Carl,
We chickens, have no choice. Although you talk about a corporate state and a
coup d'etat, apparently, you don't believe your own words because you then
keep asking why we are allowing all of these terrible things to be done to
us. Of course you know that there are efforts to fight back. You read about
them in Popular Resistance or in the other emails that float into your inbox
each day. But these are individual efforts to fight various injustices
throughout the world. The fact is that we are subjects of a powerful empire
that has many complex interlocking points of power. For example, we watched
the TPPP progress over the past few years and we read the leaks about its
contents and the very informative explanations from Public Citizen about why
it was harmful. We signed some petitions and made some phone calls. But it
was like a fast moving train and we trulyi had no power to stop that train.
This does remind me of what happened to the field in which I worked,
international adoptions. When the government and a few powerful adoption
agencies began making moves to control and dismantle the system and we
discovered what they were doing in 1993, we, workers in the field, adoption
agencies, adoptive parent organizations, attorneys, all worked together to
attempt to influence what was happening. But the government set up meetings,
asked us to join committees, basically found a million ways to undermine the
opposition to what they were doing which was to set up a treaty on
international adoptions. And that treaty, ostensibly, would protect children
and adoptive parents, get rid of bribery and graft, control child
traficking. Such fine goals! How could one object to them? But, of course,
that wasn't what the treaty was about at all. We fought and the Powers won
by 2006. The international adoption field was demolished. The professional
role of the social worker was reduced to what amounted to a clerical
function. The countries from which children are being adopted amount to
perhaps 4 or 5. The field is again dominated, as it was in the 1950's when
it started during the Korean War, by Evangelical Christians. And we could
engage in a true philosophical debate as to whether or not poor and homeless
children have benefited from the change.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2015 10:40 AM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific
Partnership
Miriam, Abdulah and All,
This TPP report is a classic example of how we are being spoon fed our,
"News". But even so, I struggle to understand how we Chickens can allow the
Foxes to wander about, lying over and over as they pluck us up, one by one
and head for the stew pot.
Can it be that too many of us still want to believe the Rags to Riches Fairy
Tale that has been foisted on us all these years by the very foxes who are
now moving in for the final kill?
Carl Jarvis
On 10/5/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Here's an example of how words can mislead. You can't tell, from thisdrugs.
article, how very dangerous some of the items in this treaty are. And
it omits the actual number of years for copyrights on medications. It
describes the treaty as if it were actually about free trade.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2015 9:47 AM
To: blind-democracy
Subject: [blind-democracy] Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific
Partnership
Officials Reach Deal On Trans-Pacific Partnership Reuters
Posted: 10/05/2015 08:11 AM EDT | Edited: 15 minutes ago
By Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki
ATLANTA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal
on the most sweepingtrade liberalization pact in a generation that
will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an
official familiar with the talks said on Monday.
Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the
pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence
everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would affect 40 percent of the world
economy and would stand as a legacy-defining achievement for U.S.
President Barack Obama,
if it is ratified by Congress.
Lawmakers in other TPP countries must also approve the deal.
The final round of negotiations in Atlanta, which began on Wednesday,
had snared on the question of how long a monopoly period should be
allowed on next-generation biotech drugs, until the United States and
Australia negotiated a compromise.
The TPP deal has been controversial because of the secret negotiations
that have shaped it over the past five years and the perceived threat
to an array of interest groups from Mexican auto workers to Canadian
dairy farmers.
Although the complex deal sets tariff reduction schedules on hundreds
of imported items from pork and beef in Japan to pickup trucks in the
United States, one issue had threatened to derail talks until the end
- the length of the monopolies awarded to the developers of new biological
talks said.
Negotiating teams had been deadlocked over the question of the minimum
period of protection to the rights for data used to make biologic
drugs, made by companies including Pfizer Inc , Roche Group's
Genentech and Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.
The United States had sought 12 years of protection to encourage
pharmaceutical companies to invest in expensive biological treatments
like Genentech's cancer treatment Avastin. Australia, New Zealand and
public health groups had sought a period of five years to bring down
drug costs and the burden on state-subsidized medical programs.
Negotiators agreed on a compromise on minimum terms that was short of
what U.S. negotiators had sought and that would effectively grant
biologic drugs a period of about years free from the threat of
competition from generic versions, people involved in the closed-door
and light trucks.
The Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Association said it
was "very disappointed" by reports that U.S. negotiators had not been
able to convince Australia and other TPP members to adopt the 12-year
standard approved by Congress.
"We will carefully review the entire TPP agreement once the text is
released by the ministers," the industry lobby said in a statement.
FINAL HOURS
A politically charged set of issues surrounding protections for dairy
farmers was also addressed in the final hours of talks, officials
said. New Zealand, home to the world's biggest dairy exporter,
Fonterra, wanted increased access to U.S., Canadian and Japanese markets.
Separately, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan also agreed
rules governing the autotrade that dictate how much of a vehicle must
be made within the TPP region in order to qualify for duty-free status.
The North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United
States and Mexico mandates that vehicles have a local content of 62.5
percent. The way that rule is implemented means that just over half of
a vehicle needs to be manufactured locally. It has been credited with
driving a boom in auto-related in investment in Mexico.
The TPP would give Japan's automakers, led by Toyota Motor Corp, a
freer hand to buy parts from Asia for vehicles sold in the United
States but sets long phase-out periods for U.S. tariffs on Japanese cars
The TPP deal being readied for expected announcement on Monday also
sets minimum standards on issues ranging from workers' rights to
environmental protection.
It also sets up dispute settlement guidelines between governments and
foreign investors separate from national courts.
(Reporting by Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki; Additional reporting
by Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City; Editing by Will Waterman and
Chizu
Nomiyama)
MORE:
Tpp,
Tpp Deal,
Trans-Pacific Partnership