Surviving Capitalism (Not) : TTIP: A locked room, no internet access, two hours, 300 pages and lots of typos

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, February 12, 2016

TTIP: A locked room, no internet access, two hours, 300 pages and lots of typos

Click here to access article by Kieren McCarthy from The Register.

The whole experience, rather than setting her mind at ease, has just made Kipping [a member of the German parliament] all the more suspicious about what is being negotiated.

"Anyone who was going into these negotiations to enhance environmental protection, consumer protection and labor standards would have nothing to fear from transparency," she notes. "Anyone who's engaged in selling out democracy, on the other hand, is obviously going to want to avoid public scrutiny. If Sigmar Gabriel [Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy and Vice Chancellor of Germany] and the negotiators are really so convinced of the benefits of TTIP, why don't they just make the text available to everyone online?"