Global Issues
Moana Nui Set to 'Undress' APEC
This November, when the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum holds its annual rotating summit in Honolulu, it will attract more than the attention of the world's media.
Coinciding with APEC 2011, an alternative conference called Moana Nui (in Hawaiian 'Great Ocean') will draw activists, scholars and advocates for fair trade, environmental and indigenous rights from Asia, Oceania and the Americas to Hawaii for meetings and panel discussions in response to APEC.
Moana Nui will convene Nov. 9-11 in Honolulu to examine models of self-determination and sustainability and discuss APEC's impact. Concerns include free-trade economics and the effects of militarisation, globalisation, resource depletion and threats to native sovereignty, local economies and the environment.
APEC formed in 1989 as a ministerial-level dialogue group which has grown to 21 'member economies' including the United States, China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Singapore, as well as developing economies in Papua New Guinea, Peru and Vietnam.
APEC represents roughly 41 percent of the world's population, 54 percent of global GDP and about 44 percent of world trade. Against this economic behemoth stands Moana Nui with its very different perspective.
One of Moana Nui's key speakers is Hawaiian studies Professor Jon Osorio of the University of Hawaii. He said the significance of APEC's Honolulu meeting is mostly symbolic, but sees great importance in Moana Nui.
'We believe that globalisation has become increasingly injurious to the earth and its inhabitants and is showing increasing signs of instability,' Osorio told IPS. 'While we know there's little we can do about that globalising, capitalising endeavor, we have to give people hope that we can strengthen our own native and local economies so that as instability continues, we can feed and clothe ourselves and care for our people and our lands. That's the purpose of this conference.'
Osorio hopes any statements drafted by Moana Nui will help other indigenous peoples around the world develop strategies of their own. 'We are committed to this effort to gain more control over our local economies,' he said.
Osorio does not know how people might express their disfavour with APEC, but said he hopes people will 'devote themselves to a positive building effort'. One of more than two dozen organisations participating in Moana Nui is the International Forum on Globalization(IFG), a north-south research and education institution that critiques globalisation and advances alternative proposals.
IFG executive director Victor Menotti said that as indigenous leaders around the Pacific see intensified resource exploitation through fishing and deep sea mining, combined with increased militarisation in places like Hawaii, Guam, Okinawa and South Korea's Jeju island, they recognise the connection between the economic alignment that APEC seeks in the name of 'free trade' and the need to assert their native sovereignty over traditional territory and customary resources.
IFG was invited to Honolulu, Menotti said, to provide contextual background about what APEC leaders will be discussing and how its decisions affect people around the world.
© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service