What the Chinese are saying

From an official Chinese Foreign Ministry Working Paper:

 The history of the United States is characterized by violence and expansion. Since it gained independence in 1776, the United States has constantly sought expansion by force: it slaughtered Indians, invaded Canada, waged a war against Mexico, instigated the American-Spanish War, and annexed Hawaii. After World War II, the wars either provoked or launched by the United States included the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the War in Afghanistan, the Iraq War, the Libyan War and the Syrian War, abusing its military hegemony to pave the way for expansionist objectives. In recent years, the U.S. average annual military budget has exceeded 700 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 40 percent of the world's total, more than the 15 countries behind it combined. The United States has about 800 overseas military bases, with 173,000 troops deployed in 159 countries.

As former U.S. President Jimmy Carter put it, the United States is undoubtedly the most warlike nation in the history of the world. According to a Tufts University report, "Introducing the Military Intervention Project: A new Dataset on U.S. Military Interventions, 1776-2019," the United States undertook nearly 400 military interventions globally between those years, 34 percent of which were in Latin America and the Caribbean, 23 percent in East Asia and the Pacific, 14 percent in the Middle East and North Africa, and 13 percent in Europe. Currently, its military intervention in the Middle East and North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa is on the rise.

Another paper criticizing the USA: 

 "First, According to the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics, the average life expectancy in the country has dropped 2.7 years from 2019 to 2021, with 3.1 years shorter for men and 2.3 years shorter for women. Second, access to higher education is disproportionately skewed toward the rich, while the low-income group has no equal access to education." 

Comment: Once again, the Chinese feel they are the Celestial Empire. They go by the traditional book of their ancient sages of how to deal with barbarians: First, apply moral suasion, then try to buy them with good food, nice sing-song girls, medals and pompous titles. Try to fight barbarians with other barbarians. If nothing helps, exterminate them. It never worked for the Chinese and it was a real disaster when the Anglo-Saxon fleet arrived. 

The Ruin and Re-Birth of the South African Republic

The ruin of the Republic is almost complete. Twenty years ago many predicted exactly this outcome. But it appeared that there was no alternative, as the country was becoming isolated, a true pariah. Today, there is no electricity and the water supply is unreliable. This is a fabulously rich country, with gold and diamond mines, and a temperate climate. 

The world political order is in process of re-organization. The tension between the USA and the EU, and Russia and its tacit ally - China, is growing and hardening. The incompetent government of the Republic is aligning itself with the anti-American group. The pic shows the American Secretary of State Blinken and her S.A. counterpart, Mrs. Naledi Pandor. 

This situation cannot continue. If it cannot, it will not. As the saying goes, ’n Boer maak ’n plan.  

Or it will follow South Rhodesia into inconsequentiality.

Edgardo

 My friend Edgardo Schinder stopped answering emails and his son Immanuel wrote that he had "ascended to a higher plane". His latest emails were from Hawaii, where his daughter was living (she was married to an American working on the naval base), 

He called himself Osiris, I imagine he saw himself as related to that Egyptian god. Maybe that was his middle name. 

I don't want to write an obituary. We met in high school, Nacional Mariano Moreno, Buenos Aires. He was the son of a Jewish doctor of the Baron Hirsch colonies in Entre Rios. He was the very best student of all of us, always 100 in every subject.  He was interested in environmental medicine and ended up teaching as many of my friends did.

He had immigrated to Israel, worked in a hospital in Beer Sheba, and then in Tel Aviv. He was always worried about his wife, Mercedes, who is the daughter of Spanish immigrants. He insisted that she was a Jewish descendant.  (I never discussed the idea, but doubt that after 500 years it can be established). She is a psychiatrist, very soft and quiet. 

My old friends are rapidly dying off. I am healthy, thank you. 

 

Kenon Distributes Profits

 My investment in Kenon apparently struck gold, as the company announced monstrous dividends. I shall pay for a Purim lunch in a good restaurant for the family. Pic.: Ofer.

Exploitation and Opression

A number of Ashkenazi Jewish remains were discovered in the old synagogue (pic) of Erfurt. In the 11th century, they were killed and put into a hole. It is interesting because they are the early knowledge we can have of the seed communities of Eastern Germany. Erfurt was an important trading town because of its location, near a ford across the Gera river. Having exterminated the local Jews, the Municipal Government found that they had been the largest taxpayers and now they had no resources. So they called the area Jews to move back and they re-settled Erfurt.

Something similar happened in Vac (Weitzen), the German-populated city in Hungary. The town is located on a ford of the Danube, the nearest one is Buda, some 70 km East. My grandfather was the largest taxpayer of the place. When the Jews were ghettoized and sent to Auschwitz, the economic turnover of the city disappeared and the inhabitants became poor. But the Jews did not come back and there are no spare Jews to take their place.

Israel is prospering. In 2022 it grew by 7% (GNP), the top of the OECD countries and the rest. We are now a highly developed rich country. Imagine where we could be without carrying the Arab handicap.   

What I am saying is that the universal feeling that the Jews were exploiting the natives is the opposite of the real situation. We, Jews, were and are exploited and oppressed in the Galut  - politically and economically - and the Zionist Movement really is our national liberation movement. 

East Lansing 63 years ago

At least three people were killed and at least five others were injured at Michigan State University after shootings at two locations on the East Lansing campus Monday night, university police said.

Students were urged to "secure in place" as officials searched for a shooter who remained at large hours after gunfire was first reported at 8:18 p.m. local time, according to NBC News.

I copy this news note only because I visited the place in winter 1960 and was kindly hosted by Prof. Klein. It was snowing and it was very quiet and nice. No one in that time imagined a massacre in the campus. Who and why would do a thing like that?

What I read at age 12

 

My uncles in Buenos Aires had a collection of pre-WWII Szinhazi Elet (an illustrated magazine of the thirties, from Budapest). I read them all voraciously. It dealt mostly with the celebrities of the day, the Austro-Hungarian titled aristocracy, and fashions of London and New York (of impossibly tall and slim gentlemen and ladies), although the Budapest theater life and readership was Jewish. But Jews, identifiable as such, figure only in humor section. Yet, in Buenos Aires 1959, I was able to read between the lines and enjoy the wit of that lost world. My world.