More congratulations for Nobel Peace Prize winning GM opponent

[Guest guest]

More congratulations for Nobel Peace Prize winning GM opponent

" GM WATCH " <info

Thu, 14 Oct 2004 18:15:59 +0100

 

 

 

More congratulations for Nobel Peace Prize winning GM opponent

http://www.gmwatch.org

-------

 

 

 

" We are also very excited because this is the first time that the Nobel

Peace Committee would be recognising the work of an individual aimed at

preserving the environment and promoting the ideas of sustainable

development. This award represents her efforts, including a dogged

determination to reject genetically modified foods or organisms (GMO)

as a

panacea for Africa food shortage " . (item 1)

 

" being an effective environmentalist today is not just about planting

trees, but working at the grassroots with the poorest communities and

challenging powerful political and commercial forces. " - Nobel Peace

Prize Winner, Wangari Maathai

 

" The resistance must continue to grow, North and South, in solidarity,

in order to avoid the old tactic of divide and rule. " - Wangari Maathai

on GMOs (item 2)

 

For her essay, " THE LINKAGE BETWEEN PATENTING OF LIFE FORMS, GENETIC

ENGINEERING AND FOOD INSECURITY "

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4497

-------

1.ERA Congratulates Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Godwin Haruna

This Day (Lagos, Nigeria), October 14, 2004

http://allafrica.com/stories/200410140510.html

 

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN)

has congratulated Kenya born Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Wangari

Maathai in the area of environmental protection, natural resource

conservation and human rights.

 

In a statement, ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Mr. Nnimmo Bassey said:

" We are particularly delighted by this award because it represents the

first time in history that a woman from Africa would be winning the

prestigious Nobel Peace Prize since its inception in 1901.

 

" We are also very excited because this is the first time that the Nobel

Peace Committee would be recognising the work of an individual aimed at

preserving the environment and promoting the ideas of sustainable

development. This award represents her efforts, including a dogged

determination to reject genetically modified foods or organisms (GMO)

as a

panacea for Africa food shortage " .

 

The body said Maathai truly deserves the award since her track records

in the area of environmental activism, human rights advocacy and

natural resource conservation speak for themselves.

------

2.Nobel de la paix 2004

Le nouvel esclavage du vivant

Selva Appasawmy

Le Mauricien, 12 Octobre 2004 [Mauritian press]

http://www.lemauricien.com/mauricien/

 

L'octroi du prix Nobel de la paix à Wangari Maathai est un événement à

célébrer pour l'Afrique entière pour plusieurs raisons et c'est

malheureux que la presse mauricienne dans son ensemble n'en ait pas

fait grand

état.

 

Parmi les raisons de célébrer, il y a le fait que c'est la première

fois que ce prix a été décerné à une femme africaine et aussi le fait que

cette femme mène en ce moment une lutte contre un des plus grands

dangers qui guette l'Afrique, comparable à l'esclavage et à la

colonisation

(d'après la lauréate elle même) - Et ce danger n'est rien d'autre que

le brevetage du vivant et la biogénétique.

 

Dans un article intitulé The linkage between patenting of life forms,

genetic engineering and food insecurity, elle nous explique comment,

tout au long de la période de colonisation, les pays du Sud ont souffert

de l'accaparement de leurs richesses, souvent avec la complicité

d'autochtones corrompus : " Traders have appropriated other people's

resources, including human resources and territories, as free goods for

centuries, usually by buying-off misinformed, unsuspecting or corrupted

nationals. "

 

Et elle nous dit que la nouvelle forme de conquête aujourd'hui est le

brevetage du vivant et la biotechnologie, " Biotechnology and patenting

of life forms is now the new frontier for conquest, and Africa ought to

be wary because a history of colonialism and exploitation is repeating

itself. "

 

Prof Wangari Maathai nous raconte ensuite les astuces utilisées par les

entreprises privées d'aujourd'hui pour mettre le grappin sur notre

héritage à tous : " Corporations are trying to appropriate life

through the

same rules which have governed the world of business and profits in the

past. Industry has in fact already managed to gain private monopoly

rights (patents) on some living materials, by distorting the original

concept and intention of patenting - as life is obviously not an

invention.

This distortion has been deliberately created by blurring the meaning

of invention so that corporations can obtain private monopolies on mere

discoveries of biological materials and their properties, such as

umbilical chord blood cells and basmati rice. "

 

Ensuite elle nous explique les dangers de la biotechnologie pour les

communautés et les fermiers : " This issue is critical because patenting

is being applied to seeds, which are the basis of societies'food

systems. Patenting of living material is also being called biopiracy

because

corporations get genetic material from the farmers and local

communities, who are constantly developing new combinations and

characteristics.

This old tradition has increased biodiversity, productivity and

innovation over the centuries, without using genetic engineering

technology or

claiming private ownership of such resources, which are considered a

common heritage.

 

" The idea that African farmers should have to buy seeds, developed

from their own biological materials, from transnational corporations,

because such companies have given themselves the exclusive rights to

those

seeds, is outrageous. The rights and the capacity of communities to

feed themselves would be completely undermined, if industry managed to

assert its self-given rights. "

 

Le contrôle

 

Prof. Wangari élabore sur la façon dont les multinationales utilisent

la biotechnologie pour contrôler les fermiers et en font leurs

'esclaves' : " It is precisely in order to control the traditional

freedom of

farmers to develop, use and exchange seeds, that the agrochemical

industry has now developed what has been dubbed the terminator

technology.

This genetically engineered technology ensures that seed injected with

the

suicide gene does not germinate after harvesting. This means the

farmers will have to buy seed each season, and cannot develop their

own seed.

"

 

Prof. Maathari nous donne un avertissent, qui devrait nous donner froid

dans le dos : " Under these circumstances, if we thought that slavery

and colonialism were gross violations of human rights, we have to wake

up to what is awaiting us down the secretive road of biopiracy,

patenting of life and genetic engineering. Genocide from hunger, such

as we

have not yet seen, becomes a haunting possibility. "

 

Le détenteur du prix Nobel de la paix 2004 nous dit ensuite comment

l'histoire est pleine d'instances où les crimes contre l'humanité ont été

justifié par des intérêts commerciaux : " History has many records of

crimes against humanity, which were also justified by dominant

commercial interests and governments of the day. Despite protests from

citizens,

social justice for the common good was eroded in favour of private

profits. Today, patenting of life forms and the genetic engineering which

it stimulates, is being justified on the grounds that it will benefit

society, especially the poor, by providing better and more food and

medicine. But in fact, by monopolising the raw biological materials, the

development of other options is deliberately blocked. Farmers, therefore,

become totally dependent on the corporations for seeds. "

 

Prof. Maathai termine en nous disant que la résistance contre les OGM

et le brevetage du vivant doit continuer en solidarité Nord / Sud pour

empêcher la politique de divide and rule de gagner la partie : " The

resistance must continue to grow, North and South, in solidarity, in

order

to avoid the old tactic of divide and rule. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-----------------------