This is supposed to be my 'sort of' Magnum Opus, although it probably will not win any prize... sobeit.
Mind you, that means (for me): I M P O R T A N T. So bear with me for a few minutes.
There was a nice documentary today on the Belgian Ketnet channel about China's road to a dual system (socialism plus capitalism). I'd like to talk about this if you don't mind. If you DO mind, don't read any further.EXIT YOU LOSERS, GO TO ANOTHER BLOG.
When BCCI (Bank of Crooks & Criminals Incorporated) bankrupted we saw a chain of events that even a writer 100 points below Dan Brown could turn into an adventurous thriller. Bankers that hung themselves, frauds a-gogo, Arabian princes doing everything their Allah forbade and whatever else. Even Ian Fleming would have been capable to turn this script into a so-many-eth James Bond story (I'd like Nicolas Cage for the JB-part please, could that be arranged Hollywood? P L E A S E...).
Seriously.
The recent Credit Incompetency Crisis (CIC) has shown us that fraud is a systemic part of our financial system (not to excuse the 'other' systems). Even today, rumours of fraud accusing Goldman Sachs (selling bonds while being covered with ever-so-profitable-CDS-es) shake Wall Street (when will the ever-so-stupid-private-investor learn, Ronald: you too) and awaken loss-bearing banks that see a glimmer of hope of recovering some of the losses they bore out of stupid trading.
But we know, since the movie Wall Street: G R E E D is G O O D...
And where -outside the realm of so-called respectable capitalism- do we find the same deadly, hell-deadly sin?
In crime. Full stop.
Thus, today (minus a few months) we celebrate the downfall of communism. In fact that downfall this year reaches its 21-st birthday. Hurray! They have reached maturity....
OR?
Did they?
Let's consider the Soviet Union prior to 1989.
Let's consider the Soviet Union after 1989.
What's the difference. ? It's simple really:
Who could soviet citizens prior to 1989 turn to if they needed things (food, washing machines, anything)?
To the black market, that's where. Thus, a law-abiding soviet citizen that wants their household to run 'properly' had only the black market to turn to, while the 25th 5-year plan was in the making....
What is the black market?
That is a market where sellers know (I mean really KNOW) the maximum prices citizens are willing to pay for services rendered. This is what we are brought up with and it is called capitalism. In Russia (USSR if you like) this is 'terra incognita' and was defined as CRIME for ordinary citizens. They were weary to go there, but sometimes they MUST..... and they pay the price. They see it as usury, but they know there is NO alternative.
So they pay. And their new washing machine goes. So they feel satisfied (although they know, from school, that this is bad for your socialist health).
Then came 1989.
The Berlin Wall was hammered down.
Public was to be turned into Private overnite.
Chicago economists helped and told the former Soviets how to deal with this and how to proceed. This was the worst crime committed in the name of economic science EVER.
And were received by incompetent suckers that thought: OK, we're capitalism now. Where should we turn to BUT to... To Chicago, the HOME of Capialist Economic Thought...
Wrong.
They (the Chicagoans) in fact legalised (economic) crime, by thinking that criminals were able to understand a system the whole soviet empire knew nothing about.
TRUE in itself, but not a good reason to use while transforming from socialism to capitalism. Do ANY of you remember that bonehead that chaired the Chicagoans at the time?
EEEHHM! Wrong answer. It was Milton Friedman, the high Priest of capitalist stupidity.
We know the results: every Soviet citizen received individual claims to formerly state-owned property. Every soviet citizen was willing to sell these claims to ANY bidder that promised more than zero rubles. So a few (criminals, state officials, party members who saw THE LIGHT and others) bought these claims because they had come to understand what competion stands for (guess who their sources were.......indeed: criminal parties), what supply costs and what demand would pay.
So the soviet union transformed into capitalist Russia, with every simplistic capitalist idea turning into huge profits.
Suppose you were a criminal mind in Soviet Russia and took on this 'deal'.
You sure ended up in West-coast Spain with your super-expensive yaught and your super-enduring broad to enjoy super-enduring happiness? AM I WRONG?
So far Russia.
Now follows China or the People's Republic of China (PRC).
Deng Xiao Peng started it (IT being the transformation from a 1-system PRC to a 2-system PRC). Deng, being a former victim of the Cultural Revolution, working in a tractor-factory for some years, thought deeply and came up with a brilliant answer (as you know I am deeply brainwashed into his thinking):
Let's transform Marxism.
Easily said than done....
But he had a super-brilliant idea...
Deng said: from 1949 onwards we thought we could do IT (invent heaven-on-earth) by proclaiming unity (and that's what the Cultural Revolution was all about). It's comparable to instituting joint decision making [Dutch: inspraak].
He let his words sink in and proceeded
after a V E R Y long pause
with the following:
We Cannot Reach Heaven (= Communism) Without Money...
So In Order To Be Good Communists, We Have To EARN money First
After that Communism will have the Means, the Products, the Minds, the Public, etc.
In Short:
E V E R Y T H I N G
And he Proceeded. In my mind he was nearly GOD (whatever that is)
And he created Special Economic Zones (SEZ's).
And he expanded them.
And he rebuilt Shanghai (like Rotterdam: 'just above the water' = Shanghai)
By the way, in 1985, I wrote a story about Shanghai, a city promising to becoming the most important financial city in Asia... It was laughed away (by my peers). S O R R Y, it just happens to be true....
And .......
And his successors acquired Hong Kong (after a 100-year lease from the Britans)
And were THUS required to change the statute of the PRC
Into a TWO-SYSTEMS NATION.
And corruption is still punishable by death.
And the Yuan (PRC-currency) is INDEPENDANT of any other currency (although the default-threatened US$ wants it's Rightful place -which is nowhere on any scale-
As long as the Chinese want it to be (they own much of US-treasury bonds).
But let's be honest.
The PRC accepts billionaires
The PRC condones plagiarism
The PRC NEVER accepts a majority share in ANY of its companies. It's always a 49.9% stake.
And That Earns them the Right 2B Winners....
The PRC is simply smarter than those soviets in EURO_ASIA
I LOVE Chinese.
Especially Lizzy, my super-love, from Chinese origin, but ever so reluctant to know and/or accept her own people.
Hail: fill in your own hero.
The End
