I appreciate the contributions of Valerie in terms of consciousness raising
about the issue of patents.  I appreciate the scholarship that goes into
these posts.  What I don't appreciate is the divisive tone that seems to
suggest that the bfg advocacy community is somehow part of the problem of
patents held by multinationals.  I feel that plays into the hands of the
forces that always are more interested in hampering than in aiding our
progress in carrying on our mission.  Just as the anti-smoking activists had
to struggle, some of us have been working for 30 + years on these issues.  I
believe one day we will succeed, and personally have no sense of burn out or
compassion fatigue.  I feel just as committed to bfg activism as I ever
have.  But I worry when we spend more time sniping at each other with
accusations of being refusniks than we do with explorations of creative
solutions.  I don't think the person who exposes a problem necessarily has
to be the one to solve it, but I think that person might want to engage in
collective discussion of solutions.  I have asked several times for an
educated opinion about what suggestions for action arise from the
presentation of these issues, and I have never seen  one put forth.  That's
all I am asking for.  I do not want to engage in and will not engage in a
discussion of personalities when this is one of issues.

 Bfg advocates are hampered by lack of organization and funding to campaign
against many issues -- such as the draconian US welfare reforms that have
forced the working poor to abandon not just bfg, but often their children.
While education is important that uncovers new concerns, the next step is
always to try to focus in on defining what can be done and then doing
something. This seldom happens without joining a coalition or organizing
one.

 If anyone has a passionate agenda, you can't wait for someone else to do
the hard work of provoking change.  the next step is to gather one's natural
allies and then move out past the circle of people who are in essential
agreement. To create change, one has to seek both a wider constituency and
develop a plan of action.  My point about the patent problem is not that
there is nothing to be done but that I have not seen one concrete suggestion
from anyone who has a clue about what CAN be done. I confess to not
understanding enough about it to know what to do and I am honestly asking
for information.  I don't have the energy to waste on un-focused fights when
I have six or seven volunteer bfg advocacy activities on my plate at any
given moment.

 If the first issue is to protest a situation, then I'd like to know
specifically what I am publically going to protest.  If the patenting of
milk fractions is part and parcel of the practice of patenting all other
tissues, then I need to understand more about how that works.  Is that all
bad?  I don't really know how to judge this issue.  If some part of human
milk can be isolated and used to create a medicine that is beneficial, is
this bad?  Of course I acknowledge that most multinationals have no interest
in ethics beyond the profit ethic.  But can we move beyond attacking one
another and get constructive about understanding all the implications?


Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Austin Lactation Associates
LactNews Press
www.lactnews.com
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