"the U.S.-India Nuclear Deal, Wal-Mart in India and More"

[bloom]

From an interview on Democracy Now today:

VANDANA SHIVA: And something Americans don't know much about, the nuclear deal with India has a twin agreement, and that twin agreement is on agriculture. It’s called the Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture, and on the board of this agreement are Monsanto, ADM and Wal-Mart. So a grab of the seed sector by Monsanto, of the trade sector by the giant agribusiness, and the retail sector, which is 400 million people in India, by Wal-Mart. These are issues that are preoccupying us for about democracy in India right now...

You know, the nuclear deal with India, in fact, shows the double standards of US nuclear policy, because for the same things that Iran does -- Iran is axis of evil -- but India here, through this nuclear agreement, is being told, we will separate civilian use and military use. Military use will be India's sovereign decision. I don't think it will be India's sovereign decision, because I think in this deal is a strategic use of India for Asia, for a containment for China. But in addition to that, there is turning India into a nuclear market: a sale of nuclear technologies, of nuclear fuel.

And I think we need to contextualize this in the context of the climate debates. Climate change has made us recognize that we can't keep messing up the atmosphere and pumping more carbon dioxide. But nuclear doesn't become clean automatically just because carbon dioxide has destabilized the climate. Nuclear is being offered as a clean development mechanism. And not only will it spread nuclear risks and hazards in India, it will also allow corporations, like General Electric and others who pollute with carbon dioxide, as well as them, get quotas through emissions trading and markets for nuclear technology....

AMY GOODMAN: So explain further this corollary that involves these other large multinational corporations. And why is it part of the nuclear deal?

VANDANA SHIVA: ...The agreements, nuclear and agricultural agreements, came out of a July visit of our prime minister in 2005, were then moved forward in the March visit of President Bush to India, which saw huge protests, by the way -- I’m sure it wasn't covered -- but huge protests, where these deals, as well as the Iraq war, were the issue in India. And the two are twin programs. They are twin programs about a market grab and a security alignment...

AMY GOODMAN: You mentioned Wal-Mart. They have just announced they’re going to be opening 500 stores in India, the first to open in August of 2007.

VANDANA SHIVA: We’ve been organizing the unorganized retail sector of India. The retail sector of India, to me, is the ultimate practice of democracy. When you go into a tiny vegetable market, the women put out their mats, they’ve brought the tomatoes they’ve grown outside the city, put it down, maybe five kilos of tomatoes, sell it for the day, go back home, feed their children. It’s a community market. 400 people dependent on retail, 14 million people dependent on little hawking, you know, a tiny moveable cart, which goes door-to-door. 90% of our vegetables come to our doorstep. We don't have to go anywhere.

Wal-Mart’s entry into India, 500 stores, cannot go hand-in-hand with the giant retail economy of India, which is giant not by being one big store, but by having millions of small sellers. And that is what has created the vibrance of India’s markets, the democracy in India’s markets.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/13/1451229

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So it sounds like the US made a deal where India gets nukes and Monsanto, ADM (I guess that's Archer Daniels Midland) and Wal-Mart get to screw up the country.

[thingfisher]

1. Yes indeed, India gets to reap the benefits of globalization!!

What will happen to the millions of Indians who depend on the small scale market economy that is described here? Maybe 500 Wal-Marts wont make that big a dent in it?
There seems to be no stopping the mega corporations from spreading like a fungus to every corner of the globe.

A Frontline program on China last night highlighted the plight of China's workers who produce the goods hawked by Wal-Mart: 14 hour days, 12 girls to a room in factory dorms, $200 a month wages, no health care or unions, no insurance or workers comp, no health regulations. No wonder American industry cannot compete with China!

[Printer70]

2. This guy is a dunce and a sell-out

Practically everything he says is wrong. First, the initiative on agriculture had $8M of funding. Not a lot that can be done with $8M in terms of benefitting any corporations. Second, the nuclear deal does not highlight a "double standard"; we tolerate the nuclear program in India just as we do the one in Israel- because they are democratic allies. His third argument is by far the most irrational. He says by using nuclear energy, this will INCREASE co2 emissions. Whatever he's smoking, I want it. The total market, worldwide, for emissions trading is $400M. And this is unrelated to nuclear; the market exists for emissions trading whether they build a nuclear program or not. So it doesn't impact or incentivize GE or whomever to pollute more than they do today.