A swath of Indonesian rainforest already cleared (foreground); Another swath being prepared by burning (background).
Image: Netaholic13, courtesy Flickr
The Indonesian government has denied the right to enter the country to the head of Greenpeace in the UK, John Sauven after having issued a business visa for him several weeks ago. His main purpose for travelling to Indonesia was to denounce the massive deforestation of Indonesian’s rainforest and swamps caused by the excessive exploitation of palm oil producers and companies from the paper industry such as Asia Pulp & Paper (APP).
Greenpeace has been promoting a campaign against deforestation in the country for several years. A campaign that has not pleased the government, especially because it has made several multinational corporations such as Adidas, Kraft Foods, Inc., Nestlé, Unilever, Carrefour, Tesco and Mattel start rethinking their relationship with APP. This is not the first time that the government denies the entrance in the country to an activist that threatens to damage the image they want to show to the world, a thing that can have negative effects in Indonesia’s economy.
I think this is a really interesting piece of news because it shows the impact that globalization can have in a country where, in order to maintain foreign investment, the government is allowing practices it should not allow. A government that is turning a deaf ear on companies destroying the environment just to satisfy the demands of the consumer society and a government that is silencing the voices of the people who want to denounce the situation.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/73a23f98-f59e-11e0-824e-00144feab49a.html#axzz1aqAEMihY
Picture from: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=harvesting-palm-oil-and-rainforests
It could be understandable the position that the Indonesian government has taken denying the entrance to the head of Greenpeace, although I don't support it. The government is not going to allow any other organization to interfere in its national interest. The sad part is the fact that this national interest is focused on the deforestation of the rainforest because of economic reasons, supposing a threat to all of us and our environment. This is another bad consequence of globalization and both parts,the Indonesian government and the multinationals should recognize that some things are more important than the economic profit...but I have seriuos doubts about them making any change.
ReplyDeleteIndonesian government has experienced different changes in its structure in the past fifty years, at first stuck between dictatorial regimes and finally evolving towards democracy. However, it could be said that some elites control the nation's foreign policy following realist applied theories, establishing the national interest as one of the main goals. Due to economic benefits, the government "does not pay attention" to an issue that is likely to get worse with time, that is the deforestation and the consequences that resources' exploitation bring along. According to International Environmental Law these actions should be penalized, but unfortunately it is not that easy as blaming a country for the way it carries out its internal affairs may lead to confrontation, and the interests' game does not allow exposure, especially if one of the players wants to keep on having good relations with the rest of its neighbours.
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