At The Nation, Naomi Klein has an excellent piece about how international agencies are hijacking the tsunami relief effort and using it to impose IMF style reforms. Sample:
But if the reconstruction industry is stunningly inept at rebuilding, that may be because rebuilding is not its primary purpose. According to Guttal, "It's not reconstruction at all--it's about reshaping everything." If anything, the stories of corruption and incompetence serve to mask this deeper scandal: the rise of a predatory form of disaster capitalism that uses the desperation and fear created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering. And on this front, the reconstruction industry works so quickly and efficiently that the privatizations and land grabs are usually locked in before the local population knows what hit them. Kumara, in another e-mail, warns that Sri Lanka is now facing "a second tsunami of corporate globalization and militarization," potentially even more devastating than the first. "We see this as a plan of action amidst the tsunami crisis to hand over the sea and the coast to foreign corporations and tourism, with military assistance from the US Marines."
I wish I had a better sense of which international relief agencies are a part of the "familiar cast of for-profit consulting firms, engineering companies, mega-NGOs, government and UN aid agencies and international financial institutions" that Klein blames for mishandling the crisis. Oxfam is one of my big charities. I've always viewed them as fairly progressive. Must read more.
Here at SLU people are attempting to establish a sister village relationship with a village in Sri Lanka where some of our students hail from. This sort of low level contact is probably a far more effective way to help. Right now the SLU people are just trying to raise money for the Sri Lanka Tsunami Relief Fund. I believe this is the organization they are refering to, but I'm not sure.
Environmental Surveys
The University of British Columbia hosts some online surveys on environmental issues. Right now they have a very intersting interactive survey on industrial salmon aquaculture. The survey is educational in itself, and would be worth taking even if it didn't contribute to our understanding of public policy. They ask you questions about a sequence of hypothetical policies on salmon farming, from tax breaks for farms to the use of GM fish. At each stage of the game you can ask the opinion of various experts and advocates by clicking on their icons. The survey really gives you a sense of how over time these internationally owned industrial fish farms can come to dominate a coastline.
Local Environmental Content
Erika Barthelmes' conservation biology class has a bunch of presentations on line about local environmental issues, including the new Wal-mart and snowmobiling in the Adirondack park.
No comments:
Post a Comment