Dear cj, In cj#604, we examined WIPO's move toward over-strong copyrights, as an example of how global policies are to be set, under the New World Order, by faceless corporate commissions. The case of the IMF, which dictates "austerity" to "underdeveloped" countries, and acts essentially as the Ministry of the Budget for the entire Third World, is familiar to everyone. Below we see another typical example of stealth world government, this time involving the World Bank. The incident described below is reported as a "backsliding" by the World Bank on the issue of pesticide policy. But rather than "backsliding", I suggest the incident represents a "showing of true colors" of the hidden agenda behind the corporate feudal regime. It is a warning that we must always keep in mind the underlying motivation of these corporate commissions, and not be misled by whatever expedient rhetoric they employ, nor by whatever crowd-pleasing early policies they may adopt. In order to achieve its position of global influence, the World Bank adopted in its early days policies which could be sold to the many constituencies involved in its operations. Even now, it tends to its PR by softening some of its policies when they get really bad press. But the inevitable direction of the World Bank and the other commissions, as revealed by the incident below, is toward ever-tightening megacorp control over global social and economic policies. This "bait and switch" technique -- gaining power by crowd-pleasing early policies -- represents a potent political strategy, and one that deserves much greater public awareness. One arena where this strategy deserves special notice is the European Union. --- The EU is an intermediate-scale institution, not quite global, but definitely super-national. It is not quite a "corporate commission", like the others we've mentioned, but upon close examination, one finds it is similarly well-designed to consolidate corporate control and to accelerate Europe's integration into the New World Order. The push for a common currency -- and the requirement that such a currency be based on austere economic policies -- reveals much about the "true colors" of the elite-sponsored EU. While the IMF is the elite's way of forcing austerity on the Third World, the EU is the elite's way of forcing it on Europe. And a common currency -- as British "Euro-Skeptics" have accurately pointed out -- must inevitably lead to a true European government, with all significant sovereignty concentrated in Brussels. The infrastructure necessary to manage a common currency starts with a common monetary policy, leads then to common budgetary and taxation policies, and so on down the line -- "union" is one those phenomena where you can't be just a "little bit pregnant". Recall the short-lived American Continental Congress -- and don't forget the Civil War, while you're at it -- what has once been joined, let no man split asunder. The true direction of the EU -- a European government -- is intentionally downplayed. As with the rest of the stealth NWO world-government campaign, the strategy is to implement it with minimal fanfare, and then gradually tighten the noose. The EU represents the elite's solution to the special problem of forcing Europe into the NWO. Although some European countries have followed quickly down the neoliberal path, along with the USA and UK, Europe has in general maintained a healthy respect for democracy and a considerable socialist counter-pressure to corporate hegemony. It would take too long to overcome democracy in each individual country, and so the EU has been developed as an intermediate vehicle. Via the EU, Europe is to be converted first into a clone of the U.S., with an American-style domination of top-level decisions by the corporate elite. The elite's star PR agents selling this strategy currently include Kohl (Germany), Chirac (France), and Major/Blair (UK). With this New Europe in place, with American government more thoroughly dismantled, and with the Third World more tightly under the control of the IMF and the U.S./NATO Judge-Dredd strike force, the stage will be set for the operational phase of the NWO's world-government system. --- This picture of the EU, and its role in furthuring world government, is certainly different than the EU's current public image. As part of the bait-and-switch strategy, common to all NWO institutions, the EU's PR emphasizes peaceful resolution of member-nation disputes, improvement of conditions in the less-developed member states, promotion of cultural diversity, and other crowd-pleasing policies. To distinguish fundamental direction from expedient short-term policy and rhetoric, one must learn to notice core structural elements, such as the fact that top-level EU policy is set in a very hierarchical fashion, that there is no Constitution or Bill of Rights in place adequate to insure a democratic Europe, and that top EU leaders happen to be dedicated proponents of neoliberalism and its corporate-pandering agendas. Regards, rkm @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ >Date: Wed, 20 Nov 96 >To: PNEWS-L >From: •••@••.••• (Rich Winkel) >Subject: NGOs Condemn World Bank For Gutting Pesticide Policy >Article: 1091 /** headlines: 119.0 **/ ** Topic: NGOs Condemn World Bank For Gutting Pesticide Policy ** ** Written 4:09 PM Nov 18, 1996 by econet in cdp:headlines ** /* Written 2:47 AM Nov 17, 1996 by •••@••.••• in haz.pesticides */ /* ---------- "PANUPS: NGOs Condemn World Bank" ---------- */ ===================================== P A N U P S *** Pesticide Action Network North America Updates Service http://www.panna.org/panna/ ===================================== November 15, 1996 NGOs Condemn World Bank for Gutting Pesticide Policy The World Bank is backtracking on earlier commitments to reduce pesticide use in agricultural projects, according to over 100 environmental, consumer and development organizations from the United States and around the world. The World Bank recently issued a new operational policy which offers only vague guidance to its staff about what kinds of pest management practices should be funded, and says nothing about farmer participation in project design. In a letter sent to World Bank President James Wolfensohn on November 8, 1996, the groups call for the Bank to reinstate an earlier policy which gave specific direction to Bank staff on how to minimize pesticide use and promoted an ecologically sustainable approach known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM). IPM controls pest problems through biological controls and other natural means. IPM also emphasizes ecological education, with farmers taking the lead in developing locally appropriate pest control methods, often relying on traditional practices in combination with scientific analysis. This insures that agricultural projects actually meet the needs of the rural poor whom they are supposed to help. In the letter, the NGOs state that as the Bank's only current mandatory policy on IPM, this new one and a half page document represents yet another retreat from the Bank's first 1985 policy on pest management, which contained an articulate definition of "sound pest management" with 22 operational requirements. Over the past 10 years, the Bank has moved to downgrade this original policy. In 1988 and 1989, the Bank convened a panel of experts, which included one NGO representative, to advise the Bank on how to upgrade its existing pest management policy with detailed step-by-step guidelines that would enable task managers to implement IPM successfully. The Bank adopted the panel's core findings in its 1992 directive but announced that detailed recommendations from the panel's report would be incorporated into an "Agricultural Pest Management Handbook" that would be released, according to Bank officials, "fairly soon." Four years later, the Handbook has still not been published. Moreover, the Bank's 1996 IPM strategy paper showed that implementation of the requirements in the 1992 policy has been virtually nil. According to a recent internal Operations Evaluation Department study, only about half of the Bank's agricultural projects are satisfactorily achieving their goals. The situation is even more serious since the Operations Evaluation Department has found that only about a third of agricultural research and extension projects are satisfactorily implemented, and that the Bank's "Training and Visit" system does not engage active participation of farmers and fails to develop appropriate farming practices for local farming systems. "The World Bank has just taken a giant step backwards," said Mimi Kleiner, a policy analyst with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The Bank appears to be weakening its policies, because it is under increasing pressure to actually carry them out," said Kleiner. "For years, both NGOs and internal Bank reports have documented the World Bank's failure to implement its own policies. Now an independent 'Inspection Panel' exists which can actually hold the Bank accountable for how its projects affect poor farmers around the world." Along with their letter, the NGOs provided as evidence an internal Bank memorandum which states, "Our experiences with the Inspection Panel are teaching us that we have to be increasingly careful in setting policy that we are able to implement in practice." According to Kleiner, "Rather than making an effort to live up to its own guidelines, the Bank appears to be lowering its standards." Sources: Consumer Policy Institute/Environmental Defense Fund/Pesticide Action Network press release, November 11, 1996. Joint letter to Mr. James Wolfensohn, November 8, 1996. Contact: Mimi Kleiner, Environmental Defense Fund, 1875 Connecticut NW, Suite 1016, Washington DC 20009; phone (202) 387-3500; fax (202) 234-6049; email •••@••.•••. Michael Hansen, Consumer Policy Institute, 101 Truman Avenue, Yonkers, NY 10703; phone (914) 378- 2455; fax (914) 378-2928; email •••@••.•••. Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Pesticide Action Network North America, 116 New Montgomery, San Francisco, CA 94105; phone (415) 541-9140; fax (415) 541-9253; email •••@••.•••. =========================================================== | Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA) | | | | Phone:(415) 541-9140 Fax:(415) 541-9253 | | Email: •••@••.••• http://www.panna.org/panna/| | PANNA, 116 New Montgomery, #810, San Francisco, CA 94105 | | | |*To subscribe to PANUPS send email to •••@••.•••| | with the following text on one line: subscribe panups | | To unsubscribe send the following: unsubscribe panups | | | |*For basic information about PANNA, send an email message | | to •••@••.••• | =========================================================== ** End of text from cdp:headlines ** _____________________________________________________________________ This material came from PeaceNet, a non-profit progressive networking service. For more information, send a message to •••@••.••• @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore - •••@••.••• - Wexford, Ireland Cyberlib: www | ftp --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore/cyberlib ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
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