Knowledge Ecology International

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has offered an amendment to the health care reform bill that would eliminate data exclusivity in cases where duplicating clinical trials involving human subjects would violate Article 20 of the Declaration of Helsinki on Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human subjects. The relevant article from the Declaration of Helsinki reads as follows:

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After attending the three day WTO Ministerial meeting in Geneva, I took the non-stop United Airlines Flight back to Washington, DC. On the airplane were a number of U.S. government officials including the head of USTR, Ambassador Ron Kirk. I had a chance to talk to Kirk about the secrecy of the ACTA agreement. He said the ACTA text would be made public, “when it is finished.” I told him it that was too late, and the public wanted the text out now, before it is too late to influence anything.

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Washington, DC. December 1, 2009. Five of the nation’s most prominent public interest groups today called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to block the proposed merger by entertainment giants Ticketmaster and Live Nation. DOJ is currently reviewing the merger and is expected to make a decision in the next month. The organizations include Consumer Action, the National Consumers League (NCL), the American Antitrust Institute, the Consumer Federation of America and Knowledge Ecology International.

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The Seventh WTO Ministerial Conference is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland from November 30, 2009 to December 2, 2009. Unlike previous Ministerial Conferences in Seattle (1999), Doha (2001), Cancun (2003) and Hong Kong (2005), the Geneva Ministerial is a non-negotiation. This hum drum affair is being held only because of the obligations of Article IV, paragraph 1 of the WTO Agreement which states that

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Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have written to USTR, asking that the ACTA text be made public. The strongly worded letter was sent to Ambassador Ron Kirk, the head of the United States Trade Representative, an office of the White House.

The letter states:
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As the U.S. considers health reform legislation, it is useful to review how countries rank in terms of life expectancy at birth.

From the 2009 UNDP Human Development Report statistical appendix:

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Now that we know who are the people opposed to an international treaty to facilitate access and sharing of accessible formats of works for blind people and people with reading disabilities, let’s read what their arguments against the treaty are.

I was able to highlight 10 main arguments and you can check in their own words below if you do not believe me:

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