Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
“made up of nonprofit organizations and voluntary associations dedi-
cated to civic, cultural, humanitarian, and social causes.”
51
The most
prominent of these are Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam, and
the International Committee of the Red Cross. During the past decade,
these groups promoted treaties to limit global warming, establish an
international criminal court to try human rights violations, outlaw land
mines, cancel Third World debt, and gain regulations on bioengineered
food products. Although these aims have been furthered with uneven
success, the efforts behind them and the publicity they have engendered
may mark a serious challenge to the new economic world order.
52
Nations, states, and regional associations can also be considered as
agents in civil society, if and to the extent that they are nonparticipants
in formulating the global policy authorized by the international financial
institutions. Former
New York Times
chief Washington economic corre-
spondent David Sanger opines that the really noteworthy aspect of the
fracas over the WTO meetings in Seattle in 1999 was not the street
demonstrations but “a remarkable rebellion against American primacy”
that took place behind the scenes as developing nations (supported by
bigger powers who saw their own interests at stake) resisted what they
viewed as an “onslaught to reshape the world economy on Washington's
terms.”
53
The chair of Cipla—as mentioned earlier, the Bombay pharmaceutical
company that defied the transnationals to put cheap AIDS drugs on the
South African market—expressed motives mixed of altruism and self-
interest. On the one hand, he said, India had just experienced a devas-
tating earthquake in 2001, and aid workers and volunteers from around
the world were rushing in to help distribute donated goods and assist
with rescue efforts. This was an inspiration. At the same time, he
expressed the hope that Cipla's aggressive move would help make man-
ufacturers of generic drugs in the developing world part of World Health
Organization talks to involve multinational companies in offering drugs
at reduced prices, and thus “break the stranglehold of the multination-
als.”
54
When Oxfam joined the campaign to force multinational drug
price cuts and override patent laws against low-cost generics, it specifi-
cally voiced the intention to pressure the companies by attacking them
on Wall Street and in London, in the hope of discouraging investment
through bad publicity aimed at shareholders. Oxfam's spokesperson
