Posted by WTO Watch Qld on January 13, 2002 at 20:14:25:
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
--
1) COMING EVENTS
2) CALLS TO ACTION
3) FOCUS............. 'FROM GLOBAL TO LOCAL'
1) COMING EVENTS
Just to let you know that there is a public rally to support the Gold
Coast's wonderful ABC radio station 91.7 coming up this Saturday
19/1, 11am outside the station at Mermaid Beach (right on the Gold
Coast Highway). There will be live music, a sausage sizzle, a
petition and speakers etc.
Gold Coasters at least, please come along and support the station on
Saturday. It supports our cultural and environmental foundations, now
we need to support it (and its staff who are also being treated very shoddily)
Sally MacKinnon
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Interactive Workshop - 10 Myths of the Global Economy
Presented by RAIN and AID/WATCH
You are invited to an interactive workshop to be held in NSW called "10 Myths of the Global Economy". This workshop will be looking at the myths and alternatives. Presented by Canadian trade campaigners Jessie Smith & Marc Lee from the Real Alternatives Information Network. This network, an organisation based in Vancouver Canada, will be presenting a full day interactive workshop which critically analyses the main arguments made by those who support a global free market economy. After explaining the model, they will take a step-by step look at the weaknesses in the arguments made in support of corporate globalisation. The workshop ends by exploring what an alternative vision for the future might look like. There is also a poster for the workshop available in pdf format, which I have not included with this Alert. If you would like a copy of the poster, please respond by return email and I will send it to you. Please distribute this information through your networks.
WHEN:
Sunday 20th January 2002 from 11am - 5pm
WHERE:
Surry Hills Neighbourhood Center, Corner Collins and Norton Sts, Surry Hills, NSW.
Just behind Surry Hills Library which is on Crown St, nearest cross street- Foveaux St.
TO REGISTER (limited places available) :
Contact Melita Grant at AID/WATCH on
PHONE : 02 9387 5210
FAX : 02 9386 1497
EMAIL : aidwatch@mpx.com.au
COST:
by donation
TO FIND OUT MORE:
about RAIN: www.web.net/rain/main.htm
about AID/WATCH: www.aidwatch.org.au
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2) CALLS TO ACTION
National Competition Policy Review of Qld Nursing Act 1992
The Queensland Government has released a second discussion paper regarding
the National Competition Policy review of the legislation governing nursing
and midwifery practice in this state. The current legislation regulates
nursing practice and contains safeguards to ensure safe nursing practice for
the community. Any changes to the current nursing legislation will have an
impact on nursing and potentially the standard of nursing care provided to
the community. This is therefore an issue of significant public interest.
Copies of the discussion paper can be down loaded from the Qld Health
website at
www.health.qld.gov.au/lpu/reviews/12430.pdf Submissions are due on Tuesday 29 January 2002 - so there is not much time If changes to the Nursing Act are made there could be very serious 3) FOCUS...............FROM GLOBAL TO LOCAL Resurgence (UK) Nov-Dec 1996 DO YOU WANT THEM TO DRINK COCA-COLA BY HELENA NORBERG-HODGE Here are some practical steps to move from global dependence to local AROUND THE WORLD - from North to South, from far left to far right, On the surface, this is a perfectly reasonable point of view. How, Moving toward the local can still seem impractical or utopian. One The goal of localization would not be to eliminate all trade but to Another stumbling-block is the belief that a greater degree of MANY INDIVIDUALS AND organizations are already working from the grass Rethinking our direction means looking at the entire range of public - The money currently spent on long-distance road transport alone Shifting this support toward a range of transport options that favour - Large-scale energy installations are today heavily subsidized. - Agricultural subsidies now favour large-scale industrial - Government expenditures for highway building promote the growth of - Television and other mass telecommunications have been the -At present, investments in health care favour huge, centralized - Creating and improving spaces for public meetings, from town halls IN ADDITION TO THE direct and indirect subsidies given them, - The free flow of capital has been a necessary ingredient in the - Today, governments of every stripe are embracing free trade policies - In almost every country, tax regulations discriminate against small - Small businesses are discriminated against through the lending - An unfair burden often falls on small-scale enterprises through - Local and regional land-use regulations can be amended to protect - In urban areas, zoning regulations usually segregate residential, IN THE THIRD WORLD, the majority are still living in small towns and - Large dams, fossil-fuel plants, and other large-scale energy and - Colonialism, development, and now free trade and globalization have -Countries in the South are also being hit hard by free-trade - The South would benefit enormously from an end to the promotion of - Local economies and communities in the South would also benefit if - It is also of critical importance to elevate the status of primary - In a number of places, community banks and loan funds have been - "Buy local" campaigns help local businesses survive even when pitted - An effective way of guaranteeing that money stays within the local - Another idea is the creation of local "tool lending libraries", - One of the most exciting grassroots efforts is the Community - By connecting farmers directly with urban consumers, farmers' - The movement to create ecovillages is perhaps the most comprehensive These economic changes will inevitably require shifts at the personal Another fundamental shift involves reinstilling a sense of connection Ultimately, we are talking about a spiritual awakening that comes from --The above article is an edited extract from "The Case Against The Network for Creative Change
given the intervening Christmas break. Submissions should be forwarded to
NCP Review - Nursing Act 1992, Legislative Projects Unit, Queensland Health,
GPO Box 48, Brisbane Q 4001.
implications for the standard of health care.
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There is an online petition to stop the proposed Lucas Heights nuclear reactor at
http://gopetition.com/info.php?petid=584.
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This article is not new, and apologies to those of you who have seen it before. I thought it would be good to kick off 2002 with some positive suggestions as to a possible way forward. As you read it, bear in mind that Qld is sweltering through its hottest summer on record, NSW has been devastated by bushfires, tourism operators in North Qld are expecting severe coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef as a result of higher than normal sea temperatures.and the CSIRO and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believe that the effects on Australia of global warming will be more severe than on many other countries. The increase in world trade touted by the pundits as a major step forward has contributed hugely to the production of greenhouse gases and will continue to do so. (ED)
http://www.gn.apc.org/resurgence/articles/norberg_hodge_cola.htm
interdependence
recognition of the destructive effects of economic globalization is
growing. However, the conviction that the solutions lie with
localizing economic activity is far less widespread. Many people seem
to find it difficult even to imagine a shift toward a more local
economy. "Time has moved on" one hears. "We live in a globalized
world."
after all, can we expect to tackle today's global eco-social crises
except on a global level? But it's not that simple. We need to
distinguish between efforts merely to counter further globalization
and efforts that can bring real solutions. The best way to halt the
runaway global economy would undoubtedly be through multilateral
treaties that would enable governments to protect people and the
environment from the excesses of free trade. But such international
steps would not in themselves restore health to economies and
communities. Long-term solutions to today's social and environmental
problems require a range of small, local initiatives that are as
diverse as the cultures and environments in which they take place.
When seen as going hand-in-hand with policy shifts away from
globalization, these small-scale efforts take on a different
significance. Most importantly, rather than thinking in terms of
isolated, scattered efforts, it is helpful to think of institutions
that will promote small scale on a large scale.
reason is the belief that an emphasis on the local economy means
total self-reliance on a village level, without any trade at all. The
most urgent issue today, however, isn't whether people have oranges
in cold climates but whether their wheat, eggs or milk should travel
thousands of miles when they could be produced within a fifty-mile
radius. In Mongolia, a country that has survived on local milk
products for thousands of years and that today has twenty-five
million milk-producing animals, one finds mainly German butter in the
shops. In Kenya, butter from Holland is half the price of local
butter; in England, butter from New Zealand costs far less than the
local product; and in Spain, dairy products are mainly Danish. In
this absurd situation, individuals are becoming dependent for their
everyday needs on products that have been transported thousands of
miles, often unnecessarily.
reduce unnecessary transport while encouraging changes that would
strengthen and diversify economies at both the community and national
levels. The degree of diversification, the goods produced and the
amount of trade would naturally vary from region to region.
self-reliance in the North would undermine the economies of the Third
World, where people supposedly need Northern markets to lift
themselves out of poverty. The truth of the matter, however, is that a
shift toward smaller scale and more localized production would benefit
both North and South - and allow for more meaningful work and fuller
employment all around. Today, a large portion of the South's natural
resources is delivered to the North, on increasingly unfavourable
terms, in the form of raw materials; the South's best agricultural
land is devoted to growing food, fibres, even flowers, for the North;
and a good deal of the South's labour is used to manufacture goods for
Northern markets. Rather than further impoverishing the South,
producing more ourselves would allow the South to keep more of its
resources and labour for itself.
roots to strengthen their communities and local economies. Yet, for
these efforts to succeed, they need to be accompanied by policy
changes at the national and international levels. How, for example,
can grassroots participatory democracy be strengthened unless limits
are placed on the political power of huge corporations? How can local
support alone enable small producers and locally owned shops to
flourish if corporate welfare and free trade policies heavily promote
the interests of large-scale producers and marketers? How can we
return to a local context in education if monocultural media images
continue to bombard children in every corner of the planet? How can
local efforts to promote the use of locally available renewable energy
sources compete against massive subsidies for huge dams and nuclear
power plants?
expenditures:
offers an idea of how heavily subsidized the global economy is. In the
United States, where there are already about 2.5 million miles of
paved roads, another $80 billion has been earmarked for highways in
the next few years, and plans are even being considered for a road
link between Alaska and Siberia. The European Community, meanwhile, is
planning to spend $120 billion to add an additional 7,500 miles of
superhighways across Western Europe by 2002 and is considering a
tunnel to connect Europe with Africa. Throughout the South, scarce
resources are similarly being spent. In New Guinea, for example, $48
million was spent on twenty-three miles of roads that allow timber
interests to harvest and bring logs to the export market.
smaller, more local, enterprises would have enormous benefits, from
the creation of jobs to a healthier environment to a more equitable
distribution of resources. Depending on the local situation, transport
money could be spent on building bike paths, foot paths, paths for
animal transport, boat and shipping facilities, or rail service. Even
in the highly industrialized world, where dependence on centralizing
infrastructures is deeply entrenched, a move in this direction can be
made. In Amsterdam, for example, steps are being taken to ban cars
from the heart of the city, thus allowing sidewalks to be widened and
more bicycle lanes to be built.
Phasing out these multibillion-dollar investments while offering real
support for locally available renewable energy supplies would result
in lower pollution levels, reduced pressure on wilderness areas and
oceans, and less dependence on dwindling petroleum supplies. It would
also help to keep money from leaking out of local economies.
agribusinesses. Subsidies include not only direct payments to farmers
but funding for research and education in biotechnology and chemical-
and energy-intensive monoculture. Shifting those expenditures toward
those that encourage smaller-scale, diversified agriculture would help
small family farmers and rural economies while promoting biodiversity,
healthier soils and fresher food.
corporate "superstores" and sprawling malls. Spending money instead to
build public markets such as those that were once found in virtually
every European town and village - would enable local merchants and
artisans with limited capital to sell their wares. This would enliven
town centres and cut down on fossil-fuel use and pollution. Similarly,
support for farmers' markets would help to revitalize both the cities
and the agricultural economy of the surrounding region while reducing
money spent to process, package, transport and advertise food.
recipients of massive subsidies in the form of R&D, infrastructure
development, educational training and other direct and indirect
support. They are now rapidly homogenizing diverse traditions around
the world. Shifting support toward building facilities for local
entertainment - from music and drama to puppet shows and festivals -
would offer a healthy alternative.
hospitals meant to serve urban populations. Spending the same money
instead on a greater number of smaller clinics that relied less on
high technology and more on health practitioners would bring health
care to more people and boost local economies.
to village squares, would encourage face-to-face exchanges between
decision-makers and the public, serving both to enliven communities
and to strengthen participatory democracy. In Vermont, for example -
where participatory democracy is still alive and well - people attend
town meetings for lively debates and votes on local issues.
large-scale corporate businesses also benefit from a range of
government regulations - and in many cases, a lack of regulations - at
the expense of smaller, more localized, enterprises. Although big
business complains about red tape and inefficient bureaucracy, the
fact is that much of it could be dispensed with if production were
smaller in scale and based more locally. In today's climate of
unfettered "free" trade, some government regulation is clearly
necessary, and citizens need to insist that governments be allowed to
protect their interests. This could best come about through
international treaties in which governments agree to change the "rules
of the game to encourage real diversification and decentralization in
the business world. There are many areas that need to be looked at in
this regard:
growth of transnational corporations. Their ability to shift profits,
operating costs and investment capital to and from all their far-flung
operations enables them to operate anywhere in the world and to hold
sovereign nations hostage by threatening to pack up, leave, and take
their jobs with them. Governments are thus forced into competition
with one another for the favours of these corporate vagabonds and try
to lure them with low labour costs, lax environmental regulations and
substantial subsidies. Small local businesses, given no such
subsidies, cannot hope to survive this unfair competition.
in the belief that opening themselves up to economic globalization
will cure their ailing economies. Instead, a careful policy of using
tariffs to regulate the import of goods that could be produced locally
would be in the best interests of the majority. Such "protectionism"
is not aimed at fellow citizens in other countries; rather it is a way
of safeguarding the local culture, jobs and resources against the
excessive power of the transnationals.
businesses. Small-scale production is usually more labour-intensive,
and heavy taxes are levied on labour through income taxes, social
welfare taxes, value-added taxes, and so on. Meanwhile, tax breaks
(such as accelerated depreciation and investment tax credits) are
handed out on the capital- and energy-intensive technologies used by
large corporate producers. Reversing this bias in the tax system would
not only help local economies but would create more jobs by favouring
people instead of machines.
policies of banks, which charge them significantly higher interest
rates for loans than they charge big firms. They also often require
that small business owners personally guarantee their loans - a
guarantee
regulations aimed at problems caused by large-scale production. For
example, a local entrepreneur wanting to bake biscuits at home to sell
at a local market would in most cases need to install an industrial
kitchen to meet health regulations. Such a regulation makes it
economically impossible to succeed.
wild areas, open space and farmland from development. Political and
financial support could be given to the various forms of land trusts
that have been designed with this in mind. In the United States, there
are now over 900 such trusts protecting more than 2.7 million acres of
land.
business and manufacturing areas - a restriction necessitated by the
needs and hazards of large-scale production and marketing. These could
be changed to enable an integration of homes, small shops and artisan
or other small-scale production sites, as was traditional in the
world's great cities.
rural communities and are largely dependent on a local economy. In
this era of rapid globalization, the most urgent challenge is to stop
the tide of urbanization and globalization by strengthening these
local economies. A number of policy level changes could help to do so:
transport infrastructures are geared toward the needs of urban areas
and export-driven production. Shifting support toward a decentralized,
renewable-energy infrastructure would help to stem the urban tide by
strengthening villages and small towns.
meant that the best land in the South is used to grow crops for
Northern markets. Shifting the emphasis to diversified production for
local consumption would not only improve the economies of rural
communities but also lessen the gap between rich and poor while
eliminating much of the hunger that is now endemic in the so-called
developing parts of the world.
agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They would be far
better off it, contrary to the aim of such treaties, they were allowed
to protect and conserve their natural resources, nurture national and
local business enterprises, and limit the impact of foreign media and
advertising on their culture.
Western-style monocultural education. Instead, efforts are needed that
would give pre-eminence to the local language and values while
promoting more location-specific knowledge.
support for capital- and energy-intensive, centralized, health care
based on a Western model were shifted toward more localized and
indigenous alternatives.
producers (especially farmers) and rural life in general. Economic
localization should entail an adaptation to cultural and biological
diversity; therefore, no single blueprint would be appropriate
everywhere. The range of possibilities for local grassroots efforts is
as diverse as the locales in which they would take place. The
following survey is by no means exhaustive but illustrates the sorts
of step being taken today.
established to increase the capital available to local residents and
businesses and allow people to invest in their neighbours and their
community, rather than in distant corporations.
against heavily subsidized corporate competitors.
economy is through the creation of local currencies. Local Exchange
Trading Systems (LETS) schemes have sprung up in the United Kingdom
(where there are over 300 in operation) and in Ireland, Canada,
France, Argentina, the United States, Australia and New Zealand.
whereby people can share tools on a community level.
Supported Agriculture (CSA) movement in the USA, in which consumers
link up directly with a nearby farmer.
markets similarly benefit local economies and the environment. In New
York City, there are now over two dozen farmers' markets, which add
several million dollars annually to the incomes of farmers in nearby
counties.
antidote to dependence on the global economy. Around the world, people
are building communities that attempt to get away from the waste,
pollution, competition and violence of contemporary life. The Global
Ecovillage Network links several of these communities worldwide.
level. In part, these involve rediscovering the deep psychological
benefits of being embedded in community. Children, mothers and old
people all know the importance of being able to feel they can depend
on others.
with the place where we live. The globalization of culture and
information has led to a way of life in which the nearby is treated
with contempt. We get news from China but not next door, and at the
touch of a television button we have access to all the wildlife of
Africa. As a consequence, our immediate surroundings seem dull and
uninteresting by comparison. A sense of place means helping ourselves
and our children to see the living environment around us: reconnecting
with the sources of our food and learning to recognize the cycles of
seasons, the characteristics of the flora and fauna.
making a connection to others and to nature. This requires us to see
the world within us, to experience more consciously the great
interdependent web of life, of which we ourselves are among the
strands.
Global Economy" (Sierra Club).
Website: http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/CommunitySupport/NCC/NCCHPAGE.html
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Terrie Templeton WTO Watch Qld gumbus@powerup.com.au