!No monetary solution
---
agk's diary
21 May 2022 @ 15:59
---
written on GPD Win 1 via puTTY in bedroom
Evy's at work; Evy's mom and sister
at farmer's market with my baby
---
I read something that struck me: "Throwing money at
a problem is unlikely to resolve it. Actual situa-
tions require genuine, not monetary, action.[^1]
I don't have to add context. You brought your own.
Payment across the new iron curtain is sanctioned.
An online acquaintance had money but couldn't pay
his server's rent. Then he learned Mir (Russian)
can send money to UnionPay (Chinese), accepted in
the Netherlands.
> I went to the Post Office bank. It turned out to
> be easier to get an anonymous Mir card in the
> office than online, signing service agreements.
> I used cash to put money in the account.
>
> I ordered a virtual UnionPay card online. It app-
> eared almost instantly. I transferred rubles to
> it. The transaction required a confirmation call
> to verify the secret word and SMS numeric code.
>
> I requested a new link for payment from my Dutch
> hosting provider (the old links went dead). The
> Chinese site sent a SMS to my (Russian) mobile.
> The payment was accepted. The exchange rate was
> 143 rubles per euro.
A euro is ~70 rubles.
My side of the new iron curtain money isn't fix-
ing things either. Despite demand, relationships
with manufacturers in Shenzhen, and understanding
parts markets, Pine64 (US) couldn't make new Pine-
book Pro laptops for two years---couldn't source
the display. Unicomp (US) couldn't make keyboards.
Even Bunnie Huang (Singapore) can't make more Pre-
cursor devices:
> we...have to sit tight until the global electro-
> nics supply chain straightens itself out and...
> TI and Xilinx...get...to...orders we placed many
> months ago. This will probably happen...after...
> peace in Europe, more factories built, tariffs/
> trade barriers reduced, and/or open borders with-
> in most of Asia. So..."not this year."[^2]
Justine Haupt (US) went so far as to build a base-
ment assembly line to overcome rotary dumbphone
production problems. Now she has two problems.[^3]
Justine, Bunnie, Unicomp, and Pine64 have plenty of
preorders. Money itself can't fix their problems.
Russia has no end of raw materials and a strong
currency, but Russian industry's sanctioned from
modern CPUs and GPUs, petroleum and gas exploitat-
ion machines, avionics, and car parts.[^4] Russia
must take genuine action---reorganize global trade
to "bring home" the chain of advanced production
from component manufacture to assembly.
The Soviet Union started with peasants. Russian
Federation starts with service/software workers.
Like the USSR, RF must use import substitution to
develop engineering, heavy industry, and high-tech
manufacture for domestic and global south needs.
Iranian industry (powerplant turbines, refineries)
and---eventually---Chinese high-tech transfer will
help. Turkish brands will fill vacated shelves. An
emerging-market interbank settlement system will
replace SWIFT. A basket of currencies and commodi-
ties will replace dollar reserves. New pipelines,
shipping insurers, and intermediaries will eventua-
lly get Russian fertilizer and wheat to Africa and
fuels to India and China.
People in regions cursed with abundant raw materi-
als are watching. New opportunities may arise to
solve genuine problems caused by a century of US
tools of military and financial gangsterism:
abusive debt-servicing agreements, gambling and
looting, sanctions, sponsorship of NGOs and local
brownshirts, and destabilization campaigns.
I'm curious what the future holds.
---
GLOSSARY
TI and Xilinx: companies, make electronic parts.
tariffs: taxes on import or export of goods.
NGOs: nongovernmental organizations, often financ-
ed by imperialist branches of governments and
wealthy neofeudalist/capitalists; compete with
states to provide basic services; undermine
sovereign politics and state capacity.[^5]
brownshirts: sturmabteilung, Nazi party's original
paramilitary; paramilitary of any fascist or far-
right party---OAS (Algeria), Contras (Nicaragua),
mujahideen (Afghanistan), Grey Wolves (Turkey),
Arkan's tigers (Yugoslavia), al-Shabaab (Somalia/
Nigeria), al-Qaeda splinters Islamic State and
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Syria/Iraq), Azov Regiment
(Ukraine).
REFERENCES
[1]: "$65 billion in Western 'aid for Ukraine' is
neither aid, nor is it for Ukraine." South
Front, 20 May 2022. See also: Hedges, "No
way out but war." Scheerpost, 23 May 2022.
[2]: "Updates from Precursor." Crowdsupply, 17 Mar
and 22 Apr 2022. See also: "Fixing a tiny
corner of the supply chain." Bunnie:Studios,
14 Dec 2021.
[3]: Smith, "Small players get hammered in the
supply chain crunch: the rotary dumbphone
case study." Naked Capitalism, 25 May 2022.
[4]: Milanovic, "The novelty of technologically
regressive import substitution." Global In-
equality and More, 30 Apr 2022. See also:
Doctorow, "Russia today at ground level."
gilbertdoctorow.com, 7 June 2022.
[5]: see Davis, Planet of Slums. Verso, 2005.
