A better world is possible - Global Commons Institute

Copyright Bruce Nixon 2010. All rights reserved. This electronic copy is provided free for personal, non-commercial use only.
www.brucenixon.com
"Human life does not mean much to those who have benefited from the oil."
Ken Saro-Wiwa
By proxy, that includes any of us who benefitted from Shell oil, however innocently!
Investigate for yourself corporate campaigns against complementary medicine, alternative medicine and
supplements using the Codex Alimentarius. Few people are aware of these campaigns, perhaps because it is
a complicated and almost unbelievable subject. A key US campaigning organisation is the Natural Solutions
Foundation founded by Dr. Rima E. Laibow, MD and Major General Albert Stubblebine. Such pioneering,
brave people are often dismissed as alarmists or peddlers of conspiracy theories. This is how deception
prevails. Look up Wiki, Natural Health Information Centre, Codex Alimentarius - The Sinister Truth Behind
Operation Cure-All, by Ruth James, Alliance for Natural Health and Natural Solutions Foundation.
Here are some simple truths that most people instinctively understand:
Simple truths
Big Business is about maximising short term profit and share value. It is about gaining increasing
market share, pursuing cheapest sourcing, a “chase to the bottom”, and achieving global dominance.
CSR is indeed an oxymoron.
Politics is about power, staying in power and winning elections, responding to popular prejudices and
sensational stories in the media.
The media is about selling papers and advertising. Sensational stories, gossip, conspiracy,
unbalanced, extreme opinions not based on proper research, crime and bad news sells. Most of the
media is owned by rich and powerful businessmen. There is an unhealthy concentration of global
media ownership. They can determine the outcome of elections.
There are unhealthy relationships between all of the above.
Much of the activities of government and corporations are covert. The truth has to be extracted
painfully. They don’t want us to know.
Basically, once a business ceases to be privately owned it is at the mercy of the stock market. The ideals of
the founders are in jeopardy. Once a public service is privatised the same applies. Acting responsibly,
sustainably or in the public interest becomes secondary to profit and share value maximisation. It is naive to
expect otherwise.
Corporations are out of control. They are unaccountable and undermine democracy. The economies of
transnational corporations exceed the wealth of many countries. They dominate equally unaccountable,
unrepresentative global institutions such as the World Bank, World Trade Organisation, International
Monetary Fund and NAFTA who create unfair rules for international trade. These organisations set
conditions for aid and loans to poor countries, such as insisting on privatisation and unlimited access to their
markets for large corporations, whose products are often subsidised. Their policies have contributed to huge
indebtedness. By means of globalisation, corporations are able to shift their investment or sourcing to
countries where labour is cheapest and least regulated. This will have to change as oil becomes scarce, more
expensive and the climate change becomes increasingly serious.
The sovereignty of national governments - to manage their societies, cultures and economies in their own
unique way - is being taken away. Electorates have very little choice as all political parties converge. Political
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