I doubt many of our readers know or care about the World Trade Organization talks that ended two weeks ago inCancun.’ Few know why the talks took place, why they were important or why they ended so abruptly.’ So today, I want to shed a little light on this subject, and this being the feminist rant column, I’ll focus on the women affected by the WTO talks.

Sound boring? Of course it is to us living on suburbanLong Island, with gas stations and supermarkets on every corner, where variety is the spice of life and everything comes pre-packaged; where clothes are cheap and office buildings dominate our landscape.’ For modern Americans, the last things we think about are farming subsidies and impoverished African farmers.

So let me explain how our rampant consumerism coupled with the policies of theUnited Statesgovernment and the WTO affect the rest of the world.’ I’ll skip the details, but let’s just say that the American and European governments have arranged world trade policies to benefit farmers in these countries at the expense of farmers in developing (i.e. third world) nations.’ Impoverished farmers inLatin AmericaandAfricacan’t export their products to theUnited States, and can’t even compete with prices ofU.S.agricultural imports in their own nations.’ What does this mean?’ In a nutshell, the industrialized West is perpetuating the poverty and dependency of the entire globe.

The talks inCancunwere intended to address and resolve some of the WTO policies that keep the third world poor.’ But in the grand tradition of capitalism, the West refused to compromise its profit margin, and a contingent of the poorest nations walked out.’ The talks and the WTO policies have now reached a stalemate.

So how does all this affect women?’ Women are the world’s poorest majority. They make up the bulk of the agricultural labor force and are affected by the fluctuations of’ world markets.’ Women have lower incomes than men, and own much less property.’ Women are treated like work horses and have fewer rights than men.’ Women have to take care of their children, and have no political representation.’ These women have no voice and have no opportunity to improve their lives.

It would seem easy to blame the poor for their poverty, to assume that it is laziness, ignorance or chance that keeps so many starving, and that their governments are responsible for the economic plight of their citizens.’ Every explanation is easier than critiquing our own spending habits and our assumptions about our right to global resources.’ We ignore the role the West plays in creating and perpetuating third world debt and poverty.’ We do not care about that which we do not know, and it is far too easy to ignore the rest of the world in favor of our American privileges.