"Mr Brown said there was no reason why generosity to the flood victims of the Indian Ocean had to come at the expense of debt relief for sub-Saharan Africa."

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/debt/Story/0,2763,1383426,00.html


"Hence, for almost 200 years, there was a systematic transfer of wealth from India to Europe. Although Britain may have been the primary beneficiary, it's allies in Europe and the new world benefited no less. British Banks used their Indian capital to fund industry in the US, Germany and elsewhere in Europe. The industrial revolution and the development of modern capitalism was based on the colonization of India and the rest of the world. It was the forced pauperization of the colonized world that allowed nations such as Britain, or the US to industrialize and "modernize". Any serious analysis of modern capitalism must take this into account."

 http://members.tripod.com/~INDIA_RESOURCE/eastindia.html


"In the galaxy of those who ruled India the British stand apart. Unlike their Mughal predecessors India's wealth was not meant to be recycled and redistributed within the country. Instead its ultimate destination was London. British notion of power was based on the appropriation and drain of the maximum possible revenue and labour surplus from India to sustain their larger Empire. Wealth was also acquired by loot and plunder during war with Indian polities and as war indemnity and booty. As "drain of wealth" came to characterise British power the worst casuality was Indian economy and society."

 http://www.hinduonnet.com/folio/fo0008/00080220.htm



In Motion Magazine: "Why are patents the new form of colonialism?"

Dr. Vandana Shiva: "Patents are a replay of colonization as it took place 500 years ago in a number of ways. Contemporary patents on life seem to be of a similar quality. They are pieces of paper issued by patent offices of the world that basically are telling corporations that if there's knowledge or living material, plants, seeds, medicines which the white man has not known about before, claim it on our behalf, and make profits out of it.

That then has become the basis of phenomena that we call biopiracy, where seeds such as the Basmati seed, the aromatic rice from India, which we have grown for centuries, right in my valley is being claimed as novel invention by RiceTec.

Neem, which we have used for millennia for pest control, for medicine, which is documented in every one of our texts, which my grandmother and mother have used for everyday functions in the home, for protecting grain, for protecting silks and woolens, for pest control, is treated as invention held by Grace, the chemical company.

This epidemic of piracy is very much like the epidemic of piracy which was named colonialism 500 years ago. I think we will soon need to name this round of piracy through patents as recolonialization as a new colonialization which differs from the old only in this - the old colonialization only took over land, the new colonialization is taking over life itself."

 http://www.creativeresistance.ca/world-awareness/1998-aug14-interview-with-dr-vandana-shiva-biopiracy.htm