2004 articles

"We are also very excited because this is the first time that the Nobel Peace Committee would be recognising the work of an individual aimed at preserving the environment and promoting the ideas of sustainable development. This award represents her efforts, including a dogged determination to reject genetically modified foods or organisms (GMO) as a panacea for Africa food shortage". (item 1)

"being an effective environmentalist today is not just about planting trees, but working at the grassroots with the poorest communities and challenging powerful political and commercial forces." - Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Wangari Maathai

"The resistance must continue to grow, North and South, in solidarity, in order to avoid the old tactic of divide and rule." - Wangari Maathai on GMOs (item 2)

For her essay, "THE LINKAGE BETWEEN PATENTING OF LIFE FORMS, GENETIC ENGINEERING AND FOOD INSECURITY"
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=4497
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1.ERA Congratulates Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Godwin Haruna
This Day (Lagos, Nigeria), October 14, 2004
http://allafrica.com/stories/200410140510.html

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) has congratulated Kenya born Nobel Peace Prize winner, Dr. Wangari Maathai in the area of environmental protection, natural resource conservation and human rights.

In a statement, ERA/FoEN Executive Director, Mr. Nnimmo Bassey said: "We are particularly delighted by this award because it represents the first time in history that a woman from Africa would be winning the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize since its inception in 1901.

"We are also very excited because this is the first time that the Nobel Peace Committee would be recognising the work of an individual aimed at preserving the environment and promoting the ideas of sustainable development. This award represents her efforts, including a dogged determination to reject genetically modified foods or organisms (GMO) as a panacea for Africa food shortage".

The body said Maathai truly deserves the award since her track records in the area of environmental activism, human rights advocacy and natural resource conservation speak for themselves.
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2.Nobel de la paix 2004
Le nouvel esclavage du vivant
Selva Appasawmy
Le Mauricien, 12 Octobre 2004 [Mauritian press]
http://www.lemauricien.com/mauricien/

L'octroi du prix Nobel de la paix à Wangari Maathai est un événement à célébrer pour l'Afrique entière pour plusieurs raisons et c'est malheureux que la presse mauricienne dans son ensemble n'en ait pas fait grand état.

Parmi les raisons de célébrer, il y a le fait que c'est la première fois que ce prix a été décerné à une femme africaine et aussi le fait que cette femme mène en ce moment une lutte contre un des plus grands dangers qui guette l'Afrique, comparable à l'esclavage et à la colonisation (d'après la lauréate elle même) - Et ce danger n'est rien d'autre que le brevetage du vivant et la biogénétique.

Dans un article intitulé The linkage between patenting of life forms, genetic engineering and food insecurity, elle nous explique comment, tout au long de la période de colonisation, les pays du Sud ont souffert de l'accaparement de leurs richesses, souvent avec la complicité d'autochtones corrompus : " Traders have appropriated other people's resources, including human resources and territories, as free goods for centuries, usually by buying-off misinformed, unsuspecting or corrupted nationals. "

Et elle nous dit que la nouvelle forme de conquête aujourd'hui est le brevetage du vivant et la biotechnologie, " Biotechnology and patenting of life forms is now the new frontier for conquest, and Africa ought to be wary because a history of colonialism and exploitation is repeating itself. "

Prof Wangari Maathai nous raconte ensuite les astuces utilisées par les entreprises privées d'aujourd'hui pour mettre le grappin sur notre héritage à tous : " Corporations are trying to appropriate life through the same rules which have governed the world of business and profits in the past. Industry has in fact already managed to gain private monopoly rights (patents) on some living materials, by distorting the original concept and intention of patenting - as life is obviously not an invention. This distortion has been deliberately created by blurring the meaning of invention so that corporations can obtain private monopolies on mere discoveries of biological materials and their properties, such as umbilical chord blood cells and basmati rice. "

Ensuite elle nous explique les dangers de la biotechnologie pour les communautés et les fermiers : " This issue is critical because patenting is being applied to seeds, which are the basis of societies'food systems. Patenting of living material is also being called biopiracy because corporations get genetic material from the farmers and local communities, who are constantly developing new combinations and characteristics. This old tradition has increased biodiversity, productivity and innovation over the centuries, without using genetic engineering technology or claiming private ownership of such resources, which are considered a common heritage.

" The idea that African farmers should have to buy seeds, developed from their own biological materials, from transnational corporations, because such companies have given themselves the exclusive rights to those seeds, is outrageous. The rights and the capacity of communities to feed themselves would be completely undermined, if industry managed to assert its self-given rights. "

Le contrôle

Prof. Wangari élabore sur la façon dont les multinationales utilisent la biotechnologie pour contrôler les fermiers et en font leurs 'esclaves' : " It is precisely in order to control the traditional freedom of farmers to develop, use and exchange seeds, that the agrochemical industry has now developed what has been dubbed the terminator technology. This genetically engineered technology ensures that seed injected with the suicide gene does not germinate after harvesting. This means the farmers will have to buy seed each season, and cannot develop their own seed. "

Prof. Maathari nous donne un avertissent, qui devrait nous donner froid dans le dos : " Under these circumstances, if we thought that slavery and colonialism were gross violations of human rights, we have to wake up to what is awaiting us down the secretive road of biopiracy, patenting of life and genetic engineering. Genocide from hunger, such as we have not yet seen, becomes a haunting possibility. "

Le détenteur du prix Nobel de la paix 2004 nous dit ensuite comment l'histoire est pleine d'instances où les crimes contre l'humanité ont été justifié par des intérêts commerciaux : " History has many records of crimes against humanity, which were also justified by dominant commercial interests and governments of the day. Despite protests from citizens, social justice for the common good was eroded in favour of private profits. Today, patenting of life forms and the genetic engineering which it stimulates, is being justified on the grounds that it will benefit society, especially the poor, by providing better and more food and medicine. But in fact, by monopolising the raw biological materials, the development of other options is deliberately blocked. Farmers, therefore, become totally dependent on the corporations for seeds."

Prof. Maathai termine en nous disant que la résistance contre les OGM et le brevetage du vivant doit continuer en solidarité Nord / Sud pour empêcher la politique de divide and rule de gagner la partie : " The resistance must continue to grow, North and South, in solidarity, in order to avoid the old tactic of divide and rule."