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This week my friend, Juan Pablo Hoffmaister (no, not John Hofmeister the President of Shell Oil), is participating in the 3rd MOP of the Cartagena Protocol in Brazil. The Cartagena protocol is an international agreement on the handling, transfer, and use of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). It was negotiated as a supplement to the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity.

Not sure who took this photo.

Juan Pa and a few of his friends from the College of the Atlantic are running a blog entitled “Where Did My Genes Go?“.

My partner, Matthew Carroll, is doing the digital organizing for the Ban Terminator Campaign. “The Ban Terminator Campaign seeks to promote government bans on Terminator technology at the national and international levels, and supports the efforts of civil society, farmers, Indigenous peoples and social movements to campaign against it.” I’m really proud that Matthew is doing all the digital organizing for them! It’s a big job but someone has to do it.

Tim Anderson, a young Canadian, writes about his experience and perceptions at the World Social Forum:

“Here are some more observations from Venezuela and the 2006 World Social Forum (WSF), held in Caracas. I went to Caracas in December, during the National Assembly elections (en route to Cuba, where I was studying the health system and the HIV program) and again in late January, for the WSF. I went to a lot of WSF sessions, but really I was just as interested in what was going on in Venezuela, and in the growing links between it and the other left governments of Latin America.

There was indeed a lot of blurring of lines between the ‘project’ of the WSF (‘another world is possible’) and the project of the Chavez-led, socialist MVR (Movement of the Fifth Republic). This was the criticism of both the bourgeois opposition and the anarchists. For myself, I found the blurring rather natural, for a WSF held in Venezuela. If we are looking at ‘other’ worlds, ie. other than imperialism and neoliberalism, Venezuela represents the most interesting alternative in recent decades. Here is a popular socialist party which has come to government and has maintained power through elections, has wrested control of the country’s natural resources from the oligarchy and the MNCs, confronted the empire, given a major priority to education, health and housing programs for poor people, increased levels of participation, resisted a US backed coup and is still faced by an aggressive Bush regime. It also faces an hostile domestic and international corporate media, which accuses it of every crime under the sun.

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Here is an interesting email that my friend Zoë Caron forwarded all over the place before the elections:

“FACT: in 2004 only 25% of 18-24 year old voted.

I’ve been asking a lot of people if they’re going to vote Monday – Peoplec said “No” for the following reasons – and by the end of our conversation,
most had changed their minds.

Here’s why:

1. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE TO GO TO VOTE.

Check out this site – Scroll down to the bottom right to enter your postal code & it will tell you where to go!

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My brother Alan Smith and his friend, Pat, made a brilliant online project entitled “The Undecided”. The project is designed to help young Canadians choose a political party to vote for this election season. I went through the website and figured out that I’m 85% NDP. Surprise Surprise.

Canada cannot live in isolation: our trade and security depend on our ability to cooperate, negotiate and interact globally. The economic interdependence of countries worldwide is growing and economic agreements increasingly reach into every part of our lives, yet most Canadians know little about the implications and consequences. There is a common perception that the current norms and laws of the international economic system bring disproportionate benefit to developed countries. Several United Nations and World Bank reports demonstrate that the gap between rich and poor is growing between countries and within countries. Studies done for the 10th anniversary of NAFTA show that Canadians’ standard of living is falling, that investment in our social programs is being reduced, and that more and more people are working part-time, insecure jobs with few benefits.

Photo: Elissa Smith on top of a fence in Hong Kong

Taking aggressive action on progressive policies that increase global economic equity will improve global living standards ensuring a secure and prosperous global community. Making progressive economic policies will protect the international reputation Canadians have earned for being generous, peace-promoting, fair players on the international stage. One way to make progressive economic policies is to raise culturally and internationally aware citizens.

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