the GM monster: Haitian Farmers to Burn Donated Monsanto Seeds

[brianct]

'“A new earthquake” is what peasant farmer leader Chavannes Jean-Baptiste of the Peasant Movement of Papay (MPP) called the news that Monsanto will be donating 60,000 seed sacks (475 tons) of hybrid corn seeds and vegetable seeds, some of them treated with highly toxic pesticides. The MPP has committed to burning Monsanto’s seeds, and has called for a march to protest the corporation’s presence in Haiti on June 4, for World Environment Day.

In an open letter sent of May 14, Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, the Executive Director of MPP and the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papay (MPNKP), called the entry of Monsanto seeds into Haiti “a very strong attack on small agriculture, on farmers, on biodiversity, on Creole seeds…, and on what is left our environment in Haiti.”[1] Haitian social movements have been vocal in their opposition to agribusiness imports of seeds and food, which undermines local production with local seed stocks. They have expressed special concern about the import of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

For now, without a law regulating the use of GMOs in Haiti, the Ministry of Agriculture rejected Monsanto’s offer of Roundup Ready GMO seeds. In an email exchange, a Monsanto representative assured the Ministry of Agriculture that the seeds being donated are not GMO.

Elizabeth Vancil, Monsanto’s Director of Development Initiatives, called the news that the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture approved the donation “a fabulous Easter gift” in an April email.[2] Monsanto is known for aggressively pushing seeds, especially GMO seeds, in both the global North and South, including through highly restrictive technology agreements with farmers who are not always made fully aware of what they are signing. According to interviews by this writer with representatives of Mexican small farmer organizations, they then find themselves forced to buy Monsanto seeds each year, under conditions they find onerous and at costs they sometimes cannot afford.'

etc
Haitian Farmers to Burn Donated Monsanto Seeds (http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=19229)

[Imperius Dictatio]

Stupid move on there part, The Fragging Loonies.

[Shatnerpossum]

Well, if you refuse to take free help, your starvation is solely your own fault. Seems like Haiti wouldn't be so damn picky.

[brianct]

ITS no surprise that shat and the Dictator show contempt for the haitians. How like the RDA...'we give them schools roads...etc...'Haitian farmers understand the dangers of GM seed...esp when they wil be forced to pay Mosanto for reusing them. The goal of corporations is to control everything.

just ask Percy Schmeiser...
http://www.percyschmeiser.com/conflict.htm

The US serves corporations like Monsanto...it uses USAID as ameans to 'open markets' for their paymasters:

'From the standpoint of the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Haiti was the perfect candidate for this neoliberal facelift. The entrenched poverty of the Haitian masses could be used to force them into low-paying jobs sewing baseballs and assembling other products.

But USAID had plans for the countryside too. Not only were Haiti's cities to become exporting bases but so was the countryside, with Haitian agriculture also reshaped along the lines of export-oriented, market-based production. To accomplish this USAID, along with urban industrialists and large landholders, worked to create agro-processing facilities, even while they increased their practice of dumping surplus agricultural products from the U.S. on the Haitian people. '
What You're Not Hearing about Haiti (But Should Be) | CommonDreams.org (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/14-2)

Do american politicians or corporate mercenaries care for the haitians/na'vi? Not unless they can make money out of them. thats what AVATAR is about...

[Shatnerpossum]

Ever hear of Occam's Razor? Because it appears you haven't. Frankly you need to get off the conspiracy bandwagon. You've made yourself the laughing stock of the forum, we all take a look at some nutty title and immediately we laugh and say the nut is at it again. Now you have the power to change people's perceptions of you, by taking a polite, well-sourced, moderate approach. And not insulting posters who disagree with you would also help.

There's my advice.

[RDAGoon]

More communist propaganda it sounds like.

[Imperius Dictatio]

Of course it's propaganda.
I dont agree with Monsanto's policy of making farmers pay for continued use of seeds.
But on the other hand it IS Monsanto's product and they do need to get money off of it.

And further there is nothing wrong with Gene-Engineered crops.

[applejuice]

Considering how things are there, to waste food is just insane. It's outrageous.

[Imperius Dictatio]

That was my intial point.
Of course the sheer lunacy comes from them BURNING over 475 tons worth of viable seeds. It's insane.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIvNopv9Pa8

This video should work well enough to dispell Briancts rabid insanity.

Edit: Norman Ernest Borlaug has done more good for mankind then any Eco-Nut

[Aihwa]

If they don't want the help, don't give them. Take the damned seeds back and give them to somebody who wants help.

[brianct]

Ever hear of Occam's Razor? Because it appears you haven't. Frankly you need to get off the conspiracy bandwagon. You've made yourself the laughing stock of the forum, we all take a look at some nutty title and immediately we laugh and say the nut is at it again. Now you have the power to change people's perceptions of you, by taking a polite, well-sourced, moderate approach. And not insulting posters who disagree with you would also help.

There's my advice.

we? You mean the board is populated with trolls?

This from a hater of AVATAR...you can be sure the Na'vi would also reject GM seed 'aid'..the object of the 'aid' is to spread GM pollution, insuring that Monanto has total contol of food in haiti.

for more on The MONSTER:
YouTube - Monsanto Indian Farmer Suicide (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Av6dx9yNiCA)

and:
'As for Bt brinjal, it has always been a shining example of the public–private partnership model and North–South cooperation advocated by the promoters of GMOs. The project was designed by the US government through a programme funded by USAID and led by Cornell University, called ABSP II. 4 The partners involved include Monsanto’s Indian avatar, MAHYCO, 5 which has licensed Monsanto’s patented Bt genes to the project, India’s Tamil Nadu Agriculture University (TNAU), the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad, and the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research in Varanasi. The project also extends to Bangladesh, where the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute and the University of the
Philippines–Los Baños have already been conducting field trials of Bt brinjal under memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with MAHYCO.
GM in the public eye in Asia (http://www.gmwatch.org/latest-listing/1-news-items/12228-gm-in-the-public-eye-in-asia)
USAID is a loyal servant of the RDAs of the world

so whos the real muggins, shat?

[brianct]

its no surprise applejuice is also backing GM pollution...hes a supporter of the worlds RDAs....fans of AVATAR? not really..But Evo Morales is.

[Imperius Dictatio]

And it's no surprise at all on how you ignored my video and instead bring your BS, Trolling and Ad Hominen attacks into this to make up for your low standing and lack of hard evidence.

[brianct]

hi dictator. i suggest you read my above post on GM and mosanto...and hows that job application for a cozy position with RDA coming?

[Aihwa]

I made a simple statement. If they do not want help, give it to somebody else. Letting them destroy, that much seed, which in turn would yield food for many a starving person in the world, is a crime against humanity.

[Imperius Dictatio]

hi dictator. i suggest you read my above post on GM and mosanto...and hows that job application for a cozy position with RDA coming?

Listen here ya Eco-Nut, Norman Borlaug one of the worlds greatest humanitarian's SUPPORTED this technology as one of the only ways to help the starving peoples of the 3rd World.

And on the Video, I call BS. Theres no way any of that stuff would have gotten through given how strict testing is on this stuff. For ****s sake the ****ing EPA is anal enough to be putting a ****ing Dust quota on American Farmers. I think think they wouldnt let Monsanto get away with this.
Also I'm a farmer and I've my family has been using industrial pesticides and chemicals for years and I've never gotten sick. Hells Bells my 74 year old Grandfather has been drenched in this stuff before and he's still alive and kicking.

[brianct]

Norma Borlaugs n o humanitaroan..hes just a nutjob workking to destroy agriculture, by making peasant farmesr dependent on Monsanto./

your hero calls Rachel Carson 'evil':

'Through his work on breeding a high-yielding dwarf wheat, Borlaug became a key player in the Green Revolution, for which he was awarded a Nobel prize in 1970. Plants bred to increase yields when used in combination with chemical fertilizers proved highly effective in increasing food production. Borlaug has always been an aggressive defender of this kind of intensive agriculture, once describing Rachel Carson, the scientist whose book Silent Spring gave birth to the environmental movement, as 'an evil force'[2]. '
Norman Borlaug - SpinProfiles (http://spinprofiles.org/index.php/Norman_Borlaug)

we can blame some of ther farmer suicides in india on Norm


'The Indian physicist, activist and organic farmer Dr Vandana Shiva made an extensive critique of Borlaug's "Green Revolution" in her book, The Violence of the Green Revolution: Ecological Degradation and Political Conflict (Zed Books, 1991). Shiva states that while Punjab was considered the great success of the Green Revolution, after two decades of the Green Revolution, Punjab is

neither a land of prosperity, nor peace. It is a region riddled with discontent and violence. Instead of abundance, Punjab has been left with diseased soils, pest-infected crops, waterlogged deserts and indebted and discontented farmers.[7]

Shiva says that though the problems in the Punjab have been presented as being due to conflicts between ethnic and religious groups, aspects of the conflicts and violence there can be traced to the "ecological and political demands of the Green Revolution as a scientific experiment in development and agricultural transformation."[8]

Commenting on claims made by those who praise the Green Revolution as a triumph of science, Shiva writes that science "takes on a dual character. It offers technological fixes for social and political problems, but delinks itself from the new social and political problems it creates."[9] '

(DITTO)

keep it up dictator...The Na'vi know what to think of you and Norm.

[Devourment]

Norma Borlaugs n o humanitaroan..hes just a nutjob workking to destroy agriculture, by making peasant farmesr dependent on Monsanto./

your hero calls Rachel Carson 'evil':

'Through his work on breeding a high-yielding dwarf wheat, Borlaug became a key player in the Green Revolution, for which he was awarded a Nobel prize in 1970. Plants bred to increase yields when used in combination with chemical fertilizers proved highly effective in increasing food production. Borlaug has always been an aggressive defender of this kind of intensive agriculture, once describing Rachel Carson, the scientist whose book Silent Spring gave birth to the environmental movement, as 'an evil force'[2]. '
Norman Borlaug - SpinProfiles (http://spinprofiles.org/index.php/Norman_Borlaug)

we can blame some of ther farmer suicides in india on Norm


'The Indian physicist, activist and organic farmer Dr Vandana Shiva made an extensive critique of Borlaug's "Green Revolution" in her book, The Violence of the Green Revolution: Ecological Degradation and Political Conflict (Zed Books, 1991). Shiva states that while Punjab was considered the great success of the Green Revolution, after two decades of the Green Revolution, Punjab is

neither a land of prosperity, nor peace. It is a region riddled with discontent and violence. Instead of abundance, Punjab has been left with diseased soils, pest-infected crops, waterlogged deserts and indebted and discontented farmers.[7]

Shiva says that though the problems in the Punjab have been presented as being due to conflicts between ethnic and religious groups, aspects of the conflicts and violence there can be traced to the "ecological and political demands of the Green Revolution as a scientific experiment in development and agricultural transformation."[8]

Commenting on claims made by those who praise the Green Revolution as a triumph of science, Shiva writes that science "takes on a dual character. It offers technological fixes for social and political problems, but delinks itself from the new social and political problems it creates."[9] '

(DITTO)

keep it up dictator...The Na'vi know what to think of you and Norm.

Is telling other people that Na'vi hate them/they don't understand avatar literally the only thing you can come up with? You barely responded to him, you just quoted a bunch of junk you found on the internet and added a few sentence fragments.

[Aihwa]

keep it up dictator...The Na'vi know what to think of you and Norm.


I really thought the whole "Help thy neighbor bit" (or whatever it is, its in there somewhere) was pretty big for the Na'vi.


I guess we could just sit on our hands and let them starve. Its always an option. A heartless bastard option, but an option nonetheless.

[brianct]

more on Norm borlaug...a walking environmental disaster:

'Such was their blind faith in Borlaug's technology that agricultural scientists refused to see the flipside which was clearly evident through the deterioration of plant ecology and the destruction to the environment. Several years after Rachel Carlson published her historic work The Silent Spring, I asked Borlaug whether he had read it: "She is an evil force," he reacted angrily, adding: "These are the people who do not want to eradicate hunger." I didn't agree with him, and asked him why agricultural scientists can't accept that chemical pesticides kill. "You too, Sharma," he quipped, and then replied: "Remember, pesticides are like medicines. They have to be applied carefully and safely."

Borlaug remained steadfast all through on the role of chemical fertiliser and pesticides. When the Third World Academy in Italy presented a paper on how Brazil had achieved remarkable crop yields in soybean and sugarcane without applying chemical nitrogen, he didn't agree. It was only after he travelled to Brazil and saw for himself the crop yields that he at least acknowledged the reality. Initially he even rejected biotechnology as a "waste of time".

He would often tell me that if India had not followed the Green Revolution technology, the country would have had to bring an additional 58 million hectares under cultivation to produce the same quantity of food that was being produced by the high-yielding wheat. My argument to this was that although the country saved 58 million hectares, 40 years after Green Revolution close to 120 million hectares face varying degrees of degradation. Borlaug never pardoned me for espousing the cause of long-term sustainability in agriculture. In fact, knowingly or unknowingly he did support the cause of corporate control of agriculture.'
A friend to farmers - dnaindia.com (http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/main-article_a-friend-to-farmers_1291991)

[Imperius Dictatio]

Are you honestly calling a man who probably saved 1 billion human lives from starvation.

Also ignoring the fact that the Indian gave Norman there second highest civilian honor in 2006 for his aid in helping India.
Also ignoring the the fact that Punjab is the most successful state in India with the lowest level of hunger, has the best quality of life in india, has the best infrastructure in india, all of Punjabs villages have acsess to electricty and has been given the National Productivity Award for agriculture extension services for consecutively ten years from 1991-92 to 1998-99 and 2001 to 2003-04

And forgetting the fact that Vandana Shiva is quite a freaking whackjob who's done jack **** for humanity compared to Old Norman, sorry I'll stick with the guy who saved nearly 1 billion human lives from starvation.

[brianct]

e hasnt saved a billion people..whats hes done is help destroy agriculture by handing it over to RDA corporations like monsanto, and contributing to farmer suicide...

monsanto and Borlaug...a marriage made in hell:

Monsanto ~ Dr. Norman Borlaug (http://www.monsanto.com/borlaug/)

farmer suicides and monsanto: the horrible story
YouTube - Monsanto: Farmer Suicides in India (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeboa4TR5Qo)

[Imperius Dictatio]

Okay.
First link.
Whats the problem? So Monsanto has info on Norman on their website?

Second Link.
Sounds more like Indian Farmer FAIL (A bit of black humor on my part.) more then anything. (Seriously they didnt irrigate there crops? Irrigation the things thats been around since the 6th millennium BC? and has been integral?) It seems to me more like an issue with proper education,not reading the instructions more then anything.

And on that old link you posted. The dnaindia one? You cherrypicked. Lets look at the last pharagraph.

"Although the Green Revolution bypassed small farmers, Borlaug knew and appreciated the role farmers played. "Be warned, Sharma," he told me during a visit to Pantnagar University in Uttarakhand: "When people stop talking about farmers, when people fail to recognise their role in feeding the country, be sure there is something terribly wrong happening in agriculture." These prophetic words hold true today. In India, it no longer hurts when farmers commit suicide or quit agriculture. Farmers have disappeared from the economic radar screen of the country. This is a clear pointer to the terrible agrarian crisis that prevails."

So the writer of that piece presents Norman in a better light. Interesting on how you ignored that little bit to prop up your arguement.

[caveman]

Hey guys, cool it. Seriously, if you disaagree that's fine but please respect eachother. Honestly, I can't take any of you seriously when you slam eachother like that. Your negativity negates your arguments.

My take: The Haitians are a starving nation. There must be a legitamate reason why they would burn all of those seeds. Whatever the reason is though, its their choice. Personally I respect their choice.

[brianct]

Hey guys, cool it. Seriously, if you disaagree that's fine but please respect eachother. Honestly, I can't take any of you seriously when you slam eachother like that. Your negativity negates your arguments.

My take: The Haitians are a starving nation. There must be a legitamate reason why they would burn all of those seeds. Whatever the reason is though, its their choice. Personally I respect their choice.
heres why...in india...
YouTube - Monsanto: Farmer Suicides in India (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeboa4TR5Qo)

Haitian farmers will be indebted to Monsanto..and they too will start committig suicide

[brianct]

Okay.
First link.
Whats the problem? So Monsanto has info on Norman on their website?

Second Link.
Sounds more like Indian Farmer FAIL (A bit of black humor on my part.) more then anything. (Seriously they didnt irrigate there crops? Irrigation the things thats been around since the 6th millennium BC? and has been integral?) It seems to me more like an issue with proper education,not reading the instructions more then anything.

And on that old link you posted. The dnaindia one? You cherrypicked. Lets look at the last pharagraph.

"Although the Green Revolution bypassed small farmers, Borlaug knew and appreciated the role farmers played. "Be warned, Sharma," he told me during a visit to Pantnagar University in Uttarakhand: "When people stop talking about farmers, when people fail to recognise their role in feeding the country, be sure there is something terribly wrong happening in agriculture." These prophetic words hold true today. In India, it no longer hurts when farmers commit suicide or quit agriculture. Farmers have disappeared from the economic radar screen of the country. This is a clear pointer to the terrible agrarian crisis that prevails."

So the writer of that piece presents Norman in a better light. Interesting on how you ignored that little bit to prop up your arguement.

the problem is told to us in that youtube audio
...Borlaug must have been incredibly naieve(like you_) if he belieed a corporation was some sort of godsend to farmers...
Borlaugs chemical an d pesticide fixation has alse polluted the Gulf of Mexico:

'

Pesticides contribute to ocean "Dead Zones"

The journal Science reports the number of Dead Zones -- vast regions of the ocean where life has been poisoned by chemical run-off released from the Earth's polluted rivers -- has more than tripled in the past 20 years, soaring from 162 maritime deserts to 405 and covering 95,000 square miles. A single Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico (poisoned in large measure by farm chemicals, fertilizers and municipal sewage pouring from the mouth of the Mississippi River) has now reached a record 8,000 square miles -- the size of New Jersey. Because of the importance of the oceans in maintaining the planetary food-chain, the spread of chemically devastated Dead Zones now constitutes one of the world's gravest environmental threats -- on par with global warming. College of William and Mary ecologist Robert Diaz says half of the world's Dead Zones form from spring-thaw-to-autumn but about 8% now last year-round. According to TIME magazine, the U.S. "could all but eliminate" the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone by giving farmers an incentive to plant crops like winter wheat to absorb nitrogen fertilizers that would otherwise wash into the seas. However, Time adds, "such changes to farm management aren't likely to be cheap or easy to implement." '
Blast rocks Bayer's U.S. plant; Ghana bans 25 pesticides; Ocean Dead Zones, Bayer sued for bee deaths; Eco-wine; more | Pesticide Action Network North America (http://www.panna.org/resources/panups/panup_20080904#4)

thanks Norm and Monsanto...youre contributing to earth becoming one big 2154 dead zone

[Imperius Dictatio]

Please provide factual evidence that Norman supported Monsanto.
Also please point to where I've supported Monsanto? As I've said before some of their practices are quite harsh. (Though do not break the law.)

And once again you throw out a red herring to cover for you.

[brianct]

mosantos broken then law and human lives for decades..and bee involved in lawsuits...but corporate capiltalism tries to protect them thru varous legal mechanisms.

Monsanto should have had its charter pulled decades ago..left to its devices it will wreck much more havoc on people adn the earth

[Imperius Dictatio]

I meant buisness practices such as persecuting farmers for re-using seeds.(Not the Companies History as a whole as they have broken the law and have had some court time as well as large fines to pay for breaking the law.) Though I dont agree with being quite that harsh. I can understand they're trying to turn a profit.

[brianct]

I meant buisness practices such as persecuting farmers for re-using seeds.(Not the Companies History as a whole as they have broken the law and have had some court time as well as large fines to pay for breaking the law.) Though I dont agree with being quite that harsh. I can understand they're trying to turn a profit.

thats the big problem..the PROFIT motive...thats whats causing all these problems..human greed....as in AVATAR

[Imperius Dictatio]

*Sighs* You are an idiot.
A Company in order to survive has to make money.
To make money then need a product.

Lets take Monsanto's seeds.
First we have research. Which Costs money to see if creating the GM Seeds they need is possible.
They have to create test batchs for safety testing. Spending millions as it goes through all Federal Mandates and testing. Providing tweaks (Also costs money.) until it's safe enough to market.
Then they have the need to create the infrastructure to create these seeds in the amounts needed. Also costs money.
Then they have to start making the seeds. Which costs money.
They then have to package the seeds. Money.
Advertise. Money
Ship the Seeds to various markets. More money.

At this point the company in question has massive amounts of money invested in this product. And it will take years maybe even decades before the company even breaks even on this product and start turning a profit.
Of course this isnt taking in the money needed to pay the workers,shippers,scientists, maintenence,patents,defending a patent in courts and hundreds of other small factors.

A Company HAS to focus on making a profit. If it doesnt it goes under.

[brianct]

right so you agree that profits are more inmportant than people...just like Selfridge.

Monsanto should go under...or the world will go under...you keep showing your defence of a monster...see the World According to Monsanto thread

[Imperius Dictatio]

When did I ever mention people in my post? Of course I've always held the belief a Freer Market equals a Freer People.

And you keep showing me how everything seems to go WAY over your head.

[brianct]

free markts dont equal free people...thats just capitalist hooey...

I bet the people of Anniston may find that ideology a bit disgusting

[Imperius Dictatio]

Actually proven to be quite true actually. Freedom of Enterprise is always a good indicator of ones Civil Liberties.

And on the Anniston thing.
It having been a US Army Chemical Weapons stockpile,disposal center and the Nations only "Live" Agent traning center has nothing at all to do with it AT ALL I assume.

[brianct]

'Actually proven to be quite true actually. Freedom of Enterprise is always a good indicator of ones Civil Liberties. '

only in your wet dreams...Dictator...(you may like a name change)

the opposite has been proven as we see in Chile under Pinochet, or any american backed dictator...and lately in Thailand

[Imperius Dictatio]

Funny you should mention Pinochet.
Just about as soon as his countries economy went Free Market did his country start going through a tranistion to a Democracy. It actual went over well and he turned over power in 1989 when someone else was elected.
while Pinochet was pretty brutal some credit should be given to him on peacefully turning over the reigns of power to a fledging Democratic goverment even though he lost the referundum.

Imperius Dictatio.
If you had the presence of mind to actually look up what it means you'd realize it doesnt mean Dictator.

[brianct]

your defence of Pinochet is like your defence of the bombing of Vietnam...Chile has a democracy that elected Allende..the US didnt like him, so they backed a military man...Pinochet, who killed the govt and then thousands of people...

Pinochets chile was used to test bed the Chicago uni free market fundamentalism of Milton the Monster Friedman

on Pinochet:
'According to Stephens, the radical free-market policies prescribed to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet by Milton Friedman and his infamous “Chicago Boys” are the reason Chile is a prosperous nation with “some of the world’s strictest building codes.”

There is one rather large problem with this theory: Chile’s modern seismic building code, drafted to resist earthquakes, was adopted in 1972. That year is enormously significant because it was one year before Pinochet seized power in a bloody US-backed coup. That means that if one person deserves credit for the law, it is not Friedman, or Pinochet, but Salvador Allende, Chile’s democratically elected socialist president. (In truth many Chileans deserve credit, since the laws were a response to a history of quakes, and the first law was adopted in the 1930s).

It does seem significant, however, that the law was enacted even in the midst of a crippling economic embargo (“make the economy scream” Richard Nixon famously growled after Allende won the 1970 elections). The code was later updated in the 90s, well after Pinochet and the Chicago Boys were finally out of power and democracy was restored.

Little wonder: as Paul Krugman points out, Friedman was ambivalent about building codes, seeing them as yet another infringement on capitalist freedom.
Milton Friedman did not save Chile. By Naomi Klein « Kanan48 (http://kanan48.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/milton-friedman-did-not-save-chile-by-naomi-klein/)

etc...things were better under socialist Allende...

thanks for showing us the company you like to keep

[brianct]

and:
'As for the argument that Friedmanite policies are the reason Chileans live in “houses of brick” instead of “straw”, it’s clear that Stephens knows nothing of pre-coup Chile. The Chile of the 1960s had the best health and education systems on the continent, as well as a vibrant industrial sector and a rapidly expanding middle class. Chileans believed in their state, which is why they elected Allende to take the project even further.

After the coup and the death of Allende, Pinochet and his Chicago Boys did their best to dismantle Chile’s public sphere, auctioning off state enterprises and slashing financial and trade regulations. Enormous wealth was created in this period but at a terrible cost: by the early 80s, Pinochet’s Friedman-prescribed policies had caused rapid de-industrialisation, a tenfold increase in unemployment and an explosion of distinctly unstable shantytowns. They also led to a crisis of corruption and debt so severe that, in 1982, Pinochet was forced to fire his key Chicago Boy advisers and nationalise several of the large deregulated financial institutions. (Sound familiar?)'
(DITTO