Speaking of inspiration!
El pueblo unido jamas sera divido! (I don't know how to do accents on blogger, sorry...)
from alternet:
While the big news story yesterday were the offers put on the table and the U.S.-EU finger pointing on topics like food aid (see below), probably more significant was the emergence of a "G-110" group of countries. They're a mega-grouping that includes members of the existing big blocs of developing countries (G-20, G-33 and G-90), and they represent over 80 percent of the world's population.
This flummoxes all those economists who believe firmly in the rational actor; they say such a large bloc has too many diverse and divergent interests to hold together. They always point to Brazil, a leader in GMOs, and all those poor countries that are fighting to maintain their food security by avoiding patented seeds.
My own sense -- take it for what it's worth -- is that this is the law of unintended consequences at play; it's a backlash against the big three's (U.S., EU, Japan) legendary bullying, tactics that have worked so well for them in the past.
In Cancun, the U.S. tried to peel off five of the G-20 countries, but they held firm and the talks collapsed.
If this big bloc does hold together, it's of huge significance. Adriano Campolina of Action Aid told me, "It's the only way that the issues that matter most to billions of people in the third world will come to anything in these negotiations."
I asked what kind of tactics we were going to see to peel countries off and he said, "there's a wide range of tools. Sometimes they seduce, sometimes they offer one or two countries a good deal. And sometimes they get rough. Among the tactics in Cancun was the promise that USAID would "be watching" those countries that didn't toe the line. Campolina said I should look for an escalation in tactics and rhetoric in the next few days. So far, things have been relatively civil.
from alternet:
While the big news story yesterday were the offers put on the table and the U.S.-EU finger pointing on topics like food aid (see below), probably more significant was the emergence of a "G-110" group of countries. They're a mega-grouping that includes members of the existing big blocs of developing countries (G-20, G-33 and G-90), and they represent over 80 percent of the world's population.
This flummoxes all those economists who believe firmly in the rational actor; they say such a large bloc has too many diverse and divergent interests to hold together. They always point to Brazil, a leader in GMOs, and all those poor countries that are fighting to maintain their food security by avoiding patented seeds.
My own sense -- take it for what it's worth -- is that this is the law of unintended consequences at play; it's a backlash against the big three's (U.S., EU, Japan) legendary bullying, tactics that have worked so well for them in the past.
In Cancun, the U.S. tried to peel off five of the G-20 countries, but they held firm and the talks collapsed.
If this big bloc does hold together, it's of huge significance. Adriano Campolina of Action Aid told me, "It's the only way that the issues that matter most to billions of people in the third world will come to anything in these negotiations."
I asked what kind of tactics we were going to see to peel countries off and he said, "there's a wide range of tools. Sometimes they seduce, sometimes they offer one or two countries a good deal. And sometimes they get rough. Among the tactics in Cancun was the promise that USAID would "be watching" those countries that didn't toe the line. Campolina said I should look for an escalation in tactics and rhetoric in the next few days. So far, things have been relatively civil.
posted by Brynne at 5:18 PM
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