'Getting back to
normal'
Biotech giant
pulls out of WTO talks
'Untrammelled
free trade alone would mostly benefit the fittest and marginalise
almost everybody else'
Franz
Fischler, EU Agriculture Commissioner, Bologna 31 October 2001
4 November 2001
The links between poverty, global militancy and world trade 'without a human face' are still yet to be appreciated in many quarters, particularly in the US.
Ironically the venue for the latest stage of WTO talks was
moved to Qatar some time ago in order to deter anti-globalisation
protesters. However, the most industrialised countries are now in
danger of severely alienating another 'also ran' section of
the global community (in the form of the Islamic world) following
the humanitarian disaster now being precipitated through their
support for the on-going bombing campaign in Afghanistan.
This re-freshly antagonised section of humanity is now the
greatest threat to the affluent lifestyle of the so called
'civilised world' which remains responsible for the overwhelming
majority of the world's pollution, oil resource driven conflict
(of which the current efforts to seize control of Afghanistan is
just the latest - see: Global War - 'It's the oil stupid'
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/GlobalWar-Itstheoilstupid.htm) and international arms sales.
As the chickens of the past come rapidly home to roost it seems even mighty companies like biotechnology giant DuPont are no longer prepared to attend meetings in support of the 'globalisation' cause because of the even greater security risks that have now become associated with them (see Wall Street Journal article below).
Nonetheless, in at least some elevated political quarters there appears to be a dawning realisation of how much of the developed world has succeeded in fundamentally dividing humanity as a result of the pursuit of its own selfish agendas. These words come from EU agriculture Commissioner, Franz Fischler, in a speech delivered in Italy last week:
"We [the EU] already offer major preferences to imports from least developed countries. What is more important, we have already decided to import more in the future by opening our markets to all products but arms for the 49 poorest countries. And we expect and invite the rest of the developed world to show the same commitment. But we are convinced that preferential treatment is the key. An across the board overall trade liberalisation would of course eliminate such preferences and penalise most developing beneficiary countries....
There is and will be no level playing field unless international trade liberalisation is accompanied by enhanced economic stability and more income distribution (overseas development assistance) to the advantage of those countries who are less able to compete.
Untrammelled free trade alone would mostly benefit the fittest and marginalise almost everybody else....
To support the economically weakest member countries to catch up, our view is and remains that of a market economy with a human face. We will continue to support this view in the international economic forum."
This approach constitutes a dramatic contrast to the one which is emerging as the real US agenda driving the war effort in Afghanistan (see: 'The Real Bush Agenda' http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/FightSmart28-10-2001.htm ).
Is all this Stone Age thinking from the US really facilitating a 'getting back to normal' or is it more likely to open the gates of hell? Is it not surely time for some serious alternative thinking?
Indeed what kind of a limp strategic vision is 'getting back to normal' anyway? Who wants the old kind of normality any more? Certainly not the 3 billion people of the world living in poverty.
No, the time has come to move onto something altogether more intelligent and responsible. Even within its own midst crime, school violence and home-grown terrorism demonstrate that at the core of all this misfortune its own educational system has failed western society.
It is time for the predominantly Christian 'first world', which has become the chief proponent of bombing as a 'solution' to international conflict, to start to think a little more deeply about the nature of its own civilisation and its selfish approach to those of other cultures around the world (see: 'US funds terrorists in Eastern Europe - Bush must go' : http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/FightSmart31-10-2001.htm ).
More of these issues will be examined 7.15 pm this evening in the BBC 2 documentary: 'Profits of Doom' (for animated preview see: http://www.glasseyeltd.com/correspondent/detect.htm - allow time to load).
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex
http://www.mindfully.org/WTO/WTO-Evacuation-Plan.htm
U.S. Sets Up WTO Meeting Evacuation Plan
Many Have Already Decided Not to Attend
Helene Cooper / Wall Street Journal 1nov01
WASHINGTON -- Bush administration officials have developed an emergency-evacuation plan for U.S. delegates at next week's World Trade Organization meeting in Qatar, while lawmakers and executives have been canceling plans to attend.
Increasingly concerned about security at the WTO meeting, administration officials have discouraged business leaders and members of Congress from attending. Those who do go will be issued gas masks, antibiotics and two-way transistor radios upon arrival in Doha, Qatar, according to executives and congressional representatives who have participated in special security briefings on the meeting.
During those sessions, administration security officials outlined special evacuation plans that include airlifts to waiting U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf in the event the trade conference is attacked by terrorists.
Business and congressional representatives present at the security briefings said U.S. intelligence officials presented a slide show that included photographs of members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network who U.S. intelligence officials believe slipped into Qatar in the past month.
The result of the briefings is that lawmakers and business executives are calling off plans to attend the talks.
WTO Officials Say Plans to Meet in Qatar Will Proceed in Spite of Terrorism Fears (Oct. 23)
Ministers Consider Moving WTO Meeting From Qatar (Oct. 15)
"We don't have anyone going," one Senate Finance Committee Republican staffer said. Indeed, neither Max Baucus of Montana, the ranking Senate Democrat on trade, nor Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican, will be attending the meeting.
Members of the senators' staffs say they have other pressing business in Washington, including a possible vote on granting President Bush expanded powers to negotiate trade deals.
But many staffers say privately that security concerns are a big reason for the pullout by others who planned to attend. Indeed, of the 30 lawmakers initially scheduled to attend, Rep. Sander Levin (D., Mich.) was the only one still on the confirmed list Wednesday.
"I'm the ranking member [of the House Ways and Means Committee] on trade," Mr. Levin said. "I think, if at all possible, that a few of us should go."
But, he added, "We need another briefing next week" before making a final decision on whether he will go to Qatar.
Executives who were at the security briefings are among those deciding not to join the Qatar meeting as well. "I'm not going and I suggested to others that they not go either," said Geoffrey Gamble, chief international counsel at DuPont Co. After attending a security briefing in Washington Friday, Mr. Gamble e-mailed several executives and colleagues.
"My advice to all of you ... is that you not attend," Mr. Gamble said in the e-mail. Reached by phone, Mr. Gamble acknowledged sending the note but declined to elaborate.
The WTO chose Qatar for security reasons, figuring antiglobalization protesters who recently disrupted several similar meetings wouldn't disrupt one in the tightly controlled Persian Gulf emirate.
The U.S. delegation will include U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and Commerce Secretary Don Evans.
Officials with the government of Qatar have said repeatedly
that they will provide adequate security for the talks. They have
resisted calls from WTO officials to rescind their invitation,
which would give U.S. and WTO officials a graceful way out.
Qatar's insistence on holding the meeting has put the U.S. and
WTO in a box: WTO rules hold that Qatar would have to
withdraw its invitation before officials can move the meeting
somewhere else.
On one hand, many Bush national-security and foreign-policy officials argue that moving the meeting from Qatar would alienate the moderate Arab world that the U.S. is trying to woo in its campaign against terrorism. But they also worry that holding the meeting in what is essentially a war zone is asking for trouble.
Inside the Bush administration, officials have been wrangling with security concerns about the meeting since Sept. 11. Once Qatar refused to withdraw its invitation, the U.S. had to go, administration officials said.
"It wasn't our decision to make," said Mary Matalin, a counselor for Vice President Dick Cheney. "We have consistently said that if you host it, we'll be there."
Ms. Matalin denied a report in the Financial Times Wednesday
that Mr. Cheney disregarded security concerns among top U.S.
trade officials and committed the U.S. to attending the meeting
10 days ago. "Obviously, after 9-11, the
whole world changed," she said. "But our position has
not changed."
The 'normal' approach to eliminating poverty
"We don't believe in America,
the people are the target. For every two Taliban they kill, they
kill 20 of us. The Taliban have plenty to eat,... but the people
go hungry."
Comment from Makaki refugee camp in Afghanistan
October 31, 2001, 'Terrorize the Poor,
Subsidize the Rich'
http://www.counterpunch.org/turnipseed4.html
".......'An official told me
that my name had been flagged in the computer... I was targeted
because the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent
civilians in Afghanistan'.... Military personnel with automatic
weapons surrounded Oden and instructed all airlines to deny her
passage on any flight."
'Green Party USA Coordinator
Detained at Airport; Prevented by Armed Military
Personnel from Flying to Political Meeting in Chicago': 2
November 2001
http://www.counterpunch.org/oden1.html
'India will be bulldozed during the WTO
talks' - DECCAN CHRONICLE
Interview, Sunday November 4, 2001
'The trouble with this government, like all other
governments, is that it feels it's still ruling the nation on
behalf of the British'
http://www.deccanchronicleonline.com/features/interview/default.shtml
Alternative
thinking - Eliminating Global Poverty - Vedic Agriculture
Click here
"There are 6 billion people
in the world today, 3 billion of which are living in poverty -
with at least 1.5 billion living in extreme poverty. This misery
in the lives of so many people affects every one of us. This is
especially true when the natural resources inherent in the land
of each county are enough to generate sufficient wealth to
totally eradicate poverty"
http://www.mvoai.org/intro.html
NATURAL
LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex