Epoch INSIGHT Issue 16

FROM RICHES TO RUSTBELT A microcosm of the 2022 midterms

By Michael Sakal

FEBRUARY 11–17, 2022 | $6.95

NO. 6

Editor’s Note

From Riches to Rustbelt once described as the “industrial empire in Ohio’s vacationland,” Ohio’s Lorain County has been in steady decline for decades.

Large industries that provided tens of thousands of jobs have disappeared and the county is just hanging on.

In many ways, the story of Lorain is that of America.

Ahead of this year’s midterms, INSIGHT reporter Michael Sakal went to the county to gauge election expectations.

The county—a democrat stronghold for six decades—chose Donald Trump over Joe Biden in 2020.

“The unions aren’t dead, but they’re not what they used to be,” said David Arredondo, the county's Republican Party's vice chair. “It’s taken a while, but the voting patterns have been changing.”

The county has 216,562 registered voters, 168,256 aren’t affiliated with any party or can be considered independents.

The head of Lorain County’s Democratic Party, Anthony Giardini, believes instead that without Trump on the ballot, his party will do well in the midterms.

“Outside of Lorain and Elyria, the two biggest cities in the county, you’re seeing a different middle class,” Arredondo said. “It’s changing from a blue-collar manufacturing and farming region to one of skilled trades, an educated workforce, and good-paying jobs.”

Read this week’s cover story to get a unique insight into Lorain County and what it might mean for the overall direction of similar regions.

Jasper Fakkert Editor-in-chief

2 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

JASPER FAKKERT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF CHANNALY PHILIPP LIFE & TRADITION, TRAVEL EDITOR CHRISY TRUDEAU MIND & BODY EDITOR

FROM RICHES TO RUSTBELT A microcosm of the 2022 midterms

By Michael Sakal

CRYSTAL SHI HOME, FOOD EDITOR FEBRUARY 11–17, 2022 | $6.95

NO. 6

ON THE COVER Ohio’s Lorain County is an illustration of much of America— its vibrant industrial base has largely disappeared, leaving many of its residents struggling. What does the county predict for this year’s midterm elections?

ILLUSTRATION BY THE EPOCH TIMES (IMAGE CREDIT: LAWRENCE D. THORNTON/ ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES)

SHARON KILARSKI ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR BILL LINDSEY LUXURY EDITOR FEI MENG & BIBA KAJEVICH ILLUSTRATORS SHANSHAN HU PRODUCTION CONTACT US THE EPOCH TIMES ASSOCIATION INC. 229 W.28TH ST., FL.7 NEW YORK, NY 10001 ADVERTISING ADVERTISENOW@EPOCHTIMES.COM SUBSCRIPTIONS, GENERAL INQUIRIES, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR HELP.THEEPOCHTIMES.COM (USPS21-800)IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE EPOCH MEDIA GROUP, 9550 FLAIR DR. SUITE 411, EL MONTE, CA 91731-2922.

PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT EL MONTE, CA, AND ADDITIONAL MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO THE EPOCH TIMES, 229 W. 28TH STREET, FLOOR 5, NEW YORK, NY 10001.

vol. 2 | no. 6 | february 11–17, 2022

22 | Micro Schools

48 | Economic Recovery

As students exit the public system, mini schools are gaining traction.

Can Biden flaunt the strongest growth in four decades?

49 | Evergrande

26 | Unreal Estate

An LA-based investment firm has put Beijing in a tough position.

Virtual properties are selling for millions on emerging metaverse platforms.

50 | Valentine’s

Day Redux Make Valentine’s Day about reconnecting with loved ones.

34 | Supply Chain Craft breweries are innovating as aluminum cans become scarcer.

52 | Upholding

38 | Remote Learning

Studies show academics and graduation rates took a dive during virtual schooling.

40 | Farm to Chips

A third-generation Ohio farm sells land to Intel for microchip plants.

44 | Global Minimum Tax The free world is on the cusp of empowering a multinational monopoly.

45 | China Business

Western businesses continue to sell as much as they can to China.

46 | US Economy

The latest economic report offers reason for concern.

47 | US–China Relations The Sunshine State has taken steps to decouple from China.

Features

12 | Explicit Sex Ed While some California parents are fighting the state’s policies, others are pulling kids out of school, or moving.

16 | 2022 Midterms A struggling rural county in Ohio is a portend of a political shift at the polling booth this year.

THE LEAD

30 | Growing Influence China is tightening its grip on Latin America through booming trade deals made during the pandemic.

Protesters against vaccine mandates block Highway 402 near Sarnia, Canada, on the border with Michigan, on Feb. 10. The highway serves as an alternate route to the United States and has been taking the traffic diverted from the Windsor– Detroit border crossing, which has been blocked by protestors since Feb. 7.

GEOFF ROBINS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Free Speech Liel Leibovitz discusses the importance of feeling free to speak the truth.

58 | Walking

Through History The streets of Pisa are an outdoor museum of architectural masterpieces.

60 | Protecting

Your Wrapper Our skin protects us in many ways, so treat yours right.

63 | High-Tech TVs

Televisions keep getting better, as seen in this eclectic collection.

66 | Tortillas With Soul

Sobre Masa’s housemade tortillas let the corn speak for itself.

67 | Breaking the Ice How to be the person who conquers awkward silences.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 3

SPOTLIGHT Emirates Equestrianism EMIRATIS RIDE THEIR HORSES at sunset in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 8. Horse riding is one of the oldest traditions in the United Arab Emirates. A ride in the desert or along the beach can be a great way to experience the heritage and culture of the region.

PHOTO BY KARIM SAHIB/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

SHEN YUN SHOP

Great Culture Revived.

Fine Jewelry | Italian Scarves | Home Decor

ShenYunShop.com

6 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

Tel: 1.80 0.208.2384

NAT ION • WOR L D • W H AT H A P P E N E D T H I S W E E K

The Week

No.06

Soldiers stand guard during a campaign to vaccinate health workers with China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, at the Ollantaytambo stadium in Lima, Peru, on Feb. 19, 2021.

PHOTO BY ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

China Tightens Grip on Latin America

30

Wireless Radiation, 5G May Endanger Animals: Study

California Parents Fed Up With Explicit Sex Education

Remote Learning Slashes Graduation Rates

Dolphins, deer, birds, bees, and even microbes are showing effects. 28

While some parents are fighting the state’s policies, others are pulling kids out of school, or moving. 12

Studies show academic proficiency and graduation rates took a dive when in-person schooling stopped. 38

INSIDE I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 7

The Week in Short US

de n ] t’n seo d ac ir e mA [ ​​“

o t d e n t s u j e w ,s a l e r o m sko b eht no sw a l eht esu t a h t s la n i m r c es h t c iv n oc

$54

BILLION

e w t a h t er u s e ka m d na ” .er h t u o y d a er l a er — Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-Tenn.)

— Mark Brnovich, Arizona attorney general

$600 TRANSACTIONS Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) has introduced a bill that would strike down a provision of Democrats’ American Rescue Plan spending bill that requires third-party payment processors such as Venmo and CashApp to report transactions of more than $600 to the IRS.

$1

TRILLION American households took on $1.02 trillion in new debt in 2021, the most in 14 years, at levels not seen since before the 2008– 2009 financial crisis, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

33 CHINESE FIRMS have been added to the U.S. Commerce Department’s red-flag list, warning U.S. companies that they should treat the firms with extra caution.

75 LEADERS—More than 75 religious leaders from a variety of faiths have sent a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling for scrapping the plan to introduce an Instagram version targeting kids under the age of 13, citing the potential emotional, physical, and spiritual damage.

8 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: COURTESY OF REP. DIANA HARSHBARGER'S OFFICE, COURTESY OF MARK BRNOVICH, SHUTTERSTOCK; RIGHT PAGE FROM TOP: CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES, JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

“[The southern border crisis] can satisfy the definition of ‘actually invaded’ and ‘invasion’ under the U.S. Constitution.”

Pfizer said it expects to see continued demand for its products this year, forecasting $54 billion in combined sales of its COVID19 vaccine shots and antiviral pills.

The Week in Short US PANDEMIC

CDC Director: Schools Should Still Require Masks THE DIRECTOR of the Centers

NATIONAL SECURITY

Biden DHS Declares Heightened Terrorism Threat THE U.S. DEPARTMENT of Homeland Security (DHS) has declared a height-

ened terrorism threat due to “false and misleading narratives,” misinformation, and “conspiracy theories.”

“The United States remains in a heightened threat environment fueled by several factors, including an online environment filled with false or misleading narratives and conspiracy theories, and other forms of mis- dis- and mal-information introduced and/or amplified by foreign and domestic threat actors,” the DHS bulletin stated.

The agency didn’t say which foreign or domestic actors are responsible for the alleged proliferation of misinformation or disinformation.

VACCINE MANDATE

US Air Force Grants 9 Religious Exemptions THE AIR FORCE said it has approved

nine religious exemptions from taking the COVID-19 vaccine, while more than 3,000 requests have been rejected so far.

According to data from the Air Force, eight of the exemptions to the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate were granted after being submitted, and a further religious exemption was approved after an appeal.

A total of 3,222 religious accommodation requests have been rejected, A U.S. Air Force member reconstitutes and the Air Force is processing 2,556 the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in pending requests for exemptions and Boston on Feb. 16, 2021.

732 pending appeals.

The Air Force is the second U.S. military branch to approve religious exemptions to the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, although the nine approved so far represent a tiny fraction of the more than 6,400 requested by Air Force troops.

for Disease Control and Prevention said that students and faculty in schools should still be required to wear masks.

“We continue to endorse universal masking in schools,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky told Reuters.

Walensky’s comments came after the governors of New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut announced plans to drop their respective school mask mandates, and Democrats in the Virginia Senate helped pass a bill that would prohibit districts from requiring face coverings.

US–CHINA

GOP Lawmaker Condemns China’s Unjust Detentions SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.) con-

demned Beijing’s “gross” abuses in targeting those who spoke out against the Chinese regime's rule ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, saying such a move “deserves the scorn of every freedom-loving nation.”

“These latest arrests are the latest example of Beijing’s willingness to silence and imprison religious minorities and political dissidents,” Scott said in a statement.

The remark came after police arrested an adherent of the spiritual group Falun Gong three days before the Games started, and a veteran Hong Kong pro-democracy activist hours before the opening ceremony.

The Republican lawmaker accused the International Olympic Committee of remaining silent, which “makes it complicit in the human rights abuses the Chinese people experience every day at the hand of the Chinese Communist Party.”

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 9

The Week in Short World AUSTRALIA

Australian Spy Agency Stops Election Interference Plot AUSTR ALIA’S DOMESTIC SPY

Chilean Foreign Minister Andrés Allamand delivers a statement at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia, Brazil, on Aug. 31, 2021.

CHILE

Chilean Foreign Minister Resigns Amid Migration Crisis CHILE’S FOREIGN MINISTER Andrés Allamand has stepped down amid

EUROPE

More European Countries Roll Back COVID-19 Restrictions

FRANCE, GREECE, AND PORTUGAL became the latest European countries

to relax COVID-19-related restrictions, with the three nations easing travel restrictions.

For example, vaccinated tourists won’t have to provide a negative COVID-19 test to enter, although unvaccinated people will. Greece also dropped pre-departure requirements for testing.

French officials have announced the country will drop a requirement of a negative COVID-19 test for vaccinated people from outside the European Union.

The further relaxation of rules comes as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and the Czech Republic have dropped domestic COVID-19 rules, including vaccine passports in some cases.

10 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

NATO

NATO Considers ‘Longer Term’ Presence in Eastern Europe NATO WILL CONSIDER a

longer-term military presence in Eastern European countries amid heightened tensions between Russia and Ukraine, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, as NATO forces conducted military exercises in the region.

“We are considering more longer-term adjustments to our posture, our presence in the eastern part of the alliance. No final decision has been made on that but there is a process now going on within NATO,” he told reporters in Brussels.

THIS PAGE: EVARISTO SA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES; RIGHT PAGE FROM TOP: YAMIL LAGE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, GAELLE GIRBES/GETTY IMAGES, RITESH SHUKLA/GETTY IMAGES, YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

accusations of abandoning his post as a migration crisis continues to unfold at the nation’s northern border.

Undeterred by strict pandemic measures, dangerous altitudes, the extreme climate, and a lack of water for many miles, migrants have been crossing the barren frontier at the Chile–Bolivia border to find work in Chile's larger cities.

Chileans have been protesting against the surge of migrants filtering down from the high desert, which has led to violent encounters between demonstrators, police, and immigrants.

Allamand hosted a meeting in Madrid on Feb. 3 as the Ibero-American secretary general, which led Chilean officials to criticize him for abandoning his duties during a domestic crisis.

The undersecretary of foreign relations, Carolina Valdivia, will replace Allamand during the transitional period between the administrations of outgoing President Sebastián Piñera and President-elect Gabriel Boric.

agency, ASIO, has disrupted a plot by an unnamed foreign state-power to help friendly candidates get elected in this year’s federal elections.

Director-General of ASIO Mike Burgess made the announcement in his annual threat assessment speech, saying the plot was an excellent example of what political interference “actually looks like.”

According to Burgess, a wealthy individual with “direct and deep connections” to a foreign government and its intelligence agencies acted as a puppeteer, hiring an Australian proxy to secretly shape the political scene of a local electorate to benefit the foreign power directly.

Burgess declined to name the electorate and the foreign power but noted that an offshore bank account supported the interference operation with hundreds of thousands of dollars in operating expenses.

World in Photos

World in Photos

1.

1. A classic American car drives down the Malecón as strong winds push a wave against the shoreline, in Havana on Feb. 9. 2. A Ukrainian serviceman near Verkhnotoretske, Ukraine, on Feb. 7. Regional tensions remain high as Russia continues to amass soldiers and military equipment along its border with Ukraine, where large swaths of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions are held by Russian-backed separatists.

3. Hindu devotees bathe in the Ganges river during the month-long annual Magh Mela festival in Allahabad, India, on Feb. 5. 4. Community members work to stop the spread of the last wildfires at Aberdare National Park in Kenya on Feb. 7.

2.

3.

4.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 11

EDUCATION

CALIFORNIA PARENTS FED UP WITH EXPLICIT SEX EDUCATION While some parents are fighting the state’s policies, others are pulling kids out of school, or moving

By Vanessa Serna

12 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

The library at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles on Aug. 13, 2020.

PHOTO BY PHOTO BY RODIN ECKENROTH/GETTY IMAGES

S

In Focus Curriculum

ome California parents are either fighting or fleeing the state after uncovering sexually explicit sex education instruction for children, including on how to use sex toys, masturbate, and perform oral sex.

Sex education has been turned on its head in the last handful of years, morphing from talking about contraception and how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases (STD), to teaching sexuality, according to Stephanie Yates, a mother of four.

“If a school teacher taught this outside of school, they would be arrested, prosecuted, sent to prison, and then, when released, put on the sex registry list,” Yates told Insight.

The framework—which provides only guidance for schools and teachers—follows the recommendations of the California Healthy Youth Act approved by the Legislature in 2015 with the intention of providing students information to avoid unintended pregnancies and to develop healthy attitudes towards growth, sexual orientation, gender, and relationships.

Only recently, when COVID-19 forced students into online-only instruction did some parents learn that today’s sex education in California seems to have gone way past the “facts of life.”

“Parents do not know what is being taught,” Yates said. “They think it’s just the regular birds and the bees about anatomy, the basics of how babies are made.”

SCHOOL DISTRICTS CAN pick and choose from

the framework what they want in their curricula as long as it complies with the state’s mandatory standards, which include providing students with the knowledge to make decisions regarding sexuality, how to deal with sexual peer pressure, and their gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, according to the state education code.

Yates attempted to have her questions answered about the curriculum from her school but was unsuccessful. She protested multiple times in Sacramento as part of her fight to be heard.

Fed up, she decided to pick up her family and move out of state near the end of 2021.

“It’s not really a safe place to raise children at all,” she said. “I needed to do what I needed to do to protect my kids.”

Gracey Van Der Mark, a parent whose children attended schools in the Ocean View and Huntington Beach districts, also has tried to have the state remove explicit books from the approved-for-use list.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 13

In Focus Curriculum

One such book for fourth grade through sixth grade is titled “Sex, Puberty, and All that Stuff: A Guide to Growing Up,” by Jacqui Bailey, which discusses masturbation in detail and explains how to achieve sexual pleasure with others.

“I WAS SHOCK ED by the material

that I saw,” Van Der Mark told Insight.

“I thought I was involved and informed, and I had no idea.”

Van Der Mark also discovered teacher materials that linked to a website called TeenSource.org, which allows teenagers to sign-up to receive advice and information on where to find free sexual health clinics and free condoms—all via text message.

The website further elaborates on alternative sexual acts, such as oral sex and “hand jobs.”

It’s unknown which schools, if any, share these websites with students.

Ocean View said it hasn’t.

“We’ve tailored our sex education curriculum to exactly what is appropriate for our students,” Ocean View School Board President Gina Clayton-Tarvin told Insight.

Van Der Mark, who has run for seats on both the Huntington Beach City Council and Ocean View School Board went to Sacramento to voice her concerns.

After then-California Assembly mem-

“If a school teacher taught [such explicit sex education] outside of school, they would be arrested, prosecuted, sent to prison, and then when released, put on the sex registry list.”

Stephanie Yates, mother of four

THE BOOK WAS R EMOV ED from

ber Shirley Weber refused to meet with her, Van Der Mark protested by reading aloud excerpts from Bailey’s book at a California Board of Education meeting in March 2019.

“It teaches [students] how to give oral sex in a lot of detail,” Van Der Mark, who had dropped by the assemblywoman’s

the guidance for schools and teachers in May 2019 after parents, including Van Der Mark—whose youngest child graduated from high school two years ago—protested.

Four others that have been removed include, “My Princess Boy,” “The ‘What’s Happening to My Body?’ Book for Boys,” “The ‘What’s Happening to my Body?’

Book for Girls,” “Who Are You?: The Kids Guide to Gender Identity,” and “Changing You!: A Guide to Body Changes and Sexuality.”

Insight searched through the K–12 Health Education guidance and identified more than 100 books, documentaries, and resources approved by the state for schools to reference.

Only a handful have controversial Amazon reviews, including two approved for grades four through six titled “Will Puberty Last My Whole Life? REAL Answers to Real Questions From Preteens About Body Changes, Sex, and Other Growing Up Stuff” by Julie Metzger and “Sex Is a Funny Word: A Book About Bodies, Feelings, and YOU” by Cory Silverberg.

Van Der Mark requested in 2019 for these books, along with “It’s Not the Stork! A Book About Girls, Boys, Babies, Bodies, Families and Friends” by Robie H. Harris, to be removed, but was unsuccessful.

CLOCKWISE FROM L: JOHN FREDRICKS/THE EPOCH TIMES, EZRA SHAW/GETTY IMAGES, GUNNAR ASSMY/SHUTTERSTOCK

“S.E.X.: The All-You-Need-To-Know Sexuality Guide to Get You Through Your Teens and Twenties” by Heather Corinna.

14 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

office unannounced, said. “This is a book that the California Department of Education thought was appropriate for our fifth-grade classes.”

Weber, who is now secretary of state, didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment.

While Bailey’s book remains as part of the framework, parents have gotten other books removed, such as “S.E.X.: The AllYou-Need-To-Know Sexuality Guide to Get You Through Your Teens and Twenties” by Heather Corinna.

That 400-page book, which includes graphic imagery of female and male anatomy, covers topics that run the gamut from sexually transmitted diseases and sex acts from start to finish, to abortion laws, gender identity, and navigating relationships.

One brief segment in the book provides a manual to “fisting,” explaining in detail how to properly do it to achieve pleasure.

In Focus Curriculum

When COVID-19 forced students into online-only instruction, some parents found out that today’s sex education had gone way past the “facts of life.”

While some parents are fighting the state’s policies, others have had enough.

“The best actions that parents can take to protect their kids includes pulling their children out of public schools and deciding to put them in either private schools or homeschooling,” said Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, a legal defense organization focused on parental rights. “That is the biggest backdoor for parents.

“Right now, many other parents have decided to simply just leave the state altogether.”

Other complaints Dacus said that he has heard include parents of first and second graders who observed their children watching SpongeBob Squarepants cartoons, assigned by their teacher, about sexuality, same-sex relationships, and gender identity dysphoria.

“This is not productive, but actually potentially very harmful to a child who is working to solidify their gender identity and don’t need any adversity,” Dacus said. “It’s almost practically impossible for a parent to expect their child to go

One 400-page book includes graphic imagery of female and male anatomy, and covers topics that run the gamut from sex acts to gender identity.

through K–12 in a California government school and still hold to their traditional beliefs or traditional religious beliefs.”

As such, Dacus has been assisting churches and community groups to start homeschool co-ops.

As some parents are seeking alternative education options, they can “opt” their children out of the state’s instruction. An attempt to have a less-passive “opt-in” option for parents with children in sixth grade or younger failed to gain traction in Sacramento in 2020.

During a hearing on that piece of legislation, its sponsor, state Sen. Mike Morrell warned parents—hundreds from across the state who had flown to the capital for the hearing—to stay engaged regarding what is going on in California classrooms or else “lose control of the ability to raise their own children.”

“We are having our own private version of ‘Animal Farm,’” he said at the time, referring to George Orwell’s satire book about totalitarianism. “Policymakers in this building want to raise your children.”

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 15

2022 ELECTIONS

OHIO’S RUSTBELT A MICROCOSM

FOR MIDTERMS A struggling rural county is predicting political change at the polling booth this year

A view of downtown Lorain, Ohio.

PHOTO BY ALEXANDER WOOLEDGE/CC BY-SA 4.0

16 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

O

By Michael Sakal

HIO’S L OR A IN C O U N T Y, located along Lake Erie 30 miles west of Cleveland, is a textbook example of a region that has gone from riches to rustbelt.

Because of the protracted deterioration of major manufacturing, the resulting loss of jobs, and the county’s empty downtown storefronts, many consider it ground zero for the direction that the region—and maybe the United States—could go in next.

The future is in voters’ hands, and it begins with the state’s May 3 primaries for the 2022 midterm elections.

Some see the 2022 midterm elections as an important turning point because of the issues at hand that quickly emerged in 2021 and are continuing into this year: inflation, supply chain problems, high gasoline prices, workforce shortages, new variants of COVID-19, unrest around the world, and chaos at the southern border.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 17

The Lead Politics

I WOULD SAY LORAIN COUNTY IS A 50-50 COUNTY. Anthony Giardini, executive chairman, Lorain County Democratic Party

SOME BELIEVE THAT the seats in play

18 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

CLOCKWISE FROM L: COURTESY OF ANTHONY GIARDINI, MICHAEL SAKAL/THE EPOCH TIMES, MICHAEL SAKAL/THE EPOCH TIMES

are up for grabs by either major political party. Although Lorain County has been a Democrat stronghold for at least six decades, former President Donald Trump’s victory there during the 2020 election signaled that times could be changing.

“That was big,” said Tom Patton of Avon Lake, who owned Avon Lake Beach Park Plaza along Lake Erie for 20 years.

Patton, who has a large collection of Lake Shore Electric Railway memorabilia, plans to place a museum at the plaza.

Anthony Giardini, the executive chairman of the Lorain County Democratic Party, agreed that the area has been changing from blue to red alongside the development of housing in the cities of Avon, Avon Lake, and North Ridgeville.

Giardini, who has served as the executive chairman for seven years, told Insight that he believes that the county is doing well—speaking from an economic, quality of life, and political point of view.

“I would say Lorain County is a 50–50 county,” he said. “Lorain County is still growing. The economy is decent, not super great, but decent. On housing developments, we don’t get too high, and we don’t get too low.

“Bendix Brakes are expanding in Avon.

There’s also the Duck Tape plant off of Interstate 90 in Avon providing jobs. We no longer have the major or huge employers employing thousands, but we have a lot of medium-sized industries.

“If there’s a national downturn, I don’t believe we’ll be hit as hard.

There’s not extreme poverty or bad crime—not to say we don’t have any, but not a lot of it. We also need to focus on lakefront development and establishing things that make Lorain County a destination area.”

David Arredondo, the executive chairman of the Lorain County Republican Party, told Insight that he has an optimisRecently, newer restaurants and businesses such as Brass and tic outlook for the Bronze Foundry Bar, Fresco Bistro, and Union Town Provisions have Republican Party. opened on Broadway Avenue in the heart of Lorain's downtown.

After narrowly losing the county in the 2016 presidential election, post in Ohio again is in play.

Trump flipped it in the 2020 election Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, is and won by a margin of nearly 4,000 running for reelection and facing Revotes against Joe Biden, marking the publicans Joe Blystone, Jim Renacci, first time a Republican had won Lorain and Ron Hood in the primary. On the County since Ronald Reagan in 1980 Democrats’ ticket are John Cranley and and 1984. former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.

When Michelle Hung and David Patton, a Republican, is hopeful for Moore were elected to serve as Lorain change.

County commissioners in the Novem“Our area seems to be going red,” Patber 2020 election, it marked the first ton said. “When Trump won here, it was time in 60 years that two of the three huge. I believe northern and northeast commissioners were Republicans.

Ohio have a lot to offer, but I think Ohio needs to work on its tax structure.

IN THE 2022 MIDTERM, Republican Jeff “Look where people are moving—TexRiddell is running for commissioner as, Florida, and Tennessee. We need to for the first time and looking to unseat do something to keep people here.”

Matt Lundy, a Democrat who has served Patton was quick to say that the sale two terms. of the GenOn Energy Services coal-fired With the midterms nearing, the top power plant in the fall of 2021 to devel-

The Lead Politics

oper Charah Solutions opens up a lot of possibilities.

Charah, an environmental remediation company, plans to shut down the plant in April and begin remediation on the 40-acre site for major mixed-use development.

“Overall, I think people in Lorain County are conservative,” Patton said. “We’re not anti-police. We don’t embrace communism—and a lot of people here see what’s going on.”

PLANS HAVE ALSO been recently an-

nounced for a naval submarine repair and maintenance yard in Lorain along the Black River—the first major waterfront development in nearly 40 years.

Arredondo said one political party having a stronghold for decades has hurt the region, despite its assets of lakefront property, available land along its interstates, and buildings. But he remained optimistic about “the potential” for Lorain County.

“There’s more of an awareness of what’s going on out there, with what’s happening in our country,” Arredondo told Insight. “You have to look back to the 2016 elections.

“In the 2016 primary, more Republicans turned out to vote [about 45 ,000] t ha n the Democrats [roughly 39,000], the first time in Lorain County history. There was a surge of candidates for offices that never held or ran for office before. People are stepping up because they want to see change.

“Your primary elections usually are a good indicator of how the party vote is going to go. I would say Lorain County is ground zero for needed political change, definitely in Ohio.”

Of Lorain County’s 216,562 registered voters, 168,256 aren’t affiliated with any party or could be considered independents, Paul Adams, director of the Lorain County Board of Elections, told Insight.

There are 31,038 registered Democrats, 17,183 registered Republicans, and 85 Libertarians in the county, according to Adams.

He noted that there was a surge of 12,993 new registered voters between 2019 and 2020, up to 218,506 from 205,513.

It appeared as though Trump had won Lorain County in the 2016 election by 300 votes on election night. Then, after all of the provisional ballots were counted, Trump lost to Hillary Clinton by 131 votes, according to the results.

Giardini said Trump surprised him

LORAIN COUNTY IS GROUND ZERO FOR NEEDED POLITICAL CHANGE, DEFINITELY IN OHIO. David Arredondo, executive chairman, Lorain County Republican Party

by winning the county over Joe Biden.

“I would equate Trump to Ronald Reagan,” he said. “He said a lot of things that caused him to appeal to a lot of people. What he said appealed to a lot of Democrats.”

Without Trump on the ballot, Giardini believes that the Democrats will do well in the midterms.

“We’re definitely going to get out there and work hard. There’s no doubt about that,” he said.

Arredondo, who has served as executive chairman of the Lorain County Republican Party for nearly two years, believes that a change in the county’s political makeup is coming.

“Outside of Lorain and Elyria, the two biggest cities in the county, you’re seeing a different middle class,” Arredondo said.

“It’s changing from a blue-collar manufacturing and farming region to one of skilled trades, an educated workforce, and good-paying jobs.

“We’re no longer a highly industrial union area that drives the vote.”

Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, has an 8.5 percent sales tax, while Lorain County’s sales tax rate is 6.5 percent.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 19

The Lead Politics

MANY DECADES AGO, the medium-sized

sembly line in late 2005 and shuttered city of Lorain, Ohio—the largest city in the plant.

Lorain County—was called the “Industrial Empire in Ohio’s Vacationland.”

IN THE 1980S AND 1990S, U.S. Steel and It was during a time when most Ford continued bleeding manufacthings were “Made in the U.S.A.,” and turing jobs.

Lorain boasted itself as the home of The steel mill, which has been a Adm. Ernest J. King, commander of presence in the city since the early the U.S. Naval Fleet during World War 1890s, is struggling.

II, and world-renowned author Toni Arredondo, who also served as viceMorrison. chair of the Lorain County Republican The money flowed as generations of Party for 13 years, said he has noticed high school graduates grabbed an im- a shift toward the right in the region mediate ticket to the middle class by ac- since the Lorain Ford plant closed. quiring lifelong jobs at the Lorain Works His brother Joel Arredondo is a Demof U.S. Steel (now Republic Steel)—which ocrat and has served on the city counonce employed 12,000 people in the cil for 13 years.

1950s and 1960s—the American Ship More than 60 years ago, when Building Co., Thew Shovel, and Ford’s then-presidential candidate John F. KenLorain assembly plant. nedy came through the city of Lorain on But it’s not that way anymore, and it a campaign stop, it created quite a frenzy. hasn’t been for a long time.

The city’s then well-oiled Democratic Three of those four key factories are machine rode a blue wave of excitement gone. When overtime is offered at the and entrenchment for many years, but mill, it’s newsworthy. now, some see that machine as clogging Boarded up and bogging or empty storewith an uncerfronts with tain future for “For Sale” or the party.

“Lease” signs “The unions hanging in the aren’t dead, IN 2020, TRUMP WON windows line but they’re not Lorain Country by a margin of nearly Elyria’s downwhat they used 4,000 votes, becoming the first town. to be,” David Republican to win the county since Lorain has Arredondo Ronald Reagan. been somesaid. “It’s takwhat more en a while, but successful in the voting patits downtown terns have been revitalization changing.” efforts by upgrading the performers The sentiments of Chris Foisy, a lifeappearing at The Palace Theatre and long Democrat who lives in Lorain, bringing in some new restaurants and echoed Arredondo’s. independent shops.

Lorain saw the closure of Thew FOISY’S GRANDFATHER Steve Dohanyos Shovel and the loss of 2,500 jobs in worked at the steel mill, while his father, 1983. American Ship Building, which Raymond Foisy, worked at Ford. was owned by then-New York Yankees Foisy, 43, who has been a realtor since owner George Steinbrenner and once leaving corporate sales a little more employed 4,500 people, closed the than two years ago, believes that the following year.

Democrats are doing a good job, at In the 1970s, Ford’s Lorain Assembly least on the local level.

Plant once boasted the largest UnitHe cited downtown revitalization ed Autoworkers Local in the United efforts along Broadway in downtown States, with a membership of 7,500, Lorain with new restaurants and some and it proudly produced 61 vehicles shopping plazas. per hour on the assembly line. Ford He has voted in eight presidential ran the last Econoline van off that as- elections and has always voted for the

4,000 VOTES

FROM TOP: SAM VARNHAGEN/FORD MEDIA CENTER, STEPHEN ZENNER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

20 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

The Lead Politics

Truck production at Ford's Ohio Assembly Plant, in the town of Avon, on Aug. 12, 2015.

Former President Donald Trump at a rally in Ohio, on June 26, 2021. Trump flipped Lorain County in the 2020 election.

Democratic candidate since Bill Clinton in 1996. He agreed with and supported former President Barack Obama’s stimulus package.

“WE DON’T HAVE AS STRONG as a union

base as we once did, and the reason for that is, we no longer have the union employers in town,” Foisy said. “I’d love to see more of a bigger use in the Ford site and the steel mill rejuvenated in some way. When you have a mass exodus of jobs like Lorain did, it’s hard to get other businesses to invest into coming in.

“I feel like our local leaders are doing a good job.”

Foisy cited the recent announcement of the proposed submarine repair yard under Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley, a Democrat.

Now, health care networks such as Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and Mercy Health have a strong presence throughout the county, and Lorain County Community College has been opening more satellite and departmental campuses.

Several years ago, the City of Avon approved a major tax break for Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems in order to keep the company from leaving Ohio and convince it to locate its new campus along Interstate 90.

“We have to develop new industries and attract them here,” Arredondo said. “The potential is here, and it’s great potential.

“There’s no point in looking back at the past. It’s what we have to look forward to.”

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 21

A LT E R N AT I V E E D U CAT I O N

A MicroSchool Boom As students exit the public system, mini schools are gaining traction

T

By Allan Stein

22 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

Students of Acton Academy in Laconia, N.H. The school’s administrator launched the micro-school program in 2019. course, forced lots of families to consider what format works for them and their child in uncertain times, and many of them are turning to micro-schools.”

According to Prenda’s website, a micro-school is a new kind of entity that connects parents with guides who run micro-schools in communities. Prenda’s tuition-free micro-schools for pupils in K–8 are small in size and offer both individualized and group learning in a safe and flexible environment.

What parents like most about Acton Academy—and other micro-schools—is the individualized handson instruction.

Some micro-schools are free, some are tuition-based, and some receive funding through various state tax credits and “empowerment scholarships.”

Many parents are referred to the micro-school that best fits their child’s needs through school “hubs” such as Love Your School, an Arizona-based nonprofit that launched three years ago.

“Depending on what they choose, we walk them through that process,” said spokeswoman Jenny Clark. “All of a sudden we had all these families coming to us initially. I think that there are a variety of issues [driving the trend]—a crazy storm of issues.”

Most importantly, parents “want choices, variety, and a trusted education environment that suits kids’ needs,” Clark told Insight.

“I think the more parents demand these different options, the more you’ll see public and private schools responding. Parents know what’s best for their

COURTESY OF ACTON ACADEMY

he romantic image of a one-room schoolhouse nestled on the Midwestern prairie has in its modern equivalent today’s micro-school, or “pandemic pod.”

Born amid the COVID-19 pandemic, minimalist by design, their founders say these mini-schools may be small in size but they’re large in curriculum scope, offering individualized instruction in a safe, politics-free environment.

“A micro-school takes the best of different educational formats and brings them together,” said Corey Owens, spokesperson for Prenda micro-schools in Arizona.

“In groups of 5 to 10 students led by a guide, learners engage with a personalized, adaptable curriculum, while getting healthy social interaction and opportunities to learn from one another.”

The first Prenda micro-school opened in Arizona in 2018 with seven students.

Four years later, the organization operates micro-schools in hundreds of communities in a dozen states with more than 3,000 students, 300 guides, and nine school partners that include both charter schools and community groups.

“From our vantage point, the interest in micro-schools transcends politics and geographics,” said Owens, who attributed the phenomenal growth in micro-schools to parents who are looking for an educational setting that “lets their child develop a love of learning.”

“We’ve seen kids that have struggled with bullying, kids that were having trouble keeping up, and kids that excelled but were bored, but thrive in a micro-school environment,” Owens told Insight.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has, of

Nation Schools

kids. I think parents are right: No one knows their child better than them.”

Adamo Education is another Arizona micro-school, which veteran educator Tamara Becker launched in January 2021 during the height of the pandemic, when micro-schools started spreading like “wildfire.”

“Parents are not satisfied” with public education models, Becker told Insight.

“They’re not happy with their kids in classrooms of 25 to 30 [students]. They’re looking for an environment that is safer.”

Adamo Education meets the needs of its students through a combination of traditional, digital, and at-home learning opportunities with certified teachers in grades K–8, she said.

“My program is different in that I only use certified teachers,” Becker said.

“The power and the role of the teacher is so key,” as is the goal of helping students “fall in love” with education.

“I really want kids to love learning and to foster that love of learning,” she said. “You can do so much more

academically and socially. You know your parents and students much more intimately.”

While the exact number of micro-schools in the United States isn’t currently known, they’re estimated to be in the hundreds. Like their public school counterparts, micro-schools— “alt-schools” in some circles—pride themselves on their individualized, project-based programs of instruction.

Some micro-schools are home-based; others provide stand-alone facilities where learning takes place.

“It’s so much more personalized and such a tighter-knit kind of learning environment. We need to disrupt the educational status quo, and micro-schools are going to be the tools to do that,” Becker said.

At Acton Academy in Laconia, New Hampshire, school administrator Mary MacIntosh launched the micro-school with four students in the fall of 2019 because there was “nothing like it in the area.”

Now in its second year of operation, the micro-school has grown to 20 elementary school age pupils and recently opened a middle school program with seven students.

“I do think COVID was a factor for a lot of people” to choose Acton Academy, MacIntosh told Insight. “They didn’t want their children to be remote, and it was safer than sending them to [regular] class.”

What parents like most about Acton Academy, she said, is the individualized hands-on instruction.

Students not only learn about math concepts, they also study physics and gravity in project-based workshops, such as Newton’s Toy House.

“Children can go as far as they need to go in a subject or as slow as they need to go,” she said.

MacIntosh said the problem with modern public education is that it’s a “gigantic system that just can’t keep up” with the latest innovations in classroom teaching. “It’s just too hard the way it’s set up.”

Controversial topics such as critical race theory aren’t taught at Acton Academy, she said.

Which isn’t to say micro-schools don’t have their critics.

In August 2020, the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, published a report titled “The Proliferation of Pandemic Pods, Micro-Schools, and Home Education.”

The report concluded that alternative forms of education serve to widen the opportunity gap for minority students and “worsen school segregation as well-resourced families will disproportionately benefit.”

“Just like any private school, pandemic pods do not guarantee students or educators the same civil rights protections that are required in public schools. Furthermore, pandemic pods will likely not provide the necessary supports for students with disabilities as required under state and federal legislation,” the NEA stated in its findings.

The NEA also stated that in nonpublic school programs, students aren’t held accountable to state standards of learning, and educators aren’t required to be credentialed.

“Credentialed educators who teach in a pandemic pod have no guaranteed protections or benefits like those secured under contracts working for school districts,” the NEA wrote.

“Private funders have invested approximately $1.7 billion in 2019 in education technology firms. They now see ‘pandemic pods’ as the way of the future, pushing talking points that traditional public schools are outdated.

“The National Education Association (NEA) encourages innovative solutions that will allow students to have in-person instruction and important opportunities for socialization with peers; however, the NEA believes that such cohort-style learning arrangements should be organized, implemented, and monitored under the authority of state and district education agencies.”

It’s the sense of parents being disenfranchised by the public education system, however, that has spurred growth in micro-schools, said Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Ariz.).

“I would say that parents are dissatisfied with public schools. Between material being presented, and the petite tyranny exhibited by ‘leadership’ in public schools, it is clear that political science now rules over real science and medical science,” Finchem told Insight.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 23

24 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

SPOTLIGHT HUNTED TO EXTINCTION A BARBARY LIONESS AND HER CUB in their enclosure at the Rabat zoo, in the Moroccan capital, on Feb. 2. They are part of a Panthera leo population that once roamed throughout the deserts and mountains of northern Africa but was hunted to extinction in the wild in the mid-20th century.

PHOTO BY FADEL SENNA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 25

“Our goal is to create a place that people want to come back to again.”

Janine Yario, CEO, Republic Realm

One of Republic Realm’s virtual Fantasy Islands in The Sandbox metaverse.

U N R E A L E S TAT E

Virtual Property Sells for $4.3 Million

People are paying millions for computer-generated real estate on emerging Metaverse platforms

By Mary Prenon

26 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

deals involved non-real real estate; the big question many have is why would anyone spend such a huge amount of money on something that’s intangible?

In a recent Zoom press conference, Janine Yorio, CEO of Republic Realm, referred to the acquisition as a “dedicated space inside an interactive video game experience”—something completely different from real-life real estate purchases.

“If you consider the costs of actual real estate and the amount of money spent on banner ads and domains, $4.3 million is really not that huge of an amount,” she said. “We bought the equivalent of an entire city with global reach, where we can build something extravagant and interactive.”

Yorio argues that the whole point of the metaverse is to give users access to something they can’t do in real life and to generate a demand for these experiences.

“In the metaverse, you can do things like fly a spaceship, explore other planets, or time travel,” she said. “It’s more engaging than Netflix or Facebook, and our goal is

FROM L: COURTESY OF REPUBLIC REALM, COURTESY OF EXP REALTY

ith home prices continuing to soar in popular markets across the country, first-time homebuyers are finding it increasingly more difficult to score a small piece of the burgeoning real estate market. Yet recently published reports have splashed head-scratching breaking news about virtual real estate properties selling for $4 million or more in newly emerging metaverse platforms.

Described as an alternate digital reality where people can work, socialize, play, and interact, the metaverse is a newly emerging technology offering virtual 3D environments complete with avatars in a sophisticated cartoon-like atmosphere.

Republic Realm, a virtual land investor and developer, recently dropped $4.3 million for virtual property in The Sandbox– the largest metaverse land purchase to date. Meanwhile, Tokens.com, a digital investment firm, paid $2.4 million for a virtual estate in Decentraland. Both of these

to create a place that people want to come back to again. Plus, it lets them connect with others around the world.”

Implying that the metaverse is the next evolution within social media, Yorio believes platforms such as The Sandbox and Decentraland are just the beginning of future interactive 3D environments.

Founded in 2021 in New York City, Republic Realm invests in, manages, and develops assets including virtual real estate, metaverse platforms, gaming, and infrastructure. The company is among the largest “land” owners in The Sandbox, Decentraland, Treeverse, and Axie Infinity.

One of its newest luxury virtual offerings is Fantasy Islands, a master-planned real estate development within The Sandbox. It’s a series of private islands that originally sold for $15,000 per island, with the most recent island sale up to $270,000.

“We even have virtual boats for the avatars to get to the island,” Yorio said. “They started at about $500 each and are currently valued at close to $20,000 each.”

The Sandbox, founded in 2018, is a blockchain-based virtual world where players can build, own, and monetize their content, as well as immerse themselves in experiences that include virtual shows, concerts, art expos, museums, games, and social hubs. To date, more than 200 brands, such as The Walking Dead, Snoop Dogg, Atari, Adidas, and many others have bought virtual land or built exclusive experiences there.

Business Technology

“Virtual real estate isn’t actually a new concept. It’s been a common feature in global games, such as GTA Online, where users can buy virtual land and other digital assets,” Sébastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, told Insight. “As more brands bridge into the metaverse, this simply creates more experiences. It’s a virtuous cycle that will only keep building as the metaverse evolves.”

In addition to Republic Realm’s record-breaking purchase, Borget noted that someone recently spent $450,000 to become Snoop Dogg’s virtual neighbor.

Last year, The Sandbox saw tremendous growth, with a more than 1,000 percent increase in users and a 400 percent growth in virtual landowners. Published reports indicate that total virtual land sales to date top $211 million, with over 166,000 spaces left.

Borget is also predicting mega-expansions for 2022.

“The Sandbox will continue to grow as a vibrant, engaging, and fun place to hang out, bringing the first virtual shows and concerts to the platform and attracting people of all kinds and backgrounds,” he said. “Our focus is on enabling the passions of the thousands of creators and builders that use our platform to express themselves, build their creations, and craft unique experiences for others.

“That’s why we’re such strong proponents of the open metaverse, which is free of a single gatekeeper that owns all virtual worlds.”

Alex Montalenti, a co-founder of RealGrader, a digital marketing agency for real estate professionals, said the virtual acquisitions are really all about people’s perception of what will escalate in value.

“Yes, it may seem very weird, but it’s virtual technology, and people will spend money on what they believe will eventually appreciate in value,” he told Insight.

“It’s similar to investing in the stock market—you’re not buying anything physical, but you invest in it to ultimately make more money. If the audience is there, the metaverse properties will sell.”

Montalenti equates the metaverse to a cyberspace upgrade to the internet.

“When the internet first started to become popular, nobody really understood what it was, but now everyone knows what ‘being online’ means,” he said. “The metaverse is simply an online interactive space where you can do everything from playing games to conducting business meetings and networking with others anywhere in the world.”

Montalenti grew more “metaverse-savvy” watching his children playing on Roblox, a three-dimensional cyberspace community.

“I noticed they started buying things like virtual toys and pets for $5 to $10, and now my daughter has about 20 cyber-pets,” he said. “It’s similar to those design apps where people can decorate rooms of virtual homes and literally buy virtual furnishings for them.”

Today, Roblox is ranked as one of the top online entertainment platforms for audiences under the age of 18, with earnings surpassing $761 million.

Just as children create their avatars to navigate through these types of game worlds, business professionals are now using the same technology to hold meetings, attend events, and network with other businesspeople.

“It’s way more interactive than Zoom—

they can go into a virtual trade show, walk around, and talk to other people anytime they want,” Montalenti said.

Even real estate firms are venturing into these new cyberspace platforms. Montalenti has actually conducted presentations as an avatar inside eXp World, a private metaverse that’s available 24/7 for all eXp Realty agents and staff worldwide.

“All I had to do was create my character, go in, and have conversations with agents using their avatars. It’s a much faster way of meeting people,” he said.

Founded in 2009, eXp Realty is now one of the fastest-growing real estate brokerages in the world with over 60,000 agents in 14 countries. eXp Realty created eXp World in 2018 with the acquisition of Virbela, creators of 3D virtual environments.

With the exception of its corporate headquarters in Bellingham, Washington, and some brick and mortar locations, eXp operates primarily with remote staff and agents.

“Every Friday, our agents and employees can go into eXp World for our global company meeting that we also live stream through our internal network,” Jennifer Van Burkleo, senior director of events and social media, told Insight.

They also use the virtual world for real estate classes, meetings, presentations, networking, and social events.

“It’s a lot easier than Zoom because hundreds of people can be in the same space with each other and we can send private chats or actually speak,” she said.

“Plus, in eXp World, you don’t even have to get dressed since your avatar is attending the events.”

The company is also intent on providing fun and excitement for agents and staff with offerings such as virtual soccer games and boat races. Recently, eXp hired DJ Jazzy Jeff to host a virtual club experience, complete with dancing avatars.

“I think the metaverse is the future of real estate, and it’s a great support system for our agents,” Van Burkleo said.

“Of course, in the real world, they’ll be meeting face-to-face with home buyers and sellers, but this offers the best way for agents to learn and connect with colleagues around the world at their convenience.”

A virtual dance party at eXp World, which eXp Realty agents and staff worldwide can access 24/7.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 27

T EC H N O L O GY

Dolphins, deer, birds, bees, and even microbes are showing effects

By Nathan Worcester

28 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

R

spokesperson for the organization told Insight via email that it drew attention to the research in a recent filing with the FCC. “We have more than enough research to trigger new regulatory action to protect wildlife. The FCC should have done a full review of the environmental impact of 5G network deployment before streamlining hundreds of thousands of 5G cell towers across the nation,” the spokesperson wrote.

FCC officials didn’t immediately respond to a request by Insight for comment.

In August 2021, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Environmental Health Trust in its petition against the FCC. The court found the FCC hadn’t done enough to address evidence linking radiofrequency radiation to negative health effects unrelated to cancer, even at levels below the FCC’s existing exposure limits.

The court also noted that the FCC didn’t adequately respond to the Department

FROM L: GEORGE FREY/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, BRUCE BENNETT/GETTY IMAGES

Wireless Radiation, 5G May Endanger Animals: Study

e s e a r c h e r s h av e published a three-part, 150-page review of how wildlife could be harmed by the non-ionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) produced by wireless infrastructure, raising questions about the environmental safety of the technology as 5G begins to blanket the United States.

“We’ve known for a while now, through a number of scientific studies, that cellular radiation is harmful to wildlife as well as people,” said epidemiologist Devra Davis.

Davis is the founder of Environmental Health Trust, an organization that has drawn attention to the possible risks of 5G, Wi-Fi, and similar infrastructure for human health as well as wildlife.

Environmental Health Trust didn’t produce the new review, which included researchers from the University of Washington and Johns Hopkins University. A

Researchers are warning about adverse environmental impact of wireless infrastructure.

Environment 5G

Environmental Health Trust says there’s plenty of research that shows wildlife should be protected from wireless radiation.

“Adults, children, pets, wildlife, and our environment are all vulnerable.”

Devra Davis, epidemiologist

of the Interior when it raised the issue of environmental harms—specifically, the effects of EMF from communication towers on migratory birds.

In recent weeks, airlines have warned that the nationwide rollout of 5G by AT&T and Verizon could interfere with planes, particularly the Boeing 777. The concerns prompted those wireless companies to hold off on launching 5G near airports.

Part one of the review examined how environmental EMF has radically increased in recent decades.

Part two looked at some of the many organisms affected by EMF, with the authors noting that “effects have been observed in mammals such as bats, cervids, cetaceans, and pinnipeds among others, and on birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles, microbes, and many species of flora.”

Part three focuses on EMF exposure limits, and the prospect for new regulation.

In recent years, discussion of the potential dangers of wireless radiation and, more specifically, 5G, has sometimes met with scorn from the corporate media. Citing online speculation that the COVID-19 epidemic was caused by the rollout of 5G, CNN titled a 2020 article “Why conspiracy theorists think 5G is bad for your health and why experts say not to worry.”

Asked about the possibility of industry pressure, a spokesperson for the Environmental Health Trust directed Insight to a 2021 review, “Lost opportunities for cancer prevention.”

“This eloquent review gives insight into missed opportunities for cancer prevention exemplified by asbestos, tobacco, certain pesticides and now RF radiation. The authors highlight how economic considerations were favored instead of cancer prevention. ‘A strategy to sow doubt on cancer risks was established decades ago and is now adopted

and implemented in a more sophisticated way by the telecom industry regarding RF-EMF risks to human beings and the environment. Industry has the economic power, access to politicians and media, whereas concerned people are unheard,’” the spokesperson said.

Davis thinks the time to act on 5G is now.

“With 5G coming to neighborhoods across the country, the levels of wireless radiation will significantly increase,” Davis said. “We do not have the luxury of time to continue to debate this issue with the wireless industry. Adults, children, pets, wildlife, and our environment are all vulnerable.”

Representatives of the Wireless Industry Association, a major trade association for cellphone tower builders and wireless providers, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for a 5G advocacy organization, 5G Americas, pointed Insight to its webpage, “5G and Health.” The webpage doesn’t appear to include any information about the dangers, or lack thereof, of 5G to wildlife.

When asked whether 5G Americas had any additional information or perspectives on 5G and wildlife, the spokesperson declined to comment further, stating that the “5G and Health” webpage included all the commentary the organization intended to provide.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 29

CHINA Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (R) and Chinese leader Xi Jinping attend a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on April 24, 2019.

PHOTO BY KENZABURO FUKUHARA/KYODO NEWS POOL/GETTY IMAGES

TIGHTENS GRIP ON LATIN AMERICA GROWING INFLUENCE

China grabbed opportunities during pandemic lockdowns to increase bilateral trade exchanges by 31.6 percent in 2021

BY AU T UMN SPR EDEM A NN I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 31

Economy Trade

S

A N TA C R U Z , B O L I V I A— C H I N A’ S R E A C H

$315 BILLION

32 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

Workers unload from a plane the first batch of Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccines, at San Oscar Romero International Airport in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, on March 28, 2021.

note of China’s push for military objectives within the region.

Peru Foreign Trade and Tourism Minister Roberto Sánchez also confirmed China as a primary trade partner, with business between the two countries increasing by 63 percent in the first eight months of 2021, mostly due to fishing and mining exports.

Comparatively, Peru’s relations with the United States only grew by 25 percent in 2021.

“Foreign trade has been growing, driven mainly by increased trade with Asian countries,” Sánchez said.

In Bolivia, China’s demand for beef exports continued skyrocketing in 2021, a trend established under the nation’s former President Evo Morales in 2019 that has continued under the current socialist regime.

Comparisons between March 2020 and March 2021 saw a gain of $15.8 million in bovine exports.

The economically long-suffering Argentina surpassed Brazil as China’s primary trade partner in 2020 and saw a dramatic surge in imports from the communist nation from 2020 to 2021, amounting to a 78 percent increase.

Whilst China’s influence continues to spread through commerce, the nation inches closer to controlling both the resource and manufacturing ends of much of the world’s goods.

And with that power comes the leverage to dictate trading partners for those Latin American countries.

FROM L: MARVIN RECINOS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, CLAUDIO CRUZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

within Latin America continued to expand in 2021, capping a 20-year trend of the Asian giant’s growth and influence through trade.

From 2000 to 2020, trade between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries sprouted from $12 billion to $315 billion. In 2021, bilateral exchanges grew by another 31.6 percent.

By 2035, China’s business relationships in the region are projected to more than double, which would account for more than $700 billion.

While the economic powerhouse’s expanding influence in Latin America isn’t new, the rate at which it’s happening is raising eyebrows for some experts.

The United States has found itself in second place to China as the main export market for Latin America since 2010.

Much of this has been attributed to the overall lack of interest by some decision-makers within the U.S. government to develop stronger relations within the region.

“What the United States needs is a real strategy for strengthening democracy and the rule of law in Latin America and countering the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said.

In an interview with Insight, regional analyst Fernando Menéndez said that as the United States spent decades focused on the Middle East, China quietly stepped onto the economic stage of the Americas and began systematically expanding its influence and power.

That’s particularly evident in Chile, which has historically been one of the strongest U.S. trade partners in the sector.

Chile’s ambassador to China, Luis Schmidt, said that while trade with other nations fell by 10 perFrom 2000 to 2020, cent during the COVID-19 trade with China sprouted from $12 pandemic shut down of billion to $315 billion.

2020, relations with China grew by 12 percent.

He noted that 38.2 percent of all global exports from Chile went to China in 2020 and continued to increase in 2021.

Schmidt also pointed out that Chinese investment in Chile really started to flourish in 2019, and he confirmed that the Asian nation was their country’s primary trading partner.

This kind of expansion hasn’t gone unnoticed by the U.S. Congress, which expressed concern over their communist rival’s ballooning influence in Latin America. One congressional report took special

Economy Trade

Rubio called Nicaragua’s severing of diplomatic ties with Taiwan in December 2021 a “disturbing development for both the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere,” indicating that it serves as a barometer for the level of power China is amassing close to U.S. borders.

A Pandemic Opportunity Realized “China never stopped buying commodities or hustling to export manufactured goods [during the pandemic],” Menéndez said.

And among those key manufactured goods that China sent to Latin America were COVID-19 vaccines.

In the early stages of the pandemic vaccine rollout, Central and South American countries struggled for access to immunizations, creating what’s been called “vaccine diplomacy” in the world’s less economically developed nations. China was quick to step into

People wait to receive the first dose of Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine in Ecatepec, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2021

One analysis showed that upward of 42 percent of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines had been sent abroad while the United States exported only 1 percent of its own.

the limelight by selling millions of vaccines to the besieged Latin American countries.

The communist nation was among the first to roll out a vaccine program in Latin America, selling Sinovac and Sinopharm inoculations to eager governments as early as March 2021. Vaccines from the United States didn’t arrive in the region until June 2021.

One analysis showed upward of 42 percent of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines have been sent abroad, while the United States has exported only 1 percent of its own vaccines.

And the leaders of the region haven’t forgotten who came to their aid while wrestling with high case numbers and public demand for immunizations.

“We highlight the support of China and Russia, countries that helped us acquire vaccines in the fight against COVID-19,” Bolivian Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta said in August 2021.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador personally thanked China for its collaboration in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic through the shipment of vaccines during a live broadcast in December 2021.

Menéndez postulated that vaccine sales from China have a very strategic aim.

“Are they trying to win friends and influence people?” he asked. “Absolutely.”

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 33

S U P P LY C H A I N

Craft Breweries Adapt to Can Shortages Small beer brewers innovate as aluminum cans become more scarce

I

By Allan Stein n heaven, there is no beer. That’s why we drink it here,” goes the old pub song, but a shortage of aluminum beverage containers could threaten to close the spigots on smaller craft beer breweries in 2022.

Described as a worsening can shortage—or “candemic”—many microbrewery owners have been struggling to adapt either by stocking up on unbranded beverage cans wherever they can find them or producing more bottled beer.

“We are doing OK right now. It’s something we are concerned about on the horizon,” said Tim Boyle, taproom manager at Switchback Brewing Co. in Burlington, Vermont. “We’re concerned, but there’s no crisis yet.”

The microbrewery was founded in 2002 by business partners Bill Cherry and Jeff Neiblum. In the years that followed, the company has grown to include over 20 beers as year-round offerings.

In light of the aluminum can shortage of 2021, the company is looking to produce more bottled beer and ale.

“We haven’t made any clear decisions.

We’re waiting to see how things shake out” in 2022, Boyle told Insight.

For now, Boyle said the company has enough beer cans in its inventory to meet any change in marketing model.

“We’re definitely not unprepared, but it’s something we’re assessing,” Boyle said.

Several factors have been driving the candemic—not least of which has been the economic fallout from COVID-19, which forced bars and tasting rooms across the United States to close tempo34 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

To address the supply shortage, the Grand Canyon Brewing & Distillery began stocking up on cans early on to keep the beer flowing well into 2022.

Nation Small Business

ALL PHOTOS BY ALLAN STEIN/THE EPOCH TIMES

Grand Canyon Brewing Co. Director of Operations Bret Blanchard monitors a canning machine at the company's Williams, Ariz., plant on Jan. 17.

The cost of shipping products from Williams to Phoenix, both in Arizona, has increased from $650 to $1,000 in a matter of six months, a brewery owner said.

rarily, in some cases permanently, and breweries to offer curbside pickup.

Meanwhile, the recent boom in spiked seltzer has further watered down available beverage can supplies, a situation made worse by supply chain disruptions and an overall increase in global demand for aluminum.

Ball Corp. in Broomfield, Colorado, the world’s largest producer of metal beverage containers, reported the U.S. market fell 10 billion cans short in 2020, “and this just adds to other ongoing issues many small craft breweries around the U.S. are contending with during the COVID-19 crisis,” FoodInstitute.com said on its website.

“We’ve been fairly fortunate” not to have been severely impacted by the pandemic or the aluminum beverage can shortage, said Stephen Goetting, CEO at Verde Brewing Co., established in 2013 in Camp Verde, Arizona.

“We haven’t had a staffing issue,” he said.

“We don’t have a large crew. We’re under 10 employees. We keep it fairly simple.”

Goetting said the company decided to boost its marketing strategy during the pandemic, although “it’s really hard to nail down why our sales are up.”

“Hopefully, we’ll just keep doing the right thing,” he told Insight.

Further north, in Williams, Arizona, Grand Canyon Brewing & Distillery owner John Peasley said the beverage can shortage has been hurting microbreweries “across the board.”

“It’s not as easy as it was two years ago” to acquire cans in sufficient volume, Peasley said. “Desperate times require desperate measures. You’re about to see the cost double for a small craft distillery to produce.”

To make matters worse, the cost of shipping products from Williams to Phoenix has increased from $650 to $1,000—“and that’s all in a matter of six months,” Peasley said. “I think the unfortunate side is we don’t have the buying power” of the large brewing companies, such as Anheuser-Busch, he said.

To address the supply shortage, the Grand Canyon Brewing & Distillery, founded in 2007, began stocking up on cans early on to keep the beer flowing well into 2022. The brewery distributes mainly in Arizona and Nevada.

“We bought as many cans as we could, [to] probably get us to the end of sum-

mer and fall,” said Director of Operations Bret Blanchard.

Still, “people are running into brick walls,” Peasley told Insight. “It really is a supply chain issue.”

During the pandemic, Grand Canyon Brewing & Distillery, with its 200 employees, closed temporarily.

Peasley said it was “kind of a struggle in the beginning,” and to compensate, the company transitioned to making 10,000 gallons of hand sanitizer, of which it donated 2,500 gallons. In 2017, the company began distilling craft spirits, including rum, vodka, gin, and whiskey.

“It was a weird time to be alive,” he said.

“I think [the beer can shortage] gets worse before it gets better.”

Rob Fullmer, executive director of the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild, said that small craft breweries have had to look elsewhere and to places as far away as Dubai, Mexico, and other foreign countries to find available supplies of aluminum beverage cans, given the tight U.S. market.

When Ball Corp. announced it was setting a minimum order of 1 million cans—five truckloads—many smaller breweries found they didn’t have the sales volume to meet the new threshold, Fullmer said.

“Only the top five breweries in Arizona have the potential to order that many at one time,” Fullmer told Insight. “Our product is perishable, [so] a lot of them have to get it on the spot market.”

Smaller breweries are also having to rely more on unlabeled cans, known as “brights,” and affixing their own labels.

This practice is not only more costly, but in some cases, they are less desirable among the large supermarket chains.

Many smaller craft breweries also aren’t set up to bottle beer, Fullmer said.

“It’s a triple whammy,” he said.

“You can’t just throw a bottle on a can line. There are so many factors, but it’s certainly going to put stress on the ability to grow.”

Still, Fullmer said small craft brewers are a “resilient bunch.” Only a handful fell victim to the pandemic.

“I think we took a toll, but overall, I think our guys are responsible and able to roll with the state. I’m hoping people will come back to the breweries” to enjoy tasting events. “That’s the ultimate answer.”

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 35

SPOTLIGHT OTTAWA PROTEST A MAN HOLDS A SIGN READING "Freedom" as thousands of truckers and supporters gather to protest mandates and restrictions related to COVID-19 vaccines in Ottawa, Canada, on Feb. 5. The ongoing protest is now in its second week.

PHOTO BY DAVE CHAN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

36 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 37

V I R T UA L S C H O O L I N G

Remote Learning Slashes Graduation Rates Studies show academic proficiency, graduation rates took a dive when inperson schooling stopped

G

By Steven Kovac

38 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

had to drive to the school and pick up paper packets of assignments to be completed at home.

“Brown City Schools didn’t have a virtual instruction platform set up until mid-summer 2020.

Because they don’t have Wi-Fi at home, some parents sat in the parking lot with their children so they could do their homework by connecting with the school’s Wi-Fi. “My son was a sophomore. He didn’t like virtual. He wanted to be in class. Like many teens, he is a procrastinator and doesn’t do well when he has to schedule himself.

“There was no track season that year, and football was cut way back. That was very disappointing for him. He’s a senior this year and has somehow kept up his credits,” Stimson said.

Brown City Schools Superintendent Neil Kohler told Insight, “Every year, a small number of seniors don’t graduate. The rate has gotten worse during this pandemic.”

A 2021 survey of 26 states, conducted by the publication Chalkbeat and the Associated Press, found that graduation rates in 20 of the states declined, reversing a decades-long trend of improvement. The slippage was widely attributed to remote learning and increased demands on students’ time as their families struggled with added burdens and complications stemming from the pandemic.

In keeping with a national trend, Brown City Schools officials said they saw “the most course failures in memory,” with many students failing two out of seven of their daily classes.

“That’s what happens when kids get bounced around in and out of virtual. They need structure. They need to be with their teacher and work out math problems together.

“Parents are more likely to sit with their elementary-age child than they are their high schooler.

Left unto themselves, some teens did absolutely nothing at home.

“At least if they came here we could get some work out of them.

We are doing everything we can to stay with in-person instruction,” Kohler said.

Pandemic mandates have resulted in an observable social and

(Above) A third-grade class at Brown City Elementary in Brown City, Mich., on Jan. 28. (Left) Stephanie Stimson, parent of a high school senior attending Brown City High School.

ALL PHOTOS BY STEVEN KOVAC/THE EPOCH TIMES

overnment-imposed measures in response to the pandemic are driving academic proficiency and graduation rates down in U.S. schools.

That’s the consensus of several studies assessing the impact of government measures on the education of America’s schoolchildren over the past two years.

Michigan State University’s Education Policy Innovation Collaboration last month released a 350-page study, which quantified that the move to virtual instruction during the pandemic caused most of Michigan’s 1.4 million K–12 students to learn less.

State statistics show 51 percent of Michigan school children qualify as economically “disadvantaged.”

It was this group that was harmed the most by virtual instruction, according to the MSU study.

Brown City Community Schools is a Michigan school district where all 750 students receive a free breakfast and lunch, and are considered by the state as economically and socially “at risk.”

Brown City is a small farming town in rural southeast Michigan, an area with poor or no internet access.

Parent Stephanie Stimson told Insight: “When Michigan schools were shut down to in-person instruction from March through June of 2020, and then again for six weeks at the end of the year, we

Nation Education

“Despite our best efforts, every kid has missed out on stuff they should have gotten.”

Neil Kohler, superintendent, Brown City Schools

emotional change among Brown City’s high school and middle school students.

“Our older kids are worried about the impact of the pandemic on college and the job market,” Kohler said. “They are also stressed because their home life has been disrupted as their families try to cope with all the mandates.

“These young people needed to hang out with their friends.

This was taken away. They needed sports as a stress release. That was taken away.

“Our high school students are not getting the experiences they expected. Despite our best efforts, every kid has missed out on stuff they should have gotten.”

Brown City Elementary School Principal Sean Hagey said the lack of consistency of federal, state, and

county health department policies is making things difficult for his staff, students, and their parents.

“Just when we think we’ve got things down pat, along comes another policy change, and we are forced to reset.”

Kohler outlined some of the damage done to the youngest of the students by the various mandates.

He said the shutdown of the district’s preschool resulted in a significant learning loss.

“This will likely lead to more students being classified as special needs at an earlier age, when it’s not their learning abilities but their lack of experience that is responsible,” he said.

At Brown City Schools, children start learning to read in kindergarten and build on their skills in first grade.

“This foundation has been lost already. Our second graders are coming in as if it were the first day of kindergarten,” Kohler said.

The mask mandate has also contributed to the decline in reading.

“It is absolutely critical that young children and their teachers see one another’s lips as they form phonics sounds, the basis of reading. This did not happen,”

Brown City Schools Superintendent Neil Kohler (L) confers with Brown City Elementary Principal Sean Hagey on Jan. 28.

20

STATES

2 A 2Irusyev 2N f o e ts a t a h d n uf o n o it a ug r d 2 n i e ts r a e ts a h f o e nd , i l c a h a g n r i e vs e dc a s f o d nr t e g l t n . e m v r op i

Kohler said.

The NWEA, an educational research foundation, discovered achievement was lower for all student groups in the United States in the 2020–21 school year.

The study noted that the typical K–12 student is performing 8 to 12 percentage points below grade-level in math and 3 to 6 points below in reading.

A 2021 study by the national education consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that first-grade through sixth-grade students across the country were five months behind where they should be in math and four months behind in English.

The 2021 state assessment test in Tennessee (TCAP) showed only a quarter of students tested proficient in math compared to one-third in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.

Only 29 percent of Indiana students in grades 3 to 8 tested proficient in both math and English in 2021, down 37 percent from the 2018–19 school year, according to the statewide ILEARN test.

The test determined that just 10 percent of Indianapolis Public Schools students were proficient in both math and English.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 39

M A N U FAC T U R I N G

Ohio Farm to Sell Land for Microchip Factory Owners of a thirdgeneration farm sell a chunk of land to Intel for 1,000-acre development

N

By Michael Sakal

40 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

Intel selected Ohio for the plants because it has 60 percent of the U.S. population within one day’s drive.

Part of the nearby land included in the project is residential, a spokesman for the city told Insight on Jan. 25.

NEW ALBANY IS a planned community

15 miles northeast of Columbus and has a population of about 9,000, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. The city lists a median annual household income of $203,194 and a median house value of $494,600.

FROM L: ROBYN BECK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES, COURTESY OF HEIMERL FARMS

ew A l ba n y, a cit y in rural Ohio, is set to become home to the largest private investment in state history—a development that could change the face of a neighboring agricultural township forever.

During a festive press conference on Jan. 21, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger announced plans for two $20 billion microchip plants that will cover 1,000 acres in the city of New Albany in Licking County.

Intel plans to break ground later this year for the facilities, which will employ 3,000 people and create 7,000 construction jobs.

The first factory is projected to be completed in 2025.

Supply chain issues stemming from workforce shortages and the effects of the pandemic have caused drastic semiconductor shortages across the United States and the world in recent months.

Intel selected Ohio for the plants because it has 60 percent of the U.S. population within one day’s drive, the universities and colleges to draw talent from, and the business-friendly environment.

Most of the property where the company plans to build is on a prominent farm in neighboring Jersey Township that New Albany has recently received an annexing application for.

Business Investment

(Above) New Albany, Ohio, is a planned community 15 miles northeast of Columbus and has a population of about 9,000.

(Left) People visit the Intel display at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Heimerl Farms has been in business since the 1940s. It has many swine operations and raises Holstein cattle, plus farms several thousand acres. Heimerl also has contract barns in Michigan and Indiana, according to its website.

Brad Heimerl, one of Jim Heimerl’s sons who led the Heimerl Farms hog operations division, confirmed to Insight that the family’s property is part of the annexing application for Intel.

He declined to say how many acres of Heimerl Farms would be sold to Intel.

“It’s never a great thing when you lose some farmland, because we’re not getting any more of it,” he said. “This project will change a lot of lives in the area.”

PIEPER SAID INTEL’S project is so big that

New Albany is among the rapid growth areas in the suburbs of large cities in Ohio that are in close proximity to interstate highways, and businesses that rely on essential products.

The property for the Intel project is in western Licking County in an area that New Albany is considering annexing from Jersey Township.

The annexation petition has been submitted to the city by a single applicant—

the New Albany Co. The company is also working with the property owners who plan to sell land or could be affected by the Intel project, a city spokesman told Insight.

The majority of the project would be on property owned by Heimerl Farms, a third-generation family farming operation owned by Jim and Kathy Heimerl, Jersey Township trustee Ben Pieper told Insight.

local residents are having a “hard time comprehending what is going on.”

“This whole area is going to change,” said Pieper, who is a lifelong resident of Jersey Township. “It won’t be rural anymore. There’s really nothing out here.

“This project is so massive, we can’t comprehend it. We just don’t know what it’s going to do to the area.”

Pieper owns a truck garage and Precision Tactical, a gun shop in the township that makes custom firearms. He said he also farms the basics: soybeans and grain.

“We didn’t know it was Intel until they announced it,” Pieper said. “They don’t tell us much.

“It’s been a hush-hush operation.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 41

Business Investment

Heimerl Farms really doesn’t talk much about what they’re doing, and it’s really not any of my business. Ya know?

“It’s probably a good thing,” he said of the Intel project. “It’s good for the country, the state, and the town. We just don’t know what it’s going to mean for us yet. We’ll just have to wait and see. I don’t want it in my backyard, but it has to go someplace.”

The New Albany Co. was co-founded

by Les Wexner, the wealthiest man in Ohio, and John “Jack” Kessler, who is the company’s chairman, according to its website. On the website, Kessler is listed as one of central Ohio’s most accomplished real estate developers and influential civic leaders.

THE DEVELOPER OF numerous residen-

tial communities across the country, Kessler and Wexner were among New Albany’s first residents.

Ohio is said to have been selected because of its friendlier business environment, looser regulatory provisions, and being closer to suppliers.

With workers at the Intel plants expected to earn an average of $135,000 per year, they also benefit from the cheaper cost of living in Ohio.

“This will be a very good thing,” DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said.

Tierney said that details of the tax incentives or abatements through the

Department of Development that also enticed Intel to select Ohio will be released in the near future. The company had 40 other states bidding for the project.

Local workers and residents living in the area have a positive vibe about the project.

Jason Stanley, general manager at the Rusty Bucket Restaurant and Tavern, said he has seen a lot of changes in the 5 1/2 years he’s been at the New Albany location.

“As far as the Intel project helping our restaurant, that depends on where the workers are going to live,” Stanley said.

“It’s been nice living in an area that’s busy for businesses.”

During the press conference, Gelsinger and DeWine reiterated that the company’s investment sends a message to China other Asian markets that essential products will be manufactured in the United States and that more materials need to be manufactured here.

Gelsinger said that over the next decade, Intel plans to invest an additional $100 million to partner with universities and colleges throughout the region to recruit talent and for research programs.

DeWine said microchips simply are “the brains that power everything in our future”—cell phones, cars, farming combines, electronics, artificial intel-

ligence, and tools to bolster national security.

In a statement, New Albany Mayor Sloan Spalding said the city is prepared for the development.

“THIS IS A big win for our nation and

our state, and locally, it’s important to note that we are ready for this project,” Spalding said. “New Albany is a strategically-planned community and this project fits within the parameters of our business park, where 16,000 people already work.

“We’ve been planning roads and other critical infrastructure for years and with assistance from our other project partners we will ensure that the infrastructure for this project will be in place in a way that supports our entire community.”

In recent years, Asia has increased its microchip manufacturing capacity to 75 percent of world production while U.S. microchip manufacturing capacity had dropped from 40 percent to 12 percent, DeWine said.

That is evidenced in part by the hundreds of Ford heavy-duty trucks— manufactured at the Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake along Lake Erie near Cleveland—sitting idle in parking lots throughout Lorain County because they don’t have microchips inside them to motor down the highway.

20

$

BILLION

New Albany, Ohio, is a planned community 15 miles northeast of Columbus and has a population of about 9,000.

42 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

THIS PAGE: COURTESY OF NEWALBANYOHIO.COM

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger have announced two $20 billion microchip plants that will cover 1,000 acres in the city of New Albany in Licking County.

P OL I T IC S • E C ONOM Y • OPI N ION T H AT M AT T E R S

Perspectives

No.06

The New York Stock Exchange on July 12, 2018.

PHOTO BY SPENCER PLATT/ GETTY IMAGES

A WORLD OF TAX SLAVES The U.S. and other nations are creating an ultimate monopoly.

44

SIGNS OF ECONOMIC WEAKNESS

FLORIDA IS DECOUPLING FROM CHINA

The latest GDP report gives no reason for optimism. 46

State’s pension fund could soon divest from Chinese firms. 47

INSIDE I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 43

THOMAS MCARDLE was a White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush and writes for IssuesInsights.com.

Thomas McArdle

A World of Tax Slaves

The US and other nations are creating an ultimate monopoly

F

riedrich hayek wrote “The Road to Serfdom” while Nazism, under Hitler’s global designs, ravaged his native Austria.

“Our freedom of choice in a competitive society rests on the fact that, if one person refuses to satisfy our wishes, we can turn to another,” he noted in his classic work on the dangers of big government, be the regime democratic or otherwise, warning: “But if we face a monopolist we are at his absolute mercy. And an authority directing the whole economic system of the country would be the most powerful monopolist conceivable.”

The industrialized free world is poised to give away its citizens’ ability to turn to another country when one fails to satisfy their wishes in regard to taxation. The United States and other major nations are on the cusp of empowering a multi-national monopoly via a global minimum tax. It stands to reason that if “an authority directing the whole economic system of the country would be the most powerful monopolist conceivable,” an authority directing the tax systems of the national economies of most of the whole world is going to be infinitely more powerful—the ultimate monopoly.

U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall famously declared that “the power to tax involves the power to destroy” and a global monopoly that leaves companies with no refuge from such destructive powers in the form of nations that offer lower tax rates will leave economic devastation in its wake, manifesting itself in the misery of protracted high unemployment across the industrialized world.

In November 2021, the United States and 136 other countries, under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, agreed to require a global minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent, to

44 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

take effect next year. Its purpose is described as establishing control over tax competition on corporate profits, and once such a uniform restriction takes effect, it will only be a short time before that rate floor rises above 15 percent, and then keeps rising.

Thankfully, finalization hasn’t yet come for the OECD scheme, and the collapse of President Joe Biden’s $5 trillion Build Back Better legislation quickly made some European supporters grow skittish.

Thankfully, finalization hasn’t yet come for the OECD scheme.

Competition fuels innovation and productivity, whether it’s entrepreneurs and firms competing with each other or governments competing for companies’ investment dollars in the global marketplace. Consider how greatly consumers all over the world have benefited from Ireland’s longtime strategy of attracting foreign companies with lower taxes. The Irish Republic last fall agreed to scrap the 12.5 percent corporate tax that rocketed its economy, with its young, educated, English-speaking workforce acting as a magnet for the world’s most highgrowth foreign businesses for decades.

Ireland will now fall in line with the 15 percent minimum in anticipation of the OECD requirement being set in motion–despite the opposition of a large majority of Irish.

More than 800 U.S. companies, including Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, and Pfizer, took advantage of the low tax rate and rooted themselves in Ireland, providing more than $20 billion per year in investments, goods, services, and wages as they employed about 180,000 Irish workers directly and another 144,000 indirectly.

Cork in southern Ireland is the main

European base for 24 of the world’s 25 largest pharmaceutical companies.

Hungary’s alluring 9 percent corporate tax has energized its automotive and manufacturing sectors, powered growth, and generated a multitude of jobs for its population of 10 million.

Hungary’s finance minister warns that a global minimum tax could negatively affect as many as 3,000 major companies in his country.

One wonders just what the politicians and bureaucrats behind the OECD’s “co-ordinated solution to addressing the challenges raised by an increasingly digitalized and globalized economy” think happens to the wealth companies save from the taxman.

Are they under the impression that those who have devoted their lives and fortunes to revolutionizing communications and medicine gleefully sit around counting their cash? Or squander it all on minks and Lamborghinis?

As George Gilder pointed out in one of the past century’s most important books, “Wealth and Poverty,” an eloquent battle cry against the conventional wisdom that rules the minds of governmental elites the world over, “A successful economy depends on the proliferation of the rich, on creating a large class of risk-taking men who are willing to shun the easy channels of a comfortable life in order to create new enterprise, win huge profits, and invest them again.”

When a uniform floor of taxation causes there to be nowhere in the world left to go to optimize those profits–and then re-invest them to the benefit of billions across the globe seeking livelihoods for themselves and their families—our global overlords will not simply be obstructing the creativity and productivity of entrepreneurs and investors; they will be promoting economic atrophy and courting disaster for workers everywhere.

ANDERS CORR is a principal at Corr Analytics Inc., publisher of the Journal of Political Risk. He is an expert in political science and government.

Anders Corr

Big Business Still in China

Dell, Tesla, Microsoft do business in China after Xinjiang sanctions

D

e sp i t e a gr ow i n g outcry in democracies over the threat to human rights and international stability from China, and the Beijing regime’s genocide against Uyghurs and other religious groups, major Western corporations continue to do business in the country, including with the military and police.

Some of that business could be in violation of a new U.S. law against supply chains that reach into the Xinjiang region, where the genocide is taking place. All of it is ethically questionable.

On Feb. 2, The Wall Street Journal covered a new report by the Victims of Communism (VOC) Foundation and Horizon Advisory. The report rightly condemns as morally “wrong” the support that Western companies give to “Beijing’s military modernization, surveillance state, and human rights abuses.”

“The report finds that Dell has an office in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital,” according to the Journal. “Dell recently advertised a retail account manager job opening in Urumqi, promising that the successful applicant would join a ‘diverse and inclusive team’ and ‘make a profound social impact.’”

In 2018, Dell’s subsidiary in China co-authored a report with the Chinese regime on digital industrialization, including big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), all of which have military and intelligence applications.

Dell is far from alone.

On New Year’s Eve, Tesla announced the opening of a showroom in Xinjiang.

The electric vehicle (EV) company has a factory in Shanghai, which is increasing production for the Chinese and European markets. In 2021, Tesla sold approximately 480,000 luxury EVs in China.

Germany’s Volkswagen, which announced on Feb. 3 its plans for 1 million EV sales in China by 2023, has a car factory in Xinjiang. China is its largest market globally at approximately 40

percent of total sales. Volkswagen stores in China will increase to 200 this year from 115 in 2021.

Volkswagen is expanding development and manufacturing in China, which will likely mean the transfer of dual-use military technologies such as internet (likely 5G) connections and self-driving capabilities.

American and European businesses are selling as much as they possibly can to China.

In 2023, a new China–Volkswagen joint venture EV plant will operate at full capacity in Anhui Province. More than 500 engineers will be based at the plant, bringing total Volkswagen engineers in China to over 5,000.

“In the past, our approach was to develop in Germany and localize in China,” a Volkswagen executive told Nikkei in a Feb. 3 interview. “But this approach will be changed significantly by setting up more local resources for R&D, especially for software, to be faster, to be more independent in China.”

With the Anhui factory’s capacity of 300,000 vehicles annually, Volkswagen’s total production will rise to 1 million. Volkswagen produces approximately another 4 million gas-powered vehicles annually in China.

General Electric and Intel also have questionable business deals in China.

General Electric’s joint venture with a Chinese state-owned enterprise reportedly has an agreement with the Xinjiang government.

China’s surveillance systems, according to a 2019 Journal report, use Intel chips.

VOC reports that public security organizations in Xinjiang purchased Intel hard disks and servers until at least 2021.

Microsoft has apparently partnered with Chinese companies that provide surveillance products and other

services to China’s police and detention centers, including in Xinjiang. Some of these products include “social face” and “vehicle verification” platforms, according to the Journal. A 2018 partnership with a Chinese company included machine learning and advanced AI capabilities to automate imagery analysis for drones into “actionable insights.”

The company, DJI, was highlighted by the Pentagon last year for posing “potential threats to national security.”

Microsoft also persisted in partnerships and sales to Huawei, even after U.S. accusations in 2012 of the company’s possible legal violations.

As usual, U.S. and European businesses are selling as much as they possibly can to China within the law, and possibly beyond. Certainly, their collaboration with a genocidal and totalitarian regime, which under Xi Jinping appears to be approaching new historical lows of fascism, raises serious ethical issues.

Do the extra profits really justify empowering a regime that could subject your great-grandchildren to forced labor, or worse?

Western governments previously welcomed business with China on the theory that it would liberalize the Beijing regime. They now realize that engagement failed.

Even in Germany, which is one of the most resistant to any ethical constraints on business in China, the precepts of “Wandel durch Verflechtung” (change through interconnection) and “Wandel durch Handel” (change through trade) are being discredited.

On Feb. 3, the co-head of Germany’s ruling Social Democrats, Lars Klingbeil, rightly noted: “We haven’t found a convincing way to deal with authoritarian states. I wonder if the decades-old concept of trying to bring about change in a country through closer ties and economic relations is still relevant.”

I wonder, too.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 45

Milton Ezrati

MILTON EZRATI is chief economist for Vested, a contributing editor at The National Interest, and author of "Thirty Tomorrows" and "Bite-Sized Investing.”

Signs of Economic Weakness

Latest GDP report gives no reason for optimism

M

any it seems— the White House but also much of the media and Wall Street— took heart from the Commerce Department’s fourth-quarter report on the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

It seemed to confirm that after the Omicron-burdened summer quarter, the economy had returned to the powerful and broad-based recovery tracked during the year’s first half. But that interpretation is misplaced. One didn’t have to look too far beyond what is usually called the “headline figure” to find considerable cause for concern.

That “headline”—overall real GDP growth—did indeed look good. It ticked up smartly from the 2.3 percent annual growth rate recorded for the third quarter and even exceeded the impressive overall real growth of 6.5 percent averaged earlier in the year. The problem is that the bulk of this surge had nothing to do with sales to consumers or businesses, or homebuyers, or even governments.

It was largely a reflection of inventory restocking by retailers and wholesalers.

According to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis, businesses added some $224.7 billion to inventory stocks in the fourth quarter. That’s a huge change from the average $60.2 inventory depletion of the prior three quarters and at least twice the size of any historic accumulation. Were it not for this surge, annualized real GDP growth for the quarter would have been closer to 2.0 percent, actually lower than in the third quarter and certainly slower than the recovery surge of 2021’s first half.

To be sure, the ability to restock inventories at such an impressive

46 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

rate offers a welcome sign that perhaps supply chain shortages are abating. So do the surges in imports and exports also recorded in the Commerce Department’s report.

But looking forward, this kind of inventory rebuilding or the import– export lift isn’t likely to be repeated.

The post-pandemic recovery seems to be losing momentum, and inflation, about which so many are beginning to worry, seems more entrenched than ever.

On the contrary, without an urgent need to catch up for supply interruptions, the growth of both exports and imports will almost certainly slow. And if history is any guide, retailers and wholesalers are likely to draw down these rebuilt inventory stocks to meet future sales.

Otherwise, the picture on final sales spoke almost universally of weakness. Real consumer outlays expanded 3.3 percent at an annual rate. That was faster than the third quarter’s 2.0 percent rate of expansion, but well below the robust 11.7 percent rate averaged during the first half of the year.

Business spending on new productive facilities and equipment expanded at a meager 2.0 percent annual rate—up only slightly from the third quarter’s 1.7 percent rate, but far below the 11 percent annual rate of expansion averaged during the first half of 2021. The only bright spot for business was the 10.6 percent rate of expansion in purchases of technology, what the Commerce Department calls “intellectual property”—but even that was significant-

ly slower than the 14 percent rate of expansion averaged in this area earlier in the year.

Real government spending, after a surge earlier in the year, declined outright during the fourth quarter: 4.0 percent at the federal level and 2.2 percent at the state and local level.

Nor was there good news on the big question of the day: inflation.

The Commerce Department’s inflation measure—the deflator—is usually more muted than the more popularly recognized consumer price index, but it rose at a 6.9 percent annual rate during the fourth quarter, up from the 6.0 percent rate during the summer quarter and considerably above the 4.3 percent of the first quarter or the 2.0 percent rate recorded for all of 2020.

What is most discouraging is that the surge occurred across a broad front: 6.5 percent in the consumer sector, compared with 3.8 percent in the first quarter and 7.5 percent for productive equipment and systems, compared to 1.0 percent in the first quarter. Even government suffered an inflationary surge. The federal sector saw a 5.3 percent annualized rise in prices, compared with 4.0 percent in the first quarter. State and local governments saw 8.8 percent inflation during the fourth quarter, compared to 6.3 percent during the first quarter.

If the headlines seemed to encourage, the details make two unwelcome conclusions clear: the post-pandemic recovery seems to be losing momentum, more precipitously than most anyone expected, and inflation, about which so many are beginning to worry, seems more entrenched than ever. Things could turn around—on both counts—but what the nation has now is neither encouraging nor welcome.

EMEL AKAN is a senior reporter for The Epoch Times in Washington, D.C. Previously she worked in the financial sector as an investment banker at JPMorgan.

Emel Akan

Florida Is Decoupling From China State’s pension fund could soon divest from Chinese firms

ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES

F

lorida may soon cut ties with China as the state is currently reviewing its investments in Chinese companies, including those of its retirement system.

U.S. pension holders and retirees are unwittingly investing in companies that are tied to the Chinese communist regime, and Gov. Ron DeSantis in December 2021 took action to stop Floridians’ money from flowing into these firms.

DeSantis ordered a review of Florida Retirement System investments to determine how much has been invested in Chinese companies. Florida state’s pension plan is one of the largest public retirement plans in the United States and three-quarters of its total assets are managed by the State Board of Administration (SBA).

Following DeSantis’s order, the SBA has started the audit process, according to the governor’s spokesperson, Christina Pushaw.

There’s no clear timeline for the conclusion of the review, “but the legislative session ends March 11, and it’s likely we will have an update to share before that,” Pushaw told Insight.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to tackle the security threats posed by Chinese companies.

In June 2021, Biden signed an executive order that extended a Trump-era ban that prohibits U.S. investors from investing in Chinese military companies. Many of these companies are publicly traded on stock exchanges around the world and are tracked by major indexes such as MSCI and FTSE. “I think that the U.S. as a whole should be disentangling from China,” DeSantis said at the SBA meeting on Dec. 20, 2021. “But, certainly, our investments should be disentangling.”

DeSantis cited the non-transparent nature of Chinese companies and their potential involvement in human

DeSantis has taken action to stop Floridians’ money flowing into Chinese firms. rights abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“The elites in America for a generation have created this big monster,” DeSantis said.

Florida also revoked the state pension fund’s proxy voting authority that has been given to outside fund managers, such as BlackRock. DeSantis accused them of pursuing ideologies that are inconsistent with the state’s values and its financial interests.

His announcement came after a consumer advocacy group in December 2021 sent a letter to the governors of the top 10 states with the most pension dollars invested in BlackRock. The asset management giant has come under fire in the past year for its investments in China.

“We urge elected officials to do their due diligence in educating themselves and their staff on the multiple risks posed by BlackRock’s extensive investments in Chinese companies, both from an ethical standpoint as well as the fiduciary responsibility owed to U.S. pension holders and retirees,” William Hild, executive director of Consumers’

Research, wrote in the letter to the 10 governors, including DeSantis.

The 10 states whose public pension funds are most invested in BlackRock are Washington, Florida, New York, Nevada, Nebraska, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Montana, and West Virginia.

Washington state tops the list with $13 billion of state pension funds invested in BlackRock, according to a Consumers’ Research report, followed

by Florida ($10.7 billion) and New York ($9.8 billion).

BlackRock and several large U.S. asset management funds have been criticized for investing in shares of Chinese companies that support the CCP’s military and security apparatuses, and help its human rights abuses.

“BlackRock’s investment choices are not only risking the security of U.S. pensions, but the security of our nation as a whole,” the report states.

According to the report, BlackRock has significant investments in companies that bolster the Chinese military’s technological buildup, including Tencent, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., China Telecom, and China SpaceSat. The asset management firm has also invested in two companies, Hikvision and iFlytek, that are blacklisted by the U.S. government for human rights abuses against Uyghurs in the far-western Xinjiang region of China, the report states. Hikvision is one of the world’s largest surveillance equipment manufacturers, and iFlytek is China’s leading artificial intelligence company.

However, BlackRock has pushed back on these criticisms, stating that its obligation is to manage assets consistent with its “clients’ objectives and choices.”

In January, West Virginia also decided to cut ties with BlackRock over its investments in China and its environmental, social, and governance strategy that harms fossil fuel companies.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 47

DANIEL LACALLE is chief economist at hedge fund Tressis and author of “Freedom or Equality,” “Escape from the Central Bank Trap,” and “Life in the Financial Markets.”

Daniel Lacalle

Can Biden Flaunt Strong Growth?

Most of the recovery comes from the reopening of the economy

I

48 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

No one seems to care about the massive debt surge and the appalling return on investment of the stimulus plans. the massive increase in debt. The U.S. government has consumed 3.5 times more debt than the GDP accumulated in two years.

Third, because the 2021 GDP growth comes with the highest inflation figure in 39 years, a 7 percent increase in the consumer price index (CPI). This means that real wages have plummeted, and consumers are suffering, while small and medium enterprises are seeing declining margins.

The slowdown in economic growth that the United States is likely to see in 2022 should also be noted. Industrial production, retail sales, and job creation have slowed notably in the past three months. Let’s also not forget that the labor force participation rate has been stagnant for almost a year.

These figures show that the recovery is very complicated. More importantly, what these figures show is the extremely poor multiplier effect of government spending and the stimulus plans.

If we put this recovery in the context

of the largest monetary and fiscal stimulus in recent history, with two record-high deficit prints, what the Biden tweet shows is the poorest recovery adjusted for debt and monetary support in many decades.

No administration since World War II has used such immense policy actions to deliver above-trend growth and a rapid recovery. However, despite the almost unlimited use of government spending and Federal Reserve resources, including negative real rates and the lowest borrowing cost of government debt in decades, the reality shows an extremely poor and diminishing return from the fiscal and monetary space.

This is also the problem with many economists’ and investment banks’ analyses. No one seems to care about the massive debt surge and the appalling return on investment of the stimulus plans. If there’s something that resembles “growth,” politicians are happy.

But there’s a much deeper issue. The accumulated debt will be a burden on growth and jobs in the future, it’s likely to trigger massive tax increases, and, additionally, the placebo effect of the spending plans fades away rapidly.

The U.S. government consumes trillion-dollar stimulus plans as if it didn’t matter.

There’s a bounce after such a massive adrenaline injection into the economy.

But the bounce is clearly insufficient and low quality. The result is higher inflation and no discernible multiplier effect for the spending programs approved, because most of the recovery comes from the reopening of the economy, not from the stimulus.

This, unfortunately, is typical in many economies: a lot more debt for weaker growth and higher inflation.

The Biden tweet states that “this is no accident.” He’s right. It’s more like a Keynesian train wreck.

CHIP SOMODEVILLA/GETTY IMAGES

was surprised to see a tweet from President Joe Biden showing the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States for 2021 compared to the average GDP growth under other presidents. The tweet stated: “This didn’t happen by accident.

Because of the actions we took, last year we achieved the fastest economic growth in nearly four decades.”

The first thing we have to remind the president is that a recovery from a massive crisis isn’t “growth.” Unfortunately, this marketing tactic isn’t new.

When Biden was vice president under President Barack Obama, they always compared growth and jobs for the president’s tenure excluding the first year, 2009. Presidents tend to compare their figures favorably, but to talk about 2021 as the “fastest economic growth in nearly four decades” is misleading.

First, recovering the GDP after a massive crisis isn’t growth. After falling 3.5 percent, a 5.7 percent recovery isn’t “the fastest economic growth” in 40 years. It’s a bounce. Furthermore, when inventory build contributed a massive 4.9 percentage points to the 6.9 percent increase in real GDP for the fourth quarter, we should be cautious.

This factor is likely to be reversed in the first quarter and points to slower growth in 2022.

Second, because 2020 and 2021 saw the largest increase in federal debt in decades. After a $3.1 trillion deficit in 2020, the largest in history, and another historic record deficit in 2021 of $2.7 trillion, the U.S. economy has shown a much larger debt increase than GDP recovery. Current-dollar GDP increased by “$2.10 trillion in 2021 to a level of $22.99 trillion, in contrast to a decrease of 2.2 percent, or $478.9 billion, in 2020,” according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

That means that the U.S. economy has barely grown after adjusting for

Fan Yu

FAN YU is an expert in finance and economics and has contributed analyses on China’s economy since 2015.

US Fund Issues Challenge to Beijing

NOEL CELIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The move by Oaktree throws Evergrande’s restructuring plans into jeopardy

e’re about to find out just how “free” China’s financial markets really are.

As the restructuring saga around real estate developer China Evergrande continues to drag on, recent developments could escalate into a financial standoff never before seen in China’s capital markets.

A U.S. distressed credit fund—which owns a piece of Evergrande’s defaulted dollar bonds—has thrown down the gauntlet in a bid to protect its interests, potentially ruining the Beijing regime’s plans to restructure and rescue Evergrande.

Here’s the background. After leverage limits on China’s property developers were tightened by Beijing, Evergrande finally defaulted on its offshore bonds in December 2021. Since then, the Beijing and Guangdong governments have attempted to avoid a disorderly collapse of the company by orchestrating a proposed restructuring.

Full details are still being worked out, but it’s believed that Evergrande could be liquidated, and its assets sold off to various state-owned and private holders. In turn, Beijing will approach its domestic and foreign creditors to negotiate a settlement, which would be funded by proceeds from the sales of such assets or swapped for interests in existing projects or collateral.

Evergrande’s U.S. dollar-denominated creditors and bondholders are obviously nervous about how much they would eventually recover. As they should be. Beijing, for its part, has urged offshore creditors not to pursue aggressive legal action against Evergrande and to remain patient.

None of this is unusual—except what happened next.

In late January, distressed-credit investment manager Oaktree Capital seized a 2.2-million-square-foot plot of

If the CCP rejects Oaktree’s legal position, Chinese companies will have an impossible time obtaining offshore financing going forward. land in Hong Kong that was owned by Evergrande, where the developer had intended to build a vast mansion for its founder, dubbed “Project Castle.”

The move throws Evergrande’s restructuring plans into jeopardy, as the property was supposed to be a key piece of collateral in a pool of assets used to satisfy bondholders.

In a separate move, the Financial Times reported that Oaktree has seized another Evergrande asset, this time in mainland China. This resort and entertainment project, on the Yellow River delta, is called “Venice” and is one of Evergrande’s most prized development projects.

These brazen maneuvers aren’t unheard of in bankruptcy and restructuring negotiations. The “distressed-debt” corner of Wall Street isn’t for the faint of heart. Hardball, aggressive tactics are part of the playbook for experienced distressed credit hedge funds such as Elliott Management, Appaloosa Management, and Oaktree. It’s how they’re able to turn

pennies invested into dollars returned.

But Oaktree’s moves are absolutely unheard of in China.

The fund is openly challenging Evergrande—and, by extension, the Guangdong government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and China’s legal system.

Oaktree’s challenge to the CCP’s Evergrande restructuring plans in Hong Kong is already very problematic. Hong Kong courts could let the negotiations play out in a similar fashion to how they are done in the West—dragged out and ugly. But given how politically sensitive Evergrande is, we don’t know.

Here we will make a distinction between Hong Kong’s relatively more “free market” court system and mainland China’s far more corrupt, complicated local court system. Evergrande stated in a filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it’s seeking legal counsel on how to proceed and protect company interests.

We won’t speculate on how the mainland China “Venice” project will proceed.

Foreign players are fully at the mercy of the CCP-controlled Chinese court system.

But these matters are usually handled by the local courts. The interplay between the local courts and CCP headquarters in Beijing, given Evergrande’s national significance, will be interesting.

What’s clear is that the Los Angeles-based Oaktree has put the CCP in a tough position.

Will the CCP intervene in Hong Kong courts, and disallow Oaktree’s receivership? Will Beijing tell the Chinese courts to invalidate Oaktree’s claims with regards to “Venice”? And will Beijing blacklist Oaktree from investing in Chinese debt going forward?

If the CCP does step in and rejects Oaktree’s legal position, Chinese companies will have an impossible time obtaining offshore financing going forward, and Hong Kong’s position as Beijing’s designated “offshore” money center will effectively end.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 49

JEFF MINICK lives and writes in Front Royal, Va. He is the author of two novels, “Amanda Bell” and “Dust on Their Wings,” and two works of nonfiction, “Learning as I Go” and “Movies Make the Man.”

Jeff Minick

Those Hearts Belong to All of Us A reflection on St. Valentine’s Day alentine’s day is just around the bend.

For many people in the 18- to 45-year-old crew, this holiday can bring everything from a big smile to a case of the hives.

Some guys—I’m afraid I’ve never belonged to this club—do the holiday up right, planning a candlelight supper at a fancy restaurant or having a dozen roses delivered along with a song to the workplace of their beloved. I tip my hat to all of you romantic gentlemen.

Others are those men you see in your local grocery store at 5 p.m. on Feb. 14, a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a card in the other, shamefacedly avoiding the other six guys standing in the checkout line clutching these same tokens of love. I’ve been there and done that—ugh on me.

And then there are the many men and women who will spend Valentine’s Day by themselves. They’ll pass by those displays of candies and cards in the stores knowing that those gifts won’t be theirs.

For them, there’s no shared bottle of red wine, no special chocolates, and no meals and lifted glasses in a neighborhood café. For them, Valentine’s Day is no celebration and may even be a day of regret and sadness. I’ve been there and done that too.

Maybe it’s time we broadened our definition of this ancient holiday.

Maybe we should go back to those standards of elementary school days that some of us remember, when the whole class got those miniature candy hearts with their silly, short messages of love. Maybe we can make this day into a festival of affections.

We can keep the special gestures— the flowers, the cards, the notes of affection, and so forth—for those especially close to us. But we might also consider others we love, those who play a special part in our lives, or our neighbors and acquaintances who are 50 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

This holiday can bring everything from a big smile to a case of the hives. alone, and include them in this circle of love. It’s the perfect opportunity to tell them how much they mean to us, the perfect moment to assure them that they matter in this world. If nothing else, we can present them with some small token of our affections on this special day.

We might gift the boss with flowers, or the boss might drop a few chocolates on each employee’s desk. We might tuck a Valentine’s Day card under the door of our elderly neighbor or bring some pastries to the lonely woman who lives next door. We might call some relative we’ve neglected and wish them well.

In my case, I plan on buying some treats and taking them to the staff at my favorite coffee shop and to the clerks and cooks at the little convenience store near my house to show my appreciation for these folks.

Or maybe some of you who are more

energetic should go for broke this time around. Another name for Feb. 14 is “the Feast of Saint Valentine,” so why not make it so? Throw a party. Invite your relatives, friends, and neighbors—couples and singles, young and old. Make it “bring your own beer” and a potluck as part of the bargain. Crank up some music and play some goofy games. If nothing else, these festivities proclaim to the world that life is sweet and still worth celebrating.

Hey, it beats sitting at home alone and watching “Sleepless in Seattle” for the umpteenth time.

Valentine’s Day is a day for sometimes sappy gifts and sometimes sloppy sentiments. Right now, after the last couple of years of the COVID-19 pandemic and other disasters, maybe those sappy gifts and sloppy sentiments are the real booster shots we Americans need this Feb. 14.

A final point to bear in mind, not just for lovers, but for everyone—parents, friends, everyone: “Roses are fine, and chocolate too, But the best Valentine’s Day gift is you.”

Let’s celebrate by connecting with those around us.

INCLUDED IN YOUR SUBSCRIPTION

Exclusive interviews, shows, documentaries, movies, and more.

Visit THEEPOCHTIMES.COM I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 51

Nation Profile

THOUGHT LEADERS

Taking the Turn: Facing an Illiberal Reality Now ‘politically homeless,’ Liel Leibovitz advocates for rebuilding our country, starting in our backyards

I

never want to be part of any group of people,” Liel Leibovitz says, “where a political disagreement could empty your heart of love.”

In this episode of “American Thought Leaders,” host Jan Jekielek discusses topics such as “political homelessness” and rebuilding society from the bottom up with Liel Leibovitz, a senior writer for Tablet Magazine and a host of the “Unorthodox” podcast. He’s the author of the popular Tablet essay “The Turn: When I saw the left give up everything I believe in, I changed politically. You can, too.”

JACK WANG/THE EPOCH TIMES

JAN JEKIELEK: Liel, you

wrote one of my favorite essays of 2021, “The Turn.”

What is the turn?

LIEL LEIBOVITZ: The

turn is the moment when you call into question everything you assumed

52 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

was the fabric of reality. I grew up with this idea that if you were a decent human being, you were on the left, because the left cared about human rights, women’s rights, gay rights.

On the right were people who only cared about money and held benighted and scary ideas.

I never doubted that premise. But then, I noticed things on the left you weren’t allowed to say.

It was fine to criticize some people for saying objectionable things, but others were somehow beyond reproach. You start asking yourself, what can I say and not say?

You figure out that the self-proclaimed party of the working class supports an oligopoly of corporations. You realize the party of science uses media to quash inquiry into scientific issues. And once you discover that, you take the turn.

Liel Leibovitz, writer and podcast host.

Nation Profile

“While I think the chaos that we are experiencing is weird and scary, I could not be more optimistic for the future of this country in the long term.”

MR . JEKIELEK: There’s a

lot of people experiencing the turn, but don’t want to put their careers on the line or lose family members by objecting to things.

MR . LEIBOVITZ: I’m

heartbroken by that. Let me tell you one story of how it happened to me. The turn doesn’t occur overnight.

There’s no explosion.

It’s a series of small vibrations, of small moments.

I’ve had a bunch of those moments. One day, I had lunch with my dear friend and mentor in the university where I studied.

He told me that comments I was making about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict were no longer acceptable to a large number of our colleagues on the faculty. [What] struck me about that statement was how perfectly Soviet it was: “Watch out, comrade.

There’s talk in the party you are expressing wrong ideas.

This is not good.”

It was strange coming from a person who represents an institution that, to me, is the bedrock of the free and unfettered

exchange of ideas. But what hurt even more was how empty of love his voice was.

It wasn’t, “Hey, I just want what’s best for you. Let’s work this out together.”

Instead, this cold authoritative voice said, “Straighten up or else.”

I never want to be part of any group of people where a political disagreement could empty your heart of love.

MR . JEKIELEK: There

must be a lot of Democrats who feel like you do.

MR . LEIBOVITZ: I get

notes and emails from people all the time that say they started feeling something weird in the Democratic Party or, for that matter, in the Republican Party. They felt politically homeless.

To me, that’s a wonderful sentiment. I want to be politically homeless.

Because being politically homeless is the moment in which you stop thinking about these structures in old and unhelpful terms.

What’s important is who’s in your camp and what we believe and what we could

do together to rebuild our country. And while I think the chaos that we’re experiencing is weird and scary, I couldn’t be more optimistic for the future of this country in the long term.

Let’s rebuild, because our universities have been corrupted. Let’s build another news media outlet, because our newspapers have been corrupted. Let’s build another way of doing business, because our big businesses have been corrupted. That fills me with so much hope and so much joy.

That’s what successful people are doing.

Americans are doing what Americans have always done, which is be resolute, creative, resilient, and community-minded.

MR . JEKIELEK: Recently,

Dr. Robert Malone was on with Joe Rogan, where he mentioned mass formation psychosis. Any thoughts on that?

MR . LEIBOVITZ: Yes. I

think it’s grimmer and simpler than we would think.

If your commitment isn’t just to yourself, but to your children and to their children and to your community and to your fellow believers and, above all, to the almighty, then your perspective on life is very different. If you start every morning saying “thank you” for all of this, that’s one thing.

Now, imagine you woke up in the morning and literally believed in nothing.

Imagine you have massive student debt and also no job, because the whole premise that you would go to college

and then get a good job and career, that doesn’t happen anymore.

Imagine that you saw all around you tremendous misery. Imagine that the people entrusted with keeping you safe, well-fed, free from disease or want were failing their jobs miserably and blaming all kinds of other ephemeral structures.

That’s a recipe for disaster.

That’s a recipe in which you seek the devil. “Who can I blame?” “Blame Trump.

Blame the Republicans.

Blame Russia.” Blame this.

Blame that.

MR . JEKIELEK: I keep

thinking about this ideology: “wokeism.” John McWhorter calls it “The Elect.” It’s profoundly reductionistic in the way you’ve been describing.

MR . LEIBOVITZ: Correct.

And it’s a religious faith, 100 percent. The iconography, the murals, the taking of the knee, all the trappings of a religious order are there, except for the stuff that actual religions have worked out like absolution, forgiveness, compassion, or kindness.

And this new religious order is a bad religion, because there’s no forgiveness, no way for you to redeem yourself. It’s, as you said, reductionist. It’s cruel and unforgiving, which is why I think, ultimately, it will fade. It doesn’t make anyone happy. It doesn’t bring justice. It sows discord, disruption, mistrust, and violence.

MR . JEKIELEK: Some

people watching this may be thinking, I can’t talk

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 53

Nation Profile

“The freedom to speak the truth is great.

And here’s the reward for that sacrifice.

The connections you make are real.” about these things. I risk alienating the love of my life. I risk destroying my family. To those people, it’s a difficult moment. What should people like this do?

MR . LEIBOVITZ: Simple

advice comes to us from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Live not by lies. It’s also the title of a book by my friend, Rod Dreher, that reminds us that if you’re forced to lie to be accepted, there’s

no growth, no hope. And you should leave. The price of leaving may be high.

It’s quite possible you’ll no longer be able to continue working at your place of employment.

That’s a difficult conundrum for most people. It’s also possible you might alienate a loved one or a family member.

But the freedom to speak the truth is great. And here’s the reward for that sacrifice.

The connections you make are real. I was no longer able to continue teaching at New York University once I was unwilling to express views and ideas that I knew to be completely nonsensical and offensive.

I lost quite a bit, but I gained the friendship and love of a group of human beings that I had never known existed.

I came to them with humility and with an understanding that I, too, can make mistakes and built some of the most beautiful friendships of my life.

When you live not by lies, you get relationships with amazing people you never would’ve thought would become your friends.

MR . JEKIELEK: There are

a lot of people in this day and age that have lost that.

MR . LEIBOVITZ: It’s im-

portant to me to offer three pieces of advice. The first is cribbed from my friend Walter Kirn. He told me to wean myself off my addiction to prestige, to stop thinking I need to write for The New York Times because that’s the prestigious publication or that I need to go to Harvard because that’s the prestigious school.

The second is, understand that many people around you want to connect with you.

And that leads me to my third and most important prescription, which is to be focused on building.

Your job isn’t to fix America. Your job isn’t to fix health care, politics, or national security.

Your job is to fix the thing that’s in your backyard.

Maybe it’s some kind of food bank because you really care about this issue.

Maybe it’s helping a couple of homeschooling friends, because you’re thinking about doing this too, and you want to start a group.

Those kinds of small grassroots positives are what I’m seeing.

If you feel you’re creating something sustainable and nurturing in your community, then you’re on the right path.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

54 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

GEORGE FREY/GETTY IMAGES

Protesters from Students for a Democratic Society demonstrate on the University of Utah campus against an appearance by conservative speaker Ben Shapiro, in Salt Lake City on Sept. 27, 2017.

T R AV E L • F O O D • L U X U R Y L I V I N G

Unwind

No.06

“The tower” is a great photo opp, but don't miss Pisa's other leaning bell towers, at the churches of St. Michele and St. Nicola.

PHOTO BY SERGEY PETERMAN/SHUTTERSTOCK

A Magnificent Mistake TV SETS HAVE COME A long way since the first public demonstration of televised images at a store in London in the 1920s.

Prepare to be amazed. 63

TORTILLAS MADE WITH heirloom corn and the al pastor, cauliflower, and bistec tacos at New York City’s Sobre Masa will have your tastebuds yelling “Viva!” 66

58

MAKING FRIENDS STARTS with saying “hello” to strangers.

We know it’s easier said than done, so we compiled some proven techniques. 67

INSIDE I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 55

A SEASIDE PALACE

By Phil Butler

T

56 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

mine flowers. The obvious attention to detail, the welcoming sense of wonderful terracotta tiles and huge wooden beams, and a sumptuous atmosphere pervade the entire home.

Moving outside, there are abundant entertainment and relaxation spaces, such as a large outdoor dining terrace, a barbeque area, a wonderful outdoor pool, an outdoor shower area, secret gardens, and not one, but two private coves at the seashore. The estate also has a large garage, a separate studio, a second guest house, and a caretaker’s apartment.

The climate of the Côte d’Azur is Mediterranean, of course, with hot, dry summers and mild, humid winters. The Mistral wind occurs there, but the area is often sheltered from the gusts by the Massif des Maures and the Esterel. The estate’s owners and their guests will also enjoy the 30 beautiful beaches, countless coves, and unique nature nearby. In Anthéor, 3 kilometers away, there are scores of wonderful cafes and restaurants, as well as many scenic attractions along the Corniche d’Or, one of France’s most beautiful roads.

Phil Butler is a publisher, editor, author, and analyst who is a widely cited expert on subjects ranging from digital and social media to travel technology.

ANTHÉOR, FRANCE PRICE UPON REQUEST • 8 BEDROOMS • SEAFRONT • 1+ ACRES KEY FEATURES • UNIQUELY SITUATED DIRECT CÔTE D'AZUR ACCESS • EXCLUSIVE PRIVACY • PRIVATE COVES, GARDENS, AND POOLS AGENT CARLTON INTERNATIONAL EMAIL: INFO@CARLTONGROUP.COM +33 493 95 1111

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CARLTON INTERNATIONAL

h i s l u x u r io u s se a f r o n t v i l l a in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of southeastern France is a rare find, even in such an exclusive market. An outstanding estate blessed with provincial charm, it offers every convenience, unique surroundings, and uncompromising exclusivity.

The massive 625-square-meter (6,727-squarefoot) home has eight bedrooms, six bathrooms, and 14 lavishly designed rooms overall.

Located on the Mediterranean Sea at Anthéor, halfway between Cannes and Saint-Tropez, the main house is enclosed by more than one acre (4,047 square meters) of sculptured grounds blended into the raw nature of the region. On the ground floor of the villa, there’s an enormous open-plan living area, a gourmet kitchen, a formal dining area, a library, a fitness suite, an indoor pool, and a bar and wine cellar.

The home’s upstairs features a stunning master suite, three additional suites, and a children’s room, each with its own en-suite bath and balcony. Also on this level are two additional patios and a secret garden space with its own shower area completely immersed in jas-

In the highly sought-after French Riviera, a most unusual, amazing estate has become available

Moving outdoors, the villa’s grounds are manicured without being sculpted.

The idea was to take advantage of the region’s unique character, by blending design and materials into the landscape.

The use of massive wood beams, warm terracotta, and an interesting blend of the grandiose and the functional also make this property unique.

The home features many living and dining spaces, all taking advantage of the grand views and ambient light and color from outdoors. Here we see a casual dining area flowing into one of the living areas, and onto an exterior patio.

Entering the villa, there’s an immediate sense of style, but not ostentatiousness. The house was designed to be lived in, and for entertaining. Earthy, warm materials and provincial flair add to the sense of welcoming.

The villa’s bedroom suites continue the provincial motif, with elegant simplicity being the focus. Again, like most of the villa’s rooms, the sleeping spaces all enjoy easy access to the breathtaking outdoors.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 57

Travel Italy

Pisa is a unique combination of the old and the prestigious, as well as the young and the vibrant.

THE TOWER OF PISA

A leaning, standing miracle with a fascinating history

By Tim Johnson

A

m a rv e l b or n o u t of m i s ta k e , today the image of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is unmistakable.

It’s one of those ubiquitous landmarks that’s instantly recognizable, from film and television to the wallpaper of every old-school pizza parlor that you’ve ever visited. And while taking and posting a joke photo pretending to hold it up, push it down, or dangle it from its tip-top may be an essential part of any visit there, a day in Pisa, Italy, is more than just a Kodak moment.

The Square of Miracles Despite its familiarity, when you first see Pisa’s (in)famous tower, it will still shock you, even if just a bit. Built in the 12th century on soil too soft to support it, the structure began to shift immediately during construction. Walking up a nondescript street lined with a few souvenir vendors just opening up for the day, we reached 58 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

the gate for the Square of Miracles, a walled space home to the city’s cathedral and baptistry as well.

“The biggest miracle—that we come at the end of the day, and the tower is still standing,” the guide said, just before we rounded the corner. “OK, are you ready for your wow moment?”

Everyone in the group said it, despite ourselves—an audible “wow,” as we walked through the gate and saw it on the far side of the square, rising more than 185 feet. Somehow, the lean is even more pronounced when you see it in person, and those first few moments are spent sizing it up and reconciling its distinctive tilt.

Political Powerhouse Pisa never wanted its tower to lean. In fact, from the start, this was an architectural embarrass-

PISA

ITALY ROME Beaches are only about 15 or 20 minutes away from the city.

Travel Italy

ment, a smudge on the city’s pride. Today, Pisa is a very pleasant Tuscan center. Home to about 200,000 people in its metro area, the capital of the Italian province of the same name is surrounded by small mountains and set on the curving bends of the Arno River, very close to the Ligurian Sea. It’s peaceful, if a bit sleepy, and the streets near Miracle Square (even more lyrical in the Italian: “Piazza dei Miracoli”) are filled with patio restaurants serving al fresco pizza and pasta and Tuscan favorites.

But in the 1100s, Pisa was a powerhouse looking to flex its muscle.

“You need to remember, Pisa was an independent republic at the top of its power,” the guide said. “They built this to show that Pisa was the new Rome.”

BUT ALAS, IT didn’t go well. They built all of the

Less than

A HALF HOUR’S

drive away, Lucca— Pisa’s rival city— is a beautiful and historic place worthy of a visit.

ed as a commercial center and from its navy and merchant fleet. They fought successful battles against the Sicilians, Saracens, and Genovese and expanded their influence across the Mediterranean, all the way to the Levant and North Africa.

By the late 12th century, Pisa’s power was on par with Venice, Italy, and the two signed a peace treaty. Gathering wealth from these adventures at sea, the city fathers back home began to build structures worthy of their new, impressive standing in the world. The tower is actually the campanile for the cathedral, and work on the latter began in 1064 in Romanesque style, with Byzantine influences.

The Corinthian columns were taken from a mosque in Palermo, Italy. The facade is gray granite and white stone. Galileo even formulated his pendulum theory there, hanging an incense

structures on that same, soft, marshy soil, and all of them lean—if you look very carefully, you can see it, these grand buildings set off by just a fraction. But none tilts so dramatically as the tower—at an angle of less than 4 percent. Over its history, architects made various efforts at correction. During a subsequent phase in construction in the 1270s, engineers tried to compensate by building walls on one side higher than the other, resulting in a permanent curve.

Finally, in 1990, with the lean 15 feet off, the Italian government, fearing its collapse, closed the Tower. They evacuated surrounding apartments and shops and embarked on a decade-long project. Spending a total of $27 million and removing 77 tons of soil, they corrected the lean—by just a fraction (by now, straightening the famous marble Tower entirely would be unthinkable). They estimated it would all be shored up for the next 300 years.

I didn’t make it to the top. I didn’t walk up those famous stairwells, wide enough for a man and his horse. I didn’t stand in the spot where Galileo dropped two cannonballs to the ground, proving that objects fall at the same speed of acceleration. But I did stroll through the grassy square, watching everyone having their fun, lining up their perfect photo, all of those hundreds of years of history—a miracle—right behind them.

The Tuscan region is a top destination for food and wine lovers.

Pisa is a unique combination of the old and prestigious, as well as the young and vibrant.

ONE OF FOUR major marine republics, Pisa profit-

FROM TOP L: ROSTY MCFLY/SHUTTERSTOCK, SHUTTERSTOCK, PARILOV/SHUTTERSTOCK, SEAN PAVONE/SHUTTERSTOCK

lamp from the church’s nave. They spared no expense—neither there nor on the new city walls, nor on the massive baptistery, located just next door, which dates back to 1152. (All of it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.)

If You Go Fly: Pisa’s Galileo Galilei International Airport welcomes flights from across Europe.

Getting Around: Although the city has a serviceable public transit system, which includes trams and buses, the compact, flat city can be well explored on foot. Rent a car if you want to travel to the mountains or sea nearby.

Stay: Newly renovated, the four-star Grand Hotel Duomo is within easy walking distance of the Square of Miracles, and provides views, from both suites and the restaurant, of the Leaning Tower.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 59

While some may view it as an obesssion with one's appearance, pampering our skin is actually critical to overall health.

Lifestyle Skincare

Skin: We all have it, but are you taking yours for granted?

T

By Bill Lindsey he largest organ of the human body is the skin, which all too commonly tends to be neglected and unintentionally abused. Just a few millimeters thick, skin provides protection for everything inside it from everything outside, from weather to harmful substances.

Although you can’t tell by looking, the skin is a very active organ, reacting to external stimuli such as touch, cold, or heat, automatically rushing more blood to an injured section to expedite healing.

It also provides input to protect the body, alerting you to injuries by means of pain, irritation, or changes in color or texture.

It’s also a repository of the water and fats required by the body for wellness.

FROM L: JLCO JULIA AMARAL/SHUTTERSTOCK, MARGO BASARAB/SHUTTERSTOCK

THERE ARE THREE layers of skin, with

the epidermis, the outside layer, consisting of cells called keratinocytes. These cells harden, providing a protective seal against the outside environment.

Keratinocytes are constantly being replaced; over a period of four weeks for most people, the outer layer falls away as new keratinocytes reach the surface. Injuries such as cuts can affect the texture of these outer skin cells, but repeated pressure or rubbing can also result in thicker, scaly sections, or calluses. The other two layers are the dermis, the middle layer, and below that lies the subcutis.

It’s too easy to take skin health for granted, assuming there are no obvious signs of damage, with bruises, scrapes, and small cuts healing quickly. The problem is that not all signs of serious damage are obvious or are ignored until it’s too late. Cuts can become infected, rashes can spread, or strange spots or bumps can form. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the United States. Of all can-

Great skin starts with a healthy diet that keeps it nourished. Make sure your diet includes fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains. cers resulting in death, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranks skin cancer fifth overall, and it’s the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer.

The good news is that, according to many dermatologists, skin cancer can be relatively easy to prevent or treat if caught early. While excessive exposure to sunlight is perhaps the best-known cause of skin damage, there are other ways in which skin can be damaged, such as exposure to bleach or other chemical irritants found in many common household cleaning products.

Cigarette smoking is another problem; blood vessels can be constricted by smoking, restricting the amount of oxygen and blood that can reach your

skin. This can lead to premature aging and lines. Speaking of lines, it turns out your mom was partly right; making faces won’t really cause them to be “stuck” like she said, but overly frequent frowning or squinting can possibly lead to sagging skin. Theoretically, excessive smiling could also be a problem, but that’s one risk most will gladly accept.

Excessive drinking is never a good idea, but it also can lead to skin damage. Alcohol dehydrates the body, resulting in prematurely aged skin.

Even what you eat plays a role in skin health, making vitamins and lots of water an important part of your daily intake. The Mayo Clinic cites research suggesting a diet rich in fish oil and low in I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 61

Lifestyle Skincare

LIFESTYLE

PROTECT YOUR SKIN

Our skin works tirelessly to protect everything inside our bodies, so caring for it is critical.

Our skin does a tremendous job of protecting us, so it deserves being well cared for.

The problem is that not all signs of serious damage are obvious or are ignored until it’s too late. refined carbohydrates and “bad” fats will keep skin nourished and healthy. They also advise drinking plenty of water and eating fruits, lean proteins, vegetables, and whole grains.

THEY GO ON to advise you to keep your

62 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

Keep It Clean Use mild soaps for face and body and limit overly hot showers to avoid stripping off moisturizing oils. Occasionally men should skip shaving and women go makeupfreeto allow their skin pores to recover and open.

2 Keep It Nourished Dermatologists recommend a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, vegetables, and whole grains, plus plenty of water will help keep skin nourished so it can provide the best protection for your inner organs.

3 Avoid Too Much Sun

Drinking plenty of water, especially when you’re outside and active, helps to keep your skin moisturized.

Many dermatologists recommend using broad spectrum sunblocks to provide protection against UVB rays that can result in sunburns and cancers, as well as the more deeply-penetrating UVA rays that can lead to prematurely aged skin.

THIS PAGE FROM TOP: GPOINTSTUDIO/SHUTTERSTOCK, CLAUDIA SOARES/UNSPLASHED

skin clean, but do so gently. Overly strong soaps and long, hot showers can remove oils that keep your skin naturally moisturized. When drying, pat the skin rather than scrubbing it and then apply a moisturizer. Stress can manifest in dandruff, eczema, or other skin irritations.

Exercise stimulates and increases blood circulation, carrying more nutrients to the skin cells to form elastin and collagen and ensure the cycle of cell replacement.

There are four types of skin cancer: basal cell, squamus cell carcinomas, melanomas, and Merkel cell carcinomas.

Basal cell and squamus cell cancers can often be removed in the dermatologist’s office. Melanomas and the relatively rare Merkel carcinomas may require surgical removal along with radiation, immunotherapy, or chemotherapy treatments.

Everyone with skin needs to learn the

signs of skin cancer. Any irregularly shaped or dark spot on the skin needs to be examined. In addition to skin regularly exposed to the sun, all other areas need to be examined, including those that may never or rarely see the sun.

Singer Bob Marley’s death at the young age of 36 was the result of an untreated melanoma discovered under a toenail.

Because he refused treatment on religious grounds, it spread, leading to his death four years later. The importance of annual checkups by a dermatologist inspecting every inch of skin can’t be overstressed. Take care of your skin so it can take care of you.

1

Luxury Living Entertainment

DANCING ELECTRONS: A SMART SAMPLING OF NEW TVS With the invention of the TV in 1927, our lives were forever changed by these magical boxes beaming news and entertainment into our homes. Here are several notable new models.

By Bill Lindsey IMPRESSIVE SOUND AND IMAGES

A T H E AT E R I N YO U R L I V I N G R O O M

B&O BEOVISION HARMONY

SONY BRAVIA XR Z9J 8K

FROM $18,125

FROM $5,499.99

COURTESY OF BANG & OLUFSEN, SONY, TOTAL HOME DECOR, C SEED, LG

This innovative system seems to come alive when activated, with the oak veneer wings opening and the 8K 88-inch screen rising to the viewing position. B&O uses a room-filling audio system that works with the amazing image delivered by the OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) screen to deliver an optimal entertainment experience.

Sony made full use of its tremendous resources in creating this remarkable TV. The cutting-edge processor accesses billions of colors, reproducing them precisely.

It also upscales all content, working in concert with the full array LED screen and XR contrast booster to deliver 8K eye-popping detail.

RISE UP!

C SEED M1 FOLDING 165” MICRO-LED A P O R TA B L E D R I V E- I N T H E AT E R

TOTAL HOMEFX OUTDOOR THEATER FROM $251.94

Imagine watching movies in your backyard, from the comfort of the pool or a hot tub, or even while camping (with a generator). The portable system features an inflatable 73-inch screen (108-inch screen also available), a Bluetooth speaker, and a 1080p projector using HDMI or Wi-Fi connections.

$400,000

Inspired by the huge C Seed 201 outdoor TV designed by Porsche Design Group, like a character from the Transformers movies, the M1 4K dramatically rises from a hiding space in the floor, unfolding and transforming into an elegant, huge, 165-inch micro-LED screen.

EYEPOPPING CLARITY

LG C1

FROM $1,099.99

The OLED screen is capable of absolute black and extremely bright white for excellent contrast, which translates into very crisp picture quality, especially in a darkened room.

In addition to movies, TV, or online content, it is also a great choice for games.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 63

Epoch Booklist

RECOMMENDED READING NONFICTION

‘BLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution’

By Mike Gonzalez

Behind Black Lives Matter Gonzalez’s exploration of Black Lives Matter shows a Marxist movement that seeks to take over institutions using race politics. This important book will help readers debunk for those around them the political narratives at work.

ENCOUNTER BOOKS, 2021, 264 PAGES

We explore the extraordinary youth of Theodore Roosevelt, and life advice from those at the top of their fields.

a child, the imprint left on him by his father and mother, his time at Harvard and in politics, the death of his mother and his young wife on the same day, and his life as a cowboy in the Dakotas.

A fine introduction to the man who became one of our most energetic presidents and who was a Rough Rider not only during the SpanishAmerican War, but throughout his life.

SIMON & SCHUSTER, 1982, 480 PAGES

LEADERSHIP

‘Tribe of Mentors’

By Tim Ferriss

BIOGRAPHY

‘Mornings on Horseback’

By David McCullough

Portrait of the Young Theodore Roosevelt The author of such renowned biographies as “John Adams” and “Truman,” McCullough tells the story of Teddy Roosevelt’s family and his youth: his frailty as

Bite-Sized Life Advice Ferriss reached out to those he deemed to be the “best of the best” in many fields, posing the same 11 questions—a collection he’s honed over the years, thanks to his popular podcast.

Investors, sports stars, authors, comedians, scientists, musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and more give their takes, offering something for everyone.

Easily digestible in bite-sized portions, it’s perfect for college students, self-help junkies, entrepreneurs, and dreamers who are striving for something more.

HARPER BUSINESS, 2017, 624 PAGES

64 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

Are there books you’d recommend?

We’d love to hear from you. Let us know at features@epochtimes.com

‘The War of Art’

By Steven Pressfield

Getting Past Resistance Pressfield wrote, “Most of us have two lives.

The life we live, and the unlived life within us.

Between the two stands Resistance.”

He defines resistance as “an energy field radiating from a work-in-potential. It’s a repelling force. … Its aim is to shove us away, distract us, prevent us from doing our work.”

He encourages readers to break through the resistance, offering practical advice on recognizing it and working past it.

BLACK IRISH ENTERTAINMENT, 2012, 190 PAGES

FOOD

‘Nom Nom Paleo: Let’s Go!’

By Michelle Tam

Paleo Cooking for Weeknights This cookbook checks all the boxes of weeknight cooking: fast and

easy, healthy but flavorful, family-friendly (recipes are teenage son approved), and internationally inspired. All the recipes are free of grains, gluten, dairy, and refined sugar. Fun cartoons and step-by-step photos, presented comic book-style, make it a joy to use.

ANDREWS MCMEEL PUBLISHING, 2022, 352 PAGES

CLASSICS

‘My Antonia’

By Willa Cather

FOR KIDS

‘Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry’

By Mildred Taylor

The Strength of Family in Hard Times Living in 1930s Mississippi, the Logan family fights Jim Crow laws and hard times. Central to the story is Cassie, a girl who practices dignity and respect in the face of adversity. Winner of the Newbury Award—and deservedly so.

PUFFIN BOOKS, 2004, 288 PAGES

Life on the Prairie An orphan, Jim Burden goes to live with his grandparents in Nebraska, where he befriends Ántonia Shimerda, whose family has immigrated from Bohemia. Although the two share an attraction to each other, they eventually go their separate ways. Jim becomes a successful attorney, and after some struggles, Ántonia finds her place as a wife and a mother to many children. This novel depicts the hardships of life on the plains, the love of land and family, and the value of an enduring friendship. An American masterpiece.

INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED, 2020, 146 PAGES

‘Amazing Animals’

By Ingrid and Dieter Schubert

All Creatures Great and Small Blending the entertainment of a traditional storybook with a concise overview of creatures in our world, it features rich illustrations that lend themselves to discussing and providing a sense of true appreciation for nature.

LEMNISCAAT/BOYDS MILLS, 1995, 36 PAGES

Ian Kane is a U.S. Army veteran, filmmaker, and author. He enjoys the great outdoors and volunteering.

MOVIE REVIEWS

Michael Clark originally from Washington, D.C., has written about film for over 30 print and online media outlets.

Epoch Watchlist

This week, we’ll look at Liam Neeson’s latest action thriller and at a fascinating indie film that explores the world of mundane work.

NEW RELEASE

INDIE PICK

‘In the Aisles’ (2019)

‘Blacklight’ (2022 )

ACTION | THRILLER

When Dusty Crane’s (Taylor John Smith) politician girlfriend is mysteriously murdered, he links up with an intrepid reporter who is hungry to uncover the story. But black ops veteran Travis Block (Liam Neeson) warns the pair against being too curious. That advice goes unheeded.

It’s good to see older people in action roles if they’re capable of pulling it off. Despite Neeson’s talent, however, this cinematic stinker is yet another clichéd action yarn with a derivative plot, wooden acting, and is as forgettable as they come.

Release Date: Feb. 11, 2022 Director: Mark Williams Starring: Liam Neeson, Aidan Quinn, Taylor John Smith Running Time: 1 hour, 48 minutes MPAA Rating: PG -13 Where to Watch: Theaters

Christian (Franz Rogowski) has a new job at a huge wholesale store. An older man takes Christian under his wing and helps the newcomer learn about this new world of long aisles and stacks of goods.

Christian becomes smitten by co-worker Marion (Sandra Hüller), but a secret she holds prevents them from taking things further.

The realistic acting in this film is fantastic and draws you into its world. It celebrates the “work

family”—workers who form deep bonds through the simple virtue of work, no matter how mundane it seems.

DR AMA | ROMANCE

Release Date: June 14, 2019 (U.S.) Director: Thomas Stuber Starring: Andreas Leupold, Franz Rogowski, Peter Kurth Running Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes MPAA Rating: Not Rated Where to Watch: Kanopy, Ovid, Vudu

HEARTFELT DRAMEDY

‘Breaking Away’ (1979)

CLASSIC THRILLER has an interesting, multifaceted plot that contains various twists and turns. It will keep viewers guessing up to its final, climactic end.

DRAMA | THRILLER

‘The Man Who Knew Too Much’ (1956) When traveling American couple Ben and Jo McKenna (James Stewart and Doris Day)

witness a murder in exotic Marrakesh, Morocco, Ben learns of a scheduled assassination plot in the UK. This brilliant thriller by director Alfred Hitchcock

Release Date: June 1, 1956 Director: Alfred Hitchcock Starring: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie Running Time: 2 hours MPAA Rating: PG Where to Watch: Redbox, DirectTV, Vudu

Dave (Dennis Christopher) and his small group of friends are from workingclass families and are looked down upon by the wealthier families of their Midwest town. Dave begins to fall for a local college girl, but learns that she’s already dating a more popular guy.

Undeterred, Dave devises a plan to win her over.

This amazing film manages to have a lighter tonality while simultaneously touching on deeper

issues such as class friction and going for one’s dreams no matter what obstacles stand in the way.

COMEDY | DR AMA | SPORT

Release Date: July 20, 1979 Director: Peter Yates Starring: Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern Running Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes MPAA Rating: PG Where to Watch: Max GO, Redbox, Vudu

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 65

Food Restaurants

AT SOBRE MASA, THE HOUSEMADE TORTILLAS CONTINUE AN 8,000-YEAR-OLD STORY Zack and Diana Wangeman, two Oaxaca natives in New York, use heirloom corn from Mexico to make some of the most special tortillas in the country Crystal Shi

O

66 I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022

Zack and Diana Wangeman, both 29, work to champion the richness and diversity of Mexico at Sobre Masa.

A cafe in the front sells Oaxacan coffee, tortillas, and other retail items, while the dining room in the back serves tacos and cocktails highlighting Mexican spirits.

The taco menu— al pastor, bistec, and cauliflower, with some regional specialties—is intentionally short, to highlight the specialization of Mexican cuisine.

ZACK WANGEMAN

Favorite Taco: Al pastor Last Meal: Tortillas with queso fresco and salsa Morita Best Advice Received: “Marry Diana.”

(From his mom)

DIANA WANGEMAN

Favorite Taco: Tacos de bistec, gringas al pastor Food She Misses Most: Tlayudas and the flavor of squash blossoms from home Best Advice Received: “Hard work will prevail, regardless of the circumstances.”

rants, sold to customers, or served in tacos.

The seeds of Sobre Masa were sown while Zack was working as a full-time pastry chef in New York.

Missing the food from home, he learned to cook Oaxacan dishes, including tortillas made from masa ground in his apartment, for monthly pop-ups in 2018.

His research led him deep into the history of corn, a bedrock of the Mexican diet for at least 8,000 years—now under threat by genetically modified organisms, industrialization, and other factors, in turn threatening the country’s nutrition. When the pandemic hit, Zack returned to Oaxaca and put together a business plan.

Diana grew up in a small farming village where her parents ran

a traditional Zapotec restaurant. A medical school graduate, she was taking a break from employment when Zack, a high school friend, came calling.

He was opening a tortilleria in New York, he told her, and jokingly proposed a deal: “You hand-press tortillas, I’ll pay for your flight.”

A visit in December 2020 eventually led to a permanent stay— and a marriage.

With their heirloom corn tortillas, Zack and Diana join a growing movement of chefs and producers helping this ancient ingredient make a comeback. They’re happy to see more interest and awareness among customers as well.

“People say, ‘What tortillas do you have today?’” Zack said, smiling. “What an amazing question.”

ALL PHOTOS BY MELISSA HOM

n a good day, the tiny tortilla factory that anchors Sobre Masa in Brooklyn churns out 5,000 tortillas in shades of red, yellow, white, and perhaps blue.

The colors that day—and, in turn, the distinct flavors, aromas, and textures—depend upon the availability of the heirloom corn purchased from small Mexican farms.

“We’re fourth in line,” said chef Zack Wangeman, noting that the factory’s share comes after the farmers save enough for their families, livestock, and next year’s crop.

Wangeman and his wife Diana, both from Oaxaca, Mexico, opened the all-in-one tortilleria, cafe, taqueria, and bar in October 2021. The tortilleria is the first in the city to use only imported heirloom Mexican corn, sourced through Mexico Citybased purveyor Tamoa.

“We try to showcase the diversity of the corn as much as we can,” Zack said.

There are about 60 heirloom varietals in Mexico, their seeds preserved by small farmers for generations.

“They all have a soul of their own,” he said.

Oaxacan white bolita corn has a “toasted popcorn aroma,” while yellow bolita is “a lot more mushroom-y, a lot sweeter.” Blue bolita makes softer tortillas, while extra-starchy cacahuazintle makes ones softer still.

The corn is nixtamalized—the ancient process of soaking it in an alkaline solution to break it down and make it more nutritious—and milled and kneaded into masa, the thick dough that gets pressed and cooked on a hot comal. The tortillas—sturdy yet supple, fragrant, and flavorful enough to devour plain—are delivered to restau-

Making New Friends

Even If You’re Shy

Social or business events full of strangers are more enjoyable when you know how to get them talking Starting a new job, joining a new club, or even using the condo pool for the first time are all opportunities to make new friends.

We’ve got a few suggestions to make doing so easier.

By Bill Lindsey

Avoid 4 Controversial Topics

1 Be Brave At any social or work-related gathering, there will be times when you don’t know anyone or when you see someone standing or sitting by themselves. Etiquette expert Myka Meier suggests that you be the brave one who starts a conversation. This allows the other person to relax so the conversation can flow.

It won’t work for everyone, but give it your best effort by smiling as you introduce yourself, and remember to maintain eye contact as you talk.

CSA IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES

2 Let Them Talk It’s human nature to want to talk about ourselves, but let the other person do most of the talking. You may have to ask a few non-threatening questions to get them talking, such as, “Bob is my favorite neighbor!

How do you know him?” The goal is to get them engaged in the conversation: As you listen to their stories, you may learn new things and discover shared interests.

Take care to avoid potentially polarizing, off-putting topics, including anything related to religion or politics. Other dangerous topics might include controversial entertainment figures or how another person at the event is dressed (he or she who might be their significant other). Unsolicited suggestions for losing weight will rarely go over well, nor will attempts to sell goods or services to someone that you just met.

3

4 Steps to Start a Conversation

Meier has a four-part technique to kick-start conversations after you’ve introduced yourself. First, ask any “What” question, such as, “What are these snacks? They’re amazing.” Second, ask a “Why” question, such as, “Jessica said you went to NYU, why did you choose to go there?” Next, ask a “How” question, such as, “How do you like this weather?” The fourth and “C” step is to compliment them: “Your tie/dress/dog is really nice!”

5

If in Doubt, Dogs and Cars

While you sometimes instantly connect and spend hours chatting with someone new, don’t be overly concerned if the conversation suddenly develops awkward silences. Meier suggests asking an innocuous question, such as, “Bob’s puppy is so cute; do you have pets?” By focusing on topics other than them, people relax and are more likely to continue the conversation. As another example, if you saw them arrive in their car, ask how they like it.

I N S I G H T February 11–17, 2022 67

“One of the country’s most powerful digital publishers.”

“The Epoch Times now wields one of the biggest social media followings of any news outlet.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES

NBC NEWS

10 –24 –2 0 2 0

0 8–2 0 –2 0 19

“More reach than any other mainstream news publisher.”

“The most popular Apple newspaper app in the country.”

SAN FR ANCISCO CHRONICLE

THE ATL ANTIC

0 1– 0 4 –2 0 2 1

0 1–13–2 0 2 1

THE EPOCH TIMES is America's fastest-growing news media

outlet. While our competitors have worked hard to defame us, even they have been forced to acknowledge our growth.

ReadEpoch.com