JANE KELSEY, a
professor of Law in the University of Auckland, is New Zealand’s most
persistent and vocal watchdog of the doctrine appealingly known as
"free trade". Working with fellow activsts under the banner of ARENA –
the Action, Research and Education Network of Aotearoa – Kelsey is
tireless in her deconstruction of the free-trade rhetoric that, she
argues, advantages the rich nations while purporting to help the poor
ones.
She
will come to Hong Kong for a talk on "The Myth of Globalization: The
New Zealand Experience" on July 7. The following are the detials of the
talk:
Room C120 Shaw Amenities Building
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Thursday, 7 July 2005, 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Have
you ever wondered where those sprawling greens, forests and meadows in
“The Lord of the Rings” are? Yes, they are all in New Zealand. Add to
it, many in Hong Kong think that this country, also known as Aotearoa,
is greener pastures for economic opportunities, jobs and the good life.
Or is it?
We
will bring you to explore another perspective of New Zealand that we
may not get it through the mass media. As we here in Hong Kong and the
rest of the world prepare for the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference
in December, it will be great for us to know about the situation and
experience of the Kiwis (New Zealanders) in their “developed” country.
Jane
Kelsey will let us in to the current economic, political and social
situation of her country as it is obsessed with endless negotiation,
implementation and imposition of WTO, regional and bilateral
agreements, a crisis in health, social welfare and education and the
wrath of economic liberalization.
She
goes beyond this as she explains as well how the people of Aotearoa,
the Maori and the Pakeha, the workers, women, youth, among others face
the challenge of resisting these assaults from globalization and free
trade.
She has written several critical and provocative books such as Reclaiming the Future: New Zealand and the Global Economy; At the Crossroads: Three Essays, which addresses the controversy surrounding free trade and possible alternatives to it based on social justice and democracy; Rolling Back the State: Privatization of Power in Aotearoa/New Zealand and The New Zealand Experiment. A World Model for Structural Adjustment?
All are welcome and the language will be in English!
FOR
ENQUIRIES: Please contact the ASA Regional Secretariat Office
(23880515) or its secretariat members Khai Loon (92783650), Madhav
(97104610) and Rey (95889491) or email to [email protected].