Monsanto: Wanted for Murder in India
Well, technically it isn’t murder. And Monsanto isn’t the only culprit; they’re just the biggest.
Tens of thousands of farmers in India have committed suicide during the past few years. A large part of the problem is Monsanto’s increasing stranglehold on the world’s seed supply. Their patented seeds cost three times as much as most other seeds.
But the neatest thing about these seeds (if you’re a Monsanto executive) is that they’re designed to self-destruct at the end of the growing season. Farmers are no longer able to save their own seeds for the next planting. Now they have to buy new seeds every year — a huge expense if you’re already teetering on the edge.
Predatory bankers are the other half of the equation. Their loans and interest rates are practically guaranteed to be impossible for the farmers to repay. And then the banks get to seize their land.
One local moneylender agreed to be interviewed anonymously. He was pretty blunt: “It’s not a nice business. But you earn a lot of money. When we loan them money, we are quite sure whether or not they can pay. We know it’s going to be our land eventually.”
cross-posted at Bring It On!
Labels: India predatory bankers, Indian farmers suicide, Monsanto
posted by Tom Harper @ 3:42 PM
11 Comments:
Once again, sometimes it's perfectly legal to be a douchebag. Especially when you control the governments that write the laws.
Lew: Yup, it sure comes in handy when criminals can write the laws that "regulate" them. Presto -- not a criminal any more.
Boy, just wait until they start patenting human genes.
Oops.
Obama, Clinton, McCain, unless the real culprit of the modern world, the vast power of the moneyed class and their corporations, is curbed, civilization will continue its slow slide into oblivion.
Randal: Absolutely. We've made all these technological advances but human nature hasn't changed one bit. Imagine Attila the Hun or Ghengis Khan with a trillion-dollar corporation at his beck and call, and you've got Monsanto, Exxon, Halliburton, etc. It could be a long slide downward.
It is things like this that are swing the seeds of the death of globalization. Putin, Morales, Luna, and Chavez are only the beginning. Even in places like India, the backlash is going to come.
JR: Yup, globalization definitely needs to either die or at least be radically altered so that it isn't just the richest 1% getting richer while everybody else gets screwed. Those food riots in Haiti and a few other places are another indication of what's ahead if there aren't some changes made.
It's not a nice business. But you earn a lot of money.
I wonder if these dirt-bags want those words to be carved onto their tombstones. I wonder if that's what they want to be remembered for.
Kip: Who knows. As sleazy as that guy was, it was bizarre, chilling, to see him talking that bluntly. Cold as ice and he doesn't care who knows it. If there's such a thing as Karma, his will be a doozer.
It's all about 'the man' keeping you down. Because once your down, they make it very hard for you get out from their grasp. An American example would be the "payday loan" shark scheme. Once you start using them, their exorbitant interest rates almost guarantee they'll be seeing you again in a couple of weeks.
Vice: Yup, those loansharks sure do have a scrotal grip on their victims once they're hooked. No matter how dire somebody's situation is, there has to be a better solution than going to a loanshark. Once you're in their clutches it's hard to get out; sort of like trying to unring a bell or put the toothpaste back into the tube.
Dear Jolly Roger, although you're right about Putin, Luna,Morales and Chavez (don't forget the France and the EU banning Monsanto's Bovine Torture and Human Intestinal Cancer inducing hormone) backlashing against this evil company and the elitist politicians that back them; unfortunately no such backlash will occur in India. That's a country that the Bush administration successful hijacked by stealing an election where a very popular nationalist government was removed and the current 'Congress-Party' was placed in power (in India's 1st election using electronic voting machines); a party headed by a semi-literate Italian Roman Catholic woman by the name of Sonia Maino (Gandhi). Effectively India has been recolonized at the top and any backlash is being/will be savagely suppressed by an utterly ruthless Pagan-hating Christianized elite in New Delhi who don't flinch at the idea of slaughtering 'Pagan' people (i.e. Buddhists, Animist Tribals & Hindus). I have nothing against Christians, but Westerners need to understand than Indian Christian converts are often surrogates for Western multinationals and Western interests; they're also so fundamentalist and hateful of their previous faith and country that they make Pat Robertson, Jesse Helms or Sarah Palin look like Liberals. Since the election 25% of Indian State Governors (who are appointed not elected) are Christians (in a country where Christians make up less 2% of the population); this include Andhra Pradesh, the state that was featured in the documentary "The World According to Monsanto".
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