No it's never the fault of the powerful,greedy and amoral what happens to the weak. Powerful marketplayers are entitled to kill anyone they want.

It looks like the second law of thermodynamics is kicking in and the wheels on the neoliberalization bandwagon are coming off.

Whether it is the idea of the unrestricted movement of goods and people! (despite the fact that humans are not "sentient pork bellies") or just the short-sighted policies of the WTO and the like, there seems to be a great unraveling taking place as nationalism and populism overtake globalism.

In today's news:

DISCONTENT SPREADING ACROSS EASTERN EUROPE

"Political life has fallen into disarray in Eastern Europe, and many are asking what has gone wrong in the 2 1/2 years since these former communist countries joined the European Union, expecting to reap the fruits of democracy and open markets.

Many experts say people are simply exhausted after years of economic sacrifices made to join the EU and NATO. They now lack the clear goals that drove them toward the West after the fall of communism in 1989.

And their discontent is mounting as the instant riches many believed would come from EU membership have failed to materialize."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2596817&page=1

Also, France is continuing to struggle with problems related to discontent immigrants.

FRENCH POLICE FACE 'PERMANENT INTIFADA'  

"On a routine call, three unwitting police officers fell into a trap. A car darted out to block their path, and dozens of hooded youths surged out of the darkness to attack them with stones, bats and tear gas before fleeing. One officer was hospitalized.

The recent ambush was emblematic of what some officers say has become a near-perpetual and increasingly violent conflict between police and gangs in tough, largely immigrant French neighborhoods that were the scene of a three-week paroxysm of rioting last year."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061023/ap_on_re_eu/france_suburban_violence_4

A few years ago I read Amy Chua's book World on Fire and was taken aback at just how much of a powder keg many societies have become under globalization policies, particularly ethnic conflicts that seemed to underscore the unshakeable strength of tribalism - cultural and ethnic identities that are not easily blended into a neoliberal paradise.

The US never bought into that: they ruthlessly protected new industries.  Neither did the continentals: Germany and France in particular.

Classical liberalism is the preserve of the powerful.

There are undoubtedly huge gains to trade, but they don't serve the interests, necessarily, of creating a strong nation state.

I challenge any Food vs. Fuel protagonist here (Airdale, Pedal and Telum in particular) to explain why the WTO Doha Conference collapsed if not as a direct result of 1st world protectionist trade policy as it relates to 3rd world agro economies.

Furthermore I challenge Airdale, Pedal and Telum to watch the movie 'Darwin's Nightmare' before posting anymore 3rd world mea culpas.

That got me thinking about the big Seed Companies that do GM seeds.  They got this thing that the 3rd world nations have to take the GM seeds.  I think Iraq farmers are caught in this.  They don't reproduce, after a short while the farmers have NO seed for next year unless they buy it.  

Imagine something going wrong with one year's GM selection
(nudge nudge wink wink).  Maybe a virus that only affects That certain variety of GM seed?

One year's harvest is gone for everyone who used that year's seed.  Mass starvation of a whole country or region...  Talking about having a monopoly on FOOD. Buy from us or you Don't eat...

Hey, maybe I'll sell the movie rights to that plot.

Any, do some googles for GM

Iraq's new patent law: A declaration of war against farmers

<SNIP>
When former Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) administrator L. Paul Bremer III left Baghdad after the so-called "transfer of sovereignty" in June 2004, he left behind the 100 orders he enacted as chief of the occupation authority in Iraq. Among them is Order 81 on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and Plant Variety." [1] This order amends Iraq's original patent law of 1970 and unless and until it is revised or repealed by a new Iraqi government, it now has the status and force of a binding law. [2] With important implications for farmers and the future of agriculture in Iraq, this order is yet another important component in the United States' attempts to radically transform Iraq's economy.

WHO GAINS?

For generations, small farmers in Iraq operated in an essentially unregulated, informal seed supply system. Farm-saved seed and the free innovation with and exchange of planting materials among farming communities has long been the basis of agricultural practice. This is now history. The CPA has made it illegal for Iraqi farmers to re-use seeds harvested from new varieties registered under the law. Iraqis may continue to use and save from their traditional seed stocks or what's left of them after the years of war and drought, but that is the not the agenda for reconstruction embedded in the ruling. The purpose of the law is to facilitate the establishment of a new seed market in Iraq, where transnational corporations can sell their seeds - genetically modified or not, which farmers would have to purchase afresh every single cropping season.
<SNIP>

http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6

A couple others

http://web.mit.edu/thistle/www/v12/1/gmo.html

http://www.countercurrents.org/en-sharma200703.htm