SDN condemns 'Globo-Phobic' exploitation of Indigenous people

SATURDAY, 18 MARCH, MEXICO CITY -- Once again, anti-globalization protesters (called globofóbicos throughout Latin America) have flown in to an international conference to push their hackneyed agenda and spout their worn-out slogans. The venue this time, as if it matters, is the IV World Water Forum in Mexico City. As usual, the globo-phobes have enlisted indigenous and other marginalised communities to march in the streets and breathe tear gas on their behalf.

Needless to say, members of the Sustainable Development Network (SDN) – a multinational network of individuals and NGOs which advocate empowerment through decentralised institutions – condemn this approach.

Forum participant Douglas Southgate, an Ohio State University professor, today lambasted the globo-phobes for their position on water. “These people not only have no solutions to offer, but are worse than irrelevant. By confusing the issues and undermining reforms that would actually benefit the poor people, whom they claim to represent, anti-globalization activists are impeding access to water across Latin America,” he said.

The SDN stands with protestors from Mazahua, Mexico and other places who have suffered because their resources – including water - were taken without any compensation.

Southgate explained, “No one can blame indigenous communities and other marginalized groups in Latin America for being suspicious about water privatization. After all, they often have been the victims of resource theft for hundreds of years.”

However, the SDN parts company with international globo-phobes in realizing that the only guarantee against this theft is the legal recognition of everyone’s resource rights – through well-defined, transferable and enforceable property rights, for instance.

“Solidifying resource rights is far more effective, and sustainable, than occasionally mounting the barricades, as recommended by the anti-globalization crowd,” said Professor Southgate. “Sadly, these protests are undermining a serious and rational debate among highly qualified professionals in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, about how best to deliver water to people who currently do not have it,” he added.

Ends.

About the Sustainable Development Network: The Sustainable Development Network (www.sdnetwork.net) is a coalition of individuals and over 30 non-governmental organizations who believe that sustainable development is about empowering people, promoting progress, eliminating poverty and achieving environmental protection through the institutions of the free society.