-Caveat Lector-

3/13/2003 10:36:46 AM, Ray Boeche <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
"" My biggest question is how do you construe anything America has done
in the past, or intends to do in the near future, as "empire building"?

"" We have always striven to liberate countries, give the people a voice,
and then let them deal with their internal affairs; not dominate or
subjugate others.""

In case you missed the last the history of the last fifty years, the U.S. has
been the most successful occupation force in the memory of the World
(the Soviets collapsed a while back, in effect, giving up their claim to any
prizes).  The pretext was liberation and protection.  With the advent of
ICBMs, the only reason for maintaining a ground force in Europe was to
preposition forces for subsequent occupation should the "Cold" War have
heated up.

Now, if you have any qualms about this analysis, think about what the
realtions with the French have  been since DeGaulle.  Recall that he was
the de facto leader of the French in Engaland during the Second Great
War.  Recall he led the Free French back into France.  Recall he later
became the national leader who then escorted to the Americans to the
nearet borders.  He understood (all-too-well from his experiences with the
Germans) the difference between "liberation" (which was his intention)
and "occupation" which was what happened.  France has not been really
popular with the Americans' policy makers ever since.  DeGaulle liberated
his country and people got PO'd.  Germany's next, followed by Turkey.
Note how the Americans have "allowed" them to voice their opinion and
conduct their internal affairs.
And let's not discuss Afghanistan in this context.  The only thing that was
liberated there was the opium crop.
"Liberation" does NOT result in the House of Representatives taking some
jingoistic tack of renaming a basically American food.  This act was
supposed to be a "symbol' but, if anything, they did the French a favour:
no self-respecting French person would eat such gastronomically inferior
substandard gut stuffers as a "french fry".  This was part of the issue that
Jose Bove's move against McDonalds' in France.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=9472
THE GLOBAL CITIZEN: The World Is Not for Sale
By Donella H. Meadows, AlterNet
July 18, 2000

Jose Bove milks 250 sheep in the Larzac region of France, a rocky,
windswept place where you would think no farmer could produce
anything. But Bove turns sheep milk into one of the gastronomical
treasures of the world, Roquefort cheese. Bove is a leader of the local
Roquefort producers association and of the second largest farmers'
organization in France. So he was well known locally before he and nine
friends drove their tractors to the nearby town of Millau last year and
pulled down an under-construction McDonalds restaurant. Now he is well
known globally.

Bove's beef with McDonalds began with America's beef industry,
particularly its habit of dosing feedlot cattle with the kinds of hormones
that athletes are tempted to use for the same reason – to bulk up fast.
Europeans are disinclined to eat this high-test meat. The European Union
forbids hormone-raised beef, either domestically produced or imported.
That makes the American beef industry, and the government officials to
whom the beef industry pays large campaign donations, very angry.

Now that we have a World Trade Organization, we have an official way to
resolve such conflicts. WTO resolutions nearly always come out in favor of
trade, no matter what its social or environmental or cultural or health
consequences. It was no surprise when the WTO declared the EU ban on
hormone-raised beef illegal.

The EU refused to lift the ban. So the WTO imposed the only punishment
within its power. It allowed the U.S. to slap retaliatory tarriffs – high taxes
imposed at the border – on French products. One of the products thus
affected was Roquefort cheese. Which made Jose Bove and his Roquefort-
producing friends very angry.

At their hearing on June 30 at least 50,000 people jammed into Millau for a
political demonstration equivalent in purpose to Seattle's anti-WTO bash six
months earlier. In the crowd's estimation, if not the court's, Bove is a
hero. The T-shirt seen all over the streets said on the front, in a direct
quote from Bove, "Le Monde n'est pas une marchandise." (The world is not
merchandise, not a product, not for sale.) On the back it said, "Moi non
plus." (Me neither.)

Bove's supporters are by no means only French. The American media tend
to frame stories like this as a confrontation between French and U.S.
farmers. But American farmers actually donated to help with Bove's legal
expenses. One farmer responded: "A few of us were standing around our
co-op this morning wishing we had some way to help those French guys,
and now we have your email we're glad to send some money so we can
have some small part in this."

The Millau Ten were found guilty – they readily admitted that they pulled
down the McDonalds. They are free until their sentences are announced
in September. Because Bove has a prior record for struggles against the
French military and against genetically engineered crops, he faces months
in prison.

Bove's home hamlet of Montredon is tiny; maybe 6 or 7 families live there.
You would expect its Wednesday evening farmers' market to be a small
affair. In fact hundreds of people typically show up to shop for vegetables,
fruit, preserves, cheese, meat, wine, ceramics and leather goods. Jose and
a couple of other guys fire up a barbecue where everyone brings meat to
grill. They sit around eating and drinking, and then the music starts.
There's a small play. It's not possible to distinguish producers from
consumers; many folks are both. This is a community.

Somehow, over centuries, people have learned not only to make a living in
the sparse Larzac, but to make a rich life. Jose Bove chose a brilliantly
symbolic act to compare the quality of that life with the antiseptic
arrogance of MacDonalds. He was protesting more than the injustice of
taxing French sheep farmers to force European consumers to accept U.S.
mass-produced beef. He was protesting the whole idea that has come to
be called globalization.

In a culture dominated by the bare logic of market exchange, everything
becomes commodified, including our time, our intelligence, our landscape,
our water, our food. Jose and his neighbors are saying no, that's not what
we want. No, we refuse to be sucked into that system. We insist that our
value to one another and the value of our land and lives not be measured
in dollars or francs. We insist that the World Trade Organization not be
granted the power to force us to eat food from factories. We insist that
community, culture, taste, work, and nature are more important than
cheap food or free trade. We insist on protecting our traditions from the
narrow, heartless economics that would have us fill our lives with things
produced wherever they can be made most "efficiently."

Donella Meadows is an adjunct professor at Dartmouth College and
director of the Sustainability Institute in Hartland, Vermont.

« Home  « Top Stories

Mobile/PDA  Writer Guidelines  Privacy Policy  Partners  Acknowledgments
Contact Us

Reproduction of material from any AlterNet.org pages without written
permission is strictly prohibited.
© 2003 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.


A<:>E<:>R
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do
not believe simply because it has been handed down for many genera-
tions.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and
rumoured by many.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is
written in Holy Scriptures.  Do not believe in anything merely on
the authority of teachers, elders or wise men.  Believe only after
careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with
reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it." The Buddha on Belief,
from the Kalama Sutra

<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
 <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>

http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
 <A HREF="http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Om

Reply via email to