200,000 suicides in a decade is an astonishingly large number. I would be interested to see Dr. Shiva's research and what India is doing about this issue.

Now to the Colombia part of the article...I am not sure if during the editing process the spelling was changed, but Colombia (all "o's") is the country. Columbia (with a "u") is the famous university in NY; record company; sportswear brand etc...

Further, interesting to see how the Green Left Weekly (do a search...not many other results appear) praises Poveda but glosses over the FARC's contributions to the internal displacement of people in Colombia: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/46076
Though, if death squads go around killing union officials for the sole reason that they are union officials, then that is also a tremendous problem (but I have to say that as it is so casually reported in the GLW article that union officials are helping to organise coca farmers, I wonder if the druglords are also not playing a part in the killings?)

http://currentglobalperceptions.blogspot.com/

Alana says:

"Eco-feminist Shiva and trade unionist Salazar share a common goal"

Oooooh yes..indeedy they do!

"World Socialism and communist utopia" but of course they don't SAY that directly....do they? Nope..that would definitely be a flie in the teapot.

Nope..they couch their nefarious and insidious quest in 'helping the poor farmers' language... and the Bible has something to say about that:

II Thess 2
9 The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10 and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.

Of course they only 'help the farmers' until they have power...THEN it all breaks loose, the true REPRESSION of Socialism/communism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror#Industrial_workers

On 16 March 1919, Cheka stormed the Putilov factory. More than 900 workers who went to a strike were arrested. More than 200 of them were executed without trial during the next few days. Numerous strikes took place in the spring of 1919 in cities of Tula, Orel, Tver, Ivanovo, and Astrakhan. The starving workers sought to obtain food rations matching those of Red Army soldiers. They also demanded the elimination of privileges for Bolsheviks, freedom of press, and free elections. All strikes were mercilessly suppressed by Cheka using arrests and executions

COMMENT:
These communist wolves in "save the small farmers/environment" sheeps clothing are only fighting 'oppression' until THEY have the power...to do the oppressing themselves. History is never wrong.

And this is all happening to our Australian farmers in a so-called "democratic way". Same principle different method of government sponsored theft. Save the Liverpool Plains.

Gees AGOREisRICH, I am very glad my boat is better balanced than your political views on South American history. I would be relying heavily on the ePerb.

At one stage in the history (now) Bolivia, saw not one male alive over sixteen years of age, such was the bloodbath of the war of independence.

Life in South America remains as usual, very transient and tragic.

Long live the “Petty Republics”.

Thanks so much for that Alana. Great stuff!

It is amazing that protectionism has been so forgotten in the public debate. All we get is Bob Katter and some half-baked and hardly spoken concerns from the Greens about the excesses of free trade. Moderate protectionism is not communism and not extremist: It is common sense. Free trade is the extreme.

Actually, I recently wrote an article about this very thing for OLO if you'd like to have a read. It's called Diversity and Self-Reliance vs Specialization and Trade.

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=11202

This is Vandana Shiva's Reith 2000 lecture:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_2000/lecture5.stm

This is about restoring knowledge and autonomy to ordinary Indian farmers and peasants in the face of a globalised corporate assault on their livelihoods...nothing more, nothing less.