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| A Larger View |
| Applying Trans-Religious Values to Current Events |
| Volume XI Edition 2 |
March/April |
2006 |
In this issue:
Privatizing Access To Water: Should We Care?
Making It Harder For Brothel Owners: The Kristof Prescription
Sharing The Planet: Octopi Getting Their Due
China: Handling Our Fears And Admiration
Privatizing Access To Water:
Should We Care?
This March, in a swank convention center in Mexico City, some 8000 people from around the world will meet to discuss the future of ready access to water. It is not a topic that makes headlines nor draws interest, and yet it is more vital than our lack of attention indicates. The World Water Forum, which met in 1997, 2000 and 2003, respectively in Morocco, Netherlands and Japan, is organized by the World Water Council. Created in the mid 1990's it is made up of representatives from business, academia, the scientific community and civil society and, as it is for other such world bodies, unanimity is difficult. This year's topic is about the privatization of water. While today only about 10 percent of water treatment and distribution systems are in private hands, the financial participation from private companies has risen dramatically, and critics fear it is slated to grow.
The Council's ultimate goal is to halve the percentage of people who lack access to potable water by 2015. Currently one billion people do not have such access and 2000 to 5000 people die each day from problems related to water shortages or water of poor quality. It's a big goal and how to reach it lies behind the current fray. Officials from the World Bank and from multinational corporations are at odds with several non-governmental organizations who are strongly opposed to water being turned into a commodity of the private sector. For its part the private sector replies that only by putting a price on water and by taking over water management from what they call the inefficient hands of state systems can the ambitious goal be achieved.
Whatever decisions or solutions the Forum opts for, they are not binding but are likely to influence and define future policy. What policies are taken about water does matter because the implications of water shortages are much more widespread than they are for the one billion people who have to do without. A new study for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs says that by 2025 all of us will be affected unless we learn to change our current habits. The late Senator Paul Simon of Illinois devoted his last years to working to alleviate or prevent future problems with water, problems that he saw as affecting the US. He understood that water shortages are no longer only a problem for the poor and those in far away places.
Water is a necessity for life and ought to be a right for each and every citizen. Unduly profiting from such a basic necessity when it is likely to be a hardship for those who have the least access, as it is in certain parts of Asia, for example, ought not to be allowed. But encouraging privatization of access to water, like encouraging government supervision of it as a blanket approach may not be the answer. Both approaches can invite abuses. Viet Nam, one of the poorest countries in the world has succeeded in bringing piped water to all its citizens. Would such a solution work for Chad? After painstaking negotiations with the World Bank to use part of its oil revenues for programs to help the poor and develop the country, the principals involved reneged. The U.S. uses a controlled profit solution where citizens pay for water, but through regulated public utilities companies which either do, or can be made to, remember the public good, an answer suited to countries with strong institutions.
It would seem a middle course adapting an approach to the strengths of a given country would not only avoid the looming scuffles but also be able to avoid long-term problems, something that's would help all reach the goal that much faster.
Making It Harder For Brothel Owners:
The Kristof Prescription
Sometimes a caring observer can have a better grasp of a problem's solution than would a staff person or a politician. In a recent expose, following a trip to India, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof was pithy and even wise in how he saw a remedy to sex trafficking, particularly with young girls. Because he is not a Washington insider, Mr. Kristof is freer to see clearly. True, he does have a point of view but that is not the same thing as having formal political ties and his understanding of the problem and proposed solution merit to be heeded beyond being just the topic of a newspaper column.
In the long run he tells us "one effective way to knock down brothels is to build schools," because education makes it that much easier for girls to resist traffickers or escape from brothels. Sadly, though, he admits that it is more cost effective to use our resources to reduce the number of people newly trafficked each year-hundreds of thousands-than to extricate girls from prostitution once they've been trafficked.
But there's much we can do now and he advises we pick our battles, for example tackle the worst offenders, targeting the brothels that imprison mainly girls. Some boys are trafficked too but not as many.
He suggests emphasizing criminal sanctions. They would give pause to brothel owners. Risking jail for imprisoning 13-year old may be far from the ideal sanction but would act as a deterrent and bound to help a few. His next suggestion would no doubt make a difference. He asks for a focus on so called virginity sales and for legislation addressing both the buyer and seller. The sale of virgins drives up trafficking and is one of its most profitable aspects, going for at least $500 each. Kristof also asks for regular brothel inspections so that the prostitutes found would be there more or less of their own free will and any held prisoner against their will would be discovered and freed.
These are small and doable steps. Perhaps were we to familiarize ourselves with them and talk about them where appropriate, they may be that much more likely to become reality.
Octopi Getting Their Due:
Sharing The Planet
Every pet owner already knows that a dog isn't just a dog, anymore than a cat is. Each has its own personality. Scientists are now delving into the notion that animals, even insects, do not have some homogeneous herd-like behavior, but have differentiations which they describe as personality. The idea has long been accepted with primates, but now it is extended to other species. One of the studies involved octopi and characterized them as timid, or sexually aggressive or destructive. The idea that like people animals could fall into "personality types" has also been observed with other fish species and even with fruit flies. Of course the whole field is so new, the questions are not yet fully formulated and neither are the implications for Darwinian theories. On the surface it would seem that survival of the fittest would have done away with the timid, for example. But it is also possible, some theorize, that those who were timid survived more easily by hiding or not being noticed by an aggressor.
What's exciting about the new research is not the studies themselves, which to the uninitiated may seem a bit tedious, but the whole idea that animals are getting their due. For centuries, we have assumed that all of creation was there at our disposal, to be used as we saw fit. We are increasingly challenging our dominion and becoming conscious that the planet is filled with living creatures who have as much rights as we do.
China:
Handling Our Fears and Admiration
By 2050 China hopes to have established itself as a world power at least in science and succeed in increasing the average lifespan of its more than a billion citizens to 80 years. Even He Chuanqi, who headed the research team behind the report stating China's goals, admits they will be hard to achieve. For one thing they require a continued economic growth of 9% a year (more than twice that of the U.S. at present) and the switch from an agrarian to a knowledge-based economy which would involve relocating some 500 million people from rural areas. Whether or not China gets to where it wants to go in the time-frame it would like, the report and its stated goal do declare China's intent. Given its recent successes, there is every reason to believe it ought to be taken seriously. In 2003, for example, China graduated about 8 times more engineers than the United States.
What's good for China, a land with a large population, is good for the world. That is especially true from a spiritual perspective where lifting people out of poverty and increasing their standard of living and lifespan is commendable and necessary. From a national point of view, however, it's a different story. The Pentagon has already singled out China as the one country capable of emerging as a military rival, and many are concerned about its future role as an environmental polluter. It is already the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
If wars are ever going to be a thing of the past, cooperation among nations is one thing that will have to increase. Why not use this as an opportunity for greater cooperation? Why not focus on the benefits of having a more politically stable, more economically viable partner? It is a stance difficult for those in Washington who would prefer the U.S. to remain the only superpower regardless. But even they may need to come face to face with the fact that China is buying U.S. bonds and securities, mainly issued to handle the growing national debt, and that as these are eventually redeemed they will end up benefiting China and not the U.S. Why not use China's goals as an opportunity for self-examination, foreign-policy style? Perhaps a counterpart plan would remedy or compensate for current problems and errors, come up with where the U.S. would like to be by 2050 and how it will get there.
Website of Interest: www.wordscanheal.org
The Power of Kind Words
www.wordscanheal.org is an ordinary website. What makes it noteworthy is the idea behind it. It is the brainchild of a rabbi, Irwin Kabol, to get people to build bridges with each other instead of gossiping, criticizing and dissing. With another rabbi, Chaim Feld, he has written a handbook which can be bought or downloaded through the website. The organization they created in 2001 conducts missions to uphold and extend their philosophy. The next one is to Israel in April.
In a time when words have divided and hurt, it is all the more necessary to remember-and practice-that words can and do heal.
To Ponder On
Overreacting to 9/11
"It is completely understandable that those who lost loved ones on that date will carry emotional scars for the remainder of their lives. But it defies reason and experience to make Sept. 11 the defining influence on our foreign and domestic policy. History suggests that we have faced greater challenges and triumphed, and that overreaction is a greater danger than complacency."
Joseph J. Ellis, professor of history, Mount Holyoke College
A Larger View is published by the Inner\Outer Partnership, a tax-exempt educational organization probing how trans-religious spiritual principles can be agents of individual and societal change. We are funded through donations. Please send any - as well as any comments - to P.O.Box 1293, Pac. Pal. CA 90272-1293. Also contact us by email at alargerview@earthlink.net or call 310-836-7710 or visit our web site at www.innerouterpartnership.org
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