The Life sciences, as Melinda Cooper and many other authors we have read have said, are the future of the world in the aspects of bioeconomy. Life is the new frontier replacing the industrial world. Recently the life sciences had found its way into the military.
The National Guard is the mostly volunteer military branch that is basically our reserve troops. These people are trained to fight but it seems that in an emergency they are the first to respond. This means that the National Guard can be mobilized any time natural disasters or other emergencies occur within America’s borders, and also serve alongside U.S. combat forces in other parts of the world (national guard, 2010). This is strait from there website. To assist in natural disasters and emergencies is mostly what they do. Today’s military is controlling these situations with military precision. Should the military be involved on these matters of health and safety? “Skeptics of the military mission at home question whether this signals a "creeping militarism" into our civilian culture (Morrisey).” Recently the National Guard was deployed to Hati to help with the emergency relief. This is normal to Americans to see the National Guard and other military forces helping the needy. Another recent story of the military “helping out” was the H1N1virus scare. The military had made a plan to coincide with FEMA to help with “anything civilian authorities could not”(Starr). I found a clip of this to summarize this possible action. However it is very opinionated keep that in mind.
Melinda Cooper defines a Complex emergency is a breakdown of water, sanitation, and public infrastructure. The idea of biological warfare, infectious diseases and natural disaster are now considered military issues and will be carried out in a militaristic way. Cooper describes the militarization of these issues and the complications with militarization. In the height of the aids crisis it was made clear that it was a problem and that the military would be utilized.
In the recent two decades the aids epidemic in Africa has been profound. The Aids fight went from a disease into a political war, with the large powerful drug companies fighting against the Mbeki. The war was over the rights to distribute cheap drugs to the infected people and basically it all boiled down to patent law, the WTO and the Trips agreement.
Patents are exclusive property rights in intangible creations of the human mind. They
exist only as provided in the laws of sovereign states, and can be enforced only to the
extent that application has been made and a patent granted covering the territory of an
individual state. The TRIPS Agreement permits such compulsory licenses in health emergencies, even in cases where the compulsory license is for an imported product. However, to date, no compulsory licenses actually have been issued. This was the basis for the courts case of the Mbeki v the drug companies. The drug companies tried as hard as they could and got the American people behind them to fight against the possibility of the emergency act happening (Lehman). In the case the Mbeki people did win however they did not act on that win.
One small part of the act that I found interesting was that Drugs exported under such a regime may (must) be packaged or colored differently to prevent them from prejudicing markets in the developed world. The creation of this invisible separation of the people who are rich and poor illustrate the power of the people. Is this because the drug companies want their products that are sold in the US to be seen as better or is it to combat the idea of collusion.
Back to the Case the idea of Debt imperialism comes into play. What does debt imperialism mean? Imperialism is a concept that has been around for centuries. It is the act of putting influence over another country. Debt is defined as owing someone. In the case of the Aids epidemic and the African people it allowed America to have significance influence over the developing world because of its power in patents, and power of lobbying for international law. The very juncture that enabled the United States to reconfigure its imperial power on the basis of perpetually renewed debt at the same time brought impossible debt burdens to many countries of the developing world (Cooper, 53). These debt burdens force people in these countries to prostitute, deal drugs, and sell there bodies keeping the cycle going. Why in the intro did I talk about militarizing? Well in the history of the United States we have had many wars. Revolutionary, civil World wars and so on. Today the wars fought are as Cooper put it “the most immediate threats to security are no longer those of a formal military nature. Rather, we are confronted with a plethora of everyday dangers (Cooper, 64). She is saying that biological, life sciences and biowarfare are the wars of today and the future. Aids were one of the first things to be named a military issue that was not of the traditional sense.
Another idea that Cooper talked about was the hype of the possible future, not only the future but the possibility of catastrophe. What to do and if we have already started the slow descent toward a catastrophe of biological nature. The fear of the future and the possible catastrophe has made us do strange things. There are CAT bonds for sale that basically insure the uninsurable. We are trying to predict things that have no real basis of fact. “think the unthinkable and quantify the unquantifiable” (SwissRe 1998). People are trading, prying and profiting on the fear of the future, fear that is only based on the scariest thought that our minds can come up with. Because of this mass hysteria people have decided to do things defined as preemption. Preemption transforms our generalized alertness into real mobilized force, compelling us to become the uncertain future we are most in thrall to.(Cooper, 89) The uncertainness of the future and the expectedness of the future makes us become crazy and putting the military in as a mobilized force might not be as good of an idea as it seems.“Microbial life will overcome our defenses, and yet we can never be sure when and how it will happen: “At some unpredictable time and in some unforeseeable manner nature will strike back (Ibid., 267)”
The First picture I choose was the one of the National Guard member in front of the plane on an air strip in Hati. This picture just represents the militarization of complex emergencies.
Works Cited
Krenke, Ellen. "National Guard ready to help Hati." (2010): Web. 21 Feb 2010.
Morrisey, Siobhen. "Should the Military Be Called in for Natural Disasters?." Time Magazine (2010): Web. 21 Feb 2010.
Starr, Barbra. “Military planning for possible h1n1 outbreak.” Time Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/28/military.swine.flu/index.html
Lehman, Bruce. "Should the Military Be Called in for Natural Disasters?." Pharmaceutical Industry and the Patent System (2010): Web. 21 Feb 2010.
What is the Guard. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nationalguard.com/life/what-is-the-guard
Military planning for h1n1. (2009). [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InX-0qvc2ww
