Consumerism and imperialism

"All around the world, America is invading nations through its foods, medicines, consumer products, dangerous economic practices, synthetic chemicals and intellectual property. And everywhere that American products are adopted, widespread disease and death soon follows.



The World Trade Organization, for its part, makes sure that targeted nations comply with imperialistic western trade practices. The huge push of Big Tobacco into Asia, for example, is the result of support by "world trade" proponents who threatened to impose trade sanctions against Asian nations if they tried to ban cigarette advertising. Today, more than a third of Chinese men are addicted to cigarettes, generating billions in annual profits for Big Tobacco companies who are right now producing more Chinese casualties than any war in China's long history.



America is the world's largest exporter of disease. Through our popular soda products, cigarettes, fast food chains and manufactured foods, we have caused more death and disease around the world than any nation in human history (including Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot). And it all remains perfectly legal. Our chemical companies even manufacture and export pesticide chemicals that have been banned in the United States. Poor agricultural nations openly use those deadly pesticides on their crops, then ship the produce back to the U.S. where consumers buy it at grocery stores. It's all perfectly legal and, in fact, encouraged by U.S. political leaders.

Resistance is futile

It's actually more than legal: It's required! Any nation that says "no" to western products and intellectual property is immediately branded an enemy of world trade and is targeted for legal action by the WTO. Even creating pro-consumer safety standards such as banning aspartame, sodium nitrite or hydrogenated oils can be deemed a violation of international trade agreements. Product sales, you see, are the No. 1 priority, even when nations are being decimated by the products manufactured and exported by American companies.

Poor nations with undereducated populations suffer enormously under western economic imperialism. It's easy to sell Pepsi, cigarettes and lotto tickets to people in a country like Panama, for example, where the education level remains low and people are easily tricked into thinking that western products will make them happier. Pepsi, in fact, is the dominant consumer product throughout most of Central and South America. You can hardly travel anywhere south of the U.S. / Mexico border without being inundated with Pepsi propaganda. The Pepsi logo is more prominent than images of the Virgin Mary or the Pope, even though many South and Central American populations are Catholic. (It's quite clear what they actually worship!)

These international product invasions are important to the bottom line of U.S. corporations, of course, who are expanding their propaganda campaigns to non-U.S. countries following the wising up of American consumers. Only uneducated, ignorant consumers drink soft drink products in America these days. It's the same crowd that buys lotto tickets, smokes cigarettes, watches TV infomercials and lives on frozen dinners. Smart consumers in America switched to healthier drinks long ago. That's why soda sales continue to fall each year, and that's why U.S. soda corporations have to increasingly crank up their marketing machines in countries that haven't yet caught on to the toxicity of aspartame or the links between diabetes and high-fructose corn syrup. "


Read and weep. An excellent article, an absolute must read. The last part is a sort of a manifesto for sustainable nations, an alternative development strategy.

Dark roast

"Starbucks and the Ethiopian government will work together to promote three of the African nation's prized specialty coffees under a deal that supports the country's bid to control trademarks it believes will benefit farmers.The world's largest coffeehouse chain and Ethiopia's intellectual property office said Wednesday that their licensing, distribution and marketing agreement acknowledges the country's ownership of three coffee names - Yirgacheffe, Harar and Sidamo - regardless of whether they are trademarked.The deal will not reap Ethiopia any royalty payments, officials said." (Thanks Yasmine)

Got milk?

"The price of milk is soaring worldwide as a drought-stricken dairy industry struggles to meet surging demand for milk products in China and the Middle East.

A doubling in the price of wholesale milk over the past year is creating havoc among food manufacturers, prompting warnings about food price inflation in the UK. Aid organisations have also raised concerns about the depletion of government stockpiles of milk powder.

Changing diets and rising living standards in Asia, notably in China and the Middle East, have caught international milk processors on the back foot. Greater wealth is leading to a change in the Asian diet, explained Carmen Suarez, chief economist at the National Farmers Union. “There is population growth and higher incomes, which leads to higher consumption of animal protein.”
So rapid has been the escalation in demand that the EU’s milk surplus has dried up and the butter mountain has been flattened. Historically, the European Commission has given European producers subsidies to sell dairy products into the world market."

There has been an increase in the number of dairy farms in Lebanon in the past few years, and the local trade in milk has been booming. Forage is also being produced locally (though at great water costs). A large number of small farmers have been investing in the ownership of a few cows (1 cow costs $2000, and provides about $100 per month). The milk is sold to small local industries that manufacture yogurt and labneh and white local cheeses. If the trends continues as above (and it is a trend we are observing with many commodities, especially grain), then farming will start to make sense again. And we should consider ourselves lucky that, against all odds and all government ultra liberal policies, farmers in lebanon have persisted in their endeavor. With increasing world prices of basic food commodities, it is the domestic food bill that increases, and the poor who suffer first.