CORPORATIONS OWN NATION; U.S. NEEDS TO RESHAPE OR RENOUNCE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION.Byline: Terry Stone IT's 11 a.m. Wednesday, and I'm back in bed, in the guest room at my friend's house in Seattle, pondering. I have been in Seattle since Saturday to protest the policies of the World Trade Organization. For two days I have marched up and down every street in town until my feet are raw and my muscles ache. ``W-T-O has got to go!'' But today I lie in a dark room, too exhausted to move, pondering. Tuesday was a huge day of protest, mostly peaceful, united and sincere. I marched with the labor unions labor union: see union, labor. , the Free Tibet movement and a farmer from Michigan. The mood was happy and proud. And we cheered when we heard that the opening ceremonies of the WTO See World Trade Organization. had been shut down. I felt our statement had been made. We had achieved the desired effect, and it had been a good day's work (Naut.) the account or reckoning of a ship's course for twenty-four hours, from noon to noon. See also: Day , even though a very few had managed to draw the attention from the core issues and hog the media with their petty rampaging. But today is a whole different story in downtown Seattle Downtown is the central business district of Seattle, Washington. It is fairly compact compared to other city centers on the West Coast because of its geographical situation: hemmed in on the north and east by hills, on the west by Elliott Bay, and on the south by reclaimed land . The police are out in force, the National Guard has been called out, and I do not want to go to jail. So I'm in bed pondering. Why am I here? Why have I taken a week off work, paid for a round-trip ticket Noun 1. round-trip ticket - a ticket to a place and back (usually over the same route) return ticket ticket - a commercial document showing that the holder is entitled to something (as to ride on public transportation or to enter a public entertainment) , imposed myself on friends to house me and worn my feet to a frazzle fraz·zle Informal v. fraz·zled, fraz·zling, fraz·zles v.tr. 1. To wear away along the edges; fray. 2. To exhaust physically or emotionally. v.intr. 1. ? What is so important about the WTO? What brought me here in the first place, a 53-year-old mother, way past my protesting years? I guess it's because I'm a 53-year-old mother who has been trying all my life to figure out how the world works. Now it finally all falls into place. And now it is time to act, before it's too late to have any input at all. Haven't we all known, since we were old enough to think, that money makes the world go around? He who has the gold makes the rules. Politics is ruled by money. The purpose of business is to make money - period. We shouldn't be surprised that money has finally taken over. I'm not saying it's a conspiracy, that men gather in back rooms and cackle while rubbing their hands together and planning to dominate the world. Rather, that's just the way it turned out. It's the logical progression of history. With no brakes on profit, it was inevitable. Inevitable, not evil. I don't think the new powers that be even realize what they have become. I think they just have a very narrow focus: profit. That is their reason for existing. However, they have trumped every other aspect of human existence, down to the very meaning of life on the plant. We need to take control of the people who have taken control. When did we go from being citizens to being consumers? When did we start to deserve only the best materially while the rest of the world deserves what's left? When did profits start to justify absolutely any kind of behavior? When did exports become more important than human rights? When did ``I want'' become more important than ``I give''? And when did the stewardship of our world transfer from national governments to transnational corporations Any corporation that is registered and operates in more than one country at a time; also called a multinational corporation. A transnational, or multinational, corporation has its headquarters in one country and operates wholly or partially owned subsidiaries in one or more ? And it has. This change has been going on for quite some time, and we have been like that sleepy frog in the frying pan. But now is the time to wake up and look at the whole picture, not just our pocketbooks, and jump out of the pan. We are paying a very high price for the very low prices we are paying for goods and food in this country, thanks in part to the WTO. We are giving up our sovereignty. And we have given it to the transnational corporations. Two hundred years ago our founders designed our government to protect the rights of the individual, to secure the blessings of liberty and prosperity for all. These are not the mandates of the WTO. The WTO was developed as a way to keep national governments from getting in the way of trade, to protect the right to profit for the few. And whether you like it or not, believe it or not, the WTO has become the de facto [Latin, In fact.] In fact, in deed, actually. This phrase is used to characterize an officer, a government, a past action, or a state of affairs that must be accepted for all practical purposes, but is illegal or illegitimate. world government. We now need either to try to wrest wrest tr.v. wrest·ed, wrest·ing, wrests 1. To obtain by or as if by pulling with violent twisting movements: wrested the book out of his hands; wrested the islands from the settlers. power from the WTO and give it back to national governments, or we need rewrite the WTO mandates to include the human values Human Values is the universal concept that preserves and enhances Homo Sapiens as a species, this applies to every human being on the present universe, anything against this values brings the consequence of a Self Species Extermination Event (SSEE) like hate, racism or war. that we all hold dear. If the WTO is to continue to rule the world, it needs to take all aspects of life on this planet into consideration. We cannot allow this disconnect disconnect - SCSI reconnect between the rights to profit and the rights of man to continue. The problems of the world are much too complicated to be decided solely by merchants. There is so much more to life than just getting a good price on a pair of shoes because they were made by child labor child labor, use of the young as workers in factories, farms, and mines. Child labor was first recognized as a social problem with the introduction of the factory system in late 18th-century Great Britain. . We can be better than that. We are better than that. We must be better than that. And so I ponder. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: A protester who was hit in the face with tear gas tear gas, gas that causes temporary blindness through the excessive flow of tears resulting from irritation of the eyes. The gas is used in chemical warfare and as a means for dispersing mobs. is comforted by others during demonstrations in Seattle against World Trade Organization practices. Paul Brown/Seattle Post-Intelligencer |
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