My heart broke this morning, the following is an excerpt from an article regarding our Prime Minister’s trip to try and make better relations between ourselves and India. It is a brutal reminder of how privileged we are here in a ‘first world’ country, where we have imports from all over the world – a world literally dying to give us our day to day wants and needs.
The saddest part about this entire situation, is that this article is more concerned with how he tried to reach out to their culture and failed miserably with his choice of clothes.
Peas and beans
Trudeau hoped to persuade India to lower its recently imposed tariffs on Canadian dried peas, beans and chickpeas.
That was never going to happen, and the Canadian side probably knew that. The green in India’s flag is for agriculture. The main occupation is farmer.
Trade negotiators think in terms of rules; Modi thinks of his commitments to the people who elected him, and knows he leads India because hundreds of millions of poor farmers believe his party cares about them.
It is a horrible (and horribly underreported) fact that tens of thousands of Indian farmers have taken their own lives in recent years by drinking pesticides because they can no longer make ends meet.
There is no free or fair trade in agriculture. Developed countries demand market access, then use subsidized, mechanized farming to steamroll poor farmers.
Perhaps one day the West will ask if it really wants to keep winning this way. But until then we must judge the mission on tariffs by the objective it set itself: No real progress.
-Excerpt from:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/india-trudeau-trip-wrap-up-1.4550703
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