And Now They Want to Privatize the Oceans ....When Capitalists Get a Free Ride

[babylonsister]

And Now They Want to Privatize the Oceans ....
When Capitalists Get a Free Ride

By HEATHER GRAY

A few days ago I received an e-mail from a friend encouraging me to sign a petition against the possible privatization of our oceans. I was aghast even at the hint of this next privatization scheme by the world's capitalists. So it's come to this. Absolutely everything, even our oceans, is for sale. Nothing is sacred. I signed the petition with a vengeance. But as I signed I wondered why we have let these greedy capitalists run roughshod over all of us. How has this happened? Where are the demands for economic democracy and protection from greed?

As we discussed land ownership, an elder in the Philippines once told me "How can you own something given to you by God?" If there was ever a religious statement in the world with merit, it has to be this statement of wisdom from the elder.

While some in the U.S. have fought a battle against corporate greed, most of us have basically let greed have a free ride. In fact, ever since Karl Marx wrote about the tragic impact of exploitive capitalism in the 1800's during the industrial revolution, the corporate elite has fought against those who would regulate their unfettered desires for profit. The effects of which have definitely been felt. Senator Joseph McCarthy exacerbated this when he launched his anti-communist campaign in the United States in the 1950's.

Congress censured McCarthy in 1954, but his mission didn't end then - we are still feeling the dramatic, tragic and chilling effects of the McCarthy era. Ever since that period American activists have largely skirted around the issue of economic policies or even and especially discussions about economic philosophy.

As this anti-communist campaign continued to resonate in the United States and throughout the world, the world's capitalists have used it and continue to use it as a tool to protect or advance their economic interests.

more...

http://www.counterpunch.org/gray11032007.html

[paparush]

1. To be for sale, the oceans must be owned. Who is claiming to own the ocean, and thereby, the right

to sell them?

[babylonsister]

2. I don't know and wish she had elaborated. nt

[kevinmc]

6. Might have to do with the UN Treaty Bush wants .....

I think it's called the High Seas Treaty .... not 100% sure if that's the name of it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. I'm just wondering how the people who own the oceans are going to duck

from legal damages every time that someone drowns or gets eaten by one of their sharks?

If they can't control the environment, they can't own it. Plain and simple.

[izquierdista]

3. Channeling Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam

These aren't capitalists, these are greedaholics who think that they can slap a "private property" sign on anything. I bet they would even try to claim ownership of an asteroid if someone handed them a slip of paper that named it after them. Have they not progressed past the age of 30 months, that they won't stop laying claim to everything they see and then not share?

As Bugs would say when both of them got their just desserts, "What a maroon!"

[DCKit]

4. Are these huge trawlers taxed on the fish they take from our waters?

Do they pay anything for the damage they do to the seafloor as they drag their nets across it, leaving it barren off all life?

The whole system needs to be revamped and a five year moratorium on all fishing would be a good start.

[reprobate]

5. Have faith in the balance of nature. Predatory Capitalism is destroying itself.

Unfortunately, it's destroying the rest of the world with it.

We are the most consuming nation on earth and the most polluting. All resulting in global warming with terrible side effects. Effects that change not just OUR weather, but the weather in the rest of the world too.

As our empire declines and other nations see that we have become no more than a paper tiger, they just might take actions to rein us in and seek justice on the perpetrators of what will likely be the "Great Dieing".

[Shallah Kali]

7. Petition - link

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/220234249#body