I am grateful to DU for bringing people like this in (the Ethan Zuckerman presentation the week before was informative and inspiring). Also, I don't want to be critical of a person doing their part to make the world a better place, but I thought Patrick's presentation was one of the worst I've ever seen. First, I'm unclear as to his exact connection to the activities and organizations he listed. Patrick's name is not included on the Wikipedia listings for rTMark or YesMen. Second, there was never a "so what" conclusion of his exploits. He just said "here's all this stuff I've done" and never made it particularly relevant to the audience.
Also, I found the pranks he focused on in this presentation to be the worst of those done by the Yes men. His animations are distractions from the true absurdity of the institutions they're aiming to criticize. To reduce the true problems of globalization and slave labor to poop and penis jokes is disgraceful to me.
I've been a guest at GATT and WTO ministerials and heard their TRUE messages, and their own rhetoric could be given back to them in a way that makes the absurdity as obvious as a poop joke.
Some examples: The rules are wonderful because only poor countries have to play by them. For example, WB and WTO regulations forced Jamaica to stop subsidizing dairy farmers, while the US was free to do so. Jamaica was also forced to eliminate tariffs on incoming milk such that it became cheaper to raise and milk a cow with expensive labor in the US, bottle (or evaporate) it, truck it 1,000 miles, ship it over to Jamaica, and deliver it to stores, than it was to have cheaper labor deliver fresh milk a few blocks to that same store. Now there is no dairy industry in Jamaica, and if we want to raise our prices, they're screwed.
Or, the basic logic of the WTO: Comparative advantage. Wealthy countries get to control the system such that the ONLY comparative advantage that exists in poor countries is slave labor, their ability to take our trash, their use as toxic waste dumps, etc. These are arguments that get danced-around inside WTO meetings and unlike poop jokes, they are really happening.
Thanks for posting this! I saw it in the art building and got very excited. :)
ReplyDeleteMe too!!!
ReplyDeleteI am grateful to DU for bringing people like this in (the Ethan Zuckerman presentation the week before was informative and inspiring). Also, I don't want to be critical of a person doing their part to make the world a better place, but I thought Patrick's presentation was one of the worst I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'm unclear as to his exact connection to the activities and organizations he listed. Patrick's name is not included on the Wikipedia listings for rTMark or YesMen. Second, there was never a "so what" conclusion of his exploits. He just said "here's all this stuff I've done" and never made it particularly relevant to the audience.
Also, I found the pranks he focused on in this presentation to be the worst of those done by the Yes men. His animations are distractions from the true absurdity of the institutions they're aiming to criticize. To reduce the true problems of globalization and slave labor to poop and penis jokes is disgraceful to me.
I've been a guest at GATT and WTO ministerials and heard their TRUE messages, and their own rhetoric could be given back to them in a way that makes the absurdity as obvious as a poop joke.
Some examples: The rules are wonderful because only poor countries have to play by them. For example, WB and WTO regulations forced Jamaica to stop subsidizing dairy farmers, while the US was free to do so. Jamaica was also forced to eliminate tariffs on incoming milk such that it became cheaper to raise and milk a cow with expensive labor in the US, bottle (or evaporate) it, truck it 1,000 miles, ship it over to Jamaica, and deliver it to stores, than it was to have cheaper labor deliver fresh milk a few blocks to that same store.
Now there is no dairy industry in Jamaica, and if we want to raise our prices, they're screwed.
Or, the basic logic of the WTO: Comparative advantage. Wealthy countries get to control the system such that the ONLY comparative advantage that exists in poor countries is slave labor, their ability to take our trash, their use as toxic waste dumps, etc. These are arguments that get danced-around inside WTO meetings and unlike poop jokes, they are really happening.