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Trump’s Deja Vu Wartime Playbook

By Jack Rasmus

History repeats itself, as they say. But in the age of American empire, not just twice. Or even three times. But with disturbing regularity.

The past half century shows two things about how America goes to war:

First, it creates a provocation based on a lie. Second, it then makes its target adversary an ‘offer they can only refuse’, as the final justification for US military action once the adversary rejects the unacceptable offer.

Here’s how it has worked in the past half century–a playbook to war that Trump is now clearly following in the case of Iran with his recent ordered assassination of that country’s general and government diplomat.

As for the initial provocations based on a lie:

1. In 1964 there was the infamous ‘Tonkin Gulf’ incident that provided then president Johnson the cover to escalate US involvement in Vietnam. Later Pentagon documents made public revealed the alleged attacks on US ships off Vietnam by North Vietnamese patrol boats was a total fabrication. 58,000 US and 2 million Vietnamese deaths later, the evidence came out that it was all a hoax.

2. Then there was the 1991 Gulf War. The convenient provocation that turned out to be a lie once again was the Bush administration claim that Iraq was killing babies in incubators in Kuwait. That too turned out to be false, propagated by a family member of the Kuwaiti royal elite who stood before US cameras showing the broken incubators. The US media of course did not properly identify her, instead depicting her as a concerned woman protesting the deaths of premature babies. The US media flooded the American evening news to create final public support for the subsequent US invasion. After the invasion of Kuwait and Iraq forces it was revealed it was all a staged event. Also revealed afterward was how the Bush Sr. administration, through the US ambassador, had told Saddam Hussein, that the US would not intervene if Saddam invaded Kuwait in the first place.

3. In 2001 immediately after 9-11 events in the US the excuse for invading Afghanistan was that the Taliban government in power at the time had assisted Bin Laden in attacking New York and Washington. It later came out the Taliban had nothing to do with planning or launching the attacks of 9-11. And little was said in the weeks, after 9-11 and preceding the US invasion of Afghanistan, that 18 of the 20 or so terrorists who flew the planes into the Twin Towers in New York and the Pentagon were in fact Saudi Arabian Wahhabi sect terrorists aided and supported by the Saudi government. Saudis in the US at the time of 9-11 were quickly flown out of the US by a plane arranged by the George W. Bush administration. Who left on the US aided flight is still publicly unknown to this day. The US ‘unacceptable offer’ to the Taliban was the demand it turn over Bin Laden and all his supporters in Afghanistan–i.e. something impossible without the Taliban provoking its own internal civil war.

4. Then we have the 2003 decision by Bush Jr. invading Iraq. Now the cover lie was that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, having amassed ‘yellow cake’ uranium material with which to make a nuclear weapon. That too proved totally false after the fact. After the US invasion, nothing remotely representing weapons of mass destruction could be found anywhere despite intense US military efforts to discover such. But in the run-up to war in 2002-03 the lie provided the cover to start the war. And the US demand that Saddam allow US military personnel to roam free anywhere in Iraq–i.e. accept the invasion without resistance–constituted the ‘unacceptable offer’ that the US bet Saddam would reject.

All these lies as bases for provocation represent the standard approach by the US when it wants to go to war. The provocations are then followed by extending an unacceptable ‘offer they cannot accept’ to the targeted adversary. The unacceptable offer is the signal the US has already decided to go to war and is setting up a pretext to justify military action. By refusing the unacceptable offer, the adversary thus gives the US no alternative but to commence the military action.

In the case of the 2nd Gulf War the unacceptable offer was the US demand that US forces be allowed to enter Iraq, roam free unannounced wherever they wanted, and inspect all military bases and other government institutions without interference. In the first Gulf War, it was the similar demand that Saddam pull out all his forces from Kuwait, redeploy far from its borders, and permit US coalition inspectors into Iraq. In Vietnam, it was the Vietcong should disband and both it and North Vietnam should accept a permanent two-state solution, forever dividing North and South Vietnam.

In all cases the US way to war is to make an offer it knows will be refused so that it appears further negotiation or diplomatic efforts are fruitless. Thus only military action is left.

 

Trump’s Deja Vu Provocation

Trump’s recently ordered assassination of Iran’s senior military leader (who was also a senior Iranian diplomat, Soleimani, is being justified by the Trump administration based on claims that Soleimani and Iran were planning widespread terrorist actions that would have killed scores, if not hundreds, of Americans, if he weren’t assassinated. But no evidence of such a threat is being produced by Trump or his government to date. Evidence of the threat was noot even given to members of Congress, after the fact over this past weekend, as Trump post-hoc gave Congress an initial briefing on the action already taken. According to the War Powers Act, and well established precedent, Trump was required to consult Congress before the action, not after. And it has been leaked, though not picked up much by the US press, that that post-hoc briefing was considered seriously insufficient by many members of Congress in attendance.

Evidence lately is leaking out that Trump and his neocon foreign policy radical advisors have been planning the assassination at least since late December, and probably earlier. The Trump administration has been escalating its provocations since at least then. A mercenary US contractor was killed and the US compound in Baghdad was ‘attacked’ by protestors. That in itself was insufficient to launch the assassination provocation. For that, we now have the story of imminent threat to hundreds of Americans that Soleimani and Iran were planning.

In the case of Vietnam there at least was something tangible, in the false photos of the Tonkin Gulf incident. In the first Gulf War they flooded the US media with pictures of broken baby incubators. In 2003 we had then ambassador Colin Powell showing the United Nations his fake placards of installations in Baghdad where ‘yellow cake’ might be stored. Now with Trump all we get is to believe his claim widespread terrorist operations against the US were being planned. Claims from an administration already notorious for its lying, fake news, and fantasy tweets.

 

What’s Trump’s ‘Unacceptable Offer’?

Events in the days and weeks ahead (surely not months) will reveal what will be Trump’s ‘unacceptable offer’.

Following the assassination, Trump is now clearly waiting on Iran to take some kind of military action against US forces first. The US will use that attack by Iran as an excuse to reciprocate, which is what it apparently has decided to do in the first place back in late December. Since December Trump has been clearly engaged in escalating acts of provocation. The US is betting on Iran falling into the trap–a trap it can hardly avoid given its domestic politics and international commitments.

But in the current domestic US political climate, Trump cannot take military action first. He is prevented by the War Powers Act from doing so. He is also engaged in a domestic political fight over impeachment. A violation of the War Powers Act could potentially add another article of impeachment for violating the War Powers Act law. So he needs to provoke further military action by Iran. That will enable him to actually use the War Powers Act to reciprocate militarily against Iran, and remain still within the War Powers Act. For the Act permits the president to ‘protect US forces’ immediately and later come back to Congress for justification of the action. Trump will launch an attack on Iran should the latter attack US forces, and he’ll then argue his response was protected by the War Powers Act and not a violation of it.

Trump’s latest tweets identifying Iranian targets, including cultural targets, are also designed to threaten and infuriate Iran and get them to attack US forces first. Iran has already indicated it considers the assassination an ‘act of war’. Having said such, for it to do nothing would be politically unacceptable. Iran has publicly declared, however, its targets would be only US military. The likeliest military targets are in Iraq. Once Iran makes the next move, and where, and how, will define what Trump America’s ‘unacceptable offer’ as a prelude to war might well be.

The provocation (assassination of Soleimani) has been made. The US ‘unacceptable offer’ may not be long in coming.

 

Postscript On the Origins of War in the Period of Late American Empire

The past half century shows that America’s wars are more often than not precipitated by its presidents and their bureaucrat-intellectual advisors. The reasons are some combination of ideology, over-estimation of US power (and under-estimation of adversaries), and decisions by politicians to divert attention from domestic troubles, economic or political, to buttress their political standing or re-elections.

In the case of LBJ in the 1960s, it was clearly ideological in part. LBJ was obsessed with not losing Vietnam on his watch, as Truman ‘lost China’ on his, as he often said. Stop communism and the ‘domino theory’ was widely held by politicians and bureaucrats alike. LBJ was also surrounded by bureaucrat-intellectuals who believed US military power was omnipotent. How could jungle guerrillas in pajamas and sandals dare to resist US military might! Like the Japanese attack on the US in 1941, the thinking was to overwhelm them (guerrillas or USA) with a massive initial force and attack and they’d sue for peace and negotiate. The war would be short. But the USA in 1965 made the same miscalculation as did the militarists in Japan in 1941.

In 1991 the domestic political scene clearly played a role. The US had just experienced a deep financial crisis and a recession in 1990-91. The first Gulf War was a convenient distraction, and a way for then president George Bush Sr. to hopefully boost his re-election bid in 1992–by boosting the economy with war spending and by wearing the mantle of war victor.

In 2003 George W. Bush faced a similar economic and re-election dilemma. The recovery from the 2001 recession was weak. Military spending in Afghanistan was limited. There was no clear military victory. While US forces took over Kabul, the Taliban simply slipped away into the mountains to fight another day. The US economy began to weaken noticeably in 2002 once again. Bush and his neocon advisors had identified and targeted what they called an ‘Axis of Evil’ of countries that were not willing to abide by its rules of American global empire. The countries were: Libya, Iraq, Syria, and North Korea. Except for the latter, they were all easy military targets. Moreover, little evidence of ‘defeat’ of terrorists post 9-11 called for a necessary military action before the 2004 elections. Invading Iraq in 2003 would also boost the US economy in 2004. Bush Jr. would enter the 2004 race with a military-spending boosted economy and with military victory under his belt. Once again, distraction from domestic problems and/or boosting re-election were the main determinants–along with neocon-ultra conservative ideological rationalization for military action.

Something of a similar scenario exists today with Trump. Despite Trump hyperbole on the economy, deep weaknesses exist and threaten to emerge more full blown in an election year. Trump’s trade wars have produced little economic gain after two years. Domestic politics have left Trump with a pending impeachment hanging over his head, and unknown developments about his personal finances, deals made with foreign powers, and failures to deliver in foreign policy nearly everywhere.

Precipitating a war in his final year in office–should impeachment move forward and the economy move backward–is a card Trump the reckless, high risk taker, convinced of his own personal ego and superiority is very likely to play. He is clearly setting the stage for his big bet: will war with Iran boost his re-election plans and re-energize a weakening economy? Or will it lead to his political demise–as in the case of Johnson or Bush Sr.?

Which road will Trump take? (Which has he already decided to take?). Given the nature of his pre-war provocation in the recent assassination–and Iran’s apparent decision to take Trump’s bait–the odds are great that Trump is ‘rolling the dice’ and willing to engage in a risky military adventure. The ‘unacceptable offer’ when it comes will not be difficult to identify. It appears just a matter of time, and more likely sooner rather than later.

Trump’s imminent military adventure holds little in strategic gain for the USA, and great possible loss globally politically as well. But Trump has always been most concerned with his own personal interests, in this case his political re-election. He will, as he already has, sacrifice US long term interests. Trump is about Trump. And nothing else. Americans will not be made safer but less so. So too the world. And before it’s all over, political instability as we enter the current 2020s decade may well precipitate economic instability on a scale not yet seen.

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About the Author

Dr. Jack Rasmus is author of the just published, January 2020 book, ‘The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump’, Clarity Press, available on his blog at discount at jackrasmus.com. He hosts the Alternative Visions radio show on the Progressive Radio Network and tweets at @drjackrasmus.

Philippine Water Crisis in International Perspective

By Dan Steinbock

By international comparison, the Philippines should not necessarily suffer from major water crises. So why has Metro Manila turned into a Cape Town?

According to data by World Resources International (WRI), 17 countries – home to one-quarter of the world’s population – are coping with “extremely high” levels of baseline water stress. That’s because irrigated agriculture, industries and municipalities withdraw annually more than 80% of available supply.

The list of these countries features Gulf nations (Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia), Middle East and North Africa (Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Libya), sub-Saharan Africa (Eritrea, Botswana), South Asia (India, Pakistan). A far larger group of countries face “high” levels of stress, where over 40% of available supply is withdrawn every year. The third group suffering from “medium” water stress features two dozen countries.

The countries that belong to the fourth group of “low-medium” baseline presumably suffer less from water stress. It includes the United States, Japan and UK, and Russia. Despite its water woes, the Philippines is listed in this group.

If water stress should be tolerable in the Philippines, why are realities different?

 

Management or mismanagement

The responsible government agencies and water companies argue that the private sector “saved” Metro Manila from the water crisis in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the concession agreements with Maynilad Water Services and Manila Water were heavily criticized at the time.

The defenders of the deal suggest that the government was compelled to sweeten up the concession agreement for companies so that they would be willing to patch up Manila’s water system. Yet, the agreement rests on an arrangement, which ensures companies lucrative profits, while risks were passed on to the government and consumers, due to controversial rate rebasing- setting of basic water rates.

Instead of investing on Philippine water safety, water companies seem to prefer substantial dividends. They have also spent millions for expenses like sports, “philanthropic donations,” and reportedly have departments with more managers than rank-and-file employees. Some of these oddities might be explained by the personal hobbies of Maynilad Water’s CEO “Manny” Pangilinan, a well-known sports patron and team owner. But private hobbies should not thrive at the public’s expense.

Maynilad Water also has interlocking corporate structures associating Pangilinan with Hong Kong-based First Pacific Company Ltd and the group’s investments in Metro Pacific Investment Corp, PLDT and Philex Mining Corp., and think-tanks that have parallel structures with U.S. organizations and controversial foreign interests – including ones that seek to shape domestic and regional geopolitics.

One might think that an exclusive focus on water security would be more warranted.

 

Collateral damage of foodborne diseases, dengue

In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that in the Philippines 1 in 10 people still do not have access to improved water sources, especially in rural communities. In 2016, one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the Philippines was acute watery diarrhea, claiming over 139,000 lives. By spring, the situation was set to worsen as the country is beset by the El Niño phenomenon and climate change that can contribute to rising temperature, drying up water sources.

When water is scarce, people – particularly poorer people – are often forced to rely on drinking water sources that are not safe. And as they are unlikely to have sufficient water for basic hygiene, they become increasingly vulnerable to foodborne and waterborne diseases. Low or negative water pressure in pipes due to short supply attracts contaminants that put water quality at risk when the supply is restored.

Moreover, limited supply obliges people to store more water. If not handled properly (and the likelihood increases with poverty), this will provide more opportunities for mosquitoes to breed increasing cases of mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue fever. According to Department of Health (DOH), more than 402,000 dengue cases were reported nationwide as of Nov. 16, a 92% increase from last year.

While the dengue explosion was affected by many forces, including lack of adequate vaccination and a severe typhoon season, it would be naïve to ignore the impact of severe water challenges through the year.

 

How water became an international challenge

Water crises are becoming more commonplace. In early fall, water reservoirs in Chennai, one of India’s megacities, were almost dry. Last year, South Africa was in headlines when the people of Cape Town barely avoided their water shutoff. And the year before, Rome had to start rationing water to conserve resources.

While increasing water challenges are often attributed to “climate change,” the underlying reasons are more complicated and go beyond the simple issue of drought. In a recent report, WRI discovered that water withdrawals globally have more than doubled since the 1960s, due to rising demand and show few signs of slowing down.

Many water companies explain the problems by reference to modernization and the rise of new middle-classes. In this view, population growth, development and urbanization are increasing water demands, while climate change is making precipitation and demand more variable.

Yet, none of these phenomena change overnight. Big shifts in population growth take decades, even generations. Development is a long-term process. The transition from agricultural societies to urban centers often requires four to five decades.

Successful businesses know how to adjust to fluctuations of demand in a proactive manner. The big question is why, instead of embracing a flexible long-term strategy, Philippine water companies have not adequately prepared for these challenges that have been building for decades?

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About the Author

Dan Steinbock is an internationally recognized strategist of the multipolar world and the founder of Difference Group. He has served at the India, China and America Institute (US), the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and the EU Center (Singapore). For more, see https://www.differencegroup.net/   

The original version was published by The Manila Times on December 16, 2019.

Iran vs. US – The Murder of General Qassem Suleimani

By Peter Koenig

Interestingly, after the US attack on Iraqi Militia fighters on 31 December 2019, and the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, on 2 January, the first thing President Trump could come up with, was bragging that it was him who gave the order to murder the popular military leader. General Qassem Suleimani, was the commander of the Iranian special Quds Force. The Quds Force was created during the Iran–Iraq War as a special unit from the broader Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). It has the mission of liberating Muslim land, especially al-Quds, from which it takes its name – “Jerusalem Force”, in English.

General Suleimani was killed by a US drone. He was not only the most popular and prominent military officer in Iran, but he was also influential and respected throughout the Middle East. He was chief in training Iraqi forces who eventually defeated ISIS in Iraq within less than a year, when the US and NATO estimated it would take at least 3 years. General Suleimani, along with Russia was also instrumental in training the Syrian armed forces with the objective of defeating ISIS / IS / DEASH in Syria, and they succeeded. This US act of impunity, the General Suleimani killing, was unmistakenly targeted with precision and as such a clear declaration of war on Iran.

General Suleimani was killed by a US drone. He was not only the most popular and prominent military officer in Iran, but he was also influential and respected throughout the Middle East.

Trump expected applause from the public at large. Let’s not forget he is entering the year 2020 of his re-election… that’s what he wants. So, he needs increased popularity and approval ratings. To be reelected, he, like others before him, doesn’t shy away from committing murder or entering a new war, killing millions. That’s what American Presidents do to win elections. That’s what Obama has done. He entered the Presidency with two ongoing US wars – Afghanistan and Iraq – when he left office the US was engaged in seven wars around the globe, in Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Pakistan, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq.

Plus, numerous proxy-conflicts, meaning, they are fought by mercenaries and / or US trained, funded and armed terrorists, i.e. ISIS / DAESH, Islamic State (IS) and whatever other names the empire gives its agents of terror to confuse the world. And let’s not forget, the algorithmically manipulated regime-change elections in Latin America and Europe, the steady NATO advances with new military bases encircling Russia and China, including the stationing of more than 50% of the US Naval force in the South China Sea.

Most of the US Presidents are elected on the basis of their aggression, planned or ongoing, on how much they are willing to kill around the world – and how well they are representing the interests of the US War Industry — and, of course, the Israeli AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee). In other words, Americans who go to the polls, are duped into believing they are electing a president, when in reality their president had been pre-selected by a small group of elitists, representing the key US interests, the War Industry, Big Finance, Big Oil, Big Pharma – and who else, of course, the State of Israel.

The unarmed Iraqi protests and attack on 31 December on the US Embassy in Bagdad was a response to a US assault on Militia Iraqi forces on 29 December – leaving at least 25 dead and more than 50 wounded. The US has absolutely no business in Iraq. Not now, not ever – nor in Syria, nor anywhere else in the Middle East – for that matter, outside the frontiers of the United States of America. Its as simple as that.

And the world, the UN the UN Security Council should act accordingly.

The boundless US aggression must be stopped.

The world has become used to it – and, for the most part, is just silent. The ABNORMAL has become normal. That must be reversed.

Yes, the Iranian Government warned of retaliation. Understandably. However, that is precisely what Washington and the Pentagon wants; that’s what they were provoking, with this assassination of General Suleiman, and earlier with confiscated oil tankers and tanker attacks in the Gulf. The US hawks are just waiting for Iraq to retaliate, so they can attack in full force – or ask Israel to attack in full force with US backing, of course.

Knowing how the US is acting around the world with impunity – and especially in the countries they want to dominate – Iran has to count with the worst. So far, Iran has been acting wisely with a lot of restraint, not to risk MAD – Mutually Assured Destruction, in other words, a World War scenario.

A retaliation must be well-thought out – and foremost not be obvious. It must be strategic with long-term impact not the short-term face-saving military act. In the long-term, non-aggression, non-confrontation – the contrary of what Washington is seeking – may prevail. Let the American war hawks continue shadow boxing.

What the Middle East and world is dealing with, is a dying beast – that’s what the US empire has become. The beast, in its last breath, is lashing out round itself no matter how many other countries it pulls with it into the abyss, no matter how many people are killed in the process.

What will be the world’s reaction to this open and flagrant murder? – Do not expect much from the US-submissive West, especially the Europeans.

However, Iran can certainly count on Russia and China and on a number of other allies. And in the UN on the more than 120 non-aligned countries, that also stand behind Venezuela and Cuba, and now behind Evo Morales.

This is important. These unaligned countries are now in the majority of the UN body of member states. They have to speak out in the Security Council, as well as in the General Assembly. This case of US impunity should be elevated to world attention. Therefore, Iran may want to call a special UN General Assembly Meeting to discuss the case. It would show where the UN stands – and would accordingly provide Iran with more leverage on their reaction.

Iran cannot elevate this case high enough on the world stage. So that each and every nation realizes that their own sovereignty is at risk – is every day at risk – of being annihilated by the wannabe World Hegemon – the self-declared Exceptional Nation, US of A.

Only united this monster can be beaten.

Washington is weak, knows no long-term thinking, no long-term strategy – lives off instant gratification. This works for a while, by sheer military force, but not forever.

Russia and China have now far advanced precision weaponry – and are allies of Iran, short-term thinking may be a suicide mission.

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About the Author

Peter KoenigPeter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; Greanville Post; Defend Democracy Press, TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

First published by the New Eastern Outlook – NEO

From Follower to Leader: China’s Development of Special Economic Zones and Its Global Impact and Lessons

By Xiangming Chen

A Preamble

I published my first article “China and Latin America” in The European Financial Review in 2012 to launch this magazine’s “China & the World Series”. Since its official inauguration in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has turned “China and the World” into a globally significant topic of public attention, academic research and policy debate. The topic has stayed constantly and prominently in the headlines, only magnified by the US-China trade war over the past year and a half, and generated a large and growing body of published scholarship and media commentary. Through 13 articles published in this series thus far with a variety of co-authors, including a number of undergraduate students at Trinity College in Connecticut, I have taken the reader to see China’s presence and influence in all regions of the world. More importantly, I have attempted to shed light on “China and the World” by drawing meaningful connections between local and regional development and transformation deep inside China and their echoes and extensions across varied places and boundaries around the world. The article below takes the trans-local dimension of “China and the World” further by tracing how China has evolved from a follower to a leader in building special economic zones (SEZs) within its boundaries earlier on and extending this experience and expertise to other developing countries more recently.

 

Special economic zones (SEZs) have been used as an important national development instrument around the world for the past several decades. China stands out not only in having created the largest number and variety of SEZs but also in building some SEZs in other developing countries. In this article, I first trace the evolution of SEZs into both distinctive and overlapped types over the past four decades, showing how SEZs have changed and continued in their own existence and in roles in fostering development. Second, I focus on China’s transition from a national follower to a global leader in creating the world’s largest number of SEZs, diversifying its SEZs domestically and extending them internationally. Finally, I draw critical lessons from China’s development experience with SEZs for developing countries.

 

An Age-old Story Through the 21st Century

The Economist (4 April 2015) dated the first free trade zone (FTZ) to ancient Phoenicia about 3,000 years ago. Keller Easterling (2012) traced it to the Roman port of Delos in the Aegean Sea, which flourished in the first century B.C. From the FTZ-like Hanseatic League during the 13th to 17th centuries, we could fast-forward to find the first modern zone, created at Shannon airport in Ireland in 1959. This was followed by South Korea and Taiwan using export processing zones (EPZs) in the 1960s and early 1970s to jump-start their export-oriented industrialization. China raised the SEZ approach to development to a new level in 1980 when it established four SEZs (Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, Xiamen) along its southeast coast which were much larger than the earlier EPZs and sited in or near existing cities.

From an estimated 500 in 1995, the number of SEZs has risen to 5,400 zones operating in 147 countries (UNCTAD, 2019). Given the large numbers and varied types of SEZs, their success varies widely. China is a global leader in SEZ development having operated the largest number and most varied types of SEZs with overall success. By comparison, SEZs in India and Africa have generally not done as well, for various reasons such as weak infrastructure connections, excessive bureaucracy, and resistance to land acquisition (ADB, 2015; UNDP, 2015). Timing of establishment and governance structure loom among other determining or facilitating factors that shape the differential performance of SEZs. I update my early typology of SEZs (Chen, 1995) to a dynamic view on the new SEZ landscape today.

Table 1 shows four types of SEZs over three broad stages. Free manufacturing zones (FMZs) mark industrial upgrading from the takeoff of labour-intensive and export-oriented manufacturing to knowledge-intensive innovative manufacturing. Since hosting much earlier services such as warehousing for duty-free goods in FTZs, free service zones (FSZs) have diversified over time into broader coverage of more modern and high-end services such as logistics. While overlapping somewhat with FSZs, sector-specific zones (SSZs) have a shorter history and feature more specialized economic functions and activities that increasingly herald the future. Cross-border and extra-territorial SEZs are the newest type, of the largest geographical scope, and truly border-intensive and transnational in function. This table aims to remap SEZs as subnational units of economic development with varied roles onto the development ladder of climbing or sliding national economies based on shifting comparative advantages.

 

China’s Experience with SEZs

China’s experience with SEZs has largely tracked the global trend over the last four decades, with Shenzhen being the most successful and well-known case. As Table 2 shows, the first two types of zones started in the 1980s, a few years apart from each other, with the economic and technological development zones (ETDZs) launched in 1984. All the early ETDZs built by the 14 established coastal industrial cities were sited some distance away from the central cities as greenfield development projects. They were similar to Shenzhen in that the new location and construction would keep the zones less connected and thus influenced by the old system. While both the SEZs and ETDZs experienced their transitions through industrial upgrading, China unleashed a wave of high- and new-technology zones (HNTZs) across much of the national economic space starting around 2000, although an earlier variation called high-tech industrial development zone started in the 1990s. The fourth type, heralding a new phase of China’s SEZ development that reflects its more open economy, appeared with the official unveiling of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013.

 

 

While starting out as a SEZ for low-end and labor-intensive manufacturing SEZ around 1980, Shenzhen in the early 1990s entered a new stage of development characterized increasingly by more capital- and technology-intensive manufacturing in response to rising land and labour costs and worsening environmental degradation. The focus during this stage was on Shenzhen to become a center for high- and new-tech manufacturing, finance services and logistics. In 2003, a cultural industry focus was added. In 2009, Shenzhen added a new focus on becoming an international innovation center. The successful Shenzhen model has recently been extended to China’s far western cities of Kashgar and Horgos in Xinjiang (Chen, 2018).

Focused more on industrial innovation a few years ago, Shenzhen designed a set of very generous financial incentives for attracting R&D labs of national, provincial and municipal grades ranked by a sliding scale of importance and prestige, as well as labs set up by multinational corporations. National- and provincial-level labs, especially those certified as “excellent”, would each receive financial support of up to RMB10 million ($1.5 million), while each municipal level lab would be granted 5 million RMB ($750,000). Shenzhen would also provide 5 million RMB for offsetting the cost of constructing each of these labs. In addition, Shenzhen has built new R&D lab spaces that are available to new-tech firms without rent for the first two years and at a discount of half of the rent for the next three years. These new incentives have fuelled the dense emergence and rapid expansion of high- and new-tech firms that have placed Shenzhen at the forefront of global technological innovation today (Chen and Ogan, 2017).

By 2009, China had approved 54 HNTZs occupying a total area of 962 sq kms. Although this is only 1/10,000 of China’s total territory, it produced 10.4% of China’s total industrial output that year.

Except for Shenzhen’s singular success, China’s experience with SEZs varies broadly. Despite their shorter histories than the SEZs and ETDZs, the HNTZs have since around 2000 become quite productive, in parallel with China’s overall effort to move to higher valued-added manufacturing and knowledge industries (Table 2). By 2009, China had approved 54 HNTZs occupying a total area of 962 sq kms. Although this is only 1/10,000 of China’s total territory, it produced 10.4% of China’s total industrial output that year. Of these HNTZs, 16 produced over 20% of their cities’ total output, up from eight that did so in the previous year (Yu, 2011). Productive as they are, some HNTZs have run into the land bottleneck and acquired some surrounding areas without administrative approval by the higher authorities. In some cases, the areas around the originally approved HNTZs have been developed into residential and commercial zones, which has pushed up land prices. This has restricted and diluted the original purpose and focus of building high- and new-tech industries.

This process also reflects another critical factor in China’s SEZ success – local leadership. Most of the zones of various types are led by a vice mayor or Party secretary of the cities where the zones are located. These leaders tend to do quite well early on because they can leverage and utilize the autonomy granted to the zones and their new momentum, with some institutional separation from their municipal administrative anchor. Some of the leaders were innovative and led the HNTZs to varied levels of success. However, as these zones have become more integrated with their host cities through mixed-use development and inertia, some of their leaders have become more conservative and content with the status quo. The leadership factor exposes a fundamental dilemma facing China’s SEZs. Since they are not special political zones and ultimately governed indirectly by the larger system, they carry a strong built-in limit for sustaining their vitality.

 

Partly pressured by its domestic overcapacity in cement and steel, as well as the overall saturation of the construction market, China has begun to build a variety of SEZs abroad as part of the infrastructure-led development strategy under the BRI.

Pushing SEZs Overseas

Partly pressured by its domestic overcapacity in cement and steel, as well as the overall saturation of the construction market, China has begun to build a variety of SEZs abroad as part of the infrastructure-led development strategy under the BRI. In 2014, a Chinese company started constructing Forest City, a private, gated, luxury mega-development for 700,000 people on four reclaimed islands in Malaysia’s Johor state near Singapore. But this project has been halted since the second election of Prime Minister Mahathir, who is more critical and cautious about China’s heavy investment in Malaysia. In the meantime, Alibaba has helped Malaysia launch the Duty-Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ), a warehousing facility close to Kuala Lumpur’s international airport. The DFTZ is designed to serve as a regional logistics hub to help small and medium-sized businesses better connect to global commerce. These cases mark the most recent phase of China’s SEZ development featuring a “go global” strategy (see the lower right corner of Table 2). It is a logical extension of China’s cumulative strength and experience in building SEZs at home and provides new opportunities for countries that are relatively late in coming to SEZs. These countries can learn useful lessons from China’s uneven success with SEZs that may or may not transfer easily and successfully to other contexts. I present two sets of cases in Laos and Ethiopia respectively below.

 

A China-Laos economic cooperation zone

China’s extension of SEZ development to Laos has taken place between the Chinese border city of Mohan in Yunnan Province and the Lao border town of Boten. In 2015, the governments of China and the Laos signed the Agreement for Joint Construction of the China–Laos (Mohan-Boten) Economic Cooperation Zone (ECZ) as the BRI gained momentum into Southeast Asia. While this bilateral plan was predated by the establishment of the Boten SEZ in 2009 directed by the Lao government, little had happened through 2015. The ECZ became China’s way to jump-start and scale up the Boten SEZ by building a new and much larger city where the Boten zone is located, on the Lao side of the border. The construction has been undertaken by Haicheng, a private real estate development company based in Kunming. The signing of another joint development master plan for the ECZ in 2016 accelerated the construction, with the vision and goal of turning the zone into a comprehensive and integrated city for 300,000 people characterized by four functions: international commerce and finance; duty-free logistics; culture, education and health care; and tourism and vacation. It recalls Shenzhen’s functional expansion into a real city from its early years of industrial dominance.

The Boten ECZ offers a set of familiar financial incentives according to the Boten SEZ and other SEZs. These include: 1) the exemption of import duties for all goods and materials used, sold and served in the zone; 2) tax reduction or exemption for 2-10 years for factories in the zone; and 3) tariff-free exports to third countries and qualification for most-favoured-nation status relative to advanced economies. The ECZ also benefits from being located at the crucial cross-border point of the China-Laos Railway and at the connecting hub for both rail and road lines linking China, Laos and Thailand that will eventually extend to Malaysia and Singapore. It also serves as the distribution and connective hub for cross-border trade and tourism. Moreover, the ECZ, in the heart of four concentric circles with travel radiuses of one to seven hours, allows easy and quick access and travel to a number of major cities and their hinterlands that span the connected adjacent border regions of China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam (see Map 1).

 

 

The ECZ’s ultimate success is most likely to depend on the completion and operation of the China-Laos Railway that runs by the Mohan-Boten border zone. Although the idea for the China-Laos Railway project germinated in 2010, the official agreement was not signed until November 2015 and ground for construction broken in Vientiane in December 2015. The line starts in Kunming and travels southward to Jinghong and Mohan until it enters the Laos through the Lao border city of Boten. It will then move past Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng before arriving in the Lao capital of Vientiane. Designed to carry both passengers and cargo, the railway will run at an average speed of 160 kilometers per hour, which qualifies it as a high- to medium-speed train, and 60% of the line will be bridges and tunnels.1 The Lao government expects roughly 4 million Lao passengers a year to use the railway’s 420-km route through the country at first, with the figure growing to 6.1 million passengers in the midterm and 8.1 million passengers in the long run.2 This is a rather optimistic scenario.

The China-Laos case reflects the dominance of Chinese state capital and a narrower focus on cross-border transport infrastructure in the China-Laos Railway, although the new China-Laos ECZ in Boten is being built up rapidly as a hub for anchoring cross-border regional development. It is also too early to gauge the prospect of manufacturing-oriented SEZs being built and planned near some stations of the China-Laos Railway such as the China-Laos cooperative Saysettha Development Zone (SDZ) located only 1.5 km from the railway’s terminal station of Vientiane. Laos’ SEZs are expected to host labour-intensive industries, some of which have left China for Southeast Asia due to its more expensive labour and land and upgrading to high-tech manufacturing in new zones. Being built by Yunnan Construction and Investment Holding Group Co., a large SOE specialized in construction from Yunnan, to host more than manufacturing to include logistics, commerce and other associated functions of a new city, the SDZ is larger version of the Mohan-Boten ECZ and also stands to benefit from being on the outskirts of Laos’ capital of Vientiane (see Map 1).

 

Building industrial parks in Ethiopia

Powered by the same internal push of high production costs, Chinese companies, both state- and privately-owned, have brought SEZs to Africa, Ethiopia in particular. The establishment of an SEZ in Ethiopia was reportedly linked to Chinese economist Lin Yifu, a former chief economist for the World Bank, who had convinced former Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of the value in SEZs (Pairault, 2019). The then Prime Minister called for Zhang Huarong, Founder and CEO of Huajian Group, a huge shoemaker based in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan and a major global shoemaking center, to open a factory in Ethiopia. Three months later, in 2011, Huajian entered the Eastern Industrial Park (EIP) and began producing footwear for giants such as Nine West, Guess and, later, Ivanka Trump’s fashion line (before it closed later).3 Located 35 kms southeast of Addis Ababa in the town of Dukem, EIP is Ethiopia’s first industrial park and has helped spearhead the country’s export-oriented industrialization since 2011 when it was built with Chinese investment and is currently owned by the Jiangsu Qiyuan Group, a private Chinese investor (Zhang et al, 2018). Dukem is located on the Addis Ababa-Djibouti highway and the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Port railway, which was built by China with a loan of $3 billion from the Export-Import Bank of China and started operation on January 1, 2018. This rationale is similar to building SEZs along the China-Laos Railway discussed earlier. Like land-locked Laos, 95% of Ethiopia’s trade passes through Djibouti and accounts for 70% of the activity at the Port of Djibouti. Now shoes made by Huajian’s factory in EIP can be easily shipped by rail for export to the US and European markets. After opening a second factory in 2016 in an industrial park of its own near Addis Ababa, Huajian now employs over 7,000 local workers (see Photo 1) and churns out 5 million pairs of shoes for export every year, earning $31 million in foreign exchange earnings for Ethiopia in 2017 alone.4

 

In 2019, Huajian stepped up further in cooperating with Ethiopia on manufacturing by acquiring the right to operate Ethiopia’s Jimma Industrial Park (JIP) for 40 years. Located in Oromia Regional State in western Ethiopia and 350 kms from Addis Ababa, JIP was constructed by China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) with an investment of $61 million. Stretched on 75 hectares of land with 35 hectares already developed, JIP aims to attract clothing and shoe factories. Huajian has already taken the lead in leasing 9 factory buildings covering 39,000 sq meters and committed to invest $100 million to build more shoemaking facilities. This production plan is expected to create 12,000-15,000 jobs. Huajian also plans to develop the other 40 hectares in JIP to build a coffee-processing plant taking advantage of being in Ethiopia’s coffee-growing region and add other agricultural production activities that may create additional jobs through larger and more varied exports.5

China has recently further strengthened its role in building industrial parks for Ethiopia by agreeing to start building a new, $300 million industrial park before the end of 2019. Located in Adama city, 99 kms southeast of Addis Ababa in central Ethiopia, this industrial park, which will focus on equipment manufacturing, is funded at 85% through Chinese government concessional loans while the remaining 15% will come from the Ethiopian government. This park follows from the first Adama industrial park, which was built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) at a cost of $146 million and inaugurated by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in October 2018. The two parks combined can create around 25,000 jobs as an important part of Ethiopia’s grand plan to transform its largely agrarian economy into an industrialized one by 2025.6

 

China’s has recently further strengthened its role in building industrial parks for Ethiopia by agreeing to start building a new, $300 million industrial park before the end of 2019.

China’s Impact and Lessons

Global SEZ development over the past four decades (Table 1) has been accompanied and reflected by China’s own SEZ development for a comparable period of time (Table 2). Around 1980, China adopted the main elements of the early generation of EPZs through its experimental version of SEZs, crystalized in Shenzhen. China then expanded the “learned” SEZs geographically to scale up export-oriented manufacturing based on its low-cost labour and land advantages by building physical and transport infrastructure for all forms of SEZs. As China upgraded its low-cost manufacturing, heavily concentrated in industrial zones in the coastal region, towards the end of the 1990s, it created more SEZs in its inland and border regions and began to “export” SEZ development, notably to Laos and Ethiopia. Starting out as a follower or learner of SEZs with its adaptations, China has recently become a global leader in developing SEZs.

Regarding China’s own SEZs, two main policy lessons can be drawn. The first lesson, of a positive nature, has to do with a national government commitment to using SEZs of various kinds and locations to achieve multiple goals: driving industrialization, creating jobs, promoting exports, inducing technology transfer and innovation, and stimulating broader regional development to reduce spatial inequality. The second lesson, with an undesirable twist, pertains to many local governments competing to build identical SEZs and ending up with wasteful investment, unfair competition and partial failure. The combination of these two lessons points to the critical importance of vertical and horizontal policy coordination and operational sensitivity in creating truly needed SEZs for clear and achievable development goals from and beyond most favourable locations.

The Chin-Laos (Mohan-Boten) SEZ, being built by a regional private Chinese company under a bilateral agreement at the national level, offers two quick lessons, one likely positive and one potentially negative. First, taking the form of an integrated city in a border region like Shenzhen with a large scale and diverse activities, this SEZ is capable of stimulating broad regional development in northern Laos where development has lagged. The potential downside of heavy Chinese involvement poses a risk that this zonal development will produce exclusive spaces only for Chinese investors, workers, and residents while marginalizing Laotian citizens. This scenario is likely since the Chinese private development company is also heavily involved in local governance. In this kind of large-scale development driven by a powerful outsider, local “others” can be excluded and lead to the erosion of political and territorial sovereignty and governance of Laos or other countries hosting China-built SEZs.

China’s venture to build SEZs in Africa invokes two other policy lessons that harken back to its domestic experience. The first lesson reinforces the two-sided trend that SEZs can continue facilitating economic development and that the successful aspect of China’s SEZs can be transferred to other developing countries with necessary adjustments. The growing number of special manufacturing zones in Ethiopia built by China have shown expected results in inward investment, job creation and exports. This contradicts earlier studies that had showed the China-sponsored SEZs in Africa to be largely unsuccessful (UNDP, 2015). Secondly, with multiple actors including the state and private firms involved, China-built SEZs in Ethiopia point to the challenges such as ensuring high-level political commitment and support for effective inter-ministerial collaboration and integrating SEZ programs into national development strategies and plans. These features not only define China’s more successful SEZs but also reflect Ethiopia’s commitment to using them to accelerate industrialization.

At this critical time for evaluating China’s growing role in the global economy, we are only beginning to understand China’s leadership in global SEZ development. In spite of China’s success with SEZs at home, often inflated by the singular prominence and reputation of Shenzhen, we should be cautiously optimistic that certain elements and practices of China’s SEZs may be adapted to some developing countries, either inter-country policy mobility or China-foreign cooperation zones. As this potential grows from the further implementation of the BRI, it alerts us to fully assess the policy lessons of China’s SEZs that can inform and foster sustainable economic development through South-South cooperation.

 

This article was adapted from the author’s recently published much longer paper “Change and Continuity in Special Economic Zones: A Reassessment and Lessons from China,” Transnational Corporations 26 (2): 49-74 (2019).

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About the Author

Xiangming Chen served as the founding Dean and Director of the Center for Urban and Global Studies at Trinity College in Connecticut from 2007 to 2019. He has been Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Global Urban Studies and Sociology at Trinity College and a distinguished guest professor at Fudan University, Shanghai. He has published extensively on urbanization and globalization with a focus on China and Asia and conducted policy research for the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, UNCTAD and OECD.

Endnotes
1. “China, Laos sign railway deal”, Zhao Lei, The China Daily, 14 November 2015; http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business /2015-11/14/content_22456633.htm.
2. “Laos and China come to terms on loan interest rate for railway project”, Radio Free Asia, 4 January 2016; http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/laos-china-come-to-terms-on-loan-interest-rate-for-railway-project-01042016163552.html.
3. “Employed by China,” Jenni Marsh, CNN, August, 2018; accessed from https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2018/08/world-china-africa-ethiopia -manufacturing-jobs-intl/.
4. “Chinese firm signs agreement to manage Ethiopian industrial park,” Xinhua, May 31, 2019; accessed from http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/31/c_138103636.htm.
5. “Huajian takes over management of Ethiopia’s state-owned Jimma Industrial Park and plans to build shoemaking and coffee-processing plants,” Sina.com, June 5, 2019; accessed from http://www.timedg.com/2019-06/05/20836228.shtml.
6. “Ethiopia, China to partner to build new 300 million USD industrial park,” Xinhua, August 13, 2019; accessed from http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-08/13/c_138304130.htm.

References
ADB (Asian Development Bank). 2015. Asian Economic Integration Report 2015: How Can Special Economic Zones Catalyze Economic Development? Manila: Asian Development Bank.
Chen, Xiangming. 1995. “The Evolution of Free Economic Zones and the Recent Development of Cross-National Growth Zones.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 19 (4): 593-621.
Chen, Xiangming. 2018. “Globalization Redux: Can China’s Inside-Out Strategy Catalyze Economic Development Across Its Asian Borderlands and Beyond.” Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society 11(1): 35-58.
Chen, Xiangming, and Taylor Lynch Ogan. 2017. “China’s Emerging Silicon Valley: How and Why Has Shenzhen Become a Global Innovation Center.” The European Financial Review (December/January): 55-62.
Easterling, Keller. 2012. “Zone: The Spatial Softwares of Extrastatecraft.” Places Journal, June. Accessed 25 May 2019. https://doi.org/10.22269/120610.
Pairault, Thierry. 2019. “China in Africa: Phoenix Nests versus Special Economic Zones”, Working Papers hal-01968812, HAL.
UNCTAD. 2019. World Investment Report 2019: Special Economic Zones. New York and Geneva: United Nations. UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2015. Comparative Study on Special Economic Zones in Africa and China. Working Paper No. 6, jointly with the International Poverty Reduction Center in China.
Yu, Liang. 2011. “Land Constraints on the Development of High and New Technological Development Zones.” Science and Technology Forum 206 (3): 49-53.
Zhang, Xiaodi, Dejene Tezera, Ciyong Zou, Ciyong Zou, Jie Zhao, Eneyew Abera Gebremenfas, and Jaidev Dhavle. 2018. Industrial Park Development in Ethiopia Case Study Report. Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development Working Paper Series WP 21. United Nations Industrial Development Organization. New York: United Nations.

How To Save Money Sending Your Child To A Top-Tier University

The quality of university that your child attends can make all the difference when they start looking for a high-powered, high-earning role.

Sending your offspring to an elite university can be costly, but by being savvy and choosing wisely you can find ways to save yourself some of your hard-earned cash.

In this article we share some of our top tips on how to make university cheaper for you and your child, whilst still ensuring that they enjoy the best possible experience.

 

Start Their Savings Account Early

Parents should set up a fund for their child’s education as soon as they’re born, if possible. It should be placed in a high-interest savings account, or an ISA, so that it can earn as much interest as possible. If your child is already older and you haven’t established a nest egg for their education, then don’t worry; invest in bonds and stocks to grow your money quickly and create wealth that they can spend on their education. You can take the six financial steps to make sure you are better prepared for your children’s education fund.

 

Find Accommodation With All Inclusive Facilities

Where your child lives during their university years is an important part of their educational experience. To ensure that your child makes the most of their time at university and networks with all the best people, you should search for accommodation that has social spaces and facilities included in the accommodation fees. Properties provided by premier student accommodation provider Collegiate have a range of amenities like private cinemas, gyms and dinner party rooms, so you can rest assured your child is mingling with the crème de la crème of university society in a high-end space.

 

Review The Fees

Tuition fees and the cost of living are the two biggest expenses for any university student, so the first thing you should do is learn more about the fees charged by each of the world’s top universities. You should also explore the bursaries, grants and low-interest loans available to students to see if there is any way to reduce these costs. By knowing what the costs are ahead of time you’ll be able to plan long before your child even applies for university.

 

Give Them An Allowance And Stick To It

Students often struggle to budget when they’re at university, particularly if this is their first taste of freedom. Even if you have a lot of money to lavish on your child, you should give them a set allowance every month or quarter to give them the chance to practice managing their money effectively, and to teach them the real-world value of currency. Sit down with them before they attend university and devise an allowance that will give them the chance to enjoy their lives whilst learning to budget and use their money wisely.

The university experience is about much more than just the education your child receives; it’s also about the chances they have to network and connect with some of the world’s future leaders, thinkers and pioneers. By following these tips, you can help your child to attend an elite school and save some money for their future.

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The Madrid Climate Disaster

By Peter Koenig

Does anyone know what COP25 stands for? Probably very few. Its unimportant. As unimportant as the whole roadshow itself. Just for the hell of it, for those who read this article, COP means Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The 25 stands for the 25th year that such annual conferences have taken place – every year in another country – what a tourist bonanza for the hundreds, if not thousands of attendees and participants who travel – by air – many of them business class, to these most questionable, even useless conferences.

The first of the COP summits took place in Berlin, Germany, in March 1995. The COP’s Presidency rotates among the 5 UN recognized regions and so do the conferences – to make “eco-tourism” most of the time for the same UN and government bureaucrats and jokers more attractive. I can’t help thinking of the enormous cost of these conferences – travel, food, lodging and everything in between – for two weeks – in the case of COP25 Madrid (2-16 December 2019), two days more than planned, because after the scheduled two weeks no agreements were reached, so it was decided to add two days. Add to this all the preparatory meetings and related travels – tens of millions of dollars, possibly more, are spent for nothing, absolutely zilch, nada. That’s the officially recognized outcome at the end of the extended COP25 in Madrid – nothing.

There are UN staff, directors mostly, at the UN in Geneva and in New York, who earn huge salaries in the hundreds of thousands a year, for doing what? Some of them are directing their staff to preparing the extravagant but mostly useless COPs – and of course, they are also attending them. When I see monetary figures like this, and we are now talking of only one kind of UN conferences, it occurs to me that this is money stolen from the poor. It is taken from the very people whom the UN is committed by its Charter to help. – How many simple drinking water supply and sanitation systems could you build with all this money? How many millions of people could you serve with the money wasted for such conferences with safe drinking water and safe sanitation?

According to the WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Program (JMP), some 2.1 billion people have no safe drinking water at home and more than twice this number lacks safe sanitation. At the same time, these agencies also monitor the death toll among less than 5-year-old children from unsafe water and sanitation, from the lack of hygiene, from diarrheal diseases – nearly 400,000 die per year. In addition, contaminated water and poor sanitation also contribute to the transmission of cholera, dysentery, hepatitis A and typhoid. This does not even take into account those who die due to a famine-reduced immune system.

Precious money deviated from the UN system by men-invented rather unproductive, but usually lush conferences – of which the COPs are just one category – could save millions of lives.

This is a real environmental issue, in fact more vital than just environment, it is environmental health. It is certainly competing in importance with the man-made CO2 issue. Climate change is happening, no doubt, it always did for the 4.5 billion years of Mother Earth’s existence. But the way the west is dealing with it is a sheer farce; no, it’s actually worse, much worse, it’s criminal, because it’s knowingly made into a commercial globalized profit-making enterprise. Knowingly, because the elite that pulls the strings behind these events – the same who finance Greta Thunberg – are well aware of what they are doing and why they are doing what they are doing. It helps none, but global corporate finance. Those who suffer most are the people living in the Global South which is, as with most natural disasters, most affected by naturally occurring climate change.

It’s still worse, because the western propaganda message promises actions towards saving the world from climate change which are entirely deceptive. So, the poor are again being lied to. They are being lured into making huge investments with huge loans – the World Bank, IMF and bilateral lending institutions, let alone Wall Street, stand ready – loans and interest which the borrowing countries have to repay. If they can’t, they have to give their collateral, meaning, let the west privatize their public services and assets, and grab their natural resources for a pittance. That’s how it works – the west preventing climate change from happening.

Not to mention the enormous arrogance with which the eminent COP attendees pretend humans can control Mother Earth’s temperature fluctuations, i.e. to less than 2 degrees C. Or arguing, whether “we” (almighty humans) should agree on limiting a temperature rise in the next 30 or 50 or 100 years to 2 or 3 degrees C, exceeds any reasonable level of human absurdity and conceit. Our assumed power over nature is at best ridiculous.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. IPCC has 195 members and some 2000 scientists who contribute to IPCC’s work. Any serious scientist knows that the main cause for climate change are variations of solar activities, but they sell us CO2 as chief villain, knowing well, that the world, especially the western world, functioning under a turbo-neoliberal corporate and finance driven capitalist system, based on ‘eternal’ consumption and eternal growth – which drives the ever-growing profit margins – will not change its behavior vis-à-vis nature, unless it collapses under its own weight. Not with a million COPs it will change its profit-making thinking and business motives. – These mostly famous scientists know it. If they don’t follow the line, they risk losing their reputation and, who knows, their jobs?

Ice core records studied by scientists, combined with many types of proxy records to reconstruct past atmospheres and environmental conditions, back from thousands to many millions of years, suggest that climate changes in large cycles, and within them, in smaller cycles. For example, it appears that between 2.6 and 5.3 million years ago, during the Pliocene Epoch, CO2 levels were comparable to those of today. Models suggest global temperatures were 3 to 4 degrees C warmer than pre-industrial levels (https://www.co2.earth/historical-co2-datasets).

Similar patterns were repeated 400,000 to 600,000 years ago. What is important to notice though, is that temperatures rise first, followed by CO2 levels which is logical, since the sun is heating the earth. It is the complete opposite to what today’s climate gurus are telling us. In the second half of the 1900s, NASA studied during some 30 years temperature fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean, investigating causes and effects of El Niño. The result was similar; the higher the water temperature of the Pacific, the more CO2 was released by the sea into the atmosphere. High CO2 levels are eventually followed by lower temperatures (https://www.globalresearch.ca/%e2%80%a8climate-and-the-little-green-women-and-men/5691215 and https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/OceanCarbon). 

The world still runs mainly on unrenewable energy, mostly hydrocarbons, oil, gas and even coal – the chief producers of CO2. Of course, we should stop using hydrocarbons and convert our economic systems to renewable energies. Hydrocarbons with their carbon dioxide output pollute the air, soil, surface and underground water ways. They contaminate even our food. Their secondary and tertiary products, plastic bottles and plastic-related packing materials, most of which are not biodegradable and contaminate our oceans, our landscapes, and kill wildlife.

The world still runs mainly on unrenewable energy, mostly hydrocarbons, oil, gas and even coal – the chief producers of CO2.

But who convinces the highly profitable petrol titans, packaging giants – not to mention the pharma industry which also thrives on petrochemicals – to turn the wheel back to the 1950’s and 1960s, when we went to the corner stores to buy our staple food, like rice, sugar, flour, potatoes in bulk, put it in used and reusable paper bags. We were not unhappier than we are today. To the contrary. Cancer rates were considerably lower. In 1960, CO2 levels in the atmosphere stood on average at 316 ppm. We had no cell phones. Time moved slower. And – importantly – in the fifties and sixties we lived even in the west in a world more or less in balance; we used less than the total of the resources Mother Earth generously provides for us.

In the mid-sixties, during the post-WWII economic boom, we started rapidly exceeding the world’s resources balance. Today, the west, or Global North, uses some 4 times as many resources as Mother Earth can provide. In Africa and some parts of Asia that ratio is between 0.5 and 0.6. – But no worries, there comes a point when Mother Earth will self-regenerate, that means with a break from us, destructive humans. Looking at geo-history – that has most likely happened already a few times: Civilizations disappeared – often “suicide by greed” – and once Mother Earth has recovered, she may give mankind another chance. She has a lot of patience.

In 2009, at the time of the (in)famous Copenhagen Climate Conference, the average level of CO2 in the air was 386 ppm. The goal was to reduce the level to 350 ppm ten years later. The Copenhagen Climate Conference coined the “350-sologan”. In November 2019, the carbon dioxide level has exceeded 410 ppm – and rising. It is an illusion to believe that Big Business, Big Industry, Big Finance – and Big Growth-driven Profit – will yield to environmental or climate concerns.

And again, those who call the shots know it, but they keep fooling the world, making the purposefully brainwashed and poorly informed populace believe that special taxes, for example on flying, or other taxes on hydrocarbon-based energy, will make a difference; or that “carbon credits” will improve the environment. This is of course nonsense. And the taxes eventually end up in the pockets of the usual villain, the globalized private banking system, instead of being dedicated to intense research into alternative energies. Such efforts happen only in China and Russia.

In the west, intense research into solar energy, the ultimate renewable energy, is not allowed to happen. The big energy lobbies, hydrocarbon, nuclear, and even hydropower, will block any such attempt. Can you imagine, the sun provides the earth with more than 10,000 times as much energy per day than what we use in the entire world in the same period.

Carbon credits are the most ludicrous deceitful banking invention of the last 50 years. How do they work? – A huge corporation in the Global North, instead of making the necessary investments to reduce their CO2 output, it buys “carbon credits” from a country in the Global South, where the pollution level is below a certain limit, so the northern corporation may continue postponing the CO2-reducing investments, and the country in the global south should theoretically invest the money it got from the “carbon credit” sale into alternative energy or otherwise environmentally friendly projects. It hardly ever happens. Many of these countries lack the projects and / or the absorptive capacity for the required investments. And even when it does happen, the carbon dioxide pollution of the monster corporation in the north continues. What a farce!

Maybe one day, in the not too distant future, the breakthrough will happen. It must, if we, mankind, want to survive and not collapse as civilization under the weight of our own wasteful, growth-based luxury lifestyle. We suddenly see the light – the sunlight – and use it, instead of CO2 generating hydrocarbon – and we free ourselves from this horrendous petro-corporate dependency. Our arrogant climate control attitude, temperature-rise fixing and human-manipulating by centigrade – gone – out of the window. Our linear 30, 50- and 100-year projections gone. Finito. What a feeling! – A feeling of real freedom. A full change-over of lifestyle. This moment may come faster than we think. The Chinese, always bashed by the west, have been concentrating at least the last decade much of their research on efficient and sustainable renewable energy – sun energy is in their focus. The East is the future. The East is where the sun rises.

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About the Author

Peter KoenigPeter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; Greanville Post; Defend Democracy Press, TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. Peter Koenig is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

First published by the New Eastern Outlook – NEO

Things You Need to Get in Check Before Taking Up a Loan

There’s a popular saying that no one is self-sufficient in life, and this also applies to the financial world. In other words, there comes a point where you need money to fund a particular need, but you currently don’t have it or it is inaccessible at that particular moment. It could be an investment need, perhaps you want to purchase a car, or maybe you need to buy a home. You may also have a self-improvement need or a matter of urgency that requires the money quick ASAP. The list of reasons for borrowing are literally endless.

One thing we can all agree on is that in such a scenario, borrowing becomes an automatic option to fund your needs. This is a phenomenon that has been with us since time immemorial, and its part of what keeps banks and other lending institutions in business. But while taking a loan will always seem the most convenient alternative when you’re short on funds, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s always the best. True, many individuals and giant business organizations have managed to achieve huge accomplishments with the help of loans, but one thing is for sure… borrowed money will work best for you if you understand the ins and outs of lending.

On this note, let’s look at a few things you need to get in check before taking up a loan.

 

Justify your reason for borrowing

As earlier mentioned, there are numerous reasons why people approach lenders for a loan. But before you make that application, it’s important to ask yourself whether you really need the money or not. This is because, amid the many uncertainties in life, a loan can either help you or ruin your financial health. Also, some loans carry more risk than others. A mortgage loan, for instance, is better in many ways compared to a personal loan taken up to cater to ordinary expenses. Ensure that you really need to borrow before you do so.

 

Your credit score

Most if not all banks and other lenders will always scrutinize your credit history before approving you or even considering you for a loan. Remember, they’re in business to make a profit, and the slightest negative element they note on your credit history could cause them to doubt or question your ability to pay their money back. Before you borrow, therefore, you’ll want to ensure you have a credit history and that your credit score is at least in the “good” range, which is about 700 or above in the US. And loans aside, the guys at Money Expert say that your credit score is affected even your insurance installments, credit card repayments, and monthly installments when leasing a car can all affect your credit, either positively or negatively. Before getting a loan, it’s best to ensure all your monthly bills are cleared and up-to-date if you can. A good credit score can fetch you better deals in the world of lending, including fairer repayment plans and lower interests. For this reason, you’ll want to ensure your credit report has no negative listings that could put your creditworthiness in a bad light.

 

Your income and loan costs

Borrowing is always easier than paying back, especially since loan repayments often have interests and penalties attached to them. While getting a loan could seem like the only choice you have to fund emergencies after you’re out of a job or a big business deal, it’s best to take up a loan that you’re sure you can afford to repay within the time frame agreed upon. Late payments and defaults are among the major reasons loans become burdensome, not forgetting the damage they can do with your creditworthiness.

 

Your identity documents

No lender will approve you for a loan without standard identity documents that have been certified. Depending on the type of loan you wish to apply for and where, some of these could include social security, national ID, a valid passport, property documents, PIN certificates, and so forth. Be sure to contact the lender you wish to apply for your loan from to get a list of required documents before making your application.

 

Collateral (do you need it?)

Secured loans often require you to provide collateral, which is usually an asset that the lender could claim a lien on, in the event you’re unable to repay their money owed. A collateral could be an asset, such as real estate property, household equipment, company assets, your car, and other property owned under your name. But before you go ahead and sign on the dotted lines, is the loan worth risking your property on?

If well managed, a loan can get you out of a miserable situation. It can help you grow personally or business-wise. However, the opposite is also true if you don’t consider your options carefully. All the same, the above are just a few things to get in check before taking up a loan.

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Six Steps To Set Up An Online Business

The number of online businesses is at an all-time high, and the trend is showing no signs of slowing down. If you’re here, the chances are that you already have a fantastic idea for an online business. However, bringing an idea to fruition and actually establishing an online business is an intense journey. Despite the route, with careful planning, the process is much easier than it seems.

If starting an online business is the route for you, keep reading on to know how you can do that.

Here are six steps to starting your very own online business:

Start With A Business Idea

While you may have an excellent business idea in mind, it’s vital to confirm it with market research. For starters, you can employ a consultancy that can do the research for you and potentially connect you with the target audience you’re planning on catering to. 

If you’re sure about your target audience, you should go through forums to determine what people are discussing, or you can generate a survey on feedback platforms, like Helpfull, and get thousands of suggestions. These discussions can lead you in the right direction by helping you refine your business idea and can even provide you feedback if you decide to post your business idea.

In the case where your business idea isn’t fully developed yet, you should consider products and services in the niche you’re interested in and try to figure out how you could improve these existing offerings.

Decide On A Business Name & Secure The Domain

Choosing a name for your online business is not an easy feat. There are multiple things you should consider. For instance, you might be able to generate more interest if your name incorporates trending keywords in your niche. 

Once you have a few potential business names in mind, you should run this list through a database to confirm whether the name is already taken or not. You should conduct a similar search on social media, too.

When your business name is finalized, you should secure the domain name by purchasing it before anyone else does. Even if there are a few months left into the official launch of your business, knowing that nobody else can get their hands on it will give you peace of mind.

The most obvious choice for a domain name is to use your brand name. However, if this is not available, then you add a hyphen or use a domain extension such as .me or .net.

Determine Your Revenue Model & Create A Business Plan

Your revenue model is one of the crucial aspects of your online business. It would help if you determined how you’ll be generating money, whether it’s by selling products and services or through affiliate marketing. Additionally, you may also require investors.

The revenue model is dependent on the kind of website you’re intending on setting up and the type of collaborations you’re aiming at making. If you’re planning on targeting investors, then creating a business plan will help consolidate the main aspects of your business. In fact, even if you’re not targeting investors, a business plan will help direct your focus to what’s essential.

If you’re struggling to draft a business plan yourself, you can always hire a business plan consultant who can help organize your approach and direct your focus to your primary goals.

Build Your Website

Your website is at the very core of your online business. First, you need to determine the web hosting you will opt for. The web hosting you choose, which includes shared hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated servers, and virtual private servers, is determined by the server space you require, the level of privacy you desire, and the speed you need from your website.

When you’re building your website, you need to ensure the aesthetics match the overall look and feel of your website. The easiest way to build a website is by using WordPress, which allows you to experiment with multiple paid and free templates, ensuring you’re bound to find something that fits best.

Prepare Your Offering

Once the foundation is up and running, it’s time to actually bring your offerings into play. If you’re selling physical products, you need to ensure the products are ready to be shipped when you start getting orders. On the other hand, if you’re offering a service, such as a SaaS software, then the product needs to be ready at this stage. Conduct user tests to ensure that customers can use the product easily.

Execute Your Marketing Strategy

Before you launch your business, the world needs to know about it. Every business’s marketing strategy varies, and what works for one company won’t necessarily work for another. Since you’re starting an online business, you need to focus on different marketing channels, such as social media marketing, content marketing, and paid ads.

If online marketing seems like a daunting task, there are many online business marketing strategies that you can focus on to get a headstart. These strategies will help you gain traction and generate buzz for your online business.

One of the best ways to attract attention to your business is through email marketing. By finding prospects’ email addresses, you can directly reach out to your target audience and garner their attention before the official launch.

Conclusion

The day your online business officially launches should be filled with different activities, such as PR interviews and social media announcements. What happens after launch day depends on your effort and how you can adapt to what your new business throws your way.

Running a successful online business isn’t easy, and it’s essential to be ready for the challenges. However, once you take steps in the right direction, you’ll start seeing great rewards in no time.

Do you have an online business of your own? What steps do you think are necessary? Let us know in the comments below!

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What To to Expect When You Have a Medical and Health Insurance

Having health insurance is like a safety net; even when things surprise you and go for the worse, you will still have peace of mind that the insurance will have you and your family’s back. Financial problems should be the least of your troubles when you are faced with health issues, that’s why your health insurance comes to the rescue to put your mind at ease.

 

What is Health Insurance?

Health insurance is what will help you in paying for your health care whenever you need medical attention. Insurance plans cover specific fields that can vary from routine checkups and doctor visits to major medical crises and treating serious illness or injuries. There are different plans that you can choose from. These plans distinguish between what the insurance will cover and what you will have to pay for yourself. Most plans don’t cover cosmetic procedures and other unnecessary surgeries that you can live without. However, some plans will cover you in case you need to seek medical attention for anything that’s bothering you.

 

Medicare Advantage Plans

These plans are a type of Medicare health plan that is provided by other companies that sort of work with and are approved by Medicare to provide different benefits for people to suit their needs. Specialized agents have managed to gather all types of information you might need about the Medicare advantage plan. The medical specialists over at www.MedicareWire.com makes sure that you are fully aware of everything you are buying. Every insurer has its own plan with its corresponding costs and the amount that the plan covers. You will find different coverage percentages with different prices for you to be able to choose the one plan that will suit your needs. With these plans, you can rest assured that most of Medicare services are covered. However, these types of services aren’t directly paid by Medicare. There are four different parts of these plans that cover different areas.

Different Advantage Plans

  • Part A

Part A is the hospital insurance that covers any expenses needed when you are staying at a hospital for treatment. Most of the time, people don’t even have to pay for part A as it’s usually covered by the Medicare tax deductions from your paycheck every month.

  • Part B

This, on the other hand, is the medical insurance that covers doctor visits, lab tests, screenings, using medical equipment, ambulance, and other outpatient services. Part B is considered to be more expensive than part A because it involves more costs.

You can use your work, insurance, or your spouse’s health plan to be able to have access to part B advantage plan that provides you with a lot of services for discounted prices or without any extra cost.

  • Part C

If you have decided to go for the Medicare Advantage (or MA), then you should expect to be paying for parts A, B, and B premium. Then you should try to find the best private insurance company to provide you with the benefits you need. Unlike other parts, part C covers dental and vision care which aren’t covered by other parts. Some plans even have extras such as wheelchair ramps, shower grips, meal delivery and even covers transportation expenses that come with all these doctor visits.

  • Part D

Part D plans are used specifically for prescription drugs to cover their costs. You can buy a part D plan from a private insurer who deals with Medicare and you are good to go.

The important thing to know is that not all plans cover all the benefits you want. You need to carefully read what you are subscribing to in order to know your rights. Knowing what you can do with full coverage and what you need to pay the full price will help you a lot in maintaining financial stability that doesn’t get affected by random hits.

Advantages of Medicare Plans

After you have decided between getting the original Medicare or the Medicare advantage plans and the exact parts you would want to be covered by, it’s time to contemplate your decision by weighing the pros and cons of choosing Medicare advantage plans. The main difference between original Medicare and the others is that with the original, you don’t have to be referred to see a specialist. You are almost likely will be covered throughout the united states. Medicare Advantage plans, on the other hand, offer extra benefits that you won’t find with the original.

  • The most important advantage you get with Medicare advantage plans is better coverage, discounts, and benefits that you get. With these plans, you can rest assured that you will be paying next to nothing for a service that otherwise who has cost you a fortune.
  • Every plan with Medicare has a maximum expense limit; once you pass it, you won’t be able to use the plan for the rest of the year. Medicare original is kind of better for not limiting your expenses regardless of the maximum out-of-pocket amount that you have spent.
  • Medicare Advantage plans are essentially less expensive if you compare their prices and your cost-sharing with the Original Medicare and what it covers. The best thing you can do to get the best of both worlds and get all the benefits that come with these plans along with the original Medicare advantages is to get Medicare supplement plan along with enrolling in a stand-alone Medicare prescription drug plan.

There are certain things you need to focus on when you are choosing your health insurance plan. This plan will determine the benefits you get and the out-of-pocket expenses that you will need. Choosing between original Medicare that covers hospital stays and most doctor visits will cost you a small amount that you might not even notice because it gets deducted every month from your paycheck. Going for Medicare advantage plans, on the other hand, means that you will get more benefits and will have the option to cover everything starting from a simple routine checkup to getting your prescription drugs without worrying about the money. The choice merely goes back to your needs.

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Why You Need DeBounce to Secure Your Email Marketing

Many say that we are living in a new digital age, which isolates us more and more, away from the customer. That communication is increasingly “in the cloud,” a whirlwind of automatic, purposeless email. But this is where the importance of email marketing becomes clearer. Using tools (many free), studying metrics and automation, you can create a fantastic and individualized experience. A unique communication for each customer.

It is true that there are currently several ways for you to communicate with your customer. From support via Whatsapp, a short video on Snapchat, or even posting to your company’s Medium. No matter, the simplest form of interaction remains email marketing.

What’s more, besides being a communication tool, email marketing plays a very important role in your new user acquisition strategy.

How important is email marketing?

Email marketing is especially important in delivering relevant content to your user through proper nutrition flow. The purpose of this flow is to take this user from a discovery stage of your product or service to the purchase decision.

But what if you deal with the wrong emails?

Dealing with the wrong emails will only prevent your email marketing from reaching your goals. They are just wasting your time and worse, they can harm your business in the long run. For that you need a tool that is able to prevent you from these useless emails. You need a tool that is sophisticated enough to detect these emails and get rid of them forever from your system. You need DeBounce. This is the best email verification tool on the market to detect inactive emails and also emails that are used only to enjoy your services without any desire to pay for anything.

DeBounce.io can detect wrong emails easily and remove them out of your system

DeBounce is able to detect emails that are no longer active. The point is e-mails that were made and used but are not used anymore. You don’t want to send messages to emails that won’t be read, this is why DeBounce is able to prevent you from wasting time.

What about bad emails? This is my term for e-mails that are made specifically to deceive your system. Suppose you offer a free service period that can be extended by paying, then you are the sitting duck. You are the target of people who only want your free service without the slightest desire to buy. You don’t want to deal with these people and the best solution for you is to make sure they are removed from your system. DeBoounce is able to do that simultaneously.

In other words, testing one by one email, trying to find out whether they are fake or not is past. Let DeBounce do it automatically and get rid of them forever. Email marketing is effective but only if it has potential goals. Haphazard email marketing only leads you to a loss, both in terms of time and financially.

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