Your Friday morning briefing...I am back to work doing what a lot of you like. I am out there finding great stories that major news outlets either ignore or pay little attention to.
If you are lucky, you have a couple of times in your life
that stand out as some of the happiest moments in your life.
The year 1987 stands out. At that time, I had extensive
interaction with Russian people in Los Angeles. I got very lucky. I got to live
at the $5 million mansion of a rich Russian (Now it would be worth around $26
million US), My nearby neighbors included Michael Jackson, the actor Cybil
Shepherd, the heir to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, etc. This wealthy
household had 17 cars including a Lincoln Continental limousine, a Lamborghini,
etc.
Please do not equate my wonderful friends from 36 years ago with what is
happening in Ukraine now. Every Russian man, woman, and young person was
friendly, loyal, and generous to me. When I was in trouble, they stood up for
me.
I had many hours of serious and in-depth talks with these people. I
heard the same story from each one of these people as follows:
"We never feared the US or felt that there was a
possibility of a major war in the US. We always feared and distrusted the
Chinese."
Right now, Russia and China seem to be great allies and friends.
History tells a different story. I am always warning of the break-up of Russia.
When (and not if) that happens, China is going to grab a lot of territories
that Russians grabbed from them like Outer Mongolia in centuries past. They are
going to take over resource-rich areas in Siberia full of hydrocarbons that the
Russians do not have the capital or people to develop. In Russia, you have Lake
Baikal which is the largest freshwater lake on earth. It goes down to 5,000 feet
deep. Its water volume is greater than the five great lakes in the US and
Canada. China already attempted to draw water out of the lake and send it to
water-starved Beijing. Local Russian protestors stopped this transfer of
Russian fresh water to China.
China could ease its population density problems by moving a
large number of people to Siberia. Here is a fascinating link. I urge each of
you to reserve some downtime and watch this. It is most enlightening:
No comments:
Post a Comment