Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label USAID

The New Colonialist Food Economy

“By allowing corporate property rights to supersede local seed management, the protocol is the latest front in a global battle over the future of food. Based on draft laws written more than three decades ago in Geneva by Western seed companies, the new generation of agricultural reforms seeks to institute legal and financial penalties throughout the African Union for farmers who fail to adopt foreign-engineered seeds protected by patents, including genetically modified versions of native seeds. For example, “farmers in northeastern Ghana have been cultivating the cowpea—a protein-rich legume that North Americans know as the black-eyed pea—since the Bronze Age. How was it possible that people continuing to farm in that lineage, some 5,000 years later, could face 15 years in prison for infringing property claims on crop varieties based on the local original?” “We can’t accept this law,” said Faustina Banakwoyem, a 35-year-old soya and pepper farmer and the only woman in the Paga group.

Humanitarian Aid in Yemen

“Because good causes do not sell themselves but rather have to be sold, aid agencies have developed considerable marketing prowess…they will advertise if not embellish the tragedy in order to tap into the guilt of the rich.”  Agency self-promotion is part of the humanitarian aid business model, although there is a fine line between utilitarianism and exploitation. Benefiting from the Misery of Others

Jordan is a Banana Monarchy

An interesting liberal take on Jordan and how liberals now are saying enough with supporting authoritarian and monarchical regimes. The Arab uprisings have exposed everything, including many hypocritical liberals. A U.S. satellite and protectorate on the verge of implosion