Protecting the commons for the people
By Renato Redentor Constantino
Opening remarks to the Water Forum in Astana, Kazakhstan, 14 July 2008
Dobroe utro dorogie druz'ya!
It is good to be here in this historic region, in such fine company and with such high aims as this event has set for everyone.
In the struggle for justice and a better life, we are all students and we are all teachers. There is much to learn, but there is also much to teach.
I would like to welcome you all to this water forum, and in the next few days I trust that we will be able to discuss not just the different aspects of issues that we confront, but also ways of working together more closely.
I can't remember anymore how many bottles of water I have drunk ever since I arrived in Kazakhstan. But I do remember that all the water that I have consumed in this country has so far come from bottled water. Like the Mekong region -- a water-rich region -- it seems water here is also more expensive than beer or soda. This tiny example actually indicates a large part of the problem that we face today. There is something very wrong that is going on.
Did you know that in 2006, the water bottling industry in the US spent $163 million just to advertise bottled water? In a greedy sense, they were quite wise actually, because in 2007 the US water bottling industry sold almost nine billion gallons of bottled water in the US, equivalent to $11.7 billion.
Private interests have a fundamental attraction in things that people previously thought of as common goods, for the simple reason that these same public resources pose opportunities for them to make huge amounts of money and to wield greater influence and power.
I am reminded by a portion in the popular 1987 movie entitled, "Wall Street," where the character called Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, delivers a most memorable line: "Greed is good," said Gekko. "Greed is right. Greed works. Greed cuts through, clarifies and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit."
In a wicked sense, Gekko is right. Fuelled by greed, the present economic system has been quite effective in supplying material goods. It is ever hungry in consuming more and more resources. But it is also environmentally stupid, it is amoral, and it is blind to the consequences of its logic. In order to function, the system has to transform everything into a commodity for sale and for trade otherwise it ceases to be. This is its sole priority, and this is what we are increasingly confronting today on a regional and global scale.
Nothing less than the future of developing Asia is at stake when institutions such as the ADB proclaim publicly that its plan is to privatize nothing less than development itself, by handing over the most fundamental rights of the public -- such as the right to water -- to big business or agencies that are too often unaccountable to the people.
Unless people take action to intervene more effectively in the public sphere, problems arising from the destructive kind of development policies, projects and programs of the ADB will be worsened by the ecological crises called climate change that it is producing through its unabated funding of largely inefficient, centralized, mainly fossil-fueled energy generation such as coal, gas and oil and the construction of more freeways promoting runaway gasoline consumption.
This water forum is a good start to putting together ideas and analysis from the leading minds in the region to take back control of our peoples' lives and help create a region where solidarity is the only debt that people owe one another. I sincerely hope it can come up with the right strategies that can one day return to the ADB some of the pain that it has inflicted for too long on too many.
Good luck to the forum and welcome, everyone!
Thank you. #