BRICS flags
TOWARD A PEACEFUL PLANET
(Global Majority... continued)
Did someone say, SCO? Attended by Russia, China, India, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the 22nd Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in September 2022 was “a clarion call, a defiant declaration, that the countries, which account for over half of the world’s population, are no longer going to defer to the United States,” remarks former CIA analyst, Larry Johnson.
Regarding the United States and NATO as state sponsors of terrorism, SCO members “see the United States as a petulant child” that coerces others “by throwing temper tantrums and launching ill-conceived, foolish foreign military operations,” Johnson continues — killing, maiming, traumatizing and displacing tens of millions of conveniently distant families, whose principle fault is that they are not ‘murcans. And have no wish to emulate that lawless regime’s violent, “shithole” cities.
“The countries of the SCO are no longer going to let the United States dictate where, when and how the game is played,” Johnson asserts. “They are bringing their own ball and setting up their own rules.”
Like its sister multipolar organizations, the SCO “offers much welcome hope for a saner, more peaceful world,” this veteran American analyst continues. “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization explicitly and unreservedly promotes peaceful partnership and multilateralism — in stark contrast to the de facto Western worldview of hegemony and endless conflict.”
SCO logo
WELCOME TO THE EURASIAN CENTURY
Trading through key hubs along the old Silk Roads that for centuries fostered trade and cultural interaction across Eurasia, “the SCO represents 40% of the world’s population and about one-third of total global economic production,” observes Strategic Culture. The SCO is the most tangible expression of the emerging multipolar community. Its founding tenets are based on mutual dialogue and cooperation in respect of international law and inalienable national sovereignty. The organization proclaims peaceful partnership and coexistence in full conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.”
Unfortunately for humanity, “no nation is more at odds with the UN Charter than the United States which wantonly pursues war and violence to satisfy its interests,” the editorial concludes. “Russia and China are embracing nations that represent the majority of humankind. It is the power-crazy American rulers who are becoming isolated in their appalling death wish for the planet.”
When will the Cold War-fixated neocons understand that declaring the entire world your enemy isn’t the smartest policy for a foundering nation? BRICS has already “surpassed the former colonial powers of G7,” updates S.L. Kanthan. “Attempts by the West to impose its will on everyone else, to impose its so-called rules on which it wants to establish and maintain a pro-western order are totally futile and absolutely hopeless.”
Here’s an excellent 13-minute version
BUILDING WITH BRICS
The original BRICS “powerhouse” — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa — are a cooperative association of five major emerging national economies, “able to pursue fully independent policies,” highlights Fyodor Lukyanov. “Participation in BRICS [signifies] belonging to a world that is emerging beyond established Western dominance,” continues the editor of Russia in Global Affairs, chairman of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and research director of the influential Valdai International Discussion Club. But “it does not necessarily have to be about confrontation.”
“We are getting applications to join every day,” says Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to BRICS+. With 30 nations currently on its anti-war, pro-trade and self- development waiting list, BRICS+ currently encompasses Southeast Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Africa and South America — “truly putting the ‘Global’ in the Global South,” Escobar tallies. “At its current stage, BRICS represent 40% of world population, 25% of the global economy, 18% of world trade, and contribute over 50% for world economic growth. All indicators are on the way up.”
Fast.
Longtime friends welcome each other’s contributions -Ramil Sitdikov/Sputnik
DITCHING THE DOLLAR
At their imminent June 2-3 summit in Buenos Aires, neighboring South American nations will focus on how a sanctions-proof South American currency — which Brazil suggests calling the sur (“south”) — could boost regional trade, while eliminating the risk of being held hostage to the sanctions-weaponized U.S. dollar.
As Washington struggles to sell its global agenda of bombing, threats, demands and sanctions, “the emerging-markets bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will meet in Cape Town on June 2-3,” M. Dowling reports for Bloomberg. Up for discussion are a bigger BRICS and a regional currency. The new South American currency, which Brazil suggests calling the sur (“south”), could boost regional trade, while eliminating the risk of being held hostage to the sanctions-prone U.S. dollar.
Bolstered by BRICS, formerly cowed developing countries no longer take calls from bewildered White House kleptocrats. Iraq is moving to ban US Dollar transactions, 10 ASEAN nations have alreadyy ditched the toxic dollar in favor of currency swaps for global trade, and 41 countries have signalled interest in a gold-and-commodies-backed BRICS currency as soon as it becomes available. Not so so long ago, refusing dollars for their oil resulted in the brutal executions of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Qaddafi, and the transformation of their savaegly bombed countries into incubators for US-backed Islamic jihadists.
Not this time.
THREAT OR SALVATION?
The 7th annual Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok last September, “attracted business representatives and government officials from more than 60 countries,” TASS reports. “Spurred by USA sanctions, more than 290 agreements worth $54 billion were signed,” creating more than a hundred-thousand jobs.
This is bad news for a bankrupt belligerant that remains exceptionally “dependent on foreign tribute for its survival in today’s global rentier economy,” writes Michael Hudson. “That is why the United States has surrounded Eurasia with 750 military bases.”
And why they are pushing back.
BRICS heads of state, May 2023
THE TWO-THIRDS WORLD UNSHACKLED
Has anyone mentioned that the rising Global South comprises 85% of the world’s population? These self-described “Allies” already “represent the seven billion human-beings of the Free World,” writes the always informative Batiushka. While each member state pursues its own priorities, all have foresworn armed aggression in favour of dialogue and diplomacy in settling their disputes.
Self-determination protected by non-interference agreements and propelled by fair trade is proving contagious. Even more alarming for Western supremicists, BRICS members will soon include the world’s top 7 oil and gas exporting nations: Russia, Iran, Mexico, Venezuela, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
If there’s one thing Washington, London, Ottawa and Brussels fear more than peace, it’s public ownership of natural resources, key infrastructure, and national currency, leading to the “national self-sufficiency” Hudson prescribes.
MEET THE NEW G8
“The G20 is slowly fading away, while a potential new G8 ramps up,” Pepe proclaims. Bolstered by a self-reinforcing cascade of “win-win” trade agreements, the self-assembling G8’s burgeoning economic clout already exceeds the EU. As Speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin points out, “This non-Russia-sanctioning G8 is 24.4% ahead of the G7, in terms of GDP purchasing power. All non-adherents to the all-out Western economic war against Russia, will soon dominate global markets.” (my emphasis)
EU COLLAPSING, EAEU RISING
Historically regarded as a “box of gems” at the center of the Eurasian Heartland, the East Asia Economic Union is “blessed with immense natural wealth — fossil fuels, rare earth metals, fertile agrarian lands,” Volodin reminds the self-isolating West. This natural endowment is now allowing the EAEU bloc to put together a new financial system, based on gold and natural resources. In this upended New Great Game, what will Western nations use for chips?
More visionary EAEU leaders have long understood that Afghanistan’s strategic location is central to the Central/South Asian crossroads connecting Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and landlocked Uzbekistan to South Asia markets. As resource rich Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe stampede to join BRICS+, the war-shattered Afghan economy is set to surge under trade literally fast-tracked to its Central Asian neighbors and China’s key Kashgar market.
IT’S A GAS
With Europe having spurned cheap and reliable Russian energy in favor of costly seaborne substitutes and industrial collapse, Moscow has given up trying to make friends with a rabidly hostile West. Turning its spigots East, the Siberia 2 natural gas pipeline to China will reach full capacity in 2024. The Arctic LNG 2 pipeline to Asia is “80% ready” to divert cheap and plentiful natural gas away from nuclear-shuttered, coal-burning Europe. As Salaam suggests, “The chess board layout is rapidly changing, and opportunities are aplenty.”
Just not for the handful of ideologically-blinded Schwab disciples currently ruling the USA, UK, EU, Oz and Canuckistan.
SOVEREIGNTY FIRST
Firmly, fundamentally, “today’s multipolar system led by Russia and China has premised itself upon the defense of international law and national sovereignty as outlined in the UN Charter,” reports Tyler Durden.
“We just need to keep up with the dizzying succession of bilateral meetings, deals, and progressive interaction of BRI, SCO, EAEU, BRICS+ and other multilateral organizations to get a glimpse of how the new world-system is being configured,” pipes up Pepe Escobar in his epochal essay, The Second Coming Of The Heartland.
Besides fleeing the dollar, what do the SCO, BRICS+, ASEAN, EAEU and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have in common? Each allied organization, Escobar reiterates, “relies on consensus, mutual respect and a balance of interests.”
For the globalist wrecking crew, such win-win arrangements pose an insurmountable threat.
This West Africa rock sign means hands off!
AFRICA EXPELS WESTERN OVERSEERS
“France shown out the door, a red carpet spread before Russia.” -Le Point headline in France.
In August 2022, Mali expelled French troops, along with the French ambassador. In September, a military coup in the African nation of Burkina Faso continued this house-cleaning.
By January 2023, Faso’s new government had ordered French troops out of the country. Thousands of joyous citizens gathered in the capital, waving the flags of Burkina Faso and Russia. “France – out!” they shouted. “Long live Putin and Russia!”
“For South Africa,” Hill explains, “Russia is the continuation of the USSR, which was decisive in helping the African National Congress fight Apartheid.”
Political scientist, George Trenin puts it more bluntly: “FASO is just another step in the global anti-colonial, liberation struggle outlined by Putin.”
Ethiopian senior TV producer, Bisrat Melesse also sees a mineral rich Africa benefitting from this emergent multipolar world. Africans have long favoured Russia because Moscow offers respectful cooperation on “equal” terms to African nations — while the “West is executing its own agenda, interfering in internal matters of the Africans,” the Fana News anchor explains.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Eswatini's Foreign Minister Thuli Dladla meet in Eswatini -Russian Foreign Ministry
Thuggish and condsecending American emissaires invariably approach the Two-Thirds World with hypocritical criticisms, destructive demands and ultimatums. In contrast, actual Russian and Chinese diplomats ask, “How can we help you develop your infrastructuere to ensure a more prosperous future for everyone invloived?”
Guess which approach is more favorably received?
In May 2023, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Kenya. “Africa quite reasonably presents its intentions to become a real full-fledged center of the emerging multipolar world order,” Lavrov told assembled dignitaries. And the only way to ensure more inclusive representation at the UN is to “admit representatives of Asia, Latin America, and Africa to the Security Council.”
And give India a permanent seat in the UN.
The Second Summit Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum for PEace, Security and Development will convene in St. Petersburg, 26-29 July 2023.
وداعاً *
Saudi Arabia’s bilateral trade between BRICS member states topped $160 billion in 2022, including transactions made in local currencies. In June 2023, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Friends of BRICS in Cape Town that Saudi Arabia shares basic values with the BRICS countries, believing that relations between countries should be based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, non-interference, and adherence to international law.
Until recently, the US dollar — and the world hegemony it ensured — were underwritten by Saudi oil sold exclusively in greenbacks. Today, Riyadh’s oil exports earn around $170 billion/year.
In petroyuan.
(* Arabic for “goodbye and farewell.”)
BEIJING THE PEACEMAKER
Even worse, despite Washington’s tireless efforts to spread chaos and division throughout the Middle East, on March 10 this year, Beijing finalized a peace deal that saw Saudi Arabia and Iran agreeing to resume diplomatic ties and trade, after an antagonistic 20-year freeze.
BAD FAITH
In sharp contrast, the White House has spurned China’s roadmap for negotiations, just as it had signed and then ignored Putin's Maidan Peace Accords.
Not to be outdone, in late March 2022, Britain’s unkempt Mad Clown PM shambled into Kiev to hang out with his best bro. Bojo feared that his unpredictable actor was days away from committing peace, preventing Ukraine’s destruction, saving hundreds of thousands of lives and shutting down a war-and-weapons grift more profitable, addictive and destructive than fentanyl. Urging all-out war instead, and promising to deliver endless killing machinery, Boris Johnson persuaded Zelenski to duck out on the April 1 signing of a peace deal favorable to Kiev.
In a war-weary world ransacked and abused by deranged elites whose unfounded self-regard is exceeded only by their incompetence, there are two ways to end this tenuously “managed” war instantly. Just hand weapons to its most outspoken political proponents and send them to the front (like all those 16-year-old boys and old men snatched off the streets of Odessa and Laviv.) And see how fast the dying stops.
Alternately, the same result can be acheived without further gunfire by simply cutting off all the cash, crypto and weaponry flowing into the world’s most corrupt regime.
Arab leaders pose for a family portrait ahead of the Arab League Summit, welcoming back Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, May 19, 2023 -press handout/Reuters
HOUSE OF SAUD THE PEACEMAKER
One month later, after condemning US-backed ISIL terrorism and urging a political solution to its 12-year proxy war, Saudi Arabia endorsed Syrian unity and integrity by inviting its leader, Bashar al-Assad, back into the Arab League, where he was warmly received. Al-Assad told the assembled delegates that Syria would always belong to the Arab world, and called for non-interference in the internal affairs of Arab states. “It is important to leave internal affairs to the country’s people as they are best able to manage their own affairs,” the Syrian president said.
“Saudi Arabia joining BRICS shows the world exiting Western dominance,” adds Global Affairs editor. Fyodor Lukyanov adds. Several hundred US troops illegally occupying and ripping off northeastern Syria’s wheat and oil fields had better stop building new bases. And start packing.
Mahdi al-Mashat, chair of Houthis’ political council, meets the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, in Sana’a. -Xinhua.webp
With the Saudis eager to extricate themselves and qualify for BRICS membership, on April 10, 2023 Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni coalition government and Houthi rebels agreed to a minimum eight-month ceasefire while talks begin on the future of Yemen. The calamitous eight-year-long, US, UK and Canadian backed intervention killed or maimed more than 10,200 children, precipitating an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, with more than 20 million Yemenis suffering from indiscriminate bombing and more than 4 million people displaced from their homes.
Zelensky recently spoke long-distance to Modi -palpalnewshub.com
INDIA THE PEACEMAKER
Meeting in the world’s first atom-bombed city during the recent G7 fiasco (in which Zelensky compared Bakhmut to Hiroshima), Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi assured the Ukrainian president-for-life that he’d do everything in his considerable diplomatic power to help end a conflict that is wounding the world.
“The war in Ukraine is a very big issue for the whole world. It has had many different impacts on the whole world,” the elder statesman reminded the self-obsessed faux revolutionary actor. “But I don’t see this as a political or economic issue, for me this is an issue of humanity, an issue of human values.”
Though unresponsive to such unsettling concepts as “humanity” and morality, the Ukrainian strongman — who was elected on promises of restoring peace to his divided nation — asked the Indian PM to endorse his personal peace plan. Though ambitious, Zelenski's pre-conditions for “negotiations” might assure his continuing existence:
1. Though chopped up, wrecked, bled white, bankrupted and widely dispersed, Ukraine demands the complete withdrawal of Russia’s troops back to prewar borders.
2. Concurrently, the Russians must “return” Russian Crimea and Russian Donbass to the same Nazis who have publicly vowed their exterminate for not being “pure” Ukrainians.
Both sides agreed to remain in touch.
How many Russian bases are on the US border?
PUTIN THE PEACEMAKER
The man who put together the NATO-sabotaged Minsk Peace Accords has brokered another historic treaty. The newly inked Armenia-Azerbiajan peace agreement restores trade and ends more than three-decades of conflict between these neighboring nations. While the autonomous Armenians would prefer full independence, as the Duran’s Alex Mercouris points out, the benefits of both countries being reintegrated into Central Asia and the Caucuses will be profound.
America in 2023
COMING ABOUT
Will the West learn the bitter lessons we’ve so perversely and persistently arranged for our fractious selves? Or is it too late to stop and rectify the hurt and damage our xenophobic and mostly unelected “elites” are causing?
This former sailing master recommends that those attempting to navigate these fast-shifting trade winds would do well to avoid western shoals by tacking east. And setting course to meet the new dawn.
South African Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa, Indian PM Narendra Modi, Chinese Pres.t Xi Jinping, Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin, then-Brazilian Pres. Jair Bolsonaro during 11th BRICS Summit in Brazil, Nov. 14, 2019. -Sergio Lima/AFP/GETTY
Dedication:
To my Arab hosts in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during the first Gulf War, who went out of their way to welcome and assist this Canadian journalist while on a private peace mission with Vancouver artist Carl Chaplin.
William Thomas