The garb of educated commentary offered by Jason Lott (“We need more reasoned public debate over GM food”, August 8) is vacuous and appalling given his credentials as an ethicist.
Lott misses the larger issue. He does not ask why the United States is choosing the food crisis in Southern Africa to promote its imperial agenda of spreading a mode of food production that supports its biotech industry, which in the end is about profits and not people who are starving.
He seems oblivious of the ethics of such a policy agenda, and instead diverts our attention away from the US’s questionable ethical food aid policy by parading Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s position and that of other governments in the region as being demonic.
Lott does not seem to think that one should be suspicious of this manoeuvre on the part of the US. The current context in Southern Africa, given the crises in Zimbabwe and the sale of food stock by the Malawian government, has led to an unwitting moral trap. The US is taking advantage of this, and is forcing governments in the region to make a drastic policy decision: mass starvation versus breaking their policy on genetically modified (GM) food.
There is a larger strategy behind this. It has to do with the US’s attempt to break the European Union’s position on GM foods.
Africa is merely a pawn in this global game of chess. By forcing Southern African governments to take a decision on GM foods, a precedent will be set. The next time round, US corporations will roll out their grand plan for agricultural rejuvenation in Africa founded on GM-based production. African governments will be hard-pressed to resist given that they have subverted their own policies in the face of a food crisis.
If sufficient regions adopt this mode of production, the US will have created a group of like-minded countries to help it lobby against EU policies at trade negotiations. The US is interested in the EU market because this is where money is to be made, not in Africa.
The strategy also goes beyond GM food. A platform will be created where new biotech products can find their way into the world markets. Biotechnology is regarded as the US’s strategic industry for the 21st century. The game now is to ensure that markets are opened so that investment in the industry over the past 30 years can begin to reap benefits.
Lott also fails to address why there is a food shortage in the region. The role of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) should not go without criticism.
The SADC should play a better coordinating and monitoring role to ensure the region does not become dependent on foreign food aid. As the current debate demonstrates, this forces countries to accept food assistance at the expense of their policies.
Food aid from a power with imperial intentions does not come without a foreign policy agenda.
Regional food security is an obligation of all SADC member states, and to blame individual states is to abscond from this responsibility.
The lessons from this saga need to inform the manner in which we coordinate aid assistance under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development. — Saliem Fakir, director, IUCN (World Conservation Union) South Africa office
Fight for justice, not vengeance
The United States is about to run into a minefield that could have catastrophic ramifications across the globe.
Escalating military threats are increasing regional instability as many populations are growing resentful of US ultimatums.
Terrorists have vowed to widen their attacks beyond US territories if a war ensues. It may be time for the international community to step forward before the US makes matters worse.
Thus far President George W Bush has held two rules in his foreign policy: respond with overwhelming force and maintain a clear exit strategy. The problem with terrorism is that force removes all exit strategies.
The more forceful the US military reaction, the greater the increase in enemies, the less the opportunity for withdrawal. Indeed, this is a different type of war. It will be lost with brute force or won with smart pressure.
The perpetrators of this heinous crime must be brought to justice and their support networks taken out of operation. The opposite will be achieved by a US military response. Bombing or sending in troops may help restore the nation’s self-confidence. But it will increase Osama bin Laden’s recruitment by arming him with images of US aircraft attacking Arab states and killing civilians.
At the root of anti-Americanism is the perception of the US as a global bully. Bombing or invading will only prove this perception correct, thereby creating more militants willing to sacrifice their lives to show that even the world’s strongest nation cannot act with impunity.
The alternative is to employ smart pressure. That means acting through the law, not above it. Bring forward the evidence, which surely exists, and indict Bin Laden as a mass murderer.
Using global law enforcement collaboration plus moral leverage is an approach with twice the effectiveness and half the blowback.
Pursuing the problem as an international criminal investigation will lend the US the ethical and legal credibility it needs to remove Bin Laden rather than merely drive him underground where he thrives.
Smart pressure will entail that the US shifts from its unilateralism of force to an internationalism based on United Nations resolutions, international law and a fight for justice, not vengeance. A first step will be for the US to end its opposition to an international criminal court and instead recognise how such a court is needed to deal with international problems like terrorism.
An internationally accountable police agency to enforce the court’s jurisdiction would go much farther than any single-handed US approach. — Letter writer
President Mbeki, please help Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe recently said the British government should pay Zimbabwe for the medical personnel who are leaving the country in large numbers, most of them heading for the United Kingdom. It is stupid for a man who calls himself a president to think like this.
Doctors and nurses are not leaving for the UK alone. They are going where they can make a better living and where their safety is guaranteed.
Junior doctors are on strike as we speak, and Mugabe’s regime is denying them what they deserve. Surely Mugabe cannot blame anyone if these doctors end up leaving the country?
Soon after his stolen victory in March, Mugabe said he would purge the civil service of elements bent on destroying the country. His statement was followed by attacks on teachers suspected of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). If teachers who are being harassed leave the country, will Mugabe again blame Britain?
A teacher friend told me that shortly before the closure of schools at term end, they were informed at a teachers’ meeting that school heads had been warned to watch out for teachers who supported the MDC. The school head told the teachers that Ministry of Education officials had said the government was aware that 90% of the country’s teachers were MDC supporters.
I would advise these teachers to run away, if there are any opportunities open for them.
Zimbabwe’s problems will continue to worsen as long as Mugabe is in power. However, the majority of Zimbabweans may not have the platform to address these issues to Mugabe, and that is why some have appealed to regional leaders such as President Thabo Mbeki to talk to their old friend about these issues.
President Mbeki, please help us. –Benjamin Chitate, Harare
It’s up to us to create positive change
I refer to Papi Nkoli’s letter of August 2 (“Killing the aspirations of the disabled”), which was a response to Mandla Mabila’s letter (“Our society does not give a damn about the disabled”, July 26).
Nkoli asserts that leadership within the civil society disability movement is unfocused and that the interests of the disabled are consequently becoming increasingly marginalised. I do not agree with these sentiments.
My view is that the movement might have failed to bring the issues into the public platform.
With regard to organisations “of” and “for” people with disability, we have established a structure called the South African Federal Council on Disability for coordination and monitoring purposes.
The Integrated National Disability Strategy (INDS) needs to be further interrogated by disabled people to decide whether we need a disability Act or whether we want disability to be integrated in all the different areas of legislation.
The disability movement is facing financial sustainability problems like many other organisations in South Africa. That we had to abandon the Viva scratch card as our internal fund-raising effort to give way to the National Lottery has seriously undermined our gains.
The government has so far failed to provide sustainable financial assistance to organisations of disabled people.
The Organisation of African Unity/African Union declared 2000 to 2009 the African Decade of Disabled Persons, but there has been no visible commitment to implementation of this by African governments.
Despite this, we have not given up. We have elevated our status with regard to self-representation in Parliament, local government (especially in Limpopo province) and various statutory bodies.
Disabled People South Africa (DPSA) is an organisation “of” disabled persons set up in 1984, which initiated the transformation, development and integration of disabled people in South Africa.
While accepting the challenge that the disability movement needs an assertive leadership to convey positive and proud definitions of disability, it needs to be stressed that self-representation demands that every disabled person is a part of the movement and each of us is responsible for creating positive change within our own lives.
Each disabled person must challenge the status quo whenever possible. And the best way to grow an assertive leadership is to participate in organisations of the disabled, and add your own leadership to the movement.
I am happy we have disabled activists such as Nkoli who raise challenging issues.
I am also of the view that Nkoli might not be well informed about the credibility of the movement.
DPSA calls on Nkoli to join forces with us so that we can ensure that you become an informed activist. –Mzolisi ka Toni, secretary general, Disabled People South Africa
Performance-related pay
Your reference to the Men on the Side of the Road Project in Cape Town (“Tapping local resources”, July 26) is all the more poignant, coming as it did when we were digesting the inflated promises of economic growth and stability made by delegates at the launch of the African Union (AU).
I have taken to the habit of carrying a roll of plastic bin-liners in my car. My route to work passes through three gathering places for the “old young men” with extended index fingers.
The route is frequently strewn with litter and, depending on the number of men gathered, I stop and issue bin-liners, with the promise that I shall return at a specific time and pay R10 for each bag filled with litter.
Later, having collected the bags and shelled out plenty of the green ones, it is only a short hop to the municipal dump.
To pull up near a gathering of more than five men can be unnerving and a real traffic hazard. It has cost a lot, but the joy of driving to work in a litter-free environment (albeit for a week at the most) is worth the price.
But sometimes the compassion fatigue kicks in and I just drive on, wishing that those well-padded junketeers at the launch of the AU had undertaken to commit their administrations, from top to bottom, to performance-related pay. –Phil Evans, Somerset West
Spare the details
I read with some amusement and slight disgust your salacious saga about “Sex and the (univer)city” (August 2).
McCaps Motimele would appear to be a bit of a cad (assuming the truth of Professor Margaret Orr’s account). Clearly no self-respecting man would go about making some of the remarks attributed to him — unless they were perhaps made in jest to a close friend.
I think Orr is right about one thing, though. Perhaps the Mail & Guardian, too, should “raise the discussion to a level above their navels”. There was no real need for all the salacious details you provided in the McCaps-Orr case — even if the details were needed as evidence in court. — Thanda Sibisi, Clernaville
In brief
Sadly, my column Economics for Humans will no longer appear in the newly slimmed down Mail & Guardian, for space reasons. I will continue to write; and hope to find a home in another paper. Meanwhile, anyone interested in following these ideas should join the e-mail list of the South African New Economics Network: [email protected]; and also consult the website on http://sane.org.za Thank you for lots of appreciation from readers for the column. — Margaret Legum
Saturday’s security slip-up during the Tri-Nations match caused Dave McHugh’s shoulder to be injured, and along with it my national pride. Seeing a man wearing a Springbok rugby jersey behaving in such a loutish manner has forced me to ask serious questions about how much respect is given to the national team’s jersey. Don’t sell the jersey — it belongs to the select few who have reached that level of the game. We should not allow the actions of an intoxicated individual to drag our national emblem through the gutter. –Werner Eiselen
Re your footnote last week: what a shame, I was so hoping Robert Kirby had gone bust and the CNA was simply on holiday! Also, I would like to put in a praise song for Sipho Seepe and Margaret Legum. While I may not always agree with them they make me think every week. –Diane Salters
Capitalism needs regulation to prevent the rampant greed, lies and theft prevalent among large corporations. We need arrests, trials, convictions and forfeiture of the wealth stolen from the people by corporate criminals. –Ian Barrett, Cape Town
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