THE RECORD
June 20, 2001

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

As I predicted in a previous column, the new BC government wiped out the expert report on the now negotiated GATS treaty, before they even took office. All governments involved in these negotiations are desperate to cover up the facts. The Chrétien gang promised the release the text of the FTAA negotiations last April, before the Quebec Summit, but never have. Meanwhile, Dubya Bush's European quickie tour has been followed by demonstrations everywhere he touched ground, including the shooting of two in Gotheburg in Sweden, one of them in the leg, the other in the stomach.

Our governments claim that these demonstrations are organized by a few anarchist terrorists who want to disrupt their efforts of poverty elimination and the creation of prosperity through globalized market economy and the free movement of capital.

Well, if our governments are so intent on the creation of prosperity and the spreading of democracy with free trade, why are they so secretive over what they have agreed to give up to corporate power? Why were they so secretive with the MAI? Why has Chrétien promised to renegotiate the NAFTA, then signed it without any public consultations? Why has he backed off from his opposition to Chapter 11 of the NAFTA, publicly undercutting his Trade Minister Pettigrew? Was it because 29 multinationals sent a letter ordering him to shut up?

Why hasn't the Canadian government admitted that they have been negotiating the FTAA since 1994 and yet claim that no text of it exists? Why haven't they released the intents of the GATS treaty, when virtually all Canadian cities and municipal organizations have now declared themselves GATS free areas? Why are the Alliance MPs so quiet on the subject? Where is their alleged support of democracy?

Why is Gordon Campbell so afraid to let people see what is already known about the GATS? Is it because his own multinational bosses told him to shut up? Why are business groups part of these negotiations, but everybody else excluded? Is this democracy? Is it any wonder that people are getting fed up about their rights being sold down the river, without having any say in the matter?

Just last week I was invited to take part in a coming up worldwide Email conference organized by the World Bank on the subject of opening up our so called "developed countries" to unlimited agricultural imports from so called "underdeveloped nations." I already took part in several of these conferences and read the daily outpourings of hate against the World Bank, which is nothing more than a branch of the US government. It's role is to push the corporate agenda of deregulation and privatization of all services, causing misery and destitution all over the world. Yet, they are still trying to convince the world that their aim is the creation of global wealth and prosperity and these agricultural imports will raise the living standards of impoverished nations.

Well, if we allow these so called "cheap" imports, what will happen to our own farmers, who already are under unbearable stress with ten percent of the total going bankrupt every year? Does anybody think about this?

Now let us look at some figures on what the last 30 years of increased globalized wealth creation has done to our planet. Although the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, includes everything and is a fraudulent accounting system to give an illusion of well being, even the GDP can not cover up how the neoclassical economic system is bankrupting the world.

About 3 billion, or half of the world's population, live on less than $2 per day. Of the 100 strongest economies in the world 51 are corporations who could buy and sell many of the countries they operate in. Yet they demand more powers and protection from impoverished and corrupt governments in their pay. Less than 400 billionaires own more of the world's wealth than the other 6 billion including you and I. The 3 richest people on Earth control more wealth and GDP than the 48 poorest countries, or about a quarter of the total. Of the 6 billion people on Earth over 1 billion can't read and write. Yet, when the World Bank and IMF move into impoverished countries, their first demand is the elimination of public education to qualify for loans and grants.

Less than 1 percent of the moneys spent on armaments could put every child into school. The greatest poverty gap among the population of all industrialized countries is in the USA, which is the richest and most heavily armed. 20 percent of the world's population in industrialized nations uses 86 percent of all the production.

In 1960 , 20 percent of the people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20 percent. In 1997 the spread was 74 times. This is called wealth creation, supported and sold by most political parties.

The loans to the poorest are forcing them to pay $13 interest on every single dollar they receive in grants. 790 million people on Earth are chronically under nourished, over 60 percent of them in the Asian and Pacific regions. About 40,000 people die every day from preventable illnesses and starvation on the altar of globalized wealth creation. Ask your Alliance MP and Liberal MLA and they will sing the praises of it.

Copyright (c) 2001, West's International