February 10, 2006
Criminal Deported, Academics Enraged
One French activist now has to speak truth to power via speakerphone. Jose Bove, the Berkeley-raised anti-globalization activist who also raises a few sheep for political credibility, was barred from entering the United States by Customs officials this week and sent back on a plane to France. Monsieur Bove was shocked, shocked to find himself deported, despite his long history of property destruction (his targets include a hapless French McDonald's) in the name of his radical anti-biotechnology and anti-American agenda.
Bove was visiting the U.S. to address the "Global Companies-Global Unions-Global Research-Global Campaigns" conference, which met yesterday to carp about (among other things) food, companies, food companies, and the sudden inexplicable shortage of the word "global." The New York Times reports that a spokesman for Cornell, the university holding the conference, was disappointed: "When researchers and scholars are denied first-hand experience and world experiences about the issues at hand of this conference, then we all lose."
Our question: What does it say about these anti-biotech scholars that they are depending on the "first-hand experience" of rioting vandals for their research?
