=By= Nadia Prupis

Activists protest a migrant detention center in London. (Photo: noborder.org)

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]eople around the world are increasingly identifying as global citizens, according to a new BBC poll that shines a light on changing attitudes about immigration, inequality, and different economic realities.

Among all 18 countries where public opinion research fir, GlobeScan conducted the survey, 51 percent of people see themselves more as global citizens than national citizens. It is the first time since tracking began in 2001 that a global majority identifies this way, and is up from a low point of about 42 percent in 2002.

The trend is particularly strong in developing countries, the poll found, “including Nigeria (73%, up 13 points), China (71%, up 14 points), Peru (70%, up 27 points), and India (67%, up 13 points).”

Overall, 56 percent of people in emerging economies saw themselves as global citizens rather than national citizens.

“The poll’s finding that growing majorities of people in emerging economies identify as global citizens will challenge many people’s (and organizations’) ideas of what the future might look like,” said GlobeScan chairman Doug Miller.

In more industrialized nations, the numbers skew a bit lower. The BBC‘s Naomi Grimley writes:

In Germany, for example, only 30% of respondents see themselves as global citizens.

According to Lionel Bellier from GlobeScan, this is the lowest proportion seen in Germany since the poll began 15 years ago.

“It has to be seen in the context of a very charged environment, politically and emotionally, following Angela Merkel’s policy to open the doors to a million refugees last year.”

The poll suggests a degree of soul-searching in Germany about how open its doors should be in the future.

Not all wealthy nations were opposed to newcomers. In Spain, 84 percent of respondents said they supported taking in Syrian refugees, while 77 percent of Canadians said the same. A small majority of Americans—55 percent—were also in favor of accepting those fleeing the ongoing civil war.

As Grimley points out, the concept of “global citizenship” can be hard to define, which makes it difficult to determine answers about identity.

“For some, it might be about the projection of economic clout across the world,” she writes. “To others, it might mean an altruistic impulse to tackle the world’s problems in a spirit of togetherness—whether that is climate change or inequality in the developing world.”

GlobeScan interviewed 20,000 people in 18 countries between December 2015 and April 2016.

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Special to The Greanville Post | Commentary No. 39: “Cruzbio’s Cuba, and Selling the System”

On July 1, 2015, President Obama announced the re-establishment of full diplomatic relations with Cuba.  The process has followed a carefully developed time-line.  The President himself described the US policy that has been followed since 1962 as:

A Failed Approach: Decades of U.S. isolation of Cuba have failed to accomplish our objective of empowering Cubans to build an open and democratic country. (sic) At times, longstanding U.S. policy towards Cuba has isolated the United States from regional and international partners, constrained our ability to influence outcomes throughout the Western Hemisphere, and impaired the use of the full range of tools available to the United States to promote positive change in Cuba. Though this policy has been rooted in the best of intentions, it has had little effect – today, as in 1961, Cuba is governed by the Castros and the Communist party.

“We cannot keep doing the same thing and expect a different result. It does not serve America’s interests, or the Cuban people, to try to push Cuba toward collapse. We know from hard-learned experience that it is better to encourage and support reform than to impose policies that will render a country a failed state. We should not allow U.S. sanctions to add to the burden of Cuban citizens we seek to help.”

Of course, the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba, which has been in place since the early 1960s and was significantly strengthened under Bill Clinton (!), has done much to hold back the normal development of Cuba.  It is the product of Congressional legislation, and the Repub. Congress has made it clear that there will be no change in that policy as long as it remains in charge of it.  The objective of the embargo (and non-recognition as well), has always been stated by the U.S. supporters of it to be the “empowering [of] Cubans to build an open and democratic country.”  (These open policies have also been accompanied by on an ongoing secret campaign against the government of Cuba by the CIA and presumably other U.S. government, and perhaps non-government, agencies, to overthrow the Cuban government.  This campaign has included a total of over 600 documented assassination attempts on Fidel Castro alone, which is about one a month on the average since the U.S. broke off relations at about the time of the Bay of Pigs attempted invasion in 1961.)

Every 2016 Repub. candidate for the Presidency has strongly criticized the President’s policy.  Out in front on this one have been Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.  Presumably what Cruz and Rubio want is a return to the 55-year old campaign to build “to build an open and democratic country.”   The two Senators never fail to point to their status as children of Cuban refugees as giving them special qualifications to take the positions that they do.  Neither, however, also points out the neither of their parents actually fled Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution in 1960. Cruz’ father actually fled the Batista dictatorship in 1957 and Rubio’s parents fled it in 1956.  Be that as it may, both Senators presumably would like to have a Cuba that looks as much like the United States as possible, you know, “open and Democratic.” 

Doctors from all over the Third World are trained for free at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana (ELAM), which is one of the world’s most advanced medical schools. 

Well, let’s take a look at what Cuba and the Cuban people would have and not have, in terms of the present structure and function of Cuban society, were that to be the case.  These observations were made during the course of a week-long trip that my wife and I recently made to Cuba.  Fascinating stuff, really.  First off, Cuba would not have the national health service that it presently has that provides free health care to all Cubans, and also to foreign visitors who didn’t happen to travel with emergency health insurance.  (Of course, “Medicare for All,” as a national health service is currently characterized by its supporters in the United States, given the present political and economic realities, is presently nothing but a pipe-dream.) We were told of one U.S. national who didn’t have the insurance, had to be taken to hospital for an acute emergency, was treated totally properly, and tried to offer the hospital payment in cash.  The hospital couldn’t accept it because no hospital in Cuba has an office to carry out such functions.

Cuba would not have free education, from pre-school through graduate school.  Cuba would not have an educational system for children/persons with developmental disabilities which a) provides for training so that each can become self-supporting as an adult if possible, and b) if not, then provides residential care for them for the rest of their lives.  Cuba would not have a virtual 100% literacy rate (one of the first major accomplishments of the Cuban revolution).  By contrast, in 2013 in the United States, 32 million adults could not read, giving an illiteracy rate of 14%.  Cuba does have an AIDS problem, but unlike in the early days, gay persons are not the subject of official discrimination.  Although heroin use is illegal, unlike in the United States there is a national program for supplying free clean needles to addicts (which vastly reduces the incidence of AIDS transmission).

In Cuba there are very few police on the streets, at least in the three major cities we visited, Havana, Cienfuegos, and Santiago de Cuba. Of those that there are, we only saw one who carried a pistol.  We did see several who had empty holsters.  Although the population is about 35% Afro-Cuban, it is unlikely that there are very many random shootings of unarmed black men by police.  We were told that there is a certain degree of racism among the generally equal thirds of Cuban society divided between the Latinos, the Mestizos and the Afro-Cubans.  But there is certainly no official government-sponsored discrimination against Afro-Cubans and, since there is only one political party, there is none that runs on racism or on homophobia either (as does the party of Senators Cruz and Rubio).  And so on and so forth.

[dropcap]C[/dropcap]ertainly Fidel and the other leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba give full credit to Cuban communism, for the great achievements that have been realized, even in the face of the (so far) 55 Years War that the United States has waged against Cuba.  It happens, that a good friend of mine, and fellow Contributing Editor for The Greanville Post, Michael Faulkner, was in Cuba to hear one of Fidel’s early speeches on the same subject.  The revolutionary theory of how to construct a society that can work for all of its people is of course vital, and needs to be explained and substantiated over and over again, through the course of history.

But, I think that, in promoting the Cuban Revolution, in addition to correctly talking about the theory, it is vital also to talk about the practice, to talk about what the Cuban Revolution has achieved in practical terms for its people, especially in the context of the “55 Years War” waged against it by the United States.  Would the Cuban people really like to have the Cruzbio “U.S.” model imposed on them, and then lose everything they have gained over the years, in return for having an “opposition party” or two, which if it/they were to be modelled on the Repubs. so close to the Cruzbio model, could actually run on racism and homophobia, while destroying the national health and free national education? I don’t think so.

Go Cuba!  Lets’ sell the system!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Senior Editor, Politics, Steven Jonas, MD, MPH is a Professor Emeritus of Preventive Medicine at Stony Brook University (NY) and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of over 30 books.  In addition to being Senior Editor, Politics, for The Greanville Post, he is: a Contributor for American Politics to The Planetary Movement; a “Trusted Author” for Op-Ed News.com; a contributor to the “Writing for Godot” section of Reader Supported News; and a contributor to From The G-Man. He is the Editorial Director and a Contributing Author for TPJmagazine.us.  Further, he is an occasional Contributor to TheHarderStuff newsletter, BuzzFlash Commentary, and Dandelion Salad.

Dr. Jonas’ latest book is Ending the "Drug War"; Solving the Drug Problem: The Public Health Approach (Punto Press).

     

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By slavishly doing the bidding of the plutocrats Obama is assuring his future as a multimillionaire, in the mould of the Clintons and others. Hence his tenacious pushing for TTP and similar disastrous treaties. In rooking the public with impunity, Obama has outdone Reagan, “the Teflon President.”

Dispatches from Eric Zuesse

Presently, three supposed ‘trade’ deals are being proposed by U.S. President Barack Obama, to be signed by major trading nations (except Russia, China, and the other BRICS nations): TPP with Asia, TTIP with Europe, and also (but only for financial and other services) TISA with Europe. The promised benefits in all three cases are said to be economic.

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Dispatch from Beijing

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With Jeff J. Brown 

Every June 4th, Baba Beijing reminds all of China’s citizens that the United States was fully organizing, managing, supplying and financing the Tiananmen Square protests. China’s new foreign non-governmental organization management law, signed on April 28th, makes sure the West’s color revolution template cannot be repeated here again. Pictured above is one of hundreds of unarmed People’s Liberation Army soldiers, who were murdered by the supposed “peaceful” protestors. (Image by Voltaire.net) Listen to or read and follow the podcast: Last year, I reported about the draft law proposed during the National People’s Congress (NPC), March 2015, to govern the activities of foreign NGOs (FNGOs) in China. Every law proposed in China is published for public comments, from both Chinese citizens and outsiders. This proposed FNGO law created such a hue and cry among Western governments and agencies, bordering on apoplexy, that the NPC tabled it for further review and consultation. China’s law was largely based on Russia’s FNGO law passed previously, and which was also largely adopted by India. In the interim, China’s NPC passed a comprehensive update to its National Security Law, which has many common features with the FNGO legislation. A year later, it’s official. On April 28^th, China’s new “Management of Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations”, was signed into law by the NPC Standing Committee. The final FNGO law has everything for which the West had it knickers all tied up in a knot, and it is specifically addressing two kinds of international organizations.
…
The first group of FNGOs is the hundreds of CIA/MI6/DGSE/BND government-overthrowing window fronts used by the West to destroy enemy countries from without (example, former Soviet Republics, the ALBA group in the Americas, etc.) and from within, such as the 1989 Tiananmen protests, whose blueprint has spawned scores of CIA backed color revolutions around the world. In all these cases, phony NGOs worked and continue to work hand in hand with Western spydom, to destroy those countries that are not puppets of Western empire. In those countries that are already whores for colonialism, Western spydom and its NGO store fronts work day and night, perpetrating false flags, and saturating the local media with psyops and propaganda, to keep these hapless citizens oppressed.

Article 5 is the raison d’être of the entire FNGO law. It simply states, Foreign NGOs carrying out activities within Mainland China shall abide by Chinese laws, must not endanger China’s national unity, security, or ethnic unity; and must not harm China’s national interests, societal public interest and the lawful rights and interests of citizens, legal persons and other organizations.  Foreign NGOs within Mainland China must not engage in or fund for-profit activities or political activities, and must not illegally engage in or fund religious activities.

The first clause covers Western spydom’s destruction of the CPC and China’s harmonious, communist economy and society. The latter clause is for religious groups. How important is this new law? China’s State Council is responsible for overseeing its successful implementation across the country, down to the relevant provincial and local government entities. This is declared in Article 6. Article 9 says, in part, Foreign NGOs that have not registered and established representative offices or filed to carry out temporary activities must not carry out or covertly carry out activities within Mainland China, and must not entrust or fund, or covertly entrust or fund, any unit or individual in Mainland China to carry out activities within Mainland China. This simply means, no spies, be they hiding behind a civil or religious NGO. Article 12 lists all the requirements for FNGOs to register and work in China. One clause in particular targets funding sources, (5) [provide] Materials showing the sources of capital; Article 13 makes sure that all the money handled by FNGOs is conducted in Chinese banks, which it just so happens, are all publicly owned, …establish an account at a bank within Mainland China, and is to give a copy of their tax registration certificates, a sample of their official seal, and its bank account number to the registration management organs for filing. The registration management organs being the provincial and local government offices charged by the State Council to implement the law. Article 18 protects China’s sovereignty, by forbidding FNGOs from setting up branch organizations in-country. This is where a CIA front NGO will create one or numerous shell NGOs, with lofty sounding names, to fund and be used to destroy the CPC. This is reinforced in Article 20, Foreign NGOs carrying out activities inside Mainland China must not make requirements of Chinese partner units or beneficiaries that violate the laws and regulations of China. Article 19 lists how the FNGO must submit a detailed Activity Plan for the upcoming year, including a budget. Article 21 protects Chinese society from Western black money being used for false flags, psyops, etc., Activities of foreign NGOs within Mainland China must not use funds other than those provided for in the preceding paragraph [the officially registered Chinese bank account]. The next clause in Article 21 is to protect the people from foreign churches operating in-country, Foreign NGOs and their representative offices must not fundraise within Mainland China. Article 28 also covers churches, that come to China to proselytize, Foreign NGOs’ representative offices and foreign NGOs carrying out temporary activities, must not develop, or covertly develop, membership within Mainland China, except as provided by the State Council.

By January 31^st of the new year, every FNGO must file a detailed activity report for the preceding year, including a balance sheet. These will all be made available to the public. This, according to Article 31. Article 34 will assure that a national catalog of FNGOs is available to the public, so they can see who is working in their area. Article 39 makes it very clear that all FNGOs are going to be closely monitored, Foreign NGOs carrying out activities within mainland China shall accept supervision and management by the public security organs, relevant departments, and professional supervisory units. In other words, Baba Beijing is going to be up your bum and down your throat, to make sure that your NGO is not of the CIA or overstepping church kind. Never had an administrative colonoscopy? Get used to it if you want to do good deeds in China. Article 41 spells out that if there is sound evidence of illegal activity, a FNGO can be shut down, files and documents taken for evidence, bank activity researched, bank accounts frozen and the premises seized. Article 47 is the anti-Tiananmen color revolution protection clause, which is worth noting in its entirety, Where foreign NGOs or foreign NGOs’ representative offices have any of the following circumstances, the registration management organs will cancel their registration certificates or shut down temporary activities; where a crime is not constituted, the public security organs for people’s governments at the districted-city level and above will detain the persons who are directly in charge and other directly responsible personnel for up to 15 days; and where a crime is constituted, criminal responsibility is pursued in accordance with law:  (1) Inciting resistance to the implementation of laws and regulations; (2) Illegally obtaining state secrets; (3) Creating rumors, engaging in defamation, or the publication or dissemination of other harmful information that endangers state security or damages the national interest;  (4) Engaging in or funding political activities or illegal religious activities; (5) Other situations that endanger state security or damage the national or public interest.  Where foreign NGOs or foreign NGOs’ representative offices exhibit criminal conduct such as separatism, undermining national unity, or subverting national sovereignty, the registration management organs are to enact punishment in accordance with the provisions of the preceding paragraph, and pursue criminal responsibility of the directly responsible personnel in accordance with law.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]oo bad Hong Kong, ALBA and all the former Soviet republics didn’t and don’t have this law on their books, starting with Tiananmen and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Article 50 clearly states that anyone violating this law can be declared persona non grata, and expelled from China. This has already happened since the law was drafted a year ago, including NGO and church representatives, who got caught aiding and abetting Western spydom or using money from overseas anti-CPC organizations. At least the ticket home is paid for. Per Article 54, this law will take effect on January 1^st, 2017, giving CIA/MI6/DGSE/BND NGOs eight months to come clean and leave China, or for those that really do good deeds, to prepare for the new requirements. It is sad that China, Russia, India and other countries have to pass laws like this. But the terrible reality of history and current events is that the West has never played fair, never been noble nor righteous, and has never accepted a level playing field, where the best idea, philosophy, economic system or competition wins – honestly and fairly. No, instead, the world’s 85% non-White races have been subjected to the loss of billions of lives, via racist genocide and extermination, and trillions lost in theft of ancestral lands and their natural resources, still ongoing across humanity. Chances are you will finish this article and still deny that the Chinese people have been at existential war, since at least China’s communist liberation in 1949, or more accurately, since 1839, when the boot heel of colonial imperialism and illegal drug trade was forced on the people, and truth be told, since 1517, when the first European boat landed on Chinese soil, and the crew members lied about sickness and boat damage, to gain a foothold. The fact that there was a covetous, capitalist captain and philistine Catholic priests on board, is not lost on the Chinese people’s collective consciousness. You may have forgotten or didn’t know, but Baba Beijing and its Heavenly Mandate have not. Thus, the necessity and total reasonableness of China’s new FNGO management law.

Like to listen on Sound Cloud (the most up to date), Stitcher Radio, iTunes or YouTube? Check out China Rising Radio Sinoland at:

Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/44-days Stitcher Radio: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/44-days-publishing-jeff-j-brown/radio-sinoland?refid=stpr iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/cn/podcast/44-days-radio-sinoland/id1018764065?l=en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS4h04KASXUQdMLQObRSCNA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/44DaysPublishing Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/113187076@N05/ Google+: https://plus.google.com/110361195277784155542 Linkedin: https://cn.linkedin.com/in/jeff-j-brown-0517477 Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/jeffjb/ Sinaweibo (for Jeff’s ongoing photos and comments on daily life in China, in both English and Chinese): http://weibo.com/u/5859194018 Stumbleupon: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/jjbzaibeijing Tumblr: http://jjbzaibeijing.tumblr.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/44_Days Wechat group: search China Rising Radio Sinoland

jeff@brownlanglois.com

//

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Dispatches from
STEPHEN LENDMAN

US/Sino tensions remain high. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Joint Chiefs chairman Joseph (“fighting Joe”) Dunford provocatively call China and Russia America’s leading threats, along with Iran, North Korea and terrorism.

The USS John C. Stennis, so named for a corrupt, racist and warmongering Dixiecrat US Senator from Mississippi who worked for decades to give the Pentagon everything it wanted, in an image showing its true nature as an instrument to project aggression across the globe.

On Friday, America’s Hong Kong consulate said Beijing denied permission for the USS John C. Stennis and four accompanying vessels to make a Hong Kong port call, beginning on May 3 for five days.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it “needs to approve every ship coming to Hong Kong on a case by case basis in accordance with sovereignty principles and specific circumstances.” On April 15, Defense Secretary Carter visited the USS John C. Stennis, DOD ludicrously calling the warship “a symbol of American commitment to peace and security in Southeast Asia.”

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Carter said at the time, “the United States intends to continue to play a role out here that it has for seven decades…” During a preceding Manila visit, he said America supports the Philippines and other regional allies in the face of “coercion and intimidation.”

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…

Washington claims dominion over parts of the world not its own, advancing its military footprint provocatively, risking direct confrontation with China and Russia. Beijing remains justifiably concerned about its attempt to militarize the South China Sea, flying patrols and conducting military exercises close to its waters and territory.

 …

Earlier its Defense Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun said Beijing “is extremely concerned at the United States’ pushing of the militarization of the South China Sea region…What they are doing can’t help but make people wonder whether they want nothing better than chaos” or direct confrontation.

 …

Ashton Carter: The Pentagon chief that will not let truth brake or derail his imperialist agenda. He is one of the prominent criminals involved in the systematic destruction of Syria and war promotion around the globe. Scum by any standard.

In 2007, Beijing denied the USS Kitty Hawk’s Hong Kong port call request after the Bush administration announced an advance missile sale to Taiwan and welcomed the Dalai Lama (a longtime CIA asset) at the White House.

 …

The USS Stennis carrier group is currently operating in South China Sea waters provocatively close to Beijing claimed sovereign areas. The Pentagon asserts the phony pretext of “freedom of navigation.” Beijing accuses Washington of regional interference and “sabotaging regional peace” – in response to its announced military buildup in the Philippines, a provocative move, one of many risking direct confrontation.

About the author

STEPHEN LENDMAN lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."  ( http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html ) Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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