Nexus - 0603 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GLOBAL NEWS ... NEWS Schwartz, for dumping US$2.2 million into Clinton/Gore and Democratic Party coffers. The Clinton administration responded by approving a human rights waiver to clear the way for technology transfers to China. * Mobil, for supporting the Indonesian military in crushing an indigenous uprising in Aceh province and allegedly allowing the military to use company machinery to dig mass graves. * Monsanto, for introducing genetically engineered foods into the foodstream with - out adequate safety testing and without labelling, thus exposing consumers to unknown risks. * Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, for pleading guilty to felony crimes for dump- ing oil in the Atlantic Ocean and then lying to the Coast Guard about it. * Unocal, for engaging in numerous acts of pollution and law violations to such a degree that citizens in California petitioned the state's attorney-general to revoke the company's charter. ¢ Wal-Mart, for crushing small-town America, for paying low, low wages (a huge percentage of Wal-Mart workers are eligible for food stamps), for using Asian child labour and for homogenising the population. ¢ Warner-Lambert, for marketing a hazardous diabetes drug, Rezulin, which has been linked to at least 33 deaths due to liver injuries. (Source: Multinational Monitor, www. essential.org/monitor/monitor.html) mistrust ignited into widespread opposition. From the United States to India, from Canada to New Zealand and all across Europe, an ad hoc coalition of environmentalists, local councils, health workers, human-rights campaigners, trade unionists, aid agencies and church groups began to band together, using the Internet to coordinate their campaigns. The Internet became the vehicle for protesters to lobby and exchange information across the globe. The MAI started wallowing under sustained attack from all quarters until finally, in 1998, the French Government pulled out of the MAI talks altogether. Media analysts and Internet observers have unanimously concluded that it was the Internet that facilitated the death of the MAI (in its most recent incarnation). (Sources: The Independent on Sunday, /0 Jan 1999; Guardian Weekly, 7 Feb 1999) country will be able to tap into the Europol databank. A French policeman could thus discover private aspects of a German person's life and behave more freely with that information than a German policeman. The arrest of a Belgian policeman on suspicion of selling information from the Schengen information system to the Mafia sent alarm bells ringing in Germany. Europol officers cannot, as yet, function in the manner of a federal police force, and the head of Europol is a well-respected German detective. However, the data question is likely to become a flashpoint. (Source: by Roger Boyes in Bonn; The Sunday Times, London, 3 January 1999) THE TEN WORST CORPORATIONS OF 1998 A ccording to the outspoken journal ultinational Monitor, these were the 10 worst corporations of 1998: * Chevron, for continuing to do busi- ness with a brutal dictatorship in Nigeria and for alleged complicity in the killing of civilian protesters. * Coca-Cola, for hooking children on sugar and soda water. Today in the USA, teenage boys and girls drink twice as much soda pop as milk, whereas 20 years ago they drank nearly twice as much milk as soda. * General Motors, for becoming an integral part of the Nazi war machine and then, years later when documented proof emerges, denying it. * Loral and its chief executive Bernard PRIVACY CONCERNS OVER EUROPOL'S COMPUTER lhe new year opens the door not only for the euro but also for Europol, the fledgling 15-nation police intelligence agency that will use the first part of its new computer system to fight crime across the European Union. The Europol Computer System, or TECS, is a policeman's dream—and a nightmare for civil rights activists. At present, the computer is defined as an interim system but will soon provide the police agency with full analytical data not only on convicted criminals and suspects but also victims, potential victims, those with suspected criminal contacts and probably even witnesses. Data on health and race can also be stored. Eventually, TECS will be expanded to provide a more general databank with a capacity to store information on about a million or more people. The German Government—especially the Green Party—has become very nervous about its introduction. Germany has the strictest data protection laws in Europe, and the question of access to the stored information is particularly sensitive. The suggestion of storing information on is particularly controversial. first, only Europol officials— nationally delegated detectives who work in The Hague—will be able to use the database. When the system expands, however, policemen from every European LIFE WITHOUT COMPUTERS MY GOD, HONEY, WHERE DID ALL THIS COME FROM? —ZyN_ WZ = XN = \ze- AB SEA APRIL —- MAY 1999 NEXUS -7