Wednesday News Breakdown: Germany Decline, Global South Rise; the Role of China

Okay. This is gonna be our first installment of the news review that will be exclusively for members. So first of all, welcome to all of the Middle Nation compatriots and counselors and commissioners. Thank you for joining. Now let me begin by looking at some some stories specifically that touch upon the status of the destabilization and the industrialization campaign that's going on against Europe, particularly Germany.

As Germany is the industrial heart of Europe, I've talked about many times, so as such, it is the central target of this campaign. Since if that heart stops beating, then the whole body of Europe will die. Now there are three stories that I wanted to mention in this regard. First, there's a story from Bloomberg about how family owned businesses in Germany are being sold off at an unprecedented rate. According to the article, I will link here, family businesses form the backbone of the German economy, and they're being sold off in very large numbers due to the obviously increasingly difficult economic situation in Germany.

Some of these businesses have been in those families for generations, but the heirs have no interest in taking taking over the business when it comes down to them. So they're either closing it down or they're shifting the operations elsewhere or they're just selling them off. Now if you're familiar with my content, you'll know that I've been covering this for quite some time since for two years. I've been talking about it since really since the the start of the Ukraine war and the sanctions against Russia. So you know that I've I've talked about how factories are closing in Germany, how many corporate headquarters are moving from Germany to The United States, how bankruptcies are skyrocketing in Germany, on and on.

The country is facing a recession and there's no light at the end of the tunnel. Now obviously when a family owned business gets sold off, so it means someone's buying it. Now the story just sort of skips over that part. They don't they don't really mention that fact, which is interesting in and of itself really if you think about it. You wanna show the decline and the deterioration of the economy without showing who's benefiting from that, without mentioning who's benefiting from that.

Well, obviously, larger companies and investment firms and so on. Those are usually the ones who go around acquiring family owned businesses, whether it's in Germany or anywhere else when they get sold off. You know, private equity firms and what they call strategic buyers, which will include larger corporations who are in the same industry, eyeing family businesses when they when they wanna sell them, so that they can eliminate competition and expand their own market share. This is all part of the, the monopolization process that comes with the destabilization process. You make it impossible or next to impossible for, smaller players to survive in the economy.

So you shake out independent entrepreneurs out of the economy, smaller businesses out of the economy, and you let only the largest already existing players take over. This is consolidation of economic and political power. This increases obviously the the disparity in who owns a stake in the economy. It increases the disparity in wealth, the disparity in relative influence and control in the society. And in a way, it also sort of denationalizes the whole economy because the largest players will very often tend to be multinationals or what I call a national players.

They don't have any loyalty to the state, they don't have any loyalty to the country, they don't have any loyalty or really any interest in the welfare of the communities where they do business. So you're removing from the economy any of the players in the economy who might care about the economy. So basically, you turn your economy over to what you call free range herds of the OC GFC who can then just feed on your population and then move on when there's nothing left. Obviously, another, dimension of this is that it, it obstructs any real access to upward mobility because it's not viable for anyone, in this kind of a situation to venture off on their own as a small business, as an entrepreneur since the biggest players already dominate the market. They already dominate everything.

There's no way you can compete. So this story sort of reveals another evidence, of how, Germany's economy is being relentlessly undermined by the OCGFC and how the German population can look forward, at this point to really a future, as serfs and wage slaves for employers who couldn't care less about their welfare or about the prosperity of their country, the prosperity of Germany. Okay. Now the next story about Germany relates to another kind of weakness. The German armed forces are facing, significant challenges related to, personnel shortages, aging of their military, and, struggles in recruiting new members because they're having a hard time doing that.

Now this comes at a time when Germany is trying to remilitarize itself, and it's hyping their citizens about the threat of war, you know, war on their borders, war with Russia, and so on. And they're looking to jump start some kind of war industrial economic model. Despite chancellor Olaf Scholz's announcement of major investments in defense, the military continues to grapple with equipment shortages, with infrastructure shortages, infrastructure issues, and so on. As of the end of last year, there were 181,514 soldiers in Germany's military, which is a decrease of 1,537 from the previous year with over 20,000 vacant positions. But no one seems to wanna join the military in Germany.

No one's interested. So, as a result of this, the, government is talking now about trying to develop a plan for compulsory service. The report that I'm looking at also noted, equipment shortages ranging from, heavy equipment to spare parts, which are exacerbated by, Germany sending weapons. All of this is exacerbated by the fact that Germany is sending weapons from its stocks to Ukraine, which is something that I touched on in the video last time about Europe buying old artillery shells back from Saudi Arabia and Qatar and The UAE. I'll just mention here that the the active military of Saudi Arabia is actually larger than Germany's.

Turkey's military has about a 100,000 more people in it, more soldiers than Germany. And they I mean, the military of Egypt is more than twice the size of Germany's. They have a goal of trying to increase their military personnel by around 20,000. They wanna add 20,000 in the next six years. But it looks like they're gonna have to, resort to force in order to make that happen.

Now how how how can you possibly convince people to accept mandatory military service conscription, when they when they don't wanna do it? They don't wanna join the military. But one way is to eliminate other viable options for material survival in your country, which connects to the last story and then what I've been talking about, the overall plummeting economic situation in Germany. I mean, I've talked many times about how Europe is likely to become a conflict zone, And it's not, unimaginable, that Germany could become involved in some sort of military strife, some sort of military conflict over the next few years, whether that's, you know, against Russia or against some smaller country or, you know, maybe even against Poland. And, it's also worth considering that it just it's just as likely that civil unrest will erupt in Germany, and the military might primarily be used just to suppress the population.

But with fewer than 200,000 soldiers, I think this would be fairly hard to manage. So again, situation in Germany is not looking good, and that's by design. Now with the next story, I'm gonna transition a little bit or contrast a little bit between Germany and our part of the world. This time, let's talk about cars. The once renowned German car industry is in serious decline with car manufacturing struggling to adapt to new technologies like electric vehicles.

Obviously, this isn't the only factor. I mean, all manufacturing sectors in Germany are in decline, to be honest, and barely surviving, due to at least partially due to the artificially inflated price of energy because of the sanctions against Russia. So everyone is struggling. But since the, Germany economy has traditionally been able to, they've been able to count on the the automotive industry, this is obviously severely impacting the overall economy. Germany's global car production, peaked over a decade ago, half a decade ago rather, and their domestic, domestic vehicle production has been declining, for at least the last decade.

You know, the fanatical Greens party and the disproportionate influence of environmentalist, zealots in Germany has taken its toll on on business, on the industries. The inability of German car manufacturers to make significant advancements in electric vehicles, compared to competitors like Tesla or, some, Asian manufacturers have added to the, German car industry's struggles as the government is increasingly, restrictive about sales and ownership of fossil fuel reliant cars. So the the, you know, the political cause of climate hysteria, which is distinct from the genuine scientific concerns about the environment, the political cause is crippling Germany's manufacturing sectors and subsequently it's hobbling the whole economy. On the other hand, what this is where I wanted to pivot, on the other hand in in Mali there's an entrepreneur who's launched a taxi company with 100 electric cars that he made, showcasing a shift towards sustainable transportation solutions in Mali. This initiative reflects a growing trend towards electric vehicles and environmentally friendly practices in the transportation sector in Africa.

While German car manufacturers are facing challenges in trying to adapt to new technologies and market demands, initiatives like the one in Mali demonstrate a move towards embracing electric vehicles and sustainable practices in the automotive industry in the global South. Now this entrepreneur is from Mali. His company is in Mali. The technology was developed in Mali, and he's going to open up a manufacturing plant in Mali to produce these cars. All solar powered, which is much more viable of course in Africa than it is in Germany or Europe generally for obvious reasons.

This is an outstanding example in my opinion of economic sovereignty. The entire project is Malayan. From from Malayans, by Malayans and for Malayans, and even looking to expand into the export market. So while the German car industry is grappling with declining manufacturing and declining sales and challenges in trying to transition into electric vehicles. Initiatives like the launch of this electric taxi company in Mali highlights the the the global shift that I keep talking about.

So again, it's not only a shift in the global economy, but it's a shift in knowledge. It's a shift in skills. It's a shift in innovation and talent. And take note of the fact that the first thing that this Malian entrepreneur did with his electric vehicles, with his technology, was not to sell them commercially, but to mobilize them for essentially public transport, which is what anyone should be doing, you know, if they are genuinely interested in trying to help the environment. So in this way, Molly is even leading the way in that aspect of, you know, sustainable business practices and so on.

Because obviously, it's better if you can have more robust public transportation than for everyone to have cars, even if they're electric. Because, I mean, even even electric cars, obviously, are damaging to the environment in this, specifically in the process by which they're made. So this is a really good initiative and it's a it's very impressive and it's a nice contrast to what's happening in Europe. Now the next story comes from the same region as Mali, in Niger. I'm gonna talk about this story mostly because I wanna talk about why the Muslim world and the global South generally is preferring to partner with China as opposed to partnering with the West.

The story itself is about how Niger is going to launch something that they call digital week in April. The event is part of a national effort to promote digital transformation of the country. They also announced several initiatives planned by the government, would reflect the, what they call, the will of the Nigerian authorities at the highest level to follow the progress of the world by making, digital technology a lever for socioeconomic development. According to the report, these initiatives include digitizing public administration, modernizing, infrastructure, and facilitating Internet access. They wanna set up a national cyber security center, and they want to ensure, universal access to quality connectivity at an affordable cost.

Okay. The government announced in October that it launched a reform process that included in particular the adoption of a new digital development policy that's gonna be from 2023 to 2032 as well as the improvement of the legal and institutional framework for the digital sector. Now bear in mind that this was roughly just two months after the coup in Niger. Now China's role in supporting digitization in Africa is fairly well known, and that includes Niger. They offer cost effective solutions and provide access to loans through Chinese state owned banks, so it's a very secure process for them.

Despite geopolitical pressures from The US and from Western countries, African countries, African governments and mobile network operators continued to choose China. They they continued to choose Chinese technologies for their digital projects. And the military government, the coup government of Niger has continued all of the already existing partnerships with China in the realm of digitization, infrastructure, energy, oil, and pipelines, and so on. Everything else, everything is in place. Now let me talk about why that is.

When Western governments, Western countries were more or less banished from Niger after the coup, especially the French, especially France. But you see China's approach to foreign policy adheres strictly to a principle that they call non interference. The non interference principle means China does not involve itself in the politics or the governance of the countries where they do business. They mind their own business in other words. So when when when when China comes to the business negotiating table, all they wanna know is who am I talking to?

Who's the one who I who who I'm supposed to make the deal with? And who's the one who can act as a guarantor for the deals that we make? That's all they wanna know. Who am I talking to? They don't care who it is.

You decide. That's your business. That's your political situation in your country to sort out. You know, even when there was a there was a coup in Guinea, and China seemingly lapsed in their principle of non interference by condemning the coup. They don't usually do that.

They didn't condemn the coup in Niger for example. But even while they were condemning it, they were simultaneously negotiating with the new government. And all of their investments in Guinea, and all of their projects in Guinea are still on track and they're still functioning. So everything was stable and it's the same with Niger. Everything is as it was for China before the coup.

When the coup happened, western pundits were speculating that it might scupper China's deals in Niger, but that didn't happen. All China cares about is stability and harmony where they do business. That's all they care about. So, even when they condemned the coup in Guinea, what they were really doing, it was just a way for them to express, how important stability was for them because their interest in Guinea are vital to them, like bauxite mining. They weren't actually making a judgment about the coup or they weren't making a judgment about the new government.

They were just trying to show, their concern for Guinea's stability because it could potentially affect their interests. But other than that, they had no issue working with the new government. Just as they had no issue working with the with the coup government in Niger, with the new government in Niger. They just wanna know who they're supposed to talk to. And once you decide amongst yourselves who the top person is, then we'll deal with that top person.

That's China's approach. Now contrast that with the western approach. If the West and France if America had had their way in Niger, then ICOWAS would have invaded Niger to try to topple the new government, you know, and to try to forcefully reinstate the former president who is wildly unpopular, but he was a friend of the West, which is obviously one of the reasons why he got ousted in the first place. They would have liked to see Niger devolve into civil war and chaos just in order to get their way, just in order to to be able to keep the government in place that they wanted. This colonizer mentality, this imperialistic mentality, this overbearing entitled supremacist mentality that made Niger so hostile towards France and towards the the the collective West in the first place, but it made them friendly with China because for China doesn't take that approach.

China says, your government is your business. We just wanna know who we're supposed to negotiate the deals with. That's all. And in fact, America, France, and the collective West are still trying, to get their way in Niger. But China is supporting telecommunications infrastructure and so on, in Niger.

While they're doing that, the West is trying to stir up so called Islamic militants and terrorist groups in the Sahel, ISIS and Al Qaeda and so on, which no one who follows events believes for a second are anything but western backed mercenaries just like Wagner. This is the danger of course. When they don't get their way, they will sow violence and terror. And everyone in India, everyone in Nigeria, everyone in Sahel and indeed, everyone in Africa as a whole completely understands this because they have decades of experience, if not centuries of experience. And again, this is why they prefer China.

China doesn't do that. China doesn't care who your government is. They just want their business, their investments to flourish. And they genuinely believe that stability and harmony is the key to prosperity and to getting returns on their investments, and they're right. Now of course that doesn't mean that China isn't exploitative.

Of course they are. Business by nature to one degree or another is exploitative, but the point is it's not it's not a colonialist or imperialist mentality. It's not conquest style approach to business and investment like the West. It's much closer to the approach that we recognize as Muslims. I think part of that is probably because China itself is cognizant of the dangers that they themselves face from Western aggression, from a unilateral or multilateral aggression by the collective West against China, whether that is, you know, on the Mainland Of China, in Hong Kong, or in Taiwan, or what have you.

They're well aware, of how the West operates and that the West has operated that way against them in the past and that they will very likely be operating against them that way in the near future. So they approach foreign policy in a way that that that consciously and explicitly rejects that way of doing things, that western way of doing things. They approach foreign policy and investment in a way that respects the economic sovereignty and political independence of the the nations that they're partnering with or their allies. And as we can all see from the examples of Mali and Niger, this does enable those partners and those allies to develop and to grow and to strengthen their sovereignty and independence. So again, this is it's not difficult to understand why Muslim countries and why countries in the global South and countries in Africa are preferring to deal with China as opposed to dealing with America and, and the collective West.

I know people in the West will always say, well, everybody's the same. It doesn't matter. If you replace, America with China, it's gonna be just as bad. No. You are uniquely oppressive.

You are uniquely tyrannical. You are uniquely imperialistic and colonialistic in your thinking, and you seem to be incurable from that. So, okay, these are some of the stories, the new stories that caught my attention over the last few days. Inshallah, you found it informative and useful. And hopefully, maybe it gave you some greater insight about the trends that we are seeing and some news that you might not maybe you might not see in the mainstream press.

You know, it's my hope and it's my objective that when someone is a member of Middle Nation, they should always be the most informed person, the most educated person, the most insightful person in the conversation, whatever conversation they're in. And then anyone that you interact with, if you're a middle nation member, anyone that you interact with should leave their interaction with you knowing more than they did before and with a greater understanding than they had before, whether they're Muslim or whether they're non Muslim, whether they are living in the Muslim world, living in the global South, or living in the West. It doesn't matter. When they interact with a middle nation member, they should benefit from that intellectually. Middle nation members should be the people who other people turn to for information and for getting a balanced objective, and accurate perspective on the news and on events that are happening in the world.

And that's exactly why, we started the membership program and why the the content being produced exclusively for members will tend to be of a somewhat more detailed and hopefully more informative nature, Insha'Allah. So