EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2021

Mobilizing for World Health Security Against the Doom of Geopolitics

Nov. 21, 2021 (EIRNS)—Over the weekend, UN World Food Program Director David Beasley again needled billionaire Elon Musk to step forward and fund the $6.6 billion needed to save 42 million people from the threat of death by starvation, an amount of money, Beasley has stressed, that Musk would not miss. In fact, Musk’s stock value would go up more than he gave. Do it and “Shock us all!” said Beasley’s tweet. “It is a win win” proposition. “Just do it!”

This latest message comes after Beasley had replied to Elon Musk’s question to him in late October, asking for the World Food Program to outline exactly how the money donation would be used to end hunger. On Nov. 3, the WFP posted a complete answer, entitled, “A One-Time Appeal to Billionaires.” It refers anyone to a chart with exact figures, country by country, of what money is needed, for how many people, and for what food-related purpose.

The details regarding the emergency measures needed for food aid, demonstrate that actions can be mapped out for all basic emergencies—water, power, disaster defense, as well as medical and public health care, and for the long-term infrastructure to forever end the kind of worsening economic and political breakdown we now face.

On the food supply front, the world stands at a critical point, facing a catastrophic production collapse in volumes of output of basic food staples, which were already insufficient relative to needs. An outstanding example is wheat. It is now planting time in the Northern Hemisphere for winter wheat (sown in the fall, dormant over winter, and harvested in late spring 2022), the predominant type. Over 75% of all the world’s wheat in global trade is produced in the Northern Hemisphere, close to 70% of which is from six major wheat belts: Russia, United States, Canada, France, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. But there are problems in every one of these wheat belts, needing emergency intervention; the causes are hyperinflation, lack of fertilizer, lack of seeds, and the cumulative impact from lack of reliable water and other infrastructure.

Collaboration among national governments could deploy the emergency interventions to limit the food crisis, and build capacity for ample food production. Russian President Vladimir Putin implied this in October, when he spoke of food as a “fundamental consideration” for all nations, and volunteered that Russia could supply extra fertilizer, as well as natural gas, to deal with the world food crisis he sees coming.

The need and practicality for such collaboration—in particular in the emergency situations in Afghanistan, Haiti, Yemen, Syria, and elsewhere—was discussed at the Nov. 13-14 Schiller Institute international conference, “All Moral Resources of Humanity Have to Be Called Up: Mankind Must Be the Immortal Species!” most explicitly in Panel 2, “The Science of Physical Economy.” Short conference theme videos are now in preparation to take this action viewpoint out far and wide.

On Nov. 17, Schiller Institute President Helga Zepp-LaRouche conveyed this outlook in her participation at the forum (virtual) of the Council on Global Relations, based in Metro Washington, D.C., whose event was on “Humanitarian Roundtable for Afghanistan.” Zepp- LaRouche’s presentation was titled, “Project Ibn Sina: Restore Afghanistan’s Ancient Greatness.” She said at one point, regarding the world situation: “The fact is that there is a health crisis right now of biblical dimensions, a pandemic which is unprecedented in terms of the potential of where it may go. So my idea is: It has to start with a modern health system....”

The opposing view: that nations must be stuck in geopolitical traps, and poverty, manipulated by the neo-British Empire bankster networks, is not only contrary, it means doom, even the danger of nuclear holocaust. There is the real and present danger of a conflict incident—even by accident—leading to all-out war. The latest provocations by the U.S./U.K. axis against Russia and China, involve continued accusations from Biden Administration officials that Russia and China are authoritarian, aggressive threats. For example, it is reported that Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, was in Brussels this week, hyping the cooked-up narrative that Russia is menacing Ukraine with possible military action.

The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned today that this kind of “hysteria is being escalated artificially.... Those who have brought their armed forces overseas are accusing us of some unusual military activity on our own territory.” He denounced the increased NATO presence in the region, pointing out that, “Ukraine is most likely seeking another attempt to start solving its own problems by force, creating another disaster for itself and for everyone in Europe.”

Helga Zepp-LaRouche at the Washington D.C. forum called for action in Afghanistan, based on the premises of the mutual interest of nations in development for all nations. She spelled it out as Project Ibn Sina, named after the great historical figure, son of Afghanistan. She said of Afghanistan, implying the general point, that

“a modern health system can be the beginning of an economic transformation. If you are going to have a modern health system, you need water, you need electricity, you need other infrastructure. But that building of a modern health system can become the engine of hope and the engine of reconstruction. This, however, needs to have a beautiful vision, and idea of what that means....”