Health and Wealth

As the rest of the world is bemused watching all the US Extreme Right fundamentalist non-sense against President Obama's Health system reform, I think it can only be good to share this great video by Paul Hipp. It's full of common sense. And humour.

Beware of T1 C1

I hope that all the attention paid to the N1 H1 virus will not be detrimental to efforts to raise and maintain awareness about T1 C1, which millions of people (including children) suffer from every year.

H1 N1 and T1 C1 have a lot in common. For example, both originated in America. Like H1 N1, people catch T1 C1 through breathing and their respiratory system gets affected. In many cases, death caused by T1 C1 is very slow and painful. I've had relatives dying from T1 C1-induced diseases, and -- believe me -- it's not a pretty sight.

There has been progress in recent years to prevent T1 C1 in Western countries. But the toll is increasing in developing countries who lack the means and power to fight T1 C1. The World Health Organization (WHO) informs that the number of people who died from T1 C1 in the year 2000 worldwide was estimated at 4.2 million. Five hundred million people alive today (500 million) -- many of them still children -- will eventually die of diseases caused by T1 C1. More men are killed already in developing countries than in industrialised countries by T1 C1, and this trend is increasing.

A particularly dramatic aspect of the migration of the T1 C1 epidemics to developing countries is that the attention and resources needed for the victims of T1 C1 will be at the cost of prevention efforts against other chronic diseases and public health challenges such a malaria, HIV AIDS, dengue, safe and affordable water, etc. T1 C1 increases obstacles to on-going efforts to erradicate poverty.

Notwithstanding H1 N1, we must continue to focus on the prevention of T1 C1, Tobacco and Cigarettes.

Broken embraces

When the swine flu started to show its face three months ago, I was wondering on this blog whether it was going to seriously affect Western lifestyles. But I did not expect as much.

The Spanish press is full of commentaries about a banner the Medical College of Madrid has displayed this week at their headquarters (photo): "Don't kiss, Don't shake hand, Say Hello."

More funky even, the Archbishop of Toledo has announced today that people will no longer be allowed to kiss the coat a statue of Virgin Mary is wearing in his cathedral, a rite that dates back 400 years. [I'm not sure if the Archbishop wants to protect the worshipers or the Virgin in this way; maybe both]

Pedro Almodovar could not have guessed that the title of his latest(superb!) film, Broken Embraces, was to become so prophetic.

Death

I took this photo a few days ago in Tokyo, as I was passing by a cigarette vending machine.

I already wrote a couple of years ago about the Japanese cigarette Peace brand, and more recently about Hope, another Japanese brand that caught my attention.

It took me a while to understand the meaning of Infinity Peace, which you can see here on the photo. But now I got it.

Of course infinity peace is another name for death.

I wonder whether the company that produces it picked up this brand name to protect itself from liability: it's hard to argue that they'd not forewarned the consumers, isn't it?

The world after H1N1

Early last week, I took a plane for the first time since the H1N1 flu alert had started.

After sitting in the plane I noticed I was followed by 10 or 15 young people wearing masks. We were just about to leave Madrid; I suppose these young passengers were connecting from Mexico. The scene reminded me of Japan, where social and hygienic values want people to wear masks as soon as they start caughing or sneezing. In Tokyo metro in winter, for example, you see a lot of people wearing masks in order to protect neighbouring passengers.

I'm wondering if the H1N1 story marks the beginning of new times where people in the whole world will be required to wear masks à la Japan as soon as they catch a cold.

If people accept [and public health authorities demand] to wear masks against H1N1, why not against any kind of influenza or other germs transmissible through breathing?

Will people near me want to change seat in the metro next winter if I sneeze without a mask? Will they reprimend me? Or call the police?

Hopeless

I took this photo today in Tokyo. Hope, what a strange name for a cigarette brand!

Hope what? That you won't become addicted? That it will taste so good that you'll be addicted?

[Or is it the manufacturer who's hoping your children will become addicted?]

Hope you won't get lung cancer? Or a heart attack?

Or maybe the CEO of the tobacco company is an old fan of The Who: "Hope I die before I get old"?

Last year already I wrote about Peace, another strange Japanese cigarette brand...

I'll keep looking.

Nicotraffic

I'm just about to leave Tokyo tomorrow morning, after a busy week and a half of consultations for a symposium we`re organizing here at the United Nations University in a few months.

But I'm not going to talk about whales, tuna or sushi today.

I haven't written about tobacco in a very long time, here Chez Rémi.

Last night I had dinner with Kazue Kobata, a Japanese Art Producer who has not stopped smoking yet (at least as of last night). After we finished eating our sashimi meal, and while we were drinking another sake, she pulled out her cigarettes. I was intrigued by the brand she smokes, which is called Peace. She explained to me that after the US bombarded the whole country (including two nuclear blasts), when they landed they distributed to the survivors top class Virginia leaves cigarettes branded as Peace. Sixty years later the stuff continues to sell!

When I left the restaurant and walked to my hotel, I stopped in front of a tobacco slot machine, and discovered that there is now a new brand, called Infinity Peace. I guess that's Condoleeza's favorites!

Talking of tobacco...I see that the Shinjuku district where I'm staying is covered with posters to remind everyone that Smoking is prohibited in the streets. A Japanese friend has told me that fines for offenders are really high. As a one-time tobacco control activist, I think it's not bad (since smoking was prohibited in the work place and most public spaces in many European countries, the streets look like giant ashtrays). But at the same time, I have noticed that it is almost impossible to find non-smoking tables in the restaurants of the Shinjuku district. How do you say paradox in Japanese?

AIDS Day

Today's AIDS Day.

If you have only 20 seconds to think about it, watch how the AIDS clock is clicking.

I hope my kids watch it.

It's good for their education (including their English).

We all need to spread the HIV Prevention Campaign virus.

Decreto asesino

Es curioso como Esperanza Aguirre, la neocon que ostenta la Presidencia del Gobierno de la Comunidad de Madrid, se ha empañado en hundir con un decreto asesino la Ley Anti-Tabaco aprobada (¡unánimemente!) hace menos de un año por el Congreso de los Diputados.

[En Francés, el neologismo neocon se pronuncia neoconne. Muy oportuno]

Los no-fumadores, somos la mayoría. Claramente. Pero estamos de nuevo indefensos ante Esperanza Aguirre y sus amigos de las empresas tabaqueras y la irresponsabilidad del gremio de la hostelería.

Esperanza es desesperante.

Hace tres años y medio, durante el proceso de negociación del Convenio Mundial sobre el Control del Tabaco de la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS), Varda Group recibió el encargo de desarrollar unos mensajes a favor de la adopción de dicho convenio, frente a la campaña de la Administración Bush contra esa iniciativa de la OMS.

Era el año 2003, precisamente aquel invierno cuando los neocons americanos y españoles se declaraban tan preocupados por aquellas armas de destrucción masiva que no existían. Por eso preparamos en tres idiomas este mensaje gráfico provocador, que se publicó en el International Herald Tribune el día de la apertura de la Asamblea Mundial de la Salud en Ginebra.

Se estima que en España hay 50.000 muertes anuales por el consumo (directo e indirecto) del tabaco. Lo grave es que inevitablemente, con Esperanza Aguirre la proporción de madrileños afectados aumentara.

No me fumes

Nuestros amigos de nofumadores.org han creado una excelente herramienta de denuncia online para que cualquier ciudadan@ pueda exigir que se aplique la Ley Anti-Tabaco española.

HIV AIDS: Spread the virus!

There is a widespread expression in the world of campaigners: when we’re captivated by a new issue and want to do something about it, we say “I’ve caught the [issue] virus”. For example last year, after the Pew Charitable Trusts asked us at the Varda Group to look into the issue of shark conservation, I told many friends and colleagues that the Shark virus had caught me by surprise; similarly as soon as I left Greenpeace in 2002 someone at the World Health Organisation (WHO) gave me the Fight-Tobacco virus.

I returned today from Stockholm, where UNAIDS gave me the opportunity to participate in a meeting aiming at building a vocal constituency around HIV prevention. Under the auspices of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Swedish International Development Agency, a wide range of participants including representatives from national governments, international organizations, civil society (especially people living with HIV), media and trade unions met together in Stockholm for a day and a half to discuss ways to stand up for HIV prevention and increase effective advocacy for the issue as part of the efforts towards achieving universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support.

Although the AIDS era is 25 years old (there is now an entire generation that has not known the world without AIDS), the pandemic continues to grow at an alarming rate. In particular, it is affecting women and girls in ever greater numbers.

Nearly 6000 people are being infected everyday (yes, six thousand e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y); so you don’t need a PhD in mathematics to know that the future does not look good.

Rarely has an issue mobilised so much energy, so many people and so much money in advocacy and education. Thanks to this there are some good success stories (in Western Europe, North America, but also Thailand and Brazil for example), but HIV nevertheless continues to grow. In part this is because the HIV issue has a lot to do with attitudes – especially attitudes to sex and gender relations and also attitudes to those who are directly affected.

In this regard there are a lot of similarities with the current state of the global environmental policy deadlock, where a lot is being said about the imperative need to urgently come to grips with the unsustainable consumption patterns of the Global North (if we want the rest of the world to take seriously the challenges of biodiversity conservation), but too little is being done about it, because it's hard to change deeply rooted attitudes to consumption and because politicians fear that they could lose popular votes if they shake things up too quickly. (Even after hearing many times my friend Sylvia Earle say that 90% of the great fish have already disappeared, I need to make real efforts to resist to a good tuna sushi, I must confess! Food and sex have got something in common, in that it's hard to have an entirely rational approach to them; otherwise we would be much more healthy in many ways).

It is in this context that UNAIDS asked me to share views and recommendations from my perspective, as someone who has been engaged in many advocacy campaigns in other fields all his life. They wanted to hear from a campaigner who had a distance from the AIDS issue. From feedback received, I think I was able to bring some fresh air with a perspective that was new to at least some of the participants.

However, the AIDS issue is so compelling that it is hard to keep a distance from it for very long.

You can turn up and say (as I did at the beginning of the meeting) that you are coming and expressing yourself “from the side”. But after interacting and talking with people who have dedicated their lives to the AIDS issue (including people living with HIV), by the time you leave the meeting, you can no longer stay on the side.

I came there as an advocacy expert bringing an outsider's perspective (although of course I was not completely ignorant on the issue before), and I left the place with a very strong sense of commitment.

It is my understanding that UNAIDS tried to get more campaigners like me coming “from the side” to the Stockholm meeting, but I was the only one who could make it (I’m not throwing a stone at anyone; we’re all very busy, and it was luck that I was available this week).

I now feel compelled to share my Stockholm experience with colleagues and friends from all walks of activism to help UNAIDS build a wider constituency for HIV prevention.

If UNAIDS can spread the HIV Prevention Campaign virus as they have done with me, it can really make a difference.

Tabaquismo: entre tolerar y provocar, hay un abismo

Hace una semana, quedé con los responsables de la cyber-ONG Nofumadores.org en el Café Comercial, uno de los lugares emblemáticos de Madrid dónde yo no había estado desde hace muchos años, porque últimamente con tanto humo de tabaco mis bronquios no me lo perdonaban.

Ahora gracias a la nueva Ley española que proteje a los no-fumadores, toda la planta baja del Café está libre de humo. Allí como en otros lugares de España, desde hace un mes se nota como -- contrariamente al dicho popular -- se puede cambiar la vida por decreto.

Por cierto, me gusta mucho Nofumadores.org. Lo de llamarse "punto org" es un acierto: con solo pronunciar su nombre, el oyente está invitado a visitar su página en Internet y a apuntarse. Ell@s supieron ocupar un nicho que quedaba libre en España: él de una asociación reivindicativa, que lucha contra la enfermedad de manera no asistencial. A las asociaciones asistenciales, yo les tengo mucho respeto (miles de voluntarios se entregan de manera admirable), pero no basta.

En el terreno de la lucha contra el tabaco, puede que Nofumadores.org cumpla un papel parecido al que cumplimos con Greenpeace en los años 70, o él que en la misma época cumplieron Médicos sin Fronteras. Entonces, ya existían organisaciones "ecologistas" y "humanitarias". Pero con la llegada de Greenpeace y Médicos respectivamente, cambió el "paisaje". Con la lucha anti-tabaco, lo mismo ocurrió en el Reino Unido hace unos años con la aparición de nuestros amigos de ASH (de cierto modo el hermano mayor de Nofumadores.org).

Mientras se cumple el primer mes de la entrada en vigor de la Ley "antitabaco", leo que la Ministra de Sanidad Elena Salgado "amenaza con más restricciones en bares pequeños".

Me gusta esta ministra. Yo me atrevo a decir incluso que si algún día nuestra amiga Cristina Narbona está agotada, no seria nada mal tener en Medio Ambiente una ministra tan comprometida como Salgado con la salud pública y la responsabilidad social de la administración y de los ciudadanos.

A mí tampoco me gustan estos carteles "Aquí se puede fumar" en la entrada de la mayoría de los bares pequeños. Yo me pregunto: ¿No van en contra del espíritu de la Ley, que prohibe la publicidad del tabaco?

¿No sería tan dificil, pues, exigir (por decreto, cómo no) que dónde el dueño de un bar autoriza el consumo del tabaco, el único cartel autorizado diga "Recomendamos no fumar"? (de forma provisional mientras no está prohibido fumar en todos los bares)

Porque...entre tolerar y provocar, hay un abismo.

Noche vieja sin humo

Esta mañana, le pregunté a mi hijo de 18 años qué tal la fiesta de fin de año en la cual él estuvo en Madrid esta Noche Vieja. Lo primero que él me dijo fue: "¡Habia un humo asqueroso, mi ropa huele fatal; hay que ser loco para estar en contra de la nueva ley antitabaco!".

Pese que haya sido descafeinada y que sea demasiado tibia comparado con las leyes de paises como Irlanda o Italia, creo que la ley Salgado (foto) antitabaco que entró hoy en vigor en España es un gran paso, porque des-normaliza el acto de fumar tabaco en público. De la noche a la mañana, literalmente, las víctimas del tabaco tenemos más protección. Pocas leyes tienen una incidencia tan inmediata sobre nuestras vidas (vidas en el sentido más amplio, muertes incluidas).

El tema número uno de todas las tertulias en España estas últimas semanas ha sido la supuesta precipitación en la puesta en marcha de la mayoria de las restricciones hechas Ley desde hoy. Conforme con el dicho controversía cero=impacto cero, creo al contrario que la rapidez y la fecha tan señalada del 1 de enero han sido clave para que se tome nota. Si cada año se estrellasen 125 Boeing 747 con 400 pasajeros españoles a bordo, la opinión pública no le daría un respiro al Ministro de Transporte hasta que deje de producirse. Pues 400 x 125 = 50 000, es el número de muertos anuales por consumo de tabaco en España.

Ayer ví en mi barrio un bar con un cartel chulesco "Aquí se puede fumar" colocado en la puerta de entrada. No se si existe un estudio epidemiológico sobre la incidencia de enfermedades (incluso mortales) ligadas al tabaco entre empleados (y dueños) de pequeños bares y tabernas. Si no existe, hay que hacerlo. Seguro que se les bajarían los humos...

Acabo de firmar la carta abierta de no-fumadores.org a la Ministra Salgado, en defensa de los derechos de los fumadores pasivos. Tú también puedes firmarla: haz click aquí.

Ojo con Philip Morris

Esta semana me ha llamado la atención el eco dado por la prensa española al pollo montado por el mal llamado Club de Fumadores por la Tolerancia en reacción al anuncio por parte de la Organisación Mundial de la Salud de que buscan empleados no fumadores.

Como lo demuestra un documento interno de la empresa de comunicación Burson-Marsteller (los mismos que trabajaron en defensa de las dictaduras argentina y birmana, de Union Carbide después de la explosión de su fábrica en Bhopal, entre muchos otros clientes poco recomendables), el mal llamado Club de Fumadores por la Tolerancia es un montaje de Philip Morris, el fabricante de las Marlboro y de otras marcas. Según el documento la estrategía de Burson-Marsteller para Philip Morris incluye enrollar a través de aquel club a "celebridades" y periodistas. Esta semana, hemos visto que algunos estan mordiendo al anzuelo...

No entiendo muy bien todo este revuelo por el anuncio de la OMS. Equivale a escandalizarse si algún día el Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Medio Ambiente recordase a sus empleados que no deben irse a cazar elefantes los fines de semana.

Responsabilidad social corporativa no-gubernamental

Dicen que lo importante de un anuncio publicitario es que provoque una reacción. No importa que sea buena o mala; según esta teoria basta cualquier reacción.

Si esto es cierto, el anuncio de nuestros amigos de la ONG española Ecologistas en Acción que hemos encontrado esta mañana en El País es bueno.

"Las autoridades advierten: las consecuencias del cambio climático son mucho peores que las del tabaco", dicen.

Yo tengo una lectura más sencilla quizas, pero menos cínica: se trata de un anuncio irresponsable y desafortunado.

Irresponsable:

Lo es, precisamente cuando el Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo está peleando para salvar la integridad de su Proyecto de Ley contra el Tabaquismo. Contra intereses creados, contra la ignorancia, y contra una demagogía a la cual participa (inconscientemente, espero) el anuncio de Ecologistas en Acción.

(Yo me pregunto si, antes de subvencionar este anuncio, el Ministerio de Medio Ambiente pidio el visto bueno del Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo...)

Desafortunado:

¿Qué quieren decir Ecologistas con que el cambio climático es "mucho peor"?

Con este tipo de comparaciones empíricas, se puede decir lo mismo a propósito de muchas cosas que combaten Ecologistas. Por ejemplo, unos dirán que el cambio climático es peor que los embalajes de PVC, que el Plan Hidrologico Nacional, que el incendio de Guadalajara, que la especulación urbanistica, la destrucción del litoral, etc, etc.

Creo que me puedo permitir hacer estas preguntas a los amigos de Ecologistas porque con mi trayectoria he demostrado que yo no practico ningún doble razero con nadie. Ni con las tabaqueras ni con el cambio climático.

Y...por si alguien saca el cuento de que las medidas anti-tabaco son una manifestación del imperialismo yanky, que consulten las cifras de los donativos que reciben los dos Partidos de EEUU de Philip Morris (el más grande donante del Partido Republicano, encima de Exxon Mobile) y otras tabaqueras. Estas cifras explican porque EEUU es uno de los pocos paises del mundo que no ha ratificado el Convenio marco sobre Control del Tabaco de la Organisación Mundial de la Salud (como con Kyoto). Si hay control del tabaco en EEUU, es porque la sociedad civil lo ha peleado, incluso en los tribunales, y no por otra razón. Cuatro milliones y medio de muertos al año en todo el mundo por el tabaco, no es para menos.

Bird flu: don't shoot the messenger !

Everywhere I have been in the last couple of weeks, people are asking about the impact of the culling of wild birds on biodiversity, in connection with the bird flu crisis.

Birdlife International have put out a statement that warns that not only "culls of wild birds are highly unlikely to stop the spread of the disease and are extremely difficult to implement" [but also] "culls have the potential to make the situation worse by dispersing infected individuals and stressing healthy birds, making them more prone to disease. Moreover, it would divert resources away from important disease control measures."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not identified the culling of wild bird as a feasible option to control the spread of the bird flu.

In a 30 October statement, BirdLife International "warn[s] that hasty responses to Avian Influenza based on incomplete or unsound data could do great damage to birds and other biodiversity, while actually raising the risk to people and to the economically important poultry industry. In particular, BirdLife International strongly opposes any suggestion that wild birds should be culled in an attempt to control the spread of the disease, on grounds of practicality and effectiveness, as well as conservation. Any such attempts could spread the virus more widely, as survivors disperse to new places, and healthy birds become stressed and more prone to infection. Similarly, attempts to drain wetlands would not only be disastrous for birds and other biodiversity, but would also be counterproductive, for the same reasons that culling is more likely to spread the Avian Influenza virus than control it. Birds will seek alternative staging places, and waterfowl forced to fly further and endure more crowded conditions along their migration route will become stressed and exhausted, and more prone to infection". (emphasis added)

On the positive side perhaps, the bird flu crisis is an opportunity for governments to put more effort into stopping illegal trade in wild birds. At long last.

Chemicals everywhere

Our good friend Clif Curtis who runs WWF's Toxic programme has sent us the following comment to our piece from yesterday on their blood sampling programme:

The biomonitoring is not to say that those chemicals necessarily are all harmful, though based on journal studies we know most of them are. The focus is on showing that we are all contaminated, and we need to have much better data, publicly available, on the fates and efffects of such substances. If there is not conclusive evidence, as you well know, then precaution provides the hook for action. So precaution plays a key role. That said, in the context of chemicals, the precautionary principle responds to a) the complexity of environmental health problems, b) the paucity of information and subsequent uncertainty about cause-effect relationships, and c) the slow pace of government decision making. At its core, the principle calls for preventive, anticipatory measures to be taken when an activity raises threats of harm to the environment, wildlife, or human health, even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientically. Thus and therefore, the precautionary principle is very relevant.

Bloody hell !

WWF's blood sampling campaign to identify harmful chemicals in our bodies should be hailed as a masterpiece of outreach to bring an environmental issue close to laypersons.

It is strange, though, that its impact in the wider public has so far remained fairly limited.

WWF's Generation X European Family Biomonitoring Survey contains disturbing findings, for example:

"Blood samples from members of thirteen families from twelve EU countries - Belgium (2 families), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Sweden, Luxembourg - were analysed for a range of persistent, bioaccumulative and/or endocrine disrupting chemicals, many of which are found in everyday consumer products.

107 different man-made chemicals were analysed in the families’ blood: 12 organochlorine pesticides (including DDT), 44 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), 33 brominated flame retardants including 31 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) and tetrabromobisphenol-A (TBBP-A), 8 “non-stick” perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), 7 artificial musks, 2 antimicrobials (triclosan and its breakdown product, methyl triclosan) and the polycarbonate plastic monomer, bisphenol-A.

The results of these survey show that every family member, from grandmothers to children, is contaminated by a cocktail of at least 18 different man-made chemicals, many of which can be found in everyday consumer items. Some of the identified chemicals such as PCBs and DDT, have been banned for decades but persist in the environment and continue to contaminate new generations with every passing year." (emphasis added)

WWF's campaign is targetting the European Union's debate on a new system for the Registration, Evaluation, and Authorisation of chemicals, known by its achronym REACH, which is due to be adopted in November by the European Council.

Thousands of chemicals whose harmful properties for the environment and human health have not been properly tested, are being released into air and water (hence our food, hence our blood).

The controversy over these substances has been going on for at least two decades.

One question is whether harmful substances should be phased out once they have been tested and shown to cause harm (which often takes ages), or should the precautionary principle apply?

Buena noticia

Tenemos pocas ocasiones para celebrar buenas noticias. Tal y como van las cosas, en este blog hay más llamamientos para manifestarse en contra de como va el mundo, que a favor.

Así que, antes de que pongan el grito al cielo los del mal llamado Club por la Tolerancia financiado por Philip Morris y demás, felicitemos a la Ministra de Sanidad y Consumo por la aprobación unánime ayer del Proyecto de Ley contra el tabaquismo por el Congreso de los Diputados español.

Para quién lo necesite: bajense la Guía para Dejar de Fumar (Suerte).

Tobacco control or Tobacco growing?

The European Union is still discussing whether or not to eliminate the 821 million Euros worth of subsidies that it gives to tobacco growers !

Eight-hundred-and-twenty-one-million a-n-n-u-a-l-l-y, yes, this was not a typo.

A debate that is taking place more than eight months after the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control entered into force.

Yesterday also the Spanish Congress adopted unanimously a new anti-tobacco law proposed by the Spanish government (enhorabuena to our friends from the Spanish Association against Cancer).

Measures such as additional restrictions to the use of tobacco in public places including the workplace, bans on tobacco advertising and sponsorship, and increased taxation of tobacco products are very good.

But the continued subsidies to tobacco growing represent a very obvious case of unacceptable and wasteful double-standard.

Our friends from the tobacco control NGO community could learn from the experience of the anti-GMO activists and ecological farmers, for example. The issue of tobacco subsidies has been dragging on and on for years. Maybe because it has remained just a cozy in-house subject within the walls of the European Commission and Agriculture Ministries. (Zero controversy = zero impact, I always say.)

Some will argue that if we don't grow it here we'll need to import. Well, you can say that of so many things that are not happening in Europe because we have principles based on value judgements, no? With this issue, like with many others, the European Union should do its best to be a role model for the rest of the world. To lead by example.

And I'm not even talking of the likely World Trade Organisation connection to this issue...