Cancun prepares

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

Access to affordable medicines under attack

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