Subject: - How the Net Killed the MAI -
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 095104 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody:
Some of you have already received this from Australia....
It makes very interesting reading to me as a political scientist ...
as it should also to anyone who has an interest in demanding public
responsibility (governmental action) on the EMF issue...... It may
be "the model" for results....
Cheerio.....
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org..............http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
................................It is better to light a single candle ...
than to curse the darkness...............................................
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 00:09:04 +1000
From: Kerrie Christian
Subject: Globe & Mail April 29 - How the Net Killed the MAI - Grassroot G
>From: "Janet M. Eaton"
>To: mai-not@flora.org
>Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 10:23:07 +0000
>Subject: Globe & Mail April 29 - How the Net Killed the MAI - Grassroot G
>
>Dear MAI-nots et al:
>
>We knew along that it could happen because we realized early on
>that we were involved in a new experiment in "Global Citizenship",
> in a new arena for "Global Democracy" .
>
>And because our deepest values were embedded in the process
>something imperative , and authentic was happening - the
>spirit of humanity was rising to meet this ultimate threat and
>challenge.
>
>Our work has provided us with valuable learnings, insights, hope
>for and faith in the future.
>
>Long live civil society and democracy!!!
>
>Our global "net"working for humanity is just beginning!!
>
>
>With the greatest appreciation and respect for
>MAI-nots throughout the world,
>What a profound priviledge to be involved with you all,
>
>janet eaton
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
> www.theglobeandmail.com
>
> The Globe and Mail
>
>How the Net killed the MAI
>
>Grassroots groups used their own globalization to derail deal
>
>Wednesday, April 29, 1998
>By Madelaine Drohan
>
>
>
>PARIS -- High-powered politicians had reams of statistics and analysis
>on why a set of international investing rules would make the world a
>better place.
>
>They were no match, however, for a global band of grassroots
>organizations, which, with little more than computers and access to
>the Internet, helped derail a deal.
>
>Indeed, international negotiations have been transformed after this
>week's successful rout of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment
>(MAI) by opposition groups, which -- alarmed by the trend toward
>economic globalization -- used some globalization of their own to
>fight back.
>
>Using the Internet's capability to broadcast information instantly
>worldwide, groups such as the Council of Canadians and Malaysia-based
>the Third World Network have been able to keep each other informed of
>the latest developments and supply information gleaned in one country
>that may prove embarrassing to a government in another. By pooling
>their information they have broken through the wall of secrecy that
>traditionally surrounds international negotiations, forcing
>governments to deal with their complaints.
>
>"We are in constant contact with our allies in other countries," said
>Maude Barlow, the Council of Canadians' chairwoman. "If a negotiator
>says something to someone over a glass of wine, we'll have it on the
>Internet within an hour, all over the world."
>
>The success of that networking was clear this week when ministers from
>the 29 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and
>Development admitted that the global wave of protest had swamped the
>deal.
>
>"This is the first successful Internet campaign by non-governmental
>organizations," said one diplomat involved in the negotiations. "It's
>been very effective."
>
>The OECD, which represents largely the major industrial economies,
>yesterday halted the negotiations aimed at developing international
>rules for foreign investment, similar to those for trade in goods. It
>is unclear when, or even if, the OECD will try again.
>
>The irony in this outcome is that the OECD, which has been an ardent
>advocate of globalization and has done much research into its effects,
>did not recognize that advocacy groups would use cyber-globalization
>to further their own ends.
>
>OECD secretary-general Donald Johnston conceded that the OECD was
>caught flat-footed: "It's clear we needed a strategy on information,
>communication and explication," he told a press conference.
>
>The OECD's efforts to harness the Internet have not caught up in
>colour, content and consumer friendliness to those of the advocacy
>groups.
>
>For example, the OECD report released this week on the benefits of
>opening markets to trade and investment is a compilation of statistics
>and analysis written in language more readily understood by economists
>than by the average person. Instead of finding examples of real people
>who have benefited from globalization to help trade ministers make
>this case, the report repeats many of the same statistics on economic
>growth, investment and the dangers of protectionism.
>
>By comparison, hundreds of advocacy groups, in attempting to galvanize
>opposition to the MAI, used terms and examples that brought their
>message home to the public. Their sites on the Internet's Worldwide
>Web are colourful and easy to use, offering primers on the MAI that
>anyone could understand.
>
>Canadian Trade Minister Sergio Marchi has taken the OECD to task for
>its poor communications effort, although he agrees some of the blame
>must be shared by the member governments. He said the lesson he has
>learned is that "civil society" -- meaning public interest groups --
>should be engaged much sooner in a negotiating process, instead of
>governments trying to negotiate around them.
>
>Ms. Barlow of the Council of Canadians, which says it has more than
>100,000 members, called the OECD report on the benefits of
>globalization "pathetic." In an interview in Paris, where she was
>taking part in a protest against the MAI, Ms. Barlow said the
>immediacy of the Internet has changed the dynamics of advocacy
>campaigns.
>
>She is a veteran of the campaigns against the Canada-U.S. free-trade
>agreement and the North American free-trade agreement. The Internet
>was not in widespread use when those campaigns were conducted.
>
>Today, however, advocacy groups make sure useful information ends up
>in the right hands right away. "If we know something that is sensitive
>to one government, we get it to our ally in that country instantly,"
>she said. "I don't think governments will ever be able to do these
>kind of secret trade negotiations again."
>
>For example, when the Council of Canadians got its hands on a draft
>version of the MAI last year, it immediately posted it on its Web site
>and made sure allies around the world knew it was there through E-mail
>correspondence.
>
>The Internet also provides a low-cost way for groups in the Third
>World to get their message out and keep on top of developments. "All
>they need is one computer," Ms. Barlow said.
>
>The major Internet sites of these advocacy groups provide hyperlinks
>to others involved in the campaign, as well as phone numbers and
>E-mail addresses, and often bibliographies of relevant books.
>
>It adds up to a powerful tool that the advocacy groups are using to
>better effect than governments and the OECD at the moment. Ms. Barlow
>predicts that this advantage may not last now that the OECD members
>have seen its potential. "They'll be revving up their PR machines."
>
>But so are the advocacy groups. The next stage, she said, is to start
>making suggestions about what should be in trade agreements, rather
>than just opposing what the negotiators propose.
>
>The groups are already trading ideas on solutions, and another aspect
>of globalization -- the growing spread of English -- is easing their
>way. "Pretty well everybody speaks English," said Ms. Barlow.
>
>"It's the universal language."
>
>Tony Clarke, director of the Canadian Polaris Institute, stresses that
>anti-MAI groups such as his are not against all aspects of
>globalization -- their use of the Internet itself is proof of that.
>
>"We're against this model of economic globalization," he said,
>referring to the MAI. "But the global village, the idea of coming
>together and working together, is a great dream."
>
>
>Related Web sites
>
>The Council of Canadians and the Organization for Economic
>Co-operation and Development: www.canadians.org http://www.oecd.org
>
>
>We welcome your comments.
>Copyright c 1998, The Globe and Mail Company
>All rights reserved.
>
>
>--
>For MAI-not subscription information, posting guidelines and
>links to other MAI sites please see http://mai.flora.org/
>
>
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html