Jacques COULARDEAU, Ivan EVE & Serban V.C. ENACHE at Amazon & at Academia.edu (68)

From 2009 to 2015 Ivan was my student and then assistant. He played a role that is important for us who want to penetrate the mysteries of the cosmos, at times at the smaller scale of our own little self. He was the one who reacted at first at the chapters of my research I submitted to him for critical reading and such reactions are the sign of something that is not perfect, clear or complete.

Then he moved to bringing some remarks and some data to the research that was being done together and he finally jumped into the shotgun seat and brought his own research on whole chapters of the work. When we confronted our views it was sometimes tense, sometimes emotional, sometimes intense, but always fiery and courteous as if we were in some old tournament trying to conquer for both of us the golden fleece of the legend.

Our work on Supernatural, the TV series was based on shared research and confrontation in the various phases towards writing. The first book on the Indian Ocean was a first attempt at bringing together our common experience of that part of Asia, though I had it late and short and Ivan had it long and early. Ivan understood little by little that his twelve or so years in Vietnam and Laos have shaped and informed his personality, though he would like to be a real integrated Frenchman. But he is so much more.

For Handel’s Agrippina his role was that of a first reader, critical but only bringing some final remarks before the final writing of the book. It was the same with Proposition 8. For me it was an essential book to give back to California what California gave me in 1973-74 and three of four more times afterwards. For him he was sort of fascinated by the intricacy of the legal and constitutional system of the USA. It is true the same same sex marriage reform was done smoothly through courts and the Supreme Court at the end whereas in France it was done with fracas and brutality with the direct confrontation between a socialist government who wanted the confrontation and a mass movement mostly supported by the Catholic Church that accepted the confrontation at times with a little too much enthusiasm. The real problem was forgotten and the showdown socialists versus Christians was unwanted and useless.

Further on McLuhan has been a common interest. I introduced Ivan to him in the noble walls of Sorbonne in Paris and he kept his interest over all these years. We finally came back to the Indian Ocean and the second version of the first book is so much larger that it is hardly the same thing. We entered important technical and commercial questions and I attached to this Ocean the fundamental role it has played in most migrations of Homo Sapiens out of Africa starting around 100,000 tears ago or maybe slightly more.

It is here we came across Serban because a review of the book was suggested by some academics from a Barcelona University for a journal. But there are some subjects that must not be touched like the slave trade around the Indian Ocean that has been going on (and is still going on) for at least six or seven millennia. The transatlantic slave trade only concerned about 500 years in the second millennium CE, though it is thought the numbers of victims and casualties are very comparable.

Serban from his native Romania is also a fascinating character who writes epic fantasy in English and is publishing it in the Kindle format. I discovered Kindle when one day Ivan suggested I looked into it. It is probably what I have always dreamed of for publishing and it enables many

young people, and at times not so young, to try themselves at writing and conquering an audience. It is not easy but it is challenging, just like anything that has to do with the Internet and digitizing our daily world and life.

On my desk I have right now a selection of documents from 1100 CE to today that follow the conquest of basic human rights and among them the conquest of the freedom of expression, especially after the invention of the printing press and the emergence of copyright as a censorship tool at first (for about 150 years) and as the tool that could give authors, inventors, creators of all sorts their freedom, which means the ability for them to live, to earn a living with their creation and inventions. It is coming to the end and will be published soon.

Then I will go back to the common work that has covered at least five years of my and Ivan’s lives. The language of Cro-Magnon, the epic emergence of Homo Sapiens in Africa and then out of Africa, inventing at the same time language. The approach is phylogenic at first. Then the

second part of this research deals with the psychogenesis of language and how it is conquered and developed from the nothing of conception till death parts man from his language.

The last leg of the research is about the invention of literature from all myths, mythologies, legends, religion and philosophy that all tried to use man’s mind both as imagination and conceptualization to understand the world, first what was visible and audible and then what was beyond or over this visible reality. It took something like 300,000 years for Homo Sapiens to finally understand that what he saw, the sun rising in the morning and going down in the evening was not the real truth but an illusion: the earth was turning on itself and consequently it was round and not flat.

Ivan, and more recently Serban, have become part of this long adventure or quest that finds its symbolical vestment in this question: What was Cro-Magnon’s language?

Along with this research I dedicated during these years several books of poetry to Ivan who more or less opened up some gates in my mind that even Sri Lanka and Buddhism had not been able to open, at least completely, though for me Pïdurangala and their Buddhist monastery and school is sacred land.

Just dare explore some of these books and enjoy our diversity. Human life would be so boring if we did not have such meeting of minds and souls that are at times so different but that discover they can work together and reach out to things they could not even imagined before. Some call that love. I prefer calling it life.

Paris & Olliergues, October 10, 2016 Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

P.S. The illustrator of some of these books is Annunzio Coulardeau, my 37 year old son who lives in Toulouse. He is in music, art, computer technology and radio producing. He owes his name in homage to Gabrielle d’Annunzio. He prefers going under the name of Hallah Hallah (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005796257934)

Jacques Coulardeau & Ivan Eve at Amazon (4)

THE INDIAN OCEAN THE MARE NOSTRUM OF HUMANITY[Kindle Edition] Dr Jacques COULARDEAU & Ivan EVE (Authors)

A MENTAL JOURNEY

Dr Jacques Coulardeau was in Sri Lanka in 2005 and he brought back from there a tremendous treasure chest full of poetry, meditation, philosophy.

Ivan Eve came back to France in 2009 after twelve years in Vietnam and Laos with an advanced Asian reserve and education. He met Dr Jacques Coulardeau in the Paris Sorbonne and since then has been working with him as his assistant.

This volume brings together several studies and documents, most of them unpublished before on the general geo-political question of the restructuring of the Indian Ocean as the center of global maritime commerce.

At first we go back to its central position as soon as Homo Sapiens emerges from Africa some 150,000 years ago.

Then we look at the history of Sri Lanka from the arrival of Homo Sapiens, then Buddhism, then the Chinese and later on the European colonial powers, to the central position it is taking in maritime commerce thanks to Chinese investment and the developing of the port of Hambantota and a few others after the end of the LTTE terrorist period.

We then stop on the Buddhist influence in Sri lanka as it appears in the Sigiri Graffiti in, Sigiriya from the 9th to the 12th centuries, plus a selection of these Sigiri Graffiti in an original English translation;

And finally we move to the development of Container maritime Commerce in the Indian Ocean at the Global level today

And we can then come to the concluding hypothesis that the world is being restructured globally and by reconstructing the dominance of the Indian Ocean the way it was up to the 15th century though in our modern context.

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SUPERNATURAL, CAR CHASE OR JOY RIDE?Dr Jacques COULARDEAU & Ivan EVEIllustrations Annunzio COULARDEAU

CHAPTER ONE, The Tale of Two Brothers and Their Impala 67CHAPTER TWO, Hitting The RoadCHAPTER THREE, They “Are The Hollow Men”CHAPTER FOUR, Their Number Is 666CHAPTER FIVE, And Cain did not slay AbelAPPENDICES: SUPERNATURAL IS LEADING TO SO MANY THINGS- ELAINE PAGELS – REVELATIONS, VISIONS, PROPHECY, & POLITICS IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION; - ERNEST ALFRED THOMPSON WALLIS BUDGE – LEGENDS OF THE GODS, THE EGYPTIAN TEXTS; - BRIAN DE PALMA – RAISING CAIN; - PROPHECY COLES – THE IMPORTANCE OF SIBLING RELATIONSHIPS IN PSYCHOANALYSIS; - JOHN STEI NBECK – EAST OF EDEN; - ELIA KAZAN – JAMES DEAN – EAST OF EDEN; - TV SERIES – EAST OF EDEN – 1981; - JAMES DEAN – GIANT; -JAMES DEAN – REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

And we went down into the mental maze of this American series that turns the car into the supreme weapon to correct the Creation of God of all the mishaps it went through and all the monsters God himself created along with all the rest. What a sloppy achievement for God and what a reckless endeavor for the producers of the series! And the project of the authors was so phenomenal that it could not in any way go through academic acceptance. The endeavor was supported though for a while by some academic master minds in the field of American series but it could not survive a university reading committee in a public university that was looking for the American-ness of American TV series. This series is far beyond hamburgers, Coca Cola and Bourbon. Miles on the other side of the border of suburban American middle class comfort or mild psychosis. Thriving or smoldering in the outer space of standard normality or even digestible crime.

© Jacques COULARDEAU, Ivan EVE, Annunzio COULARDEAU

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HANDEL'S AGRIPPINA MODERN INTERPRETATIONS AND THE ROLE OF COUNTERTENORS [Format Kindle]Jacques COULARDEAU (Auteur), Ivan EVE (Auteur), 

Annunzio COULARDEAU (Illustrations) 

Handel's Agrippina was composed for the Carnival of Venice in 1709. It counts three male voices in the countertenor pitch and range in those days most often held by castratos. Centering on Jean-Claude Malgoire's 2004 production first to come out on DVD, comparing it with two other productions on DVD that came out in the following years, but also with the recent production of Handel's Faramondo, we study the four different dramatic values of countertenors in Handel's operas. This leads us to an in-depth study of the re-emergence of countertenors after at least two centuries of quasi-silence. Is it a transient fad, a freaky sham or a long-running phenomenon? We will meet with two opposed opinions: Russell Oberlin's in 2004 and Laura E. DeMarco's in 2002. I will more or less follow Russell Oberlin who considers they allow the production of Handel's operas and oratorios that had disappeared for two hundred and fifty years. Why can we witness now this epiphanic resurrection? We are far from having all the answers to that simple question.

APPENDICES (Only English original resources and reviews)1- HANDEL – MALGOIRE – AGRIPPINA 2- PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY – STABAT MATER, MOTETS TO THE VIRGIN MARY3- PHILIPPE JARROUSKY – VIVALDI – VIRTUOSO CANTATAS4- JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH – PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY5- VIVALDI – ERCOLE SUL TERMODONTE – PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY 6- LE CONCERT D’ASTRÉE – EMMANUELLE HAÏM – UNE FËTE BAROQUE 7- PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY - MAX EMMANUEL CENCIC – DUETTI 8- L’ARPEGGIATA – PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY – LOS PAJAROS PERDIDOS9- HANDEL – FARAMONDO – MAX EMMANUEL CENCIC (FARAMONDO) – PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY (ADOLFO) – XAVIER SABATA (GERNANDO) – TERRY WEY (CHILDERICO) – LUGANO RADIO SVIZZERA 200810- GEORG FRIEDRICH HANDEL – ARNOLD OSTMAN – AGRIPPINA11- JAN WILLEM DE VRIEND – EVA BUCHMANN – HANDEL – AGRIPPINA12- PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY – THE VOICE – LA VOIX DES RÊVES13- LEONARDO VINCI – ARTASERSE – PHILIPPE JAROUSSKY – MAX EMMANUEL CENCIC – DANIEL BEHLE (tenor) – FRANCO FAGIOLI – VALER BARNS-SABADUS – YURIY MYNENKO – CONCERTO KÖLN – DIEGO FASOLIS – 201214- RUSSELL OBERLIN, AMERICA’S LEGENDARY COUNTERTENOR – RADIO CANADA – 1961 – 1962 – 2004

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The US Supreme Court, A Universal Lesson in Constitutional Right

Jacques Coulardeau & Ivan EveThis essay studies the Case of California's Proposition 8 from its adoption by the

voters in November 2008 to the most recent US Supreme Court ruling on June 26, 2013. This essay is essentially centered on the legal and constitutional side of the case and the arguments dealing with Amendment 14 to the US Supreme Court, Article III of teh US Constitution, and the concepts of due process of law, equal protection of the laws, strict scrutiny, standing, all concepts that should be universal in all legal and judiciary systems in the world. The case then provides the world with a full demonstration of these judicial human rights that in fact should define the concept of Habeas Corpus.

This case deals with same-sex marriage in California. The US Supreme Court refused to rule on the constitutionality of Proposition 8. They vacated and remanded the Federal Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit's ruling on the case because the people speaking for the State of California did not have the necessary standing. That ruling indirectly affirms the ruling of the Federal District Court that had declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional. Though it does not create a legal void in California, this ruling encourages the ProtectMarriage organization to start a new round of legal proceedings in the California Supreme Court.

This long essay would not have been possible if the first and shorter version had not been encouraged by one of its first readers as follows:

“I think your argumentation and logic is good. You shouldn’t be entering the rest of the discussion, maybe you can quote all the experts or send back to what was said in a footnote, but it is not your point. You are following the logic of the legal and constitutional system: Amendment 14, the Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court. What will happen, we can’t be sure, but you can project yourself in the future, and you are already doing it, by saying that the Supreme Court, despite taking a lot of time (which can also be to get the “temperature,” the mood of the country within the next few months), is very unlikely to commit itself with such an important issue. And your logic shows just that . . .

So, in short, your approach is the most valuable as the case starts in California (and its norms) and shifts to the federal level (multiple norms): they all thrive under the US Constitution and Amendment 14.”

Paris, January 11, 2013

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MARSHALL McLUHANUNDERSTANDINGMEDIA, THE EXTENSIONS OF

MANROUTLEDGE, LONDON – 1964

Monday October 14, 2013 – 9,400 words, 18 pagesDr Jacques COULARDEAU

https://synopsispaie.academia.edu/JacquesCoulardeau INITIAL STUDY / STARTING POINT REVIEW(S)

https://www.academia.edu/4769483/MARSHALL_McLUHAN_UNDERSTANDING_MEDIA_THE_EXTENSIONS_OF_MAN_ROUTLEDGE_LONDON_1964

MARSHALL McLUHAN, A PROPHETTHE APOCALYPSE OR SPIRITUAL SALVATION?

FOR A GLOBAL APPROACH OF MENTAL POWER AND CONCEPTUALIZATION

Wednesday January 21, 2015 – 2,700 words, 5 pagesDr Jacques COULARDEAU

https://synopsispaie.academia.edu/JacquesCoulardeau POST SCRIPTUM

https://www.academia.edu/10283790/MARSHALL_McLUHAN_A_PROPHET_THE_APOCALYPSE_OR_SPIRITUAL_SALVATION

AVENTURE À SUIVRE / AN ADVENTURE TO FOLLOWRESEARCH UNDER CONSTRUCTION WITH IVAN EVE

 This is the first leg of a longer study that is in the process of

being written. After the review and its illustration I added the 2006 review I posted on Amazon.co.uk, and its comments, for the sake of perspective.

This review is the prolongation of a long study that dealt with, among other topics but essentially, Ray Kurzweil’s “popular-science”-fiction wrapped up as MIT expertise. Marshall McLuhan . . .

[Herbert Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980), a Canadian philosopher in communication theory and he became one of the cornerstones media theory with practical applications in the advertising and television industries. McLuhan coined phrases like “the medium is the message” and the “global village” and for his prediction of the Internet medium he could not know in his life time though the invention of the transportation of data from a computer to another via a telephone line was invented in the Fall 1969 between Stanford, California’s military laboratory and Oakland, California’s US Armed Forces Headquarters for the Pacific (and at the time the Vietnam war). I would refer you to the Official Site of the Estate of Marshall McLuhan at http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/ if you want to know more about him. Accessed October 8, 2013.]

… is essential here because he deals with the media and not the machines, or rather with all inventions, mechanical or not, starting with oral language, considered as media all of them extending man’s body, body parts, central nervous system and even “consciousness” as he calls the mind. We will concentrate on his 1964 book Understanding Media, The extensions of Man.

We have to get some detail on his theory and, to remain in our own logic, consider it in a phylogenic perspective though Marshall McLuhan does not envisage any other human phase before the invention of writing systems (even his short chapter on “The Spoken Word” is entirely oriented towards writing systems).

Hence he starts considering humanity around 5,000 years ago in a sequential presentation of various inventions one after another in chronological order. What’s more he centers his interest on what he calls the “electric age” that starts with the “discovery” of electricity and the invention of means to produce, store and transport it.

His electric age is based on the stage of universal (though even today it is stil l not fully achieved) networked distribution (the electrical grid) of this electricity characterized as continuous and instantaneous, meaning we can use it at any time and in any place we want at the commanding tip of one finger pressing a button on or off.

In other words his discourse is centered on the last one hundred years when he wrote this essential book in the 1960s and today for us on the last 150 years.

I will consider his approach in both phylogenic and psychogenetic perspective.

The first thing we have to do to penetrate his meaning is to l ist the various inventions he considers in the book and try to find out what extensions of man’s body or body parts he refers them to. We will present this list in the form of a table. He considers 26 inventions in 26 separate chapters. We have to keep in mind this conclusion of chapter 21:

“The owners of media always endeavor to give the public what it wants, because they sense that their power is in the medium and not in the message or the program” [Marshall

McLuhan, Understanding Media, The extensions of Man , Routledge, London, 1964, p. 216)

Jacques Coulardeau, Ivan Eve & Serban V. Enache at Amazon (65)THE INDIAN OCEAN FROM ADMIRAL ZHENG HE

TO HUB AND SPOKE CONTAINER MARITIME COMMERCE

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU& Ivan Eve

Our final and main objective is to consider the emergence of the Indian Ocean as the center of 21st century maritime container commerce with Sri Lanka as the hub and Africa becoming an essential vector.

We will concentrate on the modern period, the macro-geographic data and situations in and around the Indian Ocean and on one particular aspect: the development of the hub-and-spoke model for the network of maritime connections in, around and beyond the Indian Ocean as for container commerce.

We will insist on the hub itself, Sri Lanka, which is presently changing rapidly; on some of the various harbors around the Indian Ocean and their goods transportation inland networks, essentially railroads and highways; the projects in that field, particularly the New Silk Road of the Chinese; the bottlenecks of the Suez Canal and the Straight of Malacca; and the dead end of the Persian Gulf, except as the starting point of a hinterland network that will develop when the wars and insecurity there are stabilized.

We will envisage the various routes beyond and the final destinations. We will only mention the railroad connection between Asia and Europe using the trans-Siberian railroad and beyond to Hamburg and Madrid as a competing alternative. We will also eventually show how backward in that field of container maritime commerce the USA are, backward as compared to the world and

absent from the Indian Ocean and the China Seas as an actor in that container maritime commerce.

We will then move to the various organizations that have direct interests in the development of this hub and spoke network of maritime connections and routes in the Indian Ocean. But this will lead to the security problem to manage the movements of the ships (to avoid flags of convenience) and the various trafficking activities that are to be contained (human trafficking; smuggling weapons, military equipment and various goods; and criminal activities of any other type) with the challenge of who can do it and how. We will then see clearly the stake attached to the re-emergence of human trafficking and slavery in this vast area.

This security problem is central due to piracy and trafficking. Digitalized satellite surveillance will have to be set up for the whole Indian Ocean. What role will the USA and Europe play now the New Silk Road with the Silk Railway from China to Germany reached Spain on December 9, 2014, and the maritime Silk Road has reached Western Europe for some time already? The Chinese are taking contacts in Afghanistan to open, after the departure of the Americans, the link between Kazakhstan and Gwadar harbor, Pakistan. China Harbor Engineering Company Ltd and other Chinese companies are involved in harbor equipment and railroad development all around the Indian Ocean.

Our general hypothesis is that the present evolution is the refoundation of what existed up to 1433 and the Indian Ocean is becoming again the center of the world’s maritime commerce, under the strong pioneering leadership of the Chinese so far

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TABLE OF CONTENTSAcknowledgmentsCredits for Cover pictures (Left to right; top to bottom)

INTRODUCTION

Preliminaries: Slavery Trade as a background of the modern Indian OceanA./ Ronald Segal, Islam’s Black Slaves, The Other Diaspora, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, New York, 2001

1- Before Islam2- The origin of slavery, a hypothesis3- For a real historical perspective4- Women-oriented slavery5- The Catholic Church6- European slaves7- Historical evolution8- Human cost9- The end of slavery10- A never-ending battle

B./Post Traumatic Slave/Slavery Syndrome/DisorderI./ Post Traumatic Slavery DisorderII./ Post Traumatic Slave SyndromeConclusion

C./ Murray Gordon, Slavery in the Arab world, 1987–1989D./ Jacques Heers, Slave-Traders in Islamic countries, 7th-16th centuriesE./ Solomon Northup, Twelve Years A Slave, 1853

The other side of LouisianaThe peculiar institutionSlavery as a traumaSurvival and African heritage

F./ Steve McQueen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years A Slave, 2013

First Part: Indian Ocean: The roots of today’s modern developmenta) From prehistory to proto-historyb) The arrival of Buddhism from Indiac) The economic and maritime development of Sri Lankad) King Kasyapa I (ca. 477-495) and Sigiriyae) Zheng He and the 15th century

f) Western Colonization

Second Part: The strategic position of the Indian Ocean and Sri Lanka.

Third Part: Hub-and-spoke system and container liner transport.A./ The conceptB./ AfricaC./ Hong KongD./ Singapore

Fourth Part: The state of development of the industryA./ General perspectiveB./ Exports and TourismC./ Servicification

Fifth Part: Sri Lanka and IndiaA./ ColomboB-a./ HambantotaB-b./ Hambantota’s OutlookC./ TrincomaleeD./ GalleE./ Development of Oluvil PortF./ India, Mumbai and KolkataConclusion on India

Sixth Part: Security, management, space and cyberspace

Conclusion

Supplementary Bibliography

NOTES

The Indian Ocean from Admiral Zheng He to hub and spoke container maritime commerce

by Jacques Coulardeau and Ivan EveKindle Edition, Amazon, ASIN: B01AY2H0JC

A Review by Șerban V.C. Enache1

2

This book tackles the New Silk Road from a number of different perspectives, historical, social, economic, and from the standpoint of geopolitics. The reader is given a background regarding the Old Silk Road – its human cost and the socio-economic implications in the present, typified by what is called Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder and Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

We learn about the 13 centuries of slave trading done by the Muslim powers, and of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, which lasted 300 years, but produced approximately the same number of casualties. We learn about slavery in India and about the slave-trade in the Indian

1 Serban Enache has an MA in Journalism and a vocational BA in construction materials from the Hyperion University in Bucharest, Romania.2 Cover of the Kindle e-book

Ocean. That it had existed since probably the emergence of agriculture, something like 12,000 years ago. Slavery existed in America before the arrival of Europeans. And the book concludes that slavery was and still is a global or universal phenomenon. Religious motivations for slavery are also highlighted, alongside the changes in thought and values, from Judaism to Islam, and of course, Christianity.

It’s always a pleasure to read an objective take, no matter how brief, on slavery. Because there are myths flowing around out there, which claim that slavery and the slave trade are purely an invention of “the white man”. And these two evils are not only an invention of secular institutions and practices, but they are also enshrined in mythology, dogma, religion. To sum it up in a humorous expression, treat thy neighbor as thyself if he’s not a foreigner or a heathen. But if he is, then kill the bastard or take him in thralldom.

I wholeheartedly agree on how the authors tackle the issues of Post-Traumatic Slavery Disorder and Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome. They insist on a process of proper information and open dialog. And they emphasize the requirement of meritocracy. If we are to have true equality and meritocracy, then the rise and fall of individuals within the hierarchical system of any civilized society must occur based on their own merits, not based on favor or prejudice. Any system or policy that’s designed to ignore a merit-based argument in favor of a non-merit-based argument can only be of a discriminatory nature. One cannot be granted favor without someone else receiving an injury as a consequence. One is either an egalitarian, or one’s not. One either

believes people should be judged based on their own merits, or one believes that they should be judged based on favor or prejudice. Like the authors, I count myself among the former.

There is also a worrisome phenomenon occurring, particularly in the USA, in which unpopular speech is being censored, not only by right wing reactionaries, but by left wing progressives as well. The latter are called mockingly as “regressive leftists” or “the regressive left”. I will quote the Thomas Jefferson Center on this issue.3

An epidemic of anti-speech activity swept across the campuses of American colleges and universities in 2015 and shows little sign of abating in 2016. Not long ago, these same institutions were at the vanguard of First Amendment issues; students demanded—then made powerful use of—expanded speech rights on campus, and administrators held academic freedom sacrosanct. These positions reflected a shared understanding that intellectual inquiry requires an environment in which debate is uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, even if it occasionally results in unpleasant or offensive exchanges.

Today, however, the focus seems to be on limiting rather than promoting the open exchange of ideas. Students who once protested to have their voices heard now seek to silence those they disagree with or find threatening. Meanwhile, university administrators appear locked in a competition to determine which school will take the toughest stand against offensive, unpopular, and hurtful speech. First Amendment principles have given way to identity politics, trigger warnings, and so-called

3 http://jeffersonmuzzles.org/complete-list/

“safe spaces,” and the Free Speech Movement has, at many colleges, become the Anti-Speech Movement.

Since 1992, the Thomas Jefferson Center has awarded Jefferson Muzzles to those individuals and institutions responsible for the more egregious or ridiculous affronts to free speech during the preceding year. Our usual practice has been to select eight to twelve recipients each year, reflecting the unfortunate reality that threats to free expression regularly occur at all levels of government. This year, however, we were compelled to take a different approach.

Never in our 25 years of awarding the Jefferson Muzzles have we observed such an alarming concentration of anti-speech activity as we saw last year on college campuses across the country. We are therefore awarding Jefferson Muzzles to the 50 colleges and universities discussed [...] both as an admonishment for the acts already done and a reminder that it is not too late to change course.

Afterwards, the book presents the Old Silk Road proper, the ancient network of trade routes that were central to economic and cultural interactions among different regions of Asia, connecting the West and East from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The religious implications associated with the various countries and trade interests are also approached (Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam).

We learn from that ancient epoch and we’re moved to the 15th century, to Admiral Zheng He, his great fleet of merchant ships – and

the reader learns of his visits to foreign lands. Most notably, his repeated journeys into India, Africa, and Arabia.

Past that point, the book moves the reader into the present and reveals great information regarding planned investments in new port infrastructure and upgrades, new trade routes, cross-judicial and economic cooperation between countries for safety and development. Figures regarding freight capacity and throughput are given for some key trade nodes in China, Africa, Singapore, Hong Kong, Dubai, and South Korea.

The authors make important observations, especially regarding China. This nation isn’t placing its eggs in the same basket. The Chinese are preparing different scenarios. China is open to the Indian

Ocean. In maritime trade, it’s investing in the port of Colombo and in Hambantota. It is developing the hub-and-spoke model; but China is also developing alternatives to it. To reach America, the railroad option via the Behring Strait. To reach Europe, via the Arctic approach and westward along its ancient route – by linking virtually the whole of Europe through railways, down to Spain.

I’d like to add that there are many ideas on the table, ready to be carried out with Chinese help. For instance, a second Panama Canal in Nicaragua, to connect the Pacific and the Caribbean (albeit voices of skepticism and dissent haunt this proposal).45 The Brazil-Peru transcontinental railroad – a massive undertaking meant to link via rail the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast, and thus open Brazilian exports to Asian markets.6 There are also plans for China to create an alternative transcontinental route from Brazil, through Bolivia and Peru.7

4 Michael D. McDonald, Bloomberg, 2015 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-19/china-s-building-a-huge-canal-in-nicaragua-but-we-couldn-t-it5 Lily Kuo, Quartz, 2015 http://qz.com/430090/why-is-a-chinese-tycoon-building-a-50-billion-canal-in-nicaragua-that-no-one-wants/6 Brianna Lee, International Business Times, 2015 http://www.ibtimes.com/china-brazil-peru-eye-transcontinental-railway-megaproject-19300037 China Daily, 2015 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2015-06/17/content_21031116.htm

Deals between India and China are also underway. Collaboration on atomic science, especially regarding the thorium-based nuclear reactor and the Chinese pebble-bed solid fuel 100Mw demonstration reactor.8 It’s also important to note that atomic power still remains an important outlet of investment and energy generation with near zero CO2 emissions, particularly when looking at 2 billion souls seeking to attain western living standards. India holds around 25% of the world’s major thorium reserves, and it is actively developing the thorium fuel cycle.910

Coulardeau and Eve take special note of India and Sri Lanka, and do not dismiss them from the greater scheme in the wake of such big projects like the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal – which, for political reasons that the authors identify, are left outside by the main geopolitical power. We’re referring of course to the USA.

8 Fiona MacDonald, Science Alert, 2016 http://www.sciencealert.com/china-says-it-ll-have-a-meltdown-proof-nuclear-reactor-ready-by-next-year9 Stratfor, 2016 https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/gauging-indias-nuclear-power-potential10 BBC News, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6219998.stm

Globalization is a multi-door street, but some doors are bigger and wider than others. Such free trade agreements can only push for lower sovereignty at the regional and national level, enforce strict intellectual property laws, and diminish the collective bargaining power of labor. Supposedly, consumers and firms are the ones who profit from such deals – but history shows that’s not really the case everywhere all the time. Otherwise protectionism would not have resurged in the West. And Britain would not have practiced protectionism to grow its own industries first, before projecting the comparative advantage doctrine (whilst ignoring absolute advantage) upon others through threat of violence and outright war.11 I am, of course, referring to the British Empire’s bloody tally in imperialism and colonialism. The exploitation of India’s people and the artificially-induced famines, and the Opium-wars with China leap to mind.

The so-called race to the bottom is a true phenomenon. It manifests itself when governments of signatory countries (pacts of free trade or ‘fiscal responsibility’) implement policies meant to keep

11 John M. Legge, 2016 http://www.johnmlegge.com/blog/comparative-versus-competitive-advantage/

domestic purchasing power lower & living standards low, in the hope of gaining market share for their export-oriented enterprises. These countries are thus deliberately keeping their domestic levels of Aggregate Demand low, and they rely on imports of Aggregate Demand from abroad in order to keep their economies working (albeit with considerable unused capacity to spare).12 Aggregate Demand means income plus the change in private debt.13 Private debt inflation adds to Aggregate Demand – it translates into more spending, more sales, more income. While private debt deflation (what much of the world is experiencing after the Great Financial Crisis of 2008) decreases Aggregate Demand – it translates into less spending, fewer sales, less income. Accounting-wise, every net exporter of goods and services is a net importer of Aggregate Demand and vice-versa. Spending is income. Debt is equity. All government debt in the world represents world-wide private sector financial savings (equity).1415

Issues of flags of convenience are explored in the book, alongside those of safety. Ships and harbors require protection. Merchandise requires tracking. Elements of corruption, bureaucracy,

12 Warren Mosler, 2011 http://moslereconomics.com/2011/11/03/the-euro-zone-race-to-the-bottom/13 Steve Keen, 2012 http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2012/01/28/economics-in-the-age-of-deleveraging/14 Steve Keen, Private Debt Project, 2016 http://www.privatedebtproject.org/view-articles.php?Are-We-Facing-a-Global-Lost-Decade-1415 Bill Mitchell, 2015 http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=32396

and the relationship between capital and labor must not endanger the flow of goods and services, or add undesired and unnecessary costs to it. The authors state that what’s required for true security is the existence of an international agency, with satellite monitoring capabilities, and with the legal mandate and military means to combat terrorism, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and illegal weapons trade. Whether one is personally in favor of globalization or not, the soundness of the above proposition is indisputable.

I believe the many countries involved in the New Silk Road must follow the two principles behind the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which ended successfully 150 years of religious war and established the notion of co-existing sovereign states; peace between them being reached through diplomatic congress.16 The first tenet said that for the sake of peace, the crimes of all sides must be forgotten. While the second tenet maintained that foreign policy must be carried out with the “interest of the other” in mind. What relevance do these Westphalian principles have on our present imperfectly globalized world? It is geopolitics that makes or breaks progress. That makes or breaks nations. That promotes war and strife, or peace and development. And it is precisely this lack of Westphalian sovereignty among nation states today, as well as the desire to severely outsource national and local sovereignty to super-state bureaucracies, that endangers the peaceful process of globalization – and turns it into a deliberate phenomenon of exploitation carried out by financial interests for the interest of financial elites, rather than for the shared benefit of countries as a whole.

16 New World Encyclopedia, 2015 http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Peace_of_Westphalia

John Maynard Keynes said that the unregulated movement of international capital endangers that self-governing experiment we call democracy.17 How prophetic his words were, especially if we look at the wealthiest and strongest nation on earth – at the extreme income inequality in the US today, which resembles not a capitalist economy, but a feudal economy.18

In short, if households are doing well, then so are the firms. GDP growth not seen in wage growth appears in profit growth.19 As an adept of Chartalism20, I can tell you that macro fiscal policy is more important to public purpose than trade. Whether a country is practicing free trade or protectionism, so long as it has monetary sovereignty (so long as the national government spends and taxes in its own free-floating nonconvertible fiat currency) it can do away with permanent and involuntary unemployment. The currency sovereign faces no solvency risk. He can never miss a payment.21 The real constraints are of a physical nature; unused physical resources, available labor (people willing and able to work), and know-how.

17 Noam Chomsky, Hegemony or Survival, page 13818 Laura Tyson, The Huffington Post, 2015 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laura-tyson/us-income-inequality-costs_b_6249904.html19 Anna Louie Sussman, The Wall Street Journal, 2015 http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/09/08/inside-the-fight-over-productivity-and-wages/20 Bill Mitchell, 2009 http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=540221 Brett W. Fawley, Luciana Juvenal, St Louis Fed, 2011 https://www.stlouisfed.org/Publications/Regional-Economist/October-2011/Why-Health-Care-Matters-and-the-Current-Debt-Does-Not

Brazen corruption, political instability, and natural disasters are conducive to high inflation or hyperinflation episodes for countries, alongside fixed exchange rate regimes with strong currencies. Inflation is not always everywhere a monetary phenomenon, like mainstream (orthodox) theory likes to claim.22 The overproduction of money is always a consequence of a crisis of hyperinflation, never the cause of it. The Weimar Republic had to print (deficit spend) many figures as % of GDP in order to purchase foreign currency with which to make war reparation payments. That money didn’t go to the creation of roads, railways, industries, schools, or hospitals. In Zimbabwe, a favorite example employed by inflation mongers, a number of different factors triggered the hyperinflation episode. First, Mugabe’s failed land reform, which crippled agricultural output. And secondly, persistent political instability and brazen corruption and the need to import more food from abroad contributed to the overproduction of money.23

And of course, in all aspects of human society, one cannot ignore or reject that great element called geopolitics. When powerful interests converge, either deliberately or through random opportunity/chance, the weaker party incurs the terms of the stronger ones.

22 Antonella Tutino, Carlos E. Zarazaga, Fed In Print, 2014 https://www.fedinprint.org/items/feddel/00008.html23 Edward Harrison, Naked Capitalism, 2010 http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/05/mmt-fear-of-hyperinflation.html

I would recommend this title to any investor or public servant that is looking to familiarize himself or herself with the historical realities of the Old Silk Road, and with the challenges posed by the New Silk Road in proper context. People seeking to invest in the New Silk Road – either in a specific supply chain, in a particular technology, service, or financial institution – must realize the complexity of this trans-national region and the many competing geopolitical and economic interests within it. Public servants, those placed in key government agencies that hold important positions, must also study carefully this tapestry of interests, challenges, and must weigh all the potential consequences (both positive and negative), if they are to draw up pertinent national policies that take into account not only the interests of wealthy lobbying parties, but also the interests of the common citizens and their natural environment.

Education:

Grades V to VIII at the High School of Plastic Arts Nicolae Tonitza.Grades IX to XIII (completion year) at the High School of Arts and Crafts Dimitrie Paciurea.Hyperion University of Bucharest 2009-2012. Majored in journalism.

Abilities and qualifications:

Licensed (MA) in journalism.Technician (BA) in construction materials, and certified in the process of Portland cement fabrication.Hyperion University of Bucharest, Contacts in Economics - Department of Management. Certified participation in the Students Communication Session "Management during

times of crisis." Presentation: 'Something about the roots of the crisis and a little bit of physical economy'.

Advanced fluent English skills, both written and spoken.Heterodox economics thinker, I support the Modern Monetary Theory.I love social-media (those that are not vanity inclined), connecting with people from all walks of life. I have been playing videogames since I was a toddler, and I have enjoyed playing them to this day. I can analyze whatever matter I'm provided with and I can produce useful feedback

which will improve the product/service.

Professional Experience:

2 years as moderator & writer at HYP Bucuresti Student Media SRL. Research and writing in order to produce pertinent articles on the economy (the

financial crisis of the Trans-Atlantic system, political and economic problems within the EU and the Eurozone, causes and effects).

Surname: EnacheFirst Name: SerbanMiddle Names: Valentin ConstantinDate of birth: 25.03.1989, Bucharest, RomaniaEmail address:serbanvcenache@gmail.com Address: Street Vlaicu Voda, nr13, Building V63, 2nd floor, apartment 10,

sector 3, Bucharest, RomaniaTelephone nr: 0727339814Twitter: https://twitter.com/SerbanVCEnache

Independent writer of fiction, author of An Empire Of Traitors, A Heretical Divide, and Talking Crows.

http://www.amazon.com/Serban-Valentin-Constantin-Enache/e/B00N2SJD6O/

Personal Biographical Note

I don't consider myself as being part of the West (at least not the contemporary West).

I kind of consider Zimbabwe as on my horizon, which has several foreign currencies as legal tender, and they have a financial system in place with debit cards and all modes of payment.

I consider myself to be part of the so-called 3rd world. I was slightly foolish to pursue journalism; because the people who appear on

television are supposed to be “political analysts” (most of whom are lawyers) and besides them you have astrologers.

Every different news channel has their home astrologers talking about all kinds of subjects. It's absolutely pathetic.

I've worked in small media, even appeared on a couple of shows on an obscure local television station before it went belly up (that was volunteer work).

I have met some nice people, only a few, though. The rest of them were superficial and lacked motivation, though they were not tragic

in their want of any visionary inspiration – thus nothing but worthless perambulating material ghosts.

I guess I still have to live in this world and learn what it is all about . . .

Ivan EVEtelephone : + 33 (0)6 75 39 55 47email : eve_ivan@hotmail.fr24 rue Saint-Joseph, 75002 Paris

Born on 13/05/1991 – 25

Driver’s licence

MULTIDISCIPLINARY BACKGROUND

2014-15: - Master 2 Professionnel  ETHIRES : Ethique appliquée : Responsabilité environnementale et sociale (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

2012-14: - Master 1 & 2 Cinéma (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)2009-12: - 2 Licences : History and Political Science (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)1995-09: - Primary & secondary education in the Lycées Français in Hanoï (Vietnam) and Vientiane (Laos)

PROFESSIONNAL EXPERIENCES

- Professionals :2015- still: -EVS Conseil/Tactis Innovation Services (TIS) : Journalist – Localtis, Autoroutes de l’information et Territoires2015 (6 months : -Think And Act : Consultant – Missions for CFI, Unifrance, Arte, Région Alsace & Baden-Württemberg2014-15 (9 months): - ETHIRES’ Advisor : Missions for TOTAL, Private forestry owners2013 (3 months): - COLLECTIF TRIBUDOM – Production Assistant (& Production coordinator on short films)March 2014- June 2015: - Contract civil servant, librarian – Ville de Paris

- Research & publications :2015 (November): - Participating in the « International Conference Relations and Networks in Indian Ocean Writing », Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona presenting « The Indian Ocean from Admiral Zhen He to hub and spoke container maritime commerce»2014: - Un Village Français : l’Occupation à l’heure du feuilleton2013: - Le Vietnam, le peuple vietnamien et Oliver Stone2010-2015: - Research assistant to Dr. Jacques Coulardeau

- Co-author of the following articles : «Sri Lanka : from the arrival of Homo Sapiens to the Indian Ocean maritime hub » (2011), «Supernatural : Case Chase or Joy Ride » (2012) & "The Indian Ocean from Admiral Zheng He to hub and spoke container

maritime commerce” publilshed by Editions La Dondaine on Amazon-Kindle platform

LANGUAGES & COMPUTER SKILLS

- English : - Bilingual- Spanish : - High school level- Laotian : - basics

- Formation C2I- Notions on FinalCut Pro ; Good knowledge of library software (VSmart)

PERSONNAL APTITUDES & CENTER OF INTERESTS

- Autonomous and excellent adaptation & self-managing capabilities- Excellent analysis abilities and quick assimilation of knowledge and information- Synthesis, research and writing capabilities

Driven by an insatiable curiosity for the world and its complexity, I enjoy following a TV series week in week out as much as attending a football game or watching wildlife. Exploring new countries or discovering new gastronomy sound as good as a good movie. To analyze and understand the world around me, I jumped feet first into humanities and social sciences as a whole. Bur since I don’t like to forget things, I try to write as much as I can.