Nationalism on the rise
William Hillman
(5/2020) While America was binge watching The Office on Netflix, oil dipped below zero dollars per barrel, China is winning, and the Bill of Rights has been suspended indefinitely.
Just before I sat down to write this, I watched a video of a woman in Idaho who was arrested for playing with her children in a park. We have seen a Police officer arrested for having a catch with his daughter. Freedom of expression, assembly, and religion as guaranteed in the Bill of Rights have been taken away with little more than a whimper by the
American citizens. Governors are now state dictators suspending basic rights and seizing control of all business, deciding who can work and who will suffer. All this without legislative or judicial oversite.
The actions and events in China at the outbreak of the Wuhan virus leave one to wonder if the spread of this virus was, at worst intentional, or at least used as an opportunity to further China’s dream of world dominance and expanding its sphere of control.
The outbreak started in December of 2019 when 27 people in Wuhan were hospitalized with a mysterious pneumonia. Eight doctors tried to send out a warning to other doctors on social media. The posts were removed by censors and police took the doctors into custody where it was ‘explained’ to them not to engage in "rumor mongering." This was the first
play in the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup.
China’s authorities did not tell its own citizens the dangers they faced but kept quiet as the virus spread. The first patients were reported on December 1st. The Wuhan Health Commission didn’t reveal the outbreak to the public until December 31. I’ve read reports that estimate 86% of cases of infection in Wuhan were unreported prior to the January
23rd travel restrictions. The withholding of this information allowed for the quick global spread.
On January 18th, well after they knew the spread rate, Wuhan organized a large-scale dinner to ‘celebrate the Lunar New Year’. More the 40,000 families attended. The Epoch Times reported that scores of people who attended the event contracted the virus. Because of the Lunar New Year’s festivities, many Chinese then traveled across the country and
abroad to spend time with families.
As of Mid-January, Wuhan was officially reporting only 41 cases. During this same time, cases were popping up in Thailand and Japan.
While the Chinese government downplayed the virus and underreported the numbers, The Epoch Times interviewed staff at funeral homes who said their intake had skyrocketed and they were working around the clock to cremate bodies from hospitals and private homes.
The CCP had a long and old tradition of sacrificing its citizenship in exchange for geopolitical positioning. As recently as the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, the government withheld and downplayed reports of the virus as to not disrupt the CCP’s leadership transition. The party wanted to make sure that "nothing shall rock the boat."
There have been numerous investigations and reports on how the CCP deceit allowed the virus to spread to more than 185 countries.
In the last few weeks, the leading protesters in Hong Kong have been arrested, and opposition media has been closed. The Chinese government restated and expanded its position that Beijing has the power to intervene in Hong Kong. The move leaves no doubt over the destruction and fall of the Hong Kong constitution that was supposed to guaranteed the
city’s self-rule and autonomy from Chinese interference until 2047, fifty years after its handover from British rule.
On other fronts, China has invaded Taiwanese airspace, ran military exercises across the Taiwan Strait, and Chinese speedboats have damaged a Taiwanese Coast Guard ship. China is pushing so hard that a Taiwanese defense official had to tell an increasingly panicking public that the island is prepared for an attack. China has also been making inroads
into Philippine-claimed reefs, building new facilities in the West Philippine Sea.
As the European Union has failed to support its member nations, China is offering aid and financial support, extending its "one belt one road" power grab into Europe. The European Union has shown its true impotence in the face of the pandemic. Italy was abandoned, left to fend for itself.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with The Financial Times, warned that the European Union will collapse as a "political project" unless the bloc supports Italy and other economies stricken by the coronavirus pandemic through a commonly issued and guaranteed funding mechanism.
From Fortune magazine April 17th:
"When Italy invoked an European Union framework meant to facilitate the sharing of vital medical supplies between members, not a single European country responded. Only weeks later, on March 22, did the European Commission approve a 50 million ($54.6 million) grant to Italy to help it produce ventilators and personal protective equipment.
Instead of mutual aid, an every-nation-for-itself mentality gripped the Continent. Denmark, Poland, and the Czech Republic closed their borders, with Germany shuttering crossings with France, Austria, and Luxembourg. Many European Union nations imposed export restrictions on medical supplies. France nationalized its entire supply of face masks while
Germany blocked shipments of masks intended for Austria, sparking outrage.
Into the void stepped China, Cuba, and Albania, delivering medical supplies, doctors, and nurses. Russia sent a far more provocative aid package. It dispatched eight brigades of soldiers trained in chemical and biological warfare to deliver supplies and construct field hospitals. Given that the European Union was originally formed, in part, as a
bulwark against Moscow’s designs on Western Europe, the irony was acute. "
The next test and possibly the final straw facing the European Union is the impending immigrant crisis. Turkey is threatening to release the 4 million Syrians currently in Turkey refugee camps, into Europe via Greece, and the oil price drop will spur millions more immigrants from northern Africa into Europe.
Oil prices have dropped close to (and for a short time below) zero dollars per barrel. Countries whose economy and government rely on oil production will be devastated. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait depend on higher oil prices to fund social programs. Iraq and Iran could all face social unrest if oil prices remain at these low levels (as does Venezuela
in the west). In Africa, Libya, already on the brink of collapse, relies on oil revenue for its large social programs. The oil price drop has shut down the economy of Nigeria, which has the largest population in Africa.
In the wings are NGOs waiting and willing to help these nations shed off their angry, unemployed youth to Europe. Will European nations stand by the European Union open border policy when millions of refugees flood an already weakened and falling health and welfare system? Or will these nations act in the best interests of their citizens?
We will witness a worldwide political shift. Nationalism will rise.
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