[Debate] Ecuador Yasuni ITT Trust Fund

[Patrick Bond]

Up to here, I'm with everyone. I was at Yasuni's threatened ITT sector 
last month (http://ccs.ukzn.ac.za/default.asp?11,61,3,2365) and would 
just add that it felt a bit like 'talk left walk right' neoliberal 
nationalism from above, and like a great potential for fusing indigenous 
interests and eco-feminist ideology (http://www.accionecologica.org/) 
from below.

Have been witnessing some of the most vile versions of this in Maputo 
the last five days, on a water/climate research trip, and am still 
trying to digest the awful politics of Frelimo's fake anti-poverty 
message, utterly overwhelmed by ubiquitous advertising smothering 
everything with SA-imported crap.

On 8/18/2011 8:24 PM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> While the left-led governments of Latin America, across the left
> ideological spectrum of Brazil to Venezuela, have been overall good to
> the poor, in terms of social spending, especially for those in the
> informal sector that had been previously excluded from welfare state
> programs, they haven't changed the overall economic structures of
> their countries positively, if anything turning their countries into
> more of primary goods exporters than before, from agricultural
> products to fossil fuels: "The most senior ECLAC official also warned
> of the risk of 're-primarization' of South American economies, given
> that 50% of the subregion's total exports are concentrated in
> commodities" (at
> <http://www.eclac.cl/cgi-bin/getProd.asp?xml=/prensa/noticias/comunicados/6/44116/P44116.xml&xsl=/prensa/tpl-i/p6f.xsl&base=/tpl/top-bottom.xslt>).
>   That is not to say that it would have been better if Latin America
> had followed the East Asian path, which is also a problem, socially
> and environmentally.  We need an alternative to both, but I doubt that
> Yasuni could serve as more than an illustration that there is no
> willingness on the part of the North to pay its climate debt to the
> South.
>
> On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Peter Waterman
> <peterwaterman1936 at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> Could well be, Yoshie, given the 'nuevo extractivismo' (new
>> extractivism) now sweeping the left-of-centre countries of Latin
>> America. But Correa has confronted and been confronted by indigenous and
>> other popular movements in Ecuador. And I am more interested in what
>> they are thinking, calling and fighting for.
>>
>> PeterW
>>
>>
>> On 18-8-2011 19:49, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>> It would seem to me that all that Yasuni is likely to prove is that
>>> the North won't even pay a heavily discounted price for the
>>> environment.  Maybe what Correa wants to do is to first demonstrate
>>> that before going on to drill.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 1:44 PM, Peter Waterman
>>> <peterwaterman1936 at gmail.com>    wrote:
>>>> Yoshie
>>>>
>>>> I was not referring to whatever logic might be motivating Correa at this
>>>> moment, I was referring to that implied by the Communist Manifesto.
>>>>
>>>> Pw
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