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All is not well with the backbone of our prosperity.
The truth is disturbing
The nation’s rural communities are under attack from every direction: agency abuses and threats; regulatory excesses; private property and water grabs; soaring costs, fees, penalties, and taxes; ceaseless lawsuits; predatory animal reintroductions; and more.
The public has been mislead
Few are aware this war is going on, so complete is the media blackout. Worse yet, the public increasingly votes adverse to rural interests, largely as the result of grossly false mis-information promoted by media a
Opposition in the United States During the last decade, opposition to Agenda 21 has increased within the United States at the local, state, and federal levels. The Republican National Committee has adopted a resolution opposing Agenda 21, and the Republican Party platform stated that "We strongly reject the U.N. Agenda 21 as erosive of American sovereignty."[13][14] Several state and local governments have considered or passed motions and legislation opposing Agenda 21.[15][16][17][18][3][19] Alabama became the first state to prohibit government participation in Agenda 21, but Arizona rejected a similar bill.[4] Activists, some of whom have been associated with the Tea Party movement by the The New York Times and The Huffington Post, have said that Agenda 21 is a conspiracy by the United Nations to deprive individuals of property rights.[3][19] Columnists in The Atlantic have linked opposition to Agenda 21 to the property rights movement in the United States.[20][19] A poll of 1,300 United States voters by the American Planning Association found that 9% supported Agenda 21, 6% opposed it, and 85% thought they didn't have enough information to form an opinion.[19]
Agenda 21 in the United States The United States is a signatory country to Agenda 21, but because Agenda 21 is not a treaty, the Senate was unable to hold a formal debate or vote on it, nor was it ratified in any way by the executive branch. Several congressmen and senators, however, have spoken in Congress in support of Agenda 21; these include Representative Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry, and Senator Harry Reid.[10] In the United States, over 528 cities are members of ICLEI, an international sustainability organization that helps to implement the Agenda 21 and Local Agenda 21 concepts across the world. The United States has nearly half of the ICLEI's global membership of 1,200 cities promoting sustainable development at a local level.[11]The United States also has one of the most comprehensively documented Agenda 21 status reports.
2.1. In order to meet the challenges of environment and development, States have decided to establish a new global partnership. This partnership commits all States to engage in a continuous and constructive dialogue, inspired by the need to achieve a more efficient and equitable world economy, keeping in view the increasing interdependence of the community of nations and that sustainable development should become a priority item on the agenda of the international community. It is recognized that, for the success of this new partnership, it is important to overcome confrontation and to foster a climate of genuine cooperation and solidarity.
2.3. The international economy should provide a supportive international climate for achieving environment and development goals by: (a) Promoting sustainable development through trade liberalization; (b) Making trade and environment mutually supportive; (c) Providing adequate financial resources to developing countries and dealing with international debt; (d) Encouraging macroeconomic policies conducive to environment and development.
2.4. Governments recognize that there is a new global effort to relate the elements of the international economic system and mankind's need for a safe and stable natural environment. Therefore, it is the intent of Governments that consensus-building at the intersection of the environmental and trade and development areas will be ongoing in existing international forums, as well as in the domestic policy of each country.
In a mature society, "civil servant" is semantically equal to "civil master." - Lazarus Long, "Time Enough for Love" by Robert Heinlein.
Objectives 2.9. In the years ahead, and taking into account the results of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations, Governments should continue to strive to meet the following objectives: (a) To promote an open, non-discriminatory and equitable multilateral trading system that will enable all countries - in particular, the developing countries - to improve their economic structures and improve the standard of living of their populations through sustained economic development; (b) To improve access to markets for exports of developing countries; (c) To improve the functioning of commodity markets and achieve sound, compatible and consistent commodity policies at national and international levels with a view to optimizing the contribution of the commodity sector to sustainable development, taking into account environmental considerations; (d)To promote and support policies, domestic and international, that make economic growth and environmental protection mutually supportive.
A) International and regional cooperation and coordination Promoting an international trading system that takes account of the needs of developing countries 2.10. Accordingly, the international community should: (a) Halt and reverse protectionism in order to bring about further liberalization and expansion of world trade, to the benefit of all countries, in particular the developing countries; (b) Provide for an equitable, secure, non-discriminatory and predictable international trading system; (c) Facilitate, in a timely way, the integration of all countries into the world economy and the international trading system; (d) Ensure that environment and trade policies are mutually supportive, with a view to achieving sustainable development; (e) Strengthen the international trade policies system through an early, balanced, comprehensive and successful outcome of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations.
2.11. The international community should aim at finding ways and means of achieving a better functioning and enhanced transparency of commodity markets, greater diversification of the commodity sector in developing economies within a macroeconomic framework that takes into consideration a country's economic structure, resource endowments and market opportunities, and better management of natural resources that takes into account the necessities of sustainable development.
2.12. Therefore, all countries should implement previous commitments to halt and reverse protectionism and further expand market access, particularly in areas of interest to developing countries. This improvement of market access will be facilitated by appropriate structural adjustment in developed countries. Developing countries should continue the trade-policy reforms and structural adjustment they have undertaken. It is thus urgent to achieve an improvement in market access conditions for commodities, notably through the progressive removal of barriers that restrict imports, particularly from developing countries, of commodity products in primary and processed forms, as well as the substantial and progressive reduction of types of support that induce uncompetitive production, such as production and export subsidies.
" Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regards to sustainable development"
Originally posted by Hijinx
Predatory animal reintroductions???
When I first saw your thread I though you meant literally under attack. I was like " Oh, ho ho!! No they di'nt."
Then I read your story that seems the typical patriotic, pissed off about the government that's not taking care of me. Why do I pay taxes? There isn't a white castle on my corner, and that homeless guy has better credit than me. Dar har har, and they are reintroducing Predatory animals in my neighborhood, how dare they allow native species back on the land. This is disgusting let's revolt...
YAWNNNN!! I'm really getting sick of this kind of All American Propaganda. Seriously, grow some gonads and do something about it, or shut up. You are the ones who can make the change, you can vote any time.
" Agenda 21 is a non-binding, voluntarily implemented action plan of the United Nations with regards to sustainable development"
edit on 26-11-2012 by Hijinx because: (no reason given)
(a) Remove the barriers to progress caused by bureaucratic inefficiencies, administrative strains, unnecessary controls and the neglect of market conditions; (b) Promote transparency in administration and decision-making; (c) Encourage the private sector and foster entrepreneurship by improving institutional facilities for enterprise creation and market entry. The essential objective would be to simplify or remove the restrictions, regulations and formalities that make it more complicated, costly and time-consuming to set up and operate enterprises in many developing countries; (d) Promote and support the investment and infrastructure required for sustainable economic growth and diversification on an environmentally sound and sustainable basis; (e) Provide scope for appropriate economic instruments, including market mechanisms, in harmony with the objectives of sustainable development and fulfilment of basic needs; (f) Promote the operation of effective tax systems and financial sectors; (g) Provide opportunities for small-scale enterprises, both farm and non-farm, and for the indigenous population and local communities to contribute fully to the attainment of sustainable development; (h) Remove biases against exports and in favour of inefficient import substitution and establish policies that allow them to benefit fully from the flows of foreign investment, within the framework of national, social, economic and developmental goals; (i) Promote the creation of a domestic economic environment supportive of an optimal balance between production for the domestic and export markets.
3.8. Governments, with the assistance of and in cooperation with appropriate international, non-governmental and local community organizations, should establish measures that will directly or indirectly: (a) Generate remunerative employment and productive occupational opportunities compatible with country-specific factor endowments, on a scale sufficient to take care of prospective increases in the labour force and to cover backlogs; (b) With international support, where necessary, develop adequate infrastructure, marketing systems, technology systems, credit systems and the like and the human resources needed to support the above actions and to achieve a widening of options for resource-poor people. High priority should be given to basic education and professional training; (c) Provide substantial increases in economically efficient resource productivity and measures to ensure that the local population benefits in adequate measure from resource use; (d) Empower community organizations and people to enable them to achieve sustainable livelihoods; (e) Set up an effective primary health care and maternal health care system accessible to all; (f) Consider strengthening/developing legal frameworks for land management, access to land resources and land ownership - in particular, for women - and for the protection of tenants; (g) Rehabilitate degraded resources, to the extent practicable, and introduce policy measures to promote sustainable use of resources for basic human needs; (h) Establish new community-based mechanisms and strengthen existing mechanisms to enable communities to gain sustained access to resources needed by the poor to overcome their poverty; (i) Implement mechanisms for popular participation - particularly by poor people, especially women - in local community groups, to promote sustainable development; (j) Implement, as a matter of urgency, in accordance with country-specific conditions and legal systems, measures to ensure that women and men have the same right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children and have access to the information, education and means, as appropriate, to enable them to exercise this right in keeping with their freedom, dignity and personally held values, taking into account ethical and cultural considerations. Governments should take active steps to implement programmes to establish and strengthen preventive and curative health facilities, which include women-centred, women-managed, safe and effective reproductive health care and affordable, accessible services, as appropriate, for the responsible planning of family size, in keeping with freedom, dignity and personally held values, taking into account ethical and cultural considerations. Programmes should focus on providing comprehensive health care, including pre-natal care, education and information on health and responsible parenthood and should provide the opportunity for all women to breast-feed fully, at least during the first four months post-partum. Programmes should fully support women's productive and reproductive roles and well-being, with special attention to the need for providing equal and improved health care for all children and the need to reduce the risk of maternal and child mortality and sickness; (k) Adopt integrated policies aiming at sustainability in the management of urban centres; (l) Undertake activities aimed at the promotion of food security and, where appropriate, food self-sufficiency within the context of sustainable agriculture; (m) Support research on and integration of traditional methods of production that have been shown to be environmentally sustainable; (n) Actively seek to recognize and integrate informal-sector activities into the economy by removing regulations and hindrances that discriminate against activities in those sectors;