The World Economic Forum and Ukraine - Building a Digital Prison

The globalist ruling class as represented by the Davos crowd is at it again.  With the recent kerfuffle in Washington and Europe over the future of Ukraine, we can assure ourselves that the World Economic Forum will be there to pick up the pieces.

Here is an announcement from the WEF on the launching of a "GovTech" centre in Kiev, only the second in the world after the centre in Berlin:

...and more:

This centre will be "part of the World Economic Forum’s Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR) Network and represents only the second centre globally with a focus on GovTech following the signing of the Global Government Technology Centre Berlin (GGTC Berlin) in January 2024.  Together with GGTC Berlin, GGTC Kyiv will connect national GovTech ecosystems with a global network of experts to promote more efficient, effective and accessible public services." 

If you read down through the press release, you'll find this with my bolds:

"With technological advancements rapidly reshaping industries and societies globally, it is becoming increasingly imperative for nations to harness these innovations. In recent years, Ukraine has emerged as a global leader in GovTech and its experience can inform others in driving digital transformation within the public sector. Its Diia app with over 20 million users and the Diia platform integrate over 100 government services and tens of digital documents, ranging from digital ID cards and driver licences to business registration and social benefits, exemplifying the ways in which digital tools can simplify interactions between citizens and the state."

Or make it easier for the state to track and trace its citizens.

According to an article in Cities Today, Kiev's GovTech centre has now opened:

Here's a quote from the article:

"According to World Economic Forum Managing Director Mirek Dušek, the centre in Ukraine will support WEF’s global efforts to unlock the potential of digital technologies to improve public services and create new opportunities. And it will serve as a catalyst for public-private collaboration, fostering digital technology and innovation at a critical time for Ukraine and Europe.

Key features of the centre will include:

GovTech Observatory: A platform tracking global and national GovTech trends, enabling knowledge sharing and data-driven policy through research, tools, and global partnerships.

Innovation Gateway: A hub for piloting and scaling technologies in Ukraine, showcasing innovation in AI, EdTech, Defence Tech, and more, with global investment support.

FutureGov Education: A training platform for public sector leaders to adopt cutting-edge technologies, fostering experimentation and global collaboration.

The powers that ought not to be will be selling us the concept of "unlocking the potential of digital technologies" to "improve public services and create new opportunities" rather nebulous ideas, don't you think?

In other words, this WEF initiative will be launching point for a digital identity, an essential part of the central bank digital currency ecosystem.  Ukraine will be desperate enough for the jobs that it will go along with this plan by the rulers.  It will be simpler for the technocracy to use Ukraine to implement their plans for a digital prison by taking advantage of a nation whose infrastructure and economy has been completely destroyed, giving them the ability to build a neofeudal state from the ground up.

 

Is Volodymyr Zelenskyy the Problem?

The recent and very public argument between Donald Trump, JD Vance and Vladimir Zelenskyy has drawn the world's attention and has led to a great deal of criticism by the left-leaning, anti-Trump media about how Donald Trump was disrespectful to a leader whose nation is fighting a critical war for the "freedom of the world".  You'd almost think that the media has forgotten this bit of history from June 2022:

Here's a quote from the story as covered by NBC News in October 2022:

"It’s become routine since Russia invaded Ukraine: President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak by phone whenever the U.S. announces a new package of military assistance for Kyiv.

But a phone call between the two leaders in June played out differently from previous ones, according to four people familiar with the call. Biden had barely finished telling Zelenskyy he’d just greenlighted another $1 billion in U.S. military assistance for Ukraine when Zelenskyy started listing all the additional help he needed and wasn’t getting. Biden lost his temper, the people familiar with the call said. The American people were being quite generous, and his administration and the U.S. military were working hard to help Ukraine, he said, raising his voice, and Zelenskyy could show a little more gratitude."

Does this sound familiar in any way?

Here's more from NBC:

"Before the June 15 (2022) phone call, the president’s frustrations with Zelenskyy had been building for weeks, three people familiar with the call said. Biden and some of his top aides felt that the administration was doing as much as it could as quickly as it could but that Zelenskyy continued to focus publicly on only what wasn’t being done."

And, to close:

"After the pushback Zelenskyy got in their June phone call, his team decided to try to defuse tensions, concluding it wasn’t productive to have friction with the U.S. president, according to two sources familiar with the Ukraine government’s view, congressional aides and two European officials.

Zelenskyy responded publicly that day by thanking Biden for the promised assistance.

“I had an important conversation with U.S. President Biden today,” he said in videotaped remarks. “I am grateful for this support. It is especially important for our defense in Donbas.”

Here's the NBC News video which covers the story:

If you take this story into consideration, it would certainly appear that Zelenskyy has bought into his own press, believing that he is a rockstar world leader.  One would have to wonder, however, if he isn't the one with the behavioural problem?  It would seem, at the very least, that Zelenskyy believes that he is entitled to an unending supply of free arms from the United States, a nation that has already supplied him with over $120 billion in military, humanitarian and financial aid.

Isn't it fascinating how the 21st century mainstream media has become just like the media portrayed in George Orwell's 1984 where history is memory holed when it becomes inconvenient to the deep state's narrative, in this case, it's anti-Trump mantra?

Mark Carney and the Semiconductor Industry

At at recent public meeting, Mark Carney, the Liberal Party of Canada leadership heir apparent made the following comment about one aspect of Canada's trading relationship with the United States:

Apparently, in Carney World, Canada is the biggest supplier of semiconductors to the United States.

Let's do a fact check on this comment starting with data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity.  Here is a graphic showing the source nations for U.S. imports of semiconductor devices for 2023:

 

You'll notice that Canada supplies the United States with a massive 0.79 percent of its semiconductor device imports, well below front runners Vietnam at 20.6 percent, Thailand at 17.3 percent, Malaysia at 14.8 percent and Cambodia at 9.69 percent.  In fact, Canada is even behind Mexico which supplies 2.56 percent of American imports of semiconductor devices.

Canada doesn't even rank close to the top of the list when it comes to the manufacturing of semiconductors with Taiwan, South Korea the United States, Japan and China heading the pack when it comes to actually producing semiconductors as shown here:

According to PatentPC, in 2023, the following nations were the highest producers of semiconductors: 

1.) Taiwan - 65 percent

2.) China 16 percent (aiming for 70 percent by 2030)

3.) South Korea - 20 percent

4.) United States - 12 percent

5.) Europe - 9 percent (aiming for 20 percent by 2030)

6.) Japan - 6 percent

India is also positioning itself as a future semiconductor manufacturing nation with government offering incentives to attract foreign chipmakers.

Again, you'll notice that Canada is not even mentioned in the list of the largest semiconductor manufacturing nations but yet it supposedly is the largest supplier of semiconductors to the United States.  Canada does have a semiconductor industry and is home to some of the world's largest semiconductor producers and designers like TSMC, Samsung Electronics, AMD, Qualcomm and Intel, however, the Canadian facilities are branch offices of these major foreign corporations.

So, where did Mark Carney get the idea that Canada is America's largest supplier of semicoducturos?  Who knows?  I would like to see proof of his assertions.  But it certainly would be nice to see the mainstream media fact check his pronouncements once in a while.  I guess that the lesson for all of us is that just because a former two-time central banker says something, doesn't necessarily make it accurate.

Addendum:

Since I posted this item, this announcement was released:

So, it's looking like the United States will be much less reliant on Canada's "massive supply" of semiconductors after all.  See, central bankers don't know everything despite what they would have us believe.

Strengthening the Liberal World Order Through the Energy Revolution

Over the past decade, the world has seen a substantial move toward a new liberal (or Neo-liberal) world order, particularly throughout much of Europe, in Canada under the Trudeau government, the United States under the Biden Administration, New Zealand and Australia in particular.  This strategy has brought about the term "progressive" when it comes to the Neo-liberal self-referencing and the term "far right" when it comes to describing anyone who doesn't subscribe to their "progressive" agenda.  One may well ask where this liberal world order came from given that so many advanced nations seemed to adopt this agenda at roughly the same time.  Here is the answer:

Dating back to April 2016, the World Economic Forum which is "committed to improving the state of the world" released the "Strengthening the Liberal World Order" white paper which was proposed by the Global Agenda Council on the United States and supposedly did not necessarily represent the views of the World Economic Forum despite the fact that the white paper was published under the auspices of the WEF.

In this posting, I will be focussing on how the promoters of the liberal world order intend to use energy, the driver of the global economy, to ensure that their liberal view of the world remains intact. 

The white paper opens by noting that the world order that was created in the aftermath of the Second World War produced "immense benefits" for people across the planet, eliminating much of the world's poverty and emplacing a system of democracy in more than 100 nations.  The authors state that it is thanks to the global efforts of the United States that the liberal world order was created and maintained.  The liberal order states that the rights of the individual are primary and that governments are responsible for protecting these rights and that "(a) democratic government, in particular, offers the best chance for human dignity, justice and freedom." 

Here is a quote from the white paper about the importance of the liberal world order:

"...the authors of this report are confident in their conviction that the liberal world order offers the best hope for meeting human aspirations, both material and spiritual, and for calling forth the very best in people across the world."

 The paper notes that the liberal world order is under threat by both authoritarian governments, anti-liberal fundamentalist movements, shifts in the global economy and changes in the physical environment (i.e. global climate change).  Here is another quote:

"The turmoil and multi-sided conflict in the Middle East; Russia’s invasion and seizure of territory in Ukraine; the pressures on the liberal political and economic order in Europe; China’s growing power and ambition in Asia; the tenuousness of the international consensus on free trade and multilateral economic institutions – all these combine to put this order at risk."

The present liberal world order has been created and lead by the United States, in large part, and the authors believe that strengthening and preserving this order will require a renewed American leadership in the international system:

"The present world order has been forged by many hands and peoples, but the role of the United States in both shaping and defending it has been critical. American military power, the dynamism of the US economy and the great number of close alliances and friendships that the United States enjoys with other powers and peoples have provided the critical architecture in which this liberal world order has flourished. A weakening of America’s commitment or its capabilities, or both, would invariably lead to its collapse."

The authors suggest that there are four "baskets of policies" which are necessary to preserve the liberal world order: 

1.) Strengthening and Adapting the Liberal Economic Order

2.) Strengthening the International Security Order

3.) Taking Advantage of the Energy Revolution

4.) Playing to America’s Strengths in Education, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

As I stated previously, for the purposes of this posting, I am going to focus on only one "basket".  With climate change being a significant part of the current neoliberal mantra, let's look at what the paper has to say about energy and the energy revolution.  The authors believe that there are three ways that the liberal world order can take advantage of the energy revolution, given the transformation of the energy situation in the United States thanks to hydraulic fracturing and the increased use of renewables which has resulted in a reduced dependence on oil:

1.) Help European and Asian allies diversify energy sources, especially in gas by reducing Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas.  This could be accomplished by increasing exports of American LNG (which, of course, will benefit American oil and gas companies).

2.) Leverage US influence, productive capacities and declining energy prices to increase pressure on energy-exporting autocratic nations hostile to the liberal world order including Russia and Iran which are both heavily reliant on hydrocarbon exports for their economic well-being.

3.) Support and hasten the weakening of OPEC and other energy cartels by creating investment environments that support increased production and therefore diversified supplies on the global market and working with other producers to support liberal economic policies

Here's another quote from the white paper:

"America’s energy revolution provides a tremendous opportunity to solidify a liberal international order based on strong alliances with key allies in Europe and Asia, weakening revisionist forces in Russia and elsewhere, and fostering market conditions for the trade in oil and gas. The energy revolution alone will not be sufficient to secure these outcomes, but it provides the United States with a major new advantage in seeking to bring them about."

Keeping in mind that this white paper was released in early 2016, developments in the energy market since then have shown this analysis to be flawed.  Certainly, Russia has had to find other markets for its natural gas since the Ukraine war began in February 2022 and it found a willing market in China.  The final section of the Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline was recently completed and is expected to reach its full annual design capacity of 38 billion cubic metres in 2025, roughly 9 percent of China's consumption as shown here:

China is now on track to become the largest market for Russian natural gas, overtaking Europe.  While the United States has become the primary supplier of LNG to Europe, supplying 45 percent of Europe's LNG needs in 2024, its liberal world order-preserving actions to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian natural gas has worked...at a price.  In fact, if climate change mitigation was even a small part of the goal, that has been another failure.  The carbon footprint of LNG is 28 percent greater than that of coal for shorter cruises and 46 percent higher for longer cruises.  Here are three graphics which explain the issue:

 

We can see from this brief summary of the "Strengthening the Liberal World Order" white paper that the progressives who are trying to promote and preserve the American-led post-World War 2 world order are not necessarily capable of ascertaining the unintended consequences of their agenda.  This is particularly the case for energy markets and climate change; while the solution to preserve the liberal world order by destroying Russia's energy industry may have seemed ironclad, in fact, the result of the actions of the progressives among us merely assisted in creating a new order led by the combination of Russia's energy and China's economic power and has left Europe at the mercy of hydrocarbons that are even more polluting than Russia's natural gas.