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Seminar in Copenhagen, Denmark
Extend the New Silk Road to the Middle East and Africa

by Michelle Rasmussen
April 2016

Keynote by Helga Zepp-LaRouche

Musical Performance

Presentation by Hussein Askary

Presentation by Mr. Abbas Rasouli

Questions and Answers

Watch the video on YouTube

COPENHAGEN, April 19, 2016 (EIRNS) – The Schiller Institute in Denmark, and the EIR held a seminar here, with about 60 people in attendance. The featured speakers were Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute, and Hussein Askary, Arabic editor of EIR, and Southwest Asia coordinator for The Schiller Institute. In addition, there was a classical music introduction, and a speech by Mr. Abbas Rasouli, the First Secretary of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Denmark.

See the video and audio files, in English, now posted at: www.schillerinstitut.dk/si/?p=12525

The attendees included diplomats from at least seven embassies, including two ambassadors, from Southwest Asia, North Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and a CIS nation. Other VIP’s included bankers, infrastructure engineers, leaders of a Danish-Arabic, and a Danish-Chinese association, and Syrian activists, as well as many Schiller Institute members and contacts, young and old, from Denmark, and many other countries.

The literature table highlighted stacks of the printed versions of the Land-Bridge report in all three languages -- English, Chinese and Arabic, as well as Danish-language material.

Watch the video on YouTube

The afternoon event was beautifully opened with two songs — Fischerweise by Schubert, and Ritorna Vincitor! from Aida by Verdi, performed by Leena Malkki, Swedish soprano, and Dominik Wijzan, Polish pianist. The selection from Aida was especially appropriate for the occasion, and was extremely moving.  Aida, an Ethiopian princess enslaved by the Egyptians, is torn between her love for the Egyptian general, and her love for her father, the King of Ethiopia, and her native country. The songs were introduced by a resumé of the following history: “As part of the celebrations surrounding the opening of the Suez Canal on 17th November 1869, the Khedive of Egypt built a new opera house in Cairo. The inaugural performance, [was] Verdi's 'Rigoletto.'… In May 1870 Verdi finally consented to write an opera specifically for Cairo, on an Egyptian theme …. The Cairo premiere [of Aida] on 24th December 1871 was predictably an enormous success.” (From an internet blog by Mavi Boncuk.)

Helga Zepp-LaRouche then delivered a powerful overview and strategic briefing. There were two questions afterwards, about what would happen if some of the central European countries, or, even, Denmark, would leave NATO, in order to more fully join the new paradigm; and if the West was sincere in its fight against Islamic State.

Watch the video on YouTube

Afterwards, Hussein Askary spoke about The Schiller Institute’s, EIR’s, and, also, his personal mission – to extend the World Land-Bridge to Southwest Asia and Africa. He stressed that the idea is not just to transport goods, but build development corridors. He cited LaRouche’s intervention in Abu Dhabi to use oil for manufacturing purposes, and utilize the strategic position of Southwest Asia to connect three continents. He described the more-elaborated Schiller Institute plan for the economic development of Southwest Asia, appearing in the newly translated Arabic edition of EIR’s special report, especially for Syria. Then, he focused on the Egyptian mega-project financing model of going to the people, and the need to expand economic activity into the desert.

Secondly, starting with Egypt as a bridge between Southwest Asia and Africa, Hussein passionately brought the audience a vision of future African economic development, by showing ambitious blueprints that have been lying in the draws, combined with some of the projects that the Chinese are actually bringing into life. He ended with a polemic against “sustainable” economic development, and called for a crash program to enable Africans to take their rightful place in the future. 

Afterwards, Mr. Abbas Rasouli described Iran’s commitment to participate in the New Silk Road, and laid out the North-South, and East-West connecting railroad project links that have been completed, and planned, to enable Iran to connect East Asia, and Central Asia, with Southwest Asia, Africa and Europe to the west; and, also, connections to the north.

The question-answer period included questions about how to implement the African program, followed by a question about the role of Morocco. The answers by Hussein Askary and Helga Zepp-LaRouche to a request to describe the importance to the world of the Islamic Renaissance, and how to create a Renaissance in our day, around the world, served as a beautiful way to end the seminar.

Extensive discussion took place during the conference breaks and following the event, and plans were mapped out for more outreach, further expansion and follow up.