ON GEOECONOMICS and GEOPOLITICS #12
Ukraine agriculture takeover; Pueblo a Pueblo; FELDA to FGV; CHIPS Act; Iran in SCO; China in Middle East
Coverage in my websites this past week have included:
1] STEALTH TAKEOVER of UKRAINIAN FARMS
Capitalism requires an ever expanding frontier of primary industries (for examples: agriculture, mining, logging/forestry, fishing) at the expense of biodiverse purity:
Ukrainian landscape in global food supply
Ukrainian socialist Serhiy Podolynsky attempted to apply thermodynamics - entropy and metabolic rift theory - to the ecological-economic questions. This topic is further explored by the Workers’ Liberty which organises a monthly Marxist ecology reading group by Discussing Ecology and Entropy
It is about the widening increase in the financial superstructure of the capitalist economy - Big Money Big Farms - owning and controlling Big Agribusiness in a circuit of capital accumulation to the detrimental effect on humane living and human survivalbility; read FINANCIALISATION CAPITALISM of BIODIVERSITY
where large tracts of rich agricultural lands, for example, the FELDA to FGV initiatives were hijacked from rural folks and transformed from Big Farms, Small Farmers into a defined corporatised landscape impoverishing these owner-settlers onto indebtness
rather than the practical praxis of PUEBLO a PUEBLO which, as a community model towards a progressive society, is terminating dictation of the capitalist market.
READ Part II: Circumventing the Barricades
A similar question is seeked whether Malaysia could possibly uplift itself to a progressive equity growth path by eliminating retarded development Toward An Agrarian Revolution, (firesstorms, May 2022) ?
2] Peasantry, feudalism, neocolonialism and The Third World, Vijay Prashad : a 7-minute China Content Centre video programme.
3] On the CHIPPING AWAY THE CHIPS Act USA is a hegemon's technological circuit board - to be wired and soldered inshore - but with current deglobalisation limitations due to process, procedural and people incapacity constraints.
It is also subset of a wider discourse on technological prowess and talents marauding during an era of Cold War 2.0, for instance:
i). China has clinched the top position in the world for having the highest number of scientific and technological talents, hitting over 101 million, according to a report released at the China Science and Technology Think Tank Forum 2020.
ii). China had 4.19 million people working in research and development (R&D) already in 2018, maintaining the world's largest pool of R&D personnel for six years, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
iii). Bert Hofman, director of the East Asia Institute and professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore presented data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook 2023 showing that, in the year 2021, China had a net inflow of scientist while the US had a net outflow.
iv). As far back as 2021, China has had surpassed the U.S. to become the top jurisdiction in terms of number of patents in force – with 3.6 million.
5. China’s 1000 Talent Program and other talent-recruitment programs have raised deep politics concern in western countries partly because her Global Civilization Initiative has struck a harping cord on the romantic Roman civilization of past.
The failure or inadequacy in Understanding The Highly Complex World Of Western China Analysis, according to Johnstone, oftentimes can be maddening confusing by distorting narratives on China, and the Third World, too.
Otherwise, western commentators would just simply persuade China to Commit Suicide, (John Ross).
All those ❄️❄️❄️ from Western media are more than creating anxiety but when real geostrategic hegemonic intent is evident as the First Lady Dr. Jill Biden was quoted actually saying that "any country that out-educates the United States will outcompete the United States, and that is a fundamental national security issue.”
Therefore, it's geoeconomics and geopolitical realism that protecting the US Treasury outstanding is paramount when her securities aren't safe assets anymore:
because post-9/11, the expansive - and expensive - USA war-machines have displaced at least 38 million people, and causing more than 4.5 million deaths, (geopoliticaleconomy, 18/05/2023); however, the partisan U.S. plutocratic governance never prise the military industrial congressional complex (MIC), (Reports from the Economic Front, 17/05/2023).
Even amid the Indochina War, the MIC has had made Cambodia being the Kissinger's Killing Fields (theintercept, 23rd. May 2023).
[ LISTEN & VIEW the 24/05/2023 Turse reporting in Democracy Now - 27-minute ].
6] Toward global security by enhancing multilateral cooperation, more than ever, in the Eurasian hinterlands is vital for geopolitical stability and geoeconomic welfare. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is such entity to encourage trade exchanges - through the connections of roads and bridges, rails and sea-lanes - and political dialogues.
The case-study of one member country is explored in OF DRONES, ON IRAN IN SCO where majority of international trades nowadays is conducted by, and through, Geoeconomics of Deep Water Supply Chains:
Also to read Liu Zhongmin - director of the Middle East Studies Institute at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) - on USA diminishing status and role in MENA with the pivot of CHINA in MIDDLE EAST ; and in AlMayadeen, 23/05/2023, US Continues To Lose Middle East Power.
7] Michael A. Lebowitz (Nov 27, 1937 – April 19, 2023) was a Marxist economist and Professor Emeritus of Economics at Simon Fraser University in Canada. He was a founder of the Centro Internacional Miranda in Caracas, Venezuela, where he directed a program on Transformative Practice and Human Development. Throughout his career, Lebowitz focused on socialist transition and the possibilities of building an alternative economic system that prioritizes human development over profit accumulation.
‘In the absence of subjects prepared to struggle to change the system, capitalism has a free hand to try to restructure itself. That is certainly what we see occurring as the G20 is invented to take the place of the G7; it’s a recognition that restructuring international capital involves the incorporation of new capitalist actors (especially China, India and Brazil).’
8] MOMENTUM publishes every Wednesday, covering situational events in Malaysia and surrounding Asia-Pacific Basin, besides covering the geopolitico-economic issues around the world; while belatedly, collated and compiled, are links to related events in FRIDAY FILES, 26/05/2023.
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