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Don't Listen To The Agenda Of
World Leaders - Look At Their Actions
It is time once again for that touching annual ritual, the G8
summit. A place where the world's most powerful people move themselves
to tears. They will beat their breasts and say many worthy and
necessary things - about climate change, Africa, poverty, trade
- but one word will not leave their lips. Power. Amid the patrician
goodwill, there will be no acknowledgement that the power they
wield over other nations destroys everything they claim to stand
for.
The leaders of the G8 nations present themselves as a force for
unmitigated good. Sometimes they fail, but they seek only to make
the world a kinder place. Bob Geldof and Bono give oxygen to this
deception, speaking of the good works the leaders might perform,
or of the good works they have failed to perform - but not mentioning
the active harm. They refuse to acknowledge that what the rich
nations give with one finger they take with both hands.
Look at what is happening, right now, in the Philippines. This
country has many problems, but one stands out: just 16% of children
between four and five months old are exclusively breastfed. This
is one of the lowest documented rates on earth, and it has fallen
by a third since 1998. As 70% of Filipinos have inadequate access
to clean water, the result is a public health disaster. Every
year, according to the World Health Organisation, some 16,000
Filipino children die as a result of "inappropriate feeding practices".
These are the deaths caused only by acute results of feeding
children with substitutes for breastmilk. A summary of peer-reviewed
studies compiled by the campaigning groups Infact and Ibfan suggests
that breastfeeding also reduces the incidence of asthma, allergies,
childhood cancers, diabetes, coeliac disease, Crohn's, colitis,
poor cognitive development, obesity, cardiovascular disease, ear
infections and poor dentition. Switching from bottle to breast
could prevent 13% of all childhood deaths - a greater impact than
any other measure. Panaceas are rare in medicine, but the mammary
gland is one.
Both the government of the Philippines and the UN blame the manufacturers
of baby formula for much of the decline in breastfeeding. These
companies spend over $100m a year on advertising breastmilk substitutes
in the Philippines, which equates to more than half the department
of health's annual budget. Those who appear most susceptible to
this advertising are the poor, who are also the most likely to
be using contaminated water to make up the feed. Some spend as
much as one third of their household income on formula. Powdered
milk now accounts for more sales than any other consumer product
in the Philippines. Almost all of it is produced by companies
based in the rich nations.
Since Ferdinand Marcos was deposed in 1986, the government of
the Philippines has been trying to stand between these corporations
and vulnerable mothers. It has failed. It plugs one loophole;
the formula companies find another. Baby Milk Action, one of the
world's most impressive public health campaigns, has compiled
a dossier of breaches of the marketing code drawn up by the World
Health Organisation. Formula companies have been dispensing gifts
to both health workers and mothers, running promotional classes
and meetings and advertising their wares on television and in
magazines and papers. These practices, though mostly legal in
the Philippines, are all discouraged by the code.
In February this year, the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association
of the Philippines (Phap), which represents multinational companies,
ran a series of advertisements expressing concern for women unable
to breastfeed their children. The campaign was described by Jean
Ziegler, the UN's special rapporteur on the right to food, as
"misleading, deceptive, and malicious in intent". He claimed the
adverts "manipulate data emanating from UN specialised agencies
such as WHO and Unicef ... with the sole purpose to protect the
milk companies' huge profits, regardless of the best interest
of Filipino mothers and children".
Last year, in the hope of arresting this public health disaster,
the Philippines' department of health drew up a new set of rules.
It prohibited all advertising and promotion of infant formula
for children up to two years old. It forbade the formula companies
from giving away gifts or samples, and from providing assistance
to health workers or classes to mothers. The new rules seem stiff,
but they all come straight from the WHO's code. Phap, whose members
include most of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies,
went to the supreme court to try to obtain a restraining order.
When it failed the big guns arrived.
The US embassy and the US regional trade representative started
lobbying the Philippines government. Then the chief executive
of the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington - which represents
3m businesses - wrote a letter to the president of the Philippines,
Gloria Arroyo. The new rules, he claimed, would have "unintended
negative consequences for investors' confidence". The country's
reputation "as a stable and viable destination for investment
is at risk". Four days later, the supreme court reversed its decision
and imposed the restraining order Phap had requested. It remains
in force today. The government is currently unable to prevent
companies from breaking the international code.
So the department of health asked a senior government lawyer,
Nestor Ballocillo, to contest the order. In December Ballocillo
and his son were shot dead while walking from their home. The
case remains unsolved; Ballocillo was working on several contentious
cases at the time. Last month the US regional trade representative
paid another visit to the Philippines government. The department
of health appears to be wavering. In two weeks the campaigners
promoting breastfeeding will present their arguments to the supreme
court to try to get the order lifted, and the formula companies
will try to stop them. If the companies win, thousands of children
will continue to die of preventable diseases.
The pressure to which the US government and the US Chamber of
Commerce has subjected the government of the Philippines is at
odds with almost everything the G8 now claims to stand for: the
millennium health and education goals, the eradication of poverty,
fair terms of trade. But the G8 nations will pursue their stated
objectives only to the point at which they collide with their
own interests. Away from their sentimental summits, they pull
down everything they claim to be building.
The G8 demands action on climate change; the World Bank, controlled
by the G8 nations, funds coal burning power stations and deforestation
projects. The G8 requests better terms of trade for Africa; Europe
and the United States use the world trade talks to make sure this
doesn't happen. The G8 leaders call for the debt to be reduced;
the IMF demands that poor nations remove barriers to the capital
flows that leave them in hock. The G8 leaders simultaneously wring
their hands and wash their hands: we have done what we can; if
we have failed, it is only because of the corruption of third
world elites.
The question is no longer whether the undemocratic power the
G8 nations exert over the rest of the world can be used for good
or ill. The question is whether it will cease to be used.
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