quote:

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"This is what free trade's all about," said Schmidt. "It's about the freedom to buy and sell anything—even people."

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[Hanniford Schmidt, WTO representative]

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WTO: The initiative will require Western companies doing business in some parts of Africa to own their workers outright. Schmidt recounted how private stewardship has been successfully applied to transport, power, water, traditional knowledge, and even the human genome. The WTO's "full private stewardry" program will extend these successes to (re)privatize humans themselves.

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There's a curiously worded disclaimer indicating that ...

quote:

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we at the WTO would never, ever wish to suggest that the modern version of the West's free trade with Africa is tantamount to its older form, slavery, or even worse than its other older form, colonialism. That would fly in the face of everything that we stand for.

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Whew. What a relief.

[ 16 December 2006: Message edited by: jrootham ]