It often
happens that events we view as isolated occurrences are connected as integral
parts of a much larger picture, often as part of a wide-ranging plan, and
frequently with important social, economic, and/or political implications which
become evident only when seen in total. The several topics of this essay add a
necessary context to all major social, commercial, and geo-political events of
recent decades, which may help us in connecting dots. For this, it is extremely
important to realise and understand that in these matters there are no
accidents, that 'crises' (other than things like volcanic eruptions) do not
just happen, and that the final result of any crisis, however it may appear,
was the result intended.
As one example, this many decades ago, we noticed that in our city in Canada one brand of American convenience store seemed to have a habit of opening new stores within a stone's throw of the existing 'mom and pop' variety stores (as they were then called), these shiny and attractive new shops inevitably resulting in the closure of our traditional community stores with the resulting loss of livelihood of the owner-families. It was a surprise to learn later that this practice existed in all cities in Canada and it eventually became clear that each such apparently minor event reflected the gradual execution of an astonishingly predatory plan to not only become established in another country but to progressively eliminate all existing competition in doing so. The dawning of this realisation came too late for authorities to take preventive action, resulting in the destruction of what had been an important part of Canada's community cultural landscape.
As one example, this many decades ago, we noticed that in our city in Canada one brand of American convenience store seemed to have a habit of opening new stores within a stone's throw of the existing 'mom and pop' variety stores (as they were then called), these shiny and attractive new shops inevitably resulting in the closure of our traditional community stores with the resulting loss of livelihood of the owner-families. It was a surprise to learn later that this practice existed in all cities in Canada and it eventually became clear that each such apparently minor event reflected the gradual execution of an astonishingly predatory plan to not only become established in another country but to progressively eliminate all existing competition in doing so. The dawning of this realisation came too late for authorities to take preventive action, resulting in the destruction of what had been an important part of Canada's community cultural landscape.
In a
different category, and more recently, we learned that during a period of ten
or more years ending around 2015, GlaxoSmithKline engaged in an enormous tax
and marketing fraud in China (1) (2), involving billions of RMB in massive and
systemic bribery and falsified accounts, the discovery punctuated by the
company's China CEO Mark Reilly fleeing the country on the first plane to
England "on a previously-planned business trip", and intending to
remain there "to help with the investigation from that end". (3)
Lacking additional information, we tend to view this revelation as a domestic
issue involving the typical group of 'a few bad apples'. But with a bit of
investigation we discover that GSK carried on a series of virtually identical
criminal adventures simultaneously in the US and other countries as well,
having been fined billions of dollars in the US alone for repeated occurrences.
This additional knowledge substantially amends our perception of the picture.
When, with a bit of additional investigation, we discover that all the major
pharma companies have repeatedly engaged in a wide range of criminal activities
resulting in fines totaling tens of billions of dollars in the US alone, our
appreciation of GSK's activities in China, and of the entire landscape of big
pharma, are much altered and more accurate. We now know something we didn't
know before, and we now understand we are not dealing with a few bad apples in
an isolated if unfortunate event, but with an industry corrupt to its core,
worldwide. (4) (5)
Similarly,
we learned that Apple, the darling of the US stock market and of iphone fans
everywhere, was being hounded by the Chinese commercial authorities, this time
over warranty periods, Chinese law categorising Apple's ipad as a computer
requiring a two-year warranty with Apple insisting the ipad was a phone and
refusing to comply. Following stringent insistence and a huge public outcry,
Apple was eventually forced to conform. (6) (7) Reading this as an isolated
occurrence, we might judge this as a technical domestic argument of little
consequence but, with a bit of investigation, we discover that Apple's
warranties had been under fire for years throughout Europe (and other
countries) for precisely the same reasons and with precisely the same outcome -
Apple stubbornly flouting the consumer laws of dozens of countries. (8) (9)
With this additional information, our perception of Apple's behavior in China
assumes a different flavor. We no longer see a simple dispute between a
retailer and a socialist government with perhaps sticky laws, but a
multinational corporation suffused with sufficient arrogance to not only
challenge but attempt to dictate consumer laws and warranty policies to all
sovereign nations where it does business. To say nothing of some bold tax
dodges. (10) Further investigation reveals that, of all computer and mobile
phone companies, only Apple appears to take this position. We now have a more
accurate picture of the international IT landscape and Apple's position within
it, our sympathy for Apple's difficulties in China certainly moderating if not
transforming into outright hostility.
In each
case, our understanding has been substantially amended because we can see the
whole picture and we now know something we did not know before. It is true for
a great many occurrences in the world, of many different kinds, that these are
not single disconnected events but are related in a set pattern and to a set
purpose. Simply put, if one house burns down on a street, that's unfortunate;
if two houses burn down on that street, that's a coincidence; if five houses
burn down on that same street, that's a plan.
Thus, for
many of the world's events, most especially those containing strong social,
economic and/or geo-political effects, it behooves us to bypass the mass media
who force-feed us with only carefully-selected sound bytes, and to engage
ourselves in a bit of independent research to discover whether these apparently
disconnected events are in fact related in a larger context. It is necessary to
bypass the media because the absence of connection between these apparently
disparate (but related) events is not accidental; the media coverage by design
and intent renders it impossible for the general public to connect the dots.
The
Official Narrative
In
attempting to understand social, economic and geo-political events, there is a
second matter demanding our attention, that of the initial mass media coverage,
because this often betrays secrets of an event that might otherwise be unknown.
Consider:
if there is an explosion in a shopping mall somewhere, at first neither we nor
the relevant authorities know anything. It might have been caused a gas line
leak, perhaps from faulty maintenance, or stored chemicals, or perhaps a
disgruntled citizen set off a bomb. At first, we don't even know what, much
less having a clear idea of who or how, or why, and it takes time to ferret out
these details and form a sensible working theory of that event. If it appears
that persons were responsible, the authorities require additional time to
determine why and who, then begin their search.
But, if
we are paying attention, it often happens that immediately upon the occurrence
of such an event, the mass media present us with a full-blown story lacking
only small details, a more or less complete description of what, how, who and
why, a story that could not possibly be known at that stage. Not only is the
media description immediate, but it is universal and unanimous, with all
apparently unrelated media presenting the same story line, often verbatim, with
no disagreement on any significant elements, these uniform storylines sometimes
flooding the news for days, weeks, and even months.
Such a
unanimous flood can occur only with all participants reading from the same
script, prepared beforehand and readied for simultaneous release. In the above
case, there are only two possibilities: (1) The story, if true, could be known
only by the perpetrators or, (2) the story is a fabricated falsehood, taking
the microphone to pre-empt independent rational thought by the public and force
the discussion into desired channels, resulting in the elimination of critical
public analysis and preventing the truth from escaping confinement.
At one
time, not so long ago, this was impossible. But today, with the intense
concentration of media ownership across all continents, (and with the
increasingly strong censorship of the social media) we have only five or six
people, all colleagues, controlling perhaps 90% of all media content and with a
powerful financial influence on the remainder.
As one
ready example, we could review the unfortunate flight of Korean Airlines 007 in
1983, a Boeing 747 which was shot down by Russian aircraft when it ventured
about 500 kilometers off-course and perilously close to some Russian military
installations. The media response was immediate and universal that "the
Russians" killed hundreds of innocent passengers, and a great deal else. I
don't want to dwell on this here but, if you would like some personal
entertainment, you might enjoy doing some thorough research on this event. One
of the more entertaining issues was that the water was shallow where the
aircraft eventually went down, and the Russians searched thoroughly but located
only a few bodies of the crew. No hundreds of innocent passengers. One other discovery
was hundreds of pairs of new sneakers and a great deal of new clothing still
folded in its original packaging. But no bodies. The official response was that
when the aircraft was hit by the missiles, the decompression "sucked all
the passengers out of their clothes", then presumably folding and
packaging their clothing. Mother Nature is nothing if not neat and tidy.
The
events of 9-11 were certainly one of these, with the entire final version of
the "official story" appearing the next day in all the Western media,
all verbatim including the who, how and why. SARS and ZIKA fit this pattern in
every respect, and COVID-19 also fit very well as do the seven biological
pathogens unleashed on China during the past two years alone. With the 2019
swine flu, the entire Western media knew instantly that Chinese "criminal
gangs" and "pork speculators" were for unknown reasons infecting
all of China's pigs, although no evidence ever surfaced to support any part of
their story. If we review the media coverage for many notable events in our
recent history, the pattern is the same. We are then facing the only sensible
conclusion that those events were executed as part of a plan with the unanimous
media coverage arranged well in advance - and with the knowing participation of
the media owners.
Normally,
subsequent contradictory theories arise over time as we learn details and
assemble the pieces in what might be a more logical and sensible combination
but, in these cases, all contradictions are first ignored by the mass media,
then condemned as "conspiracy theories", those presenting them
unanimously mocked and derided. The more attention these contradictory theories
generate, and the more that serious flaws are exposed in the official story,
the louder the derision and more vicious the condemnation, again unanimous and
universal. Moreover, as these theories gain traction, the underlying facts are
increasingly ignored in exchange for attacking their proponents. If we don't
like the message, we kill the messenger. There is no shortage of examples of
historians, authors, various experts, being hounded to bankruptcy, infamy, and
even death, merely for publishing (or even attempting to publish) inconvenient
truths. This process is now so well-established that whenever we see
accusations of 'conspiracy theories' we can be certain that a government or a
corporation has something to hide.
As time
passes, the public become inundated with what we term "the official
narrative", most tending to believe a story repeated daily for weeks from
dozens of apparently independent and reputable sources, to the point where the
matter is no longer news and dissenting opinions are lost in the haze. It then
becomes almost impossible for hidden truths to emerge and, even if they do
emerge, it is too late to significantly alter the public conviction or to
obtain the required critical mass of dissention for a re-examination of the
facts. It is said that if we hear a lie five times, especially from five
different sources, we will believe it as true and will later be astonishingly
reluctant to alter our opinion even in the face of irrefutable evidence to the
contrary. This is one of the fundamental tenets of all propaganda.
In so
many past instances, generally involving malfeasance, the US government or some
branch of it quickly took the initiative to promulgate an "official
story" that it wanted the public to accept, always with widespread media
and scientific or other support. It isn't usually difficult to distinguish
between these crafted tales and other situations where the truth of an event
innocently emerges as facts are sequentially discovered. One sure sign that we
are being told a story is when "the official narrative" appears much
too soon - before any actual facts emerge that would support the hypothesis, a
ploy necessary to pre-empt independent conclusions and prevent more realistic
or more factual versions from gaining traction.
Directed
Channels of Discourse
There is
one other item that serves to actively prevent our connecting the dots and
forming correct conclusions about events, this being an intense and coordinated
media focus to direct public discourse into desirable channels and away from
the key issues. As a simple example, some years ago there were intense debates
about the future of the Euro, with growing public opinion that the group
currency was a failed experiment and European nations should revert to their
original national currencies. But the mass media spawned a flood of debate
centered on a wide range of options more or less titled "What is the best
way to save the Euro?", forcing public debate into a context where
continuation of the Euro was assumed as immutable and all discussion focused on
methods of preservation. Of course, the real question was "Should the Euro
be saved?", but those raising this question were ignored, mocked, derided,
and painted as traitors to Europe.
If we pay
attention to the mass media on the occurrence of many events, it is easy to see
that we are often being propagandised and programmed to see the world through
the same pair of eyes - the pair our masters want us to look through. It is a
most effective tool of public manipulation, with most of us unaware this
thought control is taking place. As Noam Chomsky noted in discussing propaganda
(11), "The smart way . . . is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable
opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. That gives people
the sense that there's free thinking going on, while all the time the
presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the
range of the debate." In simple terms, if you can focus the public on
asking the wrong questions, you needn't worry about the answers.
A Brief
Case Study in Connecting Dots
In 2001,
an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease ravaged the British farming industry.
Exports from the UK of live animals, meat and dairy products were banned by
other nations, and the government ordered a mass slaughter of millions of
animals. The losses to British farmers were nearly incalculable, with a great
many farmers going bankrupt or otherwise put out of business, and some farmers
committing suicide in anguish over their losses. Within six months, almost 4
million animals had been slaughtered and their carcasses burned. Oddly, in the
face of this enormous disaster, the government refused to hold a public inquiry
into the outbreak, announcing instead three small separate investigations, the
results of which would not be made public. A similar event occurred again a few
years later. It was later admitted that the pathogen for this disease had gone
"missing" from Porton Down and Pirbright, the UK's two primary L-4
bio-weapons labs, the government then claiming "animal rights
activists" had entered these military-guarded labs, stolen huge amounts of
pathogen and released it. No information as to why they might do such a thing.
The outcome of the UK foot and mouth disease outbreaks was to eliminate small
farmers and turn over the UK's beef supply to a few billionaire owners of Big
Agra.
I won't
provide more detail here, but I have written a brief article covering this, the
details of which will shock you. (12) As one example, for months prior to the
outbreak the UK government was scouring the country for all loose volumes of
timber admittedly to be used to burn the carcasses of the millions of cattle
soon to become infected and slaughtered.
But so
far, even to a suspicious mind, no clear evidence of malfeasance and no
conspiracy. But we have other layers of dots here. It seems that immediately
prior to this disastrous outbreak of a deadly biological pathogen, there was a
'simulation' dealing with precisely this eventuality, exactly the same as that
held prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 and including most of the same players,
most notably Pirbright who were the admitted source of the bovine pathogen and
also who had developed and held patents on five coronavirus varieties, I
believe the same five that infected the US and then the world.
And yet
another layer of dots. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho wrote a report in the Institute of
Science in Society, dated September 24, 2001, entitled "Foot & Mouth
Outbreak, GM Vaccine and Bio-warfare". It was after her report that
investigations by the Evening Chronicle discovered papers leaked from the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency that confirmed the simulation which had been
secret to that point. Readers may recall this is the same Dr. Ho who called for
a full investigation into the possible genetic engineering and dissemination of
the SARS virus, the evidence eventually conclusive that SARS emerged from a
lab.
Let's
turn to the swine flu outbreak in China in 2019 where the nation's pork was
raised by hundreds of thousands of small farmers much as the beef in the UK.
With 50% of the livestock slaughtered, American firms had an open door to take
control of China's pork supply. In this case the effort failed because the
Chinese government, not being a party to the pathogen, immediately provided
financing and other assistance for the small farmers to rebuild their herds.
However,
if we research the outbreaks of animal pathogens around the world - swine flu,
bird flu, the evidence seems to indicate that the expansion of Big Agra follows
closely on their heels. This is an apparently natural occurrence, given that
small competitors have been eliminated while market demand remains constant -
unless this occurs more than once or twice. When these outbreaks inexplicably
appear repeatedly on all continents with Big Agra in the background, we have
dots to connect. I do not possess details of every outbreak of an animal
pathogen in all countries for the past ten or twenty years, but I have a
powerful suspicion that if we correlate these with the growth in market share
of the world's few Big Agra companies, we would receive a surprise.
(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/02/business/international/china-rules-glaxo-bribes-sex-tape-whistleblower-cautionary-tale.html
(2) https://money.cnn.com/2014/09/19/news/china-gsk-bribery/index.html
(3) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-glaxo-settlement-idUSBRE8610S720120702
(4) https://fortune.com/2016/03/31/big-pharma-fines/
(5) https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/drug-giants-fined-11bn-for-criminal-wrongdoing-8157483.html
(6) www.china.org.cn/business/2013-03/31/content_28407911.htm
(7) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-apple-apology-idUSBRE9300DM20130402
(8) https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2367484
(9) https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/48730/how-does-apples-two-year-warranty-in-europe-work
(10) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/aug/30/apple-pay-back-taxes-eu-ruling-ireland-state-aid
(11) Noam Chomsky (2013). “How the World Works”, p.234, Soft Skull Press
(12) UK Foot and Mouth Disease
Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
Copyright © Larry Romanoff, Moon of Shanghai, 2020
