Did the Israeli's say 40 day ceasefire?

Hamas should accept it--the most generous offer yet.

With no preconditions, Hamas.  Sounds something they will accept.

My opinion.

Wilson Center: "US Leadership Matters in Addressing Forced Displacement Crisis"

On Thursday, April 25, 2024 1-2:30 PM, online, a discussion on forced displacement to the United States was taken up.  The moderator of the event, presenting panelists to discuss it in one of two groups, was RAFDI director, John Majok.  Discussants were Sarah Miller, Senior Fellow Refugees International; Professor Susan Martin, Emerita, Georgetown University; and Professor Laura Robison, Pennsylvania State University.  Then, continuing, Mathew Reynolds, UNHCR; Lauren Thomas, Advocacy Officer, Conrad Hilton Foundation; Nili Yossinger, Director, Refugee Congress; and Professor Hollifield, Tower Center SMU. 

Most migrants are coming from the global south to the north, many from Venezuela, Syria, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and some even from Ukraine.  There's typically someone from the Refugee Congress, a person who was once on the trek to the US and made it, to lend them a "Welcome" hand.  The financing each year has gotten leaner and yearly there's a deficit.   It is estimated travel for the "caravans" are some 11B only 6B available funds each year.  US-Aid and World Bank help with funding even once their here; and of course, religious groups are a great resource and provide assistance.

Nevertheless, there's great emphasis these professionals placed upon the need of migrant protection on the trek of many thousands of miles!  I would imagine the Cartels are a migrant's nightmare especially in Mexico.

Host governments may look kindly on migrants to their country, whether they end up in the States or stop off in another land, particularly if there are more older citizenry to care for than the population of younger people to supply its coffers from formal taxes with ample financial reserves.

These participants wanted also to assure their listeners that the migrants are emphatic:  they don't want to go back from whence they came!

The panelists seemed a dedicated group of advocates aimed at making the immigrants feel comfortable in their new land; and their long journey worthwhile.  But not just for their clan, but personally committed to contribute to our society what they can, as they develop an appreciation for what the United States is.        

Kennan Institute: "Possibilities and Pitfalls in the US-Kazakhstan Relationship" Discussion

An online discussion of US-Kazakhstan relations was held Thursday, April 25, 2024 10 AM-11 AM.  The moderator was Jennifer Wistrand of Kennan, and speakers on the topic were Professor Suzanne Loftus, Georgetown University; Mr. Erkin Tukumov, Director, Kazakhstan Institute; and Shalkar Nurseitov, Director, Center for Policy Solutions.

Kazakhstan borders Russia and China.  During April, dignitaries from Kazakhstan were in Beijing talking trade agreements, while a delegation from the United Kingdom, headed by David Cameron, Secretary for Foreign Affairs were in Astana, doing much the same thing.  Kazakhstan is rich in minerals, particularly uranium.  

United States educates some 1,500 students from Kazakhstan yearly here.  The country has a history of friendly relations with the States, though tends to vote in the United Nations with the Chinese-Russian clique.  It doesn't take a rigorous position on the Russian War in Ukraine that I could determine.  Tourism between the country and the world is promoted through a visa program designed to attract visitors.

Big business in Kazakhstan is oil and natural gas.  They are making strides in allocating water with China.  The country promotes its traditional values developed over a regional, long history, but I understand documents are written in Russian. And the commerce with the West is largely via Britain, a good friend, but business attracts US investments, too.  

I got the impression that the speakers would like even more attention and involvement with things going on in the US: "more invitations, please!"

    

President's Financial Team may have come up a scheme to back lending money.

 ...through making projections of savings incurred by working "off" the loan.

As I understand it, third world countries are complaining they have not tangible resources to back major loans to them.  They just don't have the needed financial reserves available.

Biden's idea is that they do have resources in the labor that could be made use of instead of society's paying for their not working but living off its welfare.  So by getting them to work, i.e., investing in their future livelihood, the labor they will expend is in lieu of society's handout to them that keeps them going as a viable potential worker now.

Using projections how much society saves by not giving them a welfare check is worth it as an investment in their future of work--made possible by putting them to work instead of their living off society's dole!

Now, if the banking industry would put the schemata into effect!  My apologies if I've not got Biden's idea quite right!

My thoughts to extend financial investment into the future earnings that save social handouts.  

Brookings: "Toward reimagined global financial architecture: Progress and Challenges"

The meeting was held on Friday, April 19, 2024 from 9-11 AM.  Ms. Cecilia Rouse, President of Brookings, introduced the participants on the common discussion topic, divided into two panels, giving each participant ample opportunity to make their points: Amina Mohammed, United Nations; Brahima Coulibaly, Global Economy, Brookings; Amar Bhattacharya, Global, Brookings; Azucena Arbeleche, Minister of Economy, Uruguay; Iyabo Masha, Director, G24; Njuguna Ndung'u, Cabinet Secretary, Kenya; and Jose Ocampo, Columbia University.

The group, seemed to severally, populate a protest, demanding reform of the financial system and greater say in the manner the global system of lending and borrowing money is set up.  They individually voiced concern over (1) how the poorer countries are to adequately remedy the effects of climate change--an immediate, pressing problem to which those lesser than the rich countries have little monetary means to cope with; and (2) how to prevent the favorite treatment certain groups their country receive as compared to the rest in their society.  The frustrations expressed boiled down to these two, essentially, in my opinion.

There has been corruption in high governmental circles worldwide, and democracies have deployed the will of the people replace autocratic control of the society that tends to lead to it.  The other--the current number of environmental catastrophes caused by climate change--may require substantial displacement of peoples and substitution of crops grown to feed them.

Through the United Nations, it would seem, plans will be drawn up to map strategies to circumvent the harsher effects of climate disasters upon a population, e.g., building infrastructures that can withstand their effects, moving whole segments of a people to other places on earth.

But the real problem loudly proclaimed at this meeting is that the poorer are not able to cope with the banking system as presently in operation--for centuries!  These countries just don't have the financial wherewithal to do battle for their own salvation!  And, the rich are busy with their own problems, it would appear.  In any case, I think there is loud dissatisfaction with the IMF and the World Bank--both cited in the course of the discussion.  

In short, the poor countries around the world are going into serious debt; as demonstrated by the loans to China through its recent Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, that ended up with native countries' incurring significant debt.   

     

 

    

What happens when America keeps trying to win!

President Biden is there to make sure "AMERICA KEEPS ITS WORD!"

Thank you, President Biden.

And thankyou, President Zelensky to let us show you, we are stable and dependable to our allies and the friends of our Democracy.

Hold FAST, President Zelensky.   You shall be proud of your troops and of our--US--steadfastness, too!  

I'm going to Share today for my packages!

It's an ordeal!  In the same area code.

 I remember still last month.

Aftermath: I'm told to keep trying.  It's what I am to do. 

Why do so many people choose to live under an autocracy?

It's because they were brought up in an autocracy-family in which the father was the final say of their little social group.  Children in this type of family simply transferred the father figure into the head of the government.  He is the ultimate leader, the king of the Empire, so to speak--just like most fathers.

Now in the democratic family, every member even a youngster of two years is encouraged to, not only voice what he thinks and feels, but argue with the others in the clique for his position!

*******

I had the privilege of growing up in a democratic family, which consisted of my Mom, my two sisters, and me!  That's after my Mother divorced my Father and left him back in snowy Buffalo, New York, while my Mom, my younger sister, and me journeyed off to New York City to live.  In New York, there was no father to rule to roost.  And so, we each sounded off and got our way when we could!  Usually, we had to convince the other two by saying "My way will let you do x, y, and z."   For instance, "Going to see my movie at the Bijou, you'll get the best popcorn and see a romance comedy on the screen."  Women always like eat popcorn to watch their figure, while enjoying a gooey, love story!  So, I had an advantage to my selection with which to woo them over to my evening out!

You get the point.  If we spent time persuading one another to adopt our point of view, we'd be doing something like acting out democracy as in a democratic government.  We have to be first trained in democracy, in order to appreciate the benefits of living in a democratic country.  Growing up in a democratically run family is just that training grounds, but don't wait till you vote in your first democratic election!

And living in a democratic country is far superior than living in an autocratic one.  Let's you be yourself!

My opinion.

  

 

  

   

Kennan Institute: Discussion on "Ukraine's Global Identity: Eurocentric and Decolonial"

The discussion was online 11-12 noon, April 11, 2024 by the Kennan Institute.  Mr. William Pomeranz, Director, was the moderator; and speakers were Ms. Svitlana Biedorieva, formerly with Kennan; Volodymyr Sheiko, Ukrainian Institute; and Professor Andrei Portnov, European University, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany.

Mr. Sheiko took a cultural perspective, arguing that the Ukrainians are moving away from Russian influence, its historical past, toward European culture, where it has its own peculiar character in development, far away from its colonial-past under Russian tutelage.  In this regard, its recent past resembles the colonies in Africa asserting their unique individuality as nations, independent of their mentor countries in Europe.

There can be little doubt that Ukrainian lifestyle has taken on a European look in the arts and in literature. Professor Portnov traced its cultural heritage back to the Germany and its history in centuries past.

Despite the bombings and destruction of buildings during the War, the people of Ukraine have assumed their own freedom as a peaceful country in search of acceptance, hopefully, by the European Union, to which Ukraine has applied for admission as a member state.

So, how should one look upon its past recent years of being a Russian satellite nation?  Well, it was a difficult pill to swallow that in business contracts and matters of weight documents were expected to be written and signed in Russian--so many citizens of satellite countries complained.  It was as if they were second-class citizens of a country they did not wish to identify with.  In any case, for the time being at least, Ukraine is independent and free from Russian authority--the past is over for most of the country-- not controlled by Russian troops. 

Through global diplomacy, recognizing affinity of cultural values and norms with Europe, the Ukrainians plea their case to no longer be subject to the Russian culture, involving war and pestilence as a way to settle disputes.  .  

Very important discussion at the KENNAN Institute today on Ukraine and why Putin is pushing hard so to take it and make it Russian..

To my way of thinking, President Putin is using Ukraine as a lesson what went wrong with the USSR concept of a Russian Empire in the world and how to bring back Russian Empire.

Mr. William Pomeranz, Director of the Kennan Institute (a part of the Wilson Center) came up with the idea.  I plan to present it as a major theme of today's discussion that occurred 11-12 noon on my write-up of the session soon.

But briefly, Putin is after eradicating memory in the Ukrainians of their culture, replacing it with pure Russian culture.  

And if he can do that, he'll use it as a paradigm for much attacking the Baltics, including Poland, even parts of Germany, if I sense what Mr. Pomeranz's thesis is: viz., Russian taking and replacing the disparate cultures of Central Asia with  Russian, e.g., language, cultural achievements, etc.

He's already trying it out in areas of Ukraine under Russian takeover, now.  An enterprise that, I would imagine, will take over a hundred years to wipe out from memory entirely in these several countries, formerly Russian satellites..  

The matter is so important, I'm raising it in this memo, first.

My opinion (which I was able to find in Mr. Pomeranz's comments made today that I next tied to what I found when talking with people from the Satellite countries of Russia on a trip to Moscow.)    

P.S.  President Putin is already wanted for crimes against humanity.  I wish those charges would be invoked before he goes much further against Ukraine.

I was involved in the humanity charges some years back in the 1990s against the Yugoslav President Milosevic before the UN International Criminal Court.  It can be done. 

Innovation in business must be evaluated! Consumers do it!

 President Xi seems firm on one thing: "Let the government direct as much as it can in the business cycle."

But as the Economist points out (April 6th issue, p. 7), President Xi does not let the consumers do product evaluation.  Nevertheless, by their buying habits, the consumers determine the worthiness of products. 

My opinion.

Mr. Richard Haass is brilliant in showing the fallacy of Natanyahu's hostility plan against Hamas!

It doesn't have a political facet.

On the Morning Joe Show today.

My opinion. 

I'm listening to Ms. Janet Yellen from Beijing. They're listening closely.

It's important for me to listen to these talks from the US in the nighttime on CSPAN.

She's doing yeoman work, fantastic.

They know supply chains having used them for centuries! 

My opinion.