WHAT? Nuclear fuel for India in exchange for 500 WAL-MART STORES THERE?

[redacted]

Am I reading this correctly? From yesterday's Democracy Now:

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: Well, two days ago the US representative -- I think it’s Mr. Burns who announced that the nuclear deal is the cutting edge, but what the United States is really seeking is agricultural markets and real estate markets, the land of the poor in India. And if you look at cities like Bombay, you look at cities like Delhi, you look at cities like Bangalore, they're exploding because there’s this global hungry finance moving in to take over the land of people, not through a market mechanism, but using the state and an old colonial law of land acquisition to grab the land by force everywhere where this is happening. There is a war going on, outside Delhi in Dadri, outside Calcutta in Singur, everywhere. Peasants are being shot and killed in order to take away the last resort and the last asset of the poor.

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.

AMY GOODMAN: We're going to have to leave it there. I want to thank you very much, Vandana Shiva, for joining us. Her new book is Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace.

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

[bloom]

1. That and Monsanto's non-reseedable seeds

and apparently Archer Daniels Midland got something out of it.

[redacted]

2. Outrageous. I'm speechless.