http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/ en-us 2003-09-14T16:23:44-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000682.html The meeting has failed to reach an agreement, and that's a good thing. The talks are over, and the televisions inside the convention centre that showed the open proceedings all week are now running nature documentaries on flamingos.... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-14T16:23:44-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000681.html The EU Agriculture Commissioner, Franz Fischler, has said that the meeting is over. When the EU walks out, the talks collapse. It is official, not a rumour: the talks have collapsed without agreements being reached by the delegates.... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-14T15:12:19-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000680.html The WTO meeting process is very secretive, so all we have right now is rumours. The meeting is either about to fall apart, or the European Union is getting ready for hard bargaining, or there is a comet about to... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-14T15:10:34-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000677.html The feelings: every day the depresion, the anger and the impotence grow and grow. It seems that no NGOs, no countries, no protesters have the power, the talent, the capability to challenge, to stop, to change the just one way-one side route that the WTO has decided to take. Even, with the arguments, the numbers, the faces, tha facts that prove neoliberal policies are not working in the benefit of the people. So it goes. The facts: the final text of WTO is gonna be worst for poor countries and for their citizens that what everybody were expecting. This means, again, nothing for the most, everything for the minority. There is surprise and disappointment all around this hot and wet Cancun, all around this little and connected planet with the draft of the WTO ministerial meeting. Nobody knows how this draft was obtained, given the fact that dozens of NGOs were there, in the Convention Center, every day saying that WTO policies were not fair, were forced, given the fact that around 80 countries -poor countries, of course- have said a clearly and loudly NO to several things, like new issues and subsidies to agriculture and have demanded clearly to go ahead on decisions just when they were agreed by EXPLICITUS CONSENSUS. This is not happening. So it goes. More feelings: Every day I think in Mr. Lee Kyung. Nothing is the same but nothing has changed. Greenpeace 2003-09-14T14:12:25-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000676.html No, not the rooms where celebrities get their makeup done, but a nasty WTO negotiating procedure that puts rich country pressure on poorer nations that are holding out.... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-14T12:43:58-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000675.html A closing ceremony has been scheduled for three o'clock this afternoon, but no one really knows how long this meeting will last.... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-14T11:35:30-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000673.html Negotiations inside the 'green rooms' of the WTO meeting continued all night, while outside our team worked to try to influence those negotiations.... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-14T09:59:03-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000687.html A personal account of marching in a peaceful protest on September 13, at the WTO here in Cancun, Mexico.... Greenpeace 2003-09-13T21:53:07-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000670.html Earlier today, we got a copy of the document that sets out the new trade rules that the WTO is trying to come up with. We really don't like this first glimpse at what the WTO is trying to agree... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-13T21:20:15-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000689.html Three Argentinian protestors send their message directly to all the WTO delegates: Que Se Vayan Todos! (Kick them all out!) About a dozen students from Mexico City held a dancing and singing protest that brought this phalanx of riot... Photos EricS 2003-09-13T18:50:17-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000669.html The ship that we had prevented from unloading 40 000 tons of genetically engineered maize at the Mexican port of Veracruz has returned, and is now unloading it's cargo. Unfortunately, we can't do all the work of the Mexican government,... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-13T18:22:14-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000688.html Despite the tight security around the meeting is being held, the last 24 hours has seen a number of protests in the shadow of the convention centre.... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-13T18:14:30-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000686.html Maize has been used throughout the WTO meeting as a symbol. What exactly is the maize message?. Find out here... Photos EricS 2003-09-13T17:49:26-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000685.html We have used maize to make our point throughout this meeting: we have presented it to the U.S. delegation, stopped a 40 000 ton shipment of genetically engineered maize from entering Mexico and handed out small sacks containing maize kernels... Greenpeace EricS 2003-09-13T17:37:15-06:00 http://weblog.greenpeace.org/wto/archives/000671.html After we pulled down the barriers today, everybody sat down in the middle of the road.... Greenpeace 2003-09-13T16:26:44-06:00