Dedollarisation and sanctions - Who is getting the upper hand?

 Now the West is admitting that de-dollarisation is not just a harmless little mosquito biting a dinosaur, and moving so slowly, so much so that the USA can just ignore it as they would like to believe. Perhaps the USA is just pretending to ignore the situation in order not to appear openly nervous, paranoid and on tenterhooks. Good for BRICS, I would say.

Arrogance could lead to trying to close the stable doors after the horses have bolted. The USA over the last four decades, categorically and arrogantly considered Chinese as still mere cooks and laundrymen, and incapable of posing a economic threat to its global dominance. The USA is now fighting tooth and nail to keep China down.

J P Morgan is now flagging the warning that de-dollarisation is not as harmless to the US$ as the USA would like to imagine, and moving much faster than what the USA anticipated. Of course, it still will take time, but the writing is on the wall. Reversing the momentum is not a viable option with countries vying to join BRICS, while fighting against it is futile and is too late for that. It is no longer just taking down a single small hapless country like Iraq or Libya.

The only option for the USA is to prevent China's influence in the BRICS from rising further by using the only thing left that they can do. China is the only pure competitor in BRICS that can do the most damage to the US$. And for that the USA is rallying allies to help it to take down China by hyping up imaginery threats, instilling fear in non allies and building up their military capablities like Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.

The most outstanding manner of attacking China lies in forming alliances like the Chips 4 Alliance, which is indirectly killing two birds with one stone, which is countering China while at the same time killing off the Chip industries of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan and also the Netherlands. What will eventually be left of the alliance is that the USA will reap all of the benefits, making sure that the other member's of the alliance fall to pieces and giving the USA total control of global chip making. Only China will be left to pose a threat in Chip manufacturing. However, China is posing more than that of a chip making competitor. China is the biggest market for chip manufacturers, without which any expansion of chip manufacturing by the USA makers is an exercise in futility. That is why Intel is not going ahead with its expansion in the USA itself.

Anonymous

Singapore a Market for Nuclear Contaminated Japanese Seafood Banned By China?

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced on Monday a 20.7 billion yen ($141 million) emergency fund to help exporters hit by a ban on Japanese seafood imposed by China in response to the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The discharge of the wastewater into the ocean began Aug. 24 and is expected to continue for decades. Japanese fishing associations and groups in neighboring countries have strongly opposed the release, and China immediately banned all imports of Japanese seafood. Hong Kong has banned Japanese seafood from Fukushima and nine other prefectures.

Chinese trade restrictions have affected Japanese seafood exporters since even before the release began, with shipments held up at Chinese customs for weeks. Prices of scallops, sea cucumbers and other seafood popular in China have plunged. The ban has affected prices and sales of seafood from places as far away from Fukushima as the northern island of Hokkaido, home to many scallop growers.


Kishida said the emergency fund is in addition to 80 billion yen ($547 million) that the government previously allocated to support fisheries and seafood processing and combat damage to the reputation of Japanese products.

“We will protect the Japanese fisheries industry at all costs,” Kishida said, asking people to help out by serving more seafood at dinner tables and other ways.

The money will be used to find new markets for Japanese seafood to replace China and fund government purchases of seafood for temporary freezing and storage. The government will also seek to expand domestic seafood consumption.

Officials said they plan to cultivate new export destinations in Taiwan, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and some southeast Asian countries — such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Anonymous

Testimony of life in Singapore - part 3

 I advised my kids decades ago, never try to go for those whatever star, or scholarships and get tied down eventually in jobs they do not like, while serving their bonds.

Thankfully, my kids knew their limitations, found their niche, and like what they are doing today. My eldest son graduated with a life science (toilet paper) degree, a practically useless piece of paper, suitable probably for a teaching job only, which I realistically advised him to go into, but he went into the insurance sector instead, and by upgrading himself, is now doing reasonably well as a financial adviser. At 42 years with two kids himself, he is still hitting the books to upgrade.

My younger son, a rebellious kid, dropped out of NTU after enrolling in an engineering course, something he later found to his potent dislike. My wife and me were devastated, learning he had dropped out of his course. He landed his first job as a croupier at Resorts World Sentosa, and managed to secure a marketing diploma and a marketing degree, all financed by Resorts World Sentosa, with deep gratitude to his employer by me and my wife. He is still at his job in marketing, now doing relatively well in his position after promotion, after almost 15 years with the Resort. He loved his job and that is what is important.

Both my kids, unlike me, are not rolling stones, and we always advise them that they should do what they love to do, and not just look at the extra monetary rewards just by changing jobs, which they may later dislike.

I was in a different situation though, changing five jobs, facing traumatic situations, just looking for a better reward to cope with cost of living in an evironment of low salaries. My kids are now earning reasonable salaries and do not need to follow my footsteps of job hopping. Moreover, with daughters in laws also working, they are surviving relatively comfortably, besides supporting us monetarily. Every cloud has a silver lining and likewise, every dog has its day.

I always remember the quotation by Will Rogers - 'Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people that they don't like'. And Thomas Jefferson's equally pertinent quote - 'Never spend your money before you earned it.' Watching today's young, I do not know whether Will Rogers or Thomas Jefferson were right or wrong for them to emulate, but certainly right for me to follow.

I earned a pittance in my days compared to today's young, but through thrift and good money management, easily financed and put my two kids through University (although the younger one was disappointing in his dropping out of his engineering course). Looking back, it was more a blessing in disguise, as he is doing probably better monetary wise than some engineers, and in a job that he distinctly loves.

Pity me if you like, I never even own a bicycle, not to talk of a car. Life is a matter of cutting your clothes according to your cloth. Living within your means is one recipe for being happy. Wealth does not equate to happiness. Possession only brings temporary happiness, and there are always subsequent new things coming out that always brings new desires to be fullfilled.

And always remember, we came into this world naked, and will leave equally naked. We can never take what we accumulated in this life along with us. When alive, we can only sleep in one bed as Arsene Wenger said, and can only eat so much, although the filthy rich can eat better food, but not necessarily healthier for their well being.

Anonymous

Countries of the world paid the Americans to oppress and limit their freedom

 Many are sneering at China for buying American bonds to fund American wars against China. Yes, indeed the China are funding the Americans in many more areas to the detriment of China. The 800+ American military bases around the world, the millions of employees of the American armed forces, the CIA machinery etc etc, are all funded, a big lot by China and other richer countries, many of whom are American allies and colonies and cronies.

The Americans have made their world ambition very clear, can't be any more clearer, that they are here as the Empire to control and rule the world, including ruling the European states. The American world order is American supremacy and dominance. Countries of the world are only given limited freedom, limited freedom of choice to be what they want to be, to be rich but not richer than the Americans, to be advanced in science and technology, but limited to what the Americans allowed them to be, in short, never be better than the Americans.

And the whole world is directly or indirectly paying for the American Empire to rule over them, to decide their fate and their way of life. Many are paying like China in buying American bonds. Many are hoarding American dollars as savings. Many are trading using American dollars instead of their own currencies, given the Americans the privilege to print papers as money to exchange for all the goods and services produced and provided by the rest of the world, and of course to pay for the millions of American soldiers, military bases and weapons of wars and mass destruction, to be the Empire and masters of the people of the world.

How long would this sadistic game go on before the world wakes up to their own folly? There are many signs that things are changing. It is so pathetic the Americans and the French are still the colonial masters of many African states, de jure or de facto. It is also pathetic that South Korea and Japan are still semi colonies of the Americans. It is even more pathetic to think that countries like the Philippines and Papua New Guinea voluntarily offered themselves as the latest colonies of the Americans. And it is unbelieveable that ex colonial European Empires are now coerced by the Americans to become American colonies acting at the behest of the Americans to fight wars and destroy their own economies.

While the Global South are waking up to their pathetic fate and rebelling, the Europeans are castigating themselves, to appease the Americans at their own detriment, in Ukraine. Germany even allowed the Americans to cut off their cheap supply of Russia gas and meekly accepted their fate. So are all the European countries, fighting a proxy war for the Americans against a super power like Russia, a war they cannot win...while the Americans keep shooing them to fight to the last man from afar, across the Atlantic Oeean.

When would the world stop paying for their own oppression and to be free from the evil American Empire? When would the world stop using the American dollar?

Sunak planning to 'CECA' UK

 

A Trade Proposal For India Has Brought British PM Sunak Under Fire. Why? A 5 min clip on Sunak's trade deal with India and the main objection by the Brits is about more visas for Indian workers in UK. This is absolutely a very good idea for no talent Britain and the Brits would need more talented Indians to save Britain from going down to join the Third World. Singapore has CECA and has avoided joining the Third World with the help of millions of Indian talents. The UK can learn something from Singapore.