Keith,
I stopped reading as soon as I discovered that you were not engaging the
actual arguments you purport to criticize but were setting up straw man
"arguments" that are conveniently easy to refute. The process of corporate
globalization that has been occurring over the past quarter century has
about as much to do with free trade as Osama bin Laden has to do with Islam.
In other words, there has been a rhetorical fundamentalism underlying the
process combined with a self-aggrandizing socio-pathic brutality. Those who
stand in the way of the market-fundamentalism of global finance are
infidels. Give us a break. Give yourself a break and stop boxing with shadows.
At 08:26 AM 10/06/01 +0100, Keith Hudson wrote:
>Under a different thread, Harry Pollard and I are having what I hope is a
>good-natured argument about economic matters, but there is one thing we are
>in total agreement about. This is that free trade is essential for any sort
>of civilised progress of mankind.
>
>In my previous message I tried to emphasise once again that free trade in
>essential resources was the key behaviour which distinguished mankind from
>his cousin species, Neanderthal Man, and allowed him to start spreading all
>over the world some 50,000 years ago. The evidence, so far, is that
>Neanderthal Man (with, incidentally, a larger brain than Sapiens) did not
>happen upon the benefits of trade and remained isolated in specific
>habitats which, although having a full complement of food and other
>resources at that time, became vulnerable in due course to even slight
>environmental changes.
>
>Whatever else may be said about the unique qualities of mankind, the
>activity of trade between two culturally disparate groups -- who may even
>hate each other on other matters -- is certainly one of them. Amazing
>examples of this occurred in the Bosnian war a few years ago when Muslims
>and Serbs would be fighting each other savagely one day, and trading
>essential foodstuffs with each other the next. Touching examples of this
>are also described in a book by which I am presently reading ("Towards the
>Bitter End: the diaries of Victor Klemperer 1942-45") of wartorn Germany
>when poor starving German citizens who hated Jews would nevertheless trade
>essential items like potatoes, matches and false teeth (even at risk of
>imprisonment or death) with their Jewish neighbours -- equally poor and
>starving (and awaiting being transported to death camps) -- because both
>were able to survive a little better from trading.
>
>This persistence of trade, even when outlawed by officaldom and carried out
>at great risk, suggests that it is an instinctive behaviour and we would be
>denying an important part of our human nature to oppose it.
>
>Of course, it is not only the anti-globalisation protesters who are trying
>to oppose free trade, but also powerful corporations and unions within
>countries like America and in the EEC who still impose high tariffs against
>foodstuffs and textiles from Third World countries.
>
>I couldn't expect anti-globalisation protesters to suddenly raise banners
>with slogans like "Support free trade". But as they are mostly young and
>naturally need to be seen to be against authority, they could use slogans
>like "Oppose Tariffs". In this they would then be on the side of
>organisations like Friends of the Earth (FoE) or Fairtrade Foundation (FT)
>which are as equally concerned with the plight of the Third World as
>protesters, but realise that it is tariffs, not free trade, that's the real
>nasty.
>
>Even though the aims of WTO are laudable, there is much that is wrong with
>their rules so far, and I'm fervently hoping that the arguments of FoE and
>FT (together with Third World negotiators) will make some headway when the
>next meeting takes place in Doha. The worst thing that could happen for the
>Third World, particularly at this time of world-wide recession, is that
>this meeting will fail as badly as the last one in Quebec.
>
>Keith Hudson
>
>
>
>___________________________________________________________________
>
>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]
>________________________________________________________________________
>
>
Tom Walker
Bowen Island, BC
604 947 2213
