Some frustrating news from Germany - government shuts down genetic engineering teaching lab

[Lisa Thalheim]

Hey everyone,

just to share some very frustrating news from Germany, in case it
hasn't gotten around yet:

HannoverGEN, a very successful teaching initiative for all things
genetic engineering, will be shut down.
The project was 100% funded by the regional government. A few months
ago, elections for that regional government brought a coalition of SPD
(~Democrats) and the Green Party to power. This new government has now
announced that HannoverGEN will be shut down. And they didn't even
have the courtesy of pretending that it was due to budget reasons. No,
the official statement is that HannoverGEN is nothing more than a
propaganda campaign that aims to brainwash students into being pro-GM.
I kid you not.

You can read more about it here:
http://gmopundit.blogspot.de/2013/02/germany-is-place-where-thought-police.html

I guess DIYBio will have a tough time here in Germany...

-Lisa

[Nathan McCorkle]

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 2:22 AM, Lisa Thalheim <ltha...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> HannoverGEN, a very successful teaching initiative for all things
> genetic engineering, will be shut down.

> The project was 100% funded by the regional government.

>. No,
> the official statement is that HannoverGEN is nothing more than a
> propaganda campaign that aims to brainwash students into being pro-GM.
> I kid you not.

> I guess DIYBio will have a tough time here in Germany...

Who pressured the government though? Do they really care one way or the other?

--
-Nathan

[Lisa Thalheim]

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Nathan McCorkle <nmz...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Who pressured the government though? Do they really care one way or the other?

Hm, good question. The move to shut down HannoverGEN is backed by the
usual suspects (Greenpeace, the Alliance for a GM-free Lower Saxony).
A "study" showing how HannoverGEN's teaching materials are factually
wrong and biased was financed by demeter and Naturland, two big
players in the organic food and cosmetics market. Apart from that, the
Green party is traditionally against GM technology. Making Lower
Saxony "gentech-free" was part of their election campaign manifesto -
they're now selling the shutdown of HannoverGEN as being true on their
election campaign promises.

So, in summary, I guess that the whole thing was heavily backed by the
usual suspects, but the Green party doesn't need to be pressured into
it - many of the Greens actually do feel very strongly that GM is evil
and should be flat-out prohibited.

-Lisa

[Mega]

Same sh*t is true for Austria.
 
People don't inform themselves about GMOs (would be easy to do so on google) but rather belive the media and the politicians. Btw, it's not the goal of the politicians to make the most progress for humanity or even for their people, but they *need* to talk what people like to hear to get their votes. Even if it's rising fears about GMOs / foreigners / whatever, and "only if you vote us we will ban the plague"...


Sick society structure...

[Mega]

Is there a country which has technocracy btw?

May be worth considering to move to there... :/

[Brian Degger]

china ?

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 3:13 PM, Mega <masters...@gmail.com> wrote:

Is there a country which has technocracy btw?

May be worth considering to move to there... :/

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Brian Degger

twitter: @drbrian

http://makerspace.org.uk

http://transitlab.org

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[Andreas Sturm]

Ah that's true... I heard that when someone is in prison in China and has a good invention, he gets out earlier.

But I meant a technocracy with freedom of speach and human rights ;)

[Brian Degger]

what place fulfills that?

Brazil?