COPTRIX's manifest

TRAGICOP - the theatre of the announced farce

How can an event gather the best institutional actors of 188 countries to perform in a farce? Actors in the literal meaning of the word. Actors involved in farces set up around the globe, a scene game where the title of the play is “The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity and the Sharing of the Benefits Arising from It”.

On one side, financial interests, the market, the profits, multinationals, corporations, legitimated by the discourse of the “benefit to the service of all” and motivated by egocentrism and self-affirmation. On the other side, billions of coadjuvant actors, reduced to the role of legitimizing discourses and egocentric projects, deceived and co-optated by the farce of benefit sharing, an entire world pushed to the sidelines of this theatre of disfigured and disfiguring positions.

How beautiful is the discourse of the salvation of nature, how comforting is to know that COP recommends, invites and estimulates the parties to take measures for the salvation of biodiversity and the humanity.

But what humanity is that after all, for which these intrepid theater companies vested as official delegations so much worry about? Of the insignificant part of the world inserted in the democracy of consumption, the part which has the necessary resources to access the marvels that science and the industries produce from biodiversity. Let us not be mistaken as who can enjoy the products and processes derived from the use of biodiversity: the communities providers of traditional knowledge associated to the genetic resources, seduced by modernity as to believe in their importance for the collective development, they are not in the list.

The wonders derived from biodiversity are for all. The medicines, cosmetics, miracle treatments are for everybody. The benefits arising are at the service and available to everybody. Everybody who is part of the humanity's small portion who can buy such wonders. The democracy of consumption guarantees to all the possibility to receive the benefits of modernity, through due payment of royalties, breeder’s rights, intellectual property. Because although the discourse of the progress of market biotechnoscience is to resolve everybody’s problems and end with humanity's miseries, in order to be part of such a humanity it is necessary to fill out a (bank) registry, to prove your (economic) existence and purchase a (credit) card of admission. Fulfilling these requirements, you will be accredited as a beneficiary of modernity’s products.

Or do you still have the illusion that the sustainable use refered by CBD has to do with respect to biodiversity in the future? Definitively no, the conservation and the concern with sustainability are intimately related to a strategy for the survival of the companies and their profits. Biodiversity is valuable for being part of the production chain of industry and biotechnoscience and the global diplomacy actors stage their farces to preserve the rights of the companies to receive benefits from the use of biodiversity, and establish benefit sharing among the holders of modernity.

But what about the rest of humanity, the supporting actors do not receive part of the benefits? Oh yes, no doubt, the global actors, in solidarity with the peoples that preserved their environments during millennia, will guarantee that in the negotiations. They will be granted the right to the sharing of fictitious goods, they will receive the promises of a modern world, where everybody will eat the products of modernity (OGMs), will use revitalising cosmetics (those who overcome 60 years old), will apply new mechanized agriculture techniques (those who possess land), will access the marvels of molecular medicine for combating obesity (those not hungered), will enjoy drugs for sexual disorders (those not under social disorders) and will enjoy gene therapies, nanotechnology inventions and all the wonders that biotechnoscience makes available to us in market shelves (at offsale prices, IP discounted).

Our delegations heroically struggle for the right to a democratic world, where a person will not be judged by colour, faith or origin, but rather for his capacity to buy his own citizenship. So well rehearsed and driven is the diplomatic farce that Molière, Brecht and Shakespeare would be embarrassed of their works. The objective of COP is to make CBD unrealistic; the objective of the delegations? To make the objectives of CBD unfeasible. The delegates? Creators of abstract obstacles, industrial scale bracketers, egocentric inventors of problem-generating solutions, soldiers in a constant battle to disguise the inexistent created problem. The solution for the problems is to reinvent them, change the name, the problematic sentence and thus, reconcile the objectives of COP: to feed egos and tame conscience crisis.

While the actors of global diplomacy holler their speeches, whose echoes do not beat the egos, the nature around the world, the stage of the farce, is losing its scenographic objects and counterscene species, until the day when they do not exist anymore: no stages, set designs, roles to play, problems to be solved nor fake solutions. Just the market, the goods and the citizens, all proud of the fruits of biotechnoscience and the democracy of consumption, in a global theatre where the ones that could make some difference are happy to just “be” the ones that make the difference, but do not make it eventually.

Our fight is for [the right to a healthy environment], but COP/MOP stimulates contamination. Our fight is for [free access to conventional seeds], but COP/MOP insists on privatization, recommending venom disguised in modernity. Our fight is for the [respect to traditional peoples and their cultures], but COP/MOP co-opts and sells peoples and knowledge. Our fight is for the [democracy of rights], but COP/MOP stimulates the democracy of consumption. Our fight is for [the right to be heard], but COP/MOP shouts arrogantly and closes its ears with credentials and protocols. Our fight is for [concrete actions], but COP/MOP recommends, invites and estimulates parties to decide in the next COP/MOPs. Our fight is for [a CBD commited to its objectives], but the delegations are lost in brackets and mute declarations.

Individual interests should not be superimposed to the interests of humanity, we are all accredited as humans, we all are responsible. The future denied for all.

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Home COPTRIX's manifest COPTRIX's Program ABC of CBD Links Spread the word Português COPTRIX's manifest TRAGICOP - the theatre of the announced farce How can an event gather the best institutional actors of 188 countries to perform in a farce? Actors in the literal meaning of the word. Actors involved in farces set up around the globe, a scene game where the title of the play is “The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity and the Sharing of the Benefits Arising from It”. On one side, financial interests, the market, the profits, multinationals, corporations, legitimated by the discourse of the “benefit to the service of all” and motivated by egocentrism and self-affirmation. On the other side, billions of coadjuvant actors, reduced to the role of legitimizing discourses and egocentric projects, deceived and co-optated by the farce of benefit sharing, an entire world pushed to the sidelines of this theatre of disfigured and disfiguring positions. How beautiful is the discourse of the salvation of nature, how comforting is to know that COP recommends, invites and estimulates the parties to take measures for the salvation of biodiversity and the humanity. But what humanity is that after all, for which these intrepid theater companies vested as official delegations so much worry about? Of the insignificant part of the world inserted in the democracy of consumption, the part which has the necessary resources to access the marvels that science and the industries produce from biodiversity. Let us not be mistaken as who can enjoy the products and processes derived from the use of biodiversity: the communities providers of traditional knowledge associated to the genetic resources, seduced by modernity as to believe in their importance for the collective development, they are not in the list. The wonders derived from biodiversity are for all. The medicines, cosmetics, miracle treatments are for everybody. The benefits arising are at the service and available to everybody. Everybody who is part of the humanity's small portion who can buy such wonders. The democracy of consumption guarantees to all the possibility to receive the benefits of modernity, through due payment of royalties, breeder’s rights, intellectual property. Because although the discourse of the progress of market biotechnoscience is to resolve everybody’s problems and end with humanity's miseries, in order to be part of such a humanity it is necessary to fill out a (bank) registry, to prove your (economic) existence and purchase a (credit) card of admission. Fulfilling these requirements, you will be accredited as a beneficiary of modernity’s products. Or do you still have the illusion that the sustainable use refered by CBD has to do with respect to biodiversity in the future? Definitively no, the conservation and the concern with sustainability are intimately related to a strategy for the survival of the companies and their profits. Biodiversity is valuable for being part of the production chain of industry and biotechnoscience and the global diplomacy actors stage their farces to preserve the rights of the companies to receive benefits from the use of biodiversity, and establish benefit sharing among the holders of modernity. But what about the rest of humanity, the supporting actors do not receive part of the benefits? Oh yes, no doubt, the global actors, in solidarity with the peoples that preserved their environments during millennia, will guarantee that in the negotiations. They will be granted the right to the sharing of fictitious goods, they will receive the promises of a modern world, where everybody will eat the products of modernity (OGMs), will use revitalising cosmetics (those who overcome 60 years old), will apply new mechanized agriculture techniques (those who possess land), will access the marvels of molecular medicine for combating obesity (those not hungered), will enjoy drugs for sexual disorders (those not under social disorders) and will enjoy gene therapies, nanotechnology inventions and all the wonders that biotechnoscience makes available to us in market shelves (at offsale prices, IP discounted). Our delegations heroically struggle for the right to a democratic world, where a person will not be judged by colour, faith or origin, but rather for his capacity to buy his own citizenship. So well rehearsed and driven is the diplomatic farce that Molière, Brecht and Shakespeare would be embarrassed of their works. The objective of COP is to make CBD unrealistic; the objective of the delegations? To make the objectives of CBD unfeasible. The delegates? Creators of abstract obstacles, industrial scale bracketers, egocentric inventors of problem-generating solutions, soldiers in a constant battle to disguise the inexistent created problem. The solution for the problems is to reinvent them, change the name, the problematic sentence and thus, reconcile the objectives of COP: to feed egos and tame conscience crisis. While the actors of global diplomacy holler their speeches, whose echoes do not beat the egos, the nature around the world, the stage of the farce, is losing its scenographic objects and counterscene species, until the day when they do not exist anymore: no stages, set designs, roles to play, problems to be solved nor fake solutions. Just the market, the goods and the citizens, all proud of the fruits of biotechnoscience and the democracy of consumption, in a global theatre where the ones that could make some difference are happy to just “be” the ones that make the difference, but do not make it eventually. Our fight is for [the right to a healthy environment], but COP/MOP stimulates contamination. Our fight is for [free access to conventional seeds], but COP/MOP insists on privatization, recommending venom disguised in modernity. Our fight is for the [respect to traditional peoples and their cultures], but COP/MOP co-opts and sells peoples and knowledge. Our fight is for the [democracy of rights], but COP/MOP stimulates the democracy of consumption. Our fight is for [the right to be heard], but COP/MOP shouts arrogantly and closes its ears with credentials and protocols. Our fight is for [concrete actions], but COP/MOP recommends, invites and estimulates parties to decide in the next COP/MOPs. Our fight is for [a CBD commited to its objectives], but the delegations are lost in brackets and mute declarations. Individual interests should not be superimposed to the interests of humanity, we are all accredited as humans, we all are responsible. The future denied for all. ^ top - print