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00:04:36Okay, so I gotta try to remember where Sal lives. Um, it's a little bit complicated. There's
00:04:41like the snaking road up over the hills and who is Sal Sal is a friend who I
00:04:49met in San Diego and he moved to LA to work in the movie industry and that's
00:04:55why now he does actually costuming professionally builds like weird suits
00:05:01out of you know pretty much any material you can imagine and so when we needed a
00:05:06costume I knew who to call yeah this is it yeah maybe bring him his mail
00:05:23actually as long as we're at it here yeah I don't like it it looks too it looks
00:05:29too much like sex stuff instead of to it's not very modern looking okay it's
00:05:33gotta learn this is the future this isn't about like straps and stuff that's
00:05:37like dungeons and torture in the past the costume is a manager's leisure suit and
00:05:43the idea is that Hank Hardy Unruh the representative from the World Trade
00:05:47Organization is going to go and wear this breakaway business suit that's going to
00:05:52be pulled off of him during the middle of the keynote address of the conference
00:05:56and then a big inflatable phallus is going to emerge from this golden suit and on
00:06:02the end of it is a TV screen that he uses to manage sweatshops remotely the reason
00:06:07we got invited to these things is we have a website called gat.org the gat.org website
00:06:13looks a lot like the WTO website but it is critical of the WTO most people though who
00:06:20find gat.org by searching for the World Trade Organization will go without reading it and will send
00:06:27us email directly so a lot of people ask us weird questions about tariffs and trade and we try to
00:06:33answer as accurately as we can and occasionally invitations come in from official or you know
00:06:38quasi official organizations asking for opinions or asking us to attend the conference and so when
00:06:44they ask they really think they're talking to the WTO and we respond by giving them what we think they
00:06:51want which is the opinions of the WTO as accurately as we can represent them you know what I'm thinking
00:06:57actually looking at this is it maybe this is a zipper yeah yeah yeah yeah just unzips it and pulls
00:07:05the
00:07:05thing at the same time oh that could be really good because to have it burst out of the velcro
00:07:10it might
00:07:10not be strong enough to burst out and then he'd have to pull it right part of the thing that
00:07:15gives us the
00:07:16courage to go to Tampere with this really absurd suit is that we already went to Salzburg Austria to
00:07:26represent the World Trade Organization at a conference on tariffs and trade and so there our
00:07:32representative the same guy who is Hank Hardy Unru here was Dr. Andreas Bickelbauer there and he gave
00:07:38a lecture that focused on basically doing away with all customs in the name of free trade like getting
00:07:45rid of the siesta in Spain and Italy so that business hours could be the same in Italy on
00:07:52the other hand you have a totally different situation in which sleep is done during the day as much as
00:07:59at
00:07:59night almost and allowing people to sell their votes over the internet to the highest bidder so
00:08:05that the barriers to sort of free trade and things like votes were out of the way one possible solution
00:08:11is being tested in the field of American politics to streamline the grotesquely inefficient system of
00:08:18elections and vote auction.com in turn employs only four people to transmit not merely information but
00:08:26actual money directly to the consuming voter it's a forum for people voluntarily to offer their vote to the
00:08:36the highest bidder and despite giving what we thought was a lecture that would immediately get us
00:08:42boot off stage or you know get Bickelbauer maybe even thrown in jail because people would figure out
00:08:47he was an imposter the exact opposite happened everybody was super polite nobody it didn't seem
00:08:52like everybody everybody even noticed that what he said was so absurd
00:09:18well so far we thought Bickelbauer would be very extreme and people would react to it and we'd be
00:09:26get shut down and nothing of the sort happened so this time we just have to really push it make
00:09:33it totally extreme I mean we keep trying to push things further to to try to really clarify the
00:09:39positions of the WTO to make them very legible there's one back but this this is good so uh so
00:09:48uh
00:09:56Andy Andy
00:09:58it has a terrible fire
00:10:00I have to check the web when we get upstairs
00:10:07oh my god though what are we gonna do about this pat we gotta watch the patrick video
00:10:11yeah um it's weird stuff isn't it that's one way I'm putting it it's really a problem
00:10:19this is about the weirdest I've seen from him ever I think
00:10:26it looks pretty good on this yeah it's all right
00:10:34and what we have here is is that we have our cyber Andy here who's going to be wearing the
00:10:40suit
00:10:41and uh I'm going to be showing all the different ways in which the management leisure suit can be
00:10:47useful in industry today and uh maximize leisure potential sometimes I don't think they know what
00:10:57the hell to expect out of me um what I'll come up with is frequently not exactly what they uh
00:11:07had
00:11:08in mind but um it's uh you know it it fits in perfectly with what they're what they're going to
00:11:15do
00:11:16well I mean I came out of a corporate environment and a company that I really gave you know a
00:11:23good
00:11:23bit of my soul to over a long period of time progressively there were a lot of downsizing
00:11:29and of course you know that the the company I was with I thought was going to take care of
00:11:34me you
00:11:34know and I realized that the bottom line is the bottom line and there really isn't any humanity in
00:11:41corporate structures so therefore I hope that maybe being part of the yes men might in some way
00:11:47help raise issues about global work issues and uh social issues that are being brought about by
00:11:54globalization etc
00:11:58I grew up in the suburbs here and then I moved to Troy uh six years ago for a job
00:12:05at the university
00:12:06there's a place there called the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and I teach there
00:12:11I was moving back home really because I'd been away I'd been on the west coast for about 12 years
00:12:17wait what is this uh this is um it's this uh simcopter uh hack here it is I wanted to
00:12:25watch this tape
00:12:26because I this this was a tape I've been cleaning out the uh archives you know and I found this
00:12:30tape in
00:12:30there I met Andy through a friend actually mutual friend actually two people that we both knew suggested
00:12:38that me and Andy get in contact with one another because we'd both done similar projects one of the
00:12:43jobs that I had was at this games company called Maxis that makes SimCity one of the games they were
00:12:50making at the time was uh simcopter I was in charge of the little people that run around in the
00:12:56game
00:12:56and I made them uh wearing nothing but swim trunks and they'd all be boys and they'd be running around
00:13:02kissing each other so all the people who ordered this very popular video game suddenly were treated
00:13:08to a completely different spectacle and so he got a lot of press attention for it and it was seen
00:13:14as
00:13:15a kind of an activist you know kind of statement about video games and the sort of macho nature of
00:13:20them it all involves the unexpected appearance of some gay kissing muscle men every friday the 13th
00:13:26he's becoming a celebrity of sorts in the computer world especially the gay computer world
00:13:31and then I had done a project using barbie dolls where we switched the voice boxes of barbie dolls
00:13:37and gi joe's troops attack that cobra jet with heavy fire power and that ended up in gi joe's that
00:13:46said things like I love to shop with you and barbie dolls that said things like um dead men tell
00:13:51no
00:13:52lies and we got them back on store shelves um all over the country in what we called our shop
00:13:57giving
00:13:58program we're like santa claus only less radical because santa claus breaks into people's houses we
00:14:03don't do that so that when kids got them at christmas they were surprised to find their doll
00:14:08saying something other than what they expected and the kids thought it was hilarious you know they loved
00:14:12having these crazy dolls uh we sent out press releases so it was in the in the news on christmas
00:14:18day
00:14:18and for the the week following it just went through every kind of uh media channel imaginable the
00:14:25blu the mission of the blu the barbie liberation organization the blu
00:14:31that was real fun moi ça m'a fait bien rire il a l'air d'un jouet qui dirait
00:14:35viens te battre et
00:14:36en fait il dit i love school don't you let's sing with the band tonight now we were with the
00:14:42yes men
00:14:42we're calling that that sort of basic idea identity correction like saying okay these things these
00:14:48things that are not really presenting themselves honestly or that hide something about their nature
00:14:54that's really scary we want that we want to bring that out we want to show that we want to
00:14:57demonstrate that
00:14:58and so like for the wto you know we think that the wto is doing all these terrible things that
00:15:05are
00:15:05hurting people and they're saying the exact opposite and so we're interested in correcting their identity
00:15:11in the same way that an identity thief steals somebody's identity to in order to basically just
00:15:17engage in criminal practices we target people we see as criminals and we steal their identity to try
00:15:23to make them honest or to try to present a more honest face and so you know i guess this
00:15:29whole
00:15:29thing has its roots for both me and andy and stuff that we've been doing for a long time which
00:15:34is
00:15:34trying to create public spectacles that in some kind of poetic way reveal something about our culture
00:15:40that's profoundly a problem
00:15:57that must be sal uh oh are you okay
00:16:08it's been a long day holy shit oh well i probably started it in uh june or july
00:16:18so on and off for a good two to three months just a couple more pieces of velcro and i
00:16:25don't really
00:16:26be it and yeah we're nice what we're at the end of the line
00:16:32okay look so here we're making a list here wednesday we leave for friendland early so
00:16:40sunday make make lecture bigger oh no that's a big one powerpoint
00:16:47and then speech finish
00:17:03it's uh 4 3 a.m and um i guess i'll just keep working until morning i feel
00:17:11somewhat awake and then andy can take over again uh we can do around the clock shift i guess
00:17:22i'm just trying to add a few slides into the powerpoint here um because actually a lot of
00:17:29the things that the sort of uh business leaders of the world say in relation to these issues are
00:17:36actually sort of very similar to what unruh hank hardy says even though maybe unruh hank hardy is a
00:17:42little bit more frank about it and in fact when he talked to cnbc when he was debating an activist
00:17:49barry coates just sort of agreed with what he said when he said this is what the wto does and
00:17:54this is
00:17:54our position and barry coates said well that's funny i that that's exactly right so after salzburg
00:18:03we got an email asking a representative of the wto to appear on cnbc market wrap europe and the producer
00:18:12apparently didn't notice that gat.org was not the wto site and uh grandma's hoolitberry which is another
00:18:22name that andy just came up with responded and uh of course said well i'd be happy to go on
00:18:29cnbc market
00:18:30wrap and the producer wanted him to debate an anti-globalization protester if if the wto is serious
00:18:39about addressing the issues of world poverty it would do things completely differently than it is
00:18:46now let me let me bring in um branwith on that is that a fair point well of course it
00:18:52is but you know
00:18:53i think i think barry as well as all the other protesters are simply in a word focused too too
00:18:58much
00:18:59on reality and on facts and figures and i think i would i would have to say that this is
00:19:03a long-term
00:19:04problem that comes down to a problem of education we have to find a way to convince uh perhaps not
00:19:11the protesters but the protesters children to follow uh thinkers like milton friedman and darwin and uh
00:19:18and so on rather than uh what the protesters have been reared on frotsky and uh robespierre and abby
00:19:25hoffman and i think that putting um the direction of education being put into a private hands a concentration
00:19:33of resources in the private sector will naturally lead to this result and we'll see the protesters
00:19:39children being reared with an entirely different set of of concerns but let me bring you in on that
00:19:44barry okay i mean can i just just say that these kind of simplistic arguments are really i mean too
00:19:50insulting to to most people to believe you know the fact that we have a choice between milton friedman or
00:19:55ab hoffman for for where we get our source of economic history and philosophy there are many many
00:20:01thinkers from around the world just not those ones employed by the wto that think the the world trade
00:20:07organization policies are deeply damaging for the development prospects of the poorest countries
00:20:11let me go out uh to branwin yes um well i wanted to to speak to to gran with uh
00:20:19sorry to barry's
00:20:20point that there are other thinkers well who who actually has the power in the world and so who is
00:20:26correct in this in this kind of world view i mean i think the answer is is is easy and
00:20:31if you look
00:20:31at the the views held by myself my organization and and uh many many of the decision makers in in
00:20:38the world the powerful people they happen to coincide with what i'm explaining and i think this is is
00:20:44enough in this sort of uh view so i mean what we have here is a picture of the rich
00:20:50and powerful
00:20:51people believe a certain philosophy which they then propound through the institutions in which they
00:20:57have a powerful voice and i think this is exactly the model that is being questioned and and increasingly
00:21:03what there is is a very large body of people who are concerned about these rules the people on the
00:21:09streets of general or or in seattle are not representative of the overall movement they are
00:21:15the tip of the iceberg we did the study last year that that looked across developing countries and found
00:21:20that in the space of one year in 50 protests more than a million people from developing countries
00:21:26were out trying to change the rules that were being imposed on them by the world bank and the imf
00:21:32and
00:21:32locked in through the world trade organization thank you we must finish so unfortunately barry coates
00:21:35thank you for joining us and also ground with her helder batty and also vernon ellis on the line from
00:21:40new york
00:22:06uh section three
00:22:13well it's not exactly a garment bag but it's uh it'll work
00:22:21yeah you think mother's very business like it's like very official
00:22:28okay good that's what i need i need a big money watch
00:22:33so are you as nervous as you were for uh salzburg the thing is like even with the salzburg thing
00:22:40we
00:22:41went into it like sort of i mean we went there really nervous but the whole time kind of it
00:22:47doesn't
00:22:48it doesn't really sink in until you're actually there right well i think it's good you guys like
00:22:53from what i've seen of the speech it kind of starts out the most normal that it is yeah so
00:22:58that he'll
00:22:59he can get comfortable and people he can sort of like slowly work his way up into it
00:23:18oh son of a fucking
00:23:20is that right screen get a little paint on it yeah
00:23:33it sounds like a lawnmower it's a little loud yeah
00:23:36uh that's not good i got it
00:23:49uh oh oh oh look it made a new noise good good good great is it great
00:23:53try it and it doesn't work now oh okay
00:24:09uh okay okay 10 minutes they're both here
00:24:17hey sal thanks
00:24:25hey we'll see how it goes yeah sleep good and have a good time here
00:24:30yeah see you enjoy see you soon move into my room have enjoyment yeah okay
00:24:39is this everything wow look how efficient okay
00:24:45efficient a model of efficiency right here
00:24:51you have some uh crap on your face right here no no over here
00:25:04you have to go
00:25:07yeah
00:25:08yeah
00:25:09yeah
00:25:12yeah
00:25:13yeah
00:25:14yeah
00:25:15yeah
00:25:29we arrived last night you had to take a nap you know to get some sleep i just crashed yeah
00:25:35and uh
00:25:36i went and basically scoped out the lecture site there was a sign on the door that said
00:25:42textiles of the future unruh hank hardy was the first speaker hank hardy unruh and um you know it
00:25:48all looked sort of official the coffee cups were out for the morning so i thought this is great
00:25:53i'm all ready i know exactly where it is we can go there i had a time i like set
00:25:58up a little
00:25:58timetable i got the you know maps of the thing and all the updated conference information um
00:26:04came back here then we went to sleep early but hank was snoring immediately but i
00:26:10wasn't able to sleep at all really i just like stayed there awake in bed and occasionally go
00:26:15in the bathroom and turn on the light and read brochures because i was like just unable to sleep
00:26:21and eventually i think i fell asleep just before waking up
00:26:28great
00:26:32so i'm leaving my wallet here
00:26:38okay let's go
00:26:43it's eight o'clock i think i really will leave it here
00:26:52are you coming
00:26:58uh hank it's a little early to get up it's all right i mean i thought this was vacation
00:27:06like what a vacation i know they take me to philand
00:27:16when we take care of this egg for you i'll just peel it that would be nice thank you
00:27:26well you know but we're behind schedule are we well a little bit it's after eight and i really wanted
00:27:32to be at the venue at eight okay but we're doing fine is it after eight it is after eight
00:27:38yeah
00:27:38well you know pretend like
00:27:51huh great more early oh good
00:28:00hello i'm hankhardy unru i'm from the nice to meet you we were expecting you oh good
00:28:08it's not 9 30 no it's 8 30 right but you would have a it's 8 30 now 30 is
00:28:15it
00:28:15it is it's 9 30 yes now yes no yeah the time is 9 30 yeah almost well i'm on
00:28:25it
00:28:26at the moment oh my god we're an hour off oh my god thank you okay well we have to
00:28:34we start in three minutes do they know that he's going on now oh geez okay okay
00:28:48um i'm i'm his assistant yeah and this is also working with him we have to go take care of
00:28:54a
00:28:54few things now okay okay would you like to join the dinner uh yes please okay uh or is there
00:29:01a fee
00:29:01or no it's in glory okay yes we'll we'll join the dinner that's great um uh wow well we must
00:29:08hurry
00:29:08i guess yes so please yes um actually no you can't go in right now because you have to first
00:29:16take care
00:29:16of that business see we're an hour or we're we we got five we had an hour off i have
00:29:22to do something
00:29:23um so yes to make a very important phone call right now take me five minutes and yes i'm sorry
00:29:28but uh
00:29:29but you will have your presentation starting after two minutes yes please tell them that i'll be three
00:29:33minutes late that's really incredible come on okay yeah geez this is terrible it's the stupidest i can't
00:29:57do you have to do that production there's there's it's an hour's difference the time zone is different
00:30:01here it's unbelievable how the fuck can that happen okay there that's done now okay real quick the shirt uh
00:30:13the underwear gold underwear okay does that do i have to put something through here no okay uh
00:30:22here we go mm-hmm your testicles hanging out uh yeah okay okay here we go hey okay great
00:30:37oh god okay great got a little air in it okay now the pants hurry
00:30:48i'm so sorry
00:30:53our program for this morning
00:30:58our program for this morning
00:31:08thank you
00:31:11terribly
00:31:14yes i have a presentation
00:31:18terribly sorry uh i think the world trade organization is supposed to know about time zones but
00:31:23uh somebody said isn't there a time difference and i said nope all of europe same time zone
00:31:32so uh that convinced us all and we were convinced that it was the right time and we woke up
00:31:38this
00:31:39morning and we arrived we're running we're running five or ten minutes late and then figured out that
00:31:44you know the laptop wasn't working no maybe we could switch the order
00:31:49could we could we have somebody else go and then i go later and they said okay i think we
00:31:53can do that
00:31:53and then they called the coffee people and they talked to the coffee people to see if the coffee was
00:31:57possible that was it
00:31:59well i had a pleasure
00:32:01uh
00:32:02uh
00:32:03uh
00:32:03uh
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00:34:02uh
00:34:04uh
00:34:05uh
00:34:06uh
00:34:06uh
00:34:08uh
00:34:10before unveiling our solution i'd like to talk a bit about the history of the worker
00:34:14management problem uh
00:34:16we all know about the american civil war at least in the u.s
00:34:20uh
00:34:20it was the bloodiest least profitable war in the history of our country
00:34:24a war in which unbelievably huge amounts of money went right down the drain
00:34:28and all for textiles
00:34:30by the 1860s the south was utterly flush with cash
00:34:35it had recently benefited from the cotton gin an invention that took the seeds out of cotton and
00:34:40the south out of its pre-industrial past
00:34:43hundreds of thousands of workers previously unemployed in their countries of origin
00:34:47were given useful jobs in textiles
00:34:50into this rosy picture of freedom and boone stepped you guessed it the north
00:34:56now some civil war apologists have said that the civil war for all its faults at least
00:35:01had the effect of outlawing an involuntarily imported workforce model of work now this model
00:35:07is of course a terrible thing i myself am an abolitionist but uh in fact there is no doubt
00:35:13that left to their own devices markets would have eventually replaced slavery with cleaner
00:35:18sources of labor to prove my point please uh join me on what albert einstein used to call
00:35:24a thought experiment suppose involuntarily imported labor had never been outlawed
00:35:31that slaves still existed and that it were easy to own one what do you think it would cost today
00:35:36to
00:35:37profitably maintain a slave say here in tampere let's see a finished clothing set costs fifty dollars at
00:35:45the very least uh two meals for mcdonald's uh cost about ten dollars the cheapest small room probably
00:35:52runs for about 250 dollars a month to function well you have to pay for your slave's health care
00:35:57if its country of origin was polluted for example that might run very expensively and of course what
00:36:02with child labor laws here in finland uh much of the youth market is simply not available
00:36:08now leave the uh same slave back at home let's say gabon in gabon ten dollars pays for two weeks
00:36:15of food
00:36:16two hundred and fifty dollars pays for two years of housing not a month at best uh fifty dollars pays
00:36:23for a lifetime of budget clothing and health care is of course cheaper on top of it all youth can
00:36:29be
00:36:29gainfully employed without restriction the biggest benefit of the remote labor system though is to the
00:36:35slave him or herself because in gabon there is no need for the slave not to be free this is
00:36:42primarily
00:36:42because there are no one-time slave transport costs to recoup and so the potential losses from fleeing
00:36:48are limited to the slaves rudimentary training so since the slave can be free he or she suddenly becomes
00:36:54a worker rather than a slave also terrific for morale is that slaves workers have the luxury of remaining
00:37:02in their native habitat and don't have to relocate to places where they would be subject to such
00:37:06unpleasantries as homesickness and racism i think it's clear from our little thought experiment uh
00:37:14that if the north and south had simply let the market sorted out without protectionist tariffs they
00:37:19would have quickly given up slavery for something more efficient anyhow by forcing the issue the north
00:37:25not only committed a terrible injustice against the freedom of the south but also deprived slavery of
00:37:31its natural development into remote labor had the leaders of the 1860s united states understood what
00:37:38our leaders understand today the civil war would never have happened in a world where the headquarters
00:37:44of a company might be in new york hong kong or espo finland and the workers are in gabon rangu
00:37:51or estonia
00:37:53how does a manager maintain proper rapport with the workers and how does he or she ensure from a
00:37:58distance that workers perform their work in an ethical fashion i'm about to show you an actual
00:38:04prototype of the wto solution to two major management problems of today now we all know that not even the
00:38:11best workplace design can help even the most astute manager keep track of workers what you need is a
00:38:17solution that enables complete rapport with workers especially when they're located far away mike would you help me
00:38:27um
00:38:50thank you this is much better much more comfortable
00:38:55this is the WTO's answer to two of the major management problems and we're calling it the
00:39:01management leisure suit it's the two problems again how to maintain close rapport with distant
00:39:07workers and how to remain comfortable and increase leisure activities how does the
00:39:14management leisure suit work besides being extremely comfortable as I can guarantee you
00:39:19well allow me to describe the suit's core features
00:39:47this this is the EVA
00:39:53the employee visualization appendage it's an instantly deployable hip mounted device
00:40:00with totally hands-free operation that allows the manager to see his employees directly right here
00:40:07signals communicating the exact amounts and quality of physical work are transmitted not
00:40:13only visually right here but directly through electric channels implanted directly into the
00:40:18manager the workers for their part are fitted with corresponding transmitting chips that are
00:40:25implanted humanely directly into the shoulder but the other equally important achievement of the MLS
00:40:31has to do with leisure in the United States leisure another word for freedom really has been decreasing
00:40:39steadily since the 1970s the management leisure suit permits the manager to reverse this trend by letting him do his
00:40:46work anywhere while remaining in complete touch with the workers physically sensing what's going on in the
00:40:53workforce on the floor through channels implanted directly into the manager again the manager sees the employees but
00:41:00also feels what they're feeling and can select where to focus in the workplace environment
00:41:07so in conclusion
00:41:09I'd like to ask is this a science fiction scenario
00:41:19the answer is no everything we've seen here everything we've been talking about is entirely possible today we can
00:41:27always look forward on the highways of progress towards ever new horizons with cooperation and mutual
00:41:34delight in the fruits of prosperity I'm very excited to be here thank you very much
00:41:52thank you very much
00:41:53thank you thank you very much for your presentation
00:41:56thank you
00:41:57thank you
00:41:58thank you something we're trying to do more and more is
00:42:08Yes.
00:42:08Yeah.
00:42:09Please, can you just please?
00:42:11Sure.
00:42:12Are there any questions with the character that
00:42:15next student will be this moment,
00:42:18you can ask questions for the whole spirit of the night?
00:42:29I wasn't depressed by people not reacting.
00:42:32I wasn't depressed by people just swallowing it
00:42:34and not asking questions, because I thought,
00:42:36well, that shows that you need some sort of control.
00:42:40Because here you can, you know, the WTO, me,
00:42:43can come in and say these amazingly hideous things
00:42:45to this group of the most educated people,
00:42:47like the top 0.1% education-wise people in the entire world,
00:42:52in a developed country like Finland.
00:42:53These people all have PhDs or advanced degrees.
00:42:56And you can say the most atrocious things,
00:42:58and nobody will really react, and nobody will really care.
00:43:01It's like, you know, what can't corporations get away with?
00:43:06I see.
00:43:12Here's a bus from Jelmaikstation to the flying station.
00:43:14In the bus to the flight station.
00:43:15Hmm.
00:43:18Hmm.
00:43:19So where are we?
00:43:20Well, we're arriving in Helsinki right now.
00:43:22Um, we left the conference this morning.
00:43:26It was just, um, it had driven us completely mad after dinner last night.
00:43:31I think we had had our fill at dinner.
00:43:33I had to actually leave a little bit early.
00:43:35I went over to the table where, um, Andrew, where Hank Hardy had to sit with the big men and
00:43:43eat.
00:43:43And I told him that we needed to leave because we had a telephone meeting with Mobutu Oblongatu immediately.
00:43:53Great.
00:43:54Hi.
00:43:55Sorry about in a minute.
00:43:56We're supposed to meet Manduka Jabango at 10 o'clock.
00:44:00And then we both started laughing, which is really not convenient for the context.
00:44:05So we left and then we just decided that basically, like, we couldn't figure out what else we could possibly
00:44:11do at this conference.
00:44:13So we just thought, well, let's go to Helsinki instead.
00:44:18So this is the paper on the front page.
00:44:21It just, uh, just discovered it said, um, it says there's a seminar at the university and, um, that somebody
00:44:28talked about controlling remote workers with electrical impulsions.
00:44:32Impulsiari.
00:44:33And then you turn to the page and that's what you get.
00:44:38And this right here represents the, the World Trade Organization.
00:44:45This, this is the World Trade Organization.
00:44:48The World Trade Organization.
00:44:54I went down to these Mexican border towns in the mid-80s.
00:44:59They were called Mequidoras.
00:45:00And when they first had, you know, the sort of, the first trade agreements between Mexico and the United States.
00:45:05And everyone was saying, oh, this is going to raise Mexico out of poverty and things were going to be
00:45:10so great.
00:45:11And within 10 years, they'd all be driving shiny new cars in Mexico.
00:45:15And I, and I went down there and, and, and, and saw this, the incredible poverty in these Mexican border
00:45:20towns.
00:45:2215 years later, I went back.
00:45:23Not a damn thing had changed.
00:45:25Here's all these workers working for all these American corporations.
00:45:29And you just go across the street and you found people living in the same horrid conditions, the same poverty
00:45:36existing.
00:45:37And, and you, and you had to ask, well, who was benefiting from this?
00:45:41Well, who benefited were these American corporations during the 1990s.
00:45:45They became even more wealthy.
00:45:46They posted a record profit, larger record profits.
00:45:49And the people in Mexico just continued to suffer.
00:45:52It was all a big scam.
00:46:11This is the one.
00:46:13No, you got the wrong one.
00:46:17Shit.
00:46:19Will WTO stand up?
00:46:21Oh, my God.
00:46:22It's got pictures.
00:46:23They're nice.
00:46:24Yeah.
00:46:24Yeah, they actually look okay at that size.
00:46:26He's a mom, isn't he? Wow, but he plays them on TV.
00:46:30This is basically the core of what we do.
00:46:33All of these newspapers and magazines have articles on the Yes Men,
00:46:38and this is why we are doing these things.
00:46:42This is why we go and do these conferences.
00:46:43It's not for the 200 people or the 100 people that might see us give the lecture,
00:46:48although we'd like them to come away with an interesting experience from the lecture.
00:46:52The reason we do it is so that people who read Bizarre magazine
00:46:57or the New York Times or Fortune or Harper's can read about it in the mainstream press.
00:47:03I mean, this is how millions of people could read about it
00:47:05and potentially get turned on to some of the ideas of anti-globalization.
00:47:11One of the problems with the Fortune thing is that it's in this, well, Fortune.
00:47:18It's like read by business people and accountants and that kind of thing.
00:47:22And that's exactly who we're supposed to be talking to in Australia in May.
00:47:29It's an accounting conference.
00:47:31It's a little worrisome.
00:47:45You need a new shirt and one that's not wrinkled?
00:47:47Yeah.
00:47:48Will that be good with your thing?
00:47:50Oh, yeah.
00:47:51Do you think it'll work with your suit?
00:47:52This one's extra large.
00:47:53Yeah, they'll all work with my suit.
00:47:55It's terrible.
00:47:56Striped, though.
00:47:57Is that okay?
00:47:58Yeah.
00:47:59Sure, it's okay.
00:48:00Well, then why don't you go get a shirt then?
00:48:01I'll just get this.
00:48:02Wait.
00:48:03Yeah.
00:48:03It's cotton.
00:48:03Oh, it's not very much cotton.
00:48:05How much is it?
00:48:06I hate that.
00:48:0735%?
00:48:09It's like...
00:48:09No, it's fine for...
00:48:10It doesn't wrinkle much, then.
00:48:11That's nice about that.
00:48:13I'll just wear it.
00:48:13Okay.
00:48:14All right.
00:48:21I mean, the thing is, like, there's a question of whether he's...
00:48:24Like, at what point he recognizes you doesn't really matter.
00:48:27What we want is that moment when he does recognize you.
00:48:31So if he recognizes you here and sees that you're in the room, then he'll be looking back and forth
00:48:36at you at the screen.
00:48:37And at that point, if he recognizes you, we'd better say something.
00:48:45No, I think it's down here, but I don't know.
00:48:47I eat again.
00:48:48Where is it again?
00:48:49Where is it again?
00:48:50Oh, it's right over.
00:48:50It must be right down in Morris.
00:48:51Remember we walked...
00:48:52It's on this...
00:48:53Oh, we need to...
00:48:54Oh, I don't know.
00:48:56Ooh...
00:48:57Ooh...
00:48:58Ooh...
00:48:58Ooh...
00:48:58Ooh...
00:49:01Ooh...
00:49:03Ooh...
00:49:09Ooh...
00:49:14Ooh...
00:49:14All right.
00:49:15Hey, hi.
00:49:16How are you doing?
00:49:17Nice to meet you.
00:49:17Good to meet you.
00:49:18Good. Great. Yeah.
00:49:20We're in London, and we were just at the...
00:49:23offices of the world development movement where we talked to Barry Coates
00:49:27who is the director of the world development movement and who showed up
00:49:30on CNBC market wrap Europe debating our friend here
00:49:35Grant with Hulet Barry about the prospects of WTO and globalization we
00:49:42kind of expected him maybe to have a glimmer of recognition immediately and
00:49:46he didn't okay then we put on the tape and he he laughed at how horribly
00:49:53stupid it was but he never realized that this wasn't really a representative
00:49:58of WTO even when he saw me like this right next to it and then we switched
00:50:02seats and he still didn't notice and then I had to put my face next to the thing
00:50:06and like oh yeah let's just pause it here okay stop there's no pause I don't know
00:50:15what I could have said after that after that clip I mean really where did they
00:50:22get this guy from afterwards it might have been my first comment so did you
00:50:26ever figure out where they got the guy from I understood that he was far in the
00:50:31external relations department of the WTO right that's what they thought that's
00:50:37what they thought as well but but as it happens happens oh he wasn't yeah in fact
00:50:44just just take one more close look oh wait can we is this reverse no I wasn't gonna mention the
00:50:59likeness the likeness you were being very polite weren't you yeah yeah you did it as a spoof yeah yeah
00:51:08basically we weren't sure we were really hoping you wouldn't be too offended and we were like oh no oh
00:51:17hell no oh that's great
00:51:20I was wondering because I hadn't seen that guy before and I didn't know some of the WTO external
00:51:25relations people and I was thinking my god they really put up a right one this time we wanted to
00:51:31talk to Barry Coates as well because he has a lot of statistics and information about globalization that
00:51:38we thought would be useful for the lecture in Australia all of the WTO agreements bar one are all
00:51:45about restricting what governments can do and so essentially the whole trading system is built
00:51:50on the premise that that the companies trading internationally investing internationally are going
00:51:58to be preyed upon by by nasty governments and really I mean what we have is an international system
00:52:06that is entirely the reverse what's got squeezed out of the system is democracy is development is
00:52:12environment is is the the the kind of human values which really ought to be the center of what we're
00:52:19trying to do you know we don't kind of live to trade you know we we live to to have
00:52:26decent lives and
00:52:27and that ought to be the goal of our trade policy not maximizing trade or getting rid of any impediments
00:52:33to it
00:52:59that's good got that I need to get the video and I'll be off let's see
00:53:12one of the big reasons why I'm up here is that we have the Australia gig for the yes men
00:53:19I did a
00:53:20animation about you know the recycling of post-consumer waste into hamburgers and fast food so here we go
00:53:30the answer the world's sustainable food future is in recycling and since over half our nutrients
00:53:36and taken in or eliminated valuable resources are at risk by using post-consumer waste reburger allows
00:53:42essential nutrients to be offered to developing countries for greatly reduced cost uh-huh oh okay
00:53:52oh oh I think it gets better oh oh wait what was that I think it does the job I
00:54:03think it does the job
00:54:06we're here in New York because Herb Alpert um of Herb Alpert and the Tawana Brass um is gave us
00:54:15this award
00:54:15um bunch of money to do what you know the kind of stuff that we do um so we had
00:54:21to come here and
00:54:22have dinner with him and and you know get the money and and thank everybody and it was very nice
00:54:27and it's
00:54:28very surprising but we're very pleased I think we can say we're very pleased um yeah it was a big
00:54:34chunk
00:54:34of money it's gonna bankroll a lot of future activities like going to Australia um yeah so we got
00:54:41this chunk of money but of course now we're also using this opportunity and this hotel room here
00:54:46in New York to meet up with Matt who's been working on the PowerPoint presentation for Australia and to
00:54:51meet up with Patrick who's been working on animations for Australia as well fortunately we were lucky too
00:54:57because uh Snafu was in town and he's sort of a European yes man who's been sort of circulating in
00:55:04the
00:55:04European scene doing yes man type activities but uh it's a good thing he's here here in the States
00:55:10so he can go to Plattsburgh with us yes trade liberalization is a religious undertaking a project of
00:55:16faith a crusade of sorts and it has been ever since its founders declared that financial success comes
00:55:21from God and that wealth is a sign of divine favor now why is starvation a problem first the facts
00:55:29as
00:55:30we all know investment and exports have been on the rise in the third world
00:55:34there's some bad news there's some really bad news that came down in the last two days
00:55:40um the conference in Australia the people from the conference in Australia wrote an email saying
00:55:47that the conference has been cancelled because of low enrollment in some ways it's really kind of I
00:55:53guess a nice thing that there was under enrollment because it was really a hideous conference and it
00:55:58seemed like a really dire thing that people would actually want to go to that thing and so it's
00:56:04really encouraging for humanity that the conference actually has been cancelled but at the same
00:56:08time it's really uh made things difficult for us and so I wrote back to them as Hildegard West and
00:56:14I
00:56:14asked them if they would please set up another venue because Kinnathrung-Spratt is already on route to
00:56:21Australia so right now I'm waiting to see if they come back to us with the suggestion that they'll
00:56:27actually have a public presentation but since the conference has been cancelled now the event in
00:56:33Plattsburgh is kind of like it might be the only venue we have for this lecture and so it's really
00:56:38important now that we get the lecture done and sort of together so it's no longer a dress rehearsal it's
00:56:43actually like the final you know production it's about time well I was so worried about your shoes
00:56:52about what this guy brought shoes he brought real shoes for you look do we have the hamburgers yet
00:56:57uh we have to pick them up but you you mentioned they're ordered they're ordered yeah Richard ordered
00:57:02them already basically there's this guy named Richard Robbins who I met at a conference about a month ago
00:57:10and he has written several books on sort of global globalization he was interested in having the the
00:57:17WTO come speak at the economics department and only he really knows that this isn't really the WTO
00:57:24everybody else will think that it's the WTO but another good thing is that it will be a hungry
00:57:29audience so there's a good chance they are going to eat those hamburgers which we weren't sure was
00:57:34actually going to happen with the accountants in Australia you know I think for a for look I should
00:57:41probably carry these in okay can you do it yeah I'm thinking that that you probably shouldn't be
00:57:47associated with the hamburgers okay I'd like to thank everybody for coming you have many education
00:57:54choices and we're all grateful at the WTO that you have chosen to listen to us for an hour and
00:58:01to our
00:58:01messages about things that will impact everyone I'd like to say that by joining us here you're
00:58:07essentially embarking with us on a mission I'd like to start right at the beginning as I was saying
00:58:16trade liberalization is a project of faith it's a crusade and in any crusade there are problems there
00:58:22are invading armies there are big blockades and one of the the problems that we run into in this crusade
00:58:30is starvation in the third world you may recognize that symbol from those green bins you see you know
00:58:35where cans bottles blah blah the kind of recycling I'm talking about that we have developed at the WTO
00:58:41is not not really this this irrelevant kind of recycling where the target individual consumers
00:58:48like you and me or of non-edible industrial products is such a tiny part of the problem rather
00:58:55we're talking about really recycling what counts where it counts to begin to understand the theory
00:59:01behind this you must first realize that the human body is not really very efficient when ingesting
00:59:07heavy foods only about 20 percent of the nutrients are absorbed by the elementary passageway while the
00:59:13other 80 percent finds itself expelled in post-consumer byproducts already 20 years ago NASA scientists
00:59:20began to tap into this nutritional gold mine by developing filters that could transform their
00:59:26astronauts waste into healthy hygienic and even delicious food once again with the use of this
00:59:31technology a single hamburger for example can be eaten more than 10 times providing a cumulative total
00:59:38of three times the nutritional value of the original fresh hamburger now again a certain amount of cultural
00:59:46openness is required as we investigate solutions and I'd love to take any questions yes you've been
00:59:54coming from a third world country I found most of what you said pretty offensive it's as if
01:00:01uh everyone is equal but some are more equal than others and uh who is to say whether people in
01:00:07the
01:00:07third world want a burger you know I in my heart sometimes find it to to agree that that cultures
01:00:15deserve equal consideration perhaps to develop on their own terms but you know we're we're different
01:00:20we're culturally different we're rich they're poor this is the the most humane solution we can come up
01:00:25with that stays within the market logic if it's all right I could I could answer a portion of that
01:00:29of
01:00:30that question as well and this answers the question about desire for the product because the biggest growth
01:00:37areas are the developing world and so uh in fact people do want the product we we do have a
01:00:44kind of
01:00:44video presentation about this that I I came prepared to show it's not the program isn't actually
01:00:50completely ready yet so as you can see here there's a consumer uh in the first world entering mcdonald's and
01:01:01uh consuming a hamburger and afterward this is a process we're all familiar with
01:01:09I don't need to explain it to anyone but you see it's rendered out in this style because uh studies
01:01:20have shown that
01:01:21consumers uh are are most responsive to 3d animation right now particularly in developing cultures
01:01:29so as you can see it goes through a piping system a kind of and this isn't unusual we do
01:01:34this for oil we
01:01:35could do this for food as well and uh as you can see it goes back up through the plumbing
01:01:41and emerges in a mcdonald's now the part of this video that isn't completed yet is the filtering
01:01:48process there will be a a very well-rendered uh filtering
01:02:03and uh as you can see uh this might answer somebody's question from before but at the mcdonald's
01:02:09in a developing country and in fact in this country as well you would be able to choose
01:02:13the number one number two number three number four number five would no longer refer to combinations of
01:02:18food but rather just uh the number of times the product had been recycled we're lucky to be able
01:02:25to partner with the world trade organization which uh you know has slightly different goals of course
01:02:30mcdonald's goals are to profit and grow and uh we hope that we can provide a nutritious and tasty
01:02:36product in the process our goals are to help mcdonald's profit and grow and all other corporations
01:02:41so i think you guys like the wto is kind of lacking uh kind of like a human element you
01:02:49know like
01:02:50if you if you saw have you have you ever seen starving people uh in pictures yes okay but tell
01:02:58me if you if you saw somebody starving to death you would probably think a lot you know like that
01:03:04would
01:03:04kind of hit you in a sensitive you know place to say like oh well you know maybe markets and
01:03:10money
01:03:11and this and that don't really mean as much and actually like eating people means a little bit
01:03:16more you know well it is true that there's a personal side of it that um i i have to
01:03:20say in the
01:03:21wto there are questions that we we have about this as human beings but we're not as subject um we
01:03:28have
01:03:28a kind of firmer grasp on theory we are able um fortunately to simply direct world trade in a much
01:03:35more
01:03:35theoretical way um in collaboration with our our colleagues at the largest corporations so uh you
01:03:43know yes probably if if i went to these countries i'd be i'd feel um i i'd think about things
01:03:51a little
01:03:51differently perhaps but um at the same time i don't think i would forget all my schooling i don't think
01:03:56i would forget you know all these theories um and so on so um perhaps one day i'll do that
01:04:01this is a
01:04:03money maker correct yes well it's a money maker starvation solver sure and how much does mcdonald's
01:04:09pay you to come here and speak this garbage did i see a mouse with an ear growing out of
01:04:14its back
01:04:15are you going to get around the cultural and legal implications of cannibalism and basically asking
01:04:20us to recycle shit i think there's no ethical behavior i mean you don't have models that's what i think
01:04:32i can't help but feel burned that way that my uh i feed my calf my dog that's actually better
01:04:41and
01:04:42people you're talking about you know people here i'm like i'm not about people and it just that seems
01:04:47we're giving them lower we're giving them shit litter the the reality is that we already treat um people
01:04:54in the third world far worse than we treat our domestic animals that's that's it's not saying
01:04:59it's right it's just saying that's the reality well after thinking about it for a little while
01:05:12it seems the plattsburgh lecture just went great and it went exactly the way we originally expected
01:05:19these lectures to work which is that at a certain point it was like light bulbs going off in the
01:05:23heads
01:05:23of the different people in the audience when they were realizing that it was just too crazy to be
01:05:28real and yet it was sort of based in reality and so you know they started throwing globes at us
01:05:34they
01:05:34got angry they got frustrated it worked exactly like we thought it would they don't ask you if you
01:05:44believe in it you don't get to vote on the world trade organization treaties they don't let you vote on
01:05:49they don't give you a say in it they let you listen to the to the one-sided propaganda name
01:05:54me a single
01:05:54columnist in america who doesn't stand up and cheer under the banner of so-called free trade there's
01:05:59no public discussion there's no dissent in any of the parties political parties you there's no debate
01:06:06there's no discussion there's no vote in fact the only nation which has called for a vote is brazil
01:06:13and already for which is saying that it will not sign any more trade treaties without a plebiscite
01:06:19of its people and the world trade barons are losing their damn minds trying to prevent this type of
01:06:25democracy from spreading planet wide because once people know what this stuff is about and get to vote
01:06:31on it no one's going to vote themselves into poverty here we go australia country card oops
01:06:44oh australia 61 it's 61. 61.
01:06:52hi uh this is uh kenneth rung sprat from the wto hello how are you good thanks how are you
01:06:59where are you now i'm in new york at the moment new york are you yes kenneth rung sprat just
01:07:06called
01:07:07a person who's uh coordinating sprat's visit i'm i'm due in hong kong the week after um this and that
01:07:15date is is firm but my travel to australia is as yet um not not firm yeah she's actually turns
01:07:22out
01:07:22been emailing all these people and and trying and basically calling journalists and getting people to
01:07:28attend his lecture and she fully expects him to attend because she had spoken to hildegard west
01:07:33uh sprat's assistant and hildegard west had told her that everything was was on and sprat was
01:07:38definitely going so now we just decide we we really have to go to honor this arrangement with uh australia
01:07:45so it's back on now after we totally thought it was off and instead of giving this lecture that we've
01:07:51been planning for like nine months we're gonna like you know just disband the wto
01:07:59should we get you a pair of shoes that actually are reasonable i mean they just don't look like
01:08:04dress shoes they look like wrestling shoes all right well we there are no shoes here for you never mind
01:08:09no shoes are out uh time uh-huh around then yep oh wait did you try this yeah
01:08:22i did a set of these with a inkjet and they just don't look as real
01:08:27something about them they look uh these look kind of handmade
01:08:31i printed off some letterhead for you but you guys already saw that and i just kept it real
01:08:36simple that's perfect so that uh it would show up well on the facts that is the most ridiculous
01:08:42photo it's like something really weird about this maniacal public public relations guy wow and a
01:08:48little bit a little magnetic strip really beautiful wow you know what i did i went to uh i went
01:08:55to google
01:08:56and i went to google image search and i typed in id card and you wouldn't believe the numbers of
01:09:03id
01:09:04pictures of id cards that show up on the web and i just went through and took a little bit
01:09:08from each
01:09:09one you know i said all right this one's got like a little barcode at the bottom and this one
01:09:14uses the
01:09:14logo over here and that's so nice
01:09:30well airplane
01:09:55now i don't know i'm just really nervous because um i don't know this feels different from all the
01:10:00other things that we've done it's not like the same kind of play fun crazy weird um impossible stuff
01:10:08this is like sincere you know it's like about replacing the wto with something better do you
01:10:13think that satire is more fun yeah definitely that's i got this feeling that it's less for
01:10:17some reason um maybe it's less fun to be sincere but it is less fun isn't it in a way
01:10:24yeah
01:10:25maybe it's more fun to be satirical than serious yeah
01:10:36it's about nine o'clock in the morning and this is the big day for kenthrong sprat to go talk
01:10:42to
01:10:42cpa australia and close down the wto it's kind of an exciting day for us
01:10:48and we finally get to shut it down
01:11:05i'm writing the local phone number for this cell phone on the business card so
01:11:10if we give these to journalists or anybody else who wants to contact mr sprat they'll be able to do
01:11:15it in the next couple days
01:11:20besides that we have to leave in about 10 minutes though i know
01:11:23i'm just gonna do as little as possible
01:11:30okay let's just go by there we have some time yet let's just keep walking just walk straight don't
01:11:36look don't don't turn left don't oh okay no don't don't do that uh-oh answer it
01:11:47hello michael bonano here hi jane how are you all right then i guess we'll see you in uh just
01:11:57a
01:11:57few minutes and we just come up to level three then great thank you very much all right bye bye
01:12:10oh wait this is the building thank you for coming oh thank you for having us sorry for the
01:12:16confusion and problems and everything it's to be expected these days i think
01:12:20um no thanks for going out of your way to arrange this this is really terrific
01:12:30um thank you all for coming i'd like to um like to thank the organizers for going out of their
01:12:37way
01:12:38to create this panel this luncheon um in the face of some odds the conference having been cancelled of
01:12:46course and i'd especially like to begin by apologizing for a rather sudden change in the program
01:12:53uh consequent upon a rather dramatic development in geneva yesterday i originally intended to
01:13:02transmit today an upbeat report on some new technologies that affect agribusiness in a global
01:13:08sense instead i find myself the messenger of some rather disturbing news um the wto will be issuing a
01:13:16public statement in detail by the end of the week but the die has been cast as of september 2002
01:13:23having seen the effects of policies whose only intent was to bring greater prosperity and peace the
01:13:30world trade organization in its present form will cease to exist over the next two years we of the wto
01:13:38will endeavor to re-found our organization along different lines based in a different understanding
01:13:44of the purposes of world trade the new organization will have as its foundation and basis the united nations
01:13:52universal declaration of human rights upon which we feel uh we can we can make a good uh foundation
01:13:59to ensuring that the organization will have human rather than business interests as its bottom line
01:14:04my reaction was one of total surprise we're expecting a speech uh more based on what the world trade
01:14:10organization does in its relation to australian trade it sort of blew me out of the water when the
01:14:14uh the announcement was made that the world trade organization is significantly reinventing
01:14:19itself to focus on issues relating to um people as opposed to uh economics something that hopefully
01:14:26could be of significant benefit to uh the poor and needy in throughout the world in all the developing
01:14:32countries the un estimates that poor countries the poorest countries in the world lose approximately two
01:14:38billion dollars a day because of unjust trade rules many of them instituted by our own organization
01:14:45and this is 14 times the amount that they receive in aid from developed countries i thought the speech
01:14:52itself was um was was compelling in terms of of its information but it was i was astounded to find
01:14:58that
01:14:59they're actually going to dismantle the wto i was also amazed to see that there was an emission that
01:15:05perhaps that had failed um it's going to have a huge effect on on international business and particularly for
01:15:11us as an organization i feel um the hardest thing i find will be the um the balance that let's
01:15:17say the
01:15:17u.s eu and japan in terms of being major components of the world economy the effect you know will
01:15:25they
01:15:25really change in terms of this new organization and will there actually be genuine change and perhaps
01:15:31a benefit you know to the world's poorest countries i i must admit i'm a cynic with regards to that
01:15:36occurring
01:15:36uh liberalization the process of liberalization often enables the knowledge of the poor to be
01:15:43converted into the property of global corporations specific statistics are rather shocking out of 26 000
01:15:52patents applied for in africa in 2000 and 2001 only 31 were from residents of africa the rest were from
01:16:03residents of first world countries 31 out of 26 000 patent applications uh it wasn't what i was
01:16:10expecting i was expecting something on agribusiness and what the world trade organization does but i'd have
01:16:16to say i believe it's fairly positive um because i think that uh this as the gentleman said the strong
01:16:24are getting stronger and the and the weaker getting weaker and you can't let that keep on going and
01:16:29uh even we notice it here in australia where some of the trade arrangements that are made if you're
01:16:35powerful you can get whatever you like and if you're not you can't and it's just the world with
01:16:39the population we've got can't keep going that way so i think it was fairly positive and i think it's
01:16:44a
01:16:44very brave decision by an organization to admit that they've been going down the wrong track and
01:16:48dissolve themselves and start to look for something different and i think it's it's fantastic
01:16:54disparity is is growing between rich and poor the richest fifth have 80 percent of the world's income and
01:16:59poorest fifth have one percent um this gap we all know this figure but we don't always remember
01:17:05that the this gap has actually doubled since 1960. more and more thinkers are therefore noting
01:17:12that there is no evidence that liberalization favors growth or benefits the poor i think we're all
01:17:18generally aware of increases in poverty and low living standards and issues faced by developing countries
01:17:23and what mr spread i think had to say today really gives a terrific sign of hope for what i
01:17:29think we all aspire to and that's a global economy that benefits all people
01:17:43now after protected protracted and detailed review of current trade policy the world trade
01:17:49organization has decided to affect a cessation of all operations to be accomplished over the next four
01:17:56months culminating by the end of september the world well i think that the yes men have kind of played
01:18:04out their course in relation to the world trade organization for the moment you never know when we
01:18:09might get another invitation we're lucky to be able to provide a sort of sense of closure by ending the
01:18:15wto we also hope that other people will just start doing the same things in all kinds of different
01:18:20contexts you know impersonating you know impersonating whoever holds power that needs to be criticized
01:18:27so if the opportunity arises we're just going to keep doing it we're going to go and
01:18:32be the yes men again or i should say be the wto again at another event the future is bright
01:18:38for the yes
01:18:39men the future of the world is a different story
01:18:45so
01:19:18no this isn't this isn't the way he usually dresses he he works for the world trade organization you
01:19:24know the wto he works to see we're at a conference and he's demonstrating a new kind of technology
01:19:32uh this is um well it's a device to measure employee uh working in less developed countries
01:19:39there's a a thing here where on this screen i can see see he watches he watches people working there
01:19:50and they have little devices that give them shots uh it's just regular fabric in the future
01:19:56it'll be sensitive smart fabric it's a little hot but that one looks better
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