Christoph,
At 21:32 08/11/01 +0100, you wrote:
----> cut to
(CR)
>Hmmm... Keith strongly advocates Free Trade, but where FT is implemented,
>he complains about the ugly consequences, and even blames them on a lack
>of FT ! What's described above is just the ultimate implementation of FT
>-- humans being (ab)used as commodities which can be traded. Also note
>that the root causes of those abuses have been created by FT practices
>in the first place -- the reckless exploitation of African and lately
>Eastern European countries.
I believe in free trade -- which also incudes free movement of people --
but I'm not obliged to defend the latter within the present context of
political (and bureaucratic) control of immigration which leads to vast
suffering.
I added "(and bureaucratic)" in the above paragraph because our present
panoply of laws leads not only to confusion and lack of responsibility on
the part of the various agencies of our civil service but also gives
manifold opportunities for corruption.
And here's an example -- also derived from continuing BBC's investigations
into slavery as reported on Radio 4 today. In addition to yesterday's
report of the "purchases" of 10,000 young West African (mainly Sierra
Leone) children for the purposes of claiming welfare benefits or using them
in illegal sweatshops in England, there is a further wider trade in girls.
These are bought from parents in a wider swathe of countries in West
Africa, mainly Nigeria, and are then sent into Europe as prostitutes via
corrupt officialdom in Europe.
This is how it goes. Mafia gangs in West Africa send girls to Heathrow
Airport. They have no money and no one to meet them. Immigration officials
then send them to various reception homes in order to question them and
decide what to do with them in the following days. The mafia gangs
obviously know where the girls are being sent because the girls then
promptly disappear and then turn up as prostitutes on the streets of
various cities in Europe.
Now let me turn to your last paragraph:
(EW)
>It's true that centralistic bureaucracies are bad, but the cure is not
>privatization --which leads to centralistic bureaucracies too (albeit
>leaner ones), with the difference that they are private-owned, i.e. even
>less under control of the people--, but de-centralized direct-democratic
>structures.
In my criticisms of the nation-state I do not say that it should disappear.
Nation-states are justified as protectors of the peace internally and from
attack from abroad. Internally, part and parcel of this is that there
should be a system of justice equally and cheaply accessible to all. This
implies that all information that pertains to the daily activities of all
citizens should be freely available whether or not the information is
required as evidence by a court of law.
This description of the basics of a legitimate nation-state then takes care
of all bureaucracies, whether public or private. However, the typical
modern nation-state (and the business corporation, given special privileges
by the state) falls far short of these fundamentals but has also become
ramified into a multitude of other activities and private practices and
privileges.
Keith Hudson
>Keith Hudson wrote:
>> The [BBC] investigation arose from circumstances around the death of an 8
>> year-old girl from the Ivory Coast who'd been 'sold' by her parents to an
>> aunt who lived in England
>[...]
>> The BBC, not normally given to exaggerated claims, consider that there are
>> probably 10,000 such cases of African child 'imports'. The parents in
>> Africa are often paid as little as US$50 per child. Some are put to work in
>> sweatshops, and some are used to claim welfare benefits. Some time ago, I
>> wrote about other enquiries that suggest that at least 50,000 girls from
>> Eastern Europe have been illegally imported into the country by mafia gangs
>> on all sorts of pretexts and then effectively held in capitivity as
>> prostitutes in brothels from which they can't escape without risking danger
>> to their relatives at home.
>
>Hmmm... Keith strongly advocates Free Trade, but where FT is implemented,
>he complains about the ugly consequences, and even blames them on a lack
>of FT ! What's described above is just the ultimate implementation of FT
>-- humans being (ab)used as commodities which can be traded. Also note
>that the root causes of those abuses have been created by FT practices
>in the first place -- the reckless exploitation of African and lately
>Eastern European countries.
>
>FT increases inequality and injustice -- which both *increase* criminality.
>
>It's true that centralistic bureaucracies are bad, but the cure is not
>privatization --which leads to centralistic bureaucracies too (albeit
>leaner ones), with the difference that they are private-owned, i.e. even
>less under control of the people--, but de-centralized direct-democratic
>structures.
>
>Chris
>
>
>
>
>
___________________________________________________________________
Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org>
6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727;
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
________________________________________________________________________
