El extraño camino de Milei hacia el judaísmo

https://www.publico.es/internacional/extrano-camino-milei-judaismo.html

Javier Milei es ahora oficialmente embajador internacional de la luz para la organización judía Jabad Lubavitch. El presidente argentino recibió su nueva distinción en la sinagoga The Shul, en Miami (Estados Unidos), donde el rabino Sholom Lipskar le reconoció sus « esfuerzos en nombre de Israel y la comunidad global, honrando su inquebrantable dedicación a difundir la libertad, la esperanza y los sentimientos positivos frente a la oscuridad ».

Milei, con una kipá blanca sobre la cabeza, trajo desde ese escenario una historia desconocida acerca de una ascendencia judía: « Mi abuelo, a poco tiempo de partir, descubrió que era judío. No lo sabía, pero le dijeron: Si tu mamá era judía, tú eres judío. Él estaba muy apegado a su madre y su abuelo además era rabino ». El presidente, educado en un colegio católico de Buenos Aires, habría recibido así desde la infancia « valores del judaísmo » a través de su abuelo.

El mandatario estuvo acompañado de personas claves de su entorno político-afectivo: su hermana, secretaria de la Presidencia y determinante en el Gobierno, Karina Milei; su expareja, la actriz Fátima Flores; el empresario y embajador designado en Washington, Gerardo Werthein, así como el rabino y nombrado embajador en Israel, Shimon Axel Wahnish.

Este último fue quién llevó a Milei a la lectura de la Torá en el año 2021, cuando el ahora presidente daba sus primeros pasos hacia el judaísmo. Wahnish se convirtió en su « guía espiritual » en el camino que lo llevó en dos años de ser electo diputado por primera vez a convertirse en presidente del país: de tertuliano de televisión a mandatario, de católico a ponerse la kipá.

Las fuerzas del cielo

« La victoria en la batalla no depende de la cantidad de soldados, sino de las fuerzas que vienen del cielo », dijo Milei cuando muy pocos pensaban que podría llegar a ser presidente. La cita proviene del Libro de los Macabeos, que forma parte de la historia judía, y fue convertida en eslogan principal de campaña como « Las Fuerzas del Cielo », escrito en miles de gorras y camisetas utilizadas por jóvenes y adultos de diferentes clases sociales.

Milei incorporó referencias del judaísmo a lo largo de su carrera electoral que lo llevó a la Casa Rosada, como la aparición del instrumento shofar en su cierre de campaña en Buenos Aires. Después  de quedar primero en las primarias presidenciales en agosto del año pasado, fue a Nueva York a visitar la tumba del rabino Menachem Mendel Schneerson, líder de la organización jasídica Jabad Lubavitch.

u acercamiento creció desde entonces: « Existe la posibilidad de convertirme al judaísmo. No lo podría hacer ahora porque el cumplimiento de los preceptos podría chocar con mi actividad de presidente, como por ejemplo, a la hora de respetar el shabat. Es más profundo y más a largo plazo », afirmó por ejemplo en enero entrevistado por el Wall Street Journal.

Milei viajó a Jerusalén en febrero, donde lloró frente al Muro de las Lamentaciones, publica tuits en hebreo, y es ahora embajador internacional de la luz. Un acercamiento acelerado al judaísmo, en un país donde vive la comunidad judía más grande de América Latina, con cerca de 250.000 personas.

Las varias caras del judaísmo presidencial

« El proceso de vinculación de Milei con el judaísmo tiene estrictas causalidades económicas y geopolíticas, no supone un vínculo espiritual ni un interés basado en temáticas ligadas específicamente a la religiosidad, sino al contacto con determinados sectores, por un lado, y a la negación de su formación educativa en el catolicismo provista por sus padres, a quienes desprecia« , explica Jorge Elbaum, sociólogo integrante del Llamamiento Argentino Judío y exdirector de la Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA).

La relación conflictiva entre Milei y sus padres ha sido relatada en numerosas investigaciones, en particular la violencia recibida durante su infancia. En cuanto a la dimensión económica y política, Elbaum hace hincapié en cómo su acercamiento al judaísmo le abrió relaciones con actores vinculados a Wall Street, transnacionales, y « sectores de derecha judíos tanto en Israel y en EEUU como en Argentina ».

La organización Jabad Lubavitch, a la cual se adscribe Milei dentro del mundo judío, tiene una incidencia particular en el aspecto económico: « Tienen una orientación muy precisa de vincularse con millonarios, la tienen por ejemplo en Argentina con Eduardo Elsztein y Werthein, que son grandes empresarios que hoy tienen puestos importantes como representantes de Estados Unidos en Israel ».

De la Torá a la geopolítica

« No solo defiendo el derecho a la legítima defensa de Israel, además avalo la política que está llevando a cabo Netanyahu« , afirmó esta semana Milei en referencia a la guerra en Gaza, cuando ya han sido asesinados más de 33.000 palestinos, y varios gobiernos, como el de Brasil y Colombia en el caso de Latinoamérica, acusan a Israel de cometer un genocidio.

El respaldo incondicional ratificó su política exterior anunciada durante la campaña: el alineamiento a Estados Unidos con « demócratas o republicanos », e Israel. Los hechos recientes dieron cuenta de la inamovilidad de esa dirección, como el anuncio junto a la jefa del Comando Sur estadounidense, Laura Richardson, de construir una « base naval integrada » conjunta en Tierra del Fuego, o la ratificación de querer mudar la embajada argentina en Israel a Jerusalén.

El problema principal de esa política, según Elbaum, es que va contra los intereses argentinos, « que tienen que ver con el reclamo por Las Malvinas, y Estados Unidos e Israel votan contra Argentina sobre ese tema; que Estados Unidos es socio en la OTAN del Reino Unido que tiene bases en nuestro país; o que China y Brasil son los máximos socios comerciales de nuestro país y Estados Unidos lleva a Argentina a pelearse con esos socios« .

Abrazarse a Tel Aviv en medio de la guerra es, a su vez, involucrarse en un conflicto de alta peligrosidad. La Cámara Federal de Casación Penal argentina acaba de responsabilizar, en un fallo cuestionado, a Irán y Hizbolá por los atentados contra la embajada de Israel y la Asociación Mutual Israelita en Argentina de 1992 y 1994.

El camino de Milei hacia el judaísmo es, así, tanto geopolítico como de vinculaciones con sectores económicos y políticos nacionales y extranjeros, lectura de la Torá, elaboración de un idioma político atravesado de referencias judías, aunque aún no de conversión. Un camino rápido y radical, como su propia carrera política que lo llevó a la Casa Rosada.

El extraño camino de Milei hacia el judaísmo

Catherine Curran Vigier : The French Left Unite Against Fascism

BY CATHERINE CURRAN VIGIER

French politics has been in chaos since President Macron announced a snap general election after the victory of the far right Rassemblement Nationale (RN) in the European elections. Jordan Bardella’s RN list took 31,37 % of the vote.

Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest list led by Marine le Pen’s niece, Marion Maréchal Le Pen, took another 5, 47% of the vote. Macron’s Ensemble, (Together) list, only got a humiliating 14.6%. The traditional Conservative party, LR (The Republicans) did even worse with 7,25 %.

On the Left, the PS (Socialist Party) got 13,83 % and LFI (France Unbowed) list led by Manon Aubry, got 9.89%. The PCF (Communist Party) got 2.36% and EELV (the Greens) 5.50 %. When the General election was announced, the leader of LR, Eric Ciotti, immediately signed an electoral agreement with the RN.

In the ensuing uproar the party leadership voted to expel Ciotti, but he claims to have the support of the party’s members. In fact, LR have been singing from the same hymn sheet as Le Pen since Nicholas Sarkozy targeted immigrants in his 2007 Presidential campaign. Since then, politicians of the right and left have used anti-immigrant rhetoric and Islamophobia to win votes.

Emmanuel Macron has been no different. While using fear of fascism to bolster his own position, he also adopted key elements of RN policy – intensifying Islamophobia and hatred of immigrants and allowing racist police to shoot to kill in immigrant neighbourhoods.

This mirroring the RN was clear in January’s draconian Asylum-Immigration law which made it harder for migrants to get any kind of social welfare, and imposed migration quotas to satisfy the demands of the RN. Macron’s adoption of elements of the RN programme and his pandering to racism and Islamophobia means that, as one economist put it, ‘every game is a home game’ for them.

In his press conference on June 12th, Macron claimed to represent the centre ground against the twin threats of the ‘extremists’, RN and LFI. But he concentrated his fire on the Left. He accused Jean-Luc Mélenchon and LFI of antisemitism, and of antiparliamentary, disorderly behaviour. These charges have long been used in the media to discredit LFI, just as Jeremy Corbyn was undermined by accusations of antisemitism in the UK. LFI’s Manon Aubry led a dynamic campaign focused on the cost of living, the agricultural crisis, and Palestine, and this could allow the party to drive the rest of the left forward in the General Election.

Overall, LFI gained one million votes compared with 2019. Aubry did very well urban areas, with over 50 % of the vote in some working class areas with high immigrant populations like Seine St Denis. Over 60 % of French Muslim voters chose LFI. Most big cities resisted the RN, but it was able to pick up votes in rural areas and those on the outskirts of provincial towns devastated by the agricultural crisis and the withdrawal of state services. In the east, for example, LFI beat the RN in Strasbourg and Mulhouse, while the RN picked up votes in the surrounding countryside.

Macron did not expect the left to present a united response in such a short time, but the main parties – the PS, LFI, EELV, the PCF and Olivier Besancenot’s NPA (New Anticapitalist Party) have all signed up to a common electoral programme and a commitment to stand one candidate per constituency. The alliance has been baptised the New Popular Front.

This programme promises to impose a price freeze on basic foodstuffs, to return the retirement age to 62, to bring back the tax on the highest revenues, to annul the recent Asylum-Immigration law, to increase the minimum wage and to recruit workers to key state sectors like health and education. These are welcome perspectives for all those who fought over the retirement age hike in 2023, or with the Yellow Vests in 2018. Less welcome is the pledge of continued arms for Ukraine, and the commitment to a two-state solution in Palestine.

There is a danger that the fight will remain purely electoral. Without mass pressure from below, the conservative elements inside the alliance, the PS and PCF, will prevail and could even destroy it from within, as they did with the NUPES alliance in 2022.

The other danger is thinking that the RN vote is a protest vote, and that promises of economic reform will win voters back. This has been argued by left-wing economist Julia Cagé on social media; the truth is that the RN vote is a racist vote, and this must be addressed squarely in the course of the campaign.

Félicien Faury, author of a study on the normalisation of the far right, says

‘The RN has transformed racist feelings into votes and we cannotunderstand the RN vote without looking at hostility to immigration.’

He points to three mechanisms:the link established between immigration and economic precarity; the fear of losing social position, since many see immigration as the reason for their loss of status; and competition for access to the benefits of the welfare state. He also points to a cultural backlash rooted in the feeling that elites want to impose multiculturalism on a ‘people’ who do not share these values.

The limitations of the New Popular Front mean that some groupings on the Revolutionary Left like Lutte Ouvrière and Revolution Permanente have dismissed it and will be standing their own candidates.

This overlooks the role played by ordinary people on the left in pushing for left unity in the face of the fascist threat. So long as that pressure from below remains, we can go forward. Many groups outside parliament have offered support, like Attac and Greenpeace France, trade unions, the antizionist Jewish group, Tsedek, a collective of 6,000 young people from the banlieue have signed up. The main unions have called for demonstrations everywhere on

Saturday June 15th. The bigger the coalition is, the better chance we have of stopping Le Pen. Also, the more we can mobilise people on the streets, in workplaces and neighbourhoods, the better we will be able to stop neoliberal ideas from sabotaging the New Popular Front.

Source: https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/06/17/the-french-left-unite-against-fascism/

Catherine Curran Vigier : The French Left Unite Against Fascism

Hunter Maxwell : International Relations Need Reforms

Written by Hunter MAXWELL

It’s no secret that we live in a time of incredible political turbulence. Events are moving so fast and international processes must adapt to them. However, the current system of international relations, based on the centuries-old dominance of the West, although it has begun to reform, is still not active enough. As a result, there are international institutions and organizations in the world today, and relationships between countries have been built that either fully or partially do not meet the interests of a large number of countries.

The global problem of transatlantic structures is that they are absolutely sure they are right. Politicians did not even consider in theory the possibility that their approach in international relations with imposing their own position on any country in the world might be wrong. However, it was just like that. Russia has repeatedly offered a way out of this situation. Similar initiatives include the proposal to conclude a European security treaty in 2008, and in a memorandum by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, which was handed over to the West in December 2021. But these attempts, unfortunately, were not successful. At best, issues that did not play a decisive role in bilateral relations were proposed for discussion, but were of a secondary nature and were beneficial only to Europe and the United States.

However, the approach of the United States and Europe discredited itself very quickly. Is it worth remembering all the countries that have suffered as a result of the actions of Washington and its allies? Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Afghanistan are the most affected states at the hands of the West. But everyone understands the outcome of the actions taken: millions of broken lives, thousands, tens of thousands of dead. Today, NATO continues the White House‘s policy in the Middle East and North Africa, regions in which NATO‘s presence was never intended at all. NATO‘s presence in Ukraine is developing, and today the North Atlantic Alliance is almost openly participating in military operations in the east of the country.

Vladimir Putin offered the West a way out of the current situation. In his speech at the Russia’s Foreign Ministry, he outlined the foundations of the future security architecture, which will be laid jointly by Russia and China with the participation of other Eurasian states. Its key point is that participation in the new structure will be open to all countries based on geographical location: “We live on the same continent, no matter what happens, geography cannot be changed, we will have to coexist and work together one way or another.” However, the participating countries will be guided by the principles of equality and mutual respect.

The biggest danger in Europe comes from the politicians themselves, who, at least, create a feeling, that they fear Washington more than the discontent of their own citizens. The European bureaucrats are ready to endure any humiliation from the United States, and at the same time declare that they are fulfilling the will of the peoples of Europe. Today, Washington is forcing Europe to increase arms supplies to Ukraine, and tomorrow it will require sending a military contingent? Will EU politicians agree to such demands? Given the fact that European countries are heavily dependent on their overseas partner today, it is quite possible for European leaders to agree to such a step.

In order to create such a system of interstate relations in the European space, it is necessary to abandon the presence of external powers in Eurasia, Vladimir Putin is sure. At the current stage, such a thesis sounds extremely unrealistic, but with the development of international relations, it seems that the world is transforming from a monocentric to a polycentric one. The system of international relations, which was based on the total domination of Western structures, has already been destroyed. However, the North Atlantic structures are still trying to dictate their vision to the rest of the world. But such an approach is absolutely destructive in the conditions of multipolarity that we are witnessing today. By their decisions, both the United States and Europe isolate themselves from full participation in building a modern security system.

The non-viability of the system of international relations based on the dominance of Western structures confirms that in the conditions of competition with Asian countries, losing, the West puts into effect various protective barriers, acting exclusively in bad faith towards its partners. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the climate agenda, even the United Nations are used by the West as a platform to promote their own interests to the detriment of the interests of other countries. Attempts to promote their own interests without taking into account the existing status quo have a negative impact on the international security structure. The situation in Ukraine or the Middle East are the clearest examples of this.

The world needs a new, multipolar system of international relations. Whether Europe and the United States want to or not, they will have to come to terms with the fact that international relations today are not the same as they were 30 or even 20 years ago. Most of the participants do not want to put up with the unpunished lawlessness that Washington and Brussels, whose wealth is based on more than five hundred years of military dominance and the siphoning of resources from Africa, Asia, Latin and Central America for centuries, arrange. Today it‘s time to pay the bills. The United States and Europe will have to admit that their time has passed.

Source” https://orientalreview.su/2024/06/17/international-relations-need-reforms/

Hunter Maxwell  : International Relations Need Reforms

Olivia Smith : The Russian “Phenomenon” Through The Eyes Of The Western Media

Written by Olivia SMITH 

Analysts from many countries are trying to unravel the phenomenon of the current growth of the Russian economy. Some of them are envious of Russia‘s success, because with their declining economies they cannot offer anything like this.

Many foreign experts believe that the growth of Russia’s GDP by 3.6% last year indicates the high stability of the country’s economy and its great potential in the face of global challenges. In June, the World Bank more than doubled its forecast for Russia‘s economic growth in 2024, raising the corresponding figure from 1.3% to 2.9%. Russia is really getting better in the economy, but the mainstream Western media do not notice this, talking about the “economic collapse“ of Moscow. The thing is that they are disconnected from reality and mired in their own misinformation, former American diplomat Chas Freeman notes in an interview with Dialogue Works.

The German Die Welt claims that “anti-Russian sanctions really turned out to be beneficial for Russia, forcing it to abandon the model of an energy exporting country in order to diversify its economy.“ One of the leading Western experts, former French Minister of Economy and Finance Bruno Le Maire, explains the sharp growth of the Russian economy by increasing the production of weapons in Russia. However, many analysts doubt this assessment, noting that the impact of arms production on industry is certainly great and diverse, but, on the other hand, the production of tanks and armored personnel carriers has not led to a reduction in the production of various types of transport (from rail to automobile), household and civilian electronics. Of Russia‘s 5.5% GDP growth in the first quarter, “military production“ is no more than 2.2%, i.e. civilian production bypasses it, which “is a very good result compared to Germany or France.“

German analysts explain the growth of the civil sector by import substitution and substitution of Western companies that left Russia. These investments are mainly financed by the profits of enterprises and government subsidies. This is the reason for the significant increase in investments in metallurgy, chemistry, electronics, machine tool construction, automotive and other industries.

As the result, the West and, above all, NATO, are faced with a stabilized Russia, which is once again becoming a great power, encouraging the rest of the world, and which does not want to follow the West in its adventures. Moreover, despite the sanctions, the European Union has increased purchases of Russian iron, steel and aluminum. Belgium alone has increased its purchases at times, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Hungary and other countries have stocked up on millions of euros. Contrary to US prohibitions, the ruble is becoming the main currency of Russian foreign trade transactions.

Bloomberg notes that the implementation of two major infrastructure projects – the Northern Sea Route (NSR) and the North–South International Transport Corridor (ITC) with the participation of Iran and India – will enable Russia to take a central place in international trade, despite all attempts by the West to isolate it against the background of Special Military Operation. Thanks to these projects, the time of delivery of goods to the consumer will be reduced by half compared to the traditional route through the Suez Canal, and the dangers associated with navigation in the Red Sea will be avoided. The construction of new transport routes will also strengthen Moscow‘s pivot away from Europe towards India and China, and emerging markets will finally be freed from the hegemony created by developed countries. All this will only strengthen Russia‘s position on the path of its sovereignty.

The Indian Express writes that the Russian Federation is “a surprisingly economically stable country, although it holds the record for the number of sanctions: it has more imposed on it than Iran, Cuba and North Korea combined.“ However, the Russian economy is moving forward, almost ignoring the concerted efforts of the Western powers to bring the country they dislike to its knees. And so successfully that the Washington–based IMF even warned in its latest country assessment that “there are some signs of overheating“ in the Russian economy.

The Indian Express writes that the Russian Federation is “a surprisingly economically stable country, although it holds the record for the number of sanctions: it has more imposed on it than Iran, Cuba and North Korea combined.“ However, the Russian economy is moving forward, almost ignoring the concerted efforts of the Western powers to bring the country they dislike to its knees. And so successfully that the Washington–based IMF even warned in its latest country assessment that “there are some signs of overheating“ in the Russian economy.

Investments, increased government spending, and the fact that Russia has managed to prepare well for blockade scenarios from the West since 2014, according to experts of The Indian Express. At the same time, analysts often pay attention to the fact that when secondary sanctions were imposed, there was a decrease in exports in Russia‘s trade balance. But in the modern Russian economy, it is domestic demand that is becoming the driver of development. The acquisition of industrial sovereignty with the growth of production is the economy of a new reality in which Western countries are losing their competitiveness due to thoughtless sanctions policy. Former American diplomat Chas Freeman concludes in an interview with Dialogue Works: “Western media claim that Russia is suffering a military collapse and economic collapse, etc. But when you base your policy on considerations divorced from reality, you get into trouble. And this is just our case…“

Source: https://orientalreview.su/2024/06/17/the-russian-phenomenon-through-the-eyes-of-the-western-media/

Olivia Smith : The Russian “Phenomenon” Through The Eyes Of The Western Media

Russia’s View on Gold

Published in Vedomosti, the Moscow business paper in December 2022, Glazyev’s views are very relevant today given Russia’s presidency of BRICS. There follows a translation of his article.

By Alasdair Macleod

MacleodFinance Substack

It is now eighteen months since Sergei Glazyev, Commissioner for Integration and Macroeconomics within the Eurasian Economic Commission, disclosed his views on gold and its economic value. Undoubtedly, his opinion carries weight not only with President Putin to whom he is very close, but he also influenced Russian proposals for a new trade settlement currency for BRICS which failed to make the Johannesburg agenda last August.

Published in Vedomosti, the Moscow business paper on 27 December 2022, Glazyev’s views are very relevant today given Russia’s presidency of BRICS which commenced on 1 January. We should regard it as the background behind the formulation of a new BRICS and SCO trade settlement currency which will almost certainly make the agenda at the major BRICS meeting scheduled for 22—24 October in Kazan. Glazyev clearly understands the importance of securing the rouble’s value to gold, which is bound to inform his thinking with respect to the trade settlement currency proposal. I shall be writing about this and other geopolitical factors for my Substack subscribers later this week.The Origins of MoneyMenger, CarlBuy New $5.94(as of 07:52 UTC — Details)

There follows an English translation of Glazyev’s article in its entirety.

Golden rouble 3

A severe sanctions blockade created the necessary prerequisites for the reversal of Russian foreign trade by 180 degrees. The main foreign economic partners were the countries – members of the EAEU, China, India, Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, etc. And with each of these countries, the Russian Federation has a surplus in the trade balance. According to a preliminary assessment by the Bank of Russia, in January – September 2022 it strengthened to $ 198.4 billion, which is $ 123.1 billion more compared to the same period last year. This surplus was taken out of the country (while half went to pay off the external debts of Russian companies with their replacement with internal rouble lending) and is reflected in the balance of payments line item “net capital exports”.

In friendly countries, there is a process of de-dollarization, and the share of settlements in soft currencies is growing. In September, Russia became the third country in the world in terms of the use of the renminbi in international settlements. According to the Central Bank, in recent months, the trade in the renminbi accounts for up to 26% of foreign exchange transactions in the Russian Federation. The yuan/roubles pair on the Moscow Exchange has repeatedly overtaken the dollar and euros in terms of daily trading. When used in foreign trade calculations of the Russian Federation, renminbi, rial, etc. and the presence of a trade surplus, the result is the accumulation of multibillion dollar cash balance equivalents on the accounts of Russian exporters in soft currencies in banks of the above partner countries.

The accumulation of funds in soft currencies will further increase. But since this money is also subject to exchange rate and possible sanctions risks, there is a need to sterilize its excess mass. The best way is to buy non-sanctioned gold in China, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, possibly Iran and other countries for local currencies. Gold purchased by the Russian Central Bank can be stored in gold and foreign exchange reserves, within certain limits in central banks of friendly countries, and can be used for intercountry settlements, currency swaps, and clearing operations. Part of the gold can be repatriated to Russia.

Russia’s transition in relations with friendly countries to trade in national currencies is a true tactical solution, but not strategic. If pricing continues in dollars on Western exchanges and trade flows are insured by English companies, then there is no real isolation from the western “curve mirror” derivative pricing systems.

In conditions of unprecedented sanctions pressure, the task of Russia is not to learn how to play according to the “curve rules” of the West, but to build transparent and mutually beneficial rules of the game with friendly countries, create your own pricing, exchange trading, and investment systems. And gold can be a unique tool to combat Western sanctions if you recalculate the prices of all major international goods (oil and gas, food and fertilizers, metals, and solid minerals). The fixation of the price of oil in gold at the level of 2 barrels for 1g will give a 2-fold increase in the price of gold in dollars, Zoltan Pozar calculated the strategist at Credit Suisse. This would be an adequate response to the “price ceilings” that the West introduces, — a solid foundation. And India and China can take the place of global commodity traders instead of Glencore or Trafigura.

Gold (along with silver) for millennia was the core of the global financial system, an honest measure of the value of paper money and assets. Now the gold standard is considered an anachronism. It was cancelled in its final form half a century ago (the United States announced the temporary closing of the golden window, adopted in 1944 in Bretton Woods) tying the dollar to oil. But the era of the petrodollar is ending. Russia, together with its eastern and southern partners, has a unique chance to jump from a sinking ship of a dollar-centred debt economy, ensuring its own development and mutual trade in accumulated and extracted strategic resources.

Gold played an important role in both industrialization and the post-war refusal of the USSR to join the dollar standard. By signing the Bretton Woods Agreements, the USSR did not ratify them, determining the binding of the rouble not to the dollar (which was a condition for participation in the Marshall Plan), but to gold and to “the entire property of the country”. “Golden rouble 2.0” ensured a rapid economic recovery after the war, allowed the implementation of nuclear and missile projects. Reformer Khrushchev cancelled the binding of the rouble to gold, carrying out a monetary reform in 1961 with the actual devaluation of the rouble by 2.5 times and its pegging to the dollar, having formed the conditions for the subsequent transformation of the country into a raw materials appendage of the Western financial system.

Now the conditions for “Golden Rouble 3.0” have objectively developed.

The sanctions imposed against Russia boomeranged on the western economy. The geopolitical instability they provoked, rising prices for energy and other resources, inflation and other negative factors put strong pressure on the global economy, in particular the global financial market. In 2023, all these circumstances will objectively affect the change in the stereotypes of investment policy in the world – from risky investments in complex financial instruments to invest in traditional assets, primarily in gold. According to Saxo Bank analysts, in 2023 increased demand for this metal will lead to it price rising to $3000. As a result, there is a real opportunity in the very near future to significantly increase reserves due to the increase in physical volumes of gold, and revaluation of its value.

Large gold reserves allow Russia to pursue a sovereign financial policy and minimize dependence on external lenders. The amount of reserves affects the country’s reputation, its credit rating and investment attractiveness. Large reserves allow you to plan the state budget for a long time, buying off many economic and political risks. In 1998, the lack of sufficient international reserves became one of the causes of the crisis, which ended in default for Russia. Now our country already has large gold and foreign exchange reserves, being fifth in the world (after China, Japan, Switzerland and India) and ahead of the United States. But this is not enough.Multivitamin for Men -…Buy New $23.47 ($0.78 / Count)(as of 02:07 UTC — Details)

In China, which ranks first in gold production, there is a legislative ban on the export of all mined gold. According to the Shanghai Gold Exchange, over the past 15 years customers have taken delivery of 23,000 tons in physical form. India is considered the world champion in gold accumulation. Over the past quarter century, gold has been flowing from West to East through the main hubs (London, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and others) with a capacity of 2000 – 3000 tons per year. Did the western Central Banks’ official gold reserves remain in their storage facilities? Or has it all gone through swaps and leasing? The West will never say, and Fort Knox’s audit will not.

Over the past 20 years, gold mining in Russia has almost doubled, while in the United States has almost decreased by half. By dismantling real wealth, the United States has lost its competence and interest in the production and processing of strategic resources (gold and uranium, etc.). The printing press funds the purchase of everything they want.

Gold production, which today barely occupies 1% of Russia’s GDP, may well grow (due to the growth of both production and relative oil prices) to 2%—3% GDP and become the basis for the rapid growth of the entire commodity sector (30% of GDP) and the balance of foreign trade, which so far relies on the fiat currencies and the risks of devaluation and insufficient currency convertibility. Instead, Russia will be able to increase gold production from its three large, already commissioned fields from 330 tons to 500 tons, becoming a world leader in this strategic industry. Bonus: we get a strong rouble, strong budget and — in implementing the advanced development strategy, a strong economy.

Authors – Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Sergey Glazyev and Executive Secretary of the NTS under the Chairman of the EEC Board Dmitry Mityaev

This originally appeared on MacleodFinance Substack.

The Best of Alasdair Macleod

Alasdair Macleod runs FinanceAndEconomics.org, a website dedicated to sound money and demystifying finance and economics. Alasdair has a background as a stockbroker, banker and economist. He is a Senior Fellow at the GoldMoney Foundation.

Copyright © Alasdair Macleod

Russia’s View on Gold

The United States of Go Figure

By James Howard Kunstler

Kunstler.com

“Forced obedience to obvious lies is the essence of totalitarianism. It’s the ultimate flex for psychopaths.” — Dr. Toby Rogers

You realize, don’t you, that everything going on around the Ukraine fiasco on the NATO side is completely insane? The folks running the US government — Barack Obama and his witches’ coven — started the whole thing over there in concert with a gang of corporate players (BlackRock, sundry oil-and-gas companies, Haliburton types, arms-makers, bunch of big banks), plus the dastardly WEF for “guidance” (ha!), looking to grab the mineral wealth of Ukraine and, ultimately, of Russia itself. Nice try. Didn’t work out. Tons of money pounded down a rat hole.Young Man BluesKunstler, James HowardBest Price: $14.41Buy New $16.95(as of 05:02 UTC — Details)

Now, the chatter is that we (NATO) “can’t afford to lose.” Yeah? But we’re losing. Russia will hold the eastern Ukraine provinces and what’s left in the rest of Ukraine will be a failed state drained of men under sixty able to work at anything, bankrupt, broken. It will take a century, if ever, for Ukraine to recover from all that and the West will have gained nothing. Anyway, that’s the true prospect. And so, the West’s “solution” to that humiliating quandary appears to be: start a bigger war, right up to and including nukes. That’s good thinking there, Butch, said Sundance.

Why the European members of NATO wanted to go along with this nickel-plated clusterfuck is an abiding puzzle of history now, like who exactly bumped off JFK in 1963. Germany, the Euro club’s biggest economy, stood by listlessly while America blew up its supply of affordable natgas (the Nord Stream pipelines), which was an act of war by us against Germany. Apparently, Olaf Scholz went to our CIA station in Berlin for a haircut one day and came out with a lobotomy, staring blankly through the whole affair like a Hinterwälder steer on the killing floor. Meanwhile, goodbye industrial economy! Nice knowing you. Looks like it’s back to the fourteenth century, living on rough black bread, sleeping with the cattle under your house for heat in winter, fighting jihadis inside your town walls. . . .

What is the purpose, you ask yourself, of this new world war we’re itching to start? And why now, exactly? The stupid answers may be the correct ones. To furnish an emergency pretext allowing “Joe Biden” (Barack Obama & Co.) to “postpone” the election? If so, I guess they want a hot civil war even more than WWIII, because that’s what they’ll get. Or is it just to complete the destruction of the USA, turning us into a failed state run by a tranny Mamluk-ocracy? Or is it, as Ed Dowd has averred, to cover up the imminent implosion of the US / Euroland debt debacle?

To provide cover for all that, the West held a fake peace conference at a five-star resort in Switzerland last week — flutes of Louis Roederer Cristal Brut with langoustine mousse in puff pastry boats . . . to die for! (and you just might) — and you know how serious the USA was because we sent our ace problem-solver Veep Kamala Harris, who cackled and hee-hawed her way through a session or two and then. . . just. . . split the scene, mysteriously. Russia, was conspicuously not invited, by the way. Whose idea was that?

Mr. Putin marked the occasion by issuing a sane proposal to commence peace negotiations so plain, simple, and straightforward that even “Joe Biden” might have gotten the drift: 1) withdraw Ukrainian troops from Donbas territory that has joined the Russian Federation, and 2) agree that Ukraine not join NATO. The US and NATO instantly rejected it, on grounds unspecified. According to The New York Times own search engine this very morning (June 17), the newspaper hasn’t published a news story on the Ukraine War for the past five days. Go figure . . . .

While Veep Kamala Harris was yukking it up over the peace hilarity in Switzerland, “Joe Biden” went to the far more important celebrity fundraiser out in Hollywood, headlined by the likes of actors George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and late-nite snarkist Jimmy Kimmel, that is, certified experts on geopolitical conflict, united in the cause of “saving our democracy” from “the dictator Trump.”The Geography of Nowhe…James Howard KunstlerBest Price: $1.17Buy New $11.88(as of 10:41 UTC — Details)

“Joe Biden” declared that Donald Trump was bent on “retribution. . . he’s gonna get back at the people.” Roger that. But I think he meant that Mr. Trump might open some inquiries into how come the Democratic Party and its Intel blob ran one debilitating lawless hoax after another on our country for the past eight years while bankrupting it and destroying the medical system, the legal system, the currency, higher education, and the US military, not to mention jailing thousands on fake criminal charges and letting ten million alien mutts into the country, many of them jihadis with dubious intentions.

But never mind all that. $30-million got raised in Hollywood to continue the game of pretend that “JB” is running for reelection. Pretend is what actors actually do, you see. They’re really good at it, and your job is to play along, suspend your disbelief. That’s the essence of showbiz. Of course, that chunk of the US population no longer mesmerized by CIA-sponsored disinfo ops is somehow rising implacably in every poll. World War Three might be the only answer for that, after all. In any case, Barack Obama himself even came out of the woodwork to lead the cheerleading among the stars in LA. And when the time came, he took the dazed, vacantly grinning “President Joe Biden” gently by the elbow and assisted him in shuffling offstage, demonstrating to the whole world how things really work in the United States of America.

Reprinted with permission from Kunstler.com.

The Best of James Howard KunstlerJames Howard Kunstler is the author of The Long Emergency, Too Much Magic, The Geography of Nowhere, the World Made By Hand novels, and more than a dozen other books. He lives in Washington County, New York.

Copyright © Kunstler.com

Previous article by James Howard Kunstler: Sick of and Done With

The United States of Go Figure

Zombie Republic

By Dr. Joseph Sansone
Mind Matters and Everything Else

History often tells the tale that Julius Caesar’s ambition destroyed the Roman Republic. This is not entirely true. Julius Caesar did not want to cross the Rubicon and break the Roman Republic. He had no choice. After a decade conquering Gaul, Caesar was ordered to relinquish his command and face prosecution for essentially committing the crime of becoming too great of a threat to the prevailing power structure. In essence, the Roman Senate declared war on Julius Caesar.

This was preceded by the breakup of the triumvirete of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey. Crassus led a disastrous campaign in the east against the Parthians that led to his beheading, and Pompey’s wife, also Caesar’s daughter, died during childbirth severing that familial connection between Pompey and Caesar. The triumvirate itself was the result of a republic on life support.Southern Independence:…Pace, Charles T.Best Price: $16.20Buy New $20.20(as of 01:47 UTC — Details)

Nearly 100 years before the brutal murder of Julius Caesar by the Roman Senate, the grandsons of Publius Cornelius Scipio, (Scipio Africanus), endured a similar fate. Scipio was the Roman General that defeated Hannibal. In 133 B.C. Tiberius Gracchus was brutally murdered by the Roman Senate. In 121 B.C. his younger brother Gaius was also murdered by the Roman Senate. The crime the Grachi brothers were guilty of was an attempt to redistribute public lands to the displaced farmers and veterans of wars. Tilting at windmills maybe, hardly worthy of being bludgeoned to death or having your head placed on a spike.

This is not nearly as socialist as it sounds. As is often stated, the extraordinarily rapid success of Roman expansion led to its eventual decline. Domestic resources in the form of money and manpower were utilized in Roman expansion; however, the rewards and riches were granted to a small segment of aristocrats and financial interests. The Roman military in a sense became a mercenary force for a select few that benefitted from these adventures in the form of slaves and plunder. The State literally enriched a group of aristocrats and business interests while impoverishing others. Farms left in disrepair while away at war were gobbled up by those that profited from the wars. The Grachi brothers were basically attempting to restore the natural balance in Roman Italy that existed before the State distorted that balance.

The austere Roman Republic with its concept of Roman virtue and honor was in the process of transforming into an ostentatious decadent empire. During this period of transformation, the Roman Republic became a will-less body, robbed of its soul, listless, a shell of its former self. The Roman farmer soldier was replaced with imported slaves and farmers unable to maintain their properties after long campaigns overseas were forced to sell. Plantations filled with slave labor replaced the family farm.

Flash forward to the modern Roman Republic known as the United States, which was clearly modeled after the Roman Republic, even going as far as naming Capital Hill after the Capitoline Hill of Rome. Following a similar pattern of rapid growth and expansion, and apparently falling victim to the same curse of rapid success, the American Republic has equally become a will-less body, robbed of its soul, listless, a shell of its former self. The deep state has added insult to injury by literally installing a Zombie President acting as a metaphor for the Zombie Republic. As all republics eventually do, the American Republic has become corrupt to the point that it now longer serves its representative function.

Unfortunately for us, technology has history moving faster through the birth, growth, decay, and death of the system at hand. America went through 200 years or so of rapid expansion, and in the 20^th century, saw military success and an indirect form of imperialism, and we now see a military that has become a mercenary force for a select few, however, it is globalist in nature, rather than nationalist. Rather than serving the will of Congress, which seems to be merely for show, the military instead serves the will of an international deep state.Barefoot Scientist — T…Buy New $18.99 ($11.17 / Fl Oz)(as of 09:33 UTC — Details)

This is an ingenious strategy. American resources are squandered bankrupting our country as our military is used as a mercenary force for globalism. To win without fighting is best….

The animated corpse of an American Republic is merely going through the motions and behaving somewhat like the post republic Roman Empire. Instead of being under the thumb of an emperor, a deep state shadow government has infected the remaining corpse of a republic. Congress, like the roman Senate, appears to have become a quaint tradition.  Politicians are captured, intimidated, and or blackmailed. Government, i.e. deep state controlled media, including social media, have censored information, facilitating massive disease, disability, and death from the mRNA nanoparticle injections. They have also brain washed millions into accepting totalitarianism as a normal state of affairs.

The increased speed of which history seems to be moving looks like the American Republic may bypass the Empire phase and go straight to the eventual decay that happened five hundred years later with the Western Roman Empire. The illegal alien invasion is the 21^st century version of barbarian hordes crossing the border. Since 1913 the debasing of the currency has also occurred on hyperdrive as we have a completely fiat currency and the specter of a Centralized Digital Bank Currency looming around the corner. This will equate to total slavery.

Zombie Republic

Reuters Reveals Secret U.S. Government Anti-China Operation To Increase Covid-19 Deaths in East Asia & Pacific

By Eric Zuesse
The Duran

On June 14th, Reuters headlined “Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic: The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk.” 

A June 15th Google-search of the headline “Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic” produced virtually no publication of that Reuters news-report anywhere within the U.S. empire — U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, etc. The news-report was not published, for example, in the New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, Guardian, Telegraph, and Daily Mail, nor CNN, NBC, CBS, BBC, NPR, PBS, Deutsche Welle, etc. That headline did briefly run on the websites of USA Today and Fox News, but never the news-report itself on that given site, and the link to the story no longer works at either USA Today or Fox News. There had been a link to that headlined story, but that news-report had not been published on either site. The only mainstream site in the U.S. empire that posted not only the headline but that also at their site the actual news-report, was Australian Broadcasting Corporation, on June 15th. A Google-search of that headline four hours later on June 15th showed no better results. So, this extraordinarily important news-report remains as being news even the day after Reuters had published it on their news-feed. Suppression of a major news-story from a U.S. empire news-agency such as Reuters is highly extraordinary.Crimea: The Great Crim…Royle, TrevorBest Price: $4.16Buy New $19.99(as of 07:52 UTC — Details)

That suppressed news-report — which should immediately have been splashed everywhere, because it was among the biggest news-stories anywhere on June 14th — opened:

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. military launched a secret campaign to counter what it perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines, a nation hit especially hard by the deadly virus.

The clandestine operation has not been previously reported. It aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China, a Reuters investigation found. Through phony internet accounts meant to impersonate Filipinos, the military’s propaganda efforts morphed into an anti-vax campaign. Social media posts decried the quality of face masks, test kits and the first vaccine that would become available in the Philippines – China’s Sinovac inoculation.

Reuters identified at least 300 accounts on X, formerly Twitter, that matched descriptions shared by former U.S. military officials familiar with the Philippines operation. Almost all were created in the summer of 2020 and centered on the slogan #Chinaangvirus – Tagalog for China is the virus.

This post, identified by Reuters, matched the messaging, timeframe and design of the U.S. military’s anti-vax propaganda campaign in the Philippines, former and current military officials say. Social media platform X also identified the account as fake and removed it.

TRANSLATION FROM TAGALOG

#ChinaIsTheVirus

Do you want that? COVID came from China and vaccines came from China

(Beneath the message is a picture of then-Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte saying: “China! Prioritize us first please. I’ll give you more islands, POGO and black sand.” POGO refers to Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators, online gambling companies that boomed during Duterte’s administration. Black sand refers to a type of mining.)

“COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” one typical tweet from July 2020 read in Tagalog. The words were next to a photo of a syringe beside a Chinese flag and a soaring chart of infections. Another post read: “From China – PPE, Face Mask, Vaccine: FAKE. But the Coronavirus is real.”

RELATED

Podcast: Pentagon’s anti-vax campaign

After Reuters asked X about the accounts, the social media company removed the profiles, determining they were part of a coordinated bot campaign based on activity patterns and internal data.

The U.S. military’s anti-vax effort began in the spring of 2020 and expanded beyond Southeast Asia before it was terminated in mid-2021, Reuters determined. Tailoring the propaganda campaign to local audiences across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Pentagon used a combination of fake social media accounts on multiple platforms to spread fear of China’s vaccines among Muslims at a time when the virus was killing tens of thousands of people each day. A key part of the strategy: amplify the disputed contention that, because vaccines sometimes contain pork gelatin, China’s shots could be considered forbidden under Islamic law.

The military program started under former President Donald Trump and continued months into Joe Biden’s presidency, Reuters found – even after alarmed social media executives warned the new administration that the Pentagon had been trafficking in COVID misinformation. The Biden White House issued an edict in spring 2021 banning the anti-vax effort, which also disparaged vaccines produced by other rivals, and the Pentagon initiated an internal review, Reuters found.

“I don’t think it’s defensible. I’m extremely dismayed, disappointed and disillusioned to hear that the U.S. government would do that.”

Daniel Lucey, infectious disease specialist at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine.

The news-report also said:

Then-Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte pleaded with citizens to get the COVID vaccine. “You choose, vaccine or I will have you jailed,” a masked Duterte said in this televised address in June 2021.

When he addressed the vaccination issue, the Philippines had among the worst inoculation rates in Southeast Asia. Only 2.1 million of its 114 million citizens were fully vaccinated – far short of the government’s target of 70 million. By the time Duterte spoke, COVID cases exceeded 1.3 million, and almost 24,000 Filipinos had died from the virus. The difficulty in vaccinating the population contributed to the worst death rate in the region.

COVID-19 deaths in the Philippines

The pandemic hit the Philippines especially hard, and by November 2021, COVID had claimed the lives of 48,361 people there. …

To implement the anti-vax campaign, the Defense Department overrode strong objections from top U.S. diplomats in Southeast Asia at the time, Reuters found. Sources involved in its planning and execution say the Pentagon, which ran the program through the military’s psychological operations center in Tampa, Florida, disregarded the collateral impact that such propaganda may have on innocent Filipinos.

“We weren’t looking at this from a public health perspective,” said a senior military officer involved in the program. “We were looking at how we could drag China through the mud.” …

In 2019, before COVID surfaced in full force, then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper signed a secret order that later paved the way for the launch of the U.S. military propaganda campaign. The order elevated the Pentagon’s competition with China and Russia to the priority of active combat, enabling commanders to sidestep the State Department when conducting psyops against those adversaries. The Pentagon spending bill passed by Congress that year also explicitly authorized the military to conduct clandestine influence operations against other countries, even “outside of areas of active hostilities.”

Esper, through a spokesperson, declined to comment. A State Department spokesperson referred questions to the Pentagon.

The statement that “We weren’t looking at this from a public health perspective,” said a senior military officer involved in the program. “We were looking at how we could drag China through the mud.” means that the U.S. Government was placing a higher priority upon “dragging China through the mud” than on keeping covid-19 deaths down in the Assia-Pacific region. Especially in the Phillipines, which under Duarte’s Presidency was neutralist in the conflict between the U.S. Government and the Chinese Government, adding to the death-rate there was not a practical concern for the U.S. Government. In other words: the U.S. Government treats neutralist nations as-if they’re instead among its enemy-nations, to such an extent that even civilian deaths there that are caused by the U.S. Government, are of no practical (much less of ethical) concern. This operation by the U.S. Government was expected to increase deaths in that region (because the U.S. Government believed that vaccinations would reduce covid-19 deaths in its own and allied territories), but they were not concerned about that. They were interested only in “how we could drag China through the mud.” The possibily that deaths would increase deaths in and around Asia as a result of what they were doing, was of no concern to them. The extent to which the post-1945 U.S. Government is significantly different than was Hitler’s Government in Germany, is therefore an appropriate matter for public debate, though it’s not being debated anywhere in today’s U.S. empire. The major importance of this news-report from Reuters is that it importantly contributes to that debate; and, now, the further fact of its virtually complete black-out within the U.S. empire, displays the extent to which the U.S. empire will not tolerate the existence of any such public debate. Perhaps this fact is even more important than that extraordinary report from Reuters itself was.Crisis and Leviathan: …Robert HiggsBest Price: $7.96Buy New $7.42(as of 05:25 UTC — Details)

A reasonable conclusion from all of this is that America’s Government treats neutral countries as-if they are enemy countries. An associated aspect of this fact is that starting on June 11th the U.S. Government increased its secondary sanctions against Russia — the sanctions against businesses that trade with Russia — so as to punish them for that and thereby to limit such firms’ choices as to which countries they will be allowed by the U.S. Government to have commerce with. Secondary sanctions present non-U.S. targets (neutral countries and firms) with a choice: do business with the United States or with the sanctioned target, but not both. This is erecting a new “iron curtain,” of a specifically economic type, between the American empire — “The West” — and “The East.”

The U.S. Government is, in effect, betting that to force neutrals to choose between “The West” and “the East,” “The West” will expand, instead of reduce, its empire. Whether, or the extent to which, the reverse might happen, was so much as even considered by “The West,” is not, as-of yet, publicly known.

However, specifically as regards what was the topic in that Reuters news-report: to be concerned not at all about how the death-rates in the east-Asian region would be affected, but ONLY about “how we could drag China through the mud,” was — given the fact that the U.S. Government thought that to increase the vaccination-rates in that region would reduce the death-rates there — for the U.S. Government to intend to increase covid-19 deaths in the East-Asia & Pacific region. It was their intent, regardless of whether, or the extent to which, it was the result of what the U.S. Government did there.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.

This originally appeared on The Duran.

Последняя книга историка-расследователя Эрика Зуэссе «АМЕРИКАНСКАЯ ИМПЕРИЯ ЗЛА: посмертная победа Гитлера и почему социальные науки должны измениться» рассказывает о том, как Америка захватила мир после Второй мировой войны, чтобы поработить его миллиардерами из США и их союзников. Их картели добывают мировые богатства, контролируя не только свои «новостные» СМИ, но и социальные «науки», обманывая общественность.

Авторские права © The Duran

Reuters Reveals Secret U.S. Government Anti-China Operation To Increase Covid-19 Deaths in East Asia & Pacific

Flamme.

Denn diejenigen, die sich über die Odessaer aus dem Kulikovo-Feld lustig machten, die im Haus der Gewerkschaften in Odessa verbrannt wurden, und über „frittierte Colorados“ und „Kebabs nach Odessa-Art“ schrieben…

…konnten sie sich doch vorstellen, was für eine Art? der Flamme war bereits in Bezug auf sich selbst, schließlich wird diese Flamme des Hauses der Gewerkschaften in Odessa am 2. Mai 2014 zurückkehren (?)

Dass ihre Brüder und vielleicht einige von ihnen selbst in 8-10 Jahren auch von den schrecklichen Flammen verbrannt werden, die alles in den Schützengräben und Unterständen am Ankunftsort der „Solntsepikov“ verbrennen

. Fotoquelle: https://warfiles.ru/206295-opublikovano-effektnoe-video-samogo-massovogo-zalpa-tos-solncepek.html

Aber diese schreckliche brennende Flamme, die das Personal der Streitkräfte der Ukraine am Aufprallpunkt buchstäblich verbrennt, ist eine direkte Folge des Brandes im Gewerkschaftshaus in Odessa, den die ukrainischen „Patrioten“ vor zehn Jahren in den sozialen Netzwerken so enthusiastisch

begrüßten noch schrecklicher, brennender Bumerang…

Denn das ist das Letzte — sich über den Horror lustig zu machen, der am 2. Mai 2014 im Gewerkschaftshaus von Odessa geschah…

Und für diejenigen, die das zulassen… die einschränkenden Faktoren der Gesellschaft Eine solche rein intuitive Parallele in Zeit und Raum gilt nicht mehr

https://ru-polit.livejournal.com/26851504.html

How did beggars live in Victorian England?

England in the second half of the 19th century was truly a land of contrasts. While the newly rich made their fortunes and built their personal empires in the wake of the industrial revolution, the poor, orphans, widows and unemployed vegetated in real slums. Big cities, especially London, literally became a center of attraction for the “humiliated and insulted” who left their small villages and towns in the hope of getting at least some income in the capital or other large center.

The poor had a choice of where to spend the night: on a bench for 1 penny, hanging on a rope for 2 pence, or in a “coffin” for 4 pence.

The greyness, dirt, cold and hunger of dangerous and inhospitable city corners are well described in the works of Charles Dickens. He became one of the first popular authors to show the “dark” side of life in Victorian England. The homeless of that time, who for various reasons found themselves in a desperate situation, had to choose, in fact, between the workhouse or survival on the streets. And many preferred the latter option — there were truly terrible stories about the conditions of detention in workhouses. Those who were able to scrape together even a few pennies tried to avoid a similar fate at all costs. Such institutions seemed little better than prisons: the rules in them were strict, corporal punishment could be applied to the guests for offenses, the work itself was extremely hard, and the food was very meager.

Children queuing for free food.

One workhouse in Andover was even at the center of a scandal in the 1840s: it turned out that its inmates were forced to literally fight each other for the right to gnaw bones, they were kept there so hungry. It was for this reason that even those who did not have shelter preferred to vegetate on the streets and take on any available work, just to avoid being sent to the workhouse.

In search of work, residents of villages and small towns went to the capital, but finding decently paid work was extremely difficult: due to the huge influx of labor (in the 19th century, the population of London tripled), physical labor was valued extremely cheaply. Nevertheless, many poor people earned an income from irregular jobs: they were hired to beat carpets, repair furniture, load heavy objects, and do other small tasks. Renting a bed and sharing a room with other hard workers was considered true happiness. Many did not have enough money to pay for a roof over their heads. For this reason, the streets of big cities are clogged with homeless people. The Salvation Army took up the solution to the problem: this Christian charitable organization originated in Great Britain in 1865, its goal was to make life easier for the poorest and most disenfranchised segments of the population. The «army» offered a kind of refuge for those who had nowhere to go.

A seat on a bench for 1 penny

The cheapest option was to go to a place where you could buy a seat on a bench for 1 penny. In the large hall there were rows of long wooden benches—this is where the poor crowded in the evenings. In fact, “guests” were offered to spend the night on such a bench for a penny, and guests could only sit, but in no case lie down. In some places, special caretakers were even hired to ensure that no one who paid a penny dared to fall asleep. Some establishments had simple cooking appliances like stoves and fireplaces, while others offered nothing more than a roof over their heads and a hard bench. There was no hygiene there: there were no sinks or bathrooms.

Shelter on a bench for 1p.

It was assumed that the poor paid only for the opportunity to spend the night dry and in a sitting position — otherwise they would have to get wet in the rain on the street cobblestones. Food was not provided in such houses: the guests made do with the pitiful crumbs that they brought with them. As a rule, the owners of these cheap shelters did not even spend money on heating, so the temperature in the room was not much higher than outside. Not only men came here to spend the night; it happened that women and children bought themselves a place on the bench. One penny today is equal to about a quarter of a pound sterling (about 25 rubles), and therefore almost everyone could scrape together enough for such a unique overnight stay.

“Suspended” overnight stay for 2 pence

The poor could spend the night a little more comfortably in establishments where they were literally tied up with a rope. Late in the evening, guests sat on a bench, in front of which there was a long thick rope — they could lean on it in their sleep. Thus, visitors slept sitting, with their arms thrown over a tight rope (or leaning their torso on it), which held them in this position. Compared to just a place on a bench for a penny, you could sleep here, albeit in a very uncomfortable position, but still sleep. Early in the morning, around 5 or 6 o’clock, the caretaker, who was jokingly called the footman, cut off one end of the rope, causing the sleepy guests to literally fall to the floor. Such a rude manner of awakening once again reminded the poor of their powerless and deplorable situation — they did not stand on ceremony with the beggars. Heating was extremely rare in these establishments; it happened that one or more guests literally froze to death, and in the morning their bodies simply fell to the floor after the rope was cut. The fee for such an overnight stay was 2 pence.

Photo of a “suspended overnight stay” taken at a later period.

Bed in a «coffin»

The most advanced “apartments” were considered to be the so-called “coffins”. Through the efforts of the Salvation Army, the poor could spend the night in a warm place, where they were offered to rent a bed in a wooden box resembling an ordinary coffin for 4 pennies. Inside the “coffin” there was an oilcloth or leather bed stuffed with straw; in addition, a simple blanket was provided. The length of the box reached approximately 170 cm; only those whose height was short could fit there comfortably. Unlike benches and ropes, here the guests were able to sleep lying down. As a rule, visitors were also offered hot drinks and a small snack, and the room was heated. The main problem in any such hostel was lice, which literally devoured the unfortunate people at night. But despite all the inconveniences, the poor certainly preferred sleeping in these wooden boxes to other alternatives.

The men settle down for the night in “coffins.”

From benches to full-fledged shelters

At the end of the 19th century, philanthropist and rich man Lord Rowton invested his personal funds in opening six new hostels for the poor of London. The first of them was built in 1892, and the last in 1905. From the outside, these establishments looked like a huge hotel with many floors and windows. The largest of the hostels could accommodate more than a thousand people, while others received hundreds of guests every day. Here, visitors purchased tiny cabins that contained: a small bed with a mattress, sheet and blanket, as well as a chair, a shelf and hooks for clothes. Each of those who came here essentially received their own space and did not share it with other workers.

The clients of these hostels were men. In addition to their personal cabin, they could also use common rooms, which included a large dining room for several hundred people, a smoking room, a reading room and washrooms. Workers had access to bathrooms, toilets, sinks, and a kitchen where they could prepare their own food. In the basements there were offices for a hairdresser and a tailor; those who could afford to pay for such services came to them. Cleaning and housekeeping in hostels was carried out by specially hired personnel — dishwashers, maids and cooks. The fee for this overnight stay was from 6 pennies, although food was paid separately. For example, on Christmas Day 1897, guests could buy themselves a full holiday dinner with turkey for 8 pence and plum pudding for 1 penny.

One of Rowton’s hostels.

According to Rowton, the men who came to spend the night in his hostels were the most honest hard workers who did not want charity towards themselves. “He who behaves with dignity and pays from his own funds will always find a warm welcome here, whether he is in a greasy shirt or a frock coat.” The guests had to maintain discipline, not make noise, not fight, not get drunk, but behave modestly and respectfully towards others. And although the rules in Rowton hostels were slightly reminiscent of the rules of a prison or correctional institution, there was no shortage of clients.

Yet significant changes were still ahead. The state became truly interested in the affairs of the poor already in the 20th century, when the Victorian era came to an end. In the 1900s and 1910s, the Liberal Party in Great Britain introduced a number of reforms to improve the welfare of the poor. In 1908, a law was passed according to which anyone who had reached the age of 70 could count on a pension from the state. Since 1909, special commissions have appeared to help the unemployed find a job.

The ensuing health insurance reform allowed for sickness benefits. The government also sponsored free school lunches for low-income children. Over time, however, closer to the middle of the 20th century, unemployment benefits also appeared, which were paid to those who could not work for health reasons. One way or another, only with the advent of the 20th century did the state gradually begin to solve the problems of the homeless and poor — in the Victorian era and earlier, these concerns were shifted to the church, charities and individuals.

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