APEC had no aloha spirit (opinion)

Friday, November 18, 2011 by: Hesh Goldstein
Tags: APEC, Hawaii, global economy

(NaturalNews) Oahu residents were groaning under the impact of the Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference.

Parks and beaches were inaccessible or closed, roads were blocked unexpectedly and even the freeway shut down. Waikiki was under martial law conditions, with concrete barricades, car searches, workers subject to background checks to determine if they could work, security passes were needed to enter various areas, and even offshore surf sites were closed.

Adding insult to injury, right after teachers and other public workers were forced to take pay and benefit cuts, millions of our tax money was spent to spiff up landscaping and push our most unfortunate out of what little they can call home.

This our government did in order to put on a show for the richest of the rich and their political servants - the very ones who caused and benefitted from the economic crisis that has cut our services, impoverished our public workers, and put our families out on the street.

Whether Hawaii's visitor industry will get a boost in business travel out of this is debatable, but one thing is certain: we have tainted the vacations of the visitors we already had here.

And for what? Just what went on at the APEC talks that were worth the nuisance and expense? It's all a big secret, but the facts are beginning to come in, despite the secrecy and the distraction of self-promoting politicians making speeches.

APEC was about working on a dirty deal to benefit global banks and corporations at the expense of the rest of us. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal that the 1 % continues to cook up represents a massive corporate/bank end-run around our laws, protections, rights and self-determination.

Labor laws to ensure basic standards for workers in our community, environmental and consumer protection laws, land use laws, even laws to control health care costs - they are talking about how to get around all these. Even laws protecting Hawaiian lands are in danger, rendering Hawaiian sovereignty meaningless.

But it's not only Hawaii's peoples' sovereignty that is being undermined. It is the sovereign rights of Hawaii and the United States as well.

All nations signing trade deals like TPP are giving up sovereignty rights to corporations and banks. The provisions of this secret agreement would allow private entities - banks and corporations - to bring suit in international courts to enforce the terms.

This has already happened under previous "free trade" scams like NAFTA. Mexican corporations have been successful in ignoring safety and anti-pollution laws that took decades of struggle to put in place - unsafe and polluting Mexican trucks, with drivers paid under Mexican wage and benefit standards, now have free access to American highways, competing with American truckers who respect American laws.

Even future laws we would like to pass will be prevented. For example, the governor's idea that Hawaii should buy food from local farmers to feed our school children - that could be prevented along with any other Buy Hawaii or Buy American programs.

The 1 % pushing the TPP deals at conferences like APEC is even talking about rules that would prevent us from promoting generic drugs and force us to buy hideously overpriced patented drugs.

And they want to extend the years that pharmaceutical companies can keep new drugs under patent, thereby maintaining their breathtaking monopoly prices for all drugs.

All of us - or at least 99 % of us - will be the victims, and the big pharmaceutical companies and the banks that own them - the 1 % - will generate even bigger profits off our illnesses and aging.

APEC and TPP now seem to be just another scheme to stick it to the 99 % of us who work for a living. No wonder APEC put up walls, barricades, traffic stops and road closures to keep Hawaii's people away from them - they were up to no good!

The last gasp of the APEC summit starts us off as we flashback on the week's news that amused and confused us:

Obama and local boosters declared APEC a rousing success, but the residents and tourists were put off by the sight of armed troops, Humvees, and concrete barriers on the streets. We looked like the Geneva of the Pacific after a detour through Baghdad.

Though the event came up short of the projected 20,000 delegates, 2,000 journalists and $123 million in economic stimulus, organizers promised long-term benefits. As usual, we have to wait for heaven for our reward.

Governor Neil Abercrombie, who is the reincarnation of Napolean Bonaparte, said APEC established Hawaii as the "anchor of the Asia-pacific region. Businesses shut out from customers felt like anchors only in the sense of getting thrown overboard.

Mayor Peter Carlisle said his only criticism of APEC was that APEC is that Secret Service agents frowned too much. He never did understand jobs that require actually paying attention.

Then slack-key artists sand an Occupy-themed protest song for 45 minutes while Obama and other world leaders ate dinner, but said the president didn't seem to notice. I guess that solves the old Zen riddle about the sound of one hand clapping.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's photo op with the Hong Kong delegate was interrupted when a torchbearer wearing only a loincloth streaked behind her. She must get tired of getting upstaged by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

Obama couldn't resist stopping traffic one last time by motorcading to his departing flight in the middle of the morning rush. He loves the power of being here instead of the casualty of it in Washington.

And the best - Obama who was allegedly born here could not bring himself to wear an aloha shirt yet when he went to Indonesia he couldn't wait to wear their traditional Javanese attire.

Aloha!

About the author:
I have been doing a weekly radio show in Honolulu since 1981 called "Health Talk". In 2007 I was "forced" to get a Masters degree in Nutrition because of all the doctors that would call in asking for my credentials. They do not call in anymore. Going to www.healthtalkhawaii.com enables you, among other things, to listen to the shows. I am an activist. In addition to espousing an organic vegan diet for optimum health, I am strongly opposed to GMOs, vaccines, processed foods, MSG, aspartame, fluoridation and everything else that the pimps (Big Pharma, Monsanto and the large food companies) and the hookers (the doctors, the government agencies, the public health officials, and the mainstream media) thrust upon us, the tricks.
After being vaccinated with the DTP vaccine as a child I developed asthma. After taking the organic sulfur crystals (they are harvested from the pine trees in Louisiana) in November of 2008 for 10 days my asthma reversed and has not come back over 4 years later, 18 cases, so far, of autism have been reversed, as has cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, osteoarthritis, joint pain, astigmatism, gum disease, increased sexual activity, heavy metal and radiation elimination, parasite elimination, free radicals elimination, faster athletic recovery time, increased blood circulation, reduced inflammation, resistance to getting the flu, reduction of wrinkles, allergy reduction, reduced PMS and monthly period pain, nausea, migraines and so much more. And it's only possible because of the oxygen it releases that floods the cells of the body. The sulfur, as proven by the University of Southampton in England, enables the body to produce vitamin B12 and the essential amino acids. You can find out more about this incredible nutrient also on my website - www.healthtalkhawaii.com -.
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