The final panel of the Schiller Institute conference was on the urgent necessity of development for all nations on Earth. Dennis Speed, a leader of the LaRouche movement for many years, began his presentation by describing the founding of the Committee for the Coincidence of Opposites by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche and former Surgeon General of the United States Joycelyn Elders. He cited Chinese President Xi Jinping’s presentation at a Davos World Economic Forum of the same concept that Zepp-LaRouche and Elders understood. The idea is that human development depends on adequate health care for everyone, without which the development of humanity is compromised. Lyndon LaRouche recognized this and named the idea Bio-Defense. A proper health care system requires safe water, sanitation, transport, and energy in order to have a workable system of general hospitals that function as teaching hospitals.
Speed referenced the role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, when Dr. King reminded listeners of the importance of caring for the “least of these” as they would for the Almighty.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche explained Operation Ibn Sina, which she launched in response to the genocidal destruction of Afghanistan after August 2021, when U.S. and NATO troops pulled out, totally cutting off the outside funding which had sustained the country during the 20-year military occupation, and even imposed new sanctions. Beyond that, the U.S. and other agencies blocked Afghan access to its $9 billion in reserves that were deposited in U.S. Fed and other countries’ bank accounts. As a result, 23 million Afghanis are in danger of starvation and 98% are “food insecure.” Of 7 million children, more than 50% are in mortal danger.
Knowing that she had to rally forces around the globe to prevent a horrid disaster against innocents, Helga turned to the legendary physician Ibn Sina, who was the most advanced medical practitioner on Earth 1,000 years ago. His father was born in present-day Afghanistan and he in present-day Uzbekistan. Ibn Sina’s works on medicine were used widely in West Asia and Europe into the 18th century. Among his discoveries was that plagues can be transmitted by close proximity, and, therefore, prevented by quarantine. His work went beyond medicine to the study of other areas of philosophy. Zepp-LaRouche’s idea is that reminding Afghanis and their neighbors that a genius of this caliber originated in their homeland can inspire the optimism needed to overcome the situation now imposed on them.
Daud Azimi of the Peace National Front of Afghanistan gave a report on the difficulties that Afghanistan is still facing. There are various different ethnic groupings, some from adjoining countries, that are in conflict when cooperation is sorely needed. The acting Taliban government has few resources and is not recognized by other governments, so the situation remains very difficult.
