Tag: multinational

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VCs shun SA

Venture Capitalists have an eye on long-term safety of investments. Political upheavals, unrest or instability can deter investments as much as risks to the safety of the workforce. The abbreviation “SA” in Germany has at least 2 meanings. (1) Historically, it refers to the “Sturmabteilung”, which was important in the rise of the Fascist movement and Nazi-terror in the 1920s, 1930s. Foreign investors were right to shun away from investments during the rise of the Fascists in Germany as a total loss of the investment was to be expected. (2) In 2026-8 the abbreviation “SA” in Germany stands also for “Saxony-Anhalt”, one of the Federal States of Eastern Germany, formerly the GDR between 1949-1990.
The “Wallstreet Journal”, which is read by many international investors showed on its title page of WSJ 2026-9-7 a report by Bertrand Benoit on the disastrous election in Saxony-Anhalt giving the extreme right-wing party AfD close to an absolute majority of votes. The abandoned investment by Intel into a chip-production near the capital of SA, Magdeburg, has been in retrospect a rather wise investment decision. The internationality of the employees, who build and operate such plants, might have contributed to them feeling rather unsafe in a hostile environment towards foreign workers.

intel processor logo

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Multilingual aging

Some myths, for example about the effects of multilingual competencies on brain health, continue to hunt people. The proponents of a monolingual world are widespread and have in some countries fatal historical heritage. The study by researchers  (Amoruso et al. 2025) use data from 86.000 persons in Europe  (SHARE Database, waves 1-9) from several countries. They show the better aging of brains for bilingual persons and even more so for persons practicing multilingual 2+ languages. The “domain-independent protective effect of multilingualism” for healthy brain aging is very robust and works after statistical accounting for other potentially intervening factors like socioeconomic or institutional factors. Some known stressors like migration, however, which operate often as psychosocial stressor, can have similar negative effects just as alcohol consumption and sleep disruption. Multilingualism and the correlate of multiculturalism keep a brain “on its toes” and contribute significantly to our healthy brains.  

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Superstates reloaded

We live in an age of superstates. Such is the conclusion of Alasdair Roberts (2023). China(1.4), India (1.2), USA (0.33) and the EU (0.45) in billions of people jointly host about 40% of the world’s population (UN data). The Russian Federation with a population of 0.15, Japan 0.13 rank further behind, for example Pakistan 0.24 and Indonesia 0.27. Nothern, Eastern and Western Africa (0.25;0.46;0.42 respectively) have a huge unfulfilled potential that does not reach the impact it deserves.

These big and populated entities contrast with the increasing number of small states that have become new members of the United Nations. The institution of the United Nations, through its setup as an international rule based governance structure, has facilitated small states to seek voice and influence in the international arena of politics. The UN had 51 members in 1945 and has now a membership of 193 of all listed states of 237 on the globe. The increase in membership is due to many small states joining the UN after independence from big imperial powers. The international power relations, however, are only partially determined by population size but economic and military factors. The so-called superstates reach power through their power of direct and indirect “persuasion. Therefore the relationship between small and big states remains a delicate balance of power. Russia attempted to grab Ukraine and its population of 410 millions to remain in the league of superstates by population size and has suffered a hefty setback which further unsettles the disequilibrium of its male (68) and female (78) population with predominantly male soldiers’ lives lost.

Whereas we have seen the small states’ numbers on the rise in the last few decades, the expansion of superstates from Russia, China, India or Pakistan remain a threat to peace on the globe. The crystallization of a multi polar world order is on its way, but the stakes are high and unsettling in many respects. The fallout of war stalls the adaptation to climate change and increases the millions of starving people on the globe. the attempt to reach superstate status by already big states is probably the greatest danger we shall face for the coming years. Preparing for the instability of the world in transition to an increasing multi polar world order will dominate the political agenda of many intermediate powers as well as smaller states. (Image Globe Moscow 1994, displayed Stabi Berlin 2024)