Join the campaign against TTIP

"When cancer patient Paul Giles heard that the EU-US trade deal known as TTIP might affect health services in the UK, he travelled to Brussels to find out more. But Paul’s questions were met with silence.

That’s because the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is being negotiated behind closed doors. In fact, the EU has confirmed that all key documents relating to the agreement will remain closed to the public for 30 years. But why all the secrecy?

Governments and big business are relying on lack of public awareness in order to rush through TTIP and seal the deal without too much resistance. But what are they afraid of? They know there would be an outcry if people knew what was in store.

If TTIP goes ahead it will cost at least one million jobs. It will pave the way for the introduction of genetically modified food into Europe. It will irreversibly extend the privatisation of key public services such as the NHS. And it will give US corporations the power to sue the UK and other states for loss of profits when these governments introduce public policies designed to protect their citizens.

With the EU aiming to get the agreement signed by the end of 2015, we’ve got just one year to halt this atrocious deal. But the problem is, not enough people know about it. It’s not on TV, the mainstream media are hardly covering it, and all the negotiations are happening in secret. That’s where you come in. We need you to help spread the word about the deal set to hand a scary amount of power to big corporations and privatise even more of our public services.

With your support, we can stop this devastating trade agreement before it’s too late.

We’ll be in touch again soon,

John Hilary
Executive Director
War on Want"

For those of you socially minded unlike me visit "War On Want" on Facebook and Twitter.

https://www.facebook.com/waronwant

https://twitter.com/WarOnWant

Sorry, but the only thing that I can agree with wholeheartedly since I watched first hand how a lack of proper government regulation with excessive privatization across the board is this right here:

There is also a concern that TTIP could undermine governments' right to regulate in the public interest. They say it will also give business groups a disproportionate influence over new regulation, and therefore, they argue, it is undemocratic.

But with that exception, based on numerous recources and tons of reading at the following, I really don't view the TTIP as such a terrible thing. You really need to read and dive into the details, become thoroughly & properly informed, before taking what one website has to say as the gospel truth:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/11664750/What-is-TTIP-and-why-is-it-so-controversial.html

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ttip/

http://www.patients4nhs.org.uk/eu-us-free-trade-agreement-or-ttip/

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32691589

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not really for it or against TTIP. But as an American who resided in Germany for many years as a Civilian without EU benefits, I know first hand how much of a PITA that can be. The sheer bureaucracy alone can be overwhelming. Healthcare & Health Insurance for Non-Eu Members are disgustingly expensive and already controlled by private enterprise since decades. On the other hand I've also seen first hand how destructive corporate powers can be when governments permit them to run things into the ground. America is a classic example of that, where the wealthy Republicans made a big deal for many years out of accidental Government expenditures such as $2000 toilet seats ... while allowing corporations like Enron, Lehman Brothers, ATT, and others to bilk "We The People" out of hundreds of *BILLIONS* of dollars, Ruin the real estate market, Keep wages obscenely low, Generate a global economic crisis, and so on. From what I've read, I believe that the TTIP actually has potential if everything is spelled out and agreed upon correctly.

Last but not least ... as horrible as this may sound ... I'm in my 50s and my wife is a bit older than me. We've gotten so sick and fed up with how people are being treated by corporations on a global level that we just want to live and retire in peace anymore. We've been parents and raised our Son to be acutely aware of the bad things that are going on. We've dealt with job losses, nearly had to declare bankruptcy, accepted pension cuts, eventually ended up working for 25% of what we used to make in our field of computer expertise, and so on. Quite frankly, at our stage in life we're pretty much convinced that corporations will always find a way to do whatever they want. We can scream and yell and demonstrate and set up all the websites that we like ... ultimately it won't change a thing ... until the people actually rise up in anger & frustration.
That has already begun in America.
It's just not gotten bad enough yet for most people to easily recognize ....

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Nicely written - just to add I work in the field of preparing modified materials for students with a visual impairment - Large Print and Braille and even this could be under threat due to TTIP:

http://www.gutenberg.org/

Oh yea, Monsanto ... the Farming version of Robot Man's Evil Corps ...
Those guys are definitely amongst the worst of the worst.

If you look at the bottom of that GMO Compass page you'll note that it's from 2008. As that, at least as far as America with it's roughly 300 Millionen population is concerned, the information on that page is completely bogus. GMO in the USA is alive and well, has been for years, and Monsanto is the biggest reason/problem because of that. My wife and I jut saw a current Monsanto (against) documentary within the past 6 - 12 months. When I read news articles the first thing that I usually look for is the publication date ... not to be confused with the "todays day" date that so many sites have on their pages.

Major back issues? Yup, had those too, from too much Motocross & BMX racing when I was younger. Got an MRI or MRT (called different things in different countries), had a Neurologist explain to me just how screwed up my back was (since I was sick of "pain mangement" for 12 years), and then elected to have surgery back in 2003. Never looked back and never felt better. Today I can do stuff that I couldn't do before the surgery when I was in my 40s. If I had known that a General Practitioner or Family Doctor (in the the USA) isn't even authorized to make referrals to neurologists unless the patient is screaming "bloody murder" I probably would have had the surgery years earlier. Certainly beats walking across a floor and inexplicably falling down for no known reason ...

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