[North-NV-Greens] Fwd: [usgp-dx] Bush Nominates Ann Veneman to Head UNICEF???

Sat Apr 2 23:34:35 PST 2005

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>
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>http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=2289
>Now Bush Is Picking on Kids
>03/27/2005 @ 2:09pm 
>
>Think of Ann Veneman as the Paul Wolfowitz of food
>policy.
>
>Just as Wolfowitz used his position as the Bush
>administration's deputy secretary of defense to spin
>whacked-out neoconservative theories into the
>justification for an illegal and unnecessary war, so
>Veneman used her position as the administration's
>secretary of agriculture to spin equally whacked-out
>theories about the genetic modification of food and
>free trade into disastrous policies for farmers and
>consumers.
>
>And, just as Wolfowitz is being rewarded for his
>missteps and misdeeds with a prominent new position as
>president of the World Bank, so Veneman is also moving
>onto the world stage, as the likely nominee to be the
>next executive director of the United Nations
>Children's Fund (UNICEF).
>
>When Veneman was nominated to serve as George W.
>Bush's first secretary of agriculture, this column
>detailed the many reasons why that was a horrible
>idea. A militant advocate for the genetic engineering
>of food and an unblinking proponent of the North
>American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. entry into the
>World Trade Organization, and other trade policy moves
>that were designed by agribusiness conglomerates to
>benefit agribusiness conglomerates, Veneman was on the
>wrong side of every issue that mattered to working
>farmers in the United States and abroad. And as a
>veteran beneficiary of agribusiness largesse - as a
>lobbyist, corporate board member and industry insider
>- she was not about to start listening to reason
>simply because she was briefly leaving the private
>payroll to take a government check.
>
>Veneman lived up to the most dire expectations
>regarding her nomination, creating a record of service
>to the interests of multinational corporations at the
>expense of farmers and consumers. She drew the boos of
>farmers on her rare visits to rural America. And for
>good reason. She turned the Department of Agriculture
>into an echo chamber for the advocates of free trade
>agreements that have dramatically undermined the
>income and long-term viability of U.S. farmers, and
>for Monsanto and other firms that are seeking to force
>farmers to plant genetically modified crops and inject
>cows with bovine growth hormones.
>
>Worst of all, on issues such as the discovery of mad
>cow disease in the United States and Canada, she
>seemed at every turn to be more interested in the
>business and trade impacts of those revelations than
>the very real public health issues that they raised.
>
>Veneman has stepped down as secretary of agriculture
>but, in what has now become a pattern for the Bush
>administration, her years of disservice have been
>rewarded with selection to serve as the new executive
>director of UNICEF, the U.N. agency that is
>responsible for protecting children's health, welfare
>and rights.
>
>Veneman is expected to get the job because of the
>defining role that the Bush administration plays in
>the selection process, just as U.S. pressure set up
>Wolfowitz for the World Bank position.
>
>The notion that Veneman would be placed in a position
>to decide how to feed and care for the planet's most
>destitute children is every bit as alarming as the
>notion that Wolfowitz would be charged with providing
>aid to developing countries.
>
>Indeed, as Ravi Narayan, coordinator for the global
>secretariat of the People's Health Movement, wrote in
>a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the
>members of the executive board of UNICEF: "Ms.
>Veneman's training and experience as a corporate
>lawyer for agribusiness do not qualify her for the
>substantial task of leading the agency most
>responsible for the rights of children worldwide.
>There is no evidence in her tenure as U.S. secretary
>of agriculture, secretary of the California Department
>of Food and Agriculture, or deputy undersecretary for
>international affairs of the USDA of her interest in
>the world's children or their health and well-being.
>
>"Indeed, her performance in these positions has been
>characterized by the elevation of corporate profit
>above people's right to food (U.N. Declaration of
>Human Rights, Article 25). Such a philosophy and
>practice would reverse almost six decades of UNICEF's
>proud humanitarian history and prove disastrous for
>the world's children."
>
>Just as it is vital for responsible Americans to
>object to the selection of Paul Wolfowitz to serve as
>president of the World Bank, so it is equally vital
>that we object to the selection of Ann Veneman to lead
>UNICEF.
>
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>
>
>John Nichols's new book, Against the Beast: A
>Documentary History of American Opposition to Empire
>(Nation Books) was published January 30. Howard Zinn
>says, "At exactly the when we need it most, John
>Nichols gives us a special gift--a collection of
>writings, speeches, poems and songs from thoughout
>American history--that reminds us that our revulsion
>to war and empire has a long and noble tradition in
>this country." Frances Moore Lappe calls Against the
>Beast, "Brilliant! A perfect book for an empire in
>denial." Against the Beast can be found at independent
>bookstores nationwide and can be obtained online by
>tapping the above reference or at www.amazon.com
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand