I was channel surfing one afternoon when I came across a set of documentaries on IBC 13 hitting the World Trade Organization. I was a little surprised that such documentaries were airing on a government TV station, knowing how much of asskissers our policymakers are to foreign financial instutitions that force us to liberalize our economy.
You may watch the documentaries at Make Trade Fair. One of the documentaries is about the Philippines and how our rice farmers’ livelihood is being killed with the importation of cheap rice. If I may add, this is just one of the many examples of how free trade has been killing our local and/or infant industries and how it has kept many of our countrymen in poverty.
Here are some interactive animated diagrams that explain how unfair the current set-up is at the WTO. Once you’re convinced that we have unfair trade policies forced upon us by the rich countries, sign the online petition for fair trade. Also, please stop electing and supporting current politicians whose debt and loyalty apparently belong to foreign financial institutions than to our poor farmers. And don’t support a proposed Charter that will institutionalize these conditions!
law student, leftist, national democratic, film school graduate, photography hobbyist
the very thing why i do not like globalization… do you know that rice, yung may ipa pa, is worth 8pesos a kilo. we have a farm in isabela, layo nga nun eh 10 hours yung trip, and farmers there plant either rice or paper trees (ginagawang posporo)… that’s why i know.
this could be a very very very long discussion.
Unfortunately, our government projects to have no choice but to abide with the WTO. They insist if we so-claimed violate WTO’s regulations, so-called problems with our so-called other countries will submerge our so-exalted economy N times in a row.
Argh. FTA.
ako rin nagugulat bakit pinapalabas ang oxfam docu sa govt stations. pero naalala ko na yung mga trade negotiators natin ay isa sa mga nag-iinsist sa developed countries na itigil na ang pagbibigay ng subsidies sa kanilang farmers, or dapat gawing mas open pa ang kanilang economy para sa ating mga produkto.
nabalita na kakasuhan natin australia kasi ayaw tanggapin mga saging natin, and yung japan ayaw ng ating tuna. samantalang tayo bumabaha dito ng mga cheap products from abroad.
mas mura pa mandin yung rice ng thailand… pano na yung filipino farmers, lalo na yung nakikigapas lang…