andrewducker | Great news everyone!

The amazing news is that a WTO subgroup has agreed tariff changes that will make it far, far easier for developing countries to sell crops to the developed world, and reduce the subsidies that we pay our own farmers, lifting hundreds of millions of farmers, their famillies and villages out of poverty.

Last week, a political battle was concluded that will probably have consequences for far more people than last week's UK general election.

At a low-key meeting in Paris, a group of anonymous technocrats finally reached an agreement that brightens the prospects of - literally - billions of people.

At stake was the pressing need for a fairer international trading system - particularly in agriculture. Campaign groups like Oxfam rightly protest that farmers in the EU (and US) operate behind high tariff barriers, while receiving subsidies of over $1bn (£530m) per day.

The EU shift came only days after the WTO confirmed its ruling that subsidies to European sugar farmers are illegal. "After that, the writing was on the wall," says a European Commission official. "We faced intense pressure, not only from member states, but from trade campaigners too".

Once all member states agree, finalising detailed contracts takes at least a year. So the WTO's Hong Kong summit in December is the real deadline for Doha.

With that in mind, last week's climb-down shows the big Western powers now take the rest of the world seriously.

"Several big Asian and Latin American countries are now major commercial players," says the Commission official. "We have to adjust to that, and if we don't do it through the WTO, the alternative is far more painful".

Full article here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm only a cynic if you can't see the inherent problems with an ideology that everyone should just do the right thing. That means all sorts of different things to different people and often ends in bloodshed. Communism didn't work for those ineherent reasons.

Don't get me wrong, you are technically correct, but you forgot to factor in human nature.

I didn't forget anything. I don't expect people to go out and start acting in a good way. My point was that it doesn't take conspiracy to cause massive problems - it just takes individuals being selfish.

Yes but if you are born into a system that shapes you into the person you eventually become there has to be some accountability higher up somewhere. Unless you believe that the masses rather than the few have the most say in how the world works.

Every revolution leads to another slow steady trudge to the same abuses of power, it will take a mental paradigm shift to free us, not our charity.

I'm not talking about freeing us. We're as free as we want to be (hurrah for education, freedom of speech. etc).

I'm talking about feeding starving people in third world countries.

Okay I'll deal with the illusion of education and freedom of speech first.

Education as we know it is not about true education. I consider true education is being inspired to learn and being taught how to work things out and seek information for yourself. Past the basics of math, writing, reading and the more advanced science, the typical education systems of the developed nations are nothing more than tools for teaching obedience and perpetuating the cultural paradigms that benefit the elite. They are sexist, racist, homophobic indoctrinators of religious and cultural dogma. They revise history to suit the current authorities, they encourage parrot fashion, consumerist thought patterns and next to the media are the biggest offenders of mental stupification. Only a few people make any real use of their education system and invariably those few would have done far better learning outside of such systems.

As for freedom of speech. Well we certainly do not have that freedom. There are obscenity laws and laws to 'keep the peace'. Popular media including books, television, newspapers and a lot of the internet new sites are tightly controlled by editors who have their own politcal and economic agendas. As indivisuals we have freedom of speech only if we can afford it and as long as nobody pays attention unless it supports the ideals of the elite. We don't have the freedom to gather in groups anymore without the threat of arrest. And of course we are all slaves to the economic grindstone.

Next to feeding the world. Well there are many more appropriate approaches to tackle the problems of developing nations and most of them involve mental paradigm shifts not economic interventions. Firstly if we fed all the people in the worst hit areas of the world, all that would happen is that fewer people would die for a while and the birth rate would rocket again, creating an even worse problem years later. Basic education and contraception are two vital aspects to use alongside any economic incentives. We need to end the industrial, biotech, military corporations grip on the Third World, because even if we only ever bought Fair Trade produce the well armed warlords would be getting all the profits anyway and their people would still live in abject poverty.

The best way to end the tyranny of those coporations is to expose them and the momentum of every human in the developed world snapping out of their trance and demanding change WILL bring change.

In the US soon it will break that the GOP rigged some of the ballots in swing states to ensure Bush's return to the White House. There is change on the horizon - you can smell it in the air here. What I would hope and encourage is that we see beyond the puppets like Bush and go straight to the heart. Thanks to the internet it may happen regardless of what the corporate controlled media cares to tell us.

The revolution will not be televised.

I can only say that we obviously went to different schools. I didn't get any religious indoctrination past the age of 9, and the stuff before that was pretty lightweight.

And I have perfect freedom of speech on my journal

Feeding people in the third world will work perfectly well if there is also education - education (particularly of women) is what has caused the huge drop in birth rates in the first world (now well below replenishment rate across most of it). And in those areas where the debt has been dropped significantly, they are educating themselves - and will do so more when the debt goes completely (fingers crossed that this happens soon).

And I'm failing to see, generally, the huge grip of the corporations on the third world - most of the problems seem to stem from tribalism and religion - both easily fixed with a generation or two of education.

Sadly its the first few years of our life that we are most vulnerable to social imprinting, so by age 9 you;ve already had a lot of rubbish stuffed into your head forming your world view. A lot of people fight their way out of it, many don't.

And if you truly believe that schools aren't breeding grounds of sexist sterotyping, gender re-enforcement and homophobia then we really did go to different schools. Its not just religious indoctrination, it's also cultural and historical as well as lessons of obedience.

If you re-read what I said about freedom of speech, you only get to say what you want if hardly anyone pays attention, if you come close to influencing people on a large scale then you would buffer up against the elite and if they didn't agree with what you were saying you would be dealt with as such people always are.

Of course you're failing to see the grip of corporations, you are still mired in the big illusion of freedom and democracy. The warring religious and tribal people are using weapons made by corporations who in turn give money to their political lap dogs to keep causing wars so that more weapons are sold.

We agree on the need for basic education at least, but I wouldn't make direct comparisons to the development of the developed nations because the timescales, politics and technological imperatives are totally different for developing nations in the present era.

Great news everyone!

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