is done electronically, so it’s more accurate to say “button pressing”).
But is this true deflation, where bond yields (interest return) is low, and unemployment continues to grow?
I wish it was. Rather, we need to talk about something I have been warning about for a long time, which is the Weimarian ghost of that horrible word, hyperinflation.
Why? Because the next step down in this world-historical Global Depression which we are experiencing will likely be hyperinflation.
Most people dismiss the idea of hyperinflation occurring in the United States as something only for the mentally ill, conspiracy fantasists, gold bugs, and survivalists. There is a point to this, for there are a lot of foolish ideas who have their own acolytes..
But what I speak of here is not fantasy. This is not about reading “conspiracies”, or projecting a desire onto a situation.
Apart from what happened with the Weimar Republic in the 1920’s, Western economies have no experience modern with hyperinflation. There were plenty of hyperinflationary events in the 19th century and before, but through careful economic management, the “advanced” economies have learned their lessons and so well that it’s been forgotten.
But there are some countries where one can draw experience from. Most talk about Zimbabwe- as so also have I done -but I would like to use a different example, since the case of Zimbabwe is a classic African example of war leading to mismanagement and corruption. I want to turn to Chile, as while in the Hispanic world, it is highly “europeanized” and yet went through a period of hyperinflation during the Allende government in the early 1970s (1970-1973).
In 1970, Salvador Allende was elected president by roughly one-third of the nation. A hard-core Socialist who headed a coalition called Unidad Popular (Popular Unity), under his government socialists, Communists, and assorted left-leaning parties took over the administration of the country and began to radically transform Chile on a road to left-wing socialism.
What happened was similar to the Russian and Ukrainian experience under life in the post-revolution days. There were land exproprations, nationalization of companies and mines, and the subsequent failure of them as a combination of corruption and inexperience rendered them unable to be used and just brought to run in the same path that the ZANU followed in Zimbabwe with the confiscation of farms that lead to mass starvation in once the arguably most bountiful food producing nation in Africa.
One of the key policies Allende carried out was wage and price controls. He froze prices of basic goods and services and augmented wages- basically, forcing businesses to pay workers more while refusing to allow them the freedom (in a non-greed oriented sense) to increase prices based on market demand. The most common parallel one can draw in our times to this is the “fifteen dollar” minimum wage laws in certain cities for McDonald’s restaurant workers. Yes, the wages increase, but as one can remember in the American cases (as there are multiple areas in which this has happened), employee hours were significantly cut, a lot of workers were fired or laid off, robotics was brought in to replace workers, and prices for food had to increase to the anger of the customer in order to accommodate the wage increases.
At first, this measure worked, as workers had more money, and goods and services still had the same old low prices. The people loved this, and so did what Americans did with toilet paper leading up to the COVID-19 crisis- they went on a shopping spree and rapidly emptied stores and warehouses of consumer goods and basic products. Meanwhile, Chile’s version of the “McDonalds” experiment detailed above, by forcing private companies to raise worker wages while maintaining their same price structures, caused bankruptcy. Allende then nationalized said companies for “the people” and put them back to work, but with the government spending money to keep them running for the same economic reasons, thus operating at a net loss.
This is where hyperinflation fits in, because Allende printed the money needed to pay for expenses for these state-run companies to cover for his irresponsible policies.
This is how hyperinflation came to Chile. Workers had plenty of cash in hand but it was no better than having Monopoly money, since one could not buy goods with it.
So what followed? Rationing and “ration cards”, with preference given to the friends of Allende. However, with no real economic fix in sight, people did what happens in all countries, which is they started black markets in staple goods, and only accepting American dollars because due to Allende’s policies, the Chilean escudo was worthless.
By 1973, the crisis was so miserable that the stock market and housing market collapsed as people lost everything they had. Nothing was safe from sale on the black market for all practical purposes as people traded very precious things simply for a little food and drink to stay alive. The crisis resulted in the success of the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Allende in September 1973 and installed the dictator Augusto Pinochet.
So having this context, and knowing how serious hyperinflation can be, let’s take a look at deflation and inflation again, and see how the various movements of the economic world differ.
In a deflationary environment, where commodity prices are more or less stable, wages drop, asset prices fall, and credit markets shrink, for in such an environment, there is really no inflation, for one cannot have overvaluing (inflation) if values are dropping. To say such is a contradiction.
Inflation and hyperinflation are thus not merely the same thing. It is not that the latter is on “steroids” but, like the goat and the sheep, two animals that share a similar look but are very distinct.
Inflation is when assets become overvalued because people want them so much. To use car language, it’s when the economy “overheats”. Think people paying one-hundred dollars for a “Beanie Baby” during the Beanie Baby craze of the late 1990s. A Beanie Baby is worth three to five dollars, not one hundred. But, if people will pay one hundred dollars for it, who is to say a business will not charge that? Greed yes, but such is the nature of man. This is inflation as a textbook definition- when an economy’s consumables (labor and commodities) are so “in-demand” because of (theoretical) economic growth and easy access to money (meaning either you are earning a lot, have a lot saved to draw on, or are borrowing the money on credit) that lets people spend money like a sailor in a bar. It is classic “supply and demand”, the “if they build it they will come” mentality.
This mentality should not be considered a modern thing either. It has been seen in Europe with the “Tulip speculation” of the 17th century, and was a main reason for the “boom-bust” economics of the 19th century that would destroy wealth as fast as it would create it, since the cycle, while it can be a brutal thing, is actually a natural process on the sine-wave of economic growth, for there is a start, a demand that grows, followed by a peak, a small decline, then a major decline, then a recovery to normalcy, back to interest again that the cycle continues on. This is found in all countries and peoples, and what the desire of government through “central planning’ has always been is to keep the “highs high and the lows gone”, meaning to always push for stability or growth so that money is made and either to minimize or completely eliminate any downturn in the economy so that money is not lost or that what money is lost is lost on people who are poor and not in the “economic club” of the wealthy.
But hyperinflation? Not so at all, for this is the loss of faith in the currency. Prices rise in a hyperinflationary environment like in an inflationary environment not because people want more money for their labor or for commodities, but because people are trying to get out of the currency -so they will pay anything for a good which is not the currency because the currency is becoming merely worth the paper it is printed on.
Right now, the U.S. government is indebted tremendously, varying from 108% to 159% depending on how it is measured.
Pick the percentage you wish, it does not really matter because it is all bad. The reason for this is because the Federal Reserve is printing money to do all things, from purchasing Treasuries in order to finance the fiscal shortfall existing, to bail out the public, and to keep major corporations from having to cease production due to deficits. The overall purpose of this is to try to maintain aggregate demand levels and support asset prices for the benefit of those invested into them. It is a process of the continued financialization of the economy that has been happening since the 1970s.
A deflationary cycle would last decades, and it would be very economically difficult, but with decreasing prices and the resulting job losses and business closures that would follow, it would overall result in the same thing, which is a recovery in the economy by way of a return to “normalcy”.
But this is not going to happen. Forget talk of “double-dip” recessions and that nonsense because the US is still in the first economic “dip” since 2007. No matter all the stimulus, no matter all the “liquidity” injections for over 10 years not, the economy is going down and both the Federal government and the Federal Reserve are going to use the same- and only tool -they have used to fix it, which is money printing.
This is the paradox. It’s these very fixes that are pulling us closer to the edge of a fiscal cliff because they have undermined faith in the currency itself and the ability of the US to service her debts. Treasury bonds? They are useless, and yet they are literally the only thing(s) holding the whole economy together because it is debt being used to service debt that is merely more debt.
We are talking about a financial “minefield” here- one mistake, and the thing explodes.
So then, how could hyperinflation happen?
First, there needs to be a reality check. It won’t be forever, so forget about Mad Max type scenarios, for those are fantasies of films and not reality.
Second, realize that life will go on, and America will be pretty much like it is today, with more poor people. In reality, at this point, as I have noted, hyperinflation is probably the only way that the economy will (in a practical sense) reset to better times, as a collapse in the currency, just like with a true bankruptcy, abolishes debt.
Third, the same rules of history apply. The famous saying “Buy when there’s blood on the streets” is the literal truth in this point. The best way to prepare for this is, in my personal opinion (and not giving any sort of financial advice, but just observations on the counsel of history) to lower personal debts, purchase useful commodities, and consider tangible assets that preserve value such as metals and even one may also regard land as doing the same.
Fourth, in hyperinflation, asset prices don’t skyrocket save on paper. They collapse, both nominally and in relation to real commodities. To use an example with housing, a $500,000 house falls to $70,000 or less, or better yet, 50 ounces of silver becomes something that can actually buy you expensive stuff you normally could not purchase in “normal” times such as land or heavy machinery.
Likewise, I’m not saying “when” this will happen, and hopefully there may be intervening circumstances that delay or even partially hinder the potential of paying $500 instead of $5 for a Starbucks latte. What happens after is also anyone’s guess, since while there are patterns, it would function in harmony with political changes, which can mean anything from a decline in currency value repegged against the old currency for a buyback (such as “buying back” into the new currency at a 30% discount such as what happened during the Great Depression), or an outright dictatorship with wage-price controls.
My observation is that no matter what happens, the current situation cannot continue. The Global Depression we are in is being exacerbated by the very measures being used to fix it, and in a story like this one cannot have a good ending.
The way that any of such crises will happen will be with an event. Right now, COVID-19 is being blamed for “destroying” the economy, but in reality just exposed the rot that was already there. The printing of money under COVID-19 with an upcoming second stimulus check is also only going to worsen the current scenario.
So let’s take this into consideration- how could this happen, an using COVID-19 as an example?
One word: homes.
Before the emergence of Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), most mortgages were issued by a local savings or loan company. The note of debt usually didn’t go anywhere save down the street. But once mortgage loan securitization happened, things fell apart.
Basically, what happened was personal mortgages were sold off in “slices” in bundles with other mortgages. These were “bundled” into special arrangements designed to hold the loans for tax purposes and sold off as bonds with safety equivalent to those issued by the US treasury, backed by the ability of people to pay their mortgages.
But the big question- what happens if people borrow more than they can, or lie on their statements of assets, or lose a job?
Here is the sinister part. When an MBS was first created, all the mortgages were in good standing because they were all brand new loans. Statistically, some would default and some others would be paid back in full, but no one knew which one or how. Yet by the process of “cutting up” these loans into multiple “bundles”, nobody knew anymore who had ownership of what part as there were so many scattered pieces.
To use the example of the Three Stooges (since this is the level of financial mismanagement we are talking about) consider that a man gets a mortgage. His bank sells his mortgage note to Moe, who sells a piece of it to Larry, who chops another part off and sells it to Curly, and all our notarized signatures are actually, physically on the note, one after the other as holding a share of the profits from the same mortgage note. If for whatever reason, the original holder skips any payment, then the chain of title is said to be broken. Therefore, legally, the mortgage note is no longer valid. That is, the person who took out the mortgage loan to pay for the house no longer knows whom to pay. The result? The bank just forecloses on the man who failed to pay in an effort to get money back for the Three Stooges without giving him ever a change to remedy his situation. The Stooges walk away with at least some money back in their pockets, and the common man suffers a debilitating financial loss.
But this is just the start. Expand this to real estate, and rental properties for landlords. If COVID-19 puts people out of work, how can anyone pay? Likewise, what happens if businesses cannot pay their mortgages or rentals on commercial real estate, who are also indebted to banks? Likewise, what happens when multiple mortgages owned by separate people are bundled together?
Do you see the can of worms that’s opening up? We are talking about a chain reaction like a nuclear bomb.
—> disrupts ability of landlord/company to pay for his mortgage —>
—> forces foreclosure —> big real estate goes back to bank —>
—> bank tries to sell it —-> nobody wants to buy because no money and too big —>
—> real estate falls to disrepair —> now nobody wants it —>
—> prices have to go down —> people lose money, including banks —>
—> people need money for a bailout like the rest of the country —>
—> more bailouts devalues the currency —>
—> the devolution of the currency means more poverty and job losses and back to he beginning.
This is not a recovery. This is a death spiral that we are circling.
It is estimated that 33% of renters or 12 million people, to make their full payment in July, meaning that 12 million could be on the cusp of eviction in a matter of months. In total, about 40 million- or about the size of Poland as a nation -are at risk of losing their homes. In addition, landlords are set to lose billions of dollars this year over the inability of tenants to pay rent.
This year alone, tens of millions of Americans were pushed into instant poverty, many face housing insecurity and homelessness as the labor market recovery reserves. This has led to millions of permanent job losses. Many Americans already had insurmountable debts and no savings, because they simply could not due to rising prices and a dead economy.
But this is nothing. Watch as more big corporations are go bankrupt, more businesses fail, more workers are laid off, and the financial dominoes start to fall at lightning speed.
Over the last 4 months, more than 50 million Americans have filed new claims for unemployment benefits, mostly with the specter of a permanent job loss looming. As we reported, one survey from USA Today discovered that 47 percent of all unemployed workers now believe that their “job loss is likely to be permanent”.
People are really suffering and are going to suffer more in the future, and this is why I have been warning this Christmas there will not be a Christmas “sleigh ride”- such as going through the snow on a horse-drawn sleigh that is popular in American lore -but rather a “slay ride”.
A “slay ride”, implying violence and a sort of butchery found in a horror film, except this time the film is real life.
And the slaughter will be to people’s personal finances and the retail market since being forced to spend money on essentials such as food, water, and utilities, and maybe not even having enough for that.
The retail sector is going to be absolutely decimated since 25% to 40%, as I have noted before is made in the time from Thanksgiving to Christmas. With most likely poor sales for the future, there will inevitably be more layoffs, more job destruction, and more poverty.
If one wants to see what the retail sector is going to look like, one only needs to go to a local mall.
Many of them are dead or dying as evidenced by the ongoing store closures, the proliferation of people “hanging out” but not shopping (as in looking for a warm place to stay, not actually going there for leisure purposes) has continued to grow, and the fact that many of the stores are disorganized, dirty, or just falling apart. The mall, being a creation of the consumerist post-World War II economy is, like the post-World War II world, falling apart at the seams.
So what is the answer from Congress?
Two words, as noted before: money printing.
Consider that in the last few months, the US printed more money than all that was printed in the first two centuries of the US’s existence.
“The United States printed more money in June than in the first two centuries after its founding,” Morehead wrote. “Last month the U.S. budget deficit — $864 billion — was larger than the total debt incurred from 1776 through the end of 1979.” (source)
Buy why continue to print, if it will destroy the economy? As noted above, to question money-printing as the one-size-fits-all solution to every economic problem is to question the power structure of the status quo and the only tool used to manage said problem. Basically, it is telling the plumber with the wrench he needs a different tool, but since he has no other tools, he doubles-down and insists on using the wrench.
But what happens when people cannot pay their bills and still do not have a job? They already are going to get two checks- essentially 2007-type bailouts.
Who is to stop a third?
A fourth?
A fifth?
Money being thrown out of helicopters?
There is nothing. Nothing at all. The people figured out they can print themselves the treasury.
Historically speaking, there is a point in any human society that people can get the idea into their heads that they can “print their way to prosperity”, sometimes also called “voting themselves the treasury” while providing less than what is required to sustain those benefits.
This means in every case death for a society because it destroys the value of the means of exchange in one case, and in a more insidious example, in the name of “fairness” it can create polarizing factions that demand special fiscal handouts, to which other groups form and demand “justice” in the form of equal handouts, until eventually the money runs out, people become angry, and start fighting.
In both cases, the trust needed to sustain a society is destroyed, and chaos results that has to be restored by a new currency and many times, since economics is the predecessor to political change, a new government has to be instituted to restore the loss of order.
For people wondering, the US has already been on this road for decades, beginning with the ponzi scheme of Social Security, for while it was well-intentioned and may have worked in select cases, the philosophy, composition, and size of the US make it very difficult for such a system to successfully function in the US without causing a complete breakdown at some point.
The “Great Society” programs had a similar effect, for while it is true that all societies give welfare, the welfare given was not managed through churches or based upon available resources, but was funded through financialization at which the root was money printing.
It is one thing to help people with money that one has, but an entirely different matter to do the same thing but on credit that one cannot pay back without destroying one’s own finances. This is not even a matter of taxation either, since the taxes collected do not even pay into the actual programs, but rather are interest payments to the Federal Reserve Bank (a private company) on the money that they loan to the US government at her request to run said programs.
Thus the argument of “my money is going to welfare junkies” (as so many will say) is absolutely not true- the problem is not “those people on welfare”, but rather the criminally irresponsible financial policies and practices that “we the people” voted for and have continued to accept because it provides to the public the surface benefit of “extra wealth” by letting the same individuals buy fancy cars, nice homes, take big vacations, and dine luxuriously through borrowed money to be paid at a later time but which mathematically can never be paid off lest the value of the money itself collapse. Welfare is not ultimately paid for by taxes and arguably has not been since 1973, as it has all been paid for by money printing.
But to stay on the topic of “welfare junkies”, the biggest of such are not poor people in apartments in the inner cities or trailers in the woods, but are the very same corporations and their CEOs that are called “captains of industry” and “business leaders” that Americans are told to hail as intelligent and model citizens. These people are largely not leaders or admirable, but criminals in suits and with lots of servants to help them perform their actions (whether those working for them realize the totality of what is happening or not).
The reason for this is because it is they who lobby for either lower taxes for themselves or for increased tax schemes so that they can force average to small business owners out of business through excessive taxes while at the same time through as series of deceptive accounting tricks (like the “Double Irish” or the “Dutch Sandwich”) pay little to no taxes at all.
Thus having the effect of paying less while it appears to the public that these are “responsible corporate citizens” who are encouraging “their fellow businessmen” to “pay their fair share” since they are “good patriotic American citizens”, when the reality is they are just con men peddling dishonesty and criminality for their own gain at the loss of everyone.
Back in 2007, when millions of people had their finances destroyed by the crash, did the public receive a financial bailout? Absolutely not. Instead, it was major corporations who received it in the form of the TARP plan.
Now it should be made very clear that the bailouts were not good, and they should never have happened. However, noting this, if major companies were bailed out at the ostensible taxpayer expense and thus putting the country on a long-term road to either a very painful deflationary depression that would likely persist for decades or the more likely chance of hyperinflation, why should the general public, who was deceived by these same companies and politicians for years, not receive a bailout too?
The only way to fix the financial problems, regardless of now or 2007, was to fix the debt issue, and the only way to do this would be either to pay it back- which is mathematically impossible because of how the Fed system works -or to declare a jubilee, disown the debt, shut down the Federal Reserve Bank, arrest the officers of the bank, and seize control over money creation, which would plunge the US into about a decade of financial disorder but would be long-term healthy for the country as it would reset the currency and allow asset prices to stabilize and permit for real value to be created so that all men and companies, small or big, could benefit for true long term prosperity.
But that is not what has been allowed to happen and is likely not going to be allowed to happen, and especially at the current time. The only way to fix the current problems of the system is either a debt jubilee or to allow it to be run as it is until it naturally and inevitably will collapse. In both cases, such will be at a point when the debt can be disposed of and the economic system rebuilt.
This has been the greatest benefit of COVID-19 and the ensuing first and soon to be second stimulus check that will follow from Congress. Some people complain as to why the government is “giving away taxpayer money”, when not only is the reality that the government is just printing money and handing it out regardless of what the taxpayers give, but if the government will give nearly limitless amounts of welfare to major corporations for decades yet continue to force the common taxpayer to pay ever more money to the government, what reason is there that the taxpayer, who is most likely (based on statistical analyses about debt per person) overloaded with debt, should not be given a financial bailout too? Legally speaking companies are people in the US (“non-human persons”), so if a non-human person can get a bailout, is it not more important that “human persons” receive them, since societies are made of people? There is no real argument, if one supports the bailout of corporations, not to bail out the general public, because the philosophy is the same, and if the government will insist upon bailouts for companies, it is hypocrisy to deny the common man what a company would receive.
The end of the world is coming for the US economy as we understand it through a post-World War II paradigm, and that is something which all must accept but is not necessarily a bad thing, as all things come to an end.
The real trick, however, is to prepare for after the end of the “apocalypse” because life must continue on- it will go on in the middle of chaos (as it does in any war zone) as well -and how one prepares will determine one’s future after the crisis is over, and likely as in the case with World War II for many decades to come, so the impact will last beyond one’s life and extend to family and future generations.
The discussion of how to handle this for specifics is another topic for a different time. But returning to the issue of inflation versus hyperinflation, the concern now is not to fight policies being instituted or to make bold public statements- since these rarely do any good unless there is already an organic or manufactured groundswell of support guiding the end goal that such a public declaration would support to the exact same end -but to focus on the current fiscal path that has been chosen and is going to be chosen.
Hyperinflation is not the choice of most people, but rather it is the choice being forced on the average citizen that he cannot control happening but rather how he deals with in based on the current circumstances.
For example, say that you are placed in front of a massive floodgate. The gate is going to be opened upon you, and you cannot hide from it.
You are going to get hit by the water and it is going to knock you around, and there is no way to avoid this.
However, you have twenty-four hours to prepare.What would you do?
Would you just “show up” to the gates and do nothing? Or instead, would you take some precautions? For example, you could buy a lifejacket. But would you stop there? Would you possibly consider with that lifejacket a helmet to prevent head trauma, and maybe a wetsuit too? If you had the money, would you consider investing in a pair of goggles and even maybe some flippers so you could swim?
If you had a lot of money and wanted to try to make the best, would you consider purchasing a set of scuba gear so that you could swim with the currents and even explore them?
The choice is for you to make, but at the very least, a good lifejacket is in order because if you have that, you may lose consciousness, you may be cold, you may have a lot of pain to endure, but it is very, very unlikely you will drown. This is something that all people can do for themselves that is very effective.
Take this same example and apply it to the situation of the financial markets with inflation and hyperinflation. Most people are not rich and cannot afford a lot of the expensive measures that those with greater financial means could employ. However, they can take basic measures to protect themselves.
Hyperinflation is not a fun thing to think about.
However, it is real, it is historical, it can happen to anyone, and knowing the principles by which it can come to pass helps one to avoid its effects. Knowing the signs of the times, it would be wise to pay attention, as the signs are becoming too clear.
So what is the USA actually doing to mitigate this situation?
At the moment, the global financial system is centered on the United States but that will not always be the case.
As far as international monetary policy goes the United States under Trump has been radical.
The Trump administration has pursued a unilateralist and bilateralist vision for foreign exchange policy. This policy is vastly different from the multilateralist approach of its predecessors over the prior 25 years.
Treasury secretaries in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations avoided commenting on currency markets, and when forced to do so simply backed a “strong dollar.” This gave administrations the moral high ground to criticize others, especially Japan, when they sought to weaken their currencies. That high ground is gone.
The United States led the G7 and G20 in 2013 in developing new currency commitments—orienting macroeconomic policies toward achieving domestic objectives using domestic instruments; not targeting exchange rates for competitive purposes; and refraining from competitive devaluation.
Now, the president and some advisers tweet to promote dollar weakness, alleging that foreign monetary policy accommodation, for example by the European Central Bank (ECB), is tantamount to currency manipulation.
Monetary policy transmission works through a number of channels—lending, asset prices, yield compression, and confidence, for example.
Exchange rates are also a key monetary policy transmission channel.
But the administration disregards that euro-area growth is anemic and inflation persistently well below target, giving the ECB strong internal reasons to pursue accommodation.
U.S. growth performance has been superior to that in Europe and Japan, and thus U.S. rates are higher. The administration’s trade wars and tariff threats reinforce a risk-off market environment, further supporting dollar appreciation. Massive U.S. fiscal deficits also push the U.S. current account deficit higher, while boosting the need for capital inflow. If the president wishes to see a weakening in the dollar, the best way to achieve that is not to tamper with U.S. out-performance but to work with others to boost their performance, while ending trade wars.
In August, as the renminbi (RMB) fell below 7.0 per dollar after an intensification of U.S.-China trade tensions, the president ordered Treasury to designate China for “currency manipulation.” The designation was unwarranted. The RMB is managed, not “manipulated.” China could prevent the RMB from falling by drawing down reserves. But the currency fell in large part because market participants viewed depreciation as offsetting the competitiveness hit from higher tariffs.
The designation contradicted the Treasury’s own criteria for assessing whether “manipulation” and harmful currency practices were being pursued. China’s current account surplus in 2018 was around 0.5 percent of GDP, a relatively small surplus; on a net basis, China sold a small amount of dollars in market intervention. To be sure, China has a large bilateral surplus with the United States, but economists dismiss the relevance of bilateral balances.
A country “manipulating” its currency to gain an unfair competitive advantage in international trade would be expected to purchase dollars to hold its currency down and run large current account surpluses as a share of GDP. China does not fit that bill.
More generally, Treasury is undermining the integrity of its Foreign Exchange Report. It recently cut its current account “monitoring” threshold from 3 to 2 percent of GDP in order to pick up more countries, but this level is too low given economic structures. At one point, it placed India on its monitoring list, even though India ran a current account deficit. Italy and Ireland, too, were placed on the list. Prior to the manipulation designation, China was on the monitoring list, even though it only tripped one (the bilateral balance) trigger, whereas placement on the list requires triggering two criteria. On the plus side, Treasury has acted to expand the report’s country coverage, encompassing a number of smaller Southeast Asian surplus nations.
According to media reports, the administration has debated intervening in currency markets to push the dollar down. For example, the United States could buy euros or RMB, pushing up their values and thus the dollar down.
In the rare instances when the United States intervened in the past two decades, it did so on a concerted basis with G7 partners. There is little reason to believe any current U.S. operation would be concerted. A solo U.S. euro operation would not likely succeed—unless the Fed stood ready to print unlimited dollars to intervene, U.S. resources are highly constrained; the euro/dollar market is vast; the ECB could buy as many dollars as the United States could sell.
Such considerations would pertain to intervention in the Chinese currency. The Chinese authorities can exert a strong influence over banks operating in the on and offshore markets. Even if such an operation occurred, the United States would confront difficult operational issues about investing the currency proceeds.
The administration put forward a Commerce Department rule proposal to treat currency undervaluation as a countervailable subsidy, an idea the Bush administration rejected.
The proposal is problematic. Currency values are determined by balance of payments flows, not just trade accounts, and in turn by monetary and fiscal policies. There is no precise way to assess currency undervaluation. Even if one could, that would not address whether undervaluation was attributable to that country’s policies, or perhaps the flip side of policies in the overvalued currency country. The undervaluation of a country’s multilateral exchange rate also does not tell one the amount of bilateral undervaluation versus the dollar. For example, the subsidy would differ if the optimal bilateral balance deficit between the United States and China were $400 billion or zero.
The administration is aggressively pursuing trade provisions in currency deals, and this trend started under the Obama administration. The Trump administration amped up, pushing welcome side understandings on intervention alongside the revised United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) deal. The United states-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) provisions, though, allow certain exchange rate transparency and reporting issues, unrelated to monetary policy, to be included in dispute resolution. While the practical import of the USMCA currency provisions is minor, their inclusion in dispute resolution sets a precedent that could errantly allow trade authorities to stray into macroeconomic policy settings.
Some in the administration have also discussed taxing foreign inflows, consistent with a draft Senate bill of Senators Hawley and Baldwin. Such policies would stand in strong opposition to the longstanding openness of U.S. capital markets.
The administration’s robust unilateral use of financial sanctions could also corrode the dollar’s future global use. Past administrations sought to build multilateral coalitions for deploying financial sanctions. In doing so, officials balanced considerations on using sanctions with the implications for the dollar’s financial and reserve currency roles.
The Trump administration has used financial sanctions far more aggressively and unilaterally. While there is no realistic alternative to the dollar for the foreseeable future, our traditional allies have been put off by the administration’s unilateralism, as best reflected in Europe’s effort to create the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges or INSTEX, a plan to circumvent the dollar’s use to allow Europe to trade with Iran.
The Trump administration’s views on the dollar, foreign exchange policy, and external developments are a major departure from the practices followed by the United States over the past 25 years.
These policies and practices are alienating allies and eroding the multilateral fabric underpinning the international monetary system.
And the largest, and most powerful nation that is able to influence the USD and the international monetary system is China. And President Trump has declared “war” on China. labeling it an “enemy”, conducting a “hybrid war” with it, and engaging it in every way (s0 far) short of a nuclear exchange (aside from the BRI explosion)…
How China Could Crash the US Dollar on a Whim
Over the last 30 years, China’s economy has grown at an average annualized rate of nearly 10%. While this statistic alone is jaw-dropping, what is more impressive is the extent to which the nominally Communist country’s economy has become intertwined in the global economy.
China now exerts enormous influence over the economies of virtually every country in the world, and a slight change in its domestic economic policy has the potential to send shock-waves rippling throughout the world.
Nowhere is this more apparent-and frightening-then in China’s economic relationship with the United States, which is very much at the mercy of China when it comes to prices, wages, interest rates, most importantly, the value of the Dollar.
The precariousness of this relationship is already the subject of significant publicity, redolent of the Japanaphobia of the 1980’s that saw American economists scare-mongering about Japanese control of the US economy. [Of course this later turned out to be unfounded, but that is beyond the scope of our discussion.]
With regard to China, most of the analysis is focused on its growing foreign exchange reserves, the majority of which are held in Dollar-denominated assets. Here, from US house prices to global commodity prices, from interest rates to inflation rates, we will observe how China could cripple the US economy, both willfully and unintentionally, if so desired.
Forex Reserve Diversification
Let’s begin with an examination of China’s forex reserves, which is probably China’s biggest bargaining chip in its economic relationship with the US. Up until a decade ago, China’s currency, the RMB or Yuan, was pegged to the Dollar.
As with any peg, there often develops a discrepancy between the fixed value of the currency and the value that the market would assign if the currency were permitted to float. As China’s economy surged ahead, especially over the last five to ten years, tremendous pressure began to build under the RMB. In order to maintain the peg and hold down the value of the RMB, China began accumulating foreign exchange reserves by withdrawing foreign currency from circulation. Today, China’s foreign exchange reserves are massive, at $1.4 trillion as of September 2007.
In the eyes of American policy-makers, this presents a problem because the majority of these reserves are held in Dollar-denominated assets, namely in the form of US Treasury securities. The US government theoretically could not be happier that foreign Central Banks are willing to finance its perennial budget deficits. However, this borrowing has reached a point where foreigners now control over 40% of the US national debt. Moreover, long-term US interest rates are market-driven, based on the buying and selling of US government bonds. In other words, the US has gradually ceded control of its long-term interest rates to foreign Central Banks, namely China and Japan.
As the Dollar has depreciated, many Central Banks have begun “diversifying” their forex reserves, by switching from Dollar assets to assets denominated in other currencies.
This is problematic for the Dollar for two reasons.
First, switching from US assets to European assets, for example, directly causes the Dollar to depreciate.
Second, the bulk sale of US treasury securities (whether or not they are replaced with other US-assets) causes US bond prices to decline and hence, yields to increase.
Thus, if China suddenly decided to diversify its reserves, for economic and/or political reasons, it could potentially crash the Dollar and send US long-term interest rates skyward.
Since mortgage rates are tied directly to government bond yields, a rise in interest rates would probably also affect US real estate prices. Higher interest rates would make borrowing for a home more difficult, which would lower the demand for houses and thus, the value of American real estate.
In fact, China created the China Investment Co. Ltd., capitalized with almost $300 Billion, charged with investing its vast forex reserves in higher-yielding assets. However, the company’s inaugural investment was a stock purchase in the Blackstone group, an American private equity firm.
Thus, while it seems likely that China will gradually discard some of its stock of US Treasury Securities, the affect on the value of the Dollar will be minimal. Besides, while China would certainly punish US businesses and consumers by unloading US Treasuries on the market, it would punish itself even more, since the value of the government bonds that it didn’t sell would decline.
The second aspect of the China-US economic relationship which China could wield to its advantage is the RMB, itself. American public officials enjoy criticizing China for failing to allow its currency to appreciate more quickly. But it’s really all lies and distortions.
What policymakers don’t realize is that a rapid appreciation in the RMB would actually harm the US economy.
Coupled with its growing role as the world’s factory, China’s cheap currency has made Americans wealthier, by increasing their purchasing power. As production of labor-intensive goods was outsourced to China over the last decade, prices for finished products began to fall both in real terms and in nominal terms. While the effect on US employment trends is debatable, its effect on prices has been unambiguous. Thus, even while the American economy boomed, inflation remained relatively modest by historical standards. This allowed the Federal Reserve Board to hold interest rates down and foment economic growth.
As the RMB appreciates, Chinese producers will become ever-more forced to pass along some of the price increase to consumers. Now, if China was to suddenly revalue its currency by the 25%-30% that western policy-makers are demanding, prices on a whole host of Chinese products would jump up overnight.
This would adversely affect American purchasing power and limit consumption to such an extent that the US would be in danger of slipping into recession.
While the trade deficit that is the bane of American politicians’ existence might decrease in the long-term, it would skyrocket in the short-term. Besides, as many analysts have been quick to point out, there is not much overlap between Chinese and American production.
Thus, a more expensive Yuan would send production to other parts of Asia, rather than back to America. As is what is currently going on with some of the cheaper and simpler products.
Direct Competition with US Exporters
A more potent (and plausible) weapon would be to compete more directly with US exporters, by expanding into high-technology products. America currently leads in a handful of high-technology industries.
Business
Financial
IT services
Aircraft and spacecraft,
Semiconductors,
Specialized computers,
Pharmaceuticals,
Measuring and control instruments.
China has specialized in manufacturing labor-intensive products, which have long since been manufactured outside of the United States. As previously stated, a revaluation of the Chinese Yuan would surely not return production to the US. However, if China were to expand into capital-intensive and/or high-technology products, it could easily steal market-share and jobs from the US.
Key points
Many observers doubt that China can assume global technological leadership, but there are very good reasons to believe it will.
Four factors comprise ‘technology leadership’:
[1] Research and development (R&D) intensity,
[2] R&D personnel,
[3] number of scientific publications,
[4] The number of patent applications.
Three factors contribute to China’s growing technology capacity and eventual global technology leadership:
[1] China offers technology innovators a massive domestic market.
[2] China’s government has the authority to shape industrial policy and provide infrastructure.
[3] Globalization has benefited and will continue to benefit China through technology transfer and spillovers.
Limiting the Importation of US Products
Of course, there is also the imports side of the trade equation.
China is one of the United States’ largest export markets. Which isn’t saying much, America just doesn’t manufacture or create much inside of America any more. Never the less, limiting the importation of US goods and services would certainly be felt in the US. Though, truthfully, aside from aircraft and food products like wheat, it doesn’t amount to much.
Some anti-competitive options include tariffs, import taxes, quotas, or a simple ban on the importation of certain types of products.
Raw Material Pricing
In addition, there is the impact that China’s economic growth has exerted on global raw material prices. It has been said that 25% of the world’s construction cranes are currently located in China, to support the country’s building boom. These massive development and infrastructure projects require proportionally massive quantities of raw materials, namely cement and steel.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists, in a note, point out that the U.S. Department of Defense has termed China’s domination of the rare earth market as potentially dangerous, given the offshoring of manufacturing and vulnerabilities in America’s manufacturing and defense industrial base.
China produced about 78% of rare earths in 2018, and owns about 40% of global resources. Bank of America strategists noted the dominance of China is due to the fact that its government classified them as a strategic resource and has emphasized exploration and extraction of the raw materials for about 100 years.
The analysts said China made the materials available at a low cost in the 1990s, hurting competitors and limiting expansion of rival producers. There are 17 rare earth elements, which are not actually rare but refining them from ore is costly and results in pollution.
— With reporting by CNBC’s Eunice Yoon and Fred Imbert.
Competition for Energy
China was responsible for three quarters of the world’s energy consumption growth, followed by India and Indonesia. The U.S. and Germany posted the largest declines.
-Fossil Fuels Still Supply 84 Percent Of World Energy
China is now the world’s largest consumer of energy, the largest producer and consumer of coal, and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. Over the last half century, China’s large manufacturing-based economy has primarily been fueled by coal. From 1990 to 2018, China increased its coal consumption from 0.99 billion tons to 4.64 billion tons.
The nation that consumes the most fuel and raw materials can also control the pricing.
This will eventually lead towards hyperinflation of some magnitude.
How bad or severe the influence will be on America, the American economy, and on Americans will depend upon the international relationships that America maintains. Most significantly the relationships that it has with the largest and most influential nations. namely; China.
But there is a problem.
President trump despises China. He has set China up as the big old “boogie man”, the evil villain from which all the woes of American can be blamed upon. You have to be living under a rock not to realize this.
Now, of course, China could respond in kind. And in doing so, the entire American “house of cards” would come tumbling down.
But it hasn’t.
Not yet, at least.
In short, China has several economic “weapons” at its disposal for countering the US, ranging from the manipulation of its currency to the diversification of its burgeoning stock of forex reserves. It also has several less blunt options to choose from, such as enabling Chinese companies to compete more directly and effectively with US companies, and opposing the US in securing a domestic energy supply.
On all of these fronts, the US is essentially “playing with fire”, since it has become so dependent on China as the world’s factory.
Ultimately, it seems unlikely that China will deliberately butt heads with the US unless it is first provoked, but America should nonetheless be respectful to China, since its economy hangs in the balance.
And it is because of this that someone should slap Trump and his neocon advisors at the side of their heads and ask them WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY DOING? Because, like it or not, China is the nation that is holding “all the cards”. Not the United States. And the only reason why Americans are not paying $67 for a gallon of gasoline is because China has decided that the likelihood of Trump remaining in office for eight years is unlikely. And that any replacement would be in the best interests of China at this time.
But that is not how the USA sees things.
The ONLY way that the USA can get out of this future cluster-fuck is to engage in a war with China, and then blame all the subsequent collapsing on China. But, as the events of 2020 has shown, the planned results will not unfold as is desired and expected. Thus we have three very likely scenarios;
[1] Full-on World War III. Whether with China or with Asia. As there is no fucking way that the oligarchy is going to accept an internal revolt of the American peasantry and their eventual torture and beheadings. This is ultimately the most undesirable outcome. The USA will strike first, without Congressional approval. Then after the fact, the Senate will “rubber stamp” the approvals.
[2] A gradual collapse of the United States unfolding with greater and greater alarm. Attempts to distract attention of the American peasantry away from the turmoil has been met successfully. Thus, the oligarchy has decided that an uprising of the surfs is the lesser of two evils. This is the outcome of the more retrospective of the oligarchy who have support networks outside of the area of hostilities. This is, after all, something that they can continue to manage, as complex and ugly as it appears.
[3] An increasing civil war scenario as in scenario #2 (above), only with an attempt to distract the peasantry with an external villain (scenario #1 above). That would mean a few years of gradually increasing Civil War style events. Maybe two to three years worth, followed by a move of desperation to “rally America together to fight some evil”. With the rally a complete failure, and a full on World War III being the result. This is the most probable outcome.
What’s your opinion? One, two or scenario three?
Do you want more?
I have more posts like this in the SHTF and Trump Trade War Indexes…
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Let’s talk a little about the Chinese kidnapped sex slave…
This is a very detailed discussion on how a Business KTV works in China. This is a pretty large multi-part post. It was originally posted HERE, but it soon became problematic as the videos would not load and the SEO flags weren’t being picked up by the search engines. So I broke it down into smaller bite-sized posts. It’s faster to load, easier to read, and you can see all the videos without problem. Enjoy.
Page 15 of 17.
Crackdowns
Sometime around 2013 and 2014, China really started to crack down on these establishments. Entire cities in DongGuan were affected. Today they exist, but are very quiet.
Very quiet.
Today, they are more like American “speakeasy’s” of the 1920’s. It doesn’t really matter though. As long as the boss has the name and card of the manager for the girls, she can direct him to the appropriate KTV venue.
And, of course, there are always girls willing to pay to work at these establishments. For that is the only guaranteed sure-fire way for them to meet men who are wealthy, successful and who would make great fathers for their children.
While “Happy endings” for massages are legal, trading sex for money overtly is not. There are various “work-a-rounds”, as not once has sex been eliminated from the needs of the human condition.
A few years back, the business KTV’s were everywhere, public and out in the open. Today, they are found hidden.
They went “underground”.
Industry has adapted
Also, industry has matured somewhat. You will not find so many foreigners invited to Business KTV’s as they used to be. Most Business KTV’s tend to be reserved for Chinese businessmen, as America has gotten the reputation (in China) for being Puritanical concerning smoking, drinking, singing, dancing and sex.
It’s a justifiable reality. Most Americans don’t smoke. Few drink. Many haven’t had any fun, aside from mowing their grass, for three years or more. Women in America has grown to fit the r/K profile. They are huge and aggressive, with a chip on their shoulder, and men have devolved into metro sexual beta males.
This is pathetic. This boy needs to go on out and get serviced stat! If his wife doesn’t understand, then just leave her. Any wife that is that out of touch with the needs of her husband should be dumped as quickly as possible. Fact!
As a foreigner, you now need to explain that you would like to sing, and dance with pretty girls. Otherwise, the boss might provide you with Western-style hospitality. Which might be a cup of tea, a cookie and a handshake.
Pathetic.
The Myth of the Poor Little Waifs
One of the most common things you hear about regarding sex in China is the “poor little waifs” that are sold into sexual prostitution at a young age.
Hogwash!
Yeah, it’s true the narrative is so pervasive and well-known that it is taken for granted as a fact. But it is not. It was never a fact. All it is, is an elaboration of a series of British tabloid articles designed to lure readers towards stories of salacious sex. Yet, these articles took on “legs”; they took on a life of their own.
As a result, NGO’s would buy a visitor visa and come over to “investigate” the phenomenon. They would stay on the dime of their publishers, and then write up an “Exposé” on the poor little waifs. Of course, they won’t provide any names (ah, to “protect” the innocent, don’t you know.)
Because of this, we now have it well understood that prostitution and sexual slavery is rampant is common in China.
Now, most commonly, many people talk about the poor young girls sold into forced slavery and prostitution. They talk about the terrible stories, and how demeaning it is. They speak as an expert because they have read about these situations.
They know all about it, it seems. CNN, MSNBC, WaPo, and the Guardian has told them that this is the case. And, then, because of that they spout off, as if they are experts…
"Ever think that these girls are kidnapped and basically sex slaves that most of the money they are making isn’t going to mamma sans, that they are forced into situations where they are sexually abused and raped. Maybe some sit on the streets talking on the phone but that’s the lucky ones. Human trafficking is a huge problem in china. I think your article is really insensitive and quite sexist, not as bad as “women who wear revealing clothes deserved to be raped” but still misses the fact that they might be doing this against there will!"
-Wallimo
Wow! Chinese kidnapped sex slave! How do you know all about this? Have you ever been to China? Do you even have a passport? How do you know that this is actually the case, or are you just regurgitating some bullshit that you read?
I would argue the latter, most certainly.
Oh, and they are not called “mamma sans” for Christ’s sake. They are called 女经理, or if you prefer lăobănniáng. What the fuck is “three horse horse”?
Chinese kidnapped sex slave!
I’m in China. I’ve been living here for a long, long time. I do happen to know many of these girls. I mean it. I fucking know them. I talk with them. I eat meals with them. I go to parks with them. I’ve even helped them pick out shoes to wear. They are not some poor abused and misused waif. There might be some, Oh, maybe 0.000000000000001% chance. However, it is the exception and NOT the rule.
Others, who also have been and lived in China, agree with me. They, like myself, take a dim view of these self-righteous ignorant know-it-all busybodies who spout this nonsense. It’s like they have diarrhea and tilt their huge asses towards you and spray away.
"Wallimo, only a very daft person couldn’t tell the difference between a self-interested gold digging KTV hostess and a sex slave.
Everyone is aware of the human rights dilemma in China in the sex trade in particular, but even if you visited the seediest parlors and saunas from Shanghai to Lhasa, you’d probably never come across even one sex slave.
In other words, they are vastly outnumbered by girls who are willing to enter the industry for personal gain, and what’s more, they are typically trafficked into different types of establishments, mostly catering to repeat customers.
We’ve heard that finger-wagging rhetoric so much that most of us just get annoyed when people spout off on those holier-than-thou guilt trips." From Disporia-ChinaSmack
Yeah. Those of us with REAL experiences are tired of the ignorant and their “holier than thou” attitude.
Imagine! Chinese kidnapped sex slave!
"We’ve heard that finger-wagging rhetoric so much that most of us just get annoyed when people spout off on those holier-than-thou guilt trips."
If all you read is from CNN, WaPo, and the Guardian you might be convinced that the world is going to be taken over by sex-dolls, and that sexual slavery runs rampant throughout the world.
Personally, I am so sick and tired of being lied to, manipulated, and having my emotions put through the wringer. It’s all nonsense used to control YOU.
Don’t fall for it.
Social Justice Warriors, how’s it working out for ya? You getting the needed changes in society to make it as attractive as you desire it to be?
That’s not the truth. None of it is. Not by a long shot.
Welcome Contributions
Parroting what you have been programmed to believe is far below your potential. If you’ve got something good to say and to contribute then I would welcome your contribution. Here are some areas to start off with…
What is the going rate for a short-time in Daliang?
How much does it cost to have the hair done and fingernails done at 5pm in Shenzhen, Louhu?
Where do the girls get the costumes? And who does the alterations?
What is the busiest time in the year for Business KTV’s?
When the girl agrees to a contract at a Business KTV, what is the duration?
What is the best day to work during the week?
Which days are the girls permitted to take off?
Can the KTV provide dorms and a minimum salary, or are there free-lance considerations?
What is the girls locker room like in a Business KTV?
Where a dorm is offered, what are the sleeping arrangements, and how are the meals prepared?
If you are unable to answer any of these FUNDAMENTAL and most basic questions, than you actually know jack-shit about this industry and culture. So do not lecture me on something that you read out of a UK tabloid, or an Op Ed from a liberal American media outlet.
A Very Good Story
I have posted, on this blog, the ramblings of a “pimp” for these girls who work the KTV scene. If you want to read about this some more, then please go HERE. Otherwise…
If you want to return to the start of this series, please go HERE.
This is a very detailed discussion on how a Business KTV works in China. This is a pretty large multi-part post. It was originally posted HERE, but it soon became problematic as the videos would not load and the SEO flags weren’t being picked up by the search engines. So I broke it down into smaller bite-sized posts. It’s faster to load, easier to read, and you can see all the videos without problem. Enjoy.
This is part 6 of 17.
Please kindly note that this post has multiple embedded videos. It is important to view them. If they fail to load, all you need to do is to reload your browser.
KTV Appearance
The KTV will be lit up like a Casino. You will typically be driven directly to the front door, and an assistant will open the door open for you to exit the car from. It is important that you take your time. Stand straight. Smile, and look around you. The manager of the girls might greet you there. Though, she would make a bee-line to the factory boss first.
You will be led into the lobby.
It will be well-attired and look like the inside of a casino or movie theater from the 1920’s. Lining both sides of the lobby, and forming a path would be two lines of girls. They would be Chinese pretty girls. One on our left, and one on your right. Big KTV’s might have a couple of hundred girls in the line up, while smaller KTV’s might only have a handful.
Here is a typical lineup of girls in the lobby of a KTV. This is obvious a small-town or rural business KTV. There are only a few girls and the establishment is more hotel than KTV. They girls are all wearing identical dresses and welcome you. Typically they might bow and welcome you to the KTV, while the lead girl might take your arm and lead you to the room chosen for you.
The Chinese pretty girls will all be wearing the same style outfit. Typically a dress. It seems like the classier places have the girls wearing long gowns. The girls will all be made up, and smiling. Every time that I go through these kinds of lines, I end up getting a great big grin on my face. The girls see this and start giggling, whispering to themselves, and smiling back.
All are stunning.
After you file though this gauntlet, you will be led to your room. The rooms have as few moving parts as possible. A big long couch lining the back wall, a couple of marble tables, a few TV’s in the front of the room (and one in the back at a classy joint) and one computer. They also have a wall panel in which you can control the temperature, the lighting (you can choose normal lighting, crazy dance lighting–disco ball, flashing lights, etc–or very dark) and the volume.
The KTV staff will wheel in a shopping cart and set up all the snacks and booze for you. This will be the bottles of liquor, the mixers, the cups. They will also give you a microphone condom to put on the microphones for sanitary reasons. This is a pretty good idea as that thing would be covered in gobs of spit by the nights end.
Typical KTV girls. Some wear the same kinds of outfits, while others dress for the theme for the day or week. The girls need to purchase all the clothes that they wear. Most KTV’s require them to wear traditional Chinese dresses with a slit up the one leg and one shoulder bare.
After a while, perhaps ten to twenty five minutes, the girls will be brought in.
Some KTV’s, especially in the smaller towns, cities and rural areas only have a few girls to choose from. You always get a better and bigger selection of girls in the bigger cities. In places like Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Beijing there might have 250 to 600 girls to select from. All are stunning.
I only wish that I could have photos to post about this issue.
Only the Best Girls can be Hostesses
Only the best Chinese pretty girls can be hostesses.
That is true. Since competition to work as a KTV Hostess is so high, the KTV management can be quite picky as to whom they let work there. So forget about the propagandized notions of the “poor kidnapped sex slaves”. That’s a UK fantasy used to sell tabloid magazines.
The truth is quite different.
Hostess clubs in China are nightlife entertainment that only the rich can afford. Similar to the hostess clubs in Japan, in Chinese establishments the rich men pay for an attractive woman’s company, service, and conversations. And, if they like the woman enough, they ask for the girl to leave with them and continue businesses elsewhere.
In Chinese, these type of hostesses are called 女公关, which translates loosely to “female public relations”. Recently, the top hostess club in Zhengzhou was shut down by the government.
HOW TO BECOME A QUALIFIED HOSTESS To become a hostess, you would first need to have the right look, the right figure, and be within the proper age range. Since hostess clubs depend on high-class customers, they can’t allow their hostesses to be from the lower classes, so they prefer white collar workers, models, and art school students.
Step 1: Interview After meeting the initial criteria, you need to be interviewed by 3 to 5 interviewers. Good looks + good body: 60. Highly educated + high alcohol tolerance: 80. Can play the role of a flight attendant: 100. According to a report on Zhengzhou’s Huangjia Yihao, all candidates are interviewed by at least 5 interviewers who rate you based on your appearance, height, education, skills, and culture, and then the overall score is broken down into a price.
Step 2: Professional Training Physique, etiquette, smile, and conversation skills. After the training is completed, a hostess can officially start working.
HOW DO HOSTESSES MAKE MONEY? Work Hours: 9PM to 2AM Main Work Locations: High-class Hostess Clubs, KTV and night clubs, bars Work Responsibilities: Accompany clients, drink with clients, sing, and others
The most famous hostess club in Beijing, Tian Shang Ren Jian (Passion Club), was one of the most expensive clubs in Beijing before it closed. The club was membership only. VIP customers included socialites from China and abroad, entrepreneurs, domestic and international film and TV stars, as well as ambassadors. Clients need to pay an initial fee of 1,000 to 3,000 yuan to talk to girls. To have a girl’s company for an entire night costs at least 5,000 yuan.
Huangjia Yihao was praised as an ideal “platform where politicians and businessmen communicated”. Gold card holders mostly treated others to discuss contracts and projects, or to ask for a favor. The previous report quotes that the club earned over 500,000 yuan per night. The reason that visiting the club became a symbol of social status is that the hostesses only chatted, sang, and drank moderately. A girl’s company cost 400 to 800 yuan, and to take her out was extra.
Where a girl might make 5000 to 10,000 RMB a night, you need to appreciate that this is serious “cheddar”. A middle class salary is from 6,000 RMB to 15,000 RMB/month.
This night rate is on top of everything else. So if the girl dances, sings and meets eligible wealthy and successful businessmen, and has sex with them, they can pretty much earn in the top 5% of everyone in China by having three customers a month.
It’s no wonder that many of the older gals have their own businesses, and own Starbucks, McDonalds and KTC franchises. I don’t know about youse guys, but it would take me a century to save up to buy a McDonalds franchise on a top engineer’s salary.
Demand for the Hostesses is High
In fact, the demand for the girls to work is so high, that the KTV’s often have to turn away girls and charge them to work there. That’s absolutely right. They have to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of working there. However, it makes sense when you really think about it.
The girls are considered Hostesses, as they not only entertain their client during the KTV adventure, but they can sing, and dance as well. I have five years semi-professional ballroom dancing experience, and all can follow quite well. Notice the girls. They all have a darker complexion, wider noses, and shorter in statue. They are obviously from the Southern section of China.
From the girl’s point of view…
The best way for a girl in her 20’s to meet a successful businessman, or middle manager is though a KTV.
That way, she can get picked, and if she likes the man, she can stay in contact with him. Often making other arrangements. Many girls date men this way, and often have a group of guys that follow them around and give them money and such. As the guys, just like the girls, want to pick a high-quality mate.
Most KTV girls have a string of guys that follow them around like puppy dogs. The combination of friendship (with benefits) and their KTV activities enable these girls to rake in enormous amounts of money.
These girls spend all of their time looking good and marketing to find the most desirable men as possible. They aren’t looking for love. They are looking for one of three types of men…
A potential good father for their future children. He owns his own company or has a serious senior role in a company.
A handsome guy with money. The key is that he also has money that he is easy to part with. These men can join a string of like-minded men, that the girl will keep tethered to her with the promise of sex and fun.
A man who is fun to be with. And, of course, who has some kind of advantage that the woman could eventually leverage. Maybe he owns a chateau in France. Maybe he is the son of the owner of Amazon. Maybe, he has a Ferrari that he will let the girl keep.
Notice that love and romance was not included in the calculus above. These girls are beautiful and know it. They know to cater to men and they will have many men eating out of their hands. Be careful!
In China, it is critical that the girls get married before they turn 28. They are considered to be non-marriageable after that date. The Chinese term is “spinster”.
So what the girls tend to do is spend their 20’s looking the best that they can, and doing what they can to attract the most suitable man. Otherwise, their parents will fix them up with a date. While the girl can say no, what usually happens is the girl just gives up and shrugs her shoulders and say “well, he’s good enough”.
To prevent this from happening, many girls work as KTV hostesses if they are in any way attractive.
Attractiveness is a cultural construct. The ideas of what is attractive varies from culture to culture. In China the attractive girls tend to be pale, frail, with big eyes, long black hair and a shape that is known as “fish shaped”. In the states, especially over the last decade or two, the ideas of female attractiveness has migrated towards dark skin, big pouty lips, big breasts and big asses. Which often causes some surprise to the girls who work at the KTV. They ask “why do Americans always pick the ugliest girls”?
Especially when there are many stunning Chinese ladies to choose from.
I’ve got to tell you, there are beautiful women all over the world. I love the girls in Australia with their big long lion manes of hair. I think that there are some amazing girls from Brazil. The girls of Eastern Europe and Russia are just stunning. But, I’ve seriously got to tell you all… China has the most attractive girls in the world.
Ideas about physical beauty vary from culture to culture. In China, the ideal is pale skin, a calm and pleasant demeanor, long black hair, big eyes, and a pleasant smile. They tend to have a fish shape for a body and walk in a calm purposeful manner.
It’s a cultural thing.
If you read my post about the r/K theory, culture and society migrates biologically towards situations that improve species survival. In the United States, it is a r-society. It is a society where there is abundance. So people act similarly to rabbits.
In a K-society, like China it is a land of scarcity. So they tend to be more predatory, like wolves.
That translates into many aspects of society. One of which is conceptions of beauty.
Now, I had best make this clear right off. A hostess doe not necessarily have sex with the clients. No. Instead, they party with them. They play games with them. They drink and dance with them. If there is a mutual interest, the manager can broker a financial payment arrangement that favors the girl.
There is no guarantee that the girl will trade sex for money. In China, the girl controls what will happen. It’s all up to her. The only thing the guy gets to do is pick her out of a line up. Everything else is fully scripted and controlled by the girl.
Whether or not a girl will have sex with a client is a decision made by the girl.
Sometimes she just feels like she wants to have sex. Sometimes she doesn’t, as it might be her period, and in China this is a big no-no. Maybe she isn’t going to have sex because one of her girlfriends in the club is not having sex. Maybe she doesn’t like you. Maybe you stink, or remind her of someone else. Maybe you are too old, too young, too poor, or just too drunk. Maybe your skin color is too dark, or you are Arabic, or you showed a lack of manners. In all cases… she decides what will happen.
In any event, the girl’s manager will know exactly what is going on and will steer more willing and able girls your way if need be.
The KTV rooms are often lavish. They are nice and typically dark so that all kinds of activities and things can occur. The bosses aide will get the thing going by talking to the room manager and arranging for food and drink to be brought forth.
Sorry for this digression. Ok, now where was I? Oh…
When you enter the KTV, you will typically walk through the gauntlet of girls, totally overwhelmed, and be led to your KTV room. These are nice private rooms with bathroom facilities, food trays and all sorts of drinks. As you go in, you pick a seat and make yourself at home.
Soon enough, they will start bringing the girls in. They will bring them in at 20 a time. They girls will parade in front and form a line. Then upon command they will turn around so that you can see their back. They will then strike a pose. There are numerous poses that they take on. All are very becoming and quite attractive.
Chinese KTV Hostesses waiting in readiness for a line up. Typically they get together and stage themselves in an empty KTV room or in the hallway.
Nothing out of Jerry Springier, and no fat girls waving their enormous spandex tight asses. That is reserved for President Obama’s America. No. Here, the girls are demure, polite and act respectful. After all, day in and day out, they are paraded in front of factory bosses, internet CEO’s, Directors of banks, and other managers of high regard.
They want to look their best, and be their best.
A Paradise for Sex? – Hardly
Contrary what the news media or the internet might say, China is not a “sex monger” paradise. It just isn’t. China is a nation of hard working nerds. If you want to experience some of the rewards of hard work, labor and study, then come to China. Otherwise and else look elsewhere.
These girls will smell a fake a mile away. You had best be working hard. Show that you know your stuff, and are willing to provide fun and entertainment to your business contacts. China is all about hard work, and relationships. If you are willing to work hard, and have built up a presence in China, and going to a KTV would be your reward.
They only respect and admire achievers. And if the personality match is there, perhaps there might be something more in the future. The truth is that this is the way for many a poor girl to latch on to a very wealthy man and greatly and substantially improve their lifestyle.
Some notes on the songs…
Just a word on the song selection. For the most part, they are surprisingly diverse for China. It’s one of the first things that a foreigner notices. As most foreigners have never heard of Kougu or YouKu. They are unaware as to how metropolitan the Chinese are in musical taste. The music is quite different than would you would find in the States for example.
In China the music is updated every couple of days, while in the USA, the music selection in a (so called) karaoke bar might be months or even years old.
Of course, there are the big wigs, like Lady Ga Ga, and Justin Bieber. There is also a surprising number of smaller less known hits (internationally I mean). Things like TLC, Bee-Gee’s, R.E.M., and a ton of classic rock.
I typically make a bee-line for the American Country & Western songs and I like to sing them, as well as some hits from the 1980’s, and Aerosmith. But, that’s just me. (Shrug.)
The songs play in the order that you choose them. The music video starts with the words on the bottom just like any karaoke anywhere.
About the Videos
Also, regarding the videos, I don’t know why, but some songs don’t get the rights or permission to use the real music video so they have some hilarious stock footage instead.
The song Barbie Girl has a video of people from the 80‘s at an amusement park for instance. These videos are a hoot. The older the song, the cheesier the video. I’ve got to tell ya.
Being Wild and Crazy
As everyone’s drinking, and singing, things can tend to get a little crazy. And, that is just how I like it, I’ll tell you what.
Yeah, Bottles and glasses get smashed, but the staff checks in regularly (the doors have windows) and they try to keep things clean.
Meanwhile, of course, people in the other rooms are also getting drunker and drunker and going out to find the bathroom can be quite funny. KTV places are just a winding, twisting maze of rooms and it’s near impossible to find your way around.
But, not to worry. They have workers stationed all over helping you find your way, but of course some calamity ensues; Guys stumbling drunkenly with their girlfriends on their backs, people walking into utility closets thinking it is the bathroom.
Many times I would help hold up a drunk Chinese stranger at the urinal so he can pee. It’s what friends are for, and it really builds your guanxi, don’t ya know.
Duration of the Party
In general, all KTV’s work within a certain set of hours. For all KTV’s, whether they are business or family KTV’s, you pay in advance. You pay for the room in a set number of hours. In short, you rent the room for a certain numbers of hours, and once your time is up the computer locks itself and you cannot choose any more songs. When that happens, the waiters will come in and start cleaning up. If you STILL don’t get the hint, which happens at times, they turn on the lights and eventually a manger or someone comes in and harasses you until you leave.
In all the big cities the KTV’s are open all night, and we would leave at around 6am. Smaller cities might shut down earlier, with 2 and 3am being the norm.
This is not a problem with Business KTV’s, as eventually you do want to go to your room to chill and have a decidedly different kind of party there.
Continue reading for some of the more (ahem) interesting aspects of the nightly pleasures…
If you want to return to the start of this series, please go HERE.
