To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
Now is the time for marketers to prioritize equity and inclusion, while also committing to a new open marketplace built on trust, radical transparency, and meaningful collaboration. Just imagine how opening up training, technology, and insights across the marketing industry could simultaneously accelerate lasting transformation and real economic recovery.
REMEMBER THIS ABOMINATION OF AN AD BELOW? YACCARINO’S AGENCY DID IT.
As 2021-2022 Ad Council Chair, Yaccarino partnered with the business community, the White House, and government agencies to create a COVID-19 vaccination campaign, featuring Pope Francis and reaching over 200 million Americans.
“Committed to improving the state of the world.” It’s the tagline for the World Economic Forum, one of the most influential gatherings on the planet. While it seems like a lofty goal, after a week in Davos, it’s hard not to feel inspired to improve our respective corners of the world. And the truth is, we need to. With each new talk or conversation last week, it became increasingly clear: Transformation is happening—whether we like it or not.
So, as I trade in Swiss mountains for New York streets, here are five reflections I’m bringing home:
1. Trust Matters.
It’s the foundation of all human connection, and, unsurprisingly, was a central focus in Davos. Around the world, various institutions are experiencing a trust crisis. But here’s the good news: employees have a higher degree of trust in their own companies. Meanwhile, traditional media is increasingly seen as a more trusted source of information than social media. We can’t take this trust for granted. We need to listen to each other and be more transparent in everything we do to maintain the confidence of our consumers, partners, and employees.
2. The future of work is now our present.
Expectations of today’s workforce and the legacy mindsets in some workplaces are at odds.Advances in technologies like automation and AI are changing what companies ask of talent, and what people require from their work. Given the trust people place in their employers, all businesses have a responsibility to prepare its workforce—and reinvent the workplace—to meet these realities. We need to institute new training, reimagine hiring practices, embrace flexible schedules, and create programs that allow people to return to the workforce after child rearing and elder care. Let’s find every possible way to help every person succeed.
3. Be prepared to move fast.
In a 5G world, consumers win big. With faster speeds, people will be able to easily consume more of the information and premium content they love on their mobile devices, wherever and whenever they want. Meanwhile, 5G and other technologies will enable our industry to evolve by opening up new opportunities to connect with audiences, distribute content, and monetize this content in new ways. Business models and legacy systems must change and be part of that reinvention.
4. Diversity is the right thing to do, and it’s good for business.
The Forum brings together diverse leaders who represent countries and industries from all around the world.And this year, more women attended Davos than ever before—which is fantastic news. However, we only made up only 22 percent of the total delegates, so while there’s been real progress, there’s still room to grow. The same goes for business, where a wider range of perspectives will foster new thinking and innovation. Fortunately, there’s already an awareness of the need for greater diversity. Now it’s time to transform that awareness into action.
5. We’re in this together—and need to work together.
The WEF reveals that no matter where we live or what industry we focus on, we all face similar challenges—from rebuilding trust to navigating new technologies, to preparing our workforce. At the same time, many are investing in solutions, and building a new global architecture for shared prosperity and progress. We can accomplish so much more if we collaborate within and across our industries—not just in Switzerland, but every day.
Linda Yaccarino Chairman, Advertising & Client Partnerships, NBCUniversal
So she’s been on a woke crusade for a while, but it only got worse since the Great Reset has been officially kickstarted:
Meet Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO of Twitter. In 2020 interview, Yaccarino praised Jeff Shell and Brian Roberts, her bosses for taking the right steps to “fight social justice and equality”. Also, Yaccarino commended her company’s progress of hiring “50% of women and 50% people… pic.twitter.com/u73vrpnEmA
— I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 (@ImMeme0) May 12, 2023
Yaccarino Calls for ‘Radical Transformation’ of Marketing
NBCUniversal exec opens training to industry, plans summits
Linda Yaccarino (Image credit: NBCU)
Linda Yaccarino, the chairman for advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal, is calling for “radical transformation” of the marketing business in the face of cultural change around racism and the impact of COVID-19 on the economy.
“This is the moment to question not just when we do business, but how we do business, at every level—because transformation is more than the private sector’s response to this moment, it’s our long-term responsibility,” she said in a note sent to NBCU’s partners Monday morning.
By Linda Yaccarino, Chairman, Advertising and Partnerships, NBCUniversal
We’re living through a moment of massive cultural and structural change. We’ve seen an enormous awakening to long-standing issues of racism and inequality. Meanwhile, COVID-19 still has the economy reeling: double-digit drops in sales as stores consider reopening; millions of jobs lost, with only a few signs of gains; GDP projected to shrink substantially this quarter.
While some companies are stepping up, there’s still more to do. This moment demands radical transformation, and as companies are changing messaging or shifting trading calendars, we can go even further. This is the moment to question not just when we do business, but how we do business, at every level—because transformation is more than the private sector’s response to this moment, it’s our long-term responsibility.
Last year, 181 CEOs committed to a new model of corporate responsibility and affirmed their obligation to all stakeholders. And over the past few months, seismic shifts have rippled across the corporate playing field and pushed us even further. Competitors now stand shoulder-to-shoulder, staring down the same systemic issues, ready to take action and change for the better.
Our fates are intertwined. We all now have a shared responsibility to transform our companies, our industry, and our economy—because when everything is at stake, we are all stakeholders. And there’s no industry better suited to lead this than the marketing community.
Marketing has always been a platform to inform public opinion, change hearts and minds, amplify cultural moments and movements, and spur economic growth. No other industry cuts across every sector or reaches millions around the world every single day. Great advertising educates audiences, elevates stories and ideas, mobilizes people to act, and lifts bottom lines—which in turn engages and advances conversation, creates jobs, and keeps families afloat.
But it’s not just about marketing; we need to do more as a marketing community to address our most deep-seated legacy problems, especially within our industry.
Now is the time for marketers to prioritize equity and inclusion, while also committing to a new open marketplace built on trust, radical transparency, and meaningful collaboration. Just imagine how opening up training, technology, and insights across the marketing industry could simultaneously accelerate lasting transformation and real economic recovery.
No doubt, it’s an ambitious call-to-action. But the stakes are too high to let legacy thinking, competitive agendas, closed marketplaces, or closed mindsets stand in our way. We need courage, conviction, and imagination, and we can start by asking ourselves some questions:
This is what responsible leadership will look like: if you know something is right, you do it. If you know something is wrong, don’t. If there’s infrastructure everyone needs, build and scale it. That’s what it will take for this industry to truly transform.
Inevitably, this open marketplace will require new alliances, partnerships, business models, and maybe even some strange bedfellows. And none of that should scare us; it should liberate us to do whatever this moment requires.
We know these investments in each other, our marketplace, and the economy will pay off. That’s why NBCUniversal is creating more marketing training and development resources while mapping out a new open-source technology structure—one that will streamline all advertising processes, bring measurement into the 21st century, and completely transform the way marketers transact with us. But we’re only one company; we need others to join us.
Together, we can make sure transformation and responsibility are not just buzzwords, but a shared playbook. Real transformation is possible, and recovery is on the horizon—so let’s give each other the permission to be courageous, open up, and share the responsibility.
To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
The political class does not represent its electors and their agenda, the plebs are taxed without representation, and that’s serfdom. Welcome to techno-feudalism!
You see them pushing the pedal to the metal nowadays because…
Only 12% of the UN Sustainable Development Goal targets are on track
A new United Nations report shows that global progress on tackling poverty and climate change is falling short
According to a new UN report, progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is not going well.
Among roughly 140 assessed SDG targets, only 12% (pdf) are on course to meet the 2030 deadline . Meanwhile, 50% of the action plan has seen “weak and insufficient” progress. Progress on nearly one third of the SDGs has either remained unchanged or even fallen below 2015 levels.
“Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda will become an epitaph for a world that might have been,” said António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, in remarks delivered Tuesday (April 25).
Guterres cited the covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as factors that have exacerbated the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and pollution. SDG financing has also slipped since the pandemic, with the annual funding gap soaring from $2.5 trillion before covid to over $4 trillion last year.
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was drawn up in 2015 and adopted by all UN member states. The plan includes 17 goals, broken down into 169 targets, that are meant to address a range of structural problems in the developing and developed world, such as gender equality, education access, and healthcare. The ambitious plan of action also set out to end poverty and hunger by 2030.
By the digits: The UN’s grim SDG progress report
26: The number of people in the world who possess the same wealth as half of the global population
286: The number of years it will take to achieve gender equality, given the current rate of progress
575 million: The number of people who will be living in extreme poverty in 2030, accounting for nearly 7% of the global population
3%: The increase in extinction risk since 2015
The covid pandemic impacted SDG progress
A full understanding of global SDG progress is patchy, due to gaps in the data. As the latest special report notes, receiving timely information from various geographic locations is a continuing challenge. Current estimates draw on data from 2020 to 2023, with 54% of the data drawn from 2021 and 2020. But 11 of the goals lack complete data.
That said, the report speaks to several broad trends in play since the SDGs were established. Many of the goals were impacted by the covid pandemic, which reversed three decades of progress on reducing global poverty, according to the report. Connected to increasing poverty, food insecurity has also been on the rise. More people are on track to face hunger in 2030 compared to in 2015. Currently, hunger levels have returned to levels last seen in 2005.
Education also took a hit from the pandemic. Even prior to covid, the SDG targets were not on track to meet the 2030 goals, but lockdowns and school closures exacerbated education losses. By 2030, the report estimates that 84 million children will not be in school, and 300 million students will still lack basic math and reading skills.
To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
As we reported long ago, the powers that be abandoned the original EU plans. I suspected then that their next move will be the Intermarium scenario, but I had no solid confirmation. Until just now, when insider sources confirmed the plan is ongoing as we speak and it’s fully backed by the forces behind the US of A. Deadlone: 2032 the latest.
UPDATE APRIL 30, 2023:
Ten another guest outed him to be in the know of thins for over 10 years, since he was a prime-minister, and never whispering a word about it. It was simply spectacular!
now back to the original program:
While accusing Russia of revamping its imperialist ambitions, Poland backed by US, was doing just that, pursuing an old inter-generational plan known as Intermarium: A Central and Eastern-European Commonwealth, separated from EU.
A Nobel Peace Prize winner is used to wage war against Russia
Who is really behind all the relentless warmongering?
SOTN Editor’s Note: Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama has continued his war-making ways. Not only was he used by his masters to restart the Cold War with Russia, he has disrespectfully turned down every Russian gesture toward vital dialogue.
The truth of the matter is that Russia is the country that is being systematically encircled by the USA and NATO. President Putin has every right to reject this encirclement of military buildup on it’s very borders. The Kremlin’s response to the Western warmongering initiatives has been extraordinarily muted and subdued in light of the implicit aggression.
Obama Administration Won’t Stop Antagonizing Russia
However, the real question is: Who is really behind all the relentless warmongering against Russia? The answer can be found at the following two extremely important articles. Only by correctly understanding the relevant history will the present be comprehensible. Only by understanding the present can the future be accurately deciphered.
As the article posted below clearly indicates, Putin’s Russia is now under grave threat by American missiles and NATO military buildup. Putin’s team in the Kremlin, it seems, has yet to get the message that JFK received by a similar missile positioning scheme which occurred in Cuba in the early 1960s (aka the Cuban Missile Crisis). Kennedy acted decisively and the threat was removed expeditiously. Putin must now act decisively … before it’s too late. Putin et al. must also understand that:
Explosive presentation hosted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs reveals what no government official, no political representative, no NGO executive and no think tank director has ever said before in public.
STRATFOR Founder George Friedman Expresses the Profound Flaws and Extreme Hubris of American Exceptionalism and U.S. Foreign Policy
The preceding map of Eastern Europe and Western Asia represents the most active part of the current global geopolitical chessboard. The few colored lines illustrate the very essence of the Anglo-American geopolitical strategy to maintain world domination and global economic control. This map was shown as a slide at a critical speech given by STRATFOR founder George Friedman. It was taken as a screenshot in case the exceedingly volatile and incriminating video is removed from the internet.
George Friedman presented his speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs on February 4th, 2015, which was then followed by a quite telling Q&A period. There is perhaps no other public presentation ever recorded that has so clearly delineated the militaristic geopolitical agenda of the British-American Empire. Friedman explains with extraordinary candor and unusual detail the manner in which the Western powers have set up the global chessboard to their (Anglo-American Axis) seemingly never-ending advantage. Of course, it is the Russian Federation that is, once again, on the losing side of this Great Game… in the words of George Friedman.
According to the neocon narrative, Germany sits squarely, once again, in the middle of the two superpowers — the USA and Russia. German destiny has put the nation in the position to literally determine the future fate of the world. The last century saw two very graphic examples of the same dramatic geopolitical dynamic. Both World Wars I and II put the same three power-players on full display.
Now, fast forward to 2015 and the civil war in the Ukraine and bankruptcy of Greece. Both have occurred alongside the greatest immigration crisis in European history as the European chessboard is being fastidiously set up. What is especially crucial at this very moment is Germany’s rapidly evolving position and movement on the board. The whole world watches and waits to witness the next moves that Chancellor Angela Merkel will make. The current status of this highly consequential geopolitical chess match is further depicted by the map below.
For those who are uninitiated in the history and arcana of the Great Game, it is not from New York City or Washington D.C. that the moves are made today on this centuries-old geopolitical chessboard, it is Chicago. Both Leo Strauss and Milton Friedman made the University of Chicago their academic home. Leo Strauss, the Father of Neoconservatism, was the political philosopher who spawned an underground movement that has aggressively used the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex to create a de facto American Empire, sometimes promoted as Pax Americana. Milton Friedman provided the foundational blueprint for the necessary political economy which would support such a perpetual war economy. Chicago is where the real action is, especially because of the immigration hub that it has always been for highly educated eastern and central European immigrants, as well as disaffected Russian intellectuals and oligarch wannabes. The prime objective of this ‘Great Game’ has always been to strip Russia of its wealth and exploit every natural resource from Saint Petersburg to the Kamchatka Peninsula. ______________________________________________________________
Chicago: U.S. Headquarters of the NWO Zionist Neocon cabal
Herein lies the real problem. There has long been a network of Eastern Europeans who have harbored an inveterate hatred toward all things Russian. This hatred is at once irrational, intense and without any substantive basis. These lifelong Russophobes have been plotting against the Russian Motherland for decades; their ancestors had likewise conspired over the centuries. Toward that end they have enlisted a whole host of nations which comprise an unspoken alliance known as the Anglo-American Axis (see glossary) which has been and is now arrayed against Russia and her allies. In the USA many of these Russophobes hail from Chicago as the University of Chicago has been used as their academic headquarters for decades.
That President Barack Obama (who hails from Chicago) is surrounded by the same jaded characters is quite problematic. It fully explains why a Nobel Peace Prize winner would go out of his way to antagonize Russia and restart the Cold War. George Soros (originally from Hungary) funded both of Obama’s presidential campaigns while Zbigniew Brzezinski (originally from Poland) functioned as his primary foreign policy advisor. He has also appointed a whole slew of neocon operatives and Chicago politicos to key positions throughout both of his Administrations.
For example, feisty Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emmanuel of Jewish Romanian ancestry was Obama’s first Chief of Staff. Penny Pritzker, whose Jewish family founded Hyatt Hotels and originally emigrated from Kiev, Ukraine, was national finance chair of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Chicago attorney and Obama political consultant David Axelrod’s father was a Jewish immigrant who escaped the pogroms in Eastern Europe. Even Obama’s community organizing past was heavily influenced by the deceased Saul Alinsky, a community organizer from Chicago whose Jewish family immigrated from Russia.
Then there is the current First Family of Neoconservatism, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and her husband Robert Kagan. Victoria’s father, Shepsel Ber Nudelman, was born to immigrant Russian Jewish parents Meyer and Vitsche Nudelman. Needless to say, Victoria “F**K the EU” does not present the necessary diplomacy to function as the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. She will also be forever remembered for singlehandedly restarting the Cold War by hand-delivering cookies and cupcakes to virulent anti-Russian Ukrainians executing a CIA-coordinated coup in Kiev’s Maidan Square which led to the ongoing civil war. Victoria Nuland’s family ties: The Permanent Government in action
The two key figures behind the unrivaled campaign chests amassed by Obama prior to both of his presidential elections were George Soros and Zbigniew Brzezinski. Only by understanding the true forces behind these two characters will the current war against Russia be properly understood. Suffice to say, that both individuals harbor an intense and irrational hatred toward Russia, as do all of their Cold Warrior co-conspirators who have colluded to collapse the Russian state. (Source: Anglo-American Axis Wages Financial/Economic War Against Russia)
Those central and eastern European émigrés who came to America were mostly liberal, urban intelligentsia who once lived within the Russian orbit. Because of their shared Russophobic sentiments, they naturally bonded together in common cause to bring down Russia, which they did once by way of their carefully planned Bolshevik Revolution. The ‘Russian Revolution’ actually had very little to do with indigenous Russians, and a lot to do with this rogue group of European Russophobes. The Bolshevik Revolution was in fact conceived and manufactured, financed and promoted in both New York City and the City of London. Without American war financing and British military intelligence, the Soviet Union would never have been established.
*Russophobia in this particular context was quite purposefully manufactured (as in Made in the USA) over generations as a ruse to justify the exploitation of the Russian Motherland. By fabricating fear toward the “Russian Bear”, it is easy to marshal worldwide opinion against her. Friedman refers to how ‘scary’ a strong Russia would be, especially when closely allied with Germany.
The original group of hardened Russophobes was primarily Jewish. They were bankers and businessmen, scientists and academics, lawyers and doctors; and always transplants from Central or Eastern Europe. Around this nucleus of rabidly anti-Russian activists (e.g. George Soros) came other sympathizers. Subsequently, educated conservative Catholics (e.g. Zbigniew Brzezinski) from the same eastern European countries joined the cause. George Friedman’s history fits into this pattern as per the bio that follows:
“Friedman’s childhood was shaped directly by international conflict. He was born in Budapest, Hungary to Jewish parents who survived the Holocaust. His family fled Hungary when he was a child to escape the Communist regime, settling first in a camp for displaced persons in Austria and then immigrating to the United States, where he attended public schools in New York City, and was an early designer of computerized war games.[1]
With this essential background the following video of George Friedman’s speech is provided on 4 different channels for the reader’s serious consideration. Two of these have German subtitles; the last one has a Czech translation. There are 3 different YouTube videos shown below; the first being the short version. The second one captures his entire presentation with the relevant material beginning at the 52:30 mark. At the very least, it is well worth watching the first 11-minute video clip. Only by viewing this presentation can one apprehend the true depth and breadth of this multi-century conspiracy. In short, this video captures the very essence of American exceptionalism gone awry and U.S. hegemonic ambition at its very worst.
For those who are unable to watch or listen to this video, please note the following transcription of the most important statements made by Mr. Friedman. These are presented in chronological order and have been rendered exactly as he stated them. Because his command of the English language is rather uncertain at times, some of his utterances require the reader’s own translation.
Friedman: No place is really pacific [at peace and without war] for very long neither the United States … We have constant wars, okay. Europe will I suspect, not return to the 31 years but will return to humanity. They will have their wars. They will have their peace. They will live their lives. There will not be 100 million dead but the idea of the European exceptionalism I think, is the one suffering the first death. There will be conflict. There was conflict in Yugoslavia and there certainly now is conflict in the Ukraine.
As to the relationship to the United States we no longer have a relationship with Europe. We have a relationship with Romania. We have a relationship with France. There is no Europe to have a relationship with.
Question: Is Islamic extremism really the major threat to the United States, and will it die on its own, or will it keep growing?
Friedman: It is a problem to the United States it is not an existential threat. It has to be dealt with, but it has to be dealt with proportionately. We have other foreign policy interests. So, the primordial interest of the United States over which for a century we have fought war, the first, second, and Cold War has been the relationship between Germany and Russia, because united they’re the only force that could threaten us, and to make sure that doesn’t happen. If you’re a Ukrainian is essentially reach out to the only country that will help you which is the United States.
Last week, ten days ago, General Hodges, Commander US Army Europe visited the Ukraine. He announced that US trainers would now officially be becoming, not just unofficially coming. He actually pinned medals on Ukrainian fighters, which by protocol of the military; foreigners don’t get to pin on medals, but ‘he did’ showing that this was ‘his’ army. He then left and in the Baltics announced that the United States would be pre-positioning armor, artillery, and other equipment in the Baltics, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, which is a very interesting point. So the United States, yesterday the United States announced it that it would be sending weapons, tonight of course they denied it, but they are, the weapons will go.
In all of this, the United States has acted outside the context of NATO because NATO has to have a 100 percent vote, any one country can veto anything, and the Turks will veto just for giggles. The point is that the United States is prepared to create a cordon sanitaire around Russia. Russia knows it. Russia believes that the United States intends to break the Russian Federation. I think that as Peter Lawrie put it, “We don’t want kill you, we just want to hurt you a little bit.” Either way, we are back at the old game. And if you go ask a Pole, or a Hungarian, or a Romanian, they live in a totally different universe from a German, and they live in a totally different universe from a Spaniard. So, there’s no commonality in Europe, but if I were a Ukrainian I would do exactly what they doing — try to draw the Americans in.
Question: Inaudible
Friedman: The United States has a fundamental interest. It controls all the oceans of the world. No power has ever done that. Because of that we get to invade people and they don’t get to invade us; it’s a very nice thing.Maintaining control of the sea and control of space is the foundation of our power. The best way to defeat an enemy fleet is to not let it be built.
The way the British managed to make certain that no European power could build a fleet was to make sure the Europeans were at each other’s throats. The policy that I would recommend is the one that Ronald Reagan adopted toward Iran and Iraq. He funded both sides so they would fight each other, and not fight us. This was cynical, it was certainly not moral, it worked, and this is the point. The United States cannot occupy Eurasia.
The moment the first boots hits the ground the demographic differential is that we are totally outnumbered. We can defeat an army; we cannot occupy Iraq. The idea that of 130,000 men would occupy a country of 25 million well, the ratio in New York of cops to citizens was greater than we had deployed in Iraq. So, we don’t have the ability to go across but we do have the ability to first, support various contending powers so they are concentrated [supported] themselves with political support, some economic support, military support, advisors, and in extremists, do what we did in Japan, in Vietnam, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan … spoiling attacks. The spoiling attack is not intended to defeat the enemy it is intended to throw them off-balance. What we did in each of these wars, in Afghanistan, for example, is we threw Al Qaeda off-balance. The problem we have, since we’re young and stupid, is that having thrown them off-balance instead of saying okay job well done let’s go home, we said, well that was easy. Why don’t we build a democracy here? This was the moment dementia that came in.
The answer, therefore, is that the United States cannot constantly be intervening throughout Eurasia, it must be selectively intervening and very rarely. That is the extreme moment. We cannot as the first step send American troops, and when we send American troops we have to truly understand what the mission is, limit it to that, and not develop all sorts of psychotic fantasies. So hopefully we’ve learned that this time, it takes a while for kids to learn lessons, but I think you’re absolutely right, we cannot as an Empire do that, Britain didn’t occupy India, it took various Indian states and turned them against each other, and provided some British officers for an Indian Army.
The Romans did not send vast armies out there, it placed Kings like … um … you know various kings it created under the Emperor and those kings were responsible for maintaining the peace. Pontius Pilate was an example. So, Empires that are directly governed by the Empire liked the Nazi Empire failed. No one has that much power. You have to have a level of cleverness; however, our problem is not yet that, it is actually admitting that we have an Empire, so we haven’t even got to that point where we don’t think we can kinda go home and it’ll be over and done. And so we’re not even ready for chapter three of the book.
Question: So I infer from your comments that the Euro as the currency will not survive.
Friedman: The question on the table for the Russians is will they retain a buffer zone that at least neutral, or will the West penetrate so far in the Ukraine that they’re 70 miles away from Stalingrad, and 300 miles away from Moscow. For Russia the status of Ukraine is an existential threat, and the Russians cannot let go. For the United States, in the event that Russia holds onto the Ukraine, where will it stop? Therefore it’s not an accident that General Hodges, whose been appointed to be blamed for all of this, is talking about pre-positioning troops in Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, and the Baltics.This is the Intermarium from the Black Sea to the Baltic that Piłsudski dreamt of.
See the slide below depicting the Intermarium which was taken from the same video presentation by George Friedman:
Intermarium was, however, perceived by some Lithuanians as a threat to their newly established independence, and by some Ukrainians as a threat to their aspirations for independence,[14][15][16] and was opposed by Russia and by most Western powers, except France.[17][18]
Within two decades of the failure of Piłsudski’s grand scheme, all the countries that he had viewed as candidates for membership in the Intermarium federation had fallen to the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany, except for Finland (which nonetheless suffered some territorial losses in the Winter War).[2]
Friedman: This is the solution for the United States. The issue, to which we don’t have the answers, what will Germany do? So, the real wild card in Europe is that as the United States builds its cordon sanitaire, not in Ukraine, but to the west, and the Russians try to figure out how to leverage the Ukrainians out; we don’t know the German position. Germany is in a very peculiar position. Its former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is on the board of Gazprom. They have a very complex relationship to the Russians. The Germans themselves don’t know what to do. They must export, the Russians can’t take up the export. On the other hand, if they lose the free trade zone, they need to build something different.
For the United States the primordial fear is Russian capital, Russian technology … I mean, German technology and German capital, Russian natural resources, Russian manpower, as the only combination that has for centuries scared the hell out of the United States. So how does this play out? Well, the US has already put its cards on the table. It is the line from the Baltics to the Black Sea.
For the Russians, their cards have always been on table. They must have at least a neutral Ukraine, not a pro-Western Ukraine. Belarus is another question. Now, whoever can tell me what the Germans are gonna do, is gonna tell me about the next 20 years of history, but unfortunately the Germans haven’t made up their mind, and this is the problem of Germany always. Enormously economically powerful, geopolitically very fragile, and never quite knowing how to reconcile the two. Ever since 1871 this has been the German question, the question of Europe. Think about the German question, because now it’s coming up again. That’s the next question that we have to address and we don’t know how to address it, we don’t know what they are going to do.
Vital Qualification of George Friedman’s Answers: What was NOT said
Obviously, Friedman did not give away critical pieces of their (neocons’) historical war strategies. Nor did he reveal the key elements of their future warmongering plans. The point is that the neocon war plans have always included controlling both sides of the battlefields. Not only do they earn enormous profits from war financing, they also generate massive revenue streams from the subsequent disaster capitalism.
The much more important point is what Friedman conveniently left out of his responses regarding the likes of Al Qaeda. In all intelligence circles — WORLDWIDE — it is well known that Al Qaeda is really Al CIAda. The neocons have created all the bad guys out there in the world. ISIS, ISIL and the Islamic State are perfect examples of their most recent bogeyman creations. So are the original Mujahideen in Afghanistan which was specifically formed and funded by the CIA to fight the Russians during the Soviet-Afghan War. (Under President Jimmy Carter it was National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski’s pet project to arm the Afghan Mujahideen against the USSR.)
What is also very important to note is that the neocon cabal is extremely proficient in utilizing the darks art of Divide and Conquer and its many odious tactics. There is absolutely nothing that they will not do in the interest of advancing their war-making schemes. Therefore, government-sponsored terrorism has become their primary MO and preferred trick of the trade. No other strategy and/or tactic produces quicker results than the fear generated by their incessant terrorizing of nations and societies everywhere.
It is crucial to bear in mind that this misguided agenda, dedicated to maintaining the American Empire, is quite in vogue throughout all of the urban centers of this nation. New York City and Washington D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles each play their integral roles in the advancement of this imperial plan. The entire U.S. political class and banking industry together with the Military-Industrial Complex and key transnational corporations are all in sync.
The Military-Industrial Complex, quite unfortunately, is only prosperous when there is war … LOTs of war. What is there to do for them during peace-time? How can they justify the humongous budget appropriations year after year when there’s no bogeyman out there to attack and subjugate? The hallmark of empire is this inevitable tendency toward perpetual war.
Because a neoconservative political agenda has been so seamlessly wedded to a neoliberal economic scheme, there is now a dangerous juggernaut that steamrolls across the planetary landscape with virtual impunity. Given its current form and formidability, there is no countervailing force that can meaningfully oppose it on any battlefield. It has only been contained by the nuclear weapon deterrents possessed by Russia, the financial leveraging via Treasuries executed by China and the collective economic prowess of all the BRICS-aligned countries.
Essential Takeaways from Friedman’s Speech; U.S. Foreign Policy Laid Bare
The following 10 points represent the most chilling revelations from George Friedman’s talk. Ergo, if the reader remembers nothing else from this exposé, these are the most important. Keeping them in mind will greatly inform the correct understanding of weighty current events, especially those which are occurring anywhere on the largest landmass in the world — Eurasia.
(1) Russia must be contained and controlled in any way possible so as not to even pose a potential threat to the USA’s sole superpower status.
(2) Germany must be prevented from entering into an economic union with Russia; fabricating false pretexts by the USA in order to levy economic sanctions against Russia drives a wedge between both nations.
(3) A German-Russian alliance would challenge U.S. world domination as no other combined force on Earth. The marriage of German capital and technology with Russian human and natural resources would be invincible.
(4) The best way to preclude a close collaboration between Russia and Germany is to bring war to their borders, especially through the employment of “spoiling attacks” (read: terrorist attacks). Russia has experienced this with Chechnya, Georgia, South Ossetia, and the Ukraine.
(5) By inciting wars among Russian neighbors and conflicts between the concerned Eurasian powers, USA world supremacy is assured (e.g. the Ukraine conflict was started after Russian peacemaking initiatives in Syria).
(6) Just as the British Empire controlled its many colonies through divide and rule, the U.S. must use the same MO and military tactics. Rome used the same divide and conquer strategy appointing local kings to maintain the peace.
(7) Pilsudski’s Intermarium delineates the ideal way of containing Russia at the European border, which could then be used as a springboard to conquer the Motherland. Pushing Russia’s Western front close to Moscow poses an existential threat.
(8) Channeling the hatred of the defunct USSR, found within the Baltic states and ex-Soviet satellites, toward the 25-year old Russian Federation will help secure the Intermarium.
(9) Maintaining a cordon sanitaire around Russia will neutralize its military force, limit its alliances and minimize its economic influence throughout the world. Forever keeps Russia on the defensive.
(10) Russia and Germany must be kept apart even if it means starting World War III. The first two world wars served the very same purpose; the Ukraine Civil War can be expanded at any time in order to preoccupy the concerned nations as it was chosen for its volatility.
Conclusion
The statements and responses made by George Friedman are both reckless and reprehensible to the extreme. As a highly paid advisor to the U.S. Federal Government and various NGOs, his services ought to be discontinued post-haste. His casual references to upsetting world peace and committing naked acts of aggression toward foreign nations in the interest of rapacious neocon conquest are completely unacceptable.
The lawless coterie of government officials, military officers, think-tank executives, NGO presidents, corporate CEOs, university chancellors and media moguls needs to be exposed for implementing such a malevolent and destructive agenda. Truly, an overwhelmingly nefarious neocon/neoliberal conspiracy has been exposed on video by Stratfor’s George Friedman. Whether this was done by design or by accident can only be guessed at; nonetheless, its exposure will be critical to bringing about its final termination. After all, when the last century’s “Cold Warriors” are removed from the chess game, there cannot be a 21st century version of the Cold War.
The indisputable proof regarding those Russophobes who instigated the Cold War is now available for all to hear. A dyed-in-the-wool neocon divulges ‘classified’ dark secrets which rarely, if ever, see the light of day. The evidence is so strong here that criminal prosecutions (as in The Hague’s International Criminal Court) can now proceed on the basis of those many illegal wars, which were provoked and prosecuted by the U.S. Federal Government, in the advancement of this patently neocon agenda. There are also those numerous military conflicts, carried out by foreign proxies and treasonous surrogates, which occurred as an outworking of the same game plan.
It’s of vital importance to understand that geopolitical ‘experts’ like George Friedman walk through virtually any door they want to in Washington, D.C. The influence they assert within the U.S. Government and Corporate America is far too extensive given the moral bankruptcy of their profoundly defective political philosophy and fundamentally flawed foreign policy. These are the same “chickenhawks” who started the Iraq War, as well as the Afghanistan War before that. Hence, it is imperative that they be removed immediately from public life as they have proven themselves to be a terrible menace to society.
Likewise, all the various parties associated with this murderous and larcenous enterprise ought to be apprehended expeditiously before they can inflict any more damage. The USA and Russia, Europe and the Middle East have all seen enough of their handiwork. Each co-conspirator in the neocon cabal ought to be identified by name and organizational affiliation, and then posted on a dedicated internet site under the heading:
YOU’D THINK UKRAINE IS A VICTIM HERE, BUT UKRAINIAN NATIONALISTS ARE BACKING THIS BIG TIME
Intermarium – an alliance of countries between the Baltic and Black Seas to protect themselves from the Russian imperialism and militarism (Image: QHA.com.ua)
The EU is now in a deep crisis, one that is the product not only of Britain’s vote to leave it but also of the organization’s “inability to stand up to the global economic crisis, Russian military-political and information expansion, international terrorism and uncontrolled mass migration,” according to Aleksandr Voronin.
As a result, many in EU countries and their neighbors are considering alternatives, the Ukrainian commentator says. One of the most intriguing is a new push for the establishment of a Baltic-Black Sea Union or “Intermarium”— not as a replacement for the EU and NATO but as a supplement and assistant to them.
“Intermarium: The Heart of Europe Beats in the East” scientific-practical conference took place in Kyiv on July 2, 2016 (Image: QHA.com.ua)
Last weekend, representatives of various groups, civic, military, and political, of the so-called “countries in between” met in Kyiv to talk about the possibilities for the emergence of such a union and what steps they should take to promote its emergence and development at the present time.
Nikolay Kravchenko, one of the organizers of the meeting, said that the grouping could begin small, much as the EU did with the European Coal and Steel Community, and then grow both in size and in the spheres of activity that its members would approve. He suggested that “the forefathers of the Intermarium are GUAM, the Eastern Partnership, the Black Sea Cooperation Council and the Vyshegrad Four.
Other participants in the Kyiv meeting agreed, Voronin reports, and stressed that any such structure should not aspire to replace the EU or “even more Euro-Atlantic solidarity in the framework of NATO” but rather focus on tasks like security, energy independence, and information technology that can be handled at the level of that region.
The idea of an Intermarium has deep roots in the 19th and early 20th centuries and especially in Marshal Pilsudski’s Promethean League.
For a careful survey of these roots, see the magisterial study by Marek Chodakiewicz, Intermarium: The Land between the Black and Baltic Seas (Transaction Publishers, 2012).
Since the end of the USSR, it has gained a following in Belarus and Ukraine. In the early 1990s, Zianon Pazniak, the first president of the Belarusian Popular Front, urged its consideration. And more recently, another Belarusian, Konstantin Volokh, called on Ukrainians to do likewise.
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, he wrote that “it is obvious that the integration of post-socialist countries is chiefly directed at the creation of a system for the containment of eastern expansion and in the first instance by the forces and resources of those countries and peoples which experienced on their own skin the state of being hostages of the military competition between major geopolitical players and then the victims of the unification of one of the centers of socialist planning.”
This year, Voronin points out, is the 90th anniversary of the Promethean League which was founded by Polish efforts in Paris and which included representatives “not only of Crimea and Ukraine but also Azerbaijan, the Don Cossacks, Georgia, Idel-Ural, Ingria, Karelia, Komi, Kuban, the North Caucasus and Turkestan.
The Promethean League had a long and complex history. For a recent discussion, see Etienne Copeaux, “Le movement prométhéen.” Cahiers d’études sur la Méditerranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien, 16 (1993): pp. 9–45.
Many in Ukraine are now talking about a new Intermarium. Among them are Andrey Biletski, the founder of the Azov Regiment, Andrey Paruby, the speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, and most recently Vladimir Gorbulin, the head of Kyiv’s National Institute for Strategic Research.
Despite all this, the Intermarium idea has attracted relatively little attention among analysts in the West; but one indication of its rise is that Russian authors are now discussing it ever more frequently.
In a concluding section of his article entitled “Today It’s a Phantom; Tomorrow, a Strategy; and the Day after Tomorrow a Reality?” Voronin says that it is obviously too early to say that this idea has mass support. But given the crisis in the EU, “it is not excluded that soon the idea of the Intermarium will become a commonplace not only of party programs but of international memoranda.”
That is clearly what the participants in last weekend’s conference in the Ukrainian capital think. After all, they met under a banner reading “The Heart of Europe Beats in the East.”
In the most recent issue of New Eastern Europe, MA student Nick Cohen advocates for a new version of the Intermarium suited to the 21st century. The Intermarium was an interwar Polish idea for a political and economic union among eastern European states from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, meant to counteract growing German and Russian adventurism in the region. Cohen argues that similar structural features are present today, and suggests that the political climate may be more favorable for constructing an eastern European alliance.
The Intermarium Project, a geopolitical project developed by Józef Piłsudski in the 1920s, has once again resurfaced and become a topic of debate in foreign policy. Western Institutions such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU) have not proved to be sufficient in securing “non-integrated in-between states” such as Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan against Russian aggression.[1] Neighboring countries in Eastern Europe also share this security threat and know from history what could possibly happen again if Russian power was to remerge. Recreating Intermarium in the 21st century to correspond to the security needs of today would unite Central and Eastern European countries to compete against the Russian balance of power as well as help each other politically and economically. However, Intermarium will not have a chance to be successful until all the post-Soviet countries work together and have a common global threat that will unite them. Furthermore, Intermarium as a united front would still need help from the U.S. military to face Moscow. If Intermarium in the 21st century was to succeed, it would create the strongest union in Eastern Europe since the 1989 national uprising dedicated to overthrowing communism.[2]
It was hoped that the collapse of the Soviet Union and the disintegration of the Soviet Eastern bloc would lead towards a more unified Europe. However, neither the EU nor the enlargement of NATO decided to include Russia in their plans. As a result, a “geopolitical gray zone emerged between the Western organizations on one side and the Russian-dominated space on the other.”[3] The security of these gray zone states such as Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and Azerbaijan all became dependent on whichever side would choose to cooperate with them. This model of switching between east and west proved to be greatly unstable, as “it did not help to solve the Transnistria problem in eastern Moldova or the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in south-western Azerbaijan, and was shaken by the Russian-Georgian war of 2008.”[4] Finally, in 2014 the annexation of Crimea proved to be the “final straw,” and countries in the region knew they could not continue to live in this uncertainty.
Around this time period was when the countries of Eastern Europe, both inside and out of NATO and the EU, began seriously discussing reviving the 20th-century project known as Intermarium. The goal of this project would be collectively to increase the region’s security and, most importantly, “improve the balance of power against Russia.”[5] If all the nations in the region cooperated under this common objective, they would not need to expand NATO further East nor add members to the European Union. Intermarium in the 21st century would function as an independent project and, with time, prove itself to be a leader on the international stage.
There have been several attempts by NATO and the EU in the past to prevent Europe from dividing itself; however, none of their initiatives have proved themselves successful. The reality is that these institutions will not be able to provide the post-Soviet Eastern Europe zone with the security it needs. It has been proven that “both organizations have, in the past, amply demonstrated their inadequacy as strategically thinking and geopolitically resolute actors.”[6] As a result, Intermarium has been discussed as a promising alternative to Western organizations.
However, in order to recreate Intermarium in the 21st century, its historical roots must be understood first as well as the reason why it failed. After WWI, there was a set of newly-independent nations to the East which faced a common threat of “German expansionism to the west and Russian imperialism to the east.”[7] A Polish “chief of state and First Marshal of the Second Polish Republic” known as Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935) came up with the plan known as Intermarium today to combat these rising powers.[8] Piłsudski’s Intermarium project is originally known in Polish as Miedzymorze and later earned its Latin cognate known today as Intermarium. Both definitions translate to mean “between the seas.” This is because the alliance was to stretch from the Baltic Sea all the way down to the Adriatic and Black Seas. The original Intermarium group was to include Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine and “thereby partially re-creating the medieval Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.”[9] An example of the proposed map for the original Intermarium project is shown below:
Piłsudski believed that if these nations were connected economically, politically, and militarily, they could push back power coming in from the eastern and western fronts.[10] It should be noted that Piłsudkski also incorporated parts of his Promethean plan into his Intermarium project and used both of these developments to combat the Soviet threat while simultaneously strengthening the Polish eastern border.[11]
However, the plan was met with a large resistance due to Poland’s history of “political and cultural domination during the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.”[12] First, there was Belarus which was strategically located and could have “formed the most significant barrier to Soviet expansionism.”[13] However, it generally had a weak national movement during this period and did not seem to do much to counteract Soviet influence at the time. Next, Lithuania was also hesitant to join because it did not want to risk its independence. Ukraine had similar thoughts and had fought a border war in 1918-19 over the Lviv/Galicia area. Eventually, the Treaty of Warsaw was signed to enforce a military and economic alliance between Ukraine and Poland. However, they were so busy fighting between themselves that they failed to realize their common threat of Russia. Eventually, Ukraine and Belarus fell under the rule of the Bolsheviks, and the Intermarium project was foiled.
Józef Piłsudski then came up with a new version of the project that did not include communist-ruled Ukraine or Belarus but rather encompassed other nations of Central and Eastern Europe, as well as Scandinavian countries and Italy and Greece, as shown below.[14]
The reason for including a wide range of countries was to strengthen their union against “the face of the Russian empire re-appearing as the Soviet Union in the east, and the post-imperial, yet increasingly irredentist, new German nation-state and soon-to-be fascist Reich in the west.”[15] In the end, the wide geographical scale of the project, the large diversity of countries involved, their differences in interests and foreign policy, and the distrust regarding Polish ambition stopped Intermarium from ever happening.[16]
Unfortunately, after Piłsudski’s plans were foiled, his fears became a reality. In September of 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland from both sides. After the war ended, the states that were planned to be a part of Piłsudski’s Intermarium were instead part of Moscow’s empires. Lastly, the result of the February 1945 Yalta deal caused the Eastern and Central European nations to suffer a fate that Piłsudski was trying to prevent with Intermarium. For the next 44-46 years, these nations collectively suffered Soviet and communist rule. Having Intermarium in the 21st century would unite countries with these shared experiences to ensure that an occupation like this would not happen again.
Intermarium in the 21st century would not face the same challenges as were present during Piłsudski’s time. Today, borders are established, and these nations have been officially independent for about 30 years. In addition, the relations between Poland and Ukraine are much stronger than they were during the Polish-Ukrainian War in 1918-19. In fact, the two are each other’s greatest international supporters today. Taking this into consideration, the likelihood of a successful Intermarium is much more probable under current circumstances.
If an Intermarium were to be created today, Ukraine would be prioritized as it does not have any protection from NATO or other security measures outside its own country. Next, Poland, the original creator of this Slavic union, would be on the list. Poland faces the threat of Kaliningrad in the north and also would not want Russia on its southern border in the case of Ukraine being taken over.[17] In addition, the Baltic states, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Czechia, and Hungary would also likely follow suit as they “are likely to have populations that recognize the threat in the longer term.”[18] It is possible to consider the Nordic states such as Sweden and Finland joining, as they are not NATO members and also share a security concern with regard to Russia. It is not guaranteed which nations would end up joining, but it would be well advised to leave the welcome open to “Slavonic states in the Western Balkans” as well as “Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.”[19]
The only real ambiguity in the region would concern Belarus. It is in the interest of Belarus’s neighbors to help liberate this country from Russia peacefully; however, Belarus is still greatly influenced by and intertwined with Russia politically, economically, and culturally. Still, one cannot forget how, “Belarussians have died in Maidan and in the war in Donbass fighting for Ukrainian liberty – and in the end for the liberty of Europe;”[20] therefore, this country cannot be left on its own.
A 21st-century Intermarium would be committed to protecting every nation threatened by Russia. Still, the most important factor to consider under a 21st-century Intermarium would be to not repeat the mistakes of the first project. This means not letting internal matters dominate and hopefully uniting under a shared, common global threat. Intermarium cannot be successful until, “the entire post-Soviet sphere in Europe, learns how to work in solidarity together.”[21] It should also be noted that “no successor state can stand up to Moscow successfully on its own.”[22] Therefore, only when these nations have put their differences aside would a proposed Intermarium in the 21st century have a chance for working out.
There is a question of whether Intermarium in the 21st century would even be relevant or needed today. In fact, the project had been largely forgotten in the political mainstream until 2014 when Crimea was attacked by Russia and Ukraine was left to its own defense, or in other words, left to fight alone. The driving force for this project to resurface today would be for uniting against possible Russian aggression and increasing overall security in the Eastern/Central European region. Ukraine felt abandoned by its Western Allies, which prompted it to look for new alternatives to strengthen its military and security.
This is why it would be important to establish Intermarium in the 21st century, a group that would be separate from the NATO alliance and would dedicate more attention to the concerns of the Intermarium member nations.[23] This is not to put the blame on NATO’s western allies; this is just to highlight the fact that the Central/Eastern European nations share a concern that is not prioritized by other NATO members. Another factor to consider is the “those closest to Russia are more concerned than those further away.”[24] Of course, this is expected; however, the Central European nations have all been “subjected to Russian domination” and are therefore cautious about Russia’s movements. For the Eastern countries of “Ukraine, Poland, the Baltic states, Romania, Moldova (and almost certainly Belarus too) Russia is a primary and existential threat.”[25] A proposed map of what Intermarium could look like in the 21st century is shown:
There are, so far, four possible strategies that Russia could use to attack its western neighbors. The first and best-case scenario is that Russia does not attack and stays content with its influence over Belarus, the Donbass region, and Crimea. It will still hold economic and political ties with Ukraine and Belarus but not show any desire to expand them more than they currently are. Next, the Russians could engage in hybrid warfare with Eastern European countries through propaganda, computer hacking, aggressive activities, and, even in some cases, physical harm. A third possible scenario is that Russia and Germany will once again form an alliance. Based on the historical idea of continuity, it is reasonable to assume that old alliances or pacts between Russia and Germany could resurface. The only solid proof currently available is Nord Stream 2, which is a gas pipe that combines the two superpowers and skips over the Baltics and Poland.
Lastly, the worst-case scenario is that Russia decides to attack Ukraine or another country in the Intermarium alliance. This attack would essentially provoke a response, “from Poland, Romania, Moldova, Bulgaria etc and for Russia to win that war would involve them attacking NATO nations thus drawing in Germany, France, UK, USA, Canada etc etc…”[26] The outcome of this scenario is highly debatable. Perhaps another Cold War would occur, or maybe there would be attempts to fight through conventional ways. The world has reason to believe something could happen based on Russia’s past actions and recent red flags which include: the Minsk II agreement after a failed first one, a growing partnership with China which is heavily politically and militarily intertwined, Russia testing limits and crossing NATO occupied zones with aircraft, the 2007 Estonia cyber-attack, Nord Stream 2, and many other incidents. One cannot predict the future or how Russia will act, but the hope is that Intermarium would have prepared strategies to respond to any of these situations.
Still, one must consider the possible consequences of implementing a 21st-century Intermarium. Russia wants to continue to keep Ukraine in its sphere of influence and will block any attempts to ensure that it does not link further with the West. It is already rather unlikely that Western NATO members will ever approve Ukraine of joining the alliance. They do not want to anger Putin nor lose their business deals, but they especially do not want to be involved in a war with Russia. Therefore, it is possible the allies and partners of Central/Eastern Europe would not support a 21st-century Intermarium. The Eastern Europe unified military power would unfortunately not be enough to support a real threat from Moscow, and it would need the help of the United States. However, having an Intermarium in place would provide greater security and perhaps a greater fighting chance.
One question of the past continues to arise among historians, “How different would the world be if Intermarium succeeded? Could have it prevented the German Reich?” Perhaps the same question will be given to late 21st century historians if Intermarium does not form this century.
Regardless, as the Russian state continues to break international law, it is no surprise that Intermarium is a topic that is resurfacing today. Ukraine would probably benefit the most from this project today; however, the security threat of Russia is shared throughout the region. As it is evident in history time and time again, the nations of central Europe have often been the battleground for war and therefore can only survive as a united pact. They all shared similar fates during WWI/WWII and, as a result, today, share historical reasons to join this kind of alliance. Perhaps one cannot guarantee how Intermarium would work out or who the exact members would be. Regardless, Intermarium in the 21st century is vastly different compared to the conditions Józef Piłsudski dealt with and has a greater chance of succeeding.
Intermarium is a geopolitical project from the 20th century that is gaining more momentum each year. The exact workings and politics of how Intermarium in the 21st century would work are still undergoing discussion by “post-Soviet politicians, diplomats, and intellectuals.”[27] Still, the important thing to note is that it is a project worth considering again and updating to the current needs of the 21st century. Today, it is mainly being advocated as a result of Central/Eastern European security concerns. If Intermarium in the 21st century is going to succeed, it needs total cooperation from each member state as well as U.S. military help. Intermarium has the potential to completely transform the international stage and overall create a stronger Europe for the future.
Russian-hating dream of Brzezinski Clan nears fulfillment as Poland agrees to host permanent U.S. base and turn Baltic Sea into NATO Lake
In late June, President Joe Biden announced before a NATO summit that the United States would establish a permanent military base in Poland, the first time the U.S. would have one on NATO’s eastern flank.
At the moment there are already approximately 10,000 U.S. soldiers in Poland, which has provided a hub for U.S. and other Western countries’ arms shipments to Ukraine.
Members of the Polish 18<sup>th<sup> Mechanized Division and the US 82<sup>nd<sup> Airborne Division participate in a joint military training in Nowa Deba Poland on April 8 2022 Source <a href=httpswwwreuterscomworldeuropewarsaw hails planned us military base poland clear signal russia 2022 06 29>reuterscom<a>
In April, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III agreed to accelerate delivery of U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, HIMARS rocket launchers, F-35 combat aircraft and Abrams tanks to Poland and to help its military become “one of the most capable in Europe.”
Poland’s Defense Minister, Mariusz Błaszczak, said that the U.S. had agreed to sell Poland additional supplies of attack helicopters, drones and multi-role aircraft, which was made possible by passage of a new Homeland Defense Act in Poland boosting Poland’s defense spending to 3% of GDP, one of the highest levels in NATO.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin right stands with Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak left as the National Anthem is played during an arrival ceremony at the Pentagon on April 20 2022 Source <a href=httpswwwvoanewscomaus visit highlights poland s rising military capabilities 6538941html>voanewscom<a>
Poland Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki gushed about the results of the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June, along with the recent invitation by NATO to Finland and Sweden to join NATO, which he said was a “historic decision as the Baltic Sea will, in fact, become a NATO internal sea.”
The Biden administration has accelerated its predecessor’s efforts to move the core of NATO from Paris and Bonn—what Donald Rumsfeld famously termed “old Europe”—to the East, as part of an aggressive drive to control former parts of the Soviet Union and Central Asia.
This policy has been part of the resurrection of the Intermarium—a geopolitical concept originating in the post-World War I era that envisages an alliance of countries reaching from the Baltic Sea over the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea that would serve as an alternative power bloc between Germany and Russia.
The Intermarium security belt is now being massively upgraded by the US to separate Germany and Russia Source <a href=httpswwwriotimesonlinecombrazil newsmodern day censorshipwar in ukraine the real wild card is germany says geopolitical forecaster george friedman>riotimesonlinecom<a>
In March 2018, Poland signed a $4.75 billion deal to purchase U.S. Patriot missile defense systems from Raytheon, the largest arms procurement deal in Polish history.
Vladimir Titov Source <a href=httpsrussische botschaftrude20200724first deputy foreign minister vladimir titovs interview with news ru july 23 2020>russische botschaftru<a>
Now this plot has become ever more menacing to Russia, with the U.S. surrounding Russia not only with missile defense systems but also action-ready combat troops.
Duda is a leader of the right-wing Law and Justice Party, which legalized government control over the media and has promoted the repression of critical intellectuals.
Andrzej Duda Source <a href=httpswwwftcomcontentf62a5389 e5a8 42d2 a269 16e99caa263f>ftcom<a>
Duda has also promoted a right-wing revisionism surrounding World War II. In 2018, Duda signed a law that banned people from accusing Poland of Holocaust atrocities committed by the Nazis and from referring to concentration camps as “Polish death camps.”
The Duda regime has made a point of emphasizing Polish resistance to the Nazis, but has underplayed Polish crimes like the Jedwabne pogrom in July 1941, where Poles rounded up and killed their Jewish neighbors.
Meet the Brzezinskis
The current U.S. ambassador to Poland, Mark Brzezinski, is the son of Zbigniew Brzezinski, a key mastermind of U.S. foreign policy for decades, who supported Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan in the late 1970s and 1980s in an attempt to give the Russians their Vietnam.
A life-long Democrat who was close to Joe Biden when he was vice president, Zbigniew came from a Polish aristocratic family who hated the Russians.
A chip off the old block, Brzezinski grew up hearing stories from his father about mass disappearances in Soviet Russia, which he said “had an enormous impression on me at a young age.”[2] A star student, Zbig received a B.A. and M.A. from McGill University in 1949 and 1950 and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1953 with a dissertation on the relationship between the October Revolution, Vladimir Lenin’s state and the actions of Joseph Stalin.
Brzezinski subsequently collaborated with his Harvard colleague Carl J. Friedrich to develop the concept of totalitarianism in their 1956 book Totalitarian Dictatorship and Autocracy as a way to more powerfully characterize and criticize the Soviets.
Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1960 Source <a href=httpsnewscolumbiaedunewsask almas owl americas grand strategist>newscolumbiaedu<a>
The concept was rebuked by historians because it rejected the possibilty of change within the Soviet system, which occurred under glasnost and perestroika, and created a false binary between the “democratic” West and Communist bloc states.
After teaching at Harvard and Columbia, Brzezinski was appointed Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser. In that position, he advocated for “an arc of Islam” across the Middle East to counter Soviet influence. Brzezinski also lobbied successfully for ending Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s détente policy and for using China as a tool against the Soviet Union.
Brzezinski with Jimmy Carter on his right and Cyrus Vance on his left at Camp David in 1977 Source <a href=httpsportsideorg2021 08 22revelations carters former advisor yes cia entered afghanistan russians 1998>portsideorg<a>
An early supporter of the Vietnam War who characterized the New Left as “an infantile disorder,” Brzezinski was a founder of the Trilateral Commission, which sought to revitalize U.S. power after Vietnam while strengthening the U.S. alliance with Western Europe and Japan.[3]
In his 1997 magnum opus, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives (1997), Brzezinski drew on the theories of British imperial strategist Halford Mackinder to advocate for U.S. dominance of Central Asia, which he regarded as the key to world domination.
Brzezinski airs anti Russian views before NATO backed Atlantic Council think tank Source <a href=httpswwwpoliticoeuarticlecarter adviser zbigniew brzezinski dies at 89>politicoeu<a>
Another Chip Off the Old Block
Zbig’s son Mark—a corporate lawyer with a Ph.D. in political science from Oxford who served from 1999 to 2001 as director of Russian/Eurasian and Southeast European affairs at the National Security Council—has a similar worldview to both his father and grandfather.
He also helped oversee a color revolution in Serbia that resulted in the ouster of Socialist Slobodan Milošević, who had tried to keep the Yugoslav Federation together and resisted U.S. regional designs.
Mark Brzezinski in 2012 in Stockholm when he was the Obama administrations ambassador to Sweden Source <a href=httpswwweuractivcomsectionglobal europenewsbiden picks mark son of zbig brzezinski to manage key nato relationship>euractivcom<a>
In a recent interview, Mark Brzezinski called Lech Wałęsa, the “Solidarity” leader who received CIA funding to overthrow Poland’s communist government in the 1980s, a “freedom fighter.”
Lech Wałęsa during the strike at the Lenin Shipyard 1980 Source <a href=httpspolishhistorypla covert action reagan the cia and the cold war struggle in poland>polishhistorypl<a>
With regard to the Ukraine War, Mark Brzezinski claimed that, “for Poland, this is 1939. This is the invasion of a Slavic country, with the people trying to fight back, and the Poles want to help. This is what the Ukraine crisis is for Poland. And it’s an amazing story because, unlike 1939, you now have people getting into their cars, driving to the border, picking up Ukrainian families, and taking them to put them into people’s homes and apartments.”
In short, the Russians are playing the role of the Nazis and Poles the saviors of the victims of their invasion.
Source <a href=httpsshopsteescomproductpoland stands with ukraine polish ukraine flag vintage t shirt b09vbg2hl7>shopsteescom<a>
Somewhere both Tadeusz and Zbigniew Brzezinski are smiling from their graves.
Their long-held dream of using Poland as a lever to strike a blow against the Russians is finally being fulfilled—at the potential cost of igniting a world war.
Notes:
At the request of President Woodrow Wilson, the United States granted Poland a war loan of $176 million, enabling the purchase of, among other things, approximately 200 tanks, 300 planes, war materials and food for the Polish Army. An American fighter pilot squadron defended access to Lviv during the Battle of Zadwórze on August 17, 1920, and other Americans fought against the Red Army in Semyon Budyonny’s 1st Cavalry Army.
Anna Kasten Nelson, ed., The Policy Makers: Shaping American Foreign Policy from 1947 to the Present (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), 111.
Brzezinski was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (“Wall Street’s think tank”) and the Bilderberg Group.
Intermarium Support Group was founded in the Estonian Parliament
According to the press release of the Estonian Riigikogu from Sep. 14, 2022, a parliamentary group named Intermarium Support Group was created in the Estonian Parliament. Its purpose is to promote cooperation between Eastern European countries as a counterweight to Russia’s imperial ambitions.
The chairman of the Intermarium Support Group, MP Anti Poolamets (EKRE), noted that the group was launched on the example of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. September 30, 2020, MP Sviatoslav Yurash (Sluga Narodu) established the biggest in the Ukrainian Parliament Intermarium Caucus. This parliamentary group, in turn, summarized the efforts of NGO Intermarium Support Group, which was founded by National Corps and is coordinated by Olena Semenyaka, assistant of MP Sviatoslav Yurash.
Earlier this August, Anti Poolamets and another MP from EKRE, Ruuben Kaalep, an ardent promoter of Intermarium initiatives in the region and a regular participant of the Ukrainian Intermarium Support Group’s events, visited Ukraine to show solidarity with Azov soldiers, those undergoing rehabilitation and held in the russian captivity in particular, as well as donated a drone: Estonian MPs in Kyiv call to declare russia a state sponsor of terrorism
“Ukraine needs a wider and faster inclusion in international cooperation formats. The Intermarium, or the union of countries between the seas, has a deep, centuries-long background of cooperation in the territories of Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. It is a powerful regional group of countries that share a common historical experience of long-term loss or limitation of sovereignty under communist regimes. That is why the Intermarium countries can value freedom highly. The population, economic weight and military power of these countries would make it possible to create a strong counterweight to russia’s imperial ambitions in cooperation,” the chairman explained.
Also, Anti Poolamets stressed that it was crucial to modernize transport corridors, above all, gas connections, so that these countries could avoid russian blackmail in the future. “Looking into the future, Intermarium cooperation model should also include Belarus, which assumes the country’s independence from Russian control and the restoration of democracy,” he added.
The chairman of the Intermarium Support Group is Anti Poolamets, and the caucus includes Jaak Valge, Urmas Reitelmann, Tarmo Kruusimäe, Ruuben Kaalep, Leo Kunnas and Paul Puustusmaa.
“Parliamentary groups formed in the Riigikogu help members of the Riigikogu communicate with the parliaments of other countries, implement foreign policy and introduce Estonia to the rest of the world. Through support groups, Riigikogu members and factions can draw attention to a specific topic and promote and protect the interests of a narrower area of life. The XIV Riigikogu has formed a total of 67 parliamentary groups and 96 support groups,” press release states.
Poland’s role in the Intermarium idea
Blue Europe – Think Tank / Feb 8, 2023
“Who rules East Europe commands the heartland, who rules the heartland commands the World-island, who rules the World-island commands the World”. These are the exact words used by renowned British geopolitician Halford Mackinder to convey the significance of the region situated in the eastern portion of the North European plain, the region bounded by the Baltic and Black seas. After regaining their independence at the beginning of the 20th century, Polish legislators tried to reimagine their region as the Intermarium, a powerful land force united to protect central Eastern Europe’s honour amid the revival of Germany and Russia.
“Pożegnanie Europy” by Aleksander Sochaczewski (1894), shows exiled Poles arriving at the border of Europe.
Czartoryski was given the death penalty by Tsar Nicholas the First of Russia because he presided over the provisional government during the November revolt in the early 19th century. Czartoryski vigorously promoted the Polish cause while in exile in the Western countries, primarily France and England, as well as the Ottoman empire. His goal was to revive the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which would have joined forces with other Central European countries like as the Czechs and Slovaks, the Hungarians, the Romanians, the Serbs, and others in a confederation or alliance. In order to balance the Germanic States in the West and the Russian Empire in the East, it was intended to construct a block of states, primarily Slavic. The lack of acceptance in the West would ultimately cause the concept to fail. The prospects of the coalition succeeding, even if Poland were to reappear, were limited because of territorial conflicts with Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic. Many countries in Central Europe regained their independence as a result of the end of World War I, including Poland, Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Latvia, and Estonia. The hope of building a force in the region that could resist both the empires from the East and the West arose as a result of the weariness of war in European powers and the new geopolitical configuration.
Józef Pilsudski and his legacy over the Intermarium idea
The founding leader of the second Polish Republic, Józef Pilsudski, shared the goals of the Polish head of state and later served as field marshall, leading the Polish army in the successful conflict with Bolshevik Russia. The plan he envisioned was in nature identical to the concept of Czartoryski, and it eventually came to be known under the name Intermarium, which is Latin for between the seas. In 1920, it was sealed by victory in the Battle of Warsaw, also known as the Miracle of Vistula. After the war with Russia, Pilsudski realised that building a bloc of nations that could counterbalance Germany and Russia was the only way to defeat the threat posed by their expansionism. In its current form, the motion called for the creation of a federation that would include Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Poland would continue to be the de facto senior partner in that relationship even if it were to give part of its territory to Ukraine. The Pilsudski idea was opposed by everyone. The Soviet Union attempted to obstruct the Intermarium agenda because their zone of influence was in danger. The Allied Powers believed that Bolshevism was only a transient threat and did not want to see Russia, an essential historic partner from a balance of power standpoint, diminished. They disapproved of Pilsudski’s rejection of his White allies, held him in low regard, rejected his ambitious intentions, and pushed Poland to limit its territory to Polish-majority areas. The Ukrainians, who were also seeking independence but were concerned that Poland might once again subjugate them, and the Belarusians, who lacked a strong sense of national identity, were not interested in either independence or Pilsudski’s proposals for union. The Lithuanians, who had restored their independence in 1918, were also unwilling to join. A string of post-World War I wars and border disputes — the Polish-Soviet War, the Polish-Lithuanian War, the Polish-Ukrainian War, and border clashes between Poland and Czechoslovakia — between Poland and its neighbours in disputed territory did little to help Pilsudski’s plan. In order to weaken Russia, Pilsudski wanted to divide the Soviet Union along national lines. The idea was the Great Eastern Empire, which included the countries of Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus, rather than the nation of Poland. Germans and Russians were divided by this “kingdom,” which stretched from the Baltic to the Black sea and had historical roots. Pilsudski was aware that four distinct nationalities with individual state aspirations were born in the formerly Commonwealth-occupied territories. While some academics take Pilsudski’s claims of democratic ideals for his federative plan at face value, others view them with scepticism and point to a coup d’état in 1926 in which Pilsudski seized practically totalitarian powers. Oleksandr Derhachov argues that the federation would have created a bigger Poland in which the interests of non-Poles, especially Ukrainians, would have gotten little consideration. Most Ukrainian historians, in particular, have negative opinions of his concept. However, none of them have a possibility of long-term independence unless they have a sufficiently strong geopolitical potential. Pilsudski, who revived the Commonwealthan ideology, also observed its unfavourable consequences, namely the dominance of the Polish nation over the others. He thought that pluralistic democracy and true federalism were the best remedies for averting this kind of crisis, but this strategy failed for two reasons. The first was the mistrust of Lithuanian and Ukrainian political figures regarding the intentions of the Polish government. They feared that the system’s control by the Polish nation would jeopardise their recently attained freedom. The second was an internal Polish factor. In opposition to the Polish socialist party, which Pilsudski came from, the national democrats and Polish nationalist ideology political movement coalesced around Roman Dmowski. As they saw no hope of building an effective government with Lithuanians or Ukrainians, they decided to create a monoethnic state. The idea was finally dropped after the Treaty of Riga was signed in 1921 by Poland, Soviet Ukraine, and Soviet Russia, delineating the Polish-Russian border. The states of the Baltic-Black Sea block were going to benefit from the greatest strategy in twenty years because to this lack of geopolitical power consolidation. A federation of states stretching from Finland in the north to Greece in the south was the concept that sparked interest in the political sector. When he was Poland’s minister of foreign affairs at the time, Józef advocated a Third Europe alliance of Central European nations to counterbalance the geopolitical influence of the USSR, authoritarian nations like Germany and Italy, and the Western powers England and France. The alliance would be led by Poland, Hungary, and Romania, with Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and potentially Italy joining later. However, there was no foundation for this idea to manifest itself as a true force. Italy remained on the German side, the Transylvania conflict between Romania and Hungary persisted, and no one was willing to accept Poland’s leadership. Soon after, World War II started, shattering any significant plans to reestablish a dominant power in this part of Europe. The Polish elites abandoned the Intermarium’s will in conformity with Moscow’s will throughout the course of the following 44 years whereas the elites in exile did not. In the Paris-based publication Kultura, Jerzy Giedroyc and Juliusz Mieroszewski, who were both living in France at the time, established the idea of a sovereign Polish state in which they firmly believed. Giedroyc once remarked, “Without free Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, there cannot be a free Poland.
Three issues of “Kultura” Photo: Literary Institute Rebuilding positive ties with the nations of Central and Eastern Europe was the cornerstone of the Giedroyc-Mieroszewski ideology. According to this plan, Poland would have to give up any imperial aspirations and contentious territorial claims in addition to accepting the post-war state structure and, consequently, the loss of Vilnius and Lviv, two crucial cities for Poles. In essence, the theory was not hostile to Russia and backed the independence of Belarus and Ukraine. Giedroyc and Mieroszewski urged Poland and Russia to give up their plans to dominate the Eastern lands, primarily Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belarus. As a result, the ideology is also known as the ULB philosophy, which is derived from the initials of these nations. In Wadysaw Sikorski’s Polish Government in Exile, the idea of a “Central European Union” — a triangle geopolitical bloc rooted in the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic or Aegean Seas — was revived during World War II. Discussions in 1942 between the exiled governments of Greece, Yugoslavia, Poland, and Czechoslovakia over potential Greek-Yugoslav and Polish-Czechoslovak federations ultimately failed because to Soviet opposition, which caused Czech reluctance and Allied ambivalence or hostility. The construction of a federal union for Central and Eastern Europe that was not dominated by any one state was advocated in a statement made at the time by the Polish Underground State. It represented a paradigm shift from the widespread viewpoint of Polish immigrants from the 1950s and 1960s who were determined to establish Polish dominance in the eastern regions of the old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and did not want to give up their quest for that goal. In contrast to Mieroszewski, who passed away in 1976, Giedroyc lived to see Poland gain its independence in 1989, and their philosophy was the one that came the closest to the tactics used by the Polish government in the East following 1989. Among other things, Poland supported libertarian inclinations in Ukraine, Russia, and other nations. However, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the newly established Belarusian government proposed an economic and customs union with Minsk. Poland at the time looked almost primarily to the West for economic power, therefore Warsaw rejected. As a result of this perspective, we joined the NATO, the European Union, the German-controlled West European supply chain, and the American military’s safety net. The Polish state had been without stability for about 250 years before these decisions were made. The abandoning of geopolitical philosophy, of which Intermarium was a crucial notion, was brought about by prosperity and geopolitical stagnation brought about by American hegemony. Poles in the East prioritised the interests of the West over their own and those of the EU, US, and other countries.
Modern Intermarium initiatives
The ULB doctrine’s relationship with Belarus, the second-most significant nation after Ukraine, became almost entirely muddled. Poland, along with other countries in Central and Eastern Europe, must reevaluate its place in the region as global system tensions rise. Under a variety of titles, most recently the free-seas initiative, the notion of a similar alliance to the Commonwealth slowly started to resurface on the agenda. The limited potential of Poland in comparison to Germany’s and Russia’s economic and military might makes the idea of Intermarium exceedingly challenging to carry out without an external patreon, according to the grassroots geopolitical thought in Poland. The USA is the sole contender for this title. American agenda in the European theatre presupposes that a bloc of Central and Eastern European nations is aligned with US objectives in order to counterbalance the potential consolidation of Germany and Russia. The ambition to deliver energy to Ukraine and Belarus through terminals in Poland and Lithuania was the initial symptom. The Visegrád Group nations of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary announced the formation of a Visegrád Battlegroup on May 12, 2011, under the leadership of Poland. By 2016, the battlegroup had been established as a separate entity from the NATO command. The four nations were also supposed to start conducting combined military drills under the supervision of the NATO Response Force starting in 2013. This was viewed by some academics as the first step toward close regional collaboration in Central Europe.
In his inauguration address on August 6, 2015, Polish President Andrzej Duda announced ambitions to create a regional alliance of Central European nations based on the Intermarium idea. The Three Seas Initiative had its inaugural summit in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in 2016. Along a north-south axis from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea, the Twelve Seas Initiative has 12 member states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria. Every nation threatened by Russia would be covered by a 21st-century Intermarium. To avoid making the same mistakes as the original project, however, would be the most crucial aspect to take into account in an Intermarium for the twenty-first century. This entails putting aside personal issues and, ideally, coming together in the face of a shared, collective global peril. Until “the entire post-Soviet realm in Europe learns how to work in solidarity together,” Intermarium will not be successful. It should be remembered that no successor state can successfully confront Moscow by itself. Therefore, a projected Intermarium in the twenty-first century would only have a chance of succeeding when these nations have set their differences aside. It is hardly surprising that Intermarium is a topic that is reviving today given that the Russian state continues to violate international law. Today, Ukraine would undoubtedly gain the most from this initiative, but the entire area is concerned about Russia’s security threat. The nations of central Europe have frequently been the scene of war, as history has demonstrated time and time again, thus they can only exist as a single alliance.
Due to their shared experiences during World Wars I and II, they all have historical motivations to form this kind of partnership today. Perhaps it is impossible to predict how Intermarium will function or who the actual members will be. In any case, Intermarium in the twenty-first century is very different from the circumstances that Józef Pilsudski faced and has a better chance of success. A geopolitical initiative from the 20th century called Intermarium is gaining ground every year. Post-Soviet politicians, diplomats, and intellectuals are still debating the precise operations and politics of Intermarium in the twenty-first century.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg attended the Bucharest Nine (B9) Summit by video teleconference on Friday (10 June 2022), to prepare for the NATO Summit in Madrid at the end of this month. The B9 format, established at the initiative of Polish President Duda and Romanian President Iohannis in the aftermath of Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, includes NATO Allies Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, and its summit is currently taking place in Bucharest.
The NATO Secretary General thanked the B9 group for their strong support of transatlantic unity, their significant contributions to Euro-Atlantic security, as well as their consistent support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. He stressed that today’s meeting is particularly timely in view of President Putin’s second invasion of Ukraine, leading to the worst security situation in Europe since World War Two. NATO has responded quickly, Mr. Stoltenberg said, including by doubling the number of multinational battlegroups from the Baltic to the Black Sea, with new battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.
At the NATO Summit in Madrid, all 30 Alliance leaders will take the next steps to continue to adapt the Alliance to a more dangerous and competitive world. The Secretary General outlined the importance of further strengthening deterrence and defence, including on the eastern flank, with more combat-ready forces, together with more enablers and pre-positioning, to leave no doubt that NATO will protect every inch of Allied territory.
Mr. Stoltenberg also stressed the importance of continued investment in defence and resourcing the Alliance at this critical time, commending the B9 members for the fact that many of them meet or exceed the 2% target of GDP on defence spending. The Secretary General outlined the need to deepen partnerships at the Madrid Summit, including with Ukraine, Georgia, Finland and Sweden, the European Union, and Asia-Pacific partners.
Intermarium Winter School
Jan 17, 2023
We are noticing that the world is undergoing rapid transformation, and the geopolitical situation is changing very dynamically. The change in the balance of power in connection with the war in Ukraine, the internal tensions and transformations within the European Union, the attempt of the EU institutions to exert pressure on the EU Member States from Central and Eastern Europe in the shaping of their internal policies – all this makes cooperation within the framework of the Inter-Mediterranean Region a civilizational necessity in the near and distant future.
The Intermarium Winter School (“IWS”) is:
getting to know each other, and become more familiar with our common history and culture;
the discussions about the future of our countries and the region as a whole;
an opportunity to meet famous polish scientists, politicians and publicists;
a meeting of a young people, who actively engage in the social life of their countries;
an establishment of relationships that will result in cooperation in the fields of culture, education, politics, energy.
IWS will consist of workshops and lectures conducted by prominent figures of Polish social and academic life, as well as politicians. The list of invited guests includes:
prof. Andrzej Zybertowicz, advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland
prof. Przemysław Czarnek, the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Poland
Att. Jerzy Kwaśniewski, the President of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture
dr Patryk Jaki, Member of the European Parliament
Marek Jurek, former Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Poland
Grzegorz Górny, the leader of the Three Seas Foundation
Istvan Kovacs, strategic director of the Center for Fundamental Rights
Artur Zawisza, former Member of Parliament, specialist in energy renewables
dr Filip Ludwin, Associate Professor, Vice-Rector for Education
Arkadiusz Robaczewski, philosopher, lecturer
Lectures are conducted in English.
INTERESTINGLY, THE FAR-RIGHT IS BLIND TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THEIR NATIONAL INDENTITY IN THE NEW GEOPOLITICAL BORSCH
So Nazis from either side of the Polish-Ukrainian border push for this too.
“From Maidan to Intermarium” Need I add anything more?
PS: I have a strong hunch Russia is a partner here and there’s a certain collaboration in this plan. For later reference.
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You will never find another report or article about this big event, must have been really fruitful from a scientific standpoint (and their main point, allegedly).
Jeffrey Epstein, Science Philanthropist, Organizes a Global Doomsday Conference.
New York, NY, April 05, 2012 –(PR.com)– In the wake of the March 2011 Tohuku earthquake and tsunami, which created more than 300,000 refugees and radioactive contamination across the entire region, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists pushed the symbolic Doomsday Clock one minute closer to midnight last January, to reflect the world’s lack of progress with battling climate change and nuclear weapons.
To address this concern, the Jeffrey Epstein Foundation, which funds science research and education, is organizing a second world conference called, Coping with Future Catastrophes to be held most likely in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The first conference took place last December in the US Virgin Islands and brought together a prestigious panel of scientists to identify the greatest threats to the Earth. The threats include acts of bioterrorism, nuclear calamities and/or nuclear warfare, overpopulation, asteroid and meteor threats, super volcanoes, mass tectonic earthquakes, rogue self-replicating nano-machines, super intelligent computers and high-energy chain-reactions that could disrupt the fabric of space itself.
The conference was organized by cognitive scientist, Marvin Minsky, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and co-founder of MIT’s AL (Artificial Intelligence) Laboratory. Other scientists included, Martin Nowak, Professor of Biology and Mathematics and Director of the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University, Lawrence Krauss, Professor of Physics, Foundation Professor of the School of Earth and Space Exploration, and Director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University and Gregory Benford, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California in Irvine.
Lawrence Krauss, who also serves as co-chairman of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists’ board of sponsors, stated that, “Faced with clear and present dangers of nuclear proliferation and climate change, and the need to find sustainable and safe sources of energy, world leads are failing to change business as usual. …The major challenge at the heart of humanity’s survival in the 21st century is how to meet energy needs for economic growth in developing and industrial countries without further damaging the climate … and without risking further spread of nuclear weapons — and in fact setting the stage for global reductions.”
“We need to identify the greatest threats to our Earth,” Minsky summarized, “but we also need to prioritize them.”
Indeed, the list of prioritized threats that was assembled at the first conference will be debated and refined at the second conference, and will host a larger panel of scientists from around the world. “We’re still in the process of selecting scientists to panel this international conference,” Jeffrey Epstein remarked. “We intend to cast a much wider global net and to have scientists from a wider range of fields including bio and genetic engineering.”
The goal of this second conference however is not just to establish a refined list of the Earth’s greatest threats, but to begin the process of setting up an NGO, a non-governmental agency to monitor the priority list, adjust it accordingly and work on preventative measures.
“So far, there are hundreds of governmental and non-governmental organizations, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Center for Disease Control or the World Health Organization, that monitor potential global catastrophes but they tend to focus on one field of study,” Minsky affirmed. “There’s a great need for an international organization to oversee and collect data from all of these groups, to prioritize looming disasters and to establish preventative measures.”
The second conference, if held in Dubai, will most likely coincide with the 2nd International Conference on Environmental, Biomedical and Biotechnology, set for early August. “Dubai is a neutral meeting ground for the international community and is geared to host large conferences and international media,” Epstein explained.
Established in 1947, the Doomsday Clock now sits at 11:55pm, five minutes before midnight, or Armageddon for the Earth. The closest it ever came to midnight was in 1953, when the clock was pushed to 11:58pm, when United States and the Soviet Union tested thermonuclear devices within nine months of each other. Five minutes to midnight though is hardly a reprieve from that time and we should all be in a state of alert.
To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
IF YOU’RE READING THIS, YOU’RE PROBABLY TARGETED BY A GOVERNMENT OR TWO. SO I MADE SOMETHING FOR YOU. SEE DETAILS / ORDER
So, if Ukraine is buying fuel from its enemy, Russia, then also Russia is selling fuel to its enemy, Ukraine. And together, they manage to keep the meatgrinder rolling. I wish some of my former friends were more like these enemies.
In this attention economy, everyone is broke, I often say. I hope you have a little bit of real attention capital to invest in these and if you do it properly, the return is better than peak Bitcoin. Unless you’re among the very few who saw it already. Chapeau to you!
Wish you best of focus!
To be continued? Our work and existence, as media and people, is funded solely by our most generous supporters. But we’re not really covering our costs so far, and we’re in dire needs to upgrade our equipment, especially for video production. Help SILVIEW.media survive and grow, please donate here, anything helps. Thank you!
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them
EdCamp Ukraine (Ukrainian: ЕдКемп Україна) is a movement of educators in Ukraine. It is based on the principles of the worldwide EdCamp movement, which originated in the United States. Ukraine was the third country in Europe and the ninth in the world to join the original movement in 2014. As of 2020, EdCamp Ukraine is the second biggest EdCamp community in the world, and the biggest community of educators in Ukraine.
EdCamp Ukraine’s 2018 initiative concerning the development of professional education succeeded in reforming the career-enhancement training process, in particular by de-monopolizing the government-sponsored professional education enterprises. As the initiative’s result, in 2019 the new regulations of the Ministry allowed educators to develop their professional skills through a wider range of educational and scientific institutions, as well as through private and legal business ventures. Their education is funded by government or local budgets according to the “money follows the teacher” principle.
The anti-discrimination expertise of EdCamp Ukraine became a part of the Ministry’s textbook-approval procedure. EdCamp Ukraine’s activity led to the establishment of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) reform, and to a variety of anti-corruption and de-bureaucratization procedures. For example, in 2019, two independent sources estimated that the de-bureaucratization reforms EdCamp Ukraine lobbied for decreased teacher paperwork by 20 to 30%.
EdCamp Ukraine’s signature events are unconferences: free and independent events that focus on communication between educators, international experts, speakers, and government figures. Since 2015, EdCamp Ukraine has organized six national and 186 regional in-person and online unconferences. In 2020, more than 10,000 members attended the Sixth National unconference, which became the biggest online event in Ukraine (as recorded in the Ukraine Record Book).
History
The original movement
The original EdCamp movement was established in 2010, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US.[10][11][12] The movement was created as an alternative source of professional development for educators[13][14][15] and in response to American educators’ complaints about the inefficiencies of their educational system.[16][14] As of 2020, 44 countries have joined the movement.[10][14][15]
In 2019, 2020 and 2021, the EdCamp format was acknowledged by the HundrED organization in their worldwide review of innovative education organizations.[17][14][15]
In 2020, EdCamp US merged with the Digital Promise organization, which develops innovations for education especially through incorporating technology.[18]
Based on the principals of the original EdCamp movement, EdCamp Ukraine is a movement of Ukrainian educators[12][19][20][2] based around a non-governmental, non-profit public organization that focuses on the independent professional development of educators nationwide.[8][21][5][6][4] It also works on education system reformation and improvement.[14] Ukraine became the third country in Europe and the ninth in the world to join the original movement.[22][23][24] The members of the organization are called “white crows,” describing people who seize change in their community and are not afraid to try alternative techniques.[11][16][25]
The EdCamp Ukraine organization was founded by Oleksandr Elkin, and as of 2020 he still serves as its Head of Board.[8][26][27][2] Prior to the foundation of the organization, Elkin worked for an IT company and developed programs to improve the Ukrainian education system,[25][12] such as the school management system School Champion, a platform that connects Ukrainian education institutions.[11] The EdCamp Ukraine organization was inspired by the 2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.[10][12]
The EdCamp Ukraine movement began in 2014, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.[3][10] On December 29, 2015, the EdCamp Ukraine organization was officially registered as a non-profit public organization. In 2017, it launched a crowdfunding project to fund its first office,[4][25][1] which was opened in Kharkiv in 2018.[28] In 2019, the organization became the official owner of the EdCamp trade mark in Ukraine.[29]
As of 2020, EdCamp Ukraine is the second biggest EdCamp community in the world and the biggest community of educators in the country,[14][15][10] with a membership more than 40000. Of those, 21,802 work in Ukrainian schools, which is about 5% of all Ukrainian educators. According to research, the EdCamp movement is present in half of Ukrainian schools.[30][9]
Unconferences
One of the key signature events of EdCamp Ukraine are the free unconferences held yearly in Kharkiv, Ukraine.[15][8][11] Educators apply and participate in an oral interviewto be selected to attend.[25]
Unconferences are “edutainment” (education/entertainment).[31] Topics are shaped at the beginning of an event, and participants are the main authorities,[10][32][16] meaning that every member of the unconference can become a speaker.[33] This format makes it easier for educators to learn from each other, as its sessions are held a free discussion format.[32][11][31]
Several main methods and principles of unconferences are:
The “two legs” law, which implies that every member is free to build their own schedule within the event, attending any session or joining any discussion[11][16]
The “long tale effect,” which means that the most important steps are not made during the discussions or unconferences, but afterwards, when real action towards improvement is taken[11][16]
The “speed-geeking” practice (a three-minute tête-à-tête conversation between members and speakers) to spur communication and make as many acquaintances as possible between members and experts at unconferences[11]
Arenas of action
Professional development for educators
Participation in EdCamp unconferences.
National unconferences
EdCamp Ukraine’s National unconferences are considered the key event of the year for Ukrainian educators.[10] The first EdCamp Ukraine unconference was held in June 2015, and attended by more than 350 visitors.[11][34]
The Second National unconference
In April 2016, the second unconference was held in Kharkiv. The event was part of the 2016 Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science and the Institute of Educational Modernization (Ukrainian: Інститут модернізації змісту освіти) events.[16][31] It was held in partnership with more than 40 Ukrainian organizations[31] and financed via crowdfunding at the Ukrainian platform Spilnokosht (Ukrainian: Спільнокошт).[34][16] Between 500 and 550 people visited the unconference, including around 80 Ukrainian and international experts from 12 countries. The event consisted of 145 sessions in 17 different locations.[31][16]
Main topics included new technology, an anti-discrimination approach in education, community integration, and English language as national priority.[31][16] The concept of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа), a reform in Ukrainian education,[35][36] was outlined and discussed.[16] International speakers at the event were: Oskar Brenife, author and philosophy Ph.D. from Paris, France; Eva Rambala, lecturer and trainer in non-violent communication, from Budapest, Hungary; and Esther Wojcicki, journalism teacher and media arts program founder from Palo Alto, California, USA.[31][16]
The Third National unconference
The third EdCamp Ukraine unconference was held in April 2017. Almost 700 educators participated, including people from 20 countries other than Ukraine. The Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science, Liliya Hrynevych, joined the event.[33][37][13][38] There were 20 sessions in 20 locations and 135 speakers from 20 different countries.[4][3] At this unconference, the Ukrainian version of the Global Teacher Prize was announced.[13]
Main topics at this event included the formation of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) and future reforms in the Ukrainian school system.[33][13][38] British author, speaker, and international advisor on education Ken Robinson addressed the unconference in a 10-minute video message.[39] European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) researcher Giovanni Porchellana spoke at the unconference.[13]
The Fourth National unconference
The fourth EdCamp Ukraine unconference was held in Kharkiv in 2018.[40] Participants totaled 946 educators from 24 Ukrainian regions, and 143 experts from 11 countries presented.[24] One of the main topics of the unconference was anti-discrimination in education.[41]
Six hundred EdCampers gathered at the Constitution Square in Kharkiv for a flash mob that was later registered in the Ukrainian Record Book as the biggest gathering of educators ever.[42][43] Ukrainian and international public figures took part in the flash mob, including Liliya Hrynevych, the Minister of Education and Science; Hadley Ferguson, co-founder of the original EdCamp movement in the US; Caspar Peek, representative from United Nations Population Fund in Ukraine; and Yaacov Hecht, Israel educator and founder of democratic schools.[42][43][44] Speakers included Yaacov Hecht,[44] Liliya Hrynevych,[35][24] and Esa Sinivuori, a Finnish expert from Lumo Education.[44]
The Fifth National unconference
The fifth unconference was held in 2019 in Kharkiv. About 1,000 educators attended, including experts from 20 countries.[45][46][47]
Anti-discrimination policies in education were widely discussed during the event.[41][48] Another main focus introduced the concepts of Social Emotional Ethical Learning system (SEE Learning) to Ukrainian educators (SEE Learning is a system of the “soft skills” that include creative thinking, empathy, the ability to work in a team, and other skills previously introduced to EdCamp Ukraine team by the fourteenth Dalai Lama).[19][46][49])[46][47][45] Plans were discussed to incorporate SEE Learning into Ukrainian schools.[47]
The EdCamp Ukraine team invited the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to join the unconference to discuss Ukrainian education and necessary reforms.[50] Due to a scheduling conflict, the President couldn’t attend, but addressed the EdCamp Ukraine team and members in a letter.[51] The members were also addressed by the Dalai Lama in his video message.[52]
During the unconference, another record was set: “The biggest number of locations to join an online educators’ flash mob” registered Ukraine Record Book.[20]Liliya Hrynevych, as well as several other Ukrainian public figures and international guests such as Giovanni Porchellana from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and Israel educator Yaacov Hecht, took part in the flash mob.[20]
The Sixth National unconference
Due to quarantine measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, EdCamp Ukraine’s 2020 unconference was held online. Its theme was “High Five for Education.” Oleksandr Elkin and EdCamp Ukraine 2020 were acknowledged in the “United States and Ukraine: Virtual EdCamps” issue of Education Continuity, published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.[53][54]
The main subject of the online marathon—education within the Coronavirus pandemic—was discussed by educators and parents from all over Ukraine.[55] It was the first time parents were invited to attend the unconference. More than 10,000 members and 65 speakers from 22 countries joined the online event. People entered virtual unconference sessions 80,689 times.[15][56] Lectures and sessions totaled 55 hours.[54]
The five main subjects discussed at the event were distance learning, education policies, physical and mental health, financial and legal challenges, and partnership in education.[57][54]
In December 2021, was organized the seventh (non) conference – “National EdCamp for joy! -)” (alternative name EdCamp Joy).[59] The (non) conference in the online format lasted 10 days, from December 7 to 18. The event was attended by 1,161 people – teachers of all levels of education, other adults who work with children and parents. The offline part was held in the format of a meeting of international delegations of the EdCamp movement from 18 to 22 December. Memoranda of cooperation were signed between the national movements of EdCamp in six countries (Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Romania, Armenia),[60] EdCamp Ukraine with the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine,[61] and H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.[62] The event was attended by 30 world-renowned scientists, educators, psychologists, thought leaders, whose research and practice relate to the phenomenon of joy. This is the world educational expert and developer of international PISA testing Andreas Schleicher (Germany), education specialist, documentary film producer, venture investor and writer Ted Dintersmith, psychologist, writer, founder of the teaching program at Williams College Susan Engel (USA) teacher Shalva Amonashvili (Georgia).[63] There were also closed screenings of three films: “Most Likely to Succeed” (2015, USA), “Mission: Joy – Finding Happiness in Troubled Times” (2021, USA) and “Why am I alive” (Чому я живий, 2021, Ukraine).[64]
Regional unconferences
After attending EdCamp Ukraine’s unconferences, educators volunteer to hold regional unconferences, or mini-EdCamps, for their communities.[11] These regional unconferences are held monthly in different Ukrainian education institutions. Between 2015 and 2020, there were 186 regional unconferences.[65][66] In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine held around 40 regional unconferences in different Ukrainian cities, supported by the US Embassy and different Ukrainian companies.[4][25]
In 2016, the EdCamp Ukraine team held a competition for educators to hold official mini-EdCamps in their cities, and received 25 applicants.[11] From 2017 on, EdCamp Ukraine has provided support and financing to teachers who win the contest through their EdCamp in a Box program.[4][3] Between 2015 and 2021, there were 234 regional unconferences. In 2021, EdCamp Ukraine held around 45 regional unconferences in different Ukrainian cities.[67]
EdCamp Ukraine began developing EdCamp in a Box in 2016.[16] In 2017, the organization established the project EdCamp in a Box 3.0. The project provides competition winners with necessary documentation, support, and funds to hold a regional unconference in different Ukrainian cities.[4][3][23]
Other projects for educators
In 2018, the I National summit-challenge “EdCamp-Angels in Action” was held in Odessa, Ukraine, and was visited by 100 mini-EdCamps coordinators from across the country.[41][12] During the summit, nine organizations joined the union to support New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) reform.[68]
In 2018, EdCamp Ukraine published a book, Improving with EdCamp: How to hold educational unconferences for your community, which illustrates EdCamp Ukraine’s main principles and education methods as well as step-by-step advice for offering a mini-EdCamp in any city.[69] The same year, the organization introduced their own online course, How to Organize EdCamp for Your Community.[23][70]
Also in 2018, three training sessions organized by EdCamp Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the United Nations Population Fund, and other Ukrainian organizations were held to certify experts for their anti-discrimination project. Forty-seven members attended to increase their knowledge and skills.[41]
In October 2021, the EdCamp Ukraine team presented a course titled Educators’ Professional Development: New Regulations And Possibilities, on the Ukrainian online course platform Prometheus.[71] EdCamp Ukraine also has its own educational podcast on YouTube and Mixcloud online platforms.[72][73]
In March 2020, EdCamp partnered with the Ministry of Education and Science in Ukraine and other organizations to hold a national online professional development training session for 4,000 educators.[15] That same year, an online meeting was held to discuss the reopening of educational institutions after the COVID-19 quarantine, as well as innovations in education with Ukrainian specialists and public figures such as Lilia Hrynevych.[74][75]
Next, EdCamp Ukraine, with Ukrainian and Swedish partners, set up a contest among young educators from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine; 30 educators took part.[76]
From November to December 2020, EdCamp Ukraine ran an EdCamp online marathon for educators to discuss, learn, and incorporate new teaching methods and practices during the worldwide epidemic of COVID-19 and the period of distance education.[77]
Since February 24, 2022, EdCamp Ukraine has been implementing a number of anti-crisis initiatives to support educators, parents, children and youth during the war.[78]
Open Space of Sustainability – open online meetings for all with specialists from the Institute of Trauma and Emory University.[79]
EdCamp-academy for students, teachers and parents – a system of regular activities to support adults and children.[80]
Thematic expert materials on sensitive topics – videos, infographics, cartoons with tips, explanations, lists on topics related to evacuation from hotspots, travel abroad, adaptation to new places, volunteering, etc.[81]
In 2016, EdCamp Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine took an anonymous poll of almost 8,000 educators in regard to paperwork. They used the research to introduce an initiative supporting de-bureaucratization in schools.[83][84] In 2017, they published “Children and Paperwork: reaching balance in school” to report the results of the research, illustrating the issue from different angles and providing ideas for reforming school paperwork systems.[85][25] Later in 2017, due to the anti-bureaucracy initiative, teachers were relieved of conducting the student census.[86][25]
In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Science passed new regulations in regard to school documentation,[87][12] decreasing the amount of paperwork in schools by 20%[84] to 30%.[12]
New Ukrainian School Reform
In 2016, the concept of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) was outlined and discussed at the second EdCamp Ukraine unconference.[16] This reform initiative became the main subject of discussions between Ukrainian educators and government through EdCamp Ukraine unconference 2017.[3][4][33][13][38] That year, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine released a document publishing the main concepts, aims, and reform stages for the New Ukrainian School.[88][3] Oleksandr Elkin, the founder and head of EdCamp Ukraine with vice-president Olena Massalitina co-authored the New Ukrainian School Reform concept.[8][4][2][89][10] The New Ukrainian School was the first Ukrainian educational reform movement to include soft skills (creativity, openness for communication and partnership, and conflict resolution) into school curriculum.[12] Soon after, Ukrainian teachers started to integrate some of the concepts of the New Ukrainian School into the school system.[4]
In 2018, the reform was officially introduced into schools.[35][36] That year, during the summit challenge for regional coordinators of mini-EdCamps around Ukraine, nine Ukrainian organizations joined the union to support and lobby for further development of the New Ukrainian School.[68]
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine established the #книгоНУШ project, aimed at creating book clubs and compiling vital educational books as the foundation for the New Ukrainian School system. Ukrainian poet, novelist, essayist, and translator Serhiy Zhadan was one of the first activists to support and promote the initiative.[90][3][91]
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and the Institute of Education Content Modernization (Ukrainian: Інститут модернізації змісту освіти) established an anti-discrimination review of Ukrainian textbooks. Later that year, according to the initiative, textbooks for 1 and 10 grades were reviewed by the anti-discrimination expert commission for the first time in history.[25][41][3]
From 2016 through 2020, EdCamp Ukraine holds anti-discrimination trainings for textbook authors and publishers.[92] Starting in 2018, the organization also holds trainings and a summit to teach educators how to review textbooks according to anti-discrimination principles.[93][41][94]
While at the beginning of the project, no textbooks fully met the anti-discrimination educational standards, by 2018, 22% of books met the new anti-discrimination regulations.[93] In 2019, that rose to 42%.[41]
As of 2020, anti-discrimination review officially became part of the textbook-approval procedure.[95]
Professional education
In 2018, EdCamp Ukraine, with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, International Renaissance Foundation (IRF), and other Ukrainian organizations, did a research project called “To teach and to learn: how Ukrainian education can grow” in regard to educators’ professional development.[96][12][97] The project involved 8,427 educators,[24] and 87% of them expressed the desire to develop professionally and learn the English language. At the time, 11% could speak English.[98] EdCamp Ukraine and the Ministry of Education and Science started to work on an initiative to enable educators to officially develop their professional skills, not only through government-sponsored education but also through non-governmental organizations, business ventures, and with the help of other sponsors.[12][9]
In 2019, the Ministry of Education and Science passed new regulations in regard to teacher’s professional development. According to the new regulations, Ukrainian educators are to spend a minimum of 150 hours every five years developing their professional skills. The whole process is funded by government or local budgets, which is the essential rule of another newly established principle, “money follows the teacher.”[99] Educators can fulfill those hours through educational and scientific institutions or private and legal business ventures, and are free to choose among the institutions that provide such services.[100][101][99]
The Ministry of Education and Science created a group to work on professional development topics which included EdCamp Ukraine founder and president Oleksandr Elkin and vice-president Olena Massalitina.[102][9]
Anti-corruption initiative
Since 2018, EdCamp Ukraine has partnered with the USAID project “Support to Anti-Corruption Champion Institutions” (SACCI). Together with other Ukrainian ventures and organizations, they work to decrease corruption in Ukrainian schools. One result of the partnership was an anti-corruption educational toolkit for teachers to use in, teaching children how to fight corruptive practices. The toolkit contains games, quests, and ideas for training sessions. As of 2020, session on anti-corruption techniques became part of all annual EdCamp Ukraine unconferences.[103][104]
EdWay
In 2021, the organization launched EdWay – the National platform for professional development opportunities for teachers, where educators are free to choose the subject, form, type and content of professional development.[105]
Lessons of kindness
In 2021, EdCamp Ukraine together with #GenerousTuesdayChildren (#ЩедрийВівторокДіти) and a specially selected team of authors developed a manual for the formation of a culture of charity in the educational process: “Lessons of kindness: ideas and tips for the school year”.[106]
International projects and partnerships
Over the years, Ukrainian EdCampers have promoted their organization and its ideas in Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, and Moldova.[10][107] They served as advisors for African and Italian EdCamps.[107] The EdCamp Ukraine team has close relationships with educators in the US, Finland, Germany, Sweden, Israel, and Singapore.[12]
Early events
From 2015 through 2020, EdCamp Ukraine supports and celebrates Global Dignity Day, and gives classes in regard to it in Ukraine. During the sixth annual Global Dignity Day celebration in 2020, the organization attracted Ukrainian schools to participate by holding lessons and discussions in online and offline formats.[25][108] In September 2020, the president of EdCamp Ukraine, Oleksand Elkin, was appointed Global Dignity Country Chair for Ukraine.[109][8] Since 2015, 2,789 educational institutions and 379,843 participants have joined the celebration of the Day of Dignity.
In 2017, the Ukrainian version of the Global Teacher Prize was announced and officially begun at the national unconference.[13][4] Oleksandr Elkin served as a judge for the annual prize from 2017 to 2019.[110][111][112]
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine introduced a new branch of activity: international trips aimed at researching education in different countries, called EdTrips.[4][25] Its first destinations were Finland[113][25] and Estonia.[114] Later, EdTrips visited Sweden.[115]
In 2018, EdCamp, in partnership with Lumo Education, established another international project, Seven Days of Change. In this program, the EdCamp Ukraine team invited Finnish educators to visit a Ukrainian school and share Finnish educational concepts with Ukrainian staff. Out of 675 applicants, a school in Poltava Oblast won the chance to host Finnish colleagues.[114]
An EdTrip in 2019 visited Dharmsala, India. There, 16 participants were invited to meet with the Dalai Lama. He introduced the concept of Social Emotional Ethical Learning (SEE Learning), created by the Emory University in the US.[19][46][49] The program is aimed at learning basic human skills such as resilience, empathy, and concentration.[116] That same year, the EdCamp Ukraine team was invited to an official SEE Learning presentation in New Delhi.[49]
The concept of SEE Learning was widely discussed during the fifth unconference.[46][47][45] The concept was supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and incorporated in 26 Ukrainian schools from 23 regions of the country for a trial period as part of the New Ukrainian School (Ukrainian: Нова Українська Школа) reform.[116][117][49][21] After the success of the SEE Learning trials, the program was officially introduced in 26 Ukrainian schools.[5]
By 2020, EdCamp Ukraine became Emory University’s official SEE Learning partner in Ukraine[5] and launched introductory online sessions on SEE Learning to around 20,000 educators.[21] Teachers in schools that incorporated the program took part in training sessions with program developers from Emory University (US) and Ukrainian experts working on the project.[116]
In 2020, for the first time in the history of Ukraine, an online conversation between Dalai Lama XIV and the Ukrainian people was held. The meeting was hosted by Oleksandr Elkin; Liliya Hrynevych, former Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine; Taras Topolya, UNICEF Youth Ambassador to Ukraine and well-known Ukrainian singer; and Nataliya Moseychuk, a TV host recognized nationwide.[21][46][118][21][6][119][49] Topics were education for peace, peace in the world, and the pandemic’s influence on the world.[120][49] The Dalai Lama also answered questions from Ukrainian citizens.[120][6]
Awards and recognition
Organization
In 2017, EdCamp Ukraine won first prize at the 5th National Competition of Public Non-Government Organizations (Ukrainian: V Національний Конкурс Публічних Звітів Організацій Громадянського Суспільства).[121]
Personal achievements
In 2017, Focus magazine listed Oleksandr Elkin among the 100 most influential Ukrainians.[8][26]
In 2018, Oleksandr Elkin was among five Ukrainian men nominated for the 2019 Father of the Year award in the Father-Educator category.[122]
In 2020, the vice-president of EdCamp Ukraine Olena Massalitina was awarded Woman of the Year in the Secondary Education category within the “Ukrainian Women” contest.[89] The same year, she became one of the 100 Most Influential Ukrainian Women as chosen by Focus magazine.[123]
In 2021, Oleksandr Elkin entered the ranking of the 100 most influential people in Ukraine according to the rating of FOCUS magazine and took 85th place.[124]
In 2022, NV named Oleksandr Elkin a “Ukrainian Prometheus”.[125]
As part of the fourth national unconference in 2018, 600 EdCampers gathered at Constitution Square in Kharkiv for a flash mob. This gathering was later registered in the Ukrainian Record Book as the biggest educators’ gathering.[42][43]
In 2019, Ukrainian and international educators set another record during the 2019 unconference: 650 educators gathered at Constitution Square in Kharkiv and educators from 25 Ukrainian regions joined the flash mob online.[127] “The biggest number of locations to join an online educators’ flash mob” was registered in the Ukraine Record Book.[20]
In 2020, more than 10,000 people attended the EdCamp Ukraine online unconference, the largest attendance of an online educational conference in Ukraine to date. This record was registered in Ukrainian National Record Register.[
Is Dalai Lama the Asian response to Mother Theresa’s activities in India?
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Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has some disturbing skeletons in her family wardrobe.
Her political roots in Nazi Germany account for the insane war-driven agenda of the European Union toward Russia under her stewardship and her total subservience to the U.S. imperialist objective to defeat Moscow.
Author Evan Reif explains how her politician-father Ernst Albrecht packed his regional government with unreconstructed Nazis and former Wehrmacht officers when he was governor of Lower Saxony in the 1980s.
Ursula von der Leyen’s family derived much of its industrial wealth from working closely with Hitler’s Third Reich. Her aristocratic family was also married into slave-owning cotton planters in the American South.
That legacy of inherited wealth not only benefited Ursula’s elite education but also her precocious rise in German politics. She became the German defense minister from 2013-2019 despite having no formal background in the military. Under her watch, the German army was massively rearmed and she also became mired in corruption scandals.
At the end of 2019, she was appointed President of the European Commission, the top political post in the European Union. This was done without a vote from the German parliament such was the lack of confidence in her eligibility.
She has spearheaded the US-led NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia with remarkably hawkish anti-Russian rhetoric. Her zeal for pursuing hostility toward Russia is consistent with the Nazi ideology her father indulged in.
Ursula von der Leyen has shown an astounding “ability” to “fail upwards”, as Evan Reif wryly points out. The only explanation for such undue political ascent despite her incompetence, plagiarism, and corruption, is the help of a powerful network – the transatlantic U.S.-led NATO alliance and its intelligence agencies.
The disturbing upshot is that Europe is being led into a disastrous war against Russia in the service of US-European imperialism – euphemistically called “Western values” – by a person who is a scion of Nazi legacy and politics and who does not have a democratic mandate.
Eight decades after the end of World War II and the defeat of Hitler’s Third Reich, the imperialist objective of conquering Russia is alive again. Should we be surprised though, when we look at the odious political background of the European Commission’s president?
At the end of July 1942, he succeeded him Otto Bauer to the district captain in Lemberg-Land district in the Galician district, who was the district governor there Otto Wächter. Bauer remained head of the district’s internal administration. Berthold Pütter, the district captain of Lemberg Grodek, was to Wehrmacht moved in, the district administration had been merged with Lemberg-Land.
As with a number of other district captains, it is proven that the Leyen had informed about the Jewish actions in advance.[ 2 ]
Von der Leyen was only briefly head of his Knights been. His widow Huberta von der Leyen headed the company, which his son Friedrich Heinrich von der Leyen II took over in 1970.
URSULA’S FATHER INVOLVED IN THE FAMOUS CELLE HOLE FALSE FLAG OPERATION
Celle Hole (German: Celler Loch) was a breach in the outer wall of the prison of Celle, Germany. First used on July 25, 1978, the name was part of a campaign by one of the West German secret services (Landesbehörde für Verfassungsschutz) and the GSG 9 in an attempt to lay blame on the Red Army Faction, West Germany’s most active and prominent left-wing terrorist group. However, the incident was revealed in 1986 to be a plot by the government, a false flag operation, much to the embarrassment of the government. The Verfassungsschutz used the name ‘Operation Fire Magic’ (German: Aktion Feuerzauber).
The secret services used a stolen Mercedes-Benz SL (R107), driven by two criminals named Klaus-Dieter Loudil and Manfred Berger who were recruited by the secret services. In the car were forged passports, one of them with a photograph of Sigurd Debus. Serial numbers of the passports showed that they were stolen from German authorities. Mr. Debus was an inmate in the Celle prison. He was considered as a Red Army Faction terrorist suspect. Some tools to be used for a prison escape attempt were brought secretly to Debus’ prison cell by the secret services.
The action should have had taken place one night earlier when twelve secret service officers, one GSG 9 demolition squad officer and Jürgen Wiehe, a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior of the state of Lower Saxony, waited for the right moment to detonate the bomb on July 24. But they had to interrupt the action since two lovers coming from the nearby funfair entered the danger area. So the action was deferred.
On July 25, 1978, at 2.54 a.m., the bomb was detonated at the outer prison wall, but caused minor damage. No inmate was able to escape. The Mercedes was later caught in Salzgitter (80 km away) in a police roadblock, with the driver having already escaped. The false passports and some ammunition were found in the car.
In Celle, a 1.5 square meter hole, named the Celle Hole (Celler Loch), was left in the outer prison wall. A handgun, model Walther PPK 7.65, which was the official pistol of one of the secret service officers, as well as a rubber dinghy, were found. The Celle prison is situated close to the bank of the river Aller. After the detonation, Debus’ conditions of detention were aggravated “for security reasons”. The secret service had planted escape tools into Debus’ cell, which were found in the search after the attack, and was supposed to prove Debus’ participation. Hence, the detainee started a hunger strike as a protest against this. Sigurd Debus died on April 16, 1981 shortly before the scheduled date of his discharge from prison
Ernst Albrecht testified before the eleventh committee of inquiry of the parliament, which is to clarify the background of the explosives attack on the Celler prison staged by the Lower Saxony Constitutional Protection on 25 July 1978. Albrecht testified for two and a half hours, since then it has been established that his government statement on the “Celler Loch” and a later government report are not in agreement.
Nazis an Jews owe each other their modern existence and perpetuity, contrary to the popular belief that they are mutually exclusive. If Jews often paint swastikas on their own doors it’s because they can’t find a Nazi to do the manual labor for them. Bourla found one.
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IF YOU’RE READING THIS, YOU’RE PROBABLY TARGETED BY A GOVERNMENT OR TWO. SO I MADE SOMETHING FOR YOU. SEE DETAILS / ORDER
Mankind uses the mobile phone as a shovel to dig its own grave. With very rare exceptions of conscious users. If you want to be one of them, you need to be informed and aware of how this thing works and how our enemies use it against us. And in order to become so, you need, among other things, to fully absorb what I’m about to show you.
Perceptive people over 40 years old have often sensed a rift in the logic of events last few years. The powers that be occasionally commit apparently illogical and inexplicable acts, that later make sense in relation with other later events . Like a present response to unpredictable future events. Which is also illogical, unless they have a time-travelling machine, another illogical concept. So we often erase these senselessly convoluted connections from our minds just to maintain sanity.
The mind-trap there is the assumption of unpredictability.
Pre-scripted events and predictive programming are two ways to solve the predictability problem. But sometimes these don’t work either and there’s just no way you can draw a straight timeline and causality.
What if you don’t need to time-travel to see the future?
What if they can simulate it, then build it and tune it up? Which means they can react to what you would’ve done if they didn’t REACT BEFORE THE CAUSE? Remember those stories in media where morons get arrested for resisting arrest and they are too dumb to defend themselves. Add a topping of Minority Report for good taste. And to soften the edges, what if they just can control your edge perception? Here’s how:
“Perhaps your real life is so rich you don’t have time for another.
“Even so, the US Department of Defense (DOD) may already be creating a copy of you in an alternate reality to see how long you can go without food or water, or how you will respond to televised propaganda.
“The DOD is developing a parallel to Planet Earth, with billions of individual “nodes” to reflect every man, woman, and child this side of the dividing line between reality and AR.
“Called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS), it will be a “synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information”, according to a concept paper for the project.
“SWS provides an environment for testing Psychological Operations (PSYOP),” the paper reads, so that military leaders can “develop and test multiple courses of action to anticipate and shape behaviors of adversaries, neutrals, and partners”.
SWS also replicates financial institutions, utilities, media outlets, and street corner shops. By applying theories of economics and human psychology, its developers believe they can predict how individuals and mobs will respond to various stressors.
“Yank a country’s water supply. Stage a military coup. SWS will tell you what happens next….
(((Yeah, and New World Order cybersoldiers are gonna be Warcrafting-out on awesome gizmoscapes like this while some nimble illiterate teen with a cheap assault rifle simply shoots them.)))
A powerful ‘sentient’ computer simulation of billions of people and nations that ‘mirrors’ reality is up-and-running and likely tracking your every move
Artificial neural network with chip. Credit: mikemacmarketing / original posted on flickr (Wiki Commons Public Domain)
What if someone created a digital avatar of you and placed it in a massive simulation database –- and you knew nothing about it?
How would you feel about that?
Yes, while you are blissfully ignorant and unaware and just going about your normal life, your “simulated self” is now also going about its own life in a simulated global environment with most of the other eight billion other people inside a simulated planet earth.
Well, what if I were to tell you that this has already happened?
It has!
The server for this world simulation database –- that includes your avatar -– is actually located in (drumroll): Indiana!
That’s right!
It’s called the Sentient World Simulation (SWS). It is up and running, and housed in a building at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
The SWS is the brainchild of Dr. Alok R. Chaturvedi, a professor of information systems who is also the founder and director of the SEAS Laboratory at Purdue’s Krannert School of Management.
SEAS stands for Synthetic Environment and Analysis Simulations.
Dr. Chaturvedi outlined his concept for the SWS in a 2006 academic paper titled:
From the abstract of this document, the concept is explained this way:
“The goal of the Sentient World Simulation (SWS) is to build a synthetic mirror of the real world with automated continuous calibration with respect to current real-world information, such as major events, opinion polls, demographic statistics, economic reports, and shifts in trends.”
I should add that the “geography” of an area is modeled at multiple levels, including city, state, country, selected regions of interest and, of course, globally. Some categories for models include military, political, social, economic, informational and infrastructure nodes.
After publishing his 2006 concept paper, it didn’t take long for the thing to get up and running. By 2007, the SWS had already collected massive amounts of data in 62 of the 195 nations on Earth.
It is important to point out that the SWS is a project that was initiated by the U.S. Joint Forces Command.
Some believe, as does futurist Rebecca Hardcastle Wright Ph.D., that SWS has since advanced well beyond 62 countries in the 15 years since 2007 to now encompass most areas of the planet that matter and has swept up the majority of Earth’s 8-billion-person population.
IT’S NOT QUITE ‘THE MATRIX’ YET BUT …
Now let me clarify that your avatar in the SWS is not (probably not yet) a complete duplicate of yourself in terms of image or looks, and it does not possess self-aware consciousness as did Neo and his pals in the Matrix.
It is significant to note that the SWS team at Purdue maintains that they “do not create your identical likeness” and instead used a “depersonalized likeness.” They also say this depersonalized likeness is “not immediately identifiable” and “cannot be replicated.”
Even so, many may find it equally disturbing that each avatar in the SWS virtual reality universe does represent a thorough activity profile of who you are and what you are doing in the real world.
That’s because you are likely “feeding” your avatar every day whether you know it or not.
You do that by participating in the digital world. Every time you engage with cyberspace, the SWS vacuums up that data point and adds it to the profile of your avatar.
For example, when you make a purchase on Amazon, search for something on Google, do your taxes online, text a friend, pay a utility bill, use a debit card to pay for a meal at a restaurant –- that information is funneled to the SWS and your avatar is updated to reflect your ongoing lifestyle.
This creates a “predictive model” of you and tells SWS operators how you are likely to react in certain situations as well as how you will perform or act in a group dynamic situation.
WHY WAS THE SENTIENT WORLD SIMULATION BUILT?
Well …
Remember when former NSA computer consultant Edward Snowden went rogue in 2013 and fled to Hong Kong and then to the Russian Federation along with a treasure trove of highly classified intelligence files on the NSA’s massive global surveillance program?
This surveillance program involved mostly tapping and monitoring millions, if not billions of telephones and internet communication accounts. The overt rationale for the creation of this program was for counterterrorism.
Ostensibly, the NSA wanted to be able to identify terrorist chatter across the telecom and cybernetwork bandwidth as a way to identify and thwart possible major attacks against American interests.
National Security Agency HQ, Fort Meade, Maryland (Public Domain)
Snowden bolted because of the NSA’s ability to tap and monitor private citizens and everyday innocent Americans a fundamental violation of privacy, unconstitutional and the start of a bona fide “Big Brother” nightmare state.
Well, one might consider the SWS the next logical step. It is the NSA wiretap effort on steroids.
With this new system, the information gathering on all citizens of the world can go well beyond listening into their phone chatter, texting or email communications.
Rather, it collects a wide range of data points that essentially provides a complete profile of every person, including what they do, what they like, how they act in certain situations, and so on.
When all this information is dumped into one massive database –- in this case, an actual simulation program –- you not only have real-time data on every individual in every nation on earth -– you also now can massage the data in myriad useful ways.
That includes running gaming simulations on how vast populations will react to specific situations.
For example, let’s say the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) would like to know how the population of the East Coast would react if they knew an enemy had released a deadly virus into the subway system of New York City.
The DoD folks would be eager to “game the scenario” of a bioweapons attack before it happened to that they, in turn, could formulate an effective response by knowing with a high degree of certainty how large populations of people would react.
As Dr. Chaturvedi writes in his concept paper:
“The ability of a synthetic model of the real world to sense, adapt, and react to real events distinguishes SWS from the traditional approach of constructing a simulation to illustrate a phenomenon. Behaviors emerge in the SWS mirror world and are observed much as they are observed in the real world.”
WHO USES SWS DATA?
As you might expect, the SWS has no lack of eager clients consisting of powerful government agencies, private entities and Fortune 500 companies. A short (and by far not exhaustive) list includes:
· The U.S. Department of Defense
· The U.S. Department of Justice
· Eli Lilly
· Lockheed Martin
· The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Furthermore, SWS has found customers in everything from banks and financial institutions that use it to test psyop events — to Hollywood studios who want to “game out” audience reactions to proposed movie scripts and ideas.
The above is according to Hardcastle Wright in her book 2021 book, Exoconscious Humans. She also said the SWS was used to simulate a cough spreading inside an airplane during the height of COVID. (Exoconscious Humans, Page 160).
NSA poster, circa 1950s-60s (Public Domain)
IS THERE PUBLIC OUTRAGE?
There is some, but as far as I can tell, those sounding an alarm about the intrusiveness of the SWS are few and far between.
One person who is disturbed by the existence of the SWS is software specialist and cryptocurrency advocate Alireza Beikverdi. He wrote in a 2015 article for Cointelegraph.com:
“The project is dangerous and intrusive enough that one of its researchers even quit, citing concerns about the possibility of handing over such a dangerous weapon to a top-secret agency with little accountability.” (Source)
Beikverdi added:
“This not only invades our privacy but can also cause severe damage to society. Knowing that there is a copy of each of us in the virtual world, which can think and behave like us, and whose actions can be predicted by the authorities is a far more intimidating invasion. This will have a negative impact on societies by reducing trust between citizens and government, as well as among people — altering normal human behavior since the populace will be conscious of the fact that there is a copy of them in a virtual world without their consent.” (Source)
Others grumble about the SWS but also express a sense of inevitability. One example is the commentators over at the Everywhere You Go is Bullsh*t webcast. In this video, they state:
“As our lives move online, this (the SWS) is an inevitable part of that. We all want that feeling of safety and this kind of thing provides … and we allowed this to happen. I think as more people become aware that this is the reality of this intense kind of privacy breach is happening, I think eventually we are going to accept it and it is going to get worse — or there will be some kind of rebellion about it and it’s going to be a pretty interesting future.”
ONLY SCRATCHING THE SURFACE
Certainly, the existence of the Sentient World Simulation project at Purdue University has profound implications in and of itself.
However, in conducting research for this story, I quickly found myself drawn into a much deeper and more complex rabbit hole.
When you place the SWS into context with other current facets driving other kinds of technological determinism — such as the race toward fully self-conscious AI, the cybernetic manipulation/transformation of the human body, the transhumanism movement writ large — it becomes apparent that SWS is but one aspect of a rapidly evolving human sphere of fundamental transformations.
Thus, even if you loathe the idea of the SWS and want to implement social and/or political efforts to slow it down or kill it — you’ll be up against an array of technological/social initiatives of profound scope, character, variety and purpose.
Can anyone stop it, or even opt out? That won’t be easy.
CIA’s Gus Hunt On Big Data: We ‘Try To Collect Everything And Hang On To It Forever’
NEW YORK — The CIA’s chief technology officer outlined the agency’s endless appetite for data in a far-ranging speech on Wednesday.
Speaking before a crowd of tech geeks at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City, CTO Ira “Gus” Hunt said that the world is increasingly awash in information from text messages, tweets, and videos — and that the agency wants all of it.
“The value of any piece of information is only known when you can connect it with something else that arrives at a future point in time,” Hunt said. “Since you can’t connect dots you don’t have, it drives us into a mode of, we fundamentally try to collect everything and hang on to it forever.”
Hunt’s comments come two days after Federal Computer Week reported that the CIA has committed to a massive, $600 million, 10-year deal with Amazon for cloud computing services. The agency has not commented on that report, but Hunt’s speech, which included multiple references to cloud computing, indicates that it does indeed have interest in storage and analysis capabilities on a massive scale.
The CIA is keenly interested in capabilities for so-called “big data” — the increasingly massive data sets created by digital technology. The agency even has a page on its website pitching big data jobs to prospective employees.
Hunt acknowleded that at some scale, data storage becomes impractical, adding that he meant “forever being in quotes” when he said the agency wants to keep data “forever.” But he also indicated that he was interested in computing capabilities like 1 petabyte of RAM, a massive capacity for on-the-fly calculations that has heretofore been seen only in computers that simulate nuclear explosions.
He referenced the failure to “connect the dots” in the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the “underwear bomber” who was able to board a plan with an explosive device despite repeated warnings of his intentions. In that case, a White House review found that the CIA had all of the data it needed to identify the would-be bomber, but still failed to stop him. Nevertheless, the agency does not seem to have curbed its ambitions for an endless amount of data.
A slide from Hunt’s presentation.
“It is really very nearly within our grasp to be able to compute on all human generated information,” Hunt said. After that mark is reached, Hunt said, the agency would also like to be able to save and analyze all of the digital breadcrumbs people don’t even know they are creating.
“You’re already a walking sensor platform,” he said, nothing that mobiles, smartphones and iPads come with cameras, accelerometers, light detectors and geolocation capabilities.
“You are aware of the fact that somebody can know where you are at all times, because you carry a mobile device, even if that mobile device is turned off,” he said. “You know this, I hope? Yes? Well, you should.”
Hunt also spoke of mobile apps that will be able to control pacemakers — even involuntarily — and joked about a “dystopian” future where self-driving cars force people to go to the grocery store to pick up milk for their spouses.
Hunt’s speech barely touched on privacy concerns. But he did acknowledge that they exist.
“Technology in this world is moving faster than government or law can keep up,” he said. “It’s moving faster I would argue than you can keep up: You should be asking the question of what are your rights and who owns your data.”
US Govt Develops a Matrix-Like World Simulating the Virtual You
Picture a parallel virtual world that collects information on our virtual identities in real time, tracks our behavior, and is smart enough to interpret this data to simulate a virtual YOU on its own.
It is not surprising that data in the Information Age can be extremely valuable, even a source of power. Now picture a parallel virtual world that collects information on our virtual identities in real time, tracks our behavior, and is smart enough to interpret this data to simulate a virtual YOU on its own. This is exactly the concept of Sentient World Simulation (SWS) that was proposed in a paper by a few researchers in 2006, which has since largely flown under the radar.
Sentient World Simulation
SWS is one of the ongoing projects by secret agencies and organizations such as the NSA. In fact, these organizations have a long history of always seeking new technologies to process a continuous stream of information about the population. However, SWS differs from other information aggregators such as Google in that this technology actually simulates us, while taking our personalities into account, in a parallel virtual world.
SWS is actually a continuously running, continually updated mirror model of the real world in parallel on a computer, designed to predict and evaluate future events and courses of action. Put simply, SWS is a virtual mirror of the real society where individuals, leaders, organizations and institutions are simulated according to real data. The geography of a society is modeled at various levels including city, province, country, region, and world in terms of political, military, economic, social, information and infrastructure nodes.
SWS uses Synthetic Environment for Analysis and Simulation (SEAS), which is designed to be agnostic to the type of simulations and choice of models in order to allow experimentation in the context of multiple and potentially conflicting theories and predictions.
In a complex scenario, a single theory from SWS doesn’t give comprehensive information about the case. It requires a different analysis from different perspectives of the same phenomena by combining all the theories. It’s developed in a way where each component and theory is built on the previous, serving as stepping stones in the development of SWS.
Global Research reported that “U.S. defense, Intel and homeland security officials” are involved in constructing this project. With all the massive data collections, and also all the records from the Internet, SWS has the potential to predict the answers to many complicated queries, as it gets more intelligent the more information it is fed.
Watched Over by Machines
The project is dangerous and intrusive enough that one of its researchers even quit, citing concerns about the possibility of handing over such a dangerous weapon to a top secret agency with little accountability.
“With the entire Internet and thousands of databases for a brain, the device will be able to respond almost instantaneously to complex questions posed by intelligence analysts. As more and more data is collected — through phone calls, credit card receipts, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, GPS tracks, cell phone geolocation, Internet searches, Amazon book purchases, even E-Z Pass toll records — it may one day be possible to know not just where people are and what they are doing, but what and how they think.”
This not only invades our privacy but can also causes severe damage to society. Knowing that there is a copy of each of us in the virtual world, that can think and behave like us, and whose actions can be predicted by the authorities is a far more intimidating invasion. This will have a negative impact on societies by reducing trust between citizens and government, as well as among people — altering normal human behavior, since the populace will be conscious of the fact that there is a copy of them in a virtual world without their consent.
Another thing in the back of everyone’s minds could also be the possibility of a virtual copy doing something that you are doing right now. Perhaps a simulated version of me has actually written this article? The line between actual reality and virtual reality will surely blur as more and more information is collected.
Some people may argue that SWS could also be a beneficial tool for governments and secret agencies to use to prevent terrorism and predict incidents by simulating them in a mirror world. Moreover, these type of models are often justified by the phrase: “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear.” This phrase has always been the excuse of those who want to downplay increasing threat of a surveillance state and imply guilt for those who express concern.
But while massive data gathering and simulation models could indeed have their benefits for society. Such is the double-edged sword of most breakthrough technology. The centralized control of personal and social information by a single entity gives it immense and unprecedented power.
Decentralization
Blockchain architecture could be used to create a decentralized data network that would not give any particular entity control, mitigating the risk of data misuse. Decentralization, by not giving an advantage to any one entity, is a viable solution that can save us from horrible future scenarios.
While this system is certainly more difficult to build and implement, as it requires the involvement of a lot of people, a decentralized data network not only guarantees and makes sure that the technology isn’t used against the interests of the majority of the population, but also reduces the possibility of censorship, facilitating free speech.
Any new technology can be used for both good and evil. Nevertheless, if these technologies are used transparently and in a way that reduces the possibility of manipulation and centralized control by bad actors, then the relationship between people and their representative government would be drastically improved. Perhaps then we would be able to attain greater individual privacy and realize the vision of Edward Snowden, who described his childhood:
“I grew up with the understanding that the world I lived in was one where people enjoyed a sort of freedom to communicate with each other in privacy, without it being monitored, without it being measured or analyzed or sort of judged by these shadowy figures or systems, any time they mention anything that travels across public lines.”
The NSA’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program. The building of the massive NSA data center in Utah to permanently store copies of all digital communication sent around the world. The UK government’s “Communications Data Bill” to monitor emails, instant messages and other personal information. What was dismissed as crazy conspiracy theory just over a decade ago has become, in this post-9/11 era, the all-too-familiar stuff of newspaper headlines and talking head reportage.
In fact, it was about a decade ago that the tactic of the intelligence agencies seemed to change. Instead of keeping their activities classified–referring to the NSA as “No Such Agency,” for example, or officially denying the existence of Echelon–the government increasingly began shoving this information in the public’s face.
Perhaps the scariest thing about something like the Total Information Awareness Office is not merely that it was proposed in the first place, or that it incorporated such blatantly creepy Orwellian imagery to convey its true nature and purpose, but that, as we sit here 10 years later, and as the core functions of the TIA office are now being openly performed by the NSA, DHS and other governmental agencies, people are now actively making excuses for this nightmarish police state.
“If you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear” has always been the rallying cry for those who are too afraid of questioning presumed governmental authority to speak out against the surveillance state and the implied assumption of guilt that goes along with it. With feigned bemusement these moral midgets inevitably ask “What’s so bad about the government spying on you, anyway?”
The answer, of course, is that the very question implies that the agencies tasked with carrying out this constant Big Brother surveillance are themselves above reproach, shining lights of moral rectitude who would never abuse this incredible power for nefarious ends. For the unimaginative out there, Hollywood yarns like “Enemy of the State” have provided fictional examples of what can go wrong if someone, somewhere, abuses this power of information and surveillance to target an innocent person in the wrong place at the wrong time.
To be sure, the power that these technologies give for agencies, or corrupt groups within those agencies, to destroy the lives of targeted individuals, is itself a fitting answer to the question of why government surveillance should be troubling to us. But beyond what can happen to specific, targeted individuals in such a scenario, however, is a much larger question: What if this data, our emails, our phone calls, our credit card transactions, our social media posts, our cell phone GPS logs, and all of the hundreds of other pieces of data that are admittedly being collected on us every day, were being fed into a database so gargantuan it contains a digital version of every single person on the planet? And what if that database were being used by the Department of Defense to war game various scenarios, from public reactions to natural disasters to the likelihood of civil unrest in the wake of a declaration of martial law?
Remarkably, this is precisely what is happening.
It is called the “Sentient World Simulation.” The program’s aim, according to its creator, is to be a “continuously running, continually updated mirror model of the real world that can be used to predict and evaluate future events and courses of action.” In practical terms that equates to a computer simulation of the planet complete with billions of “nodes” representing every person on the earth.
The project is based out of Purdue University in Indiana at the Synthetic Environment for Analysis and Simulations Laboaratory. It is led by Alok Chaturvedi, who in addition to heading up the Purdue lab also makes the project commercially available via his private company, Simulex, Inc. which boasts an array of government clients, including the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, as well as private sector clients like Eli Lilly and Lockheed Martin.
Chatruvedi’s ambition is to create reliable forecasts of future world events based on imagined scenarios. In order to do this, the simulations “gobble up breaking news, census data, economic indicators, and climactic events in the real world, along with proprietary information such as military intelligence.” Although not explicitly stated, the very type of data on digital communications and transactions now being gobbled up by the NSA, DHS and other government agencies make ideal data for creating reliable models of every individuals’ habits, preferences and behaviors that could be used to fine-tune these simulations and give more reliable results. Using this data, the SEAS Laboratory and its Sentient World Simulation offshoot are able to create detailed, operable real-time simulations of at least 62 nations. “The Iraq and Afghanistan computer models,” according to a 2007 Register report on the project, “each has about five million individual nodes representing things such as hospitals, mosques, pipelines, and people.”
At the time of initial reports on the program five years ago, there were only 62 country-level simulations being run by the US Department of Defense. These simulations grouped humans into composites, with 100 individuals acting as a single node. But already at that time, the US Army had used the systems to create a one-to-one level simulation of potential Army recruits. The ultimate aim would be to archive enough data on each individual to be able to make a computer model of everyone on the planet, one that could be used to predict the behaviors and reactions of every single person in the event of various scenarios.
The program can be used to predict what would happen in the event of a large scale tsunami, for example, or how people would react during a bioterror attack. Businesses can use the models to predict how a new product would fare in the market, what kind of marketing plans would be most effective, or how best to streamline a company’s organization.
The original concept paper for the project was published in 2006 and in 2007 it was reported that both Homeland Security and the Defense Department were already using the system to simulate the American public’s reaction to various crises. In the intervening five years, however, there has been almost no coverage at all of the Sentient World Simulation or its progress in achieving a model of the earth.
There is a very good chance that these types of systems are, at least for the moment, pure quackery. Computers are only as valuable as their programming, after all, and the algorithms required to accurately predict responses in chaotic systems with multiple, dimly-understood variables is orders of magnitude beyond what is currently possible. Or is it? One of the great ironies of our time, as Glenn Greenwald goes on to point out in his speech on the surveillance state, is that although we live in a time when it is possible for nebulous government agencies to know every detail of your life, from what you ate for breakfast to where you shopped last night to who your friends are, we are also living in an age of unprecedented ignorance about what are our own governments are actually doing.
This is the heart of the matter. Somehow we are expected to go along with the sophomoric sophism that “If we have nothing to hide then we have nothing to fear,” yet at the same time we are asked to believe that the government must keep all manner of information secret from the public in order to carry out its work of “protecting” that public.
If the government has nothing to hide, then why doesn’t it release the notes, memoranda and findings of the 9/11 Commission in full and unredacted?
Why doesn’t it release the records of the JFK assassination investigation instead of arguing, as it is, that those records should once again be removed from a declassification review that is to take place in 2013, 50 years after the assassination itself took place?
Why doesn’t it release the full audit trail of what banks received the emergency TARP funds and in what amounts?
Is it because, after all, the government does have something to hide from the public that are its ostensible masters? Is it because the old maxim that “Knowledge is power” is more true than we could ever know, and that the government’s one-way insistence on transparency for the citizens and opacity for itself is a reflection of the power that it holds over us?
The Sentient World Simulation is just one example of one program run by one company for various governmental and Fortune 500 clients. But it is a significant peek behind the curtain at what those who are really running our society want: complete control over every facet of our lives achieved through a complete invasion of everything that was once referred to as “privacy.” To think that this is the only such program that exists, or even that we have any significant details about the ways that the SWS has already been used, would be hopelessly naive.
So where does this leave a public that is at such a disadvantage in this information warfare? A public that is effectively told that anything and everything they do, say or buy, can and will be catalogued by the a.i. control grid even as the details of that grid are to be kept from them? Unfortunately there is no easy way back from the precipice that we were ushered toward with the creation of the national security state and the passage of the National Security Act of 1947. Perhaps we have already stepped over that precipice and there is no going back in the current political paradigm. These are things for an informed, aware, knowledgeable citizenry to decide through a societal dialogue over the nature of and importance of “privacy.”
But without a general awareness that programs like the Sentient World Simulation even exist, what hope do we have in counteracting it?
Wearable exercise trackers provide data that encode information on individual running performance. These data hold great potential for enhancing our understanding of the complex interplay between training and performance. Here we demonstrate feasibility of this idea by applying a previously validated mathematical model to real-world running activities of ≈ 14,000 individuals with ≈ 1.6 million exercise sessions containing duration and distance, with a total distance of ≈ 20 million km. Our model depends on two performance parameters: an aerobic power index and an endurance index. Inclusion of endurance, which describes the decline in sustainable power over duration, offers novel insights into performance: a highly accurate race time prediction and the identification of key parameters such as the lactate threshold, commonly used in exercise physiology. Correlations between performance indices and training volume and intensity are quantified, pointing to an optimal training. Our findings hint at new ways to quantify and predict athletic performance under real-world conditions. Laboratory performance tests provide the gold standard for running performance but do not reflect real running conditions. Here the authors use a large, real world dataset obtained from wearable exercise trackers to extract parameters that accurately predict race times and correlate with training.
Starve the beast of your data by minimizing unnecessary usage. You don’t really need a smartphone half the times you’re out. You’re just being a junkie. Buy a goddam laptop, you need it more than a new expresso machine, tape the camera and the mic, use it wisely to give away a minimum of info etc… whatever you can think of to minimize the authentic data about you.
Intoxicate the beast with fake data: like things 7ou don’t really like, follow people you don’t care about, tag yourself in unrelated things, build a web o fake random connections, be unpredictable, break patterns, do random acts of randomness. When you start getting ads and suggestions you can’t care about, you’re on the good path.
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! Articles can always be subject of later editing as a way of perfecting them