Corporations have too much influence in America and abroad By Curt Andersen News-Chronicle A government run by corporations is referred to as fascist. A recent story in the Manila Times (Philippine Islands) tells of the arrests of a professor from the University of The Philippines and several reporters, including a New York Times reporter, for libel. The charges stem from articles the men had written alleging that pesticides used on banana crops were harming residents in the nearby town of Digos, Davao del Sur. Like the lawsuit by cattleman Paul Engler against Oprah Winfrey and Howard Lyman of the Humane Society of the United States, based on their 1996 comments about eating beef, it shows the raw strength of corporate power; power so strong that companies who might be harming others through the use of chemicals or questionable feeding practices can threaten expensive legal action and/or jail time. In this case, the offending statements were warnings about feeding ground-up cow remains to cattle, called "cow cannibalism," the concern being the spread of mad cow disease. According to an article on PRWatch.org, "Following the first human deaths in England, the USDA and the cattle industry have reluctantly accepted a limited ban on feeding cattle remains back to cows. In order to minimize the blow to industry, however, loopholes have been written into the legislation. It remains legal to feed cattle remains to pigs or chickens, and those remains can in turn be rendered and fed back to cattle. In addition, cannibalistic feeding of pigs to pigs and chickens to chickens remains a common practice which is fully legal under the new regulation." The fact that the men in the Philippines were arrested for libel, rather than sued for it, shows there are different options for corporate persecution around the globe. According to PRWatch.org, in England, two people who had the cheek to point out that McDonald's restaurant chain served "fatty, unhealthy foods, damaged the environment, paid low wages and mistreated animals," were fined the equivalent of $96,000, even though the justice admitted there was factual basis for the criticisms. The case in the Philippines indicates that the Philippine government is allied with the chemical industry. We have the same bad bidness here in America, and unbelievably, the public puts up with it. Chemical companies, paper mills, coal companies, the automobile, health insurance, pharmaceutical and oil industries all have too much say in how our country is run. You can see the evidence of paper mill influence in our toxic Fox River and inedible fish; evidence of chemical plant influence in the lax laws and flaccid enforcement; evidence of coal company influence when you see a mountain dumped into what used to be a stream; evidence of automobile industry influence in the gas-guzzling SUVs; evidence of health insurance companies influence in our skyrocketing premiums; evidence of pharmaceutical company influence in the runaway pay for drug company CEOs while some folks can't afford medicine; evidence of the oil industry influence when we maintain carrier fleets in the Middle East and await news of more fallen troops. We all get to pay for the honor of those corporations becoming disgustingly wealthy while we wonder if our jobs will be around next year. Fascism sure has not been able to cut the economic mustard. Oops! Is that libel? Andersen is a lifelong resident of the Green Bay area and a Navy veteran. He owns a small business and is an adjunct instructor at NWTC. He is vice president of the Clean Water Action Council. His column runs Wednesdays. Contact him via e-mail at [email protected]