Candidate Web Site

North & East Ward

 

Kieran Cunnane
East of the River
 

Renmore..  Mervue..  Ballybane..  Ballybritt..  Doughiska..  City Centre..  Tirellan..  Menlo..  Sandy Rd..  Riverside..  Castlegar..

“Globalisation” is a very wide ranging term.  It's hard to put an exact handle on it, but here's how would I describe and define it:

  1. Ideologies.  Globalisation is summed up by two phrases - “let the market decide” and “competition is good”.  Academics and philosophers in the 1950’s thought “letting the market decide” would never happen because the market is an entity, not a person or group and that it would become a monster (that it has !). Competition is good until we realise that it has gone out of control. As in sport we need both rules and penalties.  The World Trade Organisation has the wrong set of rules. It also fails to enforce these rules when the big boys break them. Following the Collapse of the WTO talks in Cancun, both the US and EU have been pursuing unilateral agreements with Countries. They are now carving up world trade behind each other’s backs.
  2. Structural Adjustment Policies (SAP’s).  This refers to the methods which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank impose when giving loans to 3rd world Countries.  The IMF was formed at the end of the 2nd world war to help stimulate Europe’s economy so that the US could have somewhere to sell its exports. The IMF system is that if a country’s currency gets into difficulty, the Country can borrow in any other currency up to a set limit. If a Country wants to exceed the limit, SAP’s are imposed.

SAP’s are a failure.  Their first course of attack is Education and Heath Care budgets.  They change Countries from indigenous and mixed farming to total reliance on a cash crop.  The decision “which cash crop” is made by the IMF and World Bank; the farmers have no say.  Ever increasing competition from abroad continually erodes the farmers return, reducing the Country’s ability to repay the loan. To meet market demands, huge compromises on farmers and workers health and safety (sprays & chemicals), and huge environmental destruction takes place. 

  1. Debt.  An example is Indonesia whose debt is unpayable and will never ever be payable.  Poor countries have repaid their debts many times over. Most people don’t know that most relief aid is actually in the form of loans, not donations.  Charity organisations say George Bush’s recent aid commitment to Africa, is dependent on allowing big business in; they are debating whether to accept this money.
  2. Privatisation. Everything is being handed over to profiteers starting with public transport. We can expect electricity, water, waste management and other services to also get privatised in Ireland. By doing this, the Government is passing on responsibility.  It takes these issues off their hands in terms of running the Country; the private sector can be blamed. The Government is also making its business friends rich and is very much under pressure from the US and EU to privatise services.  The consequences are that public transport will not serve the broad range of areas it should, and all of our services will become much more expensive, while at the same time public health and safety will suffer.
  3. Species loss. We are currently experiencing 1000 to 10000 times more extinctions than most of last 65 million years. We rely on the food chain for our survival.
  4. Clean drinking water has been identified as the greatest challenge for the 21st Century.  This also applies to the first world, which is very careless in protecting its water resources. Aquifers require several hundred years to regenerate and we are destroying these at an alarming rate.   Everything, including the entire food chain relies on clean water. In the developing and underdeveloped world, poor environmental practices and environmental destruction mean that water quality is far worse.
  5. Loss of agricultural land. Globally, 35% has been lost since 1945 mainly to desertification.  With an ever increasing population, and more land loss it is east to see where this is headed. Overproduction means we are draining the Earth’s nutrition. Escalating population means we have to produce even more.
  6. Oil – the new discoveries graph is on a rapid downward slope since the 1960s. The cost of oil graph will increase exponentially as we near its end.  We use oil for plastics, lubricants, medicines and many more of the products we make today. We also use it for aviation fuel. Allowing it all to be wasted away in energy inefficient cars is incredibly foolish. The “peak oil” concept says there will be an economic meltdown once oil becomes expensive. We’ll then have more wars to get hold of the last of the oil before it runs out. We don’t know when this meltdown will come. Check our “peak oil” on the internet and it will become apparent what is going on.
  7. The Kyoto agreement. This agreement was actually a compromise, because Countries wouldn’t agree to what scientists say is actually needed.  By setting the bar lower, progress has been slow. The US has even pulled out. Ireland was given special dispensation allowing us to initially pollute more rather than less, but we have even exceeded this. Billions in Kyoto fines for Ireland are likely. Destruction of (in particular Brazilian) rain forest is a huge concern. Brazil contains over 60% of the world’s rainforest. This loss not only impacts global warming, but also means indigenous peoples and species extinctions. Ireland has now given the green light to all its top Industries (1/3 of the polluters), meaning that the public and agricultural sector (2/3) are to take up the flak.
  8. Trade related Intellectual Properties (TRIPs).  This refers to the patenting of food produce, even including seeds and trees.  Levi Strauss holds a patent for a variety of cotton seeds that are naturally coloured. The seeds originated in Bolivia, and were cultivated for Centuries by the indigenous peoples of the Andes. Since the patent is held in the US, it gas become illegal to grow the traditional varieties in Bolivia. In India, farmers and politicians have objected to US and Japanese Companies taking out over a dozen US based patents on formulae for Neem based solutions and emulsions. The Neem Tree has been carefully cultivated for many Centuries. It is referred to as "the curer of all ailments" in Sanskrit text and "the blessed tree" by Muslims. The bark, flowers, seeds and fruit pulp of the tree is used to treat diseases ranging from leprosy to diabetes to ulcers. Ancient texts recall its use in exhausted soil rehabilitation. Solutions from Neem are an effective insecticide against locusts, plant hoppers, Colorado beetles, Boll Weevils amongst others.  Under Indian law, a patent cannot be taken on agricultural produce. TRIPs is a concept being driven by the World Trade Organisation. It is based on corporate greed and economic bullying. “If you don’t allow a patent we will impose sanctions !”
  9. World Bank projects have a history of spectacular failure both economically and environmentally.  Despite access to economists, planners, accountants and lawyers, out of a representative sample of 150 projects, almost 60% were found to have “serious shortcomings”, or to have been a “complete failure”. This institution has made some attempts to reform, but the situation has remained pretty much unchanged.  
  10. The GM debate. Experts say the Genetic Modification of foods is about control and big business. By growing GM foods, farmers are forced to buy chemicals from specific companies, who have patented the chemicals required.  Europe has managed to resist, but North America has not, and is pushing the rest of the Americas and Africa to do the same.
  11. Trans National Corporations (TNC’s).  This is the name give to huge corporations who have a presence across the globe.  These Companies control the US Government and direct the CIA. They demand and lobby for wars, regime changes and coups. TNC examples are General Motors (the world’s largest corporation) and giant Oil and Tobacco Companies.
  12. Unilateral war. The UN was set up to prevent the horrors of the 2nd world war being repeated. It is now being made defunct.  We are seeing more unilateral, pre-emptive wars; soon we will see preventative wars.  Despots are allowed to reign in terror, some of whom were deliberately put there by the CIA (such as Pinochet in Chile, and Suharto in Indonesia). Regimes such as Sadaam Hussein are friends when it’s in the west’s interest and become enemies, when there’s a reason for not having them there.  In this case, Iraqi Oil is required as an alternative to Saudi Arabia, which is becoming more politically unstable, and anti-western. We can also expect Saudi Arabia to be invaded in the next few decades, with terrorism as the likely excuse.
  13. Terrorism. This cannot be simply snuffed out. Angry young men will put themselves on the line so long as they see injustice.  Although difficult to predict, it is likely that security will continue to deteriorate.  Pre-emptive and preventative wars will increase anger with the west, particularly the US.
  14. Immigration. This happens for a variety of reasons, but a main reason for economic migrants coming to the richer west, is because of the economic failures imposed on their countries by the World Bank and IMF.

Shortly after WW II, George F. Kennan, the American Ambassador to Moscow stated:

We have 50 percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population.  In this situation, our real job in the coming period is to devise a pattern of relationships which permit us to maintain the position of disparity.  To do so, we have to dispense with all sentimentality . . . we should cease thinking about human rights, raising of living standards and democratization.

Globalization is Gerorge F. Kennan's vision having come to pass.

 

For more, click on the text of my speech at the "Another Europe is possible" press conference: