Great Lakes v. Nestle
One thing that Nestle has up its sleeve is that it
is a large corporation, but that can also be a drawback. Because it is a large
corporation, Nestle bares a lot of weight and burden on its shoulders. And if
there’s one thing I understand about big business and corporations, it’s that
they need to make a lot of money to keep up with competitors (among other
reasons) and they are willing to do anything to make that money. I feel that
when you become the head of such a large company as Nestle the dehumanization
of the world begins in your mind. You become so detached from the rest of the
world, the people and the environment, that it’s hard to think of a project
like Nestlé’s withdrawal of the water from the Great Lakes as being a bad
thing.
In the documentary Flow, two men were flown up high from the ground in a Ferris wheel
and one of the men said how easy it would be to kill any “dot” on the ground
for money, this is the same disconnect the Nestle has with people. In simple
terms, people are just dots to these CEOs and they don’t care how many dots
they have to kill (legally, of course, because it would be a bigger problem
otherwise) to get to their prize. And if that means killing off ecosystems and
sucking the Great Lakes dry, then they will do that because those things are
just dots to them. So, when such pressures like competition threaten Nestle,
they have to resort to vile acts like disturbing ecosystems and depleting the
Great Lakes water supply. Unfortunately for them, Michigan is not a developing
country so they still found a way to beat Nestle at their own game.
Privatization of Water Rights
To be fair, we need to look at both sides of the
argument. On one side, the big businesses are, supposedly, going to provide
economic stimulation (jobs for everyone!). They are supposed to provide cleaner
drinking water to the people. They are supposed to do more good than bad, well
that’s not happening. Now, I will give some of the private companies the
benefit of the doubt and say that they care providing cleaner water, but most
of them seem to be hurting the people rather than helping in all other ways.
Yes, they are providing cleaner water, but at a cost that is virtually
unaffordable by the poor people where most of these private companies are
located (one example is Bolivia). The only liquid that seems to be reaching
these people for free is the company’s sewage. They were provided jobs but most
are fired and yet the cost of water goes up in the region. The water
corporations say that “If water costs more, we will conserve it better” (The
New Oil – Newsweek). I think this is by far the worst reason I have ever heard
a corporation give for what it’s doing.
I think the privatization of water rights may have
started out as a way for developing countries to get the economic boast they
needed. And even better, get clean drinking water. But it seems that the big
corporations controlling this water has lost its way and doesn’t want to help
anyone but themselves. Developing countries are vulnerable, they can’t defend
themselves like, for example, the people of Michigan can against Nestle. So
they just sit around and are forced to deal with these private companies giving
them good water at high prices without compensating with a secure job. I think
privatization of water, although it may have its strengths, does more bad to
people than good and should be subjugated to these private water companies.
