Battle in Seattle

I just watched Battle in Seattle at school. And oh boy - it definitely managed to provoke me. "Activists arrive in Seattle, Washington en masse to protest a meeting of the World Trade Organization. Riots and chaos ensue as demonstrators successfully stop the WTO meetings" (1). This movie is based on actual happenings, but with fictional people. But plenty of it could have and probably did happen.

I quote: "A week ago nobody knew what the WTO was" "Now... they still don't know what it is. But at least they know it's bad". This movie doesn't really show why WTO are bad guys, and I don't have any numbers or statistics to show that it's true. And maybe WTO in fact helps to raise living standards around the world by expanding the world trade. However, if I'm not wrong, WTO claims that they're democratic. Everyone has an equal vote right? But the truth is, it's not. WTO is not democratic. According to BBC, "WTO is run by the rich for the rich and does not give significant weight to the problems of developing countries. For example, rich countries have not fully opened their markets to products from poor countries". (2)

And I promise you that I could've written a whole article about this. But I simply don't have the time to do the research and writing. But just know, WTO might claim that they are the good guys. And in some cases they might be. But everyone's got a dark side, right?

Sources

(1) «Battle in Seattle (2007) - IMDb», udatert, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0850253/.

(2) «BBC News - Profile: World Trade Organization», udatert, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/2429503.stm.