Showing posts with label Asia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asia. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2013 - What's in Store? (Op-Ed)


 

By: Adrian Salbuchi

Source: Russia Today


World Government stepping onto sovereign Nation-States, puppet politicians unable to cope with social challenges, chaos in the Middle East and ever increasing global crises – all this awaits us in 2013. Is it time for ‘We the People’ to wake up?

More violence in the Middle East; increased protests and commotion on the streets of Europe and America; a banking/debt crisis spinning faster and faster out of control with panicky governments running to save the bankers and kill the workers. That’s 2012’s legacy, so… thank God it’s (almost) over!

But – barring the Mayan Prophecies coming true, which is most unlikely – regrettably 2013 threatens us with even darker clouds on its horizon.

­We’re not into “predictions” or futurism, however understanding what really makes this world tick allows rational projections of tendencies on the basis of concrete facts. That can serve to give us an idea of what’s in store for 2013, so we can better prepare for what’s coming our way.

Let’s look at half a dozen Key Issues:

Where’s the pilot?

Glaringly visible on today’s global political stage is that leaders in just about every country are unable to tackle and solve the overwhelming swarm of growing crises and challenges affecting society; at least not in the West. Whether it’s political, social or military conflict; increasing ecological threats; on-going financial and economic collapse; mass cultural and intellectual dumbing-down; or obscene government corruption, everywhere you look things seem to be taking a turn for the worse.

Even the leaders of powerful countries as the United States, Britain and the European Union fail dismally when addressing these crises highlighting their mediocrity, lack of vision and creativity. This becomes more obvious when comparing today’s leaders with those of yesteryear.

Take France, for instance: having given the world a true statesman like Charles de Gaulle, today they’re run by political midgets like Hollande and Sarkozy. Worse still is the US, which had a great president like John F Kennedy but today is misgoverned by puppets like Bush junior and Obama. Even Britain, Italy and Germany once led by inspirational figures like Churchill, De Gaspari and Adenauer, today can only muster grey mediocrities like Blair, Cameron, Berlusconi, Monti or Merkel.

Is it all just coincidence, or does it reflect a monolithic political system that ensures that not the best and brightest, but the worst and dimmest rise to become presidents and prime ministers?

Is this the result of the Global Power Masters’ preferred system of control over entire nations through “money-powered democracy”? This is in stark contrast with what “We the People” are clamouring for in every country. In fact, “We the People” have instinct and are neither stupid nor cowardly. Unfortunately though, their political leaders for the most part are.

Is there a “superior will” making sure that growing national problems remain unresolved, and get worse and worse as presidents and prime ministers come and go?

Is it just “bad financial judgment” that’s made all national debts with the Mega-banker Over-world balloon way out of control? Just bad luck that pension funds are massively broke and health systems are in shambles?

Just bad luck that; Orwell-like, peace-making has turned into warmongering?

Is it just bad luck that basic human decency, ethics and solidarity are scorned by that moral cesspool known as the “entertainment industry”, which is the prime driver or the dumbing-down of populations everywhere?

We don’t think so…

Is all of this a way of telling the world in no uncertain terms just who’s really in charge, by “proving” that Sovereign Nation-States can no longer cope, and “a thing of the past” to be thrown into the dustbin of history? That certainly ties in with the Global Power Masters’ fundamental long-term objective geared on dissolving the nations of the world so their power can be sucked up into the coming World Government organisations?

But look again: it’s not Nation-States that are failing, but rather the “democratically elected” politicians who run them! Let’s not thrown the baby away with the bath water…!

World Government needs to do away with sovereign Nation-States because they’re the only social institution that can hold the Global Corporate and Mega-banker Over-world in check. In fact, the Sovereign Nation-State is the Over-world’s Public Enemy No. 1!

Back in 1974, the Elite think-tank Council on Foreign Relation’s journal “Foreign Affairs” suggested that “the house of world order will have to be built from the bottom up… It will look like a great "booming, buzzing confusion," …but an end run around national sovereignty, eroding it piece by piece, will accomplish much more than the old-fashioned frontal assault.” That was written over 38 years ago… Now that’s what I call long-range planning!

So, get ready: 2013 will bring ever increasing crises as all Nation-States are weakened more and more. In Orwellian newspeak, this is “democracy”. However, “We the People” are waking up to the fact that such a “democracy” is nothing but a prison of the mind.

In 2013 more people will be asking themselves “Where’s the pilot?” They will want to know who’s really running this ghastly global show. You can bet your bottom dollar that “the pilot” is definitely not in the White House, or the Palais d'Elysee, or 10 Downing Street. Clearly, we need new pilots!

United States of America

Had Republican candidate Mitt Romney won November’s presidential elections, today we’d be in global doldrums on a range of important issues. The Global Power Masters would have had to wait until Romney is inaugurated in late January 2013, and then give him the privileged “100 days’ honeymoon” as new White House tenant, before they actually began pressing and coaxing him to do their bidding. That would have given the world four, maybe five, months’ respite.

However, Romney lost the elections, and Barack Obama will be president four more years. No waiting; no honeymoon.

Time is of the essence and Big Brother Bwana is already shouting orders at Boy Obama demanding him to move… and fast! The Big Bosses in AIPAC, Wall Street, Tel-Aviv, Goldman Sachs, the FED, JPMorganChase, and the Lodges have lots of plans for the US… Obama had been dragging his feet on certain issues: Time to act!

But one may even wonder whether Obama’s staying “at the helm” might be so he oversees “Mission Transformation”: the controlled collapse of the US. Will Obama turn out to be America’s Mikhail Gorbachev?

Over a decade ago, Russian Ministry of Foreign Relations academic Igor Panarin pointed to the coming dismemberment of the US due to growing internal political, social and cultural centrifugal forces, overcoming the increasingly weak centripetal forces holding America together.

Right now, we see secessionist movements in just about every state in the US. Texas, North & South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma and Ohio have gathered the 25,000 petition signatures needed to make it mandatory for the Federal Government to address their request.

By the end of the 1980’s, the 'Powers That Be' decided it was time for “Globalisation” to go into full gear: a chaotic, horizontal, transitory and transitional process that has greatly weakened national sovereignties. But they needed to liquidate the then formidable Union of Soviet Socialist Republics that was getting in their way. That was Mikhail Gorbachev’s job and he certainly played his role magnificently even if power brokers in New York and London like him far more than citizens in Moscow or St Petersburg.

Now the Global Power Masters are wrapping up “Globalisation” and moving on towards something far more ambitious: outright World Government which, contrary to globalisation, will be vertical, authoritarian, disciplined and highly centralised. To achieve this new stage, they now need for the other superpower nation-state to go into the waste bin of history. Soon they won’t need a powerful America.

In fact, a powerful US is a potential danger to them because, whilst so far their trillions have ensured the White House always stays in "friendly hands” – Reagan, Bush Senior, Clinton, Bush junior, Obama – can you imagine what would happen if a True Patriot were to make it to the Oval Office? Someone who would say “Enough with the FED!”, “Enough with unrestricted and irrational support for Israel!”, “Enough engineering chaos in Libya, Afghanistan, Mali, Syria, Egypt, Latin America!”

So – yes! – Perhaps our American Gorbachev’s true mission is to kick-off the controlled demise of the US.

War and more war in the Middle East

From the Global Master’s viewpoint, the more chaos the better. The more Libya’s and Syria’s, the better; and the more Egypt-style social chaos, the better; all massively fed by their multimedia PsyWar. Why? Because, irrespective of whether things turn out “well” or “not so well” for them in Palestine, Syria, Iran or Egypt, they always make headway on one permanent overriding objective: weakening Nation-States. In addition, this all ties in with a key Fundamentalist Zionism goal in the region: the destruction of Iran.

In addition, all this “experience” renders useful lessons, knowledge, “case studies” and rules of engagement for designing future “Springs” in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Europe, even the US.

Stay tuned: this may be coming in 2013 to a country near you.

Israel’s bad temper

As we all know when Israel gets up in a bad mood, they cheer up by going into Palestinian-bashing mode, knowing Big Brother Homer will look the other way. That just occurred in Gaza, as it did in 2009; as it did in Southern Lebanon in 2006.

Now we’ll see a lull as Benjamin Netanyahu campaigns for re-election in January 2013, which may be why he’s pushed aside his embarrassing extreme right-wing ally and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. This may be linked to trying to accommodate – not Obama – but the American military, which is growing increasingly weary of America’s imperial overdrive and resource stretch, as a consequence of fighting too many of Israel’s proxy wars.

John Kerry and Chuck Nagel will probably become Obama´s new secretaries of State and Defence. Both are friendly towards Israel, however not irrationally fanatic, which is what Israel and AIPAC demand. This explains the Jerusalem Post’s 17th December article pointing out that both are “hardly Israel’s preferred choices”.

Fiscal cliff

Like the naked Emperor that no one dared to point that interesting fact out to him, the truth is that the American Emperor is nakedly broke, as is the UK. Now, when weak countries like Argentina, México, Thailand or Iceland collapse, they painfully discover that their local currencies (or lack thereof in the cases of Greece, Spain, Italy and Ireland) are backed by nothing. That’s when chaos marches in and the locals suffer all sorts of dreadful economic and social hardship, as seen on TV decade after decade.

When the US, UK or EU go broke, however, they still have an ace up their sleeves: their currencies – Dollar, Pound or Euro – are backed by their formidable, powerful and hugely expensive military forces. In practice, those currencies are backed by supersonic stealth bombers, drones, aircraft carriers, Tomahawks, Blackhawks and public (and private!) armies of highly trained and vicious troops.

But if worse comes to worse, they can always tap into their “Final Solution”; their “Samson Option” so to speak: unleash World War Three in which case who’ll care about the collapse of the Dollar, or the banks, or social upheavals even in New York or London.

World War Three means forcefully fleeing forwards. The Global Power Masters know this only too well: “we pulled this off with the first and second world wars… and it worked!” they seem to say.

Might this be one of 2013’s wild cards?

Watch out with Russia and China

Particularly now that Vladimir Putin is really back in town, Russia is clearly showing that it’s not for turning its back on traditional ally Syria; even less on Iran.
Not so much out of principle, but for defence and survival. If Syria and Iran fall to the US/UK/Israeli hegemon, who do you think is next? And those NATO missiles in Poland, what are they there for?


China, in turn, just named Xi Jinping as new Communist Party Secretary General and soon-to be President. Depending on a wide array of interests and goals, China shrewdly works together with Russia, Iran, India, Latin America or Africa; even with historical foe, Japan.

The Chinese know what they want and need in the medium and long terms. Maybe that’s why they seem paradoxical and difficult to fathom to us short-term thinking Westerners.

Long terms planners at the Pentagon and Western think-tanks, however, know this and they’re preparing for war. So, 2013 will see Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Brazil, South Africa move closer together to tackle common goals and confront common threats.

As the Western geopolitical serpent tries to tighten its hold on planet Earth, time is not on their side: key Castles and Bishops will move on the Global Grand Chessboard. Watch China and Russia….

Adrian Salbuchi for RT

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Moscow to react to US Asian missile defense


Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/politics/missile-defense-asia-concerns-577/

Russia has expressed its concern over American plans to deploy a new missile defense shield in Southeast Asia.

"The continuing growth of the US potential in what we call the Far East – the Asia-Pacific region – does not go unnoticed in Russia," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at a nonproliferation conference in Moscow. “We are closely following what is happening between the USA and its allies in Asia.”

According to the diplomat, “important events” are unfolding in the region and “a lot has already been achieved,” cites Interfax.

Moscow’s concerns about the situation arise from the technology involved, as well as the “geography and the US capability to deploy these assets in different locations.”

It is important that Washington eases these concerns. Otherwise, “there is a set of measures worked out by the Russian leadership,” Ryabkov noted.

Earlier, it was reported that Washington was planning to expand its missile defense in Asia in response to threats from North Korea and to counter China’s growing missile capabilities.

The buildup could include an early-warning radar system on a southern Japanese island and possibly another one in Southeast Asia. These two new radars would supplement the one already installed in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan in 2006.

The US global missile defense shield – in particular its European sector – has long been a stumbling block in the relations between Moscow and Washington. Russia worries that the planned system may pose a threat to its national security. The US has so far refused to provide legally-binding guarantees that the European missile defense assets would not be targeted against Russia.

“The US missile defense system – is surely one of the key issues on today’s agenda because it involves Russia’s vital interests,” President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with RT.

The differences on the issue can only be solved if both sides accept as an axiom that they are “reliable partners and allies for each other.” That would mean the parties “jointly do missile threat assessments and control this defense system together,” Putin said.

The president stressed that Russia had done what it could and offered to work on the system together. However, the American partners are “refusing to go along.” Moscow is set to continue the dialogue on the matter, he stressed.

“But naturally, as our American partners proceed with developing their own missile defense we shall have to think of how we can defend ourselves and preserve the strategic balance,” Putin added.

In November last year, then-President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia could place offensive weaponry on its borders with Europe as one possible measure against the deployment of American elements of missile defense shield in the region.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

US seeks militarization of strategic waterways





Source: PressTV (US Desk)
http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/244324.html

As the United States is preparing to shift its military focus to Asia in a few years time, a university professor says he believes America is pursuing the “militarization of strategic waterways” in the region.

In an interview with the U.S. Desk on Saturday, Michel Chossudovsky, director of the Center for Research on Globalization‏ and professor of economics at the University of Ottawa in Montreal, said that east Asia is a strategic region for the U.S. and the military shift towards Asia “is essentially directed against China.”

The United States will move the majority of its warships to the Asia-Pacific in coming years and keep six aircraft carriers in the region, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Saturday in Singapore, giving the first details of a new U.S. military strategy.

Chinese officials have been critical of the U.S. shift of military emphasis to Asia, seeing it as an attempt to fence in the country and frustrate Beijing's territorial claims.


US to move warships to Asia Pacific under new strategy


US warships pictured on May 2007

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/06/02/244221/us-to-move-warships-to-asiapacific/

The United States will move the majority of its Navy warships to the Asia-Pacific region by 2020, as part of a new military strategy to increase US presence in Asia, Defense Secretary says.

Speaking at the annual security conference in Singapore on Saturday, Leon Panetta said the Pentagon will deploy six more aircraft carriers and a majority of its cruisers, destroyers and submarines and littoral combat ships, which operate near-shore sites, to the region over the next years and by 2020.

The US Defense Department will also deploy more sophisticated submarines and fighter air craft, together with new electronic warfare capabilities and communications systems to the region.

While insisting it will take years to finish the transition, Panetta declared that Washington's budget problems and cutbacks will not hinder the new military strategy.

"It will take years for these concepts, and many of the investments we are making, to be fully realized," Panetta said.

"But make no mistake, in a steady, deliberate and sustainable way, the United States military is rebalancing and brings enhanced capabilities to this vital region," he added.

The US move is expected to increase tensions with China, as the shift in the US focus in the region is regarded by several critics as Washington’s attempt to contain China’s emergence as an international power.

Beijing has already expressed its dismay at any larger US presence in the Asia-Pacific region. Earlier in January, China’s state media warned Washington against “flexing its muscles”, saying that any US militarism would “endanger peace.”


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Asian tigers move away from dollar


South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak (L), China's Premier Wen Jiabao (C) and Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda pose for photographs in front of their national flags ahead of the fifth trilateral summit among the three nations at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 13, 2012 (AFP Photo/Pool/Petar Kujundzic)

Source: Russia Today
http://rt.com/business/news/asia-currencies-trade-union-279/

China, Japan and South Korea are taking further steps to replace the dollar in trade between them as the countries start negotiations on a free trade agreement, Vladimir Rozhankovsky, Head of Research at Nord Capital told RT.

The deal would be signed by the end of the year, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao with Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced during their Fifth Trilateral Summit in Beijing on May 13.

The countries have been mulling the idea of the union for several years. “China started negotiations on using national currencies in the region’s trade as early as in 2008, during the crisis as the country wanted to secure itself from probable default of the US dollar,” Rozhankovsky told RT.

In 2010 China and Japan agreed on trading some commodities in the yen and the yuan. “It took about two years to trial the idea of trade in the local currencies and now it’s time to follow up a success,” Rozhankovsky said.

The agreement is seen as a further step to ease off dollar dependency in international trade. This idea has been promoted by many countries and organizations in the recent years. In March BRICS countries agreed to provide credit to each other in local currencies. China has already agreed to switch to the local currencies in trade with Russia, although a memorandum on this has not yet been issued.

“The idea is in line with many interests and economic exigencies in the world economy,” Yaroslav Lissovolik, chief economist at Deutsche Bank told RT. “The euro and dollar are no longer seen as unquestionable monopolies in the role of reserve currencies. Clearly the world needs more reserve currencies.”

The agreement between China, Japan and South Korea won’t significantly influence global trade, but will bring advantages to the countries concerned, according to Rozhankovsky.

“The union will contribute to the growth of turnover of commodities and would also secure risks and cut exchange brokerages with the US dollar. The brokerage is usually less than 1% but it accounts for huge sums in international trade”.

The new union will be able to compete with the world's largest free-trade zones as China, Japan and South Korea account for 90% of the East Asian GDP and about 20% of the world’s GDP, following North America and the EU, the Chinese Foreign Ministry reports. Trade between the three countries amounted to $690 billion in 2011, which is 70% of East Asia’s total trade and 20% of world trade


Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Global markets reel with US credit drop


A pedestrian watches falling shares on a stock indicator in Taipei, Taiwan, Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/193050.html

World stock markets continue to spiral downward after the historic downgrading of the US credit rating and lingering EU debt crisis have wreaked havoc on investor confidence.

Global stocks suffered further losses on Monday despite promises by G7 and G20 leaders to boost the world economy and the European Central Bank (ECB) announcement to alleviate concerns over the Eurozone debt crisis by buying up Italian and Spanish government bonds, the Washington Post reported.

Major Asian indexes sank between two and seven percent in the opening hours, with the benchmark MSCI's index of Asia Pacific shares, excluding Japan, also dropping 2.2 percent.

On Tuesday, Tokyo dropped 4.43 percent at the outset, Hong Kong shed 7.24 percent in the first few minutes, Sydney lost 4.91 percent and Seoul went down 7.5 percent while Taipei shares suffered a loss of more than five percent.

The European financial markets have also experienced significant drops in recent days, despite the ECB's pledge of purchasing the troubled Italian and Spanish debt.

London's Key FTSE 100 index went down 1.7 percent on Monday - the first day of international trading after the US credit downgrade - while in debt-crippled Greece, shares on the Athens Stock Exchange continued to fall to levels unseen since the mid-1990s.

The US markets also plunged at Monday's closing over mounting fears of recession following the loss of the country's triple-A rating in the list of creditworthy nations.

The DAX index in Frankfurt went down 2.4 percent, as the Dow Jones industrial average dived 634 points, or about 5.55 percent, in one of its steepest declines ever on the first full day of trading since the historic downgrade.

Investors are now anxiously awaiting the results of efforts by industrialized countries aimed at allaying concerns in markets as both sides of the Atlantic have been engulfed in financial and debt crises.

The uncertainty in global markets follows a fall in US futures prices, which was brought about after Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States' triple-A rating by one notch on August 5, from the top AAA to AA+, for the first time in the history of ratings amid concerns over the country's massive debt.

According to a recent default-preventing debt bill passed by the US Congress, the country's debt ceiling was raised by $2.4 trillion, to the level of $16.7 trillion, just a few hours before the August 2 deadline.

S & P predict Asia's 2nd global crisis


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/193046.html

Credit ratings agency Standard and Poors predicts a new global financial crisis for Asia, particularly those nations heavily exposed to offshore markets.

"If a renewed slowdown comes, it would likely create a deeper and more prolonged impact than the last one," Reuters reported, citing a statement by S&P released on Monday.

The agency listed the countries most vulnerable to disruptions in offshore capital markets as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Indonesia.

It also said several nations, again including New Zealand, were still repairing their government finances and could be more constrained in responding to a fresh global crisis.

“The implications for sovereign creditworthiness in Asia-Pacific would likely be more negative than previously experienced, and a larger number of negative rating actions would follow,” the statement noted.

'Global economic bubble has burst'


Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/193016.html

The global economic bubble has burst, and it has become clear that governments can no longer continue to run massive budget deficits indefinitely, economist Marco Pietropoli says.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Pietropoli, an economist with RM Wealth Management, said, “The markets, in many ways, have been completely misaligned with economic fundamentals over the last couple of years.”

“The markets are finally starting to price these matters in,” he added.

US, Asian, and European stock markets suffered heavy losses on Monday, with Friday's unprecedented US credit rating downgrade adding to the financial crises.

“We were living in this bubble territory where we perceived that governments can carry on running massive budget deficits forever, and that Mr. Bernanke will keep printing money and propping up asset prices,” Pietropoli stated.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 634 points, or about 5.55 percent, in one of its steepest declines ever in the first full day of trading since Standard & Poor's downgraded the US credit rating on Friday.

European stocks also continued to fall as fears grow that Europe's debt crisis is spinning out of control, with Greece, Ireland, and Portugal having already received bailout packages from the European Union and Italy and Spain in danger of becoming the next victims of the crisis.

Tokyo's Nikkei stock market fell 1.4 percent before making slight gains on Monday while Australia's S&P/ASX-200 index shed almost 2 percent in early trading, and indexes in New Zealand plummeted more than 3 percent.

On Sunday, the Saudi stock market rose slightly after diving 5.46 percent earlier in the day, while other Arab stock markets all plunged.

Last week, China's top ratings agency slashed the US credit rating from A+ to A, after having downgraded the US credit rating from AAA to A+ in November.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

US to enhance military presence in Asia



US Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/183173.html

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stated that Washington is committed to maintaining its military presence in various regions in Asia.

Gates made the comments at the 10th Asia Security Summit in Singapore.

"Taken together, all of these developments demonstrate the commitment of the United States to sustaining a robust military presence in Asia -- one that underwrites stability by supporting and reassuring allies while deterring, and if necessary defeating, potential adversaries," Gates said.

He added that the US military presence in Asia would continue to expand, despite the protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gates' remarks come at a time of uncertainty over Washington's military spending.

President Barack Obama is currently facing mounting political pressure to deal with a budget deficit of 1.4 trillion dollars.

His administration is also struggling with a growing debt of 14-trillion dollars.

The US has patrolled Asia-Pacific waters since World War II.

It currently has bases in Japan and South Korea and close military ties with the Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore.

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