“Let’s take Africa as an example. Whereas there’s no question that it’s admirable, important and the spiritually-correct thing to help immiserated people to self-educate and act responsibly respecting the relationship of hygiene to diarrhea, there needs to be a simultaneous ‘immersion’ in the water-related dynamics stirred up by select corporations and AFRICOM.” — Richard Martin Oxman
Greed and appropriation of other people’s share of the planet’s precious resources are at the root of conflicts, and the root of terrorism. When President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that the goal of the global war on terrorism was the defense of the American and European “way of life,” they were declaring a war against the planet… its oil, its water, its biodiversity. That’s something that Vananda Shiva has driven home to me repeatedly for the last quarter century or so.
A “way of life” for the 20 percent of the earth’s people who use 80 percent of the planet’s resources guarantees the dispossession of 80 percent of its people of their just share of resources and eventually destroy the planet. We cannot survive as a species if greed is privileged and protected and the economics of the greedy set the rules for how we live and die.
The good folks (and the bad, for that matter) on this troubled planet who are calling the shots respecting HOW water will be distributed and controlled must be told… nay, replaced. Replaced by concerned citizens who understand how unconscionable the privatization of water is for the vast majority of souls on earth. For the folks who presently have an exclusive hold on decision-making power will not cower in the face of righteous indignation. Rather, they will tighten their grip — if history teaches us anything about those in charge when push comes to shove concerning their bottom lines — and will have to be “nudged” to… do the right thing. The right thing being that we make sure that EVERYONE has potable water accessible and affordable.
It will not be sufficient for well-meaning efforts worldwide — for example, those spearheaded by Living Water International (which has completed more than 18,000 water projects to date — to be funded and multiplied. For such efforts must be categorized as necessary tourniquets. Monumentally important measures taken which do not address the source of the bleeding, so to speak. Clearly, one is hard put to find any non-profit or any governmental agency dealing with the daunting causes for the dwindling supply of water worldwide, the desecration of existing supplies.
Community-based water solutions in developing countries are absolutely essential, but doing the most excellent job on earth respecting sanitation, hygiene, sustainability and even Christian Witness will not replace the need to replace the decision-makers. The decision-makers who are greatly responsible for the poverty, hunger and thirst which plays such an important role in the immiseration of billions, not just millions.
Even if the most admirable and deserving non-profits in the world are properly funded and successful vis-a-vis their socially-conscious agendas, their environmentally-centered goals, and their sublime spiritual purposes honored as much as is humanly possible, the need to replace the career politicians who presently hold decision-making capacities exclusively worldwide will remain a challenge to be addressed.
The Good News is that that can be done. But to move in solidarity on that score will require that a select group of concerned citizens acknowledge that there is a difference between applying necessary tourniquets and addressing the sources of our collective bleeding. And that career politicians — by definition — are too self-serving for the Collective Good.
What Bush and Blair did back in the 90s was preceded by shenanigans traceable to many world leaders… and the misguided support provided by their counterparts serving in less influential capacities, in regions, states, provinces, cities and towns all over the earth. Ditto for one and all serving on all levels following the 90s, of course, right to the present day.
The proclivities of particular politicians are not germane here. Virtually all career politicians embrace policies that undermine the potential for potable water to be made available to one and all*, which contribute to our horrid momentum on many counts. And that’s a great part of what I’m calling the source of the bleeding which must be dealt with anew.
*Why… I can address, upon request.
Too few see that bombing blows away the potential for bringing potable water to the masses of humanity. And that over-development stands to do the same. Too few see that greed leading to the appropriation of other people’s water is a crime that is proliferating abominably. And too few see that we must and CAN do something about it all.
See what happens if you contact me to discuss the details.
Marcel Duchamp Oxman can be reached at aptosnews@gmail.com.
Lots of different pathogens can be in the water supply. One of the worst ones in my mind is the following sort. I saw a movie about worm extraction in the Museum of Natural History in NYC. The film was almost too painful to watch.
CDC – Guinea Worm Disease – Frequently Asked Questions
https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/guineaworm/gen_info/faqs.html
Feb 28, 2018 – What is dracunculiasis? Dracunculiasis, also known as Guinea worm disease (GWD), is an infection caused by the parasite Dracunculus medinensis. A parasite is an organism that feeds off of another organism to survive. GWD is spread by drinking water containing Guinea worm larvae. Larvae are …
Dracunculiasis – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis
Dracunculiasis, also called Guinea-worm disease (GWD), is an infection by the Guinea worm. A person becomes infected when they drink water that contains water fleas infected with guinea worm larvae. Initially there are no symptoms. About one year later, the female worm forms a painful blister in the skin, usually on a …
What is Guinea Worm Disease? – Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-is-guinea-worm-disease/
Dec 8, 2008 – The culprit in Guinea worm disease is a roundworm parasite called Dracunculus medinensis, whose larvae dwell in microscopic water fleas. People contract the disease by drinking unfiltered water harboring larvae-infected fleas. Once swallowed and passed through the stomach, these larvae burrow into …
Another problem with the water supply has to do with the immoral treatment of populations by major corporations. … I don’t think that I can ever forget this Nestle happening and I have refused to buy products from this company ever since it took place (and ditto for Nike and Disney, the so-called child friendly company, with its occasional sweatshops involving children being paid a dime or so for an hour of work to assemble toys for children in wealthy first-world countries).
From one of my essays:
In a sense then, this is a huge omission on our part collectively. Yet, many, who are affluent, simply like their relative status and choose to maintain it regardless of the impact on others. They, simply, don’t much like to share. They, also, don’t care one whit about the breeding pattern of others elsewhere as long as it doesn’t lead to desperate immigrants fleeing into their specific countries to find jobs, decent housing, access to medical intervention, public schools and other provisions lacking in abandoned homelands.
Nonetheless, this whole scenario is less horrific than groups of wealthy individuals deliberately devising policies that, actually, make a profit off of the demise of others. This goes far beyond any omission based on indifference or inability to respond to others’ needs due to alternative causes. Nonetheless, the commission rate of such actions is high.
One of the most cold blooded and calculating sorts was one about which I was told years ago by people urging others to boycott Nestle products as a form of protest. It concerned the time that Nestle overproduced powdered baby formula.
Subsequently, a large amount of product went out-of-date due to not having been purchased beforehand. Yet, some Nestle managers refused to subsume the related fiscal loss. As a result, they concocted a plan to dress women up into white, nurse-like uniforms in impoverished countries and paid them modest salaries to seek out women, who were either near delivery or who had, recently, given birth.
Then from a rehearsed script, the pseudo-nurses stated that Nestle administrators were happy for the new life and were giving the women gifts of baby formula to celebrate the occasion. (The supply was just large enough to ensure that mother’s own milk would not develop were the formula solely used.) The women were, also, told that modern women in first-world countries didn’t breast feed in that it was considered primitive and animal-like. Then they were asked whether they wanted to be like modern successful mothers or like stupid farm animals. They were, also, given a cut rate for purchase of further outdated formula — to be used when the cost-fee gift was entirely depleted.
The long and short of it was that many of the women discovered, after they were hooked on the plan, that they couldn’t afford to buy enough formula to give an adequate amount in terms of required number of calories that newborns need. So, they thinned it down with water too much. In addition, many of the infants, rather than receiving the immune system benefits provided by human milk, were made drastically ill due to pathogens in the unclean water supply used to dilute the powdered formula. In short, the whole situation was a recipe built for disaster — that is, it was except for Nestle. While an uncountable number of babies either got extremely sick or died from dysentery and lack of sufficient nutrition, Nestle made a tremendous financial coup on the bad formula.
If this appears like an isolated incident, look again. All considered, this is the very same practice (with varying details) that many global companies implement.
Another case in point is Nike. As with the rapacious Nestle plan, there were whistle blowers for this conglomerate, too: 35,000 in all inundated the CEO with letters and voice mail telling him that they would no longer buy his products. This was due to his not protecting workers with proper precautions relative to toxic glue and other dangerous substances required to make footwear in giant Asian sweatshops.