All your water are belong to us
Nov. 21st, 2006 03:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyIt's been another one of those mornings where I wake up and hear something on the news that makes me wonder where exactly the dividing line between "it's all going to hell" and "we're actually living in a dystopia" lies. Today, it had to do with water. As some of you know, Vancouver and the surrounding area are under a boiled water advisory after a bad storm turned up sediment in the municipal water supply, leading to a steady steam of ick flowing out of people's taps. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
frandroid posted a nice comment the other day from Brad Bellemare of Edmonton:
On the radio, a fellow from the Polaris Institute and a woman from a bottled water manufacturers association were debating the virtues of bottled vs. tap water. She was wonderfully evasive (the host asked, "Is bottled water 'pure,' as the manufacturers claim?" and her response was, "Bottled water is regulated as a food product.") The phrase "public and private water supply" was tossed around quite a bit (*waves at Bolivia*), as was the line, "water is increasingly a luxury item."
Ummm...what? Since when? When did this sort of discourse become commonplace, and why are the challenges to it so fainthearted?
Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 2000:
Family members weep over the body of a
dead protester after a massive strike over
increasing water rates.
The story ended with a plug for something called BlingH20—water that sells for $40 a bottle. I thought it was a joke—this was The Current on CBC, and they've been known to air satirical ads and such. But Google is my friend, and thus I present to you something truly disgusting.
frandroid posted a nice comment the other day from Brad Bellemare of Edmonton: Boo-hoo..for all the complaints in BC. Go to many Reserves in Canada where boiling water is just a daily fact of life.Naturally, unsafe water is a reality for most of the world—and increasingly so.
This is just a little taste of the third world conditions that the Canadian Government has allowed to happen on many reserves.
Perhaps this type of outrage should be reflected for all Canadians not just the ones that face this once every 20 years. (Source.)
On the radio, a fellow from the Polaris Institute and a woman from a bottled water manufacturers association were debating the virtues of bottled vs. tap water. She was wonderfully evasive (the host asked, "Is bottled water 'pure,' as the manufacturers claim?" and her response was, "Bottled water is regulated as a food product.") The phrase "public and private water supply" was tossed around quite a bit (*waves at Bolivia*), as was the line, "water is increasingly a luxury item."
Ummm...what? Since when? When did this sort of discourse become commonplace, and why are the challenges to it so fainthearted?
Cochabamba, Bolivia, April 2000:
Family members weep over the body of a
dead protester after a massive strike over
increasing water rates.
The story ended with a plug for something called BlingH20—water that sells for $40 a bottle. I thought it was a joke—this was The Current on CBC, and they've been known to air satirical ads and such. But Google is my friend, and thus I present to you something truly disgusting.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2006-11-21 04:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 04:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 04:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 05:53 pm (UTC)It is also unfair to call the Guerra del Agua (yaku maqanaku) riots. They were peaceful protests in the face of extremely OTT army and police response, ordered by then president, ex-dictator Hugo Banzer Suarez (may he rot). There were confrontations, but most of the violence, as is often the case, was on the part of the army who were filmed shooting 17-year-old Victor Hugo Daza in the face.
But yes, they should have mentioned Cochabamba. After all the activists here have made careers out of having fought the Guerra del Agua. They go on European speaking tours...
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Date: 2006-11-21 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 07:33 pm (UTC)Oh, and thanks for the details. I mostly just know what I saw in The Corporation. By the way, when it was first shown in Toronto, audience reaction (OMG YAY!) to the eventual victory over the government's privatization schemes led to the collapse of part of the Bloor Cinema's ceiling.
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Date: 2006-11-22 12:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 03:24 pm (UTC)Yeah, I've been living in Cbba for about a year now. I'm more in the country than the city now, but it's still Cbba department. Great place.
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Date: 2006-11-22 05:05 pm (UTC)Like how are you making money for food ;).
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Date: 2006-11-22 11:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-23 12:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 04:44 pm (UTC)I clicked on the Bling H20 link. I feel...sick.
And remember: if it's yellow, let it mellow...
:)
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Date: 2006-11-21 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 05:14 pm (UTC)I think we might be seeing the "frog in a pot of boiling water effect". The problem is inching up on us relatively slowly, no one seems to notice that things just seem to get that little bit worse every year.
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Date: 2006-11-21 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 07:02 pm (UTC)Anyway, all this talk about water is making me thirsty. Where's that case of Bling H2O I ordered online.
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Date: 2006-11-21 07:28 pm (UTC)Tap water is apparently more tightly regulated than bottled water. Unless I'm utterly desperate, I never buy bottled water. I can't get my head around the idea of paying for water.
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Date: 2006-11-21 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-11-21 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 09:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-21 09:38 pm (UTC)The world seriously scares me. Watching Soylent Green the other month I realized that the only thing it got wrong was that we've successfully pushed the problems on to the third world and world's poor to such a degree that most of us have no idea that things really are getting that bad. When we're done with wars over oil, we'll be having wars over water. Probably to protect it from fiendish terrorists objecting to us taking away the snow on their mountains before it can melt into their rivers. If there's still any snow left after the global warming.
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Date: 2006-11-21 09:40 pm (UTC)The best thing about this sort of class war is that it wouldn't even kill rich people who were potential allies. It'd just get the assholes. Brilliant.
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Date: 2006-11-21 10:23 pm (UTC)There are no words. The rubbish people can swallow...
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Date: 2006-11-21 10:34 pm (UTC)Both the Polaris guy and the interviewer sounded disturbed, but not disturbed enough.
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Date: 2006-11-22 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 01:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 01:30 am (UTC)Of course, if watering your lawn did cost $40 a litre, rich wankers would use lawns even more as a status symbol. Pig fuckers.
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Date: 2006-11-22 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 05:21 pm (UTC)*BLORF*
Date: 2006-11-22 02:40 am (UTC)It's always irritated me about "bottled water"- at least for "class" or "wealth" showiness. *wrinkles nose* (The bottles themselves are darn handy! I recycle them. *grins*).
On a completely random note, I need your address. I want to mail you a card & handmade postcard for the Holidays. (I'm making the cards myself! *grins*).
I put a locked post in my LJ (http://andreazenith.livejournal.com/48948.html) with my email, if you don't want to just put it there in the post.
*GLOMPS*
Anj
Re: *BLORF*
Date: 2006-11-22 03:41 am (UTC)Yeah. It's not only evil, but it's also in poor taste.
Eeeeeeeeeevil.
Date: 2006-11-22 07:11 am (UTC)*grumbles*
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Date: 2006-11-22 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2006-11-22 12:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-22 02:45 pm (UTC)*shudder*
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Date: 2006-11-22 02:46 pm (UTC)