Nestle’s Water Privatization in the Aftermath of Flint, Michigan
In the aftermath of the Flint water crisis, residents have gone without clean tap water for over 1,000 days. Every citizen of Flint is given just one case of water per day, about 10 liters, to be used for drinking, bathing, and cooking. Meanwhile, one of the biggest corporations in the world is doing its part to perpetuate the movement toward water privatization, by bottling and selling water from a source two hours away.
Who Benefits from Water Privatization?
That aforementioned company profiting from the water source in Evart, MI is Nestlé, the multinational foodstuff corporation that, among a number of controversies, became notorious for its former CEO’s statement when he basically said he didn’t believe water should be a basic human right. Nestlé is the largest producer of bottled water in the world, reaping nearly $8 billion dollars in profit last year from water alone. At it’s facility in Evart, the company makes between $500,000 to $1.5 million a day, while only paying $200 a year to extract that water.
But now the company has launched a massive PR campaign backtracking on the words of Emeritus CEO, Peter Brabeck, claiming that Nestlé is concerned with the global water supply and the shortage we will soon be faced with if we continue our wasteful ways.
While the company touts the fact it has cut its total water usage by 60 percent, the fact of the matter is that bottling water is a water and energy intensive process. In fact, it requires between 1.2 to 1.4 liters of water to bottle a single liter of water, not to mention the energy required to transport it and the subsequent pollution it generates.
In a video released by the corporation in 2013, Brabeck says that he’s always supported the human right to water, though that contradicts his words in a 2005 documentary, We Feed The World, in which he states that NGOs ‘banging on’ about humans having a right to water is an extreme solution compared to corporate water privatization.
In Brabeck’s more recent 2013 video recorded from Nestlé’s lavish campus in Switzerland, he says his words were misconstrued and that what he really meant was that all humans should have a right to water to meet their daily fundamental needs, but not for superfluous things like watering their lawn or washing their car. He says he believes everyone deserves between 50-100 liters of water per day.
The residents of Flint sure could have used that big of an allowance over the past few years.
Have They Solved the Water Crisis in Flint?
It’s been nearly three years since it became evident that the water in Flint was undrinkable and in some cases nearly three times more toxic than what the EPA considers hazardous waste. When lead was found in the water, after the city’s water source was switched from Lake Huron to the Flint River, the damage had already been done.
The switch was implemented to ‘cut costs’ and balance the budget, even though it was known that large corporations like DuPont and General Motors had been dumping waste in the river for decades. The water was then treated with a chemical that eroded the pipes it was being pumped through, leaching lead into it.
It’s estimated that up to 12,000 children were potentially given lead poisoning, while city and state officials lied about the safety of public water. Not to mention the 12 people that have died due to causes directly linked to the contamination, and the 80 now suffering from Legionnaire’s disease. General Motors even stopped using the water under the fear that it would corrode its auto parts.
To add insult to injury, Flint residents pay eight times the national average for their water utility. Flint water was so contaminated that even using it to bathe gave people horrible rashes.
Last month, a study led by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, MDEQ, claimed that 90 percent of water samples collected in Flint are now well below the federal threshold of lead ppb. But this is also the same agency that initially lied about the safety of the water to Michigan residents, leaving many eternally wary of the state’s claims.
The other good news is that 15 government officials have now been criminally charged for offenses ranging from conspiracy, to obstruction of justice, and involuntary manslaughter, though none of the cases have yet to come to trial. At the same time, Gov. Rick Snyder has somehow evaded any charges, with a million-dollar legal team protecting him from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, who has said attempts to interview Snyder were “not successful.”
Filmmaker and political activist, Michael Moore, wrote a petition to have Snyder imprisoned, saying not even international terrorist organizations have figured out how to do something of this magnitude.
It seems stories like these are becoming all too common when government and corporate interests start to merge, choosing profit and money over people’s health, safety, and livelihood. Is this an inevitability in our crony capitalist society, or is there something that can be done to end this kind of corruption?
Privatizing Water Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Short-term ‘paydays’ that could give cities a financial boost, close deficits, and create a surplus when a significant price is paid for purchase and use of a water utility.
- Some argue that privatization leads to greater efficiency in managing, treating, and distributing water by companies with more resources to do so. These companies may also have the resources to better maintain water infrastructure.
Cons:
- Rate increases would be common as a corporation’s goal is to maximize profit. A corporation’s success is typically measured as one that continues to increase revenue, therefore rate hikes would be common and often. A corporation shouldn’t be able to hold something that is essential to life at a ransom. This would inevitably affect low-income families disproportionately.
- Reduced control from the public sector. Once we give a corporation the rights to our water, they can do what they want. This could lead to reduced quality and treatment to cut costs.
- Corruption between the corporation and government. We’ve already seen what’s happening in Michigan, if a corporation wants a better contract they could use the essential water source as a leveraging tool with politicians to get their way.
- Paying a public utility bill is untaxed. Private companies have to pay taxes and that burden is transferred to the consumer.
- Private companies can sell the water to whomever they like. If there’s a water shortage somewhere, the company can start selling its water at a higher price to that area in need, draining the local area of its source.
About the Author
Mass Media Mind Control
I have had wide and varied interests since a very young age and have loved learning all of my life. Simply, I believe life should be lived as a great adventure of growth and learning in every way. In science, my interests started in crystallography and minerals and progressed through the several branches of science into politics, philosophy, religion and all things esoteric.
What is Mind Control?
In the late 1980s, the most interesting research I began exploring was on mind effects or, more popularly, mind control. My interest grew out of the misuses of the information released in the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s dealing with the CIA programs in this area. At the same time, the positive possibilities for these new technologies were also exciting. Stimulating optimum human performance, accelerated learning, meditation, relaxation, and focus could all be improved. In fact, even so-called altered states could be enhanced or even stimulated. The most fascinating possibilities, however, were even more startling.
The idea that perhaps we could stimulate what is now referred to in some literature as “anomalous human capability” or, in the past referred to as ESP or extrasensory perceptions, may be possible.
In fact, this may be the next evolution of humans on earth as many of us are acknowledging and science is proving.
Control of the Mind and Body
The predominant brain wave frequencies indicate the kind of activity taking place in the brain. There are four basic groups of brain wave frequencies that are associated with most mental activity. The first, beta waves, (13-35 Hertz or pulses per second) are associated with normal activity. The high end of this range is associated with stress or agitated states that can impair thinking and reasoning skills. The second group, alpha waves (8-12 Hertz), can indicate more relaxation. Alpha frequencies are ideal for learning and focused life form energy. The third, theta waves (4-7 Hertz), indicate mental imagery, access to memories and internal mental focus. This state is often associated with young children, behavioral modification and sleep/dream states. The last, ultra slow, delta waves (.5-3 Hertz), are found when a person is in deep sleep.
The general rule is that the brain’s predominant wave frequency will be lowest, in terms of pulses per second, when relaxed, and highest when people are most alert or agitated.
What is Entrainment?
External stimulation of the brain by electromagnetic means can cause the brain to be entrained or locked into phase with an external signal generator. Predominant brain waves can be driven or pushed into new frequency patterns by external stimulation. In other words, the external signal driver or impulse generator entrains the brain, overriding the normal frequencies, and causing changes in the brain waves. Changes in brain waves cause changes in brain chemistry; which then cause changes in brain outputs in the form of thoughts, emotions or physical condition.
As you are driven, so you arrive – brain manipulation can be either beneficial or detrimental to the individual being impacted depending on the level of knowledge or the intentions of the person controlling the technology.
Is it Possible to Train Consciousness?
Consciousness training is also a big theme in cults, religious organizations, and others pursuing the “new age.” Science has now gained a greater understanding of how the mind and brain work so that what used to take years, or even decades, to achieve, can now be mastered in weeks, days or even minutes. For instance, in 1996 a method and apparatus for the use in achieving alpha and theta brainwave states and effecting positive emotional states in humans were developed.
Two years later another patent was issued which could create desired consciousness states: In the training of an individual to replicate such states of consciousness without further audio stimulation, such states may be transferred from one human being to another through the imposition of one person’s EEG, superimposed on desired stereo signals and onto another individual, by inducement of a binaural beat phenomenon.
Is Thought Transference Possible?
This is interesting in that it speaks to the ideas alluded to earlier by the military in changing the memory of a person by imposing computer-manipulated signals which would integrate with the normal memory of a person. The possibility of abuse is obvious and the opportunity for personal advancement is also great.
Consider the possibility of gaining education by the transfer of data directly into the human brain by these new methods rather than the standard methods of learning. A serious consideration in developing these types of memory transfer systems will be the fact that they bypass normal intellectual filters – they are deposited into the brain as fact, without question or careful consideration. What happens when new information conflicts with existing information? Would it be possible to include hidden information meant to unduly influence things like religious beliefs, politics or consumption of goods and services or politics?
Ethical Questions Abound
The possibilities are immense and the ethical and moral questions surrounding these matters equally large. We can no longer avoid the debate; in fact, the debate is lagging far behind the scientific advancements. In the interim, there are some simple things we could all do to enhance our own, or our children’s, learning capacity by applying simple and available knowledge. For instance: “researchers at the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at University of California, Irvine, have determined that 10 minutes of listening to a Mozart piano sonata raised the measurable IQ of college students by up to nine points.” This is a simple thing of great use to anyone seeking self- improvement as an example.
There are several articles and materials that speak to the various ways that these technologies can be applied and used beyond the scope of this article. Let’s get to the media applications.
The Use of Media
Radio, TV, the Internet, the power grid, cell systems or any other electromagnetic carrier can be used to carry a signal that will influence the behaviors of most people in close proximity to the signal. What such signals can do is cause a person, for instance, to drop into a light altered state. Like when people come home from work, sit in front of the TV and watch the nightly news feed. Within a few moments someone begins saying to you, “honey, dinners ready.” They hear nothing… they are no longer watching the “programming;” they are being programmed with the latest values, beliefs, and ideas being pressed into the consciousness of most people through media.
By oscillating a signal in a certain way, emotional states can easily be reformed so that the reaction to the advertising, political propaganda or “news” is as predicted by those generating it across the broad population as intended by them.
In other words, it is about control and manipulation. It is really very simple. People in psychology understand the Frequency Following Response (FFR). When applied to advertise or any other media, it is incredibly compelling.
Refined Control Tactics
Much more can be done with this technology in terms of the information density that can be sent in on such carriers. The objective of many military planners is to be able to even transfer thought and memory sets. These kinds of technology when applied to media particularly when coupled with mass surveillance of the population this allows those in control of such technologies to have profound effects on a highly individualized basis. This delivery system can be tailored to an individual person to have specific influences on that individual personality type and subtype.
The predictability of behavior for the target of the technology is so refined that is better at predicting an individual’s future behavior they could about themselves. Think about this for a moment.
Perpetual Worry as a Means of Imprisonment
Yet the simplest mechanism for inhibiting higher mind functions, peak performance, and anomalous human capabilities is to just keep people in a constant state of worry, agitation, and fear. Sound familiar? In these states, it is not possible to reach a higher state of awareness. These emotional states do not allow the brain to operate in a manner that will allow this possibility. Fear is the adversary and is at the root of the misuses of these technologies. The government fears an enlightened population where the light of truth shines within its darkest corners. An awakened population cannot be resisted by structures based on fear.
The Next Evolution of Humankind
After 40 years of research in the open literature and opportunities to meet and spend the time needed with the best bio-physicists in the world has allowed me insight into this area. During my time with the Lay Institute in Dallas, I put together a private conference on mind effects with some of the best people in the world. The surprise was not a story about controlling people and manipulating populations, although everyone agreed this was the case in the 21st century in so many ways. The biggest insight had to do with the next evolution of humankind.
Voiced first by the late sister, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, in her presentation about her belief that in what man was trying to create in electronics were already latent in every person waiting to be awakened. The theme was repeated in every presentation that explored the possibilities of reclaiming our birthright in terms of what we are as human beings and the endless possibilities that occur when we begin to recognize ourselves.
As we evolve and grow within the framework of this reality we also are beginning to recognize in the science of consciousness and what we know…we are more than we think, and we are beyond what we know. Together we change the world by fearlessly knowing that we each have all that we need to engage the world and are not alone in it. Our humanity is in fact our very salvation if we can recognize and alter our awareness.
