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27 Nov 2005 @ 05:43, by nemue. Activism
This coming Friday a young Australian (Van Tuong Nguyen) will be hanged In Singapore if we can not get the Singaporean Prime Minister to change his mind. This young man is 24-years old. He was arrested in March 2004 (In Changi Airport) whilst in transit back to Sydney. He was carrying 396.2 grams of heroin. This is a crime granted, but the circumstances were that he was taking the drugs back to Australia to clear the debts of his brother, who was a heroin addict. Van should be punished by death by hanging in this day and age is barbaric and inhumane. There is also a legal question that has yet to be addressed and that is did the Singaporean authorities have the legal right to arrest and condemn to death a citizen of another country who is fact did not set foot outside of the airport.
Please sign the attached petition. Van’s days are numbered. Van is not a drug baron. He is a young and silly courier. He does NOT deserve to die for this is foolishness.
[link] More >
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 13 Nov 2005 @ 12:42, by jazzolog. Activism
The highest point a man can attain is not knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic, and more despairing: Sacred Awe!
---Nikos Kazantzakis
Whatever is seen by such a heart and mind is a flower, whatever is dreamed is a moon.
Only a barbarian mind could fail to see the flower; only an animal mind could fail to dream the moon.
---Basho
Thank God for the things that I do not own.
---St. Teresa Of Avila
Here we see Dana celebrating her birthday last month at the Japanese Steak House in Columbus, with our daughter and her friend Keenan Huq.
Actually the title is WAL*MART: the high cost of low price, a new film by Robert Greenwald, whose previous documentaries include OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism and UNCOVERED: The War On Iraq, both from last year. This week WAL*MART will premiere at 7000 (and counting) different locations across America...and apparently in several other countries as well. What is novel about Greenwald's approach to premieres is they occur in living rooms, public meeting chambers, and union halls...and only in a few movie theaters. Teaming up with MoveOn and the Internet, he began advertising a couple months ago for screening kits you could order. I think he asked 10 dollars or something for it, you typed in your mailing info online, paid with PayPal or the like, and soon a box arrived with the DVD, a couple big posters, and some other brochures. Your name and screening location goes online and people can reserve a seat, depending on your capacity. MoveOn has changed the political landscape of this country using an approach to organize that's both fun and dynamic. More >
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6 Nov 2005 @ 22:40, by freo7. Activism
EXCERPT from: "Being All The Oneness That We Can Be"
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE IN PASSING THIS ON TO OTHERS
*There is no way around the fact that in division and duality we all perish, whereas in unification and reintegration into Oneness, we all survive and prosper.
As more and more souls awaken to their innate Oneness with All That Is and *Actualize this Reality* into all they are until the very sense of separation is gone, extinguished, annihilated, it is becoming ever more easier for other awakening souls to likewise tune into this omnifying vibration that resonates like a dynamic magnetic star core in all frequency bands, permeating the very substance of our planetary body and exponentially expanding towards its Fifth Dimensional Accomplishment.
The results from this Miracle in progress are astonishing to behold and the upwardly cascading radiance of Love that stems from the center of *every single cell of our human bodies* in a symphonic chorus of tingling ecstasy is MELTING the fast vanishing barriers of *deception built by fear, hatred and disharmonic vibrations* generated by our lower animal nature as our embodied souls struggled through countless centuries of incremental growth towards this critical threshold of global awakening WHICH WE HAVE COLLECTIVELY ENTERED, starting in August 17, 1987 and during successive other Moments of Cosmic Choice, up to this critical juncture in our specific time continuum.
The Time is NOW
In UNITY with: A call to hold Earth Summit of the Leaders of New Civilization 29 INTERESTING comments posted 5 Nov 2005 @ 09:02, by Shreepal Singh More >
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21 Oct 2005 @ 10:03, by swanny. Activism
Oh my gosh..... God
A Channel from Pakistan.....
We the brain injured are just like the lost and dying children in Pakistan
right now.....Children displaced and shattered by the judgement or condemation
or just plain indiscriminate natural upheaval of the earth.....
"WE ARE LOST, LONELY AND DYING"
and we don't know what to do because our homes and house have been
ravaged and are mostly gone and where are our parents cause we're to
young and innocent and inept and confused to help ourselves and make
any sense of what has just happened and is happening
SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS SOS
PLEASE HELP HELP US PLEASE
WE DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO...........
Help help the children in pakistan ..... how I don't know.....
but some one must know how to help them...... More >
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8 Oct 2005 @ 21:43, by gsosbee. Activism
In the news: a most unworthy item of value only as an historical piece of evidence of fbi corruption/decadence:
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post
Former FBI director Louis J. Freeh has denounced Bill Clinton over the scandals that marred his presidency and for his record on terrorism, saying the level of distrust was so great that he stayed in his post so Clinton could not appoint his successor....
Freeh says: "The problem was with Bill Clinton -- the scandals and the rumored scandals, the incubating ones and the dying ones never ended. Whatever moral compass the president was consulting was leading him in the wrong direction. His closets were full of skeletons just waiting to burst out."
_______________________________________________________
Well, beleaguered little louie- The people would be more interested in the skeletons dancing around in your brain regarding the innumerable crimes that you directed throughout your career in the U.S. government. Few today are aware of the killing, torturing and imprisoning of good people at your direction; fewer still may realize that you played a heinous role in the collapse of this government into a fascist regime, even as you failed to prepare for the impending terrorist attack on this country; so, tell us about all the atrocities, violations of fundamental human rights, and gross infractions of U.S. Constitutional rights that you orchestrated, ordered and condoned, louie. **
Finally, my little mental dwarf, how can you speak of moral compass given your hideous record of abuses that will someday bring the people of the world to see you for what you are, a most horrendous and degenerative representative of the human race who by political manipulation and homicidal mindset, managed to attain by deceit and treachery, positions of great power over the people of the U.S. and the world. Print all the rumors, alleged scandals, skeletons, etc., that you can scrape from the fbi and the cia files on every human being on earth; even then your cowardly and torturous character will stand out as an example of the most despicable profile the world has ever known.*** You are remembered as a little man to be at once scorned and pitied for your smallness of mind, heart and soul. Go not in peace, foolish one, but in eternal disgrace.
-------- --------- ----------
* [link]
** for specifics on how louie and gang attempts to force our brothers and sisters into suicide see:
[link]
*** Meet Defendant louie who, until the appearance of Sosbee's Writ, was yet an Unidentified Felonious Offender :
[link]
_____________________________________________________________
From Brownsville, Texas
June 6, 2007
Re: News from June 4, 2007
"PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- The FBI agent [Richard Rose, a Louie Freeh crony/minion] whose investigations brought down former Providence Mayor Vincent "Buddy" Cianci advises him to live below the radar. "
SOSBEE TO ROSE: Better follow your own advice ,PUNK, but that will not protect you from 'storm-the-fbi' scenario that I have set in motion. See the picture (saving me a thousand words)that appears at the bottom of the following link in order to comprehend exactly what the storm is made of:
[link]
Tell your fellow homicidal and degenerate friends and associates in the fbi worldwide that I am coming after them [and you] in an intellectual sense and that you have no where to hide. You see, R O S E , I have you all fixed on my cerebral radar for high crimes and misdemeanors against the people of the uSA, for violations of your oaths of office, and for being
"government rat bastards" ( quote from Barbara Hartwell).
___________________________________________________________________________
From Brownsville, Texas
June 6, 2007
News from May 31, 2007
"By PAT MILTON, Associated Press Writer
Thu May 31, 4:07 PM ET
NEW YORK - Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani was endorsed Thursday by former FBI director Louis Freeh, whom he has known for three decades. "
Sosbee adds to the news release as follows:
Well thank you mR. Giuliani; previously I only suspected you of being a criminal (in spirit if not in deed). Now with your silly photo ops with the supremely unethical and conniving chief of the murderous and hideous fbi , Louie Freeh, I can put to rest my previously unanswered questions regarding your character and intentions; sleep with the beast, if you must Giuliana, but don't expect the people to mistake you for a human being.
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 21 Sep 2005 @ 10:07, by jazzolog. Activism
Sitting in an outhouse, I concentrated upon this doubt, and as time passed I forgot to leave. Suddenly a violent wind came, first blowing the outhouse door open and then shut again with a loud crash. My spirit instantly advanced and ripped apart my previous doubt; it was like suddenly awakening from a dream, or remembering something forgotten. I began to dance in a way I had never learned, and there are no words to convey my great joy.
---Gesshu
A reasonable amount o' fleas is good fer a dog---
keeps him broodin' over bein' a dog, mebbe.
---Edward Noyes Westcott
Corruption is more dangerous than terrorism.
---Hadi al-Amiri, Head of Iraqi National Assembly's Integrity Commission
A British soldier, his uniform in flames, prepares to jump from a personnel carrier during rioting that broke out in Basra when Britain sought the release of two detained commandos. (By Atef Hassan -- Reuters)
Americans love a good night's sleep...and we spend tons of money trying to get one here and there. Maybe we spend more money on it, including fees to psychologists and therapists, than almost anything else. Yes, we need oil for all the stuff in our garages...and flying around in airplanes. And we spend lots more on our obesity problems than we contribute to the world's populations of the starving. And of course there is a fortune to be spent finding a sex partner and getting any enjoyment out of the activities. But mostly we really love to sleep...and hate to be awakened!
So let's say that while you were asleep, certain parties "disappeared" $10 billion from the United States Treasury. And let's also say that your sons and daughters were standing guard at those vaults of marble. Not only that, the 10 billion dollars was to be spent for weapons and protection for those duties your children have accepted. In fact, some of those kids are doing that work to get enough money to go to college. If that happened and it was discovered, do you think the story would be in a newspaper the next morning? Maybe? Definitely? Absolutely not? More >
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 13 Sep 2005 @ 09:05, by jazzolog. Activism
The sparrow is sorry for the peacock for the burden of his tail.
---Rabindranath Tagore
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
---Marcel Proust
Zen practice emphasizes being present with your actual experience. By placing our attention with the minute details of our physical posture, we get to know our selves, where we have tension, where we are crooked, where we are holding, where we let go, where we are at ease. Our body reveals who we are. Through this awareness, we enter the path of practice.
---Pat Phelan
Back row: Mia Lorraine, Kelissa Stanley, Todd Dusenbury, Hart Viges, Vince George
Front row: Lietta Ruger, Beatriz Sadivar
I happened to mention, in reply to cancellation of a potluck/teaching I was hoping to attend last Friday down by the River, how busy everyone seems to be these days. It's hard to fit in everything we want to do...and even to keep track of coming events. I explained I probably wouldn't have been able to come to it anyway, since Ilona and I had gone up to Columbus the night before to see Cindy Sheehan and hadn't gotten back until late. With school and work Friday, we were going to be pretty tired by potluck time. A new friend Annie wrote back and said, "Oh, write about what the Sheehan tour is like. I didn't see anything in the news." More >
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 28 Aug 2005 @ 18:14, by freo7. Activism
Divine Health, Rejuvenation & Immortality Decree/Invocation
By ZaKaiRan (my divine masculine compliment)
By Divine Decree, with the Power, Love and Grace of God-Goddess, the 7 Mighty Elohim, the Pleiadian Emissaries of Light, and my God Presence and all the divine forces associated with health on all levels, I invoke and command for the active creation, embodiment and result of the highest possibilities of gracefully and easily having and maintaining constant optimum physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and rejuvenation, on multidimensional and soulular levels, across time and space. I also command and request for every possible support necessary for the complete and continuous manifestation of perfect health, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually throughout all aspects of my beingness, including my Soul/Souls, Soul extensions, previous inhabitant (for walk-ins) and my entire genetic lineage, across space, time and dimension.
I command and request to my God Presence and for all these divine forces of Love and Light to continuously create complete alignment of my physical, mental, emotional and spiritual bodies; all of my energy bodies, body systems, organs, meridians, glands, cells, bacteria…, and for all of them to work/play together in complete wholistic unity. I also open and allow for a full and intimate connection with my Divine Spirit, Guardian Angels, Councils… for optimum body-mind-emotional health and balance.
And I invoke and command with the full force of my divine beingness and all the forces of healing and creation for the complete release of all non-health, non-immortality oriented disease, pain, suffering and death oriented programs, beliefs, vows and agreements, across space time and dimension, for myself, my Soul/Souls, soul aspects, soul extensions and genetic lineage! I release all of these to the Light and any elements that may have been supporting the maintenance of any of these agreements, vows, beliefs, programs, implants…
I ask for a complete multi-dimensional healing and karmic clearing/healing and absolution for all aspects of my beingness in regards to health and healing, and for the complete release, healing and forgiveness of all past lives of disease and death, and associated traumas, vows, agreements, memories, regrets, curses… And I Call to the Archturians to remove any implants, programs and soul fragments from my Soul/Souls, soul aspects and genetic lineage, for their healing and forgiveness. And I call to the Karmic Board for complete karmic absolution and healing of all their records related to these lifetimes, and between all beings associated with these lifetimes. I send Love to all of these aspects of myself to release all of these programs and lifetimes and forgive all experiences that created them to experience disconnection, illness and adopt beliefs and vows of illness, disease and death. I call to all my Souls, soul aspects and genetic lineage and I ask you all to accept divine health and physical and spiritual immortality as our natural way, reality and birthright.
I call to the 7 Mighty Elohim and the Lemurian Emissaries to download into me the original blueprints of the Divine Human, for the graceful and easy activation of dormant DNA and limitedly functional glands and other systems. For the activation of my DNA and all my physical and energy body systems to their divine potential, for the full and complete embodiment of my God-Goddess-Christ Presence and creation of my Christ Body, my immortal body of light. I accept and embody this divine presence that I truly am now and forever. I allow this Christ-Body to create for me a life and experience of true unconditional love and divine creation.
I also request the graceful and easy ability to energetically, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually deal with the increased levels of light and love that I embody through the continuous opening and expansion of my Heart and subsequent mutational symptoms that I may experience from these activations, (manifesting as flu and cold like symptoms, aches, pains, mucous, memory loss, time displacement, headaches, vision loss, gland swelling…).
I also invoke, request and command for a complete interdimensional immunity activation, for a mega immunity boost, and continuous quantum support for my immune system to function at peak efficiency, with the graceful and easy ability to align to, transmute and release toxins, unbeneficial bacteria, physical and etheric parasites and implants, viruses, heavy metals, radiation, drugs, genetically modified foods…, and anything detrimental to my system’s health and anything that is not in alignment with my Soul.
I request and command for a continual download, upgrade, activation and integration of the most accelerated and complete health, immortality, rejuvenation, maintenance and Light-Body programs available. And for the most optimum complete DNA, endocrine gland, meridian… and body system transmutation programs.
I also command and request for a complete connection/reconnection to and alignment with Mother Earth/Gaia, Buddha (our planetary logos [embodier], formally Sanat Kumara), and all the elements needed for this perfect health, including Light-Body/DNA/gland/chakra activations, karmic absolution, record clearing, forgiveness…, and support from all the Devas, Faeries, dolphins, whales, unicorns, ancient shamans…, and assistance from the galactic, dimensional healing, light body activation and mutational assistance teams.
I open to, allow, request and command for continuous support including multidimensional Ascension healings, activations and Divine Healing energies from (insert whoever you desire) Doctor Lorphan and the Galactic Federation of Healers, the Healing Angels, Sai Baba, the 7 Tibetan Healers, from the extraterrestrial Light-Body specialists: the Archturians, Pleiadian Emissaries of Light, Sirian Light League, Ascended Master’s, Ashtar Command…, and the Hathors (the Heart/Love specialists), MAP Teams… and the karmic record keepers and karmic board. And a release healing and forgiveness of anything that might be impeding a complete alignment with Gaia or any of these support teams.
I also request and command for the ability and capacity to always know and receive the most optimum healing arts and abilities, and to manifest the most accelerated and balanced healers available. And the ability and capacity to be able to always heal myself and keep myself in the most optimum health. I also request all of the healing energies of: Reiki, Sekhem, Seichem, Pranic Healing…(insert whatever you desire), and all healing arts such as: Acupuncture, Naturopathy, Homeopathy…, and unnamed arts, be integrated and made available to me.
I also open to all physical and energetic exercises, reCreation, communion, such as: swimming, running, hiking, Yoga, Tai Chi, Chi Gung, Falun Dafa, tiddly winks…, and anything that may assist with my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health. And I release any sloth, lack or laziness programs such as: “there’s not enough time”, “I don’t have enough energy”... And I tap into, open up to and integrate with my bodies natural knowing of its optimum needs, including: food, drink, temperature, planetary location, exercise, sex, posture, sleep patterns…
And I decree, command and open to realize that I am and will always be doing the right thing, with the right people, in the right places, at the right time.
I also request and command to the manifesting powers for the creation and manifestation of more than enough money and resources to support the purchase of any needed foods, juicers, supplements, herbs, products and therapies, for my optimum health, rejuvenation, immortality, balance, centeredness, nurturance…and to always have an abundant supply of money to purchase whatever is needed for the creation and maintenance of my optimum health and mission!
I call to myself everything that my cells, organs, blood, bones, tendons, ligaments, glands, healthy bacteria…, need for their optimum health and happiness. And I thank Mother Earth and the plant, mineral and animal kingdoms for providing everything that I need for optimum health and happiness. And I thank all the support teams who have helped me thus far and will help me in the maintenance of my divine health, the embodiment of my Divinity and realization of my Divine Magnificence.
This I do decree, in the name of God-Goddess-All-That-Is,
and my own Divine God-Goddess Presence!
And So It Is!
In Divine Health & Immortality,
I AM ZaKaiRan
And I second this motion @ 100%.
I AM Ahanda Kahsii AHA!
Brenda McCann - aka Freo`7
Idaho Indigo Earth & Beyond...
(P.S. Please insert any healing teams, ascended masters and anything else that you think of into this invocation to suit yourself and pass it forward).
This DECREE is an excerpt from the Ascension Master’s Toolkit: AT: [link]
____________________________________________________________________
LOVE IS US: [link]
SO WHY FIGHT IT? "just surrender and BE IT!" More >
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 10 Aug 2005 @ 09:39, by jazzolog. Activism
The true man of ancient times knew nothing of loving life, knew nothing of hating death. He emerged without delight; he went back in without a fuss. He came briskly, he went briskly, and that was all. He didn't forget where he began; he didn't try to find out where he would end. He received something and took pleasure in it; he forgot about it and handed it back again. This is what I call not using the mind to repel the Way, not using man to help out Heaven. This is what I call the True Man.
---Chuang-Tzu
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.
---Edward Abbey
Even if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the room.
---Simone Weil
Cindy Sheehan hears the Sheriff
While jailed reporter Judith Miller decides with her cellmate every night who gets to sleep on the floor [link] , activist mother Cindy Sheehan tells reporters she may be arrested tomorrow as a security threat. As news sources around the world are reporting (if their corporate owners allow them) Ms. Sheehan has walked as far as they'd let her down the road to the President's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he is taking a 5-week vacation (the longest presidential retreat in 36 years). Well, he does say he goes there "to meet with folks in the heartland and hear what's on their minds" [link] . Of course we know he never can let himself be disagreed with in public, so Cindy Sheehan bakes in the sun. She is telling reporters she's been notified that she and supporters will be cleared out when the Secretaries of State and Defense come to the ranch tomorrow. At the moment, people are boarding planes, trains, buses and anything else that will get them to Crawford in case that happens. More >
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18 Jul 2005 @ 18:07, by raypows. Activism
To me water rights are one of the most important issues in our lives. Though we read about what is happening in other parts of the world, privatization is happening here in the US as well. There are counties in Californina looking at selling water rights to outside investors and doing so under the radar of the media and consumer groups. Alos, our own governments abuse of water rights in Africa is killing entire communities. What to do? Educate ourselves and follow our hearts.
-------------------------------------------------
Privatization of Water in India Ignites Water Wars
July 14, 2005 By Vandana Shiva
1. Will Muradnagar be the next Tonk?
On 13th June 2005, 5 farmers were shot dead in Tonk during a protest demanding their share in the water from Bisalpur dam, which is diverting water from villages to the city of Jaipur under an ADB project for water sector "reforms" in the State of Rajasthan currently ruled by a BJP government.
Sonia Gandhi, President of the Congress Party, rushed to Tonk, called the firing barbaric and offered relief to the families of the farmers killed.
Yet the Congress government in Delhi is determined to create another Tonk in Muradnagar, with its demand to divert 635 million litres of Ganga water per day to the Sonia Vihar Plant, which has been privatized to Ondeo Degrement a subsidiary of Suez.
The real politics of water is not Congress vs BJP. It is World Bank/ADB and other aid agencies creating water markets for global water MNCs while robbing the Indian people both hydrologically and financially.
Delhi, India's capital has been sustained for centuries by the river Yamuna. Two decades of industrialization have turned the Yamuna into a sewer and toxic drain.
Instead of stopping the pollution, using the scarcity created by the pollution, the World Bank started to push the Delhi government to privatize Delhi's water supply and get water from the Tehri Dam on the Ganges, hundreds of miles away.
The privatization of Delhi's water supply is central on the Sonia Vihar Plant. The Sonia Vihar water treatment plant, which was inaugurated on June 21, 2002 by Chief Minister of Delhi, is designed for a capacity of 635 million litres a day on a 10 year BOT (build-operate-transfer) basis, at a cost of 1.8 billion rupees (approx. 50 million dollars). The contract between Delhi Jal Board (The Water Supply Department of the Delhi Government) and the French company Ondeo Degremont (subsidiary of Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux Water Division - the water giant of the world), is supposed to provide safe drinking water for the city.
The water for the Suez-Degremont plant in Delhi will come from Tehri Dam through the Upper Ganga Canal upto Muradnagar in Western Uttar Pradesh and then through the giant pipeline to Delhi. The Upper Ganga Canal, which starts at Haridwar and carries the holy water of Ganga upto Kanpur via Muradnagar, is the main source of irrigation for this region.
Delhi's ever growing water demands have already led to major diversions of water from other regions. Delhi already gets 455 million litres from the Ganga. With the Sonia Vihar plants demand of 635 million litres, this is 1090 million litres per day of diversion from Ganga. Further diversion of 3000 million cubic metres per second from the Ganga is built into the Sharda and Yamuna river link.
Delhi is also demanding 180 million litres per day to be diverted from Punjab's Dhakra Dam. Water will also be diverted to Delhi from the Renuka dam on Giri River (1250 million cubic litres per day) and Keshau Dam on Tons River (610 million cubic litres per day) from distant Himachal in the Himalayas.
On December 1, 2004 water tariffs were increased in Delhi. While the government stated this was necessary for recovering costs of operation and maintenance, the tariff increase is ten times more than what is needed to run Delhi's water supply. The increase is to lay the ground for the privatization of Delhi's water, and ensure super profits for the private operators.
Increasing tariffs before pivatisation is part of World Bank's "tool kit".
It is part of a stepwise approach to "secure at least some private sector involvement in risky countries". Before full privatization, the "private-public partnership" is to increase tariffs through a public utility, so that increased tariffs can support a commercial operation (ie "guarantee profit margins"). Service and management contracts can be introduced while the government increases tariff.
The tariff increase is not a democratic decision, nor a need based decision. It has been imposed by the World Bank. The Delhi Jal Board cites the justification for increase in tariff as based on a study done by Price Waterhouse Cooper under the World Bank study on privatization. It also cites World Bank technical paper No. 386 of 1997 on water pricing.
Delhi's water operation and maintenance budget is Rs. 3.44 billion. The public utility has been recovering Rs. 2.7 billion due to 40-50% non-revenue losses such as leaks and thefts. During a conference on public-public participation, we showed how public and community participation can recover revenues of Rs. 5.00 by preventing leaks and theft. This allows Rs. 7 to 8 billion recovery, which is twice the amount needed to operate and maintain the water system.
However, the tariff increase will allow a recovery of Rs. 30 billion, tenfold more than needed, guaranteeing a super profit of Rs. 26.66 billion to the corporations waiting to grab Delhi's water supply. A 10% increase is built into the tariff restricting which will double the profits for water privateers in 7 years. This profit is created not by better services but by doubling the financial burden on citizens, especially the poor.
The tariff increase hides significant increases through changes in
categories. Schools and agriculture have been redefined as "industry". "Piaos", a core part of India's culture of the gift of water, must also pay for water. How will they give water to the thirsty? Cremation grounds, temples, homes for the disabled, orphanages which paid Rs. 30 will now pay thousands of rupees, the cash strapped social institutions cannot pay.
The World Bank driven policies explicitly state that there needs to be a shift from the social perception to a commercial orientation. This worldview conflict lies at the root of conflicts between water privatization and water democracy. Will water be viewed and treated as a commodity, or will it be viewed and treated as the very basis of life?
Many privatization myths have been used to justify the tariff increase. The first is the myth of "full cost recovery" the mantra for privatization. However, as far as operations are concerned, the tariff increase implies a "ten-fold recovery", ten times more than "full cost". As far as investments are concerned, the private operators have made no investment, but will harvest public investment of Rs. 1 trillion. The "full cost recovery" logic when applied fully requires that water systems stay in the public domain as a common good.
At the National Development Council Meeting on June 28th 2005, Shiela Dixit,
the Chief Minister of Delhi called for the federalization and prioritization
of drinking water. (Pioneer, 29th June, 2005) However, the World Bank
driven 24x7 scheme is not to provide drinking water to Delhi's slums, it is
to provide rich colonies with the luxury of 24 hour running water seven days
a week in a period of severe water crisis. The water crisis demands
reductions in water use Privatisation is encouraging increased water use.
This increase in urban consumption will come at the cost of rural areas.
This is part of the privatization process. Four global companies are already in the bid for the 24x7 distribution including Suez, Bechtel and Saur.
The common argument for privatization and price increase is that higher costs will reduce water use. However, given the extreme income inequities.
A tariff increase that can destroy a slum dweller or poor farmer is an insignificant expenditure for the rich. Privatisation as dictated by ADB and the Wrold Bank thus means that water will be diverted from the poor to the rich, from rural areas to urban/industrialized areas. And each diversion will create water wars as it did in Tonk. This is why U.P. has been refusing to divert Ganga water to SoniaVihar. Non-sustainable and inequitable use will increase with privatization because the rich can afford to pay for water waste.
2. The Planning Commission as Water Privateer
The government' priority for commodification and privatization of water was clearly stated by the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia's statement in his opening remarks at the NDC that farmers should pay for water. While Mr. Ahluwalia argued that rich farmers are the real beneficiaries of free water, the reality is that when water is commodified, it is the rich who can afford to pay. The poor peasant, already struggling under the burden of debt, driven to suicide, will be wiped out of she/he is denied access to water and made to pay for a resource that is their common property. If poor peasants are pitted against rich agribusiness in competition for water through water markets, agribusiness will monopolise
irrigation. If poor villagers are pitted against rich city dwellers in a water war, the rich will win.
The problem of water waste is not agriculture per se but chemical industrial farming mistakenly referred to as the Green Revolution. It is possible to produce more nutrition per acre growing millets that need only 200 mm of water. We can increase food availability 200 fold through simultaneously conserving our biodiversity and scarce water resources. It is possible to decrease water use while increasing food output by shifting from chemical farming to organic farming. However, these water conservation strategies were not what Mr. Ahluwalia proposed He proposed more water intensive cultivation of fruits, vegetables, shrimps for exports. In other words, while India is gripped by a severe water crisis, and even more severe water conflicts, our Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission is recommending that we export water as a "virtual water" subsidy to the rich consumers of the North and instead of calling for water conservation through organic farming, be wants the impover ished peasantry to finance insane schemes like the $200 billion River Linking Scheme. The Deputy Chairman stated that "chasing short term benefits that accrue from vote bank politics, instead of seeking long term gains that flow from prudent economic policies, has become the bane of our decision-making process." (Pioneer editorial, 29th June) What Mr. Ahluwalia is calling "short term benefits that accrue from vote bank politics" others call democracy. What he refers to as "prudent economic policies" are the World Bank/IMF/ADB paradigm of water privatization which has already led to the killing of farmers in Tonk and could lead to many more water wars.
The only long-term and prudent water policy is to recognize nature's limits, live within the water cycle, and guarantee every Indian their fundamental right to water. Privatisation is not a solution to our water crisis. Conservation and Community rights can help overcome the scarcity we face in both rural and urban area.
Water is a commons, a public good. Privatisation is the enclosure of the water commons. Water privatization aggravates the water crisis because it rewards the waste of the effluent, not the conservation of resource prudent
communities.
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