The precedents set in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and Syria – when compared with what is outlined in China’s White Paper detailing «China’s Policy in Africa» – are just too egregious for the leaders of African countries to overlook. China is sparing no expense to promote its economic interests. 

On Nov. 12 the Financial Times, reported that regulators in the UK, US, and Switzerland have fined the five biggest international banks a total of $3.2 billion for manipulating foreign-exchange rates… The banks’ currency traders agreed to fix exchange rates on the world market in order to boost their own profits. This was no small-potatoes scam – as much as $5.4 trillion changes hands every day on the Forex market… Steen Jakobsen, chief economist of Saxo Bank, claims that never before has there been such a huge gap between economic reality and perception, but «the world is not ending, it’s getting ready for a new beginning …»

The hysteria currently surrounding the global economic problems serves to divert the public attention from the arising trends in the US foreign policy. One gets an impression that in the foreseeable future the five countries seeking to shake off Washington's pervasive dictate – China, Brazil, India, Turkey, and, of course, Russia – will top the list of the US foes…

Beneath our eyes the vector of global force which has been pointing at the US for two decades is changing its direction pointing at the Asian giant – China… China has already taken dominating position on the markets of Europe, North America, Africa, South America and Australia. China has achieved impressive success in exports of its hi-tech products… In 2011, the Chinese oil and gas company Petro China became the world’s largest oil producer outrunning US Exxon Mobil and is continuing to buy assets all over the world… Today China clearly shows that it will respect only strong neighbors…

The Arab League lauded the West's new onslaught on the Middle East and volunteered a blessing to unspecified “peacekeeping forces” that would be dispatched to Syria to dislodge Assad. Who, under the scenario, would take his place? Either the Arab League is moving too fast while the Western intelligence services are unprepared to offer a candidate or those leave it entirely to the Arab League to dispose of Assad… Unlike the Arab League, Damascus has no chance to get heard in the West. Considering that Syria was among the founders of the League, it would be interesting to get an idea from whose name the group might be speaking under current circumstances…

Whenever and wherever a European nation reverts to its legacy, history, culture, and traditions, it immediately finds itself being tamed by alien “democratic” forces which trim national aspirations across the world to make peoples conform to the preferences of the global financial sector. The developments around Hungary at the start of 2012 provided a vivid example of the paradigm…

The rating agencies which are a predominantly US business spare no efforts to undermine the credibility of the European markets… The key US principle – What is good for big money, is good for the nation – actually implies that the money must be US dollars…

It is hard to tell which of the two emotions – national pride or  indignation over obvious injustice – fuels the revival of the Europeans' unique national spirit. This year the process which the European political class is desperately trying to impede manifested itself in a pattern-setting array of political developments… At the moment the cause which is evidently gaining momentum is championed by Marion Anne Perrine Le Pen, the daughter of the charismatic French nationalist Jean-Marie Le Pen and an increasingly visible figure on Europe's political horizon…

Probably, not every protester at the Wall-Street understands sophisticated mechanisms the banks use to rob the countries and their people.  But the fact that they have been occupying Wall-Street for more than two weeks, clearly shows that insatiate appetites of banks for profits   have triggered unprecedented for prosperous America social protests against unemployment, corruption, excessive corporate power and expensive education…
And not only America: thousands of citizens in dozens of big cities all over the world have gone into the streets, supporting “Occupy Wall-Street” campaign in New York…

The global financial system abounds with parasites capitalizing on the so-called credit worthiness ratings of banks, companies, and even countries. The products they are dealing may be described in sophisticated economic terms, but in fact amount to useless imitations of financial instruments which are built tightly into the Western economy and serve as efficient economic weapons against big and small rivals…