Liz W, scribed, in part:
Gotta love dealing with the government.
<<<<<
I can empathize. However, it is not "the government" that is the problem.
Our government's priorities are not democratically determined. The
government does not exist to serve "we the people." Furthermore, "we the
people" have been conditioned not to be citizens, but compliant producers
and consumers, which renders democratic government obsolete..
T Boone Pickens -- Texas oil billionaire -- has laughed that he saw peak oil
coming for a long time, and has made as much or more money from oil futures
in the past few years than from pumping Texas sweet light crude for a
lifetime. He's formed the Mesa Water Company (see for example
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050511/daw073.html?.v=5 ) and bought up water
rights to pump from the huge Ogallala water reservoir in the southwest, and
contemplates the day when people who want water in much of the
west/southwest will all buy it from him.
Watersheds in our metro area have become increasingly polluted -- everything
from depleted uranium from AlliantTech's munitions plants to other
industrial and household chemicals to the massive runoff of toxins from our
roadways. Minnesota's water is increasingly polluted from industrial
agriculture. The day will come when water rights will be sold to the
highest bidder. Our water is a commodity, just like oil. When you and I
can pay for purity, we will get it. Obviously, you and I can't pay for
purity, so we have no right to complain.
A few people will be able to afford fountains and swimming pools, while most
of us will be forbidden to collect and use rainwater. Water is "green" in
to folks who see it as a commodity. If we take a lesson from the water
rights issues of India, Bolivia, and other places where Bechtel subsidiaries
are buying up water rights -- and from the old Texas oil billionaire -- we
will see our water future more clearly.
Visit "Green, Green Water" ( http://www.greengreenwater.com/ ) and see
how we spread our tentacles to suck energy out of our neighbors in Canada --
ruining the lands and water of Aboriginal people in northern Manitoba. They
once survived by fishing foe very high quality fish in lakes that Manitoba
Hydro has trashed. The fish now have cysts and tumors. They bring
one-fifth of the price for the Aboriginal fisherfolks that they brought
before the Hydro project. Water is a commodity, just as "hydro power" is a
commodity.
Soon water will be privatized as government morphs more openly into the
security branch of the corporate (fascist) oligarchy. Then we can complain
about the "yellow water" to someone employed by a private firm which holds
the water rights here. The response will be more efficient and more clear:
a regular supply of pure water will cost you $ XXX.00. If you cannot pay,
please don't complain.
In solidarity -- and pedaling for peace and ecojustice through a
globally-warmed Minneapolis from Lynnhurst for now -- Gary Hoover
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