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TechnoratiThe State of the Union and the Davos Forum, Singing From the Same Hymnbook
Economic growth, big news in late January. President Bush focused on a "stimulus package" to jump start the economy in his State of The Union Address, stressing that the US economy is "strong, dynamic and resilient" and currently dealing with "short term disruptions". US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the worlds rich and powerful gathered in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum that " The US economy is resilient, it's structure is sound and it's long term economic fundamentals are healthy". Like the President, downplaying the rumors of a pending deep recession.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggested to the Davos forum, a need for IMF countries to increase their spending, even countries with deficits. As with President Bush, the answer is always spending more money, even if you don't have it. Who is this supposed to help? The Davos forum and the State of the Union, long on promises and short on delivery. The promise of pulling people out of poverty, providing health care and jobs, in short floating everyones boat is often made, never delivered.
Agriculture is the perennial stumbling block of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Davos forum. Developing nations want to protect their farmers and food supply from cheap subsidized imports. The industrialized nations of the north want market access and the multinational corporations want profit, it is survival vs. economic growth.
Agriculture was scarcely mentioned in the State of the Union Address. There was no mention of the 2007 Farm Bill which remains stalled and under threat of veto. No mention of biofuels which, with nuclear power, make up the Presidents renewable energy plan. Of course as Gertrude Falk from Food First stated "Biofuels are a very dangerous issue. It reduces the area available for food production and in the long run it drives the price of food up". Perhaps in searching for his "legacy" controversy is best avoided?
The President did ask Congress to allow 25% of food aid to be purchased locally, (in cases of dire emergency) a departure from current law that provides only US commodities be purchased as food aid. Current law has the benefit of putting money into the pockets of US grain traders while at the same time undercutting indigenous farmers in the famine areas, thereby establishing permanent dependence on US commodity purchases. So, some local purchases, but food aid should still eventually turn a profit.
Bill Gates, pledged to spend over $ 300 million on a "new green revolution" for Africa. The standard Davos formula for dumping food on the poor causes more harm than good as organizations like CARE and Oxfam have noted. Will the Gates Foundation collaborate with local communities to develop systems of healthy, green, fair and affordable food, or dump more fertilizer, chemicals and GM seed on Africa and tell them to go to it?
President Bush cited the recent Free Trade Agreement with Peru as a "good agreement" and asked Congress to approve similar agreements with South Korea, Columbia and Panama. A "good agreement", so long as corporations and agribusiness make a nice profit, why worry about the environment, labor standards or local food production?
Food and agriculture must be taken out of the WTO. This has long been the demand of indigenous farmers worldwide. The demand for food sovereignty, the right for people to define their own food and agriculture, has been the focus of protests against the WTO, the deals cut at Davos and US farm subsidies.
Still, it continues, the Davos forum, the WTO and President Bush; their tunnel vision allowing them to see economic growth as the only goal. The trip is of no consequence, only the destination. They say from their yachts, that they want to float everyones boat, never realizing that most people in the world have no boat. They express genuine concern about economic recession, never realizing the poor of the world know nothing but recession.
Bono, from the Irish band U2 criticized the Davos forum and the international community in general for making promises of development but never living up to them. "I would like to turn our moral compact into legally binding contracts. Then my advice to the developing world? Get a good lawyer and haul our arses into court,". Bono had it right about Davos, they are "fat cats in the snow".
Jim Goodman is an organic dairy farmer and farm activist from Wonewoc WI. The Irish famine of the mid 1800's, the failed British farm policy and mono-culture farming that caused it brought Jim's great grandfather to Wisconsin. Continuing failed farm policy in the US has compelled Jim to advocate for a farmer controlled, consumer oriented food system.
9 Comments so far
Show AllWe live in the Zoo Economy. Those high-profile celebrities in Davos were not the keepers, just members of the animal population with lots of clout and the desire to help the zookeepers, and themselves, by trying to keep the other animals from getting spooked.
Remember that those who built Enron still believe that the company was sound, it was a failure of investor confidence. Surprise, surprise, these are the same animals reassuring us today.
And we all go on thinking that if we keep doing our tricks, the food will keep appearing. Good thing the zookeepers are not in a position to "leave".
Davos is nothing but a c*rcle-j*rk. Pardon my crude bluntness. It is, however, clear evidence that one role of government - policy making - has moved away from your local neighborhood and to someplace where you can't participate. Or even know what's been decided until waaaay too late. Although you have to pay for all of the first-class 5-star everything from from the starting blocks to the ski-lift passes, to the after-dinner 'entertainment', you have no say in what goes on - no input, no commentary, no influence, no options.
Our empire is not about the citizens wages and living standards. It is about globalization and allowing American corporations to capture global markets and resources, since we are only 5% of the world population. We pay for the globalization with our taxes and resources given to our corporations for almost nothing, and for which we pay dearly for. The corporations escape taxation of their global profits with permission from your government. The military, agribusiness, finance and big oil are used to control nations and people, and is doing a fine job.
The Empire is alive and well, but it is now a global empire and American citizens are being left behind.
BONO WAS A IRISH KID FROM DUBLIN NOW HE IS AN INCREDABLY WEATHLY APOLAGISTS FOR HIS FRIENDS OF HIGH POSITIONS THAT HE MINGLES WITH, NOT A LOT TO LEARN FROM THERE, JUST CLASS ADVANCEMENT IN MODERN TIME.
The Davos Forum is a backslapping party for the world's elite, pure and simple. The Swiss police do not let anybody remotely looking a protester within a two-hour train ride of the ski town. To expect anything beyond a sop to types like Bono is pure fantasy.
" The US economy is resilient, it's structure is sound and it's long term economic fundamentals are healthy".
"Wages and salaries now make up the lowest share of the nation's gross domestic product since the government began recording data in 1947, while corporate profits have climbed to their highest share since the 1960s." – New York Times, 2006
It's now 2008 and unemployment and the economy have only gotten worse. Government manipulation of employment statistics, the consumer price index, etc.. doesn't change reality. The empire is near its end!
Face it folks - it's the Grand Capitalist Brotherhood - oh, how exciting the Super Bowl is - Amerikans are asleep.
I am 58 and I hope that I will be dead before the world conflict headlines are food and water. I thought in 2005 that Katrina was THE thing that would get at least Bush and Cheney out of office. Apparently the horror of Katrina did not affect enough of us. With continued lack of clean water, and continued chemical food, some day it will hit that money will not buy what keeps our bodies alive. By then our humanity will have long been destroyed.
Sadly, the misleading comments in this State of Union speech, have been this president's signature since he was handed the presidency by the five politically motivated supreme court justices following his theft of an election. He now takes credit for alleged progress on the very issues that he had opposed or neglected, in order to appease his special interests and radical right supporters to the detrement of this nation and the world--some include:
His blockage of international family planning and women's education on his first day in office; his blockage of mitigation measures for global warming, pollution, and conservation using his manipulation of science; his deprivation of hope from so many by his deceptive and radical blockage of stem cell research; his neglect of vital signs and warnings from the earlier administration concerning the terrorist attacks for which he profited greatly from on 9/11 and his follow up of abusive security action which have actually endangered our security; unprecedented character assassinations of those who legitimately oppose his policies; this ill conceived war based pm false pretenses that has given him the status or a "war president"--and the list goes on.
Those who helped this zealot steal the elections and are impressed by such deceptive rhetoric deserve the worst government money buy. Those who have stood by and allowed our legialators to default their duties by tolerating these outrages also deserve credit.