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
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>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 •••@••.•••
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Posted by Richard K. Moore - •••@••.••• - Wexford, Ireland
Cyberlib: www | ftp --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore/cyberlib
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