2006-01-16

Where have all the flowers gone?

Everytime I think of the state of society I think of this song; "Where have all the flowers gone?" I believe Pete Seeger  had peace in mind when he wrote the song but for me the song pops into my head whenever I see the hurt man has caused to themselves and others.

This is from an article from "A publication of 'The Council of Canadians'.
By Maude Barlow:

'Welcome to Canada's unofficial opposition'

There is a monumental global struggle taking place. On one side are the transnational corporations, big business lobbies, economic think tanks, corporate media outlets, and global trade and financial institutions like the World Trade Organization. Unfortunately, the Canadian government, and many other governments around the world, have chosen to stand with them. These corporations, and those that act in their interests, seek to privatize and commodify the world's human and natural resources and put them on the open market to the highest bidder. To them, nothing is sacred, even those areas of the 'global commons' once considered to be part of our collective heritage, like food, genes, seeds, air and water, or basic human rights, like culture, social security, education, and health care.

On the other side are millions of the world's citizens - farmers, educators, environmentalists, human rights activists, students, indigenous peoples, workers, writers, artists, and many more - who passionately believe that the commons belongs to the earth and people and must never be appropriated for profit.

We are not opposed to trade, or even trade rules, as long as they are fair trade rules. But we believe the interests of global capital have now crossed a dangerous line. Humanity and the earth will not survive if we do not reverse this trend. What is really at stake, and what is at the heart of our movement, is whether civic culture will prevail over corporate dominance in our society. We must demand laws and standards at every level of government, from local to national to international, to protect social security, labour and human rights, a free press, the environment and natural resources,cultural diversity, food security, and fair trade and investment policies. The only way we are going to reclaim and democratize our country and the world is with an active civil society engaged in real participatory democracy. That is our challenge.

Quotes from the newsletter:
"If we judge the legitimacy of our economic system by the quality of life afforded the many, not the license provided the few, the global economy is doing very badly indeed. The real goal of the WTO and the FTAA is to dramatically reduce or completely destroy the ability of governments anywhere to legislate on behalf of their citizens and to complete the transformation of the nation-state into one totally subservient to its corporate masters."

"There is no better example of greed and ruthlessness than the move to genetically engineer the world's food system and shift the role of agriculture from one that produced food for people to one that produces profits for food and drug corporations. In spite of the collusion of corporate and government power to promote a new and unproven technology, ordinary citizens are demanding the right to safe food and no longer believe the authorities who tell them all is well."

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