Helga Zepp-LaRouche's Greetings to San Francisco Four Power Conference
We Are At the Point In History
That We Must Adopt the Mission
Of the Common Aims Of Mankind
September 2010
 Schiller Institute Founder Helga Zepp LaRouche in Europe |
Helga Zepp LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and leader of the German political party BüSo, gave the following address to the Four Powers conference held in San Fransisco on September 19, 2010.
Hello. Let me send you my greetings from Germany to your conference on the NAWAPA project, and the Four-Power Alliance to reconstruct the world economy. Now, we are organizing here in Europe, in Germany, and also France, Italy, the Scandinavian countries, that our sovereign countries join this perspective of a reconstruction of the world economy. This is in the self-interest of all our countries. If you look at Germany, for example, and also the other countries, they are now under the EU Lisbon Treaty austerity regime, and therefore, we are really without any perspective for recovery. You may have gotten reports about a so-called upswing in Germany, even talk about a new "economic miracle," but this is fairly absurd because it does not refer to the real economy, and the export offensive which Germany had in the recent, second quarter, is going to be very short-lived, because the majority of exports goes to other countries in the European Union, and the Eurozone is about to disintegrate! Because you have Greece, whose indebtedness is unsustainable; Italy is already called "the next Greece," in terms of indebtedness and potential bankruptcy; the problem of Spain is bigger than that of Greece by several orders of magnitude; the situation in Portugal and Ireland is equally unsustainable, so therefore, we need a different perspective.
Because, rather than using the great historical chance of 1989, which arose with the unification of Germany, to establish a real peace order of the 21st century, which is what we proposed at the time, with the Eurasian Land-Bridge, as a way of developing the Eurasian continent, Margaret Thatcher, François Mitterrand, and Bush Sr. imposed at that point, the euro, forced Germany to give up the d-mark [currency], imposed the Maastricht Treaty, and basically, the result of this is the present collapse.
Now, we on the other side, in 1989, already proposed the alternative of building the Eurasian Land-Bridge which was the idea to connect the population and industrial centers of Europe with those of Asia, through so-called "development corridors."
Now, in the last 20 years, the LaRouche movement worldwide, we conducted probably hundreds of conferences and seminars, and organized for all of these projects, which today, very fortunately, are in various degrees of realization in Asia. In Russia, in China, in India, in South Korea, and in Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, this perspective had not been adopted in the United States and Europe, and therefore, the trans-Atlantic region of the world is, today, in the breakdown crisis which you are painfully aware of.
Now, let me tell you, from Europe: Because of the straitjacket of the European Union Lisbon Treaty, as much as I'm a German patriot, and I love my country, I do not think that, at this point, an initiative to change the world situation is going to come from Europe, because of the EU. If, however, you manage to mobilize the American population to implement the NAWAPA program, then that will be the key to solving the world crisis. Because, if you start to build NAWAPA, this will have a signal effect for similar projects, all over the world, like for example, recently in a meeting between President Medvedev [of Russia] and President Nazarbayev [of Kazakhstan], they already said that now, the rechanneling of the Siberian rivers Ob and Irtysh into the Aral Sea, could be brought back on the agenda. Similarly, we are mobilizing to get the Transaqua project on the agenda, which is to use the waters of the Zaire River, the Congo River, to irrigate and replenish Lake Chad.
Now, let me just say a word about the importance of water: Now, 46% of all people on the planet, right now, have no running water in their living quarters. With a growing population, soon this will be an even bigger source of conflict, and even war, than it is right now. Every day, 4,000 children are dying due to a lack of hygiene, and that is mainly a lack of water. Some 1.2 billion people have no access to clean water at all, even at a distance.
Now, obviously, the access to abundant, fresh, clean water is a basic human right. Now, in the Declaration of Independence, where there is the mentioning to the "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," you could say that water is an included part in that, which is why, when we founded the Schiller Institute, I took the Declaration of Independence, and changed only maybe six or seven words, and made it applicable to everybody on this planet, because these rights which are mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, are actually what should be the basis of human condition for every person alive on this planet. Now, Friedrich Schiller after whom the Schiller Institute was named, who could be also called the "Poet of the American Revolution," not only because he lived at that time, but he actually developed the most beautiful image of man, which was also an inspiration for many Americans in the period to follow, he, at that time, namely in 1789, was convinced that the Age of Reason was about to erupt, and his awareness of the American Revolution was an absolutely crucial element in this conviction.
Now, unfortunately, the Age of Reason was not implemented with the American Revolution, and also not with the Classical period, of which Friedrich Schiller was the best example. But instead, you had the Jacobin Terror, you had Napoleon, you had the Congress of Vienna, leading in Europe to a period of Restoration; you had the 20th century, with two world wars. And I had thought for a while, maybe Schiller was mistaken, and the Age of Reason -- well, maybe it's not so easy. But then, I came to the conclusion, what was lacking in Schiller's time, was the necessary scientific and technological development, or, as Vernadsky would say, the Noösphere was not yet sufficiently developed to realize the Age of Reason.
Now, I'm absolutely certain that with the gigantic water-management projects, NAWAPA, basically the refilling the Aral Sea and Lake Chad, and many similar projects, the development of the landlocked areas of all continents of this planet, and the continuation of this upgrading of the Biosphere through human intervention, with space travel and space colonization, that we, very, very soon will reach this condition which Krafft Ehricke called "the extraterrestrial imperative": Namely, that conditions will arise, that the Age of Reason is going to be the way in which people will be living.
Now, this scientific development, however, must be combined with the Aesthetical Education of Man, that was also Krafft Ehricke's deepest conviction. Now, that is exactly what we are also on the verge of, namely, to implement a Classical Renaissance.
Now, with that perspective, that we are at that historical moment, where, on the one side, naturally, a plunge into a Dark Age is clearly visible, and I think anybody who really thinks about it, can easily imagine how that would look like, but on the other side, we are also at a point in human history, where we really could make a new era for mankind. With that perspective in mind, we are right now, conducting a series of conferences in several cities, in different European countries, and trying to organize people for the participation in the reconstruction of the world economy. For example, there are many, many German engineering firms, German middle-level industries, machine-tool capabilities, who do have the know-how, and who have the experience of having been involved in such projects, already.
Now, it's not just an economic perspective, but we are now at a moment in history, where mankind has to adopt a common mission for all human beings on this planet, because we are sitting in one boat, and either we solve this tremendous lack of development of the planet together, or I think most of us are not going to make it. Now, the development of mankind does not just mean the overcoming of poverty and hunger. It means life for every human being on this planet, worthy of the dignity of man. But that is not just elimination of hunger, it means, after we are rid of hunger and poverty, that we have the conditions for every human being, to realize his or her creative potential, and that obviously, is not possible, when you are too hungry or too poor to have the conditions for your livelihood. Because the real idea, with this present perspective, is to unleash the genius of all human persons, living now, and those yet to be born.
Because we are in politics, not for some normal reasons, you know, normal politicians in politics, but we want to create a true, human society. And for that, we need passionate love for mankind, and passionate love for the international community of people. When we can mobilize that in ourselves, I'm absolutely certain, that soon, we will leave the childhood diseases of human development behind us, such as greed, oligarchism, monetarism, prejudice against other human beings, and we will, indeed, reach the age of adulthood of mankind. And for that, I wish you all success for your conference.
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