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Speakers at EIR's Ottawa Conference

December 2007

Rachel Douglas, of EIR's Russia Desk, gave a presentation with 65 slides, in which she reported on "Russia, Eurasia's Keystone Nation, Ready for the Bering Strait Crossing." She focussed on highlights of the Russian participants' speeches at the Schiller Institute conference, "The Eurasian Land-Bridge Becomes Reality: A New World Order for Peace through Development Corridors," which was held in September in Kiedrich, Germany.

She prefaced that with what she called "a historical prologue—from current history."

Douglas noted: "It was 30 years ago next year, that I first had an opportunity to tell a conference audience about the potential of economic development of the Siberian frontier as the pathway to Russia's survival and future prosperity, and as one of those common tasks of mankind, which, if carried out in a cooperative way—while fully respecting the national sovereignty of the countries involved—could bring to life the idea of an economic renaissance. That was at a 1978 New York City conference of the LaRouche movement, on a panel that presented great projects for the development of large regions of the Earth."

Alberto Vizcarra Osuna, a leading organizer of Pro-PLHINO, an organization working to bring one of the proposed great water projects in Mexico to reality, entitled his presentation "New Agreement Between Canada, the United States, and Mexico." Vizcarra, from Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, called people to the task of "changing the face of the Earth." A new agreement on trinational infrastructure projects is the only way that the "our three nations can break with the failed axioms of NAFTA" and the Hell we find ourselves in, he said.

"This new agreement will also be the way in which we open our doors to the countries of Eurasia and western Europe, through the Bering Strait, so that the Americas receive with open arms the nations which share the idea, and recognize the need, of creating a new international financial system such as that proposed by the American statesman Lyndon H. LaRouche."

Manuel Frías Alcaraz, an engineer from Mexico City, reported on his own experiences working in infrastructure projects, especially water, ranging from the Congo Basin in Africa, to the PLHINO and PLHIGON projects in Mexico. He gave a ringing refutation of global warming insanity, including explaining the procession of the Earth. Frías invited Canada and the United States "to work with us" to rebuild. He said that we must show how Mexico, a nation that has experienced so much destruction, can be restored to full life.

Antonio Valdez Villanueva, Secretary General of the Mexican Labor Confederation of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, greeted the conference, in the name of his union's 5 million members, Mexico-wide, and said that, no matter how deep the crisis, "our nations are great," and we must proceed with our work.

 

Jeannette James, former majority leader of the Alaska House of Representatives, presented her remarks to the conference in a recorded message by phone. The political leader known as the "Railroad Lady" of Alaska, a longtime advocate of the Bering Strait link, whose district included the town of North Pole, said, "A rail connecting the continents is not a new idea, but is one that is long overdue. With a special opportunity of the Bering Strait—56 miles wide, 173 meters deep at the deepest place, and two islands in the middle for staging—this is a no-brainer. Also important is the fact that the area, which at one time in history was a land-bridge, is solid granite and not on a fault line.... Railroads are the most environmentally friendly way to move people and freight over the surface of the Earth. And, as well, trains are economically superior to other methods."

"I believe we must have enthusiasm, money, education, and desire from the world community for this to be completed. During the construction, and after completion, the World Land-Bridge and the economic revival will be recognized, experienced, and appreciated by the entire Earth's population. I will continue to support, and look forward to legislation passing our U.S. Congress making this vision a reality."

Hal B.H. Cooper, a consulting engineer from Kirkland, Wash., renowned for his advocacy of rail infrastructure projects internationally, gave a detailed report on The Alaska Canada Railway Cooridor Project, a proposed railroad connector between Fairbanks, Alaska and either Dawson Creek or Prince George, British Columbia. He showed the project to be both technologically and economically feasible, with an initial capital cost of $4 to $6 billion (in 2004 dollars) by 2010, which would increase to between $9 and $11 billion by 2020, with electrification. Freight could be expected to increase from an initial 5 to 10 million tons per year to between 70 and 120 million tons per year by 2050. The major commodities would be crude oil, petroleum products, forest products, and metal ores. Cooper said it could show a project payout period of 5 to 15 years, and an internal rate of return on investment of 10 to 20% per year.

Jim Muckerheide, a nuclear engineer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for 37 years, addressed the conference in a video presentation, entitled "Nuclear Power—the Technology and Leadership Required for Realizing the Nuclear Future." Muckerheide outlined the need for constructing 6,000 new nuclear power plants over the immediate period ahead, in order to meet the urgent needs for electric power worldwide.

 

Limari Navarrete of the LaRouche Youth Movement opened her report on the LYM organizing in the United States, by discussing the fallacy of thinking that the world can be changed one issue at a time. The role of the youth movement, she said, has been to break out of a fixed system.

She reviewed the seven-year history of the LYM, particularly around LaRouche's 2004 election campaign, and described his current intervention into a destructive political process which, if not changed, would bring a New Dark Age. The fight to save Social Security and the auto sector, and the drive to move the youth vote during the 2006 mid-term elections, helped illustrate the youth movement's capability to set into motion a dynamic process that can change history. She also highlighted the effectiveness of this approach in Canada, where the LYM shifted the vote for the Liberal Party of Canada's leader.

With the LaRouche PAC's "Is the Devil in Your Laptop?" pamphlet culminating years of development of the youth movement, she described the new ability the LYM has achieved, with the example of a report from Seattle, which demonstrated how the LYM for the first time is turning the campuses "upside-down," and laying the basis for recruitment to reality.

Valerie Trudel, a Canadian LYM member, took the audience through the historical battle between the American and British Systems, explaining how leading figures around the world broke with Britain's destructive free-trade doctrine, and took up the legacy of America's greatest patriots instead. She focussed on the roles of Americans Alexander Hamilton and Henry C. Carey, and their international cothinkers in the post-Lincoln age, specifically Russia's Count Sergei Witte and Dmitri Mendeleyev. Trudel also challenged the audience to continue, in our own age, the work of the American Revolution, at a time when the world has again become dominated by the British System.

 

Related Pages:

Eurasian Land-Bridge Achieves Breakthrough in Canada

Keynote Address by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.: The Time Has Come To End Wars and Return to the Principle of Westphalia