Letters - Letter to the Editor

New Internationalist, Nov, 2002

Benefits of GM

Why do anti-GM campaigners such as Jordi Pigem ('Barcoding Life', Patents on Life, NI 349 always pass over the real and potential benefits of GM? I love nature and care about development as much as he does, but do not share his mystical and spiritual approach.

The insulin produced by genetically engineered micro-organisms has saved many millions of lives. Is this 'playing God', or showing disrespect to nature, or 'arrogantly seeking to become masters of the universe'?

Or when genetic scientists succeed in growing maize or wheat in drought or saline conditions, or in extremes of temperature, will Pigem still say that 'meddling with life forms... threatens food security'?

I doubt that his philosophical concerns will be shared by those for whom added nutrition or the reliability of crops (or an insulin injection) is a matter of life and death. They may not care that biotechnology is 'objectifying life' or will 'alienate' or 'dispirit' nature.

Finally, to be in favour of the controlled application of genetic modification does not lead necessarily to the acceptance of the patenting of genes, or support for the Monsantos of this world and their bullying tactics.

David Simmonds Epping, England

Devil incarnate

The nightmare of modern technology in the form of biotechnology invests in us the fear of helplessness, to a degree unparalleled in-human history.

We will, if we permit its further advance, witness the arrival of a devil incarnate--the patenting of life itself (NI 349)--into a world already wallowing in the irresponsible and destructive pursuit of unrestrained material acquisitiveness.

David Harvey Chippenham, England

Ends and means

I share many of the concerns expressed about genetic engineering and the profit motive (NI 349), and I think much of genetic research is a waste of time when scientists are looking for the genes causing illnesses which are due to environmental factors such as diet. However, I do feel that the whole science of genetic research should not be dismissed wholesale. I suffer from an inherited genetic disease and like many others who have inherited diseases I see gene therapy and genetic research as a great hope for an improvement in my health. I have suffered great illness and misery and if science can lead to a treatment for my condition I'm all for it, provided research is conducted responsibly. It's all very well for healthy people to castigate biotech companies; it's quite another story if you're sick.

Valerie Paterson Stirling, Scotland

Jubilee debt campaign

It was good to see the article 'Dragging the debt chain' (Currents, NI 349) and see the campaign is alive and well in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Given that your article only gave a us web address, your readers may not realize the campaign is still active in Britain with the new name of Jubilee Debt Campaign. Jubilee Scotland also carry on the tradition begun by Jubilee 2000. Supporters old and new should be in touch with one of our many local groups or the national office at PO Box 36620, London SE1 oWJ (Tel: 44 (o) 20 7922 1111, www.jubileedebtcampaign.org).

Audrey Miller Jubilee Debt Campaign, Birmingham, England

Willing victim

Why is Israel the main recipient of American aid? Why does the US seem to support continued occupation of Palestinian land captured in 1967 (Israel & Palestine, NI 348)?

The most compelling reason for this I have found is, in Noam Chomsky's recent Understanding Power. Israel is being encouraged to remain embattled, psychologically under siege, to keep it as a more-than-willing client state of the us.

The argument that Israel is somehow manipulating US public opinion and foreign policy is surely not right. How can the tail wag the dog? It is Israel being manipulated into being America's willing victim. The tragedy of it is the Palestinian situation and the long-term inevitability of Israel's military defeat and all the killing and revenge that may well follow.

We must do everything, whether we are Jews or not, to stop this march of folly. A just settlement must be made with the Palestinians.

Stephen Langford Paddington, Australia

Argentina's wealth divide

Benjamin Blackwell's Essay (NI 348), on the possibility of change thrown up by Argentina's economic crisis, gave a grain of hope to those in despair at inequalities endemic in the political system. Many in Argentina are undoubtedly suffering from the sudden loss of wealth brought about by the crisis. However, the nation's indigenous peoples have never tasted their share of Argentina's riches. They have routinely had their right to protection in law stolen from them by endemic corruption: the rich are able systematically to rob peoples, such as the Wichi in the north of the country of their lands and livelihoods thus reducing them to penury. With soaring prices for food and petrol, their situation is grim. It will take a seismic shift in attitude to bring justice to Argentina's very poorest.

Clare Passingham Co-ordinator of Chacolinks, www.charcolinks.org.uk

We refuse to be enemies