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Global Governance is a challenge for democracy (but an EU opportunity)by Pascal Lamy http://www.europesworld.org/NewEnglish/Home_old/Article/tabid/191/ArticleType/articleview/ArticleID/21575/Default.aspx

Creating global governance mechanisms that are efficient but also responsive to national concerns will not be easy, says Pascal Lamy. But the WTO’s Director General and former EU Commissioner sees useful lessons to be drawn from EuropeAs with any system of power based on nation states, what is needed is “good” global governance; a system that offers a balance between leadership, efficiency and legitimacy, and which can ensure coherence.

Managing global problems by using traditional models of national democracy has important limitations. And yet the very credibility of our national democracies is at risk if global governance fails to establish its own democratic credentials because citizens around the world feel that the issues that affect them daily aren’t being adequately dealt with. In these troubled times for the European Union, it is no easy matter for it to present itself as a new paradigm of global governance.

Yet the European construction is one of the most ambitious experiments to date in supranational governance, and the way Europe has coped with the sort of challenges I've just outlined is a useful reminder that defined and organised inter-dependency among nation states is perfectly possible.The last of these lessons is that since the political demos remains essentially national, the legitimacy of global governance would be greatly enhanced if international issues become part of domestic political debates.The global economic crisis has accelerated the move towards a new architecture of global governance in what I think of as the "triangle of coherence"

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Military, Mounties Trained for the Games http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/2946

Pre-Olympics military training was supplemented by the construction of up to 10 temporary military bases between North Vancouver and Pemberton in the lead up to the Games. Increased military presence could be felt in the region from Victoria to Kamloops, part of what has been dubbed "Fortress British Columbia." In the months the Olympics began security forces received new gadgets, including: weapons, bullet-proof body armour, radar systems, surveillance equipment, and Vancouver Police-requested "tactical armoured vehicles."

The Olympics also acted as a catalyst for integration with the US, increasing the transfer and training of military and security knowledge and equipment. Phil Boyle, who studies the long-term effects of Olympic-style security systems on host cities and states, said the 2010 Olympics are “setting a precedent for harmonizing protocols between Canada and the US over military use.”

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Murders in Mining Country http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/3166

A recent report released by the Latin American Observatory for Environmental Conflicts stated there are currently 118 mining conflicts in 15 countries in Latin America. By my own count, a total of 33, or 28 per cent, involve Canadian mining companies.Kneen believes the increased violence is partly due to the mining industry's push into "more remote and sensitive areas." “The more they have to go off into new places the more they are running into conflict, and the conflict turns deadly sometimes.”

* Anti-Mining Activists Murdered The following is a list of people who have died in mining related conflict in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador since June 2009.· Marcelo Rivera—El Salvador—opposed the El Dorado mining project headed by Canadian firm Pacific Rim. Tortured and killed. Disappeared June 18, 2009, body was found 12 days later.· Adolfo Ich—Guatemala—opposed HudBay nickel mining project. Allegedly shot by security guards hired by the mine on September 27, 2009.· Martin Choc—Guatemala—shot and killed when men opened fire on a minivan he was traveling in September 28, 2009.

· Mariano Abarca Roblero—Mexico—opposed mine operated by Canadian firm Blackfire. Shot outside his home on November 27, 2009.· Ramiro Rivera Gomez—El Salvador—opposed the El Dorado mining project. Despite 24 hour police protection shot and killed when the car he was driving in was ambushed, December 20, 2009.· Dora Alicia Sorto Recinos—El Salvador—opposed El Dorado and was the wife of a man who had lost two fingers due to opposition to the mine. Murdered while eight months pregnant, December 26, 2009.

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The U.S. in Haiti: Neoliberalism at the Barrel of a Gun http://www.indypendent.org/2010/02/18/us-in-haiti/

The latest scheme, on hold for now, is a $50 million “industrial park that would house roughly 40 manufacturing facilities and warehouses,” bankrolled by the Soros Economic Development Fund (yes, that Soros). The planned location is Cité Soleil. James Dobbins, former special envoy to Haiti under President Bill Clinton, outlined other measures in a New York Times op-ed: “This disaster is an opportunity to accelerate oft-delayed reforms” including “breaking up or at least reorganizing the government- controlled telephone monopoly.

The same goes with the Education Ministry, the electric company, the Health Ministry and the courts.”It’s clear that the Shock Doctrine is alive and well in Haiti. But given the strength of the organisations populaires and weakness of the government, it will have to be imposed violently.

For those who wonder why the United States is so obsessed with controlling a country so impoverished, devastated, and seemingly inconsequential as Haiti, Noam Chomsky sums it up best: “Why was the U.S. so intent on destroying northern Laos, so poor that peasants hardly even knew they were in Laos? Or Indochina? Or Guatemala? Or Maurice Bishop in Grenada, the nutmeg capital of the world? The reasons are about the same, and are explained in the internal record. These are ‘viruses’ that might ‘infect others’ with the dangerous idea of pursuing similar paths to independent development. The smaller and weaker they are, the more dangerous they tend to be. If they can do it, why can’t we? Does the Godfather allow a small storekeeper to get away with not paying protection money?”

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Obama appoints panel to slash social programs http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/pers-f19.shtml

President Barack Obama’s establishment by executive order of a bipartisan commission on deficits on Thursday is the latest step in his administration’s attack on health care and retirement programs upon which millions of Americans depend.

The 18-member panel will propose measures to slash government spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. It will also consider a series of regressive taxes, including a consumption or value added tax, to force the working class to pay for the budget deficit. Its aim, according to the White House, will be to reduce the deficit from its current level of over 10 percent of gross domestic product to 3 percent by 2015.