Your Money or Your Life!

248/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!

that matters is increased consumption and/or production. An eco­
logically sustainable model, however, has to make a clear distinction
between an increase in market consumption and genuine
improvement in the quality of life. Following the Rio Conference in
1992, the World Bank was put in charge of managing the Global
Environment Facility (GEF). The negative consequences of this
perverse decision were immediately apparent. No real progress has
been made towards meeting the objectives set by the Rio Conference.
The summer 1997 New York evaluation meeting served to reveal the
huge obstacles that have been created in this respect, especially by
the US government.

Intellectual Property Rights

The protection of intellectual property rights - in particular, those of
Third World peasants - is another objective to be pursued as part of
any alternative policy agenda. Over the centuries, Third World
peasants have been the ones to produce (by process of selection) the
very wealth of the soil that multinationals are now stealing from
them (Shiva, 1994). As though it were not enough for big agrobusi­
ness firms to make off with the genetic maps of these agricultural
organisms, they also patent them and demand royalties be paid in
exchange for use.

High Value-Added Production in the South

As for other kinds of production - high value-added - Third World
countries should be free to manufacture the whole range of such
goods. The approach of the new World Trade Organisation (WTO)
works against this freedom. In the face of pressure from the US, for
example, it has put up a number of obstacles to the development of
the pharmaceutical industry (in India and Colombia, for example)
and the computer hardware industry (in Brazil).

Social Clauses. Yes, but Which Ones and How Should
They be Implemented? Might They Become a Pretext for
Protectionism in the North against the South?

On the question of trade, a maj or debate is currently underway on the
desirability of social clauses. Do the proposals that frequently arise