China Is Winning This Battle, Too! 

As you might remember, I lived for two years in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer. My assignment was teaching literature at the University of Chad. As a college teacher in the capital city, I had many opportunities to hang out at the US embassy. One of the things they sometimes talked about was the way China integrated itself in Chadian affairs. From what I could gather, Chinese diplomats promoted their political and economic agendas – i.e., communism – very gently and indirectly. They sponsored public health and safety projects and built roads.

Indoctrinating the locals in Marxism was not a priority for them. The battle for the hearts and minds of the Chadian people took place in the projects and programs financed and supervised by the US and Russia.

Twenty years later, when my partners and I began investing seriously in Nicaragua, I was able to observe, once again, how US, Russian, and Chinese economic and cultural diplomacy operated. By that time, China’s investment in Nicaragua had increased greatly. It was as large as, even larger than, the investments made by the US or Russia. The Chinese had programs all over Central and South America. And their style was still less political and more pragmatic. Everything I could see that they were doing was in projects that improved agricultural yields, improved basic infrastructure, and provided work for the poor. If there were quid pro quos involved, it was not apparent.

I am not naïve. I don’t think the Chinese are any more altruistic than we are. But I do think their approach to diplomacy is more centralized and their thinking is more long-term. And that has given them a distinct edge over the US and Russia. They are in it for the long view. They don’t need to see pro-China communism become an instant hit in Nicaragua. They are content to take a slower but surer path. And the results of that approach are already paying off in big and obvious ways.

The Chinese approach is basically the same as it was 40 years ago. But the US strategy has changed considerably. Whereas we used to promote the old-fashioned values of free markets and free speech, in the last five to ten years, we have switched our priorities to promoting inclusion and equity, and particularly as they pertain to racism, sexism, identity politics, and transphobia.

On this subject, AM sent me this video, saying, “Listen to what this African has to say about America vs. China.

In Ending Nuclear Energy, Are Germans Killing Ukrainians? 

Germany’s green movement has always been one of the strongest in the world. Their latest “triumph” is getting the country’s last two active nuclear power plants to fire its employees and shut down. In the link below, Joe Nocera of The Free Press explains why he believes that is a terrible idea. Click here.

France as It Was Supposed to Be in the Year 2000 

In 1899, a group of French artists portrayed their ideas of what the world would look like in the year 2000 on a series of 87 cards.

Check out the results. So many of their “predictions” came true! Click here.