Overpopulation's toll
WATER PRIVATIZATION AND THE RISING CONFLICT
by Jan Lundberg
Your water is being stolen from you. The latest, greatest crime is called privatization. That people already have to pay for water through a utility seems outrageous, if we stop and question it: To look at waste in tax revenue, water could and should be free of charge. But in the U.S., for example, hundreds of billions of dollars are wasted in such time-honored programs as building new roads, making more weaponry, and chasing terrorists in the wrong places.
People accept such a screwing from government and its cronies just, in part, to be patriotic and go with the mainstream. But even those who have observed trends critically find it is shocking that among our rights that are diminishing, we are losing an assured supply of water. If we are rich, we don't have to be concerned. But over nine out of ten of us have to start worrying and taking action. It's part of the war of the rich against the poor.
Also during these modern times, pollution of our water has increased to the point that in countless cities, a person had better be able to afford a water filter or bottled water. Many of us are long since dispossessed of our birthrights as human beings. Didn't you grow up thinking ample, clean water was a right? Our masters wish us to revise that notion. Because of so many similar developments in the overall trend of corporate hegemony, the recent Culture Change Letter on nanotechnology stated as its title, "They're coming for you." Will you defend your land and water, or are most of the elements of life mere abstractions thanks to consumerism?
No one has a right to own the water. But this is what is well underway. Privatization used to mean that a government's transit department, for instance, would be taken over by a company that supposedly runs things more efficiently. Now, water supplies and water delivery systems are bought and sold by extremely large corporations that are often beyond any nation's laws. Their handmaidens are governments, banks, and others.
"Water, say the World Bank and the United Nations, is a 'human need,' not a 'human right.'... A human need can be supplied in many ways, especially by those with money. No one can sell or trade a human right." - Maude Barlow, co-author of Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water.
Clean fresh water has been becoming scarce due to overpopulation for several
decades. It is also true that waste and greed are creating artificial
shortages of water, as happens with food. But, behavior resulting in injustice
is a symptom of overpopulation and is aggravated by population growth. One sad
result of greed, waste, and overpopulation is that mismanagement and skewed
priorities deprive over one billion people of access to clean fresh water...
(read remainder of column at
<http://www.culturechange.org/e-letter-water.html#bmk>)
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References and recommendations (see www.culturechange.org for links):
- A new Gandhian movement is explored in a prior Culture Change Letter, #42
- Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)
- International Rivers Network briefing kit
- Recent water privatization articles are in Resurgence magazine's July-August
issue, available through the Resurgence website.
- Jim Hightower on Bolivia says No to Globaloney
- Susan Bryce's history article from Nexus Magazine
- Waterways are a source of drinking water, and are being attacked and defended:
See WaterKeeper Alliance.
- yellowtimes.org regarding African water privatization
- Global Warming Crisis Council
- Overpopulation: Resources for Understanding and Taking Action
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The next Culture Change Letter is on mass brain-control via toxic chemicals.
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