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The New World Order:
Synopses/remarks on some articles
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Nipawin - Monday, February 4, 2002 - by: Mario deSantis |
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"Free trade as managed by the World Trade Organization...
is largely the freedom of the fox in the henhouse"
--Susan George, Social Activist
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Our Experts in India
Novelist Arundhati Roy explains how India lives in several centuries at the same
time and objects to the present globalization drive of the World Trade Organization
(WTO). She asks the question on how liberalized imports of agricultural goods can
help the 700 million people living in rural areas when there is already an over production
of these goods in the country. She refers to Enron's energy projects in India and
to its supposedly legal $30-billion contract with the Maharashtra State Electricity
Board entailing gross profits between $12 billion and $14 billion. And again she
asks if we should give the experts the role to plan and make decisions for more electricity
dams. World leaders continue their push for globalization and say that it will work
if we have the right institutions, the right governance in place, good laws and honest
politicians; but Roy says that if we have in place all such things everything would
work, socialism, capitalism and you name it. She says that we need a new kind of
politics, a politics of opposition, a politics of accountability, and that the only
thing worth to globalize is the kind of dissent India displayed against Enron.
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Reference: Shall
We Leave It to the Experts? Enron's Power Project in India Demonstrates Who Benefits
from Globalization, by Arundhati Roy, Published in the February 18, 2002
issue of The Nation
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Statistical Polls
Playwrite Bill Davis highlights the difference between approval rate at the polls
and leadership for changing the world for the better, to have peace. President Bush
is telling people we have been victorious in the war in Afghanistan, but he still
reminds us that we are vulnerable to more attacks and therefore we need more bombs
and more homeland defense. Bill Davis concludes that a victory without peace is only
a victory at the polls and not a victory for the people.
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Reference: Does
Approval Rate?, by Bill C. Davis, February 3, 2002 by Common Dreams
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Bush and Sharon agree on the war against the axis without looking at their
axis first
It is refreshing to read Eric Margolis' sharp articles as he doesn't describe
political events but he builds patterns of relationship among these historical events.
Bush's 'axis of evil' is a term coming out of a comic book rather than by an understanding
of international affairs. Bush's crusade against evil appears to take the form of
a crusade against the Muslims as Bush aligns his foreign policies with those of general
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel. Margolis explains the faulty American policies
in the Middle East and concludes that America and Israel should look at themselves
in the mirror and destroy their own weapons of mass destruction before going to war
against the 'axis of evil.'
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Reference: Bush
and Sharon Agree on Policy, by Eric Margolis, Published on Sunday, February
3, 2002 in the Toronto Sun
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Bushing foreign policies in the Middle East
The United States policies in the Middle East are hurting the possibilities of
peace. While the US and Israel advertise to the world the capture of a ship with
arms allegedly destined for the Palestinian Authority, they continue a policy of
repression as Israel is using most sophisticated military operations to occupy Palestine
land, kill civilians and keep Yasser Arafat under siege.
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Reference: Middle
East Peace Process. U.S. Approach Hurts All Parties, by Ali Abunimah, Published
on Sunday, February 3, 2002 in the Philadelphia Inquirer
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A new arms race: Europe's cry for more arms to fight American hegemony
The spiral of war and terrorism is increasing as NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson
is responding to U.S. escalation of military spending with this warning "American
critics of Europe's military incapability are right. So, if we are to ensure that
the United States moves neither towards unilateralism nor isolationism, all European
countries must show a new willingness to develop effective crisis management capabilities."
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Reference: NATO's
Lord Robertson warns of U.S. unilateralism, 2002-02-04 / Associated Press
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Another World is Possible
Susan George is most critical of the globalization preached by the WTO and their
friends and says that the world didn't change on September 11 as we still have half
the world living on less than $2 a day. We have thirty thousand children dying daily
and this condition is contrasted with western television reminding of our failures
to capture the New World Order of new technologies. She says that the mood is changing
and people no longer believe Margaret Thatcher's TINA "There Is No Alternative."
Another world is possible.
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Reference: Another
World Is Possible, by Susan George, Published in the February 18, 2002 issue
of The Nation
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