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Excuse my cynicism, but is the recent agreement on drugs for AIDS-ravaged poor countries a quick PR excercise to cover for business-as-usual? Now that the organization has been seen to show "concern" for poor countries, will it return to the corporate agenda? How else to explain the quick adoption of one of the main US pet causes - getting the WTO to rule on the EU's restrictions on GMO foods?
Last week, the WTO reached an agreement to provide desperately needed medicines to poor countries struggling with epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases. This agreement came about because the United States agreed to drug plan proposals it had previously rejected. It also agreed to take up one of the Bush administration's pet causes: investigating the European Union's restrictions on Genetically Modified Foods.
The agreement on medicines gave the WTO something to brag about. Apologists at the WTO and in the rah-rah financial press crowed about how the system really was concerned about those less fortunate than multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Many countries and organizations were quick to point out that the deal was not as good as it sounded. While the WTO was trumpeting its victory for disease-stricken countries, the US was seeking to encure that pharmaceutical profits would be protected, and very few cheap drugs would reach the countries that need them but can least afford them.
Once it became clear how many conditions the United States had insisted upon before signing the agreement, many countries grew concerned that the deal would discourage the production and distribution of cheap generic drugs.
"Flawed WTO drugs deal will do little to secure future access to medicines in developing countries"
Medecins sans Frontieres was quick to point out that the United States was using another trade negotiating apparatus, the Free Trade Area of the Americas, to lessen the impact of the agreement.
It seems the US was giving (very publicly) with one hand, and taking away (very quietly) with another. Why do this? I suspect it was to start the negotiations with a positive accomplishment (no matter how little effect it will have) in order to counter critics later, when the WTO seeks to expand into areas it really should leave to the citizens and elected governments of the world.
The WTO power grab has already begun. The very next day, before the ink was dry on the medicines agreement, the WTO announced that it would look into the European Union restrictions on GMO foods - turning an issue of public and environmental health into a trade issue.
"WTO to probe Europe's GMO policy"
Find out more about the Precautionary Principle, which the US is opposed to in the EU's GMO policy
From September 10-15, the World Trade Organization will attempt to hold a ministerial in Cancun, Mexico. They will be opposed by campesinos, students, international activists, NGOs, and a strong contingent of the Mayan Gods and Goddesses (at least, in the form of giant puppets.) Here’s why you should be there, too, if you possibly can—or in one of the many support actions around the globe if you can’t get to Cancun itself.
The WTO is the most ambitious and far-reaching of the various trade agreements and institutions that have codified and imposed corporate globalization on a reluctant world. The WTO'’s reach is global, and its power immense. It is, in a sense, an institution of global governance, making rulings that override the laws we make as citizens and that establish parameters for our policies not just on trade but on how we will feed and educate our children, care for our sick and elderly, provide for our common security, reward those who labor, develop or conserve our resources, and interact with our environment. Its agreements are hammered out in meetings which are not open to the public and in which the rich and industrialized countries hold inordinate power, and its rulings on disputes are made in secret tribunals by trade bureaucrats who are not accountable to the public, and who provide no public record of their deliberations.
On the agenda for this ministerial are some of the basic issues of life: food, agriculture, services. To simplify the complexities of tariffs and subsidies and all the rest of it, the vision put forth by the corporate globalizers is like a bad science fiction film. In their version of the world, no country will produce its own food, devote common resources to provide for human needs or the nurturing of the next generation. All food will be grown in large, industrialized farms for export, using chemicals and herbicides on patented, genetically engineered crops that are further packaged, irradiated, branded, and shrink-wrapped before being sold to you at your corner large corporate supermarket. Profit, not health or sustainability, will be the determining factor in agriculture as in every area of human endeavor. Should you get sick from the chemicals, a privatized medical establishment will minister to your every need as long as you can pay, just as you will pay for your drinking water and your children’s private school. And not through taxes, those subversive drains on the rewards of economic aggression, but through simple fees for the privatized services which can now be more ‘fairly’ distributed: that is, those who have money will get them, those who don’t, well, hell, they don’t deserve them anyway. Every service that human beings have provided for each other or organized governments to provide will now be privatized and become arenas for corporate profit-making—from teaching our children to running our prisons. The single exception, the last remaining role for government, is the police and military—and private security companies are even making inroads into that. A small elite will hold all the power and the bulk of the world’s wealth, and for the rest of us, the maquiladora, the prison, or a fine career in the military await. Environmental standards, labor laws, worker safety—forget all that!
The vast majority of us don’t see that world as desirable. We hold another vision, one that has something to do with community, with valuing human relationships of caring and nurturing, with a love for nature and the diversity and wonder of life. We want a world where everybody has enough: healthy, organic, locally grown food, clean water, comfortable shelter, opportunities to express our creativity and realize our dreams. We know that world is possible. We would like to get on with creating it, with healing the planet, raising our kids, and planting our gardens. But in order to do even these simple things we need to stand up and fight. And the place to do that is Cancun.
The Cancun ministerial has every chance of failing. The project of U.S. global hegemony has become so blatant and aggressive that it has alarmed even our allies. The U.S. is at odds with the E.U. on agriculture and other issues. The less developed countries are tired of being dictated to by the U.S. and the E.U. There is rebellion in the ranks, and we can further that with a massive presence in the streets.
Moreover, there’s currently a rift in the ruling classes, a subtle but real difference between the corporatists, who want to see corporate rule backed by U.S. military power, and the militarists, who want to see U.S. military hegemony, backed by corporate wealth. Take this simple test:
Do you believe the purpose of life is:
A. To produce corporate profit.
B. To produce weapons and consolidate military power.
C. Any of the following: love, human relationship;, art; beauty; balance; harmony with the natural world; spiritual growth; to live in praiseful relationship with the sacred; fun; freedom; a mystery that no one can define.
If you checked C, you need to be on the streets somewhere when the WTO meets. We need a mobilization approaching the scale of February 15, in Cancun and around the world. It is time for the world’s second superpower, the aroused ordinary people of the planet, to raise our voices again. This ministerial could become the third failure in a row. The Seattle ministerial dissolved in dissension, and the meeting two years ago in Qatar was merely a sequestered holding action. A WTO failure in Cancun would be a serious and possibly fatal setback for the WTO as an institution, and the entire project of global corporate rule.
In Cancun, we need numbers to fill the streets and to counter a very challenging tactical situation. A small turnout in Cancun could lead the globalizers to the mistaken conclusion that the people of the world have ceased to care about their activities. With large numbers, we can derail the meeting. Without numbers, our role will be merely symbolic, although still important. Cancun is expensive and hard to get to, very far away from most centers of population in Mexico. If you can’t come to Cancun yourself, students and campesinos need support to get there, and there will be mobilizations at borders and in cities around the world.
There will be forums beginning on September 8th, days of action starting on the 9th, and a legal march on the 13th. Ecologists and permaculturalists from the US and Mexico are working to set up the campgrounds as models or sustainability. Cancun is a chance to connect and meet with people from around the globe who are working for the same values of life and freedom.
So come if you can, and if you can’t, help someone else get there. Organize an event in your home town, or join one of the local or regional mobilizations. This is a crucial moment in history, when the tide could turn. And the moon is rising. Come dance on the shore!
For our report on organizing in Cancun, and to donate to help students reach Cancun, see:
http://rantcollective.org/
For information and updates on Cancun:
Indymedia Cancun: http://cancun.mediosindependientes.org/
To find out about mobilizations and actions, or for suggestions for organizing your own:
www.unitedforpeace.org (Scroll down to September 13 Global Day of Action.)
To donate online to help campesinos and indigenous people get to Cancun:
http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ingles/donate.html
(NOTE: pages will open in a new browser window).
By Starhawk
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Copyright (c) 2003 by Starhawk. All rights reserved. This copyright protects Starhawk's right to publication of her work. Nonprofit, activist, and educational groups may circulate this essay (forward it, reprint it, translate it, post it, or reproduce it) for nonprofit uses. Please do not change any part of it without permission. Readers are invited to visit the web site: www.starhawk.org.
I've been here in Cancun for about a week and a half now, working on preparation for our work here. Meanwhile, I've had the fantastic opportunity to settle into life here, and to watch the developments throughout the region toward the WTO meeting.
The daily paper (Por Esto!) has a daily countdown toward the start of the meeting. We're down to 12 days now. I haven't picked up today's paper yet, but yesterday's paper stated that about 50,000 protesters are anticipated, arriving from all over Mexico as well as the US, Canada, Europe, and other countries. Alas, one person unable to attend is Jose Bove, the French leader of farmers and an outspoken critic of the WTO. He has been denied permission to leave France to travel to Cancun for the meeting.
There is a committee here called the Comite de Bienvenida Cancun, which will facilitate alternative forums and marches in Cancun, working closely with protest groups. In yesterday's paper, there was discussion of some of these groups considering whether to attempt to bring the protest to the site of the WTO ministerial meeting. There will be barricades and multiple security zones manned by police and military units set up to prevent protesters from entering anywhere close to the vicinity of the meeting. The protests are supposed to be held downtown, 9km or more away from the meeting. Apparently, there is consideration of that plan being violated. I expect the police forces will react strongly if that happens.
Every day, more fences are erected. Every day, there are more security guards. The convention center now has metal detectors and teams of security workers searching bags of everyone entering the venue. There are security workers in vigilance roles everywhere around, watching for any sign of suspicious activity.
In the Sunday paper, there was an article reporting the discovery of hidden cameras and microphones in the Comite de Bienvenida Cancun office. Apparently, various protest groups here are being spied upon. I can only assume that we too are being watched.
All of this is fascinating to me, and it makes me wonder if the delegates to the WTO ministerial meeting ever think much about the fact that although they claim to lead the world's trade laws, they find it necessary to erect such massive protection from the very people they claim to lead. Hmmm...
My current reading material is "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", by Greg Palast. Every time I read another chapter, my commitment to our work here only grows more steadfast. The WTO is out of control, and unresponsive to the needs of the very people it seeks to lead. We're here to encourage the WTO to listen!
Cheers,
- Fred
One of the most contentious issues – one that continues to be deadlocked – is the issue of access to vital medicines for developing countries. The US has proposed an agreement that includes intellectual property provisions that would severely restrict access to affordable medicines for people in developing countries.
The question is how to revise WTO patent rules to make generic drugs more affordable to the millions of people across the world in dire need of them.
Several developed countries, under immense pressure from their pharmaceutical lobbies, have been fighting to maintain the status quo, which puts affordable medicine way beyond the reach for most of their citizens. A continued deadlock on this issue only serves to underscore that the Doha Development Round is a development round in name only. The restrictive approach to the scope of coverage (e.g.: including only a handful of infectious diseases) is utterly unacceptable. To me, the notion of tying human health issues to unrelated trade concessions seems to be grossly ruthless.
Today Médecins Sans Frontières, (MSF), urged countries in the Americas to reject US efforts to strengthen intellectual property (IP) protection beyond global standards in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) negotiations.
"People in Guatemala already have frightening little access to essential medicines," says Luis Villa, MSF's Head of Mission in Guatemala. "67,000 people are living with HIV/AIDS in Guatemala, but only 1,500 receive antiretroviral treatment. MSF is treating almost one-third of them with quality generic drugs. If the ability to buy generics is restricted, it will become almost impossible to treat people with HIV AIDS. Many will die as a result."
Read more from the MSF website.
If you beleive that medicines shouldn't be a luxury, you can take part in their petition
This could be a good thing …
A number of people are saying that this WTO meeting could be just like Seattle in 1999.
They are usually referring to the number of demonstrators showing up, and if Cancun is a replay of Seattle because citizens show up to let the WTO know they are watching their machinations, that would be a good thing. After all, Cancun is more accessible to most activists than Doha will ever be.
But some people are predicting that Cancun will be another Seattle in other ways.
If there is a massive police crackdown on peaceful civil disobedience, this would be yet another strike against the legitimacy of the WTO process. The assorted ministers may have to scurry back to inaccessible and authoritarian locales (North Korea, anyone?) for future meetings.
Other commentators suspect that the Cancun talks may not reach any agreement on the issues at stake, as happened in Seattle. That was not such a bad thing in 1999, as the main issues under discussion were about reinforcing rich countries and corporations advantages in intellectual property and services.
But this round is meant to deal with “development issues”, an attempt to address the concerns of those getting a raw deal from globalization so far. Realistically, this means everyone but rich countries and corporations.
If the WTO fails to make any progress this time on helping the victims of globalization, will there be a collective shoulder shrugging and return to “business as usual”?
Greenpeace will be working towards a more useful outcome, a realization that we need to make every round, and the whole trade system, about sustainability and development issues. Stay tuned...
More: Developing Nations Attack Trade Proposal
From wtowatch.org
If you love to listen to what is going down, rather just reading about it, here are some amazing MP3s, downloaded from the A-Infos Radio Project (Radio4All.net). These links contain audio from from teach-ins and plenary sessions pre and post Seattle 1999.
The WTO and the Environment
The WTO induced acceleration of trade has led to an alarming depletion of land, forests, air and water. In all trade disputes the WTO has won based on the clause that environmental protection may not restrict trade
The WTO and Biotechnology, Peter Rosset & Pat Mooney
Biotechnology would not be possible without the legal framework of the WTO
The WTO and Food & Agriculture: Tim Lang & Jose Bove
People in the US are the unwitting participants in a giant experiment of genetic engineering
WTO Series: Lori Wallach, the 5-year record of the WTO
Lori Wallach, Director of Ralph Nader's Global Trade Watch, gives an entertaining, fact filled run-down of the impact of the WTO on food, agriculture, the environment etc
WTO Series: Susan George on WTO, IMF, World Bank
Susan George, Director of the Transnational Institute, is one of the best known and respected writers on Third World debt and the role of the World Bank and transnational corporations in the impoverishment of the South.
WTO Privatizes Water / Maude Barlow, Canada
Maude Barlow makes a moving appeal to protect the world's dwindling supply of fresh water. She is a major public figure in Canada, and is often called Canada's Ralph Nader. She campaigned against the US-Canada Free Trade agreement, NAFTA and the MAI.
A fantastic resource for radio heads, from ABC.net.au. I found two interviews with Mina Gabor and Dr. Monkombu Sambaivam Swaminathan, but there's a hell of alot of good stuff here - just have a look around!
Mina Gabor is President of the Philippines Small and Medium Business Development Foundation. She believes developing countries have no choice but to take up the challeges posed by globalisation.
Dr. Monkombu Sambaivam Swaminathan is often referred to as 'the father of India's green revolution'. A trained geneticist and agriculturalist, he introduced to India, high yield varieties of wheat and other seed crops in the mid sixties. In 1988, he founded the M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation to continue his pioneering work in agriculture. He does not believe that India is ready to liberalise its food import regimes by 2005, in accordance with the WTO-Uruguay Round Agreement on agriculture.
"For anti-globalisers who found the pre-modern sheikhdom of Doha distant, and who were intimidated by the security concerns post-9/11, Cancun poses a real opportunity to relive Seattle ...Cancun is as accessible as Seattle was and a great welcome awaits the demonstrators" says economist Jagdish Bhagwati.
Peter Rosset -- Food First
September 18, 2003
Dear Friends:
I have just returned from 2 weeks in Mexico, this last week spent in Cancun. I was invited by UNORCA, the National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations (http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ingles/index.html) and by Via Campesina (http://www.viacampesina.org), to help with preparations to "welcome" the WTO to Cancun this September.
We visited many Mayan indigenous peasant communities over about a 5 hour radius from Cancun, giving workshops on the WTO. People are really angry at how free trade has driven down crop prices - pushing them further into poverty - and how the WTO would also remove forestry subsidies they get from the Mexican government for tree planting (because it would be "unfair" competition for big transnational timber companies!).
They REALLY WANT to go to Cancun to be heard. But they are poor, poor, poor, and just cannot afford the very expensive bus fares and cost of food for a week there, and their organizations, aso poor, and cannot afford to rent buses. In just one rural area, Felipe Carrillo Puerto, it would cost more than $70,000 for renting buses to get everyone who wants to get to Cancun to actually get there.
Local groups have raised over US $30,000 so far, but they need more, URGENTLY. Food First has set up a secure credit card server for people to donate money on-line to UNORCA for renting buses. You can send checks, or wire funds directly to Mexico. This is REALLY important. See details below.
Thanks for helping out!!!!!
Peter Rosset
Food First
Dear Friend of Farmer and Peasant Organizations:
Dear Opponents of the WTO and Free Trade Policies:
ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE!
The next WTO meeting is in Cancun, Mexico, this September. This is the meeting after Doha, Qatar, and after Seattle. As you know, free trade policies, like those being negotiated in the WTO, are driving family farmers, peasants and indigenous people off the land, around the world, North and South, East and West. As a result, farmers, peasants, the landless, farm workers, women, forest people and indigenous people around the world have come together in the Via Campesina http://www.viacampesina.org, and are demanding "WTO Out of Agriculture" and have put forth the alternative of "peoples food sovereignty."
The Mexican National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations, UNORCA
(
gles/index.html) -- one of the Mexican members of Via Campesina - has the responsibility to organize and host an INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM and Farmers' Encampment in Cancun, on behalf of Via Campesina. This Forum is a very important opportunity for farmer organizations worldwide to come together to work on alternatives to free trade policies, and to protest the WTO.
It is critical for all people who are concerned about the undemocratic nature and very negative impact of the WTO and other neo-liberal "free" trade agreements like FTAA and NAFTA on our lives, that as many Mexican peasants delegates as want to protest in Cancun can actually get there (internal travel by bus in Mexico is not cheap, and Cancun is in a remote location, more than 20 hours from the capital). Our minimum aim is to bring 10,000 delegates! It is critical that the INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM be a success.
We need your support for the transportation costs of people to the remote Cancun location. Cancun is the most expensive location in Mexico, and UNORCA cannot pull this off without financial support.
If you want to help Mexican rural social movements get to Cancun, please sponsor delegates to the INTERNATIONAL FARMERS' FORUM, Farmers' Encampment and WTO protests.
Average estimated costs for each delegate are:
transport US $48 (chartered buses)
food (3 meals) US 10 per day
lodging (encampment) US 12
Support for the Farmer Support Center:
US 25 per day
You will receive a special thank you from the community your support goes to when you sponsor a whole bus for $500 from nearby states
HOW TO DONATE:
The easiest way to donate is to go to our web site at http://www.unorca.org.mx/omc/ing les/index.html and give using your credit card at our secure server now, or send a U.S. check or dollar-denominated international money order to Food First, who is receiving the money and transferring it to UNORCA in Mexico. Make the check or money order out to:
"FOOD FIRST, Unorca project",
and mail it to Food First/UNORCA, 398 60th Street. Oakland, California, 94618, USA. Donations are tax deductible in the U.S.
QUESTIONS:
If you have questions, contact UNORCA at forocampesino@laneta.apc.org and/or Food First at foodfirst@foodfirst.org.
Thank for your support to make ANOTHER WORLD POSSIBLE!
The farmers, peasants and indigenous people of UNORCA
Alberto Gómez Flores, National Coordinator
National Union of Autonomous Regional Farmer Organizations (UNORCA)
The Mexican police have released a document listing about 60 names of leaders of the anti globalisation movement in a bid to "PREVENT UNWANTED VISITORS" making a ruckus in Cancun.
The list includes "moderates" like Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader and even Oxfams UK's Barbara Stocking. The french farmer who drove his tractor into a McDonalds recently, Jose Bové, is listed, along with indigenous leaders of Ecuador, Joao Pedro Stedile from Brazil (Landless worker's), Luca Casarini from Italy (White Monkey's), and Ignacio Del Valle from San Salvador.
I found a Spanish slide show of some of the people listed in this important national security document. You'd have to agree that they don't look all that scary at all. In fact many of them look unhealthy. Check these arch villains out!
After blocking the train for 5 hours, the Mexican government agreed to meet with Greenpeace to discuss measures that need to be taken under the Biosafety Protocol to prevent further contamination of Mexican maize with GE maize dumped from the US. The meeting will take place next Friday, prior to the 5th Ministerial meeting of the WTO and prior to the entering into force of the
Biosafety Protocol on September 11.
The police showed no real interest in removing us. Our campaigner finally got hold of the environment minister. The Minister agreed to meet with us before the biosafety protocol enters into force to discuss the measures that need to be done to stop the contamination and to safeguard Mexican's most important food crop, under these circumstances we agreed to stop the activity. We will announce the agreement with the government at the press conference here.
Isabelle
I just learned no-one has been arrested yet. The police is there but waite for a special group who can take down the climbers.
Also we managed to get hold of the government, and hope to get some feedback around 8pm.
So everything fine here,
Isabelle
Dear All,
here just an update. The activity started at the 3.20 pm. The train company
is not very happy with us, and they will bring charges against us and have
us removed. As far as we know they started arresting people, but the police
has no climbing gear, but is heavily armed.
We had no contact yet with the government, as they have all their cells
switched off it is Sunday.
Isabelle
The border between Mexico and the USA runs along the Rio Grande. Rio Grande is the river that separates the US from Mexico ... it means literally "Big River". Just as you enter Mexico it is a steep green valley, with sides of vegetation plunging away to a bottle green river far below. A well known train track crosses high above the river across the Rio Grande, and this morning it was carrying a trainload of US maize, bound for Mexico.
Stepping in front of the train, Greenpeace activists have erected a sign “Stop genetically engineered corn”, in response to fresh evidence that the US was dumping genetically engineered crops across the border contravening international agreements. When the train growled to a stop, lying like a motionless steel snake across the bridge, more activists darted beneath the train carriage, and secured themselves to the very axels of the train. Then they floated like spiders under the bridge, suspended from the train itself. They hang there still.
Scientific analysis, released today, from an independent US laboratory of US maize samples entering Mexico showed that almost a third of the maize contained varieties from biotechnology giant, Monsanto. The international agreement, the Cartagena Protocol agreed in January 2000, clearly states that countries must take action to prevent adverse effects of GE crops on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Mexico is a centre of diversity for maize – they call it the birthplace for this amazing crop that feeds so many. If Monsanto keeps dumping genetically modified maize on Mexico, species of maize flourishing in this cradle of biodiversity, wild species like teosinte, ( a relative of maize), could just disappear. While scientific progress on molecular biology has a great potential to increase our understanding of nature and provide new medical tools, it should not be used as justification to turn the environment into a giant genetic experiment.
Biological diversity must be protected and respected as the global heritage of humankind, and one of our world's fundamental keys to survival.
So as we speak, we are waiting to hear from the minister for the environment in Mexico, to discuss how we can safeguard Mexican's most important food crop, by sticking to the Cartengena protocol, which goes into effect very soon.
I’ve just been reading about Vandana Shiva. The author of eleven books, Vandana Shiva holds a master's degree in particle physics and a Ph.D. in the philosophy of science. In 1993 she won the prestigious Right Livelihood Award, known as "the alternative Nobel Prize".
She is a brilliant talker – I’ve been reading her speech on the BBC, on the Reith lecture series. Then I found this wonderful 45 minute audio piece, http://www.abc.net.au/specials/shiva/audio.htm, (you'll need RealPlayer) on ABC radio from Australia. She tells a fascinating story about a Texan company that has patented the aromatic rice Basmati. You can hear the incredulity in her voice as she says ‘that’s the rice from MY valley! We’ve grown it for hundreds of years!’ She laughing goes on to say that the heritage of colonialism mean that’s for some people discovery = creation. Under today’s intellectual property rights, where genomes are owned by corporations, creation means ownership. Shiva calls this theft.
Shiva goes on to attack one of the most important issues associated to the whole concept of genetic engineering. The world has rejected genetically engineered food; we just don’t want wheat crossed with scorpion genes, or fish genes in our tomatos!
“This is yesterday’s — ‘Divided over a diet for the world’s poor’. It’s got Africans on this side all with distended bellies and hungry and starving, and then it’s got these banners saying “No GM”, and it’s got food on this side, which means everyone of us who’s saying no to risks of genetic engineering is creating starvation.
And that guilt trip is what they’re manufacturing in the latest round of selling genetic engineering after consumers have rejected it.
Of course it’s not the case that there’s no food on that side, women in Africa are some of the most productive farmers. The productivity of African farms when left to women’s indigenous knowledge is much higher than the Green Revolution could ever achieve, as long as you assess productivity in terms of a hundred crops on the field, rather than one monoculture of maize, or a monoculture of rice.
And if people are starving in Africa it’s because of the way subsidised food has been dumped on Africa, destroying people’s livelihoods and therefore making them starve.
Hunger as a multi-censored [?] has nothing to do with the quantity of food floating around. It has everything to do with ability of people to have entitlements and rights to food, either by growing it themselves, or by being able to grow it and sell parts of it on the market, or to have enough jobs and livelihoods to be able to buy it.
Now this kind of idea of empty eco-systems, empty earth, empty life, empty agriculture as long as it’s not run by corporations, is the entire assumption of globalisation: that there’s nothing till the corporations enter; they create food, they create water.”
Find out more about Vandana Shiva
The following keynote address was presented on 10 September, 2000, at the Global Capitalism, Local Responses seminar (hosted by the Stegley Foundation and RMIT University’s School of Social Science and Planning) on the eve of the World Economic Forum’s Asia Pacific Summit.
http://www.abc.net.au/specials/shiva/audio.htm, (you'll need RealPlayer) on ABC radio from Australia.
QUOTE:
"And then the person who’s really won out in this game of globalisation — George Soros — he was there too, and this is what he said.
"He said: “free markets were supposed to have created open societies, free societies, but we cannot speak of the triumph of democracy. Capitalism and political freedom do not go hand in hand. We cannot leave freedom and democracy to market forces. We need to create our own institutions and different institutions from those that serve capitalism to take care of it.
"“And anyone,” this is not my words, it’s not your words, it’s George Soros’, “who thinks they can leave freedom to free markets is a market fundamentalist, that’s not how societies work”.
"So we have gone a long way since Seattle. And on the one hand those who think a little, reflect a little — like Soros and Gorbachev — are saying it turned out different from what it was projected to be. "
‘How do we confront a system that can commandeer such vast economic resources, control the major media, and mobilize all the military, police and judicial power of the state in its defense?
As powerful as the system seems, it rests on the compliance and tacit consent of the very people it exploits. The vast, vast numbers of us who don't truly benefit from the system support it through our participation. Without our labor, without our obedience, without our willingness to police ourselves, the system cannot function.’
If you are considering a trip to Mexico this fall better think twice about whether you should transit through an American airport. If you are from the South, we are directly labeled with a special tag and will have to go through a ritual of intense investigation/humiliation. WHY? Well simply because you have the wrong the passport. If you are doomed enough to have an Arab passport then you get it double.
When I booked my flight from Europe to Mexico via Miami, my travel agent warned me that new regulations in the US required that I have a visa if I do not have an EU passport. I replied with a smile "I do have a US Visa valid for 5 years, so no problem"
But when I arrive at the immigration check point in Miami, well it surely sounded that there is a problem, despite that I have a visa and I am only transiting, two security man were brought in and escorted me to another room that was full of other southern-looking passengers. Since I am used for further investigation wherever I go being "lucky" enough with a Lebanese passport, I said to myself well few more minutes won't kill me, I can wait and they will clear it up, beside my flight is two hrs away so I have time.
After one hour in that room, you realize that it is not OK. You see southern people waiting to have their passports checked (double/triple) while the officers are going around chatting with each other or even celebrating somebody's birthday and the "doomed" passengers are missing their flights.
The scenery was SURREAL, with several officers going in and out sometime to get a coke from the vending machine in the corner of the room, airline officers coming in and out asking people WHO have missed his flight. A man sitting next to me who already missed his flight was shaking his leg so hard that I almost felt like an earth quake. A young woman across the room started crying when the airline woman came telling her that no way for them to meet her flight but they might make other arrangements.
Seeing all that and after one an a half hrs of wait, I went out to the officers and told him that I do not want to miss my flight and I have been waiting and I need to know what is the plans here?
He said "Oh, you passport need a special approval, somebody will call you soon, and you might have to miss your flight!!"
I really really felt like crying/shouting and all those various "anger" feeling that I can not describe. So I decided to make a phone call to my colleague waiting for me in Mexico. So the officer said you can not use the mobile in here but my eyes apparently spoke for me and I added that "listen, I just missed my flight because of this delay and I need to tell people waiting fro me that" so he replied “Ok, make it quick".
Few minutes later, he called my name ask me what iam going to do in Mexico and then simply stamped all those papers that I had to fill as well as my passport. it was quick but it was too late my flight has already left...
So the next challenge was to secure a place for me on the next flight to Mexico and make sure where are my luggage.
The ground police where very kind in helping me out around and I starting jumping from one airline to another to make sure I can fix my mess. When I made it the air Mexican, the one that I was supposed to go with the Mexico, they were closed already but by pure chance the head of the team was passing by and he took me to his office. The Bad news started arriving, my flight was the last one that day and the early one tomorrow is already overbooked, they had no clue where my luggage are and after checking with the airline I arrived to Miami with we realized that my luggage are still in Europe as there was mistake there loading them on time.
After many hassles and going around the airline companies, I managed to catch a flight early morning to Mexcio and by the end of that day my luggage as well arrived in one piece (actually two as I had two pieces).
Arriving to Mexico was relieved to be honest and having my luggage there as well as they had some GP equipments. I am not looking forward the trip back, but I will leave that worries for then, I have enough to worry about in the coming weeks.
As for the motto of the trip: DO NOT FLY VIA THE US UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. (I have never given up on my problematic Lebanese passport YET)
PS: While wondering around the Miami airport, I witnessed an impressive Big add of an (Asian) American soldier promoting the Air force reserved unit with the message "The Air Force Reserve is there to defend freedom around the world"!
- This report was written by Zeina, a Lebanese member of the Greenpeace delegation in Cancun. It was left mostly uneditted, because it gives you the feel for Zeina's flair for storytelling, even in a second (or third!) language.
Just in case anyone thinks that the public is apathetic and anyone can push an unfair and unsustainable agenda at the WTO, I'd advise you to think again. 200 000 people gathered in Larzac, France, a couple of days ago, (I wish I had been there!!), for a three day workshop on how to stop the WTO. I was so inspired to find that this kind of event can happen; peaceful empowerment is a very strong force.
Their website says: ‘During three days of festivities, music and reflection we will aim to develop concrete ways of fighting for a better world. The stakes are high; our response must be equal to the task at hand. The choice of the Larzac is no accident. The plateau symbolises the mobilisation of political activists 30 years ago in support of the decade long struggle of Larzac farmers against the extension of the local military camp. A huge effort will be needed if we are to succeed.’
The gathering took place, but I understand they got tens of thousands more people than they expected. They showed up for the free music, for the incredible atmosphere, but most of all they showed up because they really give a shit about what will happen at the WTO in almost exactly one months time. We’ve been going through a heatwave here in Europe. So they all showed up and baked in the sun as they went to hundreds of impromptu workshops and gatherings. Click here to see a fantastic shot taken by Bob Edme, copyright Bob Edme/AP, of the organizers spraying the delighted crowds with water guns.
Well, folks it’s the lead up to the WTO in September, the horses are at the gate and the starter has his whistle. Ladies and Gentlemen, you are looking the preliminary races that take place before the major ‘dash for cash’, the WTO meeting in September. The preliminaries are where the horses really showcase their form as they negotiate tricky obstacles like agricultural subsidies, medicines for poor countries and vital environmental initiatives like the Biosafety protocol. If the horses don’t manage to get through these areas with some sort of agreement, we may face a ‘gridlocked’ major race. Agriculture is at the heart of the current round of world trade talks and unless countries can agree on a plan for reducing domestic farm payments, export subsidies and agricultural tariffs, there is little hope for other areas of the talks. So it will be an interesting preliminary race ladies and gentlemen.
What an interesting line up we have here – horses from every country in the world. Naturally the eye is drawn to the two biggest horses I’ve ever seen, from the US and the EU. They tower above every other horse in the line up – look at the size! The speed at which they can pass trade resolutions must be breathtaking, the ‘profit uber alles’ blinkers are definitely on; their sheer bulk means that they must produce an enormous amount of horse crap. All the money here today is on these two stallions, which have been bought and paid for by corporate interests at home in their relative countries. Why compared to the sheer muscle of these super giants, the other horses, especially those from the South, are looking a wee bit like Shetland ponies. And what’s that, ah bless them, the WTO officials have decided to handicap all horses from developing nations with big rocks in their saddle bags. That’s exactly what we need; a level and democratic playing field.
Ok, they are going into their stalls. No one wants to stand near that big US horse, I wonder why. The moment is tense. The WTO official raises his whistle. AND THEY ARE AWAY!!!
Greenpeace will be going to Cancun and broadcasting our live reports over the internet. For the meantime, get educated, get empowered and catch all the action at these two stations!
Radio Cancun will be broadcasting over the internet. Check here for the latest updates in English
Indymedia will also be broadcasting internet radio from Cancun - this site is in Spanish, and it has written updates and links to radio and pictures
So now it seems that the US is punishing one of its closest Arab allies, Egypt, because they dared to contradict the US position on genetically modified organisms. The US has filed a complaint in World Trade Organisation against the EU, which has banned the use of genetically modified foods. When Egypt didn’t join the party, the US harshly retaliated, and withdrew from free trade negotiations with Egypt.
The US must have been cross with Egypt - by saying that Egypt supported the US position, they could claim that the EU ban was 'hurting developing countries'. Without support from Egypt, this point now looks a little watery. 'Hurting US biotechnology companies'doesn't bring a tear to many eyes.
No one is surprised with how dirty politics can really get, although apparently Egypt ministers are rather stunned by this retaliation. In the words of EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, this kind of power play reflects certain "methods allowed in the WTO rules — such as retaliation — as a tool to foster compliance." It's precisely because the WTO can be used to force compliance, so big US corporations can get to previously protected markets, that many people are afraid of its powers.
I got sent a picture this morning. I looked at it and then did a double take. Round where I come from, masked men and butch guys in security outfits are kinda commonplace. Kinky, but hey, Amsterdam is, after all, a very weird place. But ooooh… who is that guy?? It only gets weirder – one of he guys looks rather like George Bush, and we’ve got a photo of him being frisked by a security cop. In fact - goods are being confiscated from his person. I got all excited there for a sec thinking we’d finally got the proof that this guy inhales.
Turns out he’s one of ours in a Bush mask (huh, that plastic act was so believeable! ‘Even better than the real thing!’) So, for that matter is the security guard. On Monday 28th Greenpeace surrounded a UN building today to keep it safe from contamination – that’s why we had to stop that sneaky GB from getting in. The US has filed a complaint in the WTO against European Union's new comprehensive genetically modified organism labelling laws. With this complaint, the US also targets the the Biosafety Protocol, a global agreement that effectively secures the right of countries to ban or severely restrict imports and the use of GMOs (genetically modified organisms).
We believe genetically engineered organisms should not be released into the environment as there is not adequate scientific understanding of their impact on the environment and human health. We also believe that countries should have the right to rights reject or ban genetically modified organisms.
We wanted to make sure Bush can’t get his bag of dubious genetically modified stuff past the UN Biosafety Protocol. I guess I’ll just have to keep waiting for some pictures of the real George Bush being frisked and busted by a big guy called Horace. Maybe I should ask the CIA?