Sat Mar 23, 2024 11:33 pm by globalturbo
Hungary Throws Out Monsanto AND The IMF
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Posted by
Vatic Master
Vatic Note:
Hungary Throws Out Monsanto AND The IMF
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2012/09
/10/hungary-throws-out-monsanto-and-the-imf/
by Pakalert Press, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 07, 2012 4:31 PM
I don’t know
about you, but I would label my personal knowledge of Hungary as
wanting, if not painfully incomplete. It’s not an easy country to come
to grips with, not least of all of course because Hungarian doesn’t look
like any western language we know with the possible exception of
Finnish. I did visit just after the Wall came down, and remember huge
contrasts, almost paradoxes, between rural poverty and a capital,
Budapest, that was much richer than other capitals such as Prague, a
leftover of Budapest’s status as meeting place between western and
eastern diplomats and businessmen.
The riches were
not for all, though, the city center was full of beggars and
panhandlers, mostly Roma. To keep up the paradox, Mercedes sold more
luxury models in Hungary than just about anywhere else back then,
reportedly mostly also to Roma; just not the same.
In the years
since, precious little attention has been and is being devoted to the
former eastern bloc countries in the Anglo press. We know most of the
countries are now members of the European Union, but only a few have been allowed to enter the hallowed grounds of the eurozone.
One thing I did
pick up on last year was the news that Hungary’s PM Victor Orbán had
thrown chemical, food and seed giant Monsanto out of the country, going
as far as to plow under 1000 acres of land. Now, I have little patience
for Monsanto, infamous for many products ranging from Agent Orange to
Round-Up, nor for its ilk, from DuPont to Sygenta, all former chemical
companies that have at some point decided they could sell more chemicals
than ever before by applying them on and inside everyone’s daily food.
Patenting nature itself seems either unworthy of mankind or its grandest
achievement. I don’t care much for either one. So Orbán (who has a
two-thirds majority in parliament, by the way) has my tentative support
on this one.
This is from July 22, 2011, International Business Times:
Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Maize Fields
In
an effort to rid the country of Monsanto’s GMO products, Hungary has
stepped up the pace. This looks like its going to be another slap in the
face for Monsanto. A new regulation was introduced this March which
stipulates that seeds are supposed to be checked for GMO before they are
introduced to the market. Unfortunately, some GMO seeds made it to the
farmers without them knowing it.
Almost 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds have
been destroyed throughout Hungary deputy state secretary of the
Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar said. The GMO maize has been
ploughed under, said Lajos Bognar, but pollen has not spread from the
maize, he added.
Unlike
several EU members, GMO seeds are banned in Hungary. The checks will
continue despite the fact that seed traders are obliged to make sure
that their products are GMO free, Bognar said. During their
investigation, controllers have found Pioneer and Monsanto products
among the seeds planted.
It’s remarkably
hard to find sources on this, ironically. It’s even harder, even more
ironically, to find anything that mentions the Wikileaks report on the
connections between the US government and the chemical/seed industry.
Which is curious, in my opinion; it’s not as if there’s nothing
newsworthy in the topic. Just about the only thing I could find was this
from Anthony Gucciardi at NaturalSociety.com.
US to Start ‘Trade Wars’ with Nations Opposed to Monsanto, GMO Crops
The United States is threatening nations who oppose Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM)
crops with military-style trade wars, according to information obtained
and released by the organization WikiLeaks. Nations like France, which
have moved to ban one of Monsanto’s GM corn varieties, were requested to
be ‘penalized’ by the United States for opposing Monsanto and genetically modified foods.
The information reveals just how deep Monsanto’s roots have penetrated
key positions within the United States government, with the cables
reporting that many U.S. diplomats work directly for Monsanto. [..]
Perhaps
the most shocking piece of information exposed by the cables is the
fact that these U.S. diplomats are actually working directly for biotech
corporations like Monsanto. The cables also highlight the relationship
between the U.S. and Spain in their conquest to persuade other nations
to allow for the expansion of GMO crops. Not only did the Spanish
government secretly correspond with the U.S. government on the subject, but the U.S. government actually
knew beforehand how Spain would vote before the Spanish biotech
commission reported their decision regarding GMO crops.
It doesn’t look
like Orbán and Hungary have a lot of support in their fight against
Monsanto and GMO in general on the political front. But that still does
little to explain the radio silence.
There was more
international reporting earlier this year, when Orbán again faced up to
two other major forces, in this instance the IMF and the EU. On January
1, the Hungarian parliament and president signed a new constitution into
law. And it contains a number of things that the Troika members don’t
like. In particular, they are probably at odds with taxes levied on bank
transactions, and especially central bank transactions. Not the kind of
thing the IMF is likely to ever agree with. It all gets clad in
protesting (the EU even threatens with courts) the independence under
fire of the central bank, the media and other parts of Hungarian
society.
The IMF and EU,
like the tandem team of Monsanto and Washington before them, act like
schoolyard bullies. It’s become their standard MO, and it usually works.
Portraits of Orbán as a fool, a reckless idiot and a dangerous
populist, on par with that of Hugo Chavez or newly found international
enemy Rafael Correa, are much easier to find than those links to
Wikileaks Monsanto cables. It would be good to see Orbán continue to
stand up to the IMF bullies, but he may not have that choice. They can
simply financially bleed him dry, like they have so many other countries
and their leaders. It’s a time tested model.
So maybe we’ll have to do with a good and hearty chuckle, and enjoy his announcement yesterday:
Hungarian prime minister unfriends IMF on Facebook
Hungary’s prime minister has long had a testy relationship with the International Monetary Fund — and on Thursday he used Facebook to unfriend the agency and reject its allegedly tough loan conditions.
Prime
Minister Viktor Orban said in a video message on his official Facebook
page that Hungary could not accept pension cuts, the elimination of a
bank tax, fewer public employees and other conditions in exchange for an
IMF loan that other officials have said could be about €15 billion
($18.9 billion). The IMF’s list of conditions, Orban said, “ contains everything that is not in Hungary’s interests.”
Orban’s
announcement took the markets by surprise, in part because just a day
earlier he had said loan negotiations with the IMF and the European Union were going according to schedule and both sides were willing to reach an agreement. [..]
In
late 2008, under a Socialist government, Hungary became the first EU
country to receive an IMF-led bailout. The Orban government, however,
decided not to renew the loan agreement in 2010 so it could implement
its economic policies without IMF control. But the increasing weakness
of the forint, the Hungarian currency, and investors’ growing loss of
trust in the country’s economy made the government abruptly change its
mind late last year, when it again sought IMF help.
Basically, what
the IMF demands is what it has always demanded through the years from
countries it lends money to: cut pensions, cut the public sector, cut
benefits yada yada, and then privatize, open markets, and open financial
systems, so international operating conglomerates can move in and divvy
up the spoils – “create a more ‘business friendly’ environment to boost
growth” -. The IMF is the poster child for disaster capitalism, no
matter how you twist and turn it. And Orbán can see clearly what is
being done to Greece, which is just around the corner from Hungary.
Hungary: Orban’s horror show
A
“list of horrors”. That’s how Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán
described on Thursday the conditions given by the IMF / EU for a deal,
via a video on his Facebook page. [..]
Orban
blamed the “long list” of onerous conditions that had, supposedly, been
leaked to Magyar Nemzet, a slavishly pro-government daily, on
Wednesday. The list contains a number of Orbán’s most sacred political
themes, including cuts
in pensions, family allowances and transport perks, an increase in the
age of retirement, the introduction of a property tax, the abolition of
the bank and financial transaction taxes, and modifications to the
flat-rate, personal income tax regime.
And here’s a bit more:
Hungary PM rejects IMF/EU terms, hopes fade for deal
Hungary
threw hopes for a new loan to prop up its sagging economy into disarray
on Thursday as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban rejected what he
called unacceptable IMF conditions, crushing prospects for a fast
agreement. Orban, in a video posted on his Facebook page, cited demands
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a raft of changes that he said were too high a price for Hungary to pay.
“From
cutting pensions to reducing bureaucracy to scrapping the bank tax and
the funds to be made available to banks, everything is in there that’s
not in Hungary’s interest,” Orban said. “The parliamentary
group meeting (of the ruling Fidesz party) took the view, and I
personally agree with it, that at this price, this will not work,” he
added. [..]
To reverse that momentum, Orban is pushing a 300 billion forint ($1.33 billion) job saving plan, partly funded by a new tax on central bank operations, a key sticking point in the IMF talks, which the European Central Bank has also criticised. [..]
“Junk”-rated Hungary faces a repayment hump in the next five quarters, with the equivalent of €4.6 billion euros falling due from its previous IMF/EU bailout alone.
It’s enough of a
David vs Goliath fight, or a Little Red Riding Hood vs the Wolf, to
make one question the bullies. Now, I don’t really know Victor Orbán,
all I know is western media descriptions of him, not a very reliable
source, and he could well be a bully himself. But I still like the
Little Red Riding Hood story (and dislike Monsanto and the IMF) enough
to give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
And besides,
it’s as refreshing as it is high time to talk about something else than
Greece or Spain. We’ll have to get back to them soon enough, after
Draghi’s unlimited buying bailout boondoggle yesterday
Thanks to: http://www.vaticproject.blogspot.com
