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The WTO’s Rigged Game (9/99)

MARK WEISBROT AND NEIL WATKINS June 3, 2005 MARK WEISBROT AND NEIL WATKINS

Should countries have the right to set health and safety standards for the food their citizens eat? Should they be allowed to exclude foreign-produced foods that don’t meet national standards? Or should these questions be decided by the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

Like it or not, these issues are being decided right now. In the latest trade dispute between the world’s two largest trading partners, the US placed sanctions worth about $117 million on European goods in late July. The goal is to force the Europeans to import US beef that is raised with growth hormones. read more

World Bank: Knowledge Gaps (12/98)

NIGEL CROSS June 3, 2005 NIGEL CROSS

Salesmen used to make a living selling enormously expensive multi-volume encyclopedias which would tell you everything you needed to know about everything. Then came the vastly cheaper pocket-size CD ROM. And now there’s the Internet, for the price of a telephone call. Suddenly, knowledge seems cheap and accessible.

If we’re to believe the World Bank’s recent report, Knowledge and Development, after several millennia of human intellectual endeavor, we’ve come of age. In fact, the Bank has taken to calling itself the "knowledge bank," as if it were the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Yellow Pages rolled into one – a kind of modern version of that optimistic Victorian institution, the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It’s the proud possessor of "an unparalleled reservoir of knowledge … accumulated over the past 50 years in more than 100 countries." And thanks to the Internet, it can finally share this reservoir with the rest of us. read more

Hague Appeal Update – Women (2/00)

ROBIN LLOYD June 2, 2005 ROBIN LLOYD

Ten thousand peace activists, Nobel peace prize winners, and celebrities met for four days last May at a conference center at the Hague, Holland, with virtually no US – and skimpy international – coverage. A few blocks away, the boys with the big cameras clustered outside the gates of the International Court of Justice, where Yugoslavia was charging NATO with violations of international law.

After all, there was a war going on.

Every day, young people trooped down with banners, urging the media to provide some coverage. No luck. As a Hague Appeal staffer later explained, "Unless the story has action and can be explained in two seconds, they don’t want to cover it." read more

The Hague Appeal – Women (7/99)

ROBIN LLOYD June 2, 2005 ROBIN LLOYD

The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference was quite successful in bringing together peace and justice activists from all over the globe to network, launch new coalitions, and renew pledges to make peace possible. Four thousand people were expected to attend the four-day event in May, but over 8,000 turned up. A thousand groups representing people from 100 countries took part. But unfortunately, it was held in the Netherlands, a NATO country engaged in war at the time, and that reality did affect the outcome. read more

Activists Prepare for the Next Wave of Protests (3/01)

BRIAN TOKAR June 2, 2005 BRIAN TOKAR

The Maori people call it Aotearoa, the Land of the Long White Cloud. It’s a place of mystery and wonder, where glacial mountain peaks tower over vast coastal rain forests, with breathtaking coves and bays far too numerous to count and genera of trees and birds that can’t be found anywhere else on earth.

New Zealand’s indigenous population has made its mark on the majority colonial population’s language, cultural norms, and legal institutions to an extent rarely found in the English speaking world. read more

Prairie Dogs Under Attack (6/99)

ANDREA C. POE June 2, 2005 ANDREA C. POE

The sun rises over a vast expanse of prairie. The wind blows and the wild grass sways, as if to music. With its seeming endless repetition and aching beauty, the great prairie has captured the American imagination for generations. The image is peaceful, a scene of tranquillity and rhythm, a place to dream.

But the western plains aren’t as tranquil as they appear. A war is being waged against the short and mixed grass prairie, and the most brutal battle centers on the prairie dog, arguably the ecosystem’s cornerstone. read more