Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Arundhati Roy in 2003

"the disparity between the rich and poor grows, the fight to corner resources is intensifying. To push through their 'sweetheart deals,' to corporatize the crops we grow, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the dreams we dream, coporate globalisation needs an international confederation of loyal, corrupt, authoritarian governments in poorer countries to push through unpopular reforms and quell the mutinies.

Coporate Globalisation – or shall we call it by its name? Imperialism – needs a press that pretends to be free. it needs courts that pretend to dispense justice.

Meanwhile, the countries of the North harden their corders and stockpile weapons of mass destruction. After all they have to make sure that it's only money, goods, patents and services that are globalised. Not the free movement of people. Not a respect for human rights. Not international treaties on racial discrimination or chemical and nuclear weapons or greenhouse gas emissions or climate change, or – God forbid – justice. So this, all this, is 'empire.' this loyal confederation, this obscene acumulation of power, this greatly increased distance between those who make the decisions and those who have to suffer them."

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