United We Fall
One has to look at the effects of the free trade agreements between US and Canada. They've been good for some powerful sectors and not at all good for poor, working people, for those that are not benefiting from corporate profits. So in Canada, for example, since they've signed the bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, two thirds of the Canadian families have experienced a decline in their real incomes.
Also the North American free trade agreement has displaced 2 million Mexican peasant farmers from their land. Some of them have migrated to cities and about half a million every year try to enter illegally into the United States to find work. So it's not so good for the people at the bottom of the social ladder.
One of the major concerns that Canada and Mexico had about NAFTA was that it might open their capital to being taken over by US multinational corporations. If you are a large corporation and you're given national treatment within any country you're automatically given the rights of a citizen within that nation and by that, as a citizen, you're allowed to challenge the laws in that country. And these are the provisions that allow a corporation to sue a national government if it feels that is not getting the treatment that would be entitled to under NAFTA.
United We Fall is a documentary about the North American Union and for years this topic has been debated in the news and in political circles as being a possible future for North America. In recent years, the mood has shifted and a rift is developing between those who want a Deeply Integrated North American Community, and those who wish to retain their national sovereignty. This film takes a look at both sides by interviewing both insiders and activists who have been at the heart of this heated debate. The film also looks to the broader agenda of building a world government and its implications.
....the problems are too complex for ordinary people to understand, let alone do anything about . One of the foundational problems facing the world is the illegitimacy of the "union" known as the US. This illegitimacy is not understood or even recognized, but it IS understood and recognized by those benefiting from it – the prevailing power structure...so the chore this power establishment has to deal with, is maintaining the illusion of its own legitimacy and it is doing so – and has done so – with brilliance and superb skill and as long as people keep voting, they won't have much to worry about in my opinion.
"Democracy" is a self-corrupting proposition and in the US, this process of corruption has reached as low as it can – and yet, people cannot see it, they keep endorsing it through voting and do not understand the damage they are doing to themselves and the future.
When 300 million "americans" failed to enforce a genuine investigation of the events of September 11, 2001, they demonstrated their powerlessness to the world in a spectacular fashion. One can think what one wants about the nature of those events, but one can NOT disagree about the need for a genuine investigation.
So the world is faced with a rogue state construct populated by a politically neutered "citizenry" governed by an organized criminal political elite, the likes of which the world has never seen. There is no easy way out of this....there must be consequences for the criminal political operators and there is only one way of dealing with them – the way they have chosen to deal with their, perceived "enemies".
And then, yes, the union must be dissolved, but the end result shouldn't be fifty sovereign nations, but maybe fifteen, twenty, could work. Many states are just stupid creations (and would not be viable on their own)...
Power breeds contempt, but worse than that – it generates insanity...
The US has reached that state and it must end.
no one who isnt already associated with the US shouldnt get associated
I very highly doubt Canada wants to absorb the Americans murderous debt,
not to mention bow down to a dictator.. And have Canada turn into a
police state, F***, that.. The Americans made their bed and now they can
sleep in it no matter how bad it gets. Canada is the best country on
earth like we need to defile ourselves.. And with Hitler/Obama opening
is dumb face starting wars his ass can't cash,, you keep him. Your
politics and money is no good here move along. Go print some more money
that you do not have.
No, this is a real snoozer. I can hardly tell where the maker stands on the issue he's so lukewarm. And the action is about as varied and long as a drive across, er, Canada.
While I can understand and totally support any Canadian, enjoying low crime, good housing and education and other social benefits not wanting to be swallowed up by the Godzilla to the south, I am one of those who is and always been for a politically integrated planet. Not tomorrow or the day after that, but eventually. I also think there is the very real danger of the MNC's forcing it upon us before we can muster enough power internationally to curb their activities. In fact, that is exactly what's happening now- not some marriage between statesman. Isn't business what this documentary is truly about? The MNC is the mechanism of Globalization today, while the U.N. was a still birth baby barely resuscitated.
P-phooey on the sovereign nation-state; you're dreaming. Besides World Wars, slavery, colonialism, and global depressions, what's sovereignty ever got you? Freedom? Pride? Right.
I'd like a world where I can go wherever I want and do whatever work I want without a passport or visas. A world where I'm not indentured to a nation witnessed by a certificate number of my birth which might as well be a tattoo on my forehead.
The truth is this: Canadians deserve the same rights as all people deserve. And that's it.
wow ! that was great.. why is it i always learn so much more from documentaries made by canadians ? and i can't help chuckle every time i hear them say "aboot" for "about." ha ! waz up, dudley !
This is all in fun of course.
I think its funny when Americans say "roof", "foyer", or "vehicle".
But I start to melt when I hear a soft Southern drawl :)
Well, then you would love to hear me talk, lol. (You can just about taste the mint juleps...)
Why suh, ah doo deeclaah! (as a tiny delicate hand flutters about my milky smooth throat) :D
I am Canadian and don't want the immigration, drones, the police state you have and your politicians and corporations that are more idiotic than what we have. We might make poor bedfellows so let's just keep our own identities and learn to live and let live.
I especially don't want their guns. And the poverty!
The Amero is already debunked on Snopes. NAFTA seems to have lost favor when China took over the interest of corporations.
Let's divide! I mean, why America is so divided? BECAUSE IT'S SUPPOSED TO! Think about it, 50 independent nations instead of U.S.A. More jobs, jobs, jobs! Hey Alex Jones, are you listening?
I wonder why the film's rating is so low... even though, uncommonly, all commentators seem to agree on the subject.
It's probably slightly low because of the 911 truther stuff and the prison planet / inforwars references...
I am in favor of a world government... a government of the people where environmental regulations that are enforced in the US are also applied to countries like Mexico, where corporations are now legally poisoning the aquifers that supply drinking water... where work safety regulations are applied universally to prohibit factories from collapsing on hundreds of workers in substandard buildings in Bangladesh... where global warming can get the global attention it requires... where the trillions of dollars spent on national defense can be spent on improving the lives of the people of this planet.
Really you think the US has in place good environmental regulations? Can you say Kyoto Protocol? The US never sighed but the CO2 emission reductions were inadvertently achieved due to the poor economy. Do I need to list the Keystone Pipeline, the fight currently going on in Seattle and WA by residents to prevent coal terminals from being built and coal trains running through heavily populated areas, all just to export coal to China. And on the subject of coal, how about the fact that it is now being passed off as clean energy! How about fracking (which poisons aquifers in the US) and the tar sands in Canada. Great environmental regulations my rear end. Oh and those garment worker jobs used to be in the US until US corporation found cheaper labor and put workers here out of jobs. And don't get me started on GMOs, industrial farming and Monsanto in bed with the FDA. I'm very glad I'm old enough that chances are I won't live to see the mess that the US has helped to create in the name of growth.
oh,how mistaken you are!the topics you mention are actually the duties of our elected governments!if they are willingly not fulfilling this duty how come you believe that a fascist/communist change will do any different (& even for your benefit????)?i wish i had a skim of your opptimism!
You take idealism to WHOLE new level!
In case that wasn't sarcasm...
A world government will not provide those goals you mention.
Great Idea. START with the United States. We need SOMEONE to crush the "Mighty Wall of the Corporation".
Example: The Federal Reserve. They have NOTHING to do with the government. The "Fed" is a privately owned bank.
The ONLY time they brush up against the government, is when The White House and Congress both agree who should be at the helm.
You mention Bangladesh... how about Detroit? That's here in the U.S. We need major change here at home FIRST.
A one world government will have to wait.
stay passive,let it happen & you'll have the honor of sneering :"told
you so!"what does it take to activate the senses of actual freedom
(& not the choice of 'goods') ,living in equilibrium with everything
of real matter & necessity?my belief is true hardship will force
this existential question!dire times are ahead & nature selects.
The problem with your argument, is that it is true.
If we continue to try to one up each other in a Lion vs The Hurd mantality, only ends in the planet just saying ... OK enough already, I am now going to chock off the Air, kill you with cancer in water, land and air and let's start over.
Yup! A guy on CBC was commenting on how the population would rather be "tranquillized with the trivial" than face up to our problems.(corporations and banks running our country, climate change, you know). I love that quote!
I think unless you've already experienced that freedom you spoke of, a person doesn't really know what they're missing.
ie: I'm a camping/nature nut. My city friends would rather go shopping than sit around a campfire or enjoy kayaking around the shores of a lake, sans their cell phones. Because they've never tried it.
They think they're having fun.
Please google the Trans Pacific Partnership, the latest effort of the power elite to destroy the freedom of the internet. Obama has TPP on fast track and the corporate owned media is not informing the public The World Trade Organization meets 12/3 in Indonesia to seal the deal. TPP is NAFTA on steroids. Wake up!
The reason they are doing this is to deepen some pockets. Everyone else is trying to do the same thing ... so in the end it can not be helped or halted.
I'm afraid everyone is going to have to learn the hard way. The hard way seems to be the only way Human Beings learn. The sad part is that people that are sensitive to this have to stand and watch in horror as the train hits the wall.
TPP is only going to bankrupt the already bankrupt world and throw it into chaos. Nothing to be gained, until the after math and pieces are put back together for a more robust society.
Right now most of us are acting like adolecents in high gear towards hitting that wall. Women are fully aware of this, but unfortunetly are not in the position to stop it. Maybe in the future a more balanced approach can be learned from it all...
But, like the commentor DMXI stated, it has to be this way for us to learn. Sad truth, as much as their is joyousness ... it is a toss up 50/50 in anything. If it were not for the internet, I would give it a 100% failure.
The trend does seem to indicate people learn the hard way. Being uncomfortable is the prime motivator behind peoples action for change. But the hard way isn't the only way, TPP doesn't necessarily need to happen. Hitting the wall doesn't need to happen. If enough people are made conscious of the facts... mental uncomfortableness can stop atrocities from taking course.
In recent history we have a couple examples of change acquired by informed and unhappy citizens. PIPA, SOPA were stopped with awareness achieved by word of mouth... which began organized by a small group of internet activists, controversially deceased Aaron Swartz was one of them. The recent hassle with Syria was halted (or deterred) on one side of the conflict, with citizens making mere phone-calls to Congress.
We still have 4 months to go for the deadline @anna miller:disqus wrote about. PIPA, SOPA, Syrian conflict, and other inhumanities have been turned down in less time. Simply giving up because the trend indicates otherwise, is a 20/20 defeat in ALL situations. It is always one's duty to inform as much people as possible and to do as much as is in one's power, if we want peaceful progressive change to arise.