Hightower Lowdown

The World Trade Organization is acting like a two-year-old who thinks if he shuts his eyes real tight, we can't see him.

That may be cute in a toddler, but definitely not in an antidemocratic global-trade entity through which corporations are seeking to establish themselves as sovereigns over workers, the environment, and our own elected governments.

At its 1999 Seattle meeting, the WTO crowd found itself confronted with 50,000 uninvited guests who ran them out of town. After that, the WTO began cranking out press releases to polish its image, claiming that it really wants to have a "dialogue" with us peasants.

Really? Then why has it chosen the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Qatar for the site of its next international meeting? Short of rocketing its delegates and official guests to the moon, the WTO could not have chosen a place less open to ordinary citizens.

Qatar is an oil-rich, totalitarian monarchy that doesn't allow its own people such basic rights as freedom of assembly, freedom of association, or freedom of the press. The ruling elite doesn't allow political demonstrations or political parties that are critical of the government.