Thursday 15 November 2012

First Rule Of #COP5 Is You Do Not Talk About #COP5

As mentioned last week, the tobacco control industry are currently throwing global taxes down the drain as they witter interminably in South Korea.

I pointed out that one of the items for discussion is a uniform global tax on tobacco products, something they have been very careful to keep as quiet as possible in the past few months. In fact, whenever the subject is broached, some WHO drone is rolled out to say that there is nothing to worry about. Oh no. It isn't a command from global unelected dictators, at all.
[WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarveic said] "implementation of national tax policies remains the full sovereign right of the Parties"
Is that so?

Strange, then, that the event's daily bulletin for yesterday [opens in pdf] vehemently attacks the EU for not being too happy about having European taxation dictated by a bunch of pompous delusional cranks.
The EU has shown a lack of respect for other members of the Working Group by not taking seriously the important contributions of the other Parties and by focusing exclusively on compromises that relate to the EU member states as opposed to the rest of the world. The EU should understand that compromise with 176 Parties is more important than compromise within 27 Parties. 
It is ... difficult to understand why the EU is acting in such an obstructive and insular manner.
In other words, the EU doesn't like the way this sinister idea is heading and is exercising its collective 'sovereign right' to defend its own taxation policies ... and the WHO are livid about it. How very dare they!

So furious are the assembled tax receipt-addicts and gravy train stowaways that they've heaped shame on the EU by awarding them their badge of utter disdain.

"No, not that!", I hear you scream in horror, but yes, the dreaded Dirty Ashtray Award, no less. Gasp!


Quite a story, and it will be interesting to read about the debate that took place. Except that we probably never will do, since this was discussed at the session which Snowdon reported as being held behind closed doors.
Here's an interesting fact about these 'Conference of the Parties (COP)' shindigs. It won't surprise you to hear that the tobacco industry is not invited to participate, but they are apparently not even allowed to observe proceedings from the spectator's gallery. These are—I say again—publicly funded conferences. Refusing to allow the relevant industry to even hear what is being said strikes me as peculiarly paranoid—as if tobacco execs are so powerful that they can transmit pro-tobacco messages by just being in the same room. 
But it gets worse. As if it wasn't crazy enough not to allow the industry to see what goes on in these meetings, the fanatics have now banned Interpol (yes, that Interpol) from attending.
Additionally, along with the tobacco industry and those who have an identifiable interest in curtailing illicit trade - they being those who are tasked with tracking it down, and all - there was another group who were excluded.

They being anyone who might actually report what the WHO were talking about. No, seriously, I'm not making it up.
According to Drew Johnson, a "waste hunter" with the Newsmax website, the agency's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control began its biennial gathering Monday "on a high note by ratifying an agreement to combat smuggled and pirated tobacco products." 
However, that goodwill quickly evaporated the following day, when delegates of the conference's member nations chose to meet behind closed doors for a discussion about raising taxes to reduce smoking. 
Johnson added that attempting to cover this meeting was "frustrating" and "raises some serious questions about an organization that for years has operated largely behind the scenes and without the benefit of much public scrutiny." 
"When is the media more necessary than when an unaccountable, shadowy organization that devours millions of tax dollars each year from people across the world debates getting in the business of issuing global taxes?"
Quite (though I'm sure it's in the billions). But then, these hideous people have done little else for the past few decades except manoeuvre to exclude anyone who might get in the way of their pre-conceived vision of utopia. Debate has always been frowned upon, and only the truly devout are afforded an audience.

It's not even as if those who are allowed to participate are remotely sane, let alone impartial.
The representative from the Pacific island nation of Palau encouraged the agency to also "consider an international tax scheme for candy, sodas and even alcohol," Johnson noted. "Shockingly, a number of member countries expressed their support of that frightening idea." 
When a representative of the Ukraine expressed concern that tobacco regulations may compromise the independence of individual nations, and a Cuban official encouraged the convention attendees to be mindful of the many hard-working farmers whose lives depend on tobacco, they were met with rolled eyes and scornful looks.
In light of this, do you reckon the WHO are likely to publish minutes of the day's events any time soon? Because I sincerely doubt it. Lots and lots to hide, obviously.

It is astonishing that any government which values openness and accountability would consider taking this organisation remotely seriously, let alone pass laws, procedures or duty regimes on the back of their recommendations, but they most likely will.

I will remind you again that not one person at the Korean event has ever received a single vote to dictate to even one nation, let alone 176 of them. We're through the looking glass here people, with feather-headed Mad Hatters at the helm.


13 comments:

Christopher Snowdon said...

Fanatical anti-smoking prohibitionists acuse others of "refusing to compromise"! There can be no more satire after this.

nisakiman said...

"In other words, the EU doesn't like the way this sinister idea is
heading and is exercising its collective 'sovereign right' to defend its
own taxation policies ..."


Ha! The biter bit! They don't like it up 'em, do they?

The whole COP5 thing is an utter farce, albeit a very dangerous one. If they push through this global tobacco tax, it will open the floodgates to all sorts of nastiness.

NWO anyone?

Dick_Puddlecote said...

It's a cracker, isn't it? :)

Dick_Puddlecote said...

Much potential for a precedent, definitely. And not much chance of denying it since #cop5 delegates themselves have brought the subject up!

James Watson said...

I do believe that the common or garden junior zealots actually believe that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Treaty is legally binding. If the ex public health minister, Milton MP, can say in the House of Commons that it is, who can blame them? The reality is that it is NOT legal binding at all. Think about the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The nations of Europe combined for defence reasons and agreed especially that if one of those nations was attacked, then it was tantamount to an attack on all. None of those nations had to join the organisation and none of them have to remain in the organisation. The United Kingdom need not enact laws which put into effect the FCTC's decisions if it does not wish to do so. I wonder how many people know that the FCTC was not actually 'passed' by the HoC? Treaties are rarely enacted by the HoC - the Government of the day enter into treaties.

I wonder how many other MPs believe the same as Milton MP? It would not surprise one bit if most of them do!

The horror of it!

Junican said...

Can I just test?

Smoking Scot said...

Aha,

It's crucial you keep up with these awards peoples.

They nominated - and subsequently awarded the Marlboro Man Award to the Netherlands. The link is pre award, but it rather seems what raised their ire was a judge who refused their petition to remove the right of small bars to allow smoking throughout.

Philip Morris must surely get a kick out that one!

https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2012/05/14-7

woodsy42 said...

Too much of this and we will have to reverse our position and support the UK's staying in the EU! Oh dear.

What the.... said...

For some background on eugenics, see comments by “Magnetic”.

http://cfrankdavis.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/the-nazi-antismoking-legacy-1/

Jax said...

The more I hear about all these secret talks, and the deeper the one-eyed obsession with eradicating smoking even in places which are torn apart by war, or famine, or drought, or lack of sanitation, or even the most basic of healthcare provision, becomes, the more suspicious I get that there’s something about smoking that really, really scares the pants off the powers-that-be. Why do they have to whisper so secretly about their plans? We know they don’t like dissent, for sure, but they have enough power and influence (and money) at their disposal to make light of even the most vehement and valid objections, and they know it - so why the need for all this cloak-and-dagger stuff? OK, so their plans aren’t as wildly popular with most members of the public as they say they are. We all know that, but it hasn’t made a jot of difference to their achieving success all over the place, so it can’t be that which makes them creep about like a bunch of spies. OK, so their “science” is flawed at best and totally made up at worst, but ditto – they know that the majority of the public won’t bother to look into their claims, so there can’t be any great need to worry about being exposed in that way, either. OK, so it isn’t about health and never has been, but even the average non-smoker has rumbled that by now and has done little to protest about having been fooled for so long, so no need for secrecy there, either.

No, I think it’s much more fundamental than that. It isn’t the fact that they are telling us lies, and always have been – which people on here are only too aware of – it’s because the truth is the exact opposite of what they’ve been telling us. Smoking makes people live longer, it makes them resistant to countless diseases, it makes them happier and friendlier and more able to get along with each other, it inspires creativity and initiative and moves society onto a higher plane. All the things, in fact, which are a very real and direct threat to those who currently hold all the power in the world – national governments, the WHO, the UN, the EU – all of them. It’s far better for those big players to keep people sick and isolated and uninspired and depressed and fearful of death striking them at any moment, because that way they are frightened and easy to control. That’s why they are so keen to push tobacco control in countries where there are, to be frank, much bigger and more urgent problems which they should be addressing – because if those problems were addressed (as they should be), but, once addressed, those people were still allowed the freedom to smoke, there would be a very real threat that as societies – both economically and socially – they would progress in leaps and bounds and overtake the uninspired, fed-up, anti-smoking-controlled western world.

So maybe the reason why anti-smoking discussions have to held behind closed doors isn’t because they don’t want people to realise how much they are lying – it’s because they don’t want people to know the reason why they are.

Frank J said...

I can't see any logic or sense in this. What confuses me about the whole exercise is, simply, if they wish to increase revenue on and from tobacco and evidently for their own benefit, wouldn't it make more sense to ensure more sales?


Well, perhaps it's just me. I'm lost.

Michael McFadden said...

"vehemently attacks the EU for not being too happy "



Of course no one will ever see that attack in all its glory, nor are we likely to ever get a fully accurate report. You can bet your bippy the "official minutes" won't be giving one.


- MJM

Sheila Martin said...

You might want to check on who sponsored the South Korean Convention. You will find pharma companies who sell patches and gums and Chantix. They also started the second hand smoke myth with their paid off "scientists" to demonize smokers, not smoking, to sell their products. CLinton's Global Initiative is in on the money grab of pharma also. I find that particularly amusing since we all remember Clinton's cigar fixation. The American Cancer Society has most of the Quitline contracts, and they have received a fortune to lobbby for smoking bans. WHen you call the Quitline they tell you to use the patches and gums, which, according to last spring's Harvard study, don't work. Honeychile, these products are not MADE to work! They are made to use repeatedly and fail, and then blame that on the smoker! Always follow the money