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Le Canada et l’ONU > Newton Bowles Reports Ce document est disponible seulement en anglais.
ANNEX 4 Failing Currencies, Recriminations, Who's to
Blame? Civil Liberties There is one value that should not be nuanced or deemphasized. That is the value of liberty, the freedom not of capital but of the individual human being, not the liberty to trade money and goods but to exchange ideas. How is it possible that in the global economy all emphasis is laid on the former rather than on the latter? There are countries lured and bullied into the global economy that systematically and arbitrarily strip their citizens of their dignity. In Nigeria all emphasis is laid on national security: political and military stability enforced by security troops, violently oppressing minority groups that protest against the ecological ruination of their physical environment by international oil companies and against the corruption of the ruling elites, which consider their material interests best served by these agents of the global economy. In Burma, Kenya, China and Indonesia pro-democracy advocates are thrown into prison, and dissent is effectively silenced by intimidation, exile, administrative detention, and house arrest. Why are we only asking from such governments that they introduce capital account currency convertibility as a final proof that they deserve to be integrated into the global economy, rather than insisting on freedom of expression of opinion and freedom of exchange of ideas as the hallmark of belonging to global civilization? |
