The World Trade Organization is about as dull and drab as a convention of tax experts. But when it met last week in Davos, Switzerland, the fusty WTO was awash in sex and politics.
Founded to promote world trade, especially that of poorer nations, the WTO is rapidly changing. The call of the wild Third World has proved irresistible. Celebrities and politicians are showing up by the carload, finding it impossible to ignore the chance for sound bites on a world stage.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair beezed in with dark warnings about global warming. His admonitions didn't seem at first blush to have anything to do with trade, but, hey, you go to war with the issue you've got. Presidents of France and Brazil were on hand to plug for global taxes on arms sales and a special AIDS tax on airline tickets to assist Africa.
Among luminaries present were actress Sharon Stone seeking funds to combat malaria. Angelina Jolie wants corporate funds to support people displaced by wars. Richard Gere is hung up on the need to help India fight AIDS. And rocker Bono just asks aid for Africa on the premise that starving states produce tyrants.
Lost among the sunbursts of do-goodism and feel-goodism was the World Trade Organization's original mission. It was founded on the theory that free trade was the surest and best way to improve the lot of poor nations. Instead, WTO seems on the way to becoming the center for benevolent handouts. Africa has already received the equivalent of four or five Marshal Plans, on the scale of the one that rebuilt Europe after World War II. It is time to face the reality that what the Dark Continent suffers from is not specifically malaria, AIDS nor malnutrition, but bad marxist government which needs curing first of all.
No, Bono, it is: tyrants produce starving states.
Founded to promote world trade, especially that of poorer nations, the WTO is rapidly changing. The call of the wild Third World has proved irresistible. Celebrities and politicians are showing up by the carload, finding it impossible to ignore the chance for sound bites on a world stage.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair beezed in with dark warnings about global warming. His admonitions didn't seem at first blush to have anything to do with trade, but, hey, you go to war with the issue you've got. Presidents of France and Brazil were on hand to plug for global taxes on arms sales and a special AIDS tax on airline tickets to assist Africa.
Among luminaries present were actress Sharon Stone seeking funds to combat malaria. Angelina Jolie wants corporate funds to support people displaced by wars. Richard Gere is hung up on the need to help India fight AIDS. And rocker Bono just asks aid for Africa on the premise that starving states produce tyrants.
Lost among the sunbursts of do-goodism and feel-goodism was the World Trade Organization's original mission. It was founded on the theory that free trade was the surest and best way to improve the lot of poor nations. Instead, WTO seems on the way to becoming the center for benevolent handouts. Africa has already received the equivalent of four or five Marshal Plans, on the scale of the one that rebuilt Europe after World War II. It is time to face the reality that what the Dark Continent suffers from is not specifically malaria, AIDS nor malnutrition, but bad marxist government which needs curing first of all.
No, Bono, it is: tyrants produce starving states.
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