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Nov. 30th, 2004
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When president Vincente Fox took over in Mexico, he had a meeting with representatives of the US State Department. "President Fox", they said to him. "We want you to get your people to stop growing and shipping drugs to the USA."
"That's easy", replied Fox. "Just get your people to stop taking them."
I was thinking about this the other day in the context of protests at World Trade Organisation meetings; you know the ones - a few thousand trustafarians play tag with the police whilst smashing the windows in the nearest McDonalds and Starbucks before heading off home for a well-earned joint or two. You see, the anti-globalisation protesters are rather missing the point. It's true that Nike could probably do more to help their workers - but Nike (or insert corporation here) aren't really major villains in the great scheme of things. They have shareholders and have to be concerned about consumer protests. Other, larger, industries don't.
In 2000, a 100-foot Russian submarine loaded with a little over 200 tons of Cocaine was found by police 7,500 feet up a mountain in central Columbia. it was to be shipped to the coast and used to transport the drugs to the US. A short while later a shipment of 10,000 AK47's, which had gone missing in Jordan, showed up in Medellin: shortly after this, two members of the IRA were arrested in Cali. They were in Columbia to teach bomb making skills to local cartels in return for a large amount of heroin to be sold on the streets of Belfast.
The United Nations estimates that the total trade in illegal drugs now amounts to in excess of $400,000,000,000 every year, a total exceeded only by the international arms trade. In short, the second largest industry in the world is illegal but possesses an international distribution network second to none; Columbian drug barons have demonstrable links to the IRA, Hamas, corrupt elements within the Russian police forces, the Mafia, and more. As a globalised industry, the drugs trade is second to none. One wonders quite how many burgers McDonalds would sell or shoes Nike would shift if the US routinely bombed them.
With sales of Cocaine slipping worldwide, the Columbian drug barons have realised that product diversification is the way to go, and like Starbucks selling tea, coffee, and chocolate drinks, the cartels now grow and produce things other than Cocaine - Columbia is now the worlds biggest exporter of refined Cocaine, second biggest exporter of Marijuana (after Mexico), and third biggest exporter of Heroin (after Afghanistan and Cambodia). Police raid and shut down at least ten laboratories producing MDMA and Methamphetamine every month - that's good news until you consider they estimate that fifty new ones are set up every month.
We've yet to consider the human cost; not just the "shocking" government posters of dead teenagers who've taken the odd overdose or two, but the cost in terms of illegal production, transport, and sale of the produce. Columbia has the highest mmurder rate in the world (excluding Chechnya, but they're at war with Russia so at least they have an excuse). Slavery is common, with peasant villages routinely raided for workers to be shipped off to the jungle to work in plantations and factories. People who argue are shot or beheaded as an example to others.
Beyond that, there are the social costs in the rest of the world; with transporters and backers like the IRA, Hamas, and the Mafia, it's not like the international drugs trade is one filled with happiness and flowers for all.
I can't help but find all of this ironic. There are people on my friends list, never mind in the wider world, who will happily boycot Nestle for their baby milk marketing strategies in the third world, but who see no harm done with a couple of E's whilst out clubbing. I'm not saying people are necessarily hypocritical, but wilful ignorance is sometimes just as bad. It's odd that a four hundred billion dollar industry, with retail branches in pretty much every town in the civilised world, a global transport infrastructure, and which routinely relies on slave labour and terror to illegally produce a product known to be lethal receives so little attention from the very same people who complain because Starbucks has an anti-unionisation policy in Guatemala.
One wonders why people who happily put a brick through the windows at McDonalds are often the same people who'll sit back with a joint to congratulate themselves on a job well done. Why aren't they hoofing bricks through their local dealers window?
Oh, yes, I forgot. McDonalds doesn't routinely kneecap people who stand up to them.
But whether they be McDonalds, Nike, Starbucks or your local dealer, you have a choice whether or not to buy their wares. Consider where your money is going before buying, kids. It's not just the pocket your money is going in, but the wider social implications of your purchase.
Alternatively, you can go out, sab a hunt or two and then shout 'fascists' at a branch of McDonalds before going to the anti-globalisation rave and dropping a few tablets and maybe do a line in the toilets to keep yourself going all night.
After all, your conscience is clear, right?
"That's easy", replied Fox. "Just get your people to stop taking them."
I was thinking about this the other day in the context of protests at World Trade Organisation meetings; you know the ones - a few thousand trustafarians play tag with the police whilst smashing the windows in the nearest McDonalds and Starbucks before heading off home for a well-earned joint or two. You see, the anti-globalisation protesters are rather missing the point. It's true that Nike could probably do more to help their workers - but Nike (or insert corporation here) aren't really major villains in the great scheme of things. They have shareholders and have to be concerned about consumer protests. Other, larger, industries don't.
In 2000, a 100-foot Russian submarine loaded with a little over 200 tons of Cocaine was found by police 7,500 feet up a mountain in central Columbia. it was to be shipped to the coast and used to transport the drugs to the US. A short while later a shipment of 10,000 AK47's, which had gone missing in Jordan, showed up in Medellin: shortly after this, two members of the IRA were arrested in Cali. They were in Columbia to teach bomb making skills to local cartels in return for a large amount of heroin to be sold on the streets of Belfast.
The United Nations estimates that the total trade in illegal drugs now amounts to in excess of $400,000,000,000 every year, a total exceeded only by the international arms trade. In short, the second largest industry in the world is illegal but possesses an international distribution network second to none; Columbian drug barons have demonstrable links to the IRA, Hamas, corrupt elements within the Russian police forces, the Mafia, and more. As a globalised industry, the drugs trade is second to none. One wonders quite how many burgers McDonalds would sell or shoes Nike would shift if the US routinely bombed them.
With sales of Cocaine slipping worldwide, the Columbian drug barons have realised that product diversification is the way to go, and like Starbucks selling tea, coffee, and chocolate drinks, the cartels now grow and produce things other than Cocaine - Columbia is now the worlds biggest exporter of refined Cocaine, second biggest exporter of Marijuana (after Mexico), and third biggest exporter of Heroin (after Afghanistan and Cambodia). Police raid and shut down at least ten laboratories producing MDMA and Methamphetamine every month - that's good news until you consider they estimate that fifty new ones are set up every month.
We've yet to consider the human cost; not just the "shocking" government posters of dead teenagers who've taken the odd overdose or two, but the cost in terms of illegal production, transport, and sale of the produce. Columbia has the highest mmurder rate in the world (excluding Chechnya, but they're at war with Russia so at least they have an excuse). Slavery is common, with peasant villages routinely raided for workers to be shipped off to the jungle to work in plantations and factories. People who argue are shot or beheaded as an example to others.
Beyond that, there are the social costs in the rest of the world; with transporters and backers like the IRA, Hamas, and the Mafia, it's not like the international drugs trade is one filled with happiness and flowers for all.
I can't help but find all of this ironic. There are people on my friends list, never mind in the wider world, who will happily boycot Nestle for their baby milk marketing strategies in the third world, but who see no harm done with a couple of E's whilst out clubbing. I'm not saying people are necessarily hypocritical, but wilful ignorance is sometimes just as bad. It's odd that a four hundred billion dollar industry, with retail branches in pretty much every town in the civilised world, a global transport infrastructure, and which routinely relies on slave labour and terror to illegally produce a product known to be lethal receives so little attention from the very same people who complain because Starbucks has an anti-unionisation policy in Guatemala.
One wonders why people who happily put a brick through the windows at McDonalds are often the same people who'll sit back with a joint to congratulate themselves on a job well done. Why aren't they hoofing bricks through their local dealers window?
Oh, yes, I forgot. McDonalds doesn't routinely kneecap people who stand up to them.
But whether they be McDonalds, Nike, Starbucks or your local dealer, you have a choice whether or not to buy their wares. Consider where your money is going before buying, kids. It's not just the pocket your money is going in, but the wider social implications of your purchase.
Alternatively, you can go out, sab a hunt or two and then shout 'fascists' at a branch of McDonalds before going to the anti-globalisation rave and dropping a few tablets and maybe do a line in the toilets to keep yourself going all night.
After all, your conscience is clear, right?
