Belt and Road

 

The Belt and Road initiative has been running for a couple of years so it is possible to form an initial appreciation of what it is about. It builds infrastructure necessary for Chinese exports. It is financed by easy loans, tempting the countries to go into debt. This resembles the British Empire's policy in South America in the 19th Century. The republiquetas were unable to pay even the interest, and it was followed by "gunboat diplomacy" such as British banks taking over the customs of Venezuela. Apparently, it is benevolent, like a usurer giving loans to poor people who most probably will not be able to return the loan.    

The China I like

The video clip shows a sanitary worker cleaning a dam,

a rather dangerous job, in Yun Taishan Nature Park. I recognize his accent as the Henan dialect - so different from the unnatural, upper-class Mandarin spoken by officials. This is the China I know and like.  

 

Caveat Emptor (when dealing with Swiss banks)

Lost my balance and hurt my right hand, so I have spent the day studying the markets. Anglo-Saxon banks are scrupulously honest, but Europeans are highway robbers. African banks are chaotic, Asian banks - I am unsure. The Chinese, in my experience, are dishonest. Credit Suisse, my personal bête noire, is being sued in the Greensill affair, which at last understood.

It is like this: Credit Suisse froze $10 billion of Greensill's funds, causing its insolvency as it found itself unable to repay a $140 million owed to Credit Suisse. Incredibly, Credit Suisse continued to market Greensill funds as a fully insured, low-risk product despite a decision by insurers to discontinue coverage. All that knowing that Greensill was broke (they had caused its bankruptcy, did they?).  Seems to me a clear case of fraud.

Did I write Sullivan's Speech?

 

Reading the transcript of the American-Chinese meeting in Alaska last week, it jumped into my sleepy brain: I wrote this thing, did I? 

SULLIVAN: Thank you, Mr. Secretary, and welcome to Director Yang and State Councilor Wang. It's fitting that we're meeting here in Alaska. We may be far from the continental United States, but there are few places that are as quintessentially American: big-hearted, resilient, intrepid. This is truly a fitting place for us to host this meeting.

Prof. Moshe Many, President of Tel Aviv University, had to speak at a Board of Governors Meeting and asked me to write him the opening speech. I wrote "It's fitting that we are meeting here in TAU campus, in Israel..." etc. I too used the recherche word quintessentially. The speech was a great success and I was paid 200 dollars. Prof. Many was Syrian Jew who specialized in venereal diseases and travelled frequently to Saudia to treat King Saud. Since then, I keep finding my rhetorical inventions recycled on the most unexpected occasions. For example, in every Annual Meeting since then. "This is truly a fitting place for us to host this Annual Meeting of TAU's Board."

Th. Nöldeke and Allah

Th. Nöldeke, a German academic specialized in the Quaran, writes:   A closer investigation of the apparent Jewish and Christian elements in the Koran will lead to the conclusion that the primary elements shared by Christianity and Islam are of Jewish colouring. For example, the familiar Muslim creed: 

 is derived from a Jewish formula; verse IISamuel 22:33 = Psalms 18:32  מבלעד יי השה מי-אל and appears in the Targum as ליחא להא אלא יי

Shocking Data from Beijing

 

There are already signs that China’s birth rate and population are falling, with some experts warning of grave consequences. According to data released this month from Beijing Municipal Health Commission Information Center, the nation’s capital, Beijing, which has a population of around 21 million, suffered a 24.3 percent decline in its birth rate in 2020 compared with a year earlier. The total number of births in Beijing in 2020 was 100,368 – a decline of 32,266 compared with 2019’s 132,634, and the lowest figure in a decade. 

One birth per 200 i.e. 0.5%. I told them a generation ago that their one child diktat was a big mistake. They answered that they were too many of them. 

EPA offers 6.5 Billion for Water Infrastructure (in the US)

 President Biden is pumping money into the American economy. 

• Supporting economically stressed communities.
• Protecting water infrastructure against the impacts of climate change.
• Reducing exposure to lead and addressing emerging contaminants.
• Updating aging infrastructure.
• Implementing new or innovative approaches including cybersecurity and green infrastructure.

Cyber and green is our specialty, is it? We could also save the California Delta smelt. 

But I am so old.

On the other hand, the environmental regulation is so heavy that I doubt that they can spend half of the money on significant projects.

A cutting-edge drinking water treatment facility planned for one of the country’s most water-scarce states now appears in danger of being blocked by regulatory requirements.

“Recommended terms for a permit to build Poseidon Water’s controversial desalination plant in Huntington Beach would make it impossible to get financing for the $1.4 billion project, according to the developer,” The Orange County Register reported. For years, leaders of the project have been attempting to get a permit from the local water quality control board. Subsequently, the project would also need permission from a regional board and from the state’s Coastal Commission to go through with actual construction and implementation.

P.S.: The Economist asks: "What impact then would an infrastructure bonanza have, if it makes it through Congress?"  I can answer - for the EPA portion of the spending: None. Tearing up perfectly good lead water distribution pipes and laying instead plastic lines adds nothing to the GDP. It is a hysterical - and wrong - reaction to the Flint racial panic (caused by the lack of buffer in the supply).