Today's
Stories
April 19, 2006
Norman
Solomon
When Diplomacy Means War: Bait-and-Switch
on Iran
Anthony Papa
When Justice Isn't Blind: Double Standards
for the Rich and Poor in New York
Mike
Ferner
Movement Blues
Stanley Heller
The Massacre at Qana, 10 Years Later:
Still No Justice
Rifundazione
"We Defeated Berlusconi"
Christopher
Reed
Secrets of the Garden of Bliss
Alexander
Cockburn
The Pulitzer Farce
April 18, 2006
Paul Craig Roberts
How Safe is Your Job?
Eric
Wingerter
Washington Post vs. Venezuela
Juan Santos
What Immigrants Need to Learn from
the Black Civil Rights Movement
Greg
Weiher
The Zarqawi Gambit Revisited
Sam Bahour
Is Hamas Being Forced to Collapse?
Behzad
Yaghmaian
In the Gaze of New Orleans
Website of
the Day
The
FBI and the Jack Anderson Files
April 17, 2006
Kevin Zeese
An Interview with the First Arab-American
Senator: Jim Abourezk on Bush's Lies and the Dems' Complicity
Uri Avnery
Olmert the Fox
Norman Solomon
Why Won't Moveon.Org Oppose the Bombing
of Iran?
John Ross
A Real Day Without Mexicans?
Laila al-Haddad
The Earth is Closing in on Us: Dispatch
from Gaza
Jeffrey Blankfort
A Tale of Two Members of Congress
and the Capitol Hill Police
Website of the Day
Dixie
Chicks: Not Ready to Back Down
April
15 / 16, 2006
Jeffrey
St. Clair
How Star Wars Came to the Arctic
Ralph
Nader
Remembering Rev. William Sloan Coffin
Thaddeus
Hoffmeister
The Ghost of Shinseki: the General Who Was Sent Out to Pasture for
Being Right
Kevin Prosen
/ Dave Zirin
Privilege Meets Protest at Duke
Thomas
P. Healy
Taking Care of What We've Been Given: a Conversation with Wendell
Berry
Kristoffer
Larsson
Are 40 Percent of All Swedes Anti-Semitic?: Anatomy of a Statistical
Flim-Flam
Fred
Gardner
Continuing Medical (Marijuana) Education
Edwin Krales
New York's Katrina: the Hidden Toll of AIDS Among Blacks and the
Poor
Brian
Cloughley
Don't Blitz Iran: Risking the Ultimate Blowback
John Holt
Walking Off Vietnam with Edward Abbey's Surrogate Son
Seth
Sandronsky
What Billionaires Mean By Education Reform: Oprah, Bill Gates and
the Privatization of Public Schools
Rafael Renteria
Making It Plain About New Orleans
Michael
Ortiz Hill
In the Ashes of Lament: an Easter Meditation
William A.
Cook
An Israel Accountability Act
Gideon
Levy
Shooting Nasarin: a Story About a Little Girl
Andrew Wimmer
Stopping the Bush Juggernaut: a New Citizens Campaign
Madis
Senner
Talking Points for Easter Weekend: Jesus Didn't Lie, Mr. Bush
Michael Kuehl
The Sex Police State: Women as "Rapists" and "Pedophiles"?
Mark
Scaramella
When Even God Can't Follow His Own Commandments: the Timeless Scarcasm
of Mark Twain
Nate Mezmer
187 Proof: Living and Dying Hip-Hop
Jesse
Walker
Playlist
Poets' Basement
Engel, Laymon and Subiet
Website
of the Weekend
Pink Serenades Bush
April
14, 2006
Col.
Dan Smith
Candor or Career?: Why Few Top Military Officials
Resign on Principle
Saul Landau
Ho Chi Minh City Moves On Without Regrets
Stan
Cox
The Real Death Tax
Kevin Zeese
Hersh vs. Bush on Iran: Who Would You Believe?
Brian
McKinlay
Bad Times for Bush's Buddies
Howard Meyers
Dwarves, Knives and Freedom: Bush, Jr. is No LBJ
Ishmael
Reed
The Colored Mind Doubles: How the Media Uses Blacks
to Chastize Blacks
Website of
the Day
Asshole: a Film Strip
April
13, 2006
CounterPunch
News Service
Powell's "Bitch"?
Norman
Solomon
The Lobby and the Bulldozer
Stanley Heller
Time to Shake Up the Peace Movement
Jeff
Birkenstein
Bush and Freedom of Speech
Evelyn J.
Pringle
Not So Fast, Mr. Powell
Michael
Donnelly
The Week the Bush Administration Fell Apart
Kamran Matin
Synergism of the Neo-Cons: What's Going On In Iran?
Website
of the Day
"Don't Be Afraid of the Neo-Cons"
April
12, 2006
Vijay Prashad
Resisting Fences
Alan
Maass
The Suicide of Anthony Soltero
Dave Lindorff
Bush's Insane First Strike Policy: If You Don't Want to Get Whacked,
You'd Better Get Your Nation a Nuke ... Fast
Ron
Jacobs
Resistance: the Remedy for Fear
Ramzy Baroud
The Imminent Decline of the American Empire?
Randall
Dodd
How a Wal-Mart Bank will Harm Consumers
Missy Comley
Beattie
The Boy President Who Cried "Wolf!"
P. Sainath
The Corporate Hijack of India's Water
Website of
the Day
"The System is Irretrievably Corrupt"
April
11, 2006
Al
Krebs
Corporate Agriculture's Dirty Little Secret: Immigration
and a History of Greed
Lawrence
R. Velvel
The Gang That Couldn't Leak Straight
Sonia Nettinin
Palestinian Health Care Conditions Under Israeli Occupation
Willliam
S. Lind
The Fourth Plague Hits the Pentagon: Generals as Private Contractors
Robert Ovetz
Endangered Species in a Can: the Disappearance of Big Fish
Pratyush
Chandra
Nepalis Say, "Ya Basta!"
Grant F.
Smith
The Bush Administration's Final Surprise?
Laray
Polk
Loud, Soft, Hard, Quiet: Marching Through Dallas for Immigrant Rights
Francis Boyle
O'Reilly and the Law of the Jungle: How to Beat a Bully on His Home
Turf
José
Pertierra
A Glimpse into the Mindset of Terrorists: Posada Carriles, Orlando
Bosch and the Downing of Cubana Flight 455
Website of
the Day
The Dead Emcee Scrolls
April
10, 2006
Ralph
Nader
Tinhorn Caesar and the Spineless Democrats
Heather Gray
Atlanta and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Uri
Avnery
The Big Wink
Joshua Frank
Big Greens and Beltway Politics: Betting on Losers
Seth
Sandronsky
Immigration and Occupations
Michael Leonardi
The Italian Elections: "Reality is No Longer Important"
Evelyn
Pringle
Did Bush Pull a Fast One on Fitzgerald?
Tom Kerr
FoxNews Does Ward Churchill
Lucinda
Marshall
The Lynching of Cynthia McKinney
Website of
the Day
Brown Berets
April
7 -9, 2006
Alexander
Cockburn
If Only They'd Hissed Barack Obama
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Saga of Magnequench: Outsourcing US Missile
Technology to China
Patrick
Cockburn
The War Gets Grimmer Every Day
David Vest
The Rebuking and Scorning of Cynthia McKinney
Dave
Lindorff
The Impeachment Clock Just Clicked Forward
Gary Leupp
"Ideologies of Hatred:" What Did Condi Mean?
Elaine
Cassel
The Moussaoui Trial: What Kind of Justice is This?
Saul Landau
Vietnam Diary: Hue Without Rules
James
Ridgeway
"This is Betty Ong Calling": a Short Film
Ron Jacobs
Why Iran was Right to Refuse US Money
John
Walsh
Kerry Advocates Iraqization: Too Little, Too Late
Ramzy Baroud
The US Attitude Toward Hamas: Disturbing Parallels with Nicaragua
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush Finds Democracy Has Its Limits
Todd Chretien
What the Pentagon Budget Could Buy for America
Jonathan
Scott
Javelins at the Head of the Monolith
John Bomar
What They're Saying About Bush in Arkansas
Michele
Brand
Iran, the US and the EU
Ronan Sheehan
Remember When the Irish First Met the Chinese?
Mickey
Z.
Let Us Now Praise OIL
Don Monkerud
March of the Bunglers
Michael
Dickinson
The Rich Young Man: a Miracle Play
Website
of the Weekend
The Case Against Israel and Munich: Compare and Contrast
| April
19 , 2006
World Bank's Malthusian Ploy
More Kids? Then Pay
More for Water
By P. SAINATH
For
some retrospective entertainment about World Water Day, the U.N.-mandated
aqua-celebration each March, read Rule 12 of the World Bank's "Principled
Pragmatism & Rules for Reformers." It goes: "Reforms
must provide returns for the politicians who are willing to make
changes." And the Bank report gives us proof that water reforms
"can be good politics." It holds up two Indian politicians
it sees as highly successful with water reforms. Chandrababu Naidu
and Digvijay Singh.
Note that this report comes more than a year after Mr. Naidu suffered
one of the worst defeats in the electoral history of Andhra Pradesh.
And after Digvijay Singh, once a highly popular Chief Minister of
Madhya Pradesh, was trounced at the hustings there. Both in 2004.
Well after such "reforms" were unleashed on the public.
Still the Bank report India's Water Economy asserts that these
reforms have proved to be good politics. "There is evidence
that this was indeed the case for Mr. Singh in Madhya Pradesh. And
the intensive formation of WUAs [water users associations] in Andhra
Pradesh was certainly politically useful to Mr. Chandrababu Naidu,
because farmers perceived this to be a reform which moved in the
right direction. The bottom line is that ... it must be viewed as
a `good thing' by sufficient numbers of people that they will consider
voting for the politician who championed the reform."
This comes well over a year after both champions drowned at the
polls. And four years after Andhra Pradesh farmers chased away the
Bank's James Wolfensohn from the inauguration site of a "Confederation
of WUAs." (The efficient Mr. Naidu shifted the ceremonial plaque
to an isolated spot free of protesters. There, the Bank chief could
cut his ribbon in peace.) Today, Mr. Naidu is reduced to attacking
the present State Government for "yielding to World Bank pressure."
And he could be right, too. But now we know how popular those reforms
were.
So the errors in the Bank report are funny but, at one level, quite
easy to understand. The propaganda for the water "reforms"
was cooked up long before any results could be seen. Economic or
electoral. It projects a vision so cynical that it brooks no evidence
to the contrary. A good example of this exists in the so-called
"pani panchayats" of Angul in Orissa. This was one of
the biggest frauds in the water sector of this country. It has done
huge damage to poor farmers in that region. Yet, it was held up
as "a model." The propaganda part of India's Water Economy
was clearly drafted well before the 2004 elections. It just had
to be stuck into whatever was to be published later. The Bank and
the International Monetary Fund seem to follow Richard Ingram's
great dictum in Private Eye: "Never let the truth stand in
the way of a good story."
In the next 24-36 months, India will witness the most major thrust
yet towards water privatization. The process is now on. All of it,
of course, in the name of "reforms." Some of the world's
biggest water multinationals have already bought their way into
the country. Quite a few of these figure in the Fortune Global 500
List. Some of these corporations have been thrown out of Latin America.
They will now — by their own claim — sharpen their efforts
and focus here.
They leave in their wake a trail of wounded nations. But nations
that have still tossed them out. For instance, Suez, one of the
biggest water MNCs, is in retreat. The Guardian reported that the
company "said it was now almost impossible for it to work in
Latin America or Africa." And that it would "be concentrating
on China, India and eastern Europe."
Barely 15 months ago, Uruguay made history with its referendum
on the issue of water. The outcome was a first-ever in the world.
Close to two-thirds of voters came out in favour of an amendment
to their Constitution (now Article 47). One that would assert: "water
is a natural resource essential to life." Also that access
to water and sanitation are "fundamental human rights."
And that "public service of water supply for human consumption
will be served exclusively and directly by state legal persons."
(Which rules out a private takeover of water.)
There's a basis to that. In Bolivia, lack of clean water plays
a role in the death of children under the age of five. Yet when
the Bechtel took over the water supply of Cochabamba city in that
nation, it raised prices by 200 per cent. Whether people lived or
died was of no concern. In Peru, as Sarah Grutsky found, "poor
residents in Lima paid as much as $3 per cubic metre of water."
After World Bank and IMF policies were enforced in Ghana, she pointed
out, "three buckets of water cost a family almost half of the
minimum wage."
In Chile's central valley region, as even The New York Times reported,
"99.2 per cent of voters in a plebiscite in 2000 rejected privatization
of the state-run water company. (The government privatized it anyway.)"
In many Latin American nations, people did not stop at throwing
out water and other utility MNCs. They also voted left-wing governments
in. Yet, India is being shoved down the path of water privatization.
By deceit and in stealth. Because there are millions to be made
by a corrupt elite. And by top government officials pushing this
agenda for direct personal gain. In India, water-borne diseases
are amongst the most major causes of sickness and ill-health. Converting
water to a commercial good to be sold for profit invites disaster.
Most of all for poor people whose already pathetic access to water
will shrink swiftly.
The games have begun. "Pilot projects" on water are on
in Mumbai and other cities. All a prelude to privatizing water distribution.
Consultants and contractors are lining up for the hundreds of thousands
of dollars to be spent on just the `studies' to be done. Yet, there
is worldwide evidence on what will happen. The logic is that water
flows from poorer to richer localities. This is already clear in
Chandrapur town in Vidharbha.
Poorer people simply won't get water. Their misery will nourish
corporate profits. Even upper-middle class residents of Delhi have
joined a fight against a process they rightly see as corrupt and
unjust. Imagine what will happen to those in poor neighbourhoods
elsewhere.
With inequality growing across the globe — not least in India
— the scale of what will unfold is hard to imagine. Already
a third of all urban dwellers in the world live in slums. By 2030,
a third of all humanity could be doing that, according to U.N. Habitat.
(The Challenge of Slums. Global Report on Human Settlements 2003.)
What access will these over two billion human beings have to the
most life-giving of things? Note that the overwhelming numbers of
those slum dwellers will be in India and Africa.
Meanwhile, 2005 saw a barrage of pro-privatization plugs and plants
in sections of our media. Some of which involved plain fabrication.
Take this line from one of these pieces: "India has recently
seen an important development on the water entitlement issue, with
the state of Maharashtra passing, after years of study and extensive
consultations with civil society, local communities and all political
parties, the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act,
2005, the heart of which is the creation and management of a water
entitlement system." This is authored by John Briscoe, described
as "senior water advisor, World Bank."
This is the Act that enshrines the notorious two-child norm. Under
which those with more than two children will have to pay one and
a half times the new rates for irrigation. No other State in the
country did this. Extensive consultation? Most farmers in the State
remain clueless that such a law has been passed. Most MLAs have
never read it. The bill was brought to the State Assembly in the
last hours of the last day of the session on April 13, 2005.
As one legislator, Narasiah Adam, put it: "They brought in
perhaps 16 bills on the last day. And this one came in around 6
p.m." It was chaotic. "This did not allow the bills to
be read, let alone debated." It was rammed through in a voice
vote. The Maharashtra Government was duly rewarded. The Bank announced
Rs.1,700 crore towards water projects in the State days after it
passed the law.
Trying to enforce it though is quite another matter. If done, this
kind of law simply begs for local civil wars. And it will get that
and more. Maybe India needs to learn something from little Uruguay
on World Water Day. We too, could do with a constitutional amendment
banning water privatization. Maude Barlow, one of the world's leading
activists on water issues, was present in that country at the time
of the referendum. As she put it: "We are all Uruguayans now.
P.
Sainath is the rural affairs editor of The Hindu and the
author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought. He can be reached at:
psainath@vsnl.com.
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