It often happens that events we view as isolated occurrences are connected as integral parts of a much larger picture, often as part of a wide-ranging plan, and frequently with important social, economic, and/or political implications which become evident only when seen in total. The several topics of this essay add a necessary context to all major social, commercial, and geo-political events of recent decades, which may help us in connecting dots. For this, it is extremely important to realise and understand that in these matters there are no accidents, that 'crises' (other than things like volcanic eruptions) do not just happen, and that the final result of any crisis, however it may appear, was the result intended.
© Getty Images
As one example, this many decades ago, we noticed that in our city in Canada one brand of American convenience store seemed to have a habit of opening new stores within a stone's throw of the existing 'mom and pop' variety stores (as they were then called),
these shiny and attractive new shops inevitably resulting in the closure of our traditional community stores with the resulting loss of livelihood of the owner-families. It was a surprise to learn later that this practice existed in all cities in Canada and it eventually became clear that each such apparently minor event reflected the
gradual execution of an astonishingly predatory plan to not only become established in another country but to progressively eliminate all existing competition in doing so. The dawning of this realisation came too late for authorities to take preventive action,
resulting in the destruction of what had been an important part of Canada's community cultural landscape.
© Blue Moon of ShanghaiMark Reilly.
In a different category, and more recently, we learned that during a period of ten or more years ending around 2015,
GlaxoSmithKline engaged in an enormous tax and marketing fraud in China (
1) (
2),
involving billions of RMB in massive and systemic bribery and falsified accounts, the discovery punctuated by the company's China CEO Mark Reilly fleeing the country on the first plane to England "on a previously-planned business trip", and intending to remain there "to help with the investigation from that end". (
3) Lacking additional information, we tend to view this revelation as a domestic issue involving the typical group of 'a few bad apples'.
© Blue Moon of Shanghai
having been fined billions of dollars in the US alone for repeated occurrences. This additional knowledge substantially amends our perception of the picture. When, with a bit of additional investigation, we discover that
all the major pharma companies have repeatedly
engaged in a wide range of criminal activities resulting in fines totaling tens of billions of dollars in the US alone, our appreciation of GSK's activities in China, and of the entire landscape of big pharma, are much altered and more accurate. We now know something we didn't know before, and we now understand we are not dealing with a few bad apples in an isolated if unfortunate event,
but with an industry corrupt to its core, worldwide. (
4) (
5)
Comment: So...just how much of America's money has disappeared down the Ukraine war sewer? Pentagon says well over $50B and, gratis the current administration, no end in sight.