As global warming changes growing cycles, and the prices of food and fuel continue to unreasonably impact developing nations, a trend is emerging.

Photo:wili_hybrid’s, Creative Commons, Flickr

Nations who have the most to lose, at least in terms of natural resources, are beginning to say no to further exploitation by multinational corporations, whose legacies of pollution, poverty and despair remain even after they have moved on to cheaper, easier pickings in Africa and Asia.

These nations, from Ecuador to the Philippines and Mexico to Pakistan, are an advance wave in a turning of the tide, as poor nations shake off the yoke of colonialist exploitation and decide to keep their natural resources for themselves. When this wave hits the shores of Western economies, whole industries may fail, with energy leading the way. This rising nationalism is undoubtedly blow back from the decades of resource plundering by such companies as Dole, Chevron, Ford, Cargill, and Alcoa, to name a few.

In the Philippines, for example – a country renowned for its medical tourism (defined as travel to obtain medical procedures unaffordable in developed countries) – the legislature is set to ban kidney transplants for foreigners. This move results from the increasing and illegal trade in human organs, which are extracted primarily from the country’s poor. It’s a sad day when the only way a Filipino can feed his/her family is by donating a vital organ to a rich American.

In Ecuador, a newly drafted constitution will eliminate foreign military bases, make potable water a basic, human right, and establish a foundation for extending human rights to nature. This remarkable document declares that:

Natural communities and ecosystems possess the inalienable right to exist, flourish, and evolve within Ecuador. Those rights shall be self-executing, and it shall be the duty and right of all Ecuadorian governments, communities, and individuals to enforce those rights.

Dole Corporation, which operates several banana plantations in the country under virtually slave-labor conditions, would do well to heed this call to arms.

In Mexico and Pakistan, attempts to privatize oil reserves (i.e., open them to foreign investment and control) have been stalled by either governmental bodies or political parties. Pakistan’s move attempts to ensure sufficient supplies for its military. Mexico, our nearest neighbor, produces more than 3 million barrels of oil per day, and the minimal transportation costs make Mexico’s oil highly desirable to American energy companies. The fact that Mexico continues to resist privatization is a silent warning.

Elsewhere, in India and the Philippines, exports of rice are being banned to protect local food supplies. Statistics claim that Americans eat about 25 pounds of rice a year, but breaking this statistic down reveals that regional ethnic populations eat the majority of this amount and are currently hard-pressed to find rice, or pay for it when they do. The cost of rice in the U.S. has risen 100 percent in the last month alone.

Chile, which provides a significant portion of the U.S. fruit and vegetable supply, restricts imports of fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as meat and poultry products and U.S. wheat, to protect local growers from trade imbalances and native seed stocks from contamination.

In China, some manufacturers or resellers are starting to ask for payment in euros. This reflects not only the falling value of the dollar, but an increasing inclination on the part of the Chinese to dislike all things American. In the U.S., Chinese students are up in arms over this country’s portrayal of China’s relations with Tibet and generally exasperated by American attitudes toward China in general. China appears to have become America’s whipping boy, providing a myriad of desirable (if not entirely necessary) goods to meet Western tastes, and then being blamed for increased emissions and global warming.

On May 1, Bolivia‘s President Evo Morales announced that his government was taking control of the national telephone company and some foreign energy concerns. These enterprises, Euro Telecom International (ENTEL), Chaco (British Petroleum), Transredes (Ashmore Energy), and CLHB, are under European and German control and represent the final steps in a nationalization process that was initiated two years ago.

This tide – an “in your face” rebuke to the United States for ensuring that its corporations have human rights without extending the same consideration to others – is a not-so-subtle reminder that the world is growing tired of our antics. Ever since 2002 and the dramatic escalation of the undeclared war in Iraq, countries (including our former allies) have been distancing themselves from us. Those few allies we have managed to retain are hanging on in the interest of self-preservation rather than any sense of allegiance, and we would do well to remember that, in global politics as well as in families, violence begets violence.

Disclosure: I don’t own stock in any multinational corporation.

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