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
parties are beholden to media giants. They face the power of newspapers and media controlled by big
business. Political parties fear becoming unelectable if their policies result in their countries losing out in
competing for investment in their economies. First past the post voting systems, such as ours, mean more
liberal parties like the Greens have little chance of gaining influence let alone power. Nations like ours
compete to be the best places for doing business.
Corporations exert far too much influence on the political process everywhere, especially in USA. They have
the money, far more than organisations representing people. They spend vast sums of customers’ and share
holders’ money on lobbying and funding political campaigns. Hence, despite informed opposition, our
previous government supported airport expansion, investment in roads rather than railways, coal fired
power stations, bio-fuel, nuclear power and the flawed car scrappage scheme. They gain access to vast
quantities of tax-payers’ money for highly dubious subsidies – e.g. for oil corporations.
“Most American politicians fear to challenge corporate power not only because they need the financial
support during elections, but for a deeper and more reasonable reason as well: they fear that corporations
can always threaten to move their base of operations, leaving joblessness and economic devastation in their
wake”
Rabbi Michael Lerner, Tikkun Magazine, 2008.
Corporate harms and corporate crimes Over the years we have become increasingly aware of how much
harm large corporations do and how economical they are with the truth. Long ago, they knew that certain
products were harmful to health or new drugs carried huge risks. Tobacco is a prime example but there are
many more. It often requires years of campaigning to extract the truth, stop the harm or get compensation.
Corporate crime is pervasive, probably massively undocumented, often not defined as crime, insufficiently
policed, with weak regulation and insufficient penalties. Blue suited criminality is taken less seriously than
“low class” criminality. Penalties for corporate “crime” are insignificant compared with the sums to be
gained, just treated as part of the cost of doing business.
Theft of the “commons” such as human genes and resources like oil, minerals, land, air and water; and the
patenting of life, seeds and trees like the Neem are abuses of power. Noam Chomsky in USA and Vandana
Shiva in India are amongst those who expose and fight these excesses. She uses the term, bio-piracy. Noam
Chomsky argues that for the most fundamental commons that the world community will need over coming
years, and over which conflict and war could arise, a Trust is needed like that set up for Antarctica.
The world needs a transformation from pursuing selfish national interests, by war if necessary, to global
collaboration and fairness.
Independent scientists have been fully aware of the harm being done and the risks to health. But it was
decades before they were listened to. Senior people knew the risks yet took them nonetheless. New
exposures constantly emerge. Today many of us are well aware of the damage our current way of life is
doing to us and the ecosystem. A recent revelation is the damage to sea creatures resulting from plastic
waste in the oceans and how that will affect humans as the toxic chemicals released pass up the food chain.
Epidemics Amongst the great epidemics in developed nations, and developing nations as they follow
Western patterns, are:
Alcohol abuse
Alzheimer's disease
Asthma
Cancer – one in 2 men will get cancer and one in 3 women
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