| (Copyright 2010) by John Jewell (London, England) |
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| My wife and I must confess we did stay up late on Thursday night last week. The date was the 31st December – so, yes, it was New Year’s Eve. We were not celebrating the New Year, but we did want to look in on the celebrations taking place in London and other parts of the world. We thought the fireworks displays in Sydney, Paris and in London that exploded on to our screen at midnight were excellent. But we felt that the people were somewhat subdued. There didn’t seem to be quite the same cheerfulness and carefree attitude of previous years. And who can wonder why! From the experiences of the United Kingdom and indeed the entire world over the past 12 months there was little to celebrate, apart from the fact that we were no longer in 2009! The outlook for 2010, as we mentioned last week in these pages, is little short of catastrophic. The one positive thing is that we are one year closer to the return of Jesus Christ. And he IS going to return! That event is the only thing that this world has to hold on to! In today’s world however there are those who just don’t believe in God, or in Jesus Christ and many who will actually mock and make fun of the persons of God and Christ. Then there are so many who, quite unknowingly, worship a false God and a false Christ. But we have now reached a point when we know there is no other hope for mankind. You may not like to face it! You may not want to read this Letter any further! You may not want to take and read the Newsletter any more, that though would be to be like the ostrich! Burying one’s head in the sand and hope that the bad news would go away. It isn’t going to go away! But neither is the good news! The prophet Isaiah and, by extension, God’s ministers down through the ages, are told to cry aloud, to lift up their voices like trumpets and show His people their sins. God tells us that it is our sins, our iniquities that have created a separation between us in general and God the Father. No wonder that in the churches, chapels, cathedrals up and down Britain and America there is no real contact with Him. We have not obeyed Him, we persist in keeping holy days which are not biblical! All based on pagan days! None of them honouring the one, true God. Isaiah speaks of the evil to come! In context we are looking the evil to come right in the face. We are now in the days of which Isaiah and Jesus Christ and the apostles spoke and wrote. As I write this letter my desk and my office in general, is piled high with cuttings of newspapers for just the last week or so. Far more than would have been the case even just two or three years ago. Into which nation’s hands do you think the world’s power is rapidly passing? Of today’s world the book of Revelation speaks of a nation that can organise an army of two hundred million. At no time in history could it have been possible to have considered an army, or force, of that number and strength, until now. You probably only need one guess as to which nation. The same one that is taking over the world’s productive capacity. You may not have heard of the rare earth elements; they form a group of 17 exotic metals which are indispensable to western technologies and have a value to those technologies of trillions of pounds. The Independent shows how China, the nation of which we speak, possesses about 50% of the world’s deposits of them and produces 97% of the global supplies. These rare earth elements, referred to as REEs, are essential in practically every industrial process or product in the western world. Products such as fibre-optic cables, advanced X-ray machines, flat TV screens, movable fins on guided missiles; filters for viruses and navigation systems. They are essential to the technologies being developed to try to avert the worst effects of global warming. They are needed in the production of wind turbines, catalytic converters, car batteries and they are an irreplaceable component of low energy light bulbs. They are used in the nuclear industry and oil refining – the list is endless. Here is a quote from The Independent of 2nd January: “In response to Chinese reductions in exports, global manufacturers are forced to move factories making rare-earth rich components to China to ensure continued production.” The report continues to say China has been reducing its export of these REEs and over the last 7 years it has reduced by 40% the amount of REEs available for export. To develop those sources outside of China would of necessity take between 5 and 10 years. Western industry no longer has the luxury of time. The Independent quoted Jack Lifton, an independent consultant, and a world expert on REEs who said: “A real crunch is coming. In America, Britain and elsewhere we have not yet woken up to the fact that there is an urgent need to secure the supply of rare earths from sources outside China….” It’s interesting to see how the newspaper refers specifically to America and Britain. We have mentioned a number of times in past issues of the Newsletter how the bible refers to the “time of Jacob’s trouble…” In biblical prophecy this is referring to the descendants of the two grandsons of Jacob who together comprise the birth right nations. Those descendants are, today, these two nations. Two nations which are rapidly running into the worst time of trouble in history. Another newspaper report says this: “Worryingly, …. We enter an era in which America’s power seems set to wane while that of China’s rises….” Another report is of the establishment on 1stJanuary, of 7 nations in the east coming together to inaugurate the biggest free trade area in the world. This covers nearly 2 billion people in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand along with, guess who, yes, you’re right! China. Forming the Association of southeast Asian nations. In short, the ASEAN! To quote the report “China, by far the biggest member, holds the whip hand in the bloc, with some voicing concerns that the country’s manufacturers, who have become the engine behind the world’s economy for a number of years, will force overseas competitors out of business.” At the same time as it is driving the new south eastern Asian bloc China is not neglecting other and useful nations such as Brazil, Russia and India. Together, with China, known as the BRICS! The power, financially, industrially, and militarily is considerable. China has also not neglected Europe in the shape of Germany from whom China buys a lot of machine tools. Trade which was noticeably instrumental in bringing Germany and consequently the rest of continental Europe out of recession. We have been saying for a number of years now that a major weakness of Britain’s economy is that we don’t make things of any real importance anymore. Why is it that British governments seem to be unable to understand that true profit is when you take something, work with it thereby adding genuine value to it, it is then worth more. One can then sell it and so gain a profit. The British wanted the easy life and saw it in financial services, at which we were told the City of London was the world’s best and most capable. If that was the case, why was so many billions of pounds needed to rescue the British banks and finance houses. Money that had to be borrowed from other nations. Money that had also to be printed. So much so that it is very doubtful if Britain will escape serious inflation. If the citizen did some of the thing’s governments do they would be put into prison! So, as we no longer make things to any extent, we have to buy them from where? China! The British have developed a new game! When shopping see if you can buy something not made in China. The Americans have been playing much the same games. By the way, China now has so much money invested in America that it could wreck the American economy overnight. The year of 2009 which just gave way to 2010 saw further opening shots in the new war. The International Herald Tribune for the 1st January reported that America put tariffs on Chinese tyres, and then China did the same on American and Russian steel. The same newspaper also reported that “…. the U.S. government is now imposing new duties on imports of steel pipes from China, the latest sign of trade tensions between the two countries. The case is the largest steel trade dispute in U.S. history….” In the meantime, while America and Britain are heavily engaged in fighting battles in Iraq and Afghanistan, China is spending more money in extracting Iraqi oil than America is. It has also made long term arrangements to buy natural gas from Iraq. In Afghanistan while America and Britain are fighting useless and costly battles, what China is doing is little short of spectacular. It is building a new power station and a new coal mine to feed the power station. It is also building a smelting plant to refine copper and it is building a new railway to take coal to the power plant and copper back to China. The Sunday Telegraph for 3rd January showed that Beijing, China’s seat of government, is putting a huge effort into developing the technology that would render the West’s superior military firepower useless. This is an electronic technology which is already attacking American installations. It’s reported that in any one year there will be 100,000 attacks by the Chinese upon U.S. government computers — they have already successfully penetrated American military computer systems. The newspaper shows how the Chinese government teams of “hackers” can render useless the computers controlling power stations, water companies, air traffic control systems and government and financial systems. Both in the U.S. and in Britain. In a war, what happens! The strongest nation bombs the infra-structure, it destroys the power stations, communications of all kinds, water supply systems and government offices. In the new wars it is only necessary to destroy trade and then the infrastructure by using electronic warfare. The financial systems are inevitably destroyed. From any definition, from any viewpoint, we are looking at the first stages of a new world war. In the bible, in the book of Revelation in chapter 9 it refers to an army of two hundred million from the direction of the river Euphrates. The Euphrates runs through Iraq and Syria and is close to Iran. We then think of an army of soldiers with guns, rockets, bombs including nuclear. But what about a different kind of army which weakens a nation by first of all trade war, then electronic war and then finally attack with military force. A veteran economist, Roger Bootle, said that China is sitting on a time bomb. And it is ticking! |
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