THE G-20 IN PITTSBURGH
by Tom Over 9-23-09
<br><br>
On Tuesday, Sept 22, activists from Philadelphia, New York City, Pittsburgh and other cities held a mock funeral procession to demand better policies for addressing the AIDS pandemic, a day ahead of the arrival of delegates for the G-20.
<br><br>
The approximately 50 participants in the New Orleans-style funeral march drew a mix of interest, irritation, and amusement from onlookers in the business district of downtown Pittsburgh.
<br><br>
At the head of the funeral march where pallbearers carried a cardboard coffin, a man shouted into a microphone while someone else carried a portable amplifier, “when people with AIDS are under attack, what do we do ?” and marchers shouted in unison, “fight back!”
<br><br>
Amidst the early afternoon bustle of an weekday, the demonstrators repeated this call-and-answer and similar chants as the funeral march made its way around the perimeter of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the site of the G-20 Summit later this week.
<br><br>
Erica Goldberg works with ACT UP Philadelphia. She said global health is not on the agenda of the G-20 Summit.
“One of the things that some of the G-20 nations have promised us is funding for the global fund to fight, TB, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. This is all really important, especially if we want to meet the United Nations’ Millennium goal of eradicating these diseases by 2015. As of right now, this won’t be met. We have to hold our leaders accountable. They are the ones making decisions for the poorer countries,” Goldberg said.
<br><br>
She commented on the timing of the demonstration. “We wanted this to be the first thing they (the G-20 delegates) see. They’re coming here tomorrow. We’re holding them accountable. This needs to be on the agenda.”
<br><br>
She said AIDS activists chose Sept 22, two days before the official start of the G-20 Summit, and one day before the arrival of the delegates, so as to not have to compete with other protests. Also, she said the AIDS activists figured there would be less of a chance of conflict with police if they staged their protest earlier in the week.
<br><br>
“We hope that this will hit the papers tomorrow, that it’s the first thing they see when they walk in, that they have this on their conscience and know we’re not going away,” Goldberg said. She urges people to contact legislators about supporting the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.
“President Obama, as much as I love him, went back on his promise to fulfill the funding,” Goldberg said.
<br><br>
She commented on how drug companies factor into all of this. “ Medication does not need to be this expensive. They can definitely lower their prices. We have big drug interests lobbying to prevent AIDS medication from getting” to developing nations.
<br><br>
Goldberg said debt cancellation for developing nations is a factor that comes into play.
“When you don’t cancel debts of nations and they have to pay back loans to the IMF and the World Bank, they won’t have the funds necessary for getting AIDS medication, or they might get the medication but can’t pay the health professional because of their debt.
<br><br>
She said vested interested motivated by huge profits stand in the way of doing a better job of addressing tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS. “We have the power, the ability, and the medication.”
World News
The global coffee industry has endured colossal changes over the past fifty
years. Production of beans has shifted from country to country. Profiteering
from the product has increased almost exponentially through huge sales at
retail outlets such as Starbucks and Seattle's Best. But not all involved in
the coffee market have benefited equally. Small coffee farmers have suffered
tremendous loss. Environmental degradation has also increased as ancient
forests have been cleared in hopes that the bare land can be transformed
into fertile ground, worthy of growing cash crops. Countries have lost
entire export industries as multinational corporations race to purchase the
cheapest beans they can find. And no country has felt the pain of these
transformations greater than Colombia.
The majority of Pakistani youth
have been born to worship the
founder of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, a metallurgist by training and head of Pakistan’s nuclear program. It was a rare and equally shocking moment for many Pakistani people to see their “hero” appearing on television on February 4, in the midst of a storm that has been created with a news leak, confessing his sin of what the international community says is nuclear proliferation. Dr. Abdul Qadeer Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb, admitted that he and only he himself is responsible for exporting nuclear know-how to various nations (Iran, Libya and North Korea), thus exonerating the powerful military from any involvement in that business.
When news of Pakistan's clandestine program involving its top nuclear scientist selling rogue nations, such as Iran and North Korea, blueprints for building an atomic bomb was uncovered last month, the world's leaders waited, with baited breath, to see what type of punishment President Bush would bestow upon Pakistan's President Pervez Musharaff.
Bush has, after all, spent his entire term in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and even tougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the means to build WMDs. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description.
Remember, Bush accused Iraq of harboring a cache of WMDs, which was the primary reason the United States launched a preemptive strike there a year ago, and also claimed that Iraq may have given its WMDs to al-Qaeda terrorists and/or Syria, weapons that, Bush said, could be used to attack the U.S.
Bush has, after all, spent his entire term in office talking tough about countries and dictators that conceal weapons of mass destruction and even tougher on individuals who supply rogue nations and terrorists with the means to build WMDs. For all intents and purposes, Pakistan and Musharraf fit that description.
Remember, Bush accused Iraq of harboring a cache of WMDs, which was the primary reason the United States launched a preemptive strike there a year ago, and also claimed that Iraq may have given its WMDs to al-Qaeda terrorists and/or Syria, weapons that, Bush said, could be used to attack the U.S.
More evidence emerged Thursday about the United States and Britain's underhanded tactics aimed at undermining the United Nations Security Council as it considered a U.S.-backed resolution in launching a preemptive strike against Iraq last year.
Clare Short, a former member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet, told the BBC that British intelligence officials spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan during the run-up to war in Iraq so it could learn how Security Council members would vote on the resolution. Short said she read transcripts produced by British spies who allegedly bugged Annan's office before the Iraq war.
A UN spokesman said any such espionage, if true, would be illegal.
This latest revelation is just another example of how the U.S. and Britain tried to undermine UN missions ahead of the United States' invasion of Iraq and calls into question whether intelligence used to show that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction-which the Bush administration cited as the key reason for waging war-was indeed "sexed up" so the U.S. could launch a preemptive strike.
Clare Short, a former member of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet, told the BBC that British intelligence officials spied on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan during the run-up to war in Iraq so it could learn how Security Council members would vote on the resolution. Short said she read transcripts produced by British spies who allegedly bugged Annan's office before the Iraq war.
A UN spokesman said any such espionage, if true, would be illegal.
This latest revelation is just another example of how the U.S. and Britain tried to undermine UN missions ahead of the United States' invasion of Iraq and calls into question whether intelligence used to show that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction-which the Bush administration cited as the key reason for waging war-was indeed "sexed up" so the U.S. could launch a preemptive strike.
Hau Kola, Hello my friends, my relatives:
You can never imagine the heartfelt comfort it brings to know you're not forgotten in prison. This is my 28th year, and I've seen others come and go and return again. I can't help but feel a great sorrow for many of these young men who keep coming back for one reason or another; most of which are alcohol related offenses. So much has changed since I came here and yet, in many ways, it's still the same.
The government, under the pretext of security and progress, liberated us from our land, resources, culture, dignity and future. They violated every treaty they ever made with us. I use the word "liberated" loosely and sarcastically, in the same vein that I view their use of the words "collateral damage" when they kill innocent men, women, and children.
You can never imagine the heartfelt comfort it brings to know you're not forgotten in prison. This is my 28th year, and I've seen others come and go and return again. I can't help but feel a great sorrow for many of these young men who keep coming back for one reason or another; most of which are alcohol related offenses. So much has changed since I came here and yet, in many ways, it's still the same.
The government, under the pretext of security and progress, liberated us from our land, resources, culture, dignity and future. They violated every treaty they ever made with us. I use the word "liberated" loosely and sarcastically, in the same vein that I view their use of the words "collateral damage" when they kill innocent men, women, and children.
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 5 - The company that ate America is now
swallowing Mexico.
Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the United States, is already the biggest private employer in Mexico, with 100,164 workers on its payroll here as of last week. Last year, when it gained its No. 1 status in employment, it created about 8,000 new positions - nearly half the permanent new jobs in this struggling country.
Wal-Mart's power is changing Mexico in the same way it changed the economic landscape of the United States, and with the same formula: cut prices relentlessly, pump up productivity, pay low wages, ban unions, give suppliers the tightest possible profit margins and sell everything under the sun for less than the guy next door.
"This is the game that Wal-Mart has played in the United States," said Diana Farrell, director of McKinsey Global Institute, a policy research group run by the international business consultancy McKinsey & Company. "They've changed the name of the game in Mexico."
Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the United States, is already the biggest private employer in Mexico, with 100,164 workers on its payroll here as of last week. Last year, when it gained its No. 1 status in employment, it created about 8,000 new positions - nearly half the permanent new jobs in this struggling country.
Wal-Mart's power is changing Mexico in the same way it changed the economic landscape of the United States, and with the same formula: cut prices relentlessly, pump up productivity, pay low wages, ban unions, give suppliers the tightest possible profit margins and sell everything under the sun for less than the guy next door.
"This is the game that Wal-Mart has played in the United States," said Diana Farrell, director of McKinsey Global Institute, a policy research group run by the international business consultancy McKinsey & Company. "They've changed the name of the game in Mexico."
Can the Brits feel the love yet? Exporting democracy, it turns out, means more than just showing unfortunate non-westerners the joys of having someone else write a decent constitution for them. We have now advanced to the point where we can tell even the land of the Magna Carta just where they went wrong. Apparently, they are so inept at running their own country that George Bush and his coterie of war criminals need to tell them just how to tailor democracy to American tastes.
The exported version, of course, is frighteningly like the domestic one. Free speech, first of all, is overrated, and is easily abused by misfits, peaceniks, trade unionists and other pesky troublemakers. Might we suggest a few important, um, improvements to make the whole thing run a little more smoothly? Really just a nip here and a tuck there. There you go-a Rolling Exclusion Zone would be nice. That way no one can ever get anywhere near a visiting head of state, even if he dragged your country into war and your people are plenty pissed off about it.
The exported version, of course, is frighteningly like the domestic one. Free speech, first of all, is overrated, and is easily abused by misfits, peaceniks, trade unionists and other pesky troublemakers. Might we suggest a few important, um, improvements to make the whole thing run a little more smoothly? Really just a nip here and a tuck there. There you go-a Rolling Exclusion Zone would be nice. That way no one can ever get anywhere near a visiting head of state, even if he dragged your country into war and your people are plenty pissed off about it.
When trade ministers from the Americas gather for the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA) Ministerial in Miami November 20-21, U.S. Trade
Representative Robert Zoellick and his team of advisors are unlikely to
walk away with the agreements they seek. The FTAA is an ambitious
undertaking intended to link every country in the Western Hemisphere
(except Cuba) through a free-trade agreement covering a broad array of
issues.
Proponents argue that the accord would increase trade and economic growth among the participating countries, leading to increased prosperity and strengthened democracy throughout the region. But a large and growing number of citizens organizations and some of the region's governments, particularly Brazil, argue that such an agreement would devastate farmers, working people and the environment, and consolidate the power of transnational corporations.
Proponents argue that the accord would increase trade and economic growth among the participating countries, leading to increased prosperity and strengthened democracy throughout the region. But a large and growing number of citizens organizations and some of the region's governments, particularly Brazil, argue that such an agreement would devastate farmers, working people and the environment, and consolidate the power of transnational corporations.
There is a general concept among the liberal media in this country that the surrendering of nearly all the civil liberties to the Big Father in Washington happened so fast because our society is paralyzed by fear. The horrible attack on 9/11 resulting in mass casualties in the middle of the most powerful country in the world destroyed the American sense of omnipotence and unlimited safety, created a vacuum in the heads and hearts of the electorate and initiated the wave of irrational feelings, which brought us to the authoritarian plutocracy.
Considering this premise it would be only prudent to reveal the possible consequences of these actions, so that, hopefully, the real fear of those will replace the currently ruling fear of illusion.
1. What will happen on the foreign theater.
Considering this premise it would be only prudent to reveal the possible consequences of these actions, so that, hopefully, the real fear of those will replace the currently ruling fear of illusion.
1. What will happen on the foreign theater.
"To address the global economic crisis and to foster broad development, the
WTO should be overhauled and reoriented. That was the message coming out of
the Seattle WTO meetings in 1999, and it remains the message four years
later." - Tom Barry, IRC program director.
While multilateral trade rules are necessary to assure predictability, resolve disputes and eliminate technical barriers, free trade is an ideology whose merits have not been proven in practice. The NAFTA experience and that of developing countries in Asia and throughout the Americas have demonstrated that for much of the poor population, trade and investment liberalization do not lead to fulfillment of development goals. These policies have led to serious environmental, economic and social problems in developing countries, and among workers and small farmers in developed countries, while the big winners have been the transnational corporations. Many of the WTOs rules and functions should be reviewed and revised, to reflect the overall goal of development and poverty alleviation rather than trade liberalization as a goal in itself.
While multilateral trade rules are necessary to assure predictability, resolve disputes and eliminate technical barriers, free trade is an ideology whose merits have not been proven in practice. The NAFTA experience and that of developing countries in Asia and throughout the Americas have demonstrated that for much of the poor population, trade and investment liberalization do not lead to fulfillment of development goals. These policies have led to serious environmental, economic and social problems in developing countries, and among workers and small farmers in developed countries, while the big winners have been the transnational corporations. Many of the WTOs rules and functions should be reviewed and revised, to reflect the overall goal of development and poverty alleviation rather than trade liberalization as a goal in itself.