Author: The President
The Dutch original follows the English translation.

As a young boy, Sinterklaas Eve on December 5, the eve of his birthday, was pretty much the most exciting day of the year. Good children got presents from Sinterklaas, bad children could be punished by Zwarte Piet by getting blows with the rod. In case of serious misconduct you could even be transported to Spain in Black Pete’s bag. Recently, Sinterklaas apologized for this on national television. Hopefully, the future 2030 Saint (pictured below) will prove just as forgiving to sinful children.

We would put our shoe by the stove for weeks in advance and every morning I would sneak down to see if Pete had dropped by. He would reportedly come down the chimney to put some candy in. Sometimes I would put a carrot in the shoe for Santa’s horse.

On that particular night I would sit in the room with my parents, waiting for Sinterklaas to visit. The tension was unbearable. The moment I heard a knock on the window and I would crawl into the corner of the sofa with fright. The tension was not over. Sinterklaas and Piet would make us wait at least a further 10 minutes. Eventually, they would come in and with awe I would look up at Saint Nicholas and with due respect I would keep my distance from Piet. In the end it usually turned out that my sins were not too bad, so Piet would start handing out candy and eventually a gift in the name of Saint Nicholas. The Saint usually appeared as an old, dignified gentleman who was mentally no longer completely there while Piet acted as his right-hand man who would help the somewhat dull Saint. The Saint did not seem to be able to make it on his own and gratefully relied on his helper.

And let’s face it. Black Pete eventually had to do all the logistical work. It is clear that without Pete we could forget about our candy and presents. In the end we had nothing but awe and respect for Black Petes.

Now that I am much older, that picture appears to be incorrect if we are to believe the colored non-European immigrants. In our guests opinion Black Pete is an expression of racism. Neither I nor my parents had any notion of this in my childhood. So it is not surprising that we now experience this as insulting and find it strange to have to integrate into our own country.

That traditions slowly change is true of all times and places and the fact in itself is not a problem either. It is the way in which it happens that is bad. It is also strange that immigrants of color do not want to be associated with some of the best-oiled distribution network out there. Even more astonishing is the criticism when one considers that Zwarte Piet has been allowed to beat young white children for decades without ending up in jail!

The parallels between Sinterklaas and his Piet and contemporary society are abundantly clear. The original population is aging rapidly and can be compared with the older, somewhat senile, generous Saint Nicholas. The young immigrants are comparable to, according to legend, Moorish Black Petes. The Moors were a North African Berber tribe and therefore Muslim.

The comparison becomes even clearer when one considers that our Western societies have been playing Santa Claus for its citizens and immigrants for years. Guess who is currently delivering the gifts ordered by the Internet, either for one’s self or others. These are predominantly the colored Muslim immigrants in their vans. In any case, it all fits nicely in with the vision of our political elite about how our society should develop.

All these discussions in recent years have de facto killed the Sinterklaas tradition. Most retailers are already skipping the whole celebration in favor of Christmas.

The downfall of a tradition: Black Pete – Zwarte Piet

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The November issue of Gefira takes a closer look at France’s changing ethnic composition which already translates into the country’s economy, its welfare system, the cohesiveness of society, internal tensions and problems of “systemic racism” unknown to any previous generations. The knowledge of the racial makeup is barred from an average inquirer; yet, what one man wants to hide, the other is certain to uncover in one way or another. Thus, though the French law forbids tallying the racial, ethnic or religious percentage of the Republic’s citizenry, the number of Muslim names and especially the sickle cell disease testing which is administered to risk – i.e. Third World – population cohorts not to mention everyday experience – the visual survey of the inhabitants of towns and cities plus sportsmen representing France – provide factual information in this respect. Besides, the European Union – and France is one of the two pillars of it – makes no bones about it: resettlement from the Third World to Europe ranks among its most ambitious projects and as such it is well under way. Unless the current course is reversed, France’s as well as Germany’s, Great Britain’s or Sweden’s destinies are sealed. Beyond 2050 the Western world is going to be a part of the Third World with its population resembling that of India or Mexico. The France of 2050 will be to the France of 1950 what the Turkish Empire was to the Byzantine Empire.

Similarly profound changes are taking place in the world of finances. Modern Money Theory is replacing both the Austrian School of Economics and the Keynesian economic principles. What does MMT advocate? It advocates money creation and spending without regard for the hitherto binding controls along with the non-observance of anything that classical economists held as canon rules. Hence quantitative easing and negative interest rates. Since money is no longer pegged to gold, everything is allowable. The be-all and end-all of the MMT approach is to maintain and possibly advance growth, that fetish of present-day economists. Such financial policy requires an ever stricter surveillance over the amount of money, which is going to be made easier by the introduction of digital money as the only means of exchange. We are in for it. One might be well-advised to already say goodbye to banknotes and coins. Everybody’s finances – for want of any other means by necessity handled in an electronic way – will be made plain to see for the masters of the world who will be able to gain an insight into our pecuniary settlements via powerful computer systems without leaving their offices. A carrot bought or sold in a village miles off the beaten track will not escape the notice of the powers that be unless… unless people revert to barter. What a world to live in!

 

The following will not be an original remark: the world runs on money like the automobile runs on fuel. We may follow the decisions of politicians and even engage ourselves in campaigning and voting for some of them, and not be aware that they all have strings attached and either consciously or unconsciously do what needs to be done. Nothing can be done without money. It is those who control its creation and circulation who exert an influence on decision making.

Gefira #47 seeks to analyze the money matters, focusing its attention on the Bank of International Settlements and the Vatican City Bank. The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are rather familiar to anyone who is more or less interested in world affairs. The two topical banks are much less known. We present the reader with their history, financial machinations and under-the-counter activities. The analysis that we present – eye-opening though it is – is merely the tip of the iceberg of the pecuniary dimensions of our existence which is inaccessible to the man in the street.

 

Super Mario Draghi is gone, Chrisitne in Wonderland Lagarde is about to change our reality completely.

During her conference on 12 October, Christine Lagarde, President of the ECB, said that bankers in Frankfurt am Main were considering whether to introduce a digital euro. The reason for introducing the intangible currency should be the pandemic, which has supposedly brought about structural changes in the way we “work, trade and pay.”Lagarde asserts that confidence in digital payments has increased during the pandemic. While she assures that “the digital euro will never replace cash”, do not be fooled: The ECB is aiming for a cash ban, but wants to enforce it in small steps. The Corona crisis is being used as an excuse to speed up the process of switching to digital money. The virus is suspect precisely for this reason. The pandemic has achieved various political objectives and the masks on our faces are like muzzles put on us by our masters. The protests of the Yellow Vests have been paralysed. The demonstrations that would have taken place during the elections in various states have not taken place. Look at Belarus, where there was no lockdown. There are demonstrations. And look: In the countries where cash was king, especially in Germany and Italy, there were significantly more cashless payments.

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What does it mean if one state erects a memorial to the leader of another state whose people would not even consider honouring him with a street name?

In Dessau, a town located in the former east German Democratic Republic, on the occasion of the 30 anniversary of the reunification of Germany (3 October 1990), a monument to Mikhail Gorbachev was unveiled. The municipality’s mayor held a speech as did some other guests in an open-air ceremony. A letter from the former first and last president of the Soviet Union was read out loud, and an orchestra made musical intervals, playing Dimitr Shostakovitch’s most famous Second Waltz, the German National Anthem and The Winds of Change by the German rock group Scorpions, a hit that at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall did the rounds across Europe. The event was attended by a representative of the Russian embassy.

In his speech, Hans-Georg Otto, Dessau’s mayor, gave a brief historical account of the events that led to the reunification of Germany and placed special emphasis on the role played by Mikhail Gorbachev, without whose commitment – as he stressed – we would still have two German states. The mayor reminded the audience of the long-standing friendship that tied Germans and Russians throughout history.

Source: YouTube.

It is not the first time that Germany owes gratitude to Russians.

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It is as official as official can be: Europe is to undergo a big resettlement programme. Those who warned of it years ago, pointing to Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi’s infamous Praktischer Idealismus, where future Europeans are described as people of racially mixed carnation and appearance, cannot any longer be accused of following conspiracy theories.Lo and behold on September 23, 2020, the European Commission issued its recommendation on legal pathways promoting resettlement (also referred to as humanitarian admission – the commissioners just love such high-brow tags!) to the EU.It is made plain and clear: what we have been witnessing recently are not extraordinary, chance events but a large-scale action whose aim it is to move huge numbers of Third World people to the Old Continent.

The cited document calls on the Member States to:
[1] participate in and promote international resettlement by offering legal pathways and safe channels to the Union,
[2] submit annual resettlement pledges (i.e. number of people that can be admitted),
[3] encourage and mobilize more actors for this purpose and these include private sponsors, groups of private individuals or non-profit organizations,
[4] create welcoming and inclusive societies,
[5] design dedicated and effective integration and social programmes for resettled persons,
[6] promote family reunification (i.e. automatically multiply the number of resettled people by an order of magnitude), and
[7] ensure continuity and renewed growth of resettlement operations, expand the number of admission places, and guarantee the rapid arrival.

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