Nexus - 0604 - New Times Magazine-pages

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PROJECT CENSORED News THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE NEWS PROJECT DIDN'T NEWS THAT MAKE THE NEWS The Project Censored voting panel has released its list of the 25 most significant stories that should have hit the headlines in a major way last year, but didn't. No. 1: SECRET INTERNATIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT UNDERMINES THE SOVEREIGNTY OF NATIONS ome developments in the course of history have such potential to impact nations and humans that it would be irresponsible to ignore them. Yet few mainstream news organisations have reported on the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), which would set in place a vast series of protections for foreign investment. According to reports in the alternative press, the MAI would threaten national sovereignty by giving corporations near-equal rights to nations. The MAI would thrust the world economy much closer to a system where international corporate capital would hold free rein over the democratic values and socio-economic needs of people. The MAI would also have devastating effects on a nation's legal, envi- ronmental and cultural sovereignty. It would force countries to relax or nullify human, environmental and labour protection to attract investment and trade. Necessary measures such as food subsidies, control of land speculation, agrarian reform and health and envi- ronmental standards can be challenged as "illegal" under the MAI. This same illegality is extended to community control of forests, local bans on use of pesticides, clean air stan- dards, limits on mineral, gas and oil extraction, and bans on toxic dumping. (See "MAIgalomania!", NEXUS 5/03, 5/04, April-May and June-July 1998.) No. 2: CHEMICAL CORPORATIONS PROFIT FROM BREAST CANCER ik one of the more cynical examples of corporate profit-making ingenuity, leaders in cancer treatment and information are the same chemical companies that also produce carcinogenic products. Breast Cancer Awareness Month, initiated in 1985 by the chemical conglomerate Imperial Chemical Industries (currently called Zeneca Pharmaceuticals), reveals an uncomfortably close connection between the chemical industry and the cancer research establishment. As the controlling sponsor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM), Zeneca is able to approve—or veto—any promotional or informational materials, posters, advertisements, etc. that BCAM uses. The focus is strictly limited to information regard- ing early detection and treatment, with an avoidance of the topic of prevention. Critics have begun to question why. With revenues of US$14 billion, Zeneca is among the world's largest manufacturers of pesticides, plastics and pharmaceuticals. Zeneca was instrumental in convincing the FDA to approve tamoxifen as a "prevention" measure to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in healthy women at risk. However, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer considers tamoxifen a "probable human carcinogen". (See "Tamoxifen: A Major Medical Mistake ?", NEXUS 5/04, June-July 1998.) Compiled by PROJECT CENSORED Sonoma State University 1801 East Cotati Avenue Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609, USA Telephone: +1 (707) 664 2122 E-mail: censored@sonoma.edu Website: www.sonoma.edu/projectcensored Compiled by No. 3: MONSANTO CONSOLIDATES ITS GENETICALLY MODIFIED SEEDS ver the 12,000 years that humans have been farming, a rich tradition of seed-saving has developed. Men and women choose seeds from the plants that are best adapted to their own locale and trade them within the community, enhancing crop diversity and suc- cess rates. All this may change in the next four to five years. Monsanto Corporation has been working to consolidate the world seed market, and is now poised to introduce new genetically engineered seeds that will produce only infertile seeds at the end of the farming cycle. Farmers will no longer be able to save seeds from year to year, and will be forced to purchase new seeds from Monsanto each year. JUNE — JULY 1999 NEXUS - 13 PROJECT CENSORED