Domain: democracyctr.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to democracyctr.org.
Comments · 9
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Re:Do you know what thermal plants do to birds
That pdf is completely riddled with errors on every page, and most of its links are either dead, obsolete, or both. And when you can find the links, they're usually riddled with errors. For example, in their attempts to talk up a lithium "water crisis", they link to "DClithiumfullreportenglish.pdf", but the link is dead. However, you can find it scattered around elsewhere, such as here. Here's what it says on the subject:
One major problem that lithium development could cause is a major water crisis. The region already suffers from a serious water shortage, impacting quinoa farmers, llama herders, the region’s vital tourism industry, and drinking water sources. While Bolivian officials contend that the lithium project’s water requirements will be minimal, their estimates are based on very limited and incomplete information.
This is, of course, an absurdity (no references, of course!). The water lithium is produced from is not freshwater. It's brine. You don't dump brine on quinua or give it to llamas and people to drink. Furthermore, there are no farmers, herders, and tourism lodgings in the middle of salars. It's salt. You can't grow crops and graze animals on salt.
This pdf is from "Rebecca Hollender and Jim Shultz, May 2010". So first off, 8 years old. Secondly, who are these world-renowned mining experts? This appears to be her. Samples of her work:
"A Politics of the Commons or Commoning the Political Distinct Possibilities for Post Capitalist Transformation"
"Prescription for Failure: Examining the Drug Policy and Development Nexus for Shaping the UNGASS 2016 Discussion"
"Northern Fixes and Southern Realities: Three Climate Policy Debate Primers, Primer Three: Climate Finance and Bolivia"Etc. Clearly a mining expert! Well, what about Jim? This appears to be him:
I was raised in Whittier California, President Richard Nixon’s hometown, while he was President, which has a lot to do with how I became a political activist at an early age. After college at UC Berkeley I spent two decades deeply involved in California politics, as staff to the California Legislature, and as an advocate with Common Cause and Consumers Union (and in the middle took a detour to Harvard to earn a master’s degree). In 1991 my wife Lynn and I spent our first year of marriage as volunteers in an orphanage in Cochabamba and came home with a surprise daughter (today I am a father of three and soon to be a grandfather). In 1998 we returned to Bolivia for what was supposed to be a year and have stayed for almost twenty. As executive director of the Democracy Center for 25 years, it has been my privilege to work with citizen activists on five continents, from indigenous communities in Bolivia to senior leaders in the United Nations. I’ve also written three books, many articles and all along the way have done my level best to make sure David beats Goliath as often as possible. I publish on Medium, and I Tweet
You know, the author of such articles about intricate mining details such as "Feeling ‘the Bern,’ Before Bernie Sanders and After" and "When Anti-Immigrant Politics Came Back to Haunt the Republican Party"
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Re:Do you know what thermal plants do to birds
That pdf is completely riddled with errors on every page, and most of its links are either dead, obsolete, or both. And when you can find the links, they're usually riddled with errors. For example, in their attempts to talk up a lithium "water crisis", they link to "DClithiumfullreportenglish.pdf", but the link is dead. However, you can find it scattered around elsewhere, such as here. Here's what it says on the subject:
One major problem that lithium development could cause is a major water crisis. The region already suffers from a serious water shortage, impacting quinoa farmers, llama herders, the region’s vital tourism industry, and drinking water sources. While Bolivian officials contend that the lithium project’s water requirements will be minimal, their estimates are based on very limited and incomplete information.
This is, of course, an absurdity (no references, of course!). The water lithium is produced from is not freshwater. It's brine. You don't dump brine on quinua or give it to llamas and people to drink. Furthermore, there are no farmers, herders, and tourism lodgings in the middle of salars. It's salt. You can't grow crops and graze animals on salt.
This pdf is from "Rebecca Hollender and Jim Shultz, May 2010". So first off, 8 years old. Secondly, who are these world-renowned mining experts? This appears to be her. Samples of her work:
"A Politics of the Commons or Commoning the Political Distinct Possibilities for Post Capitalist Transformation"
"Prescription for Failure: Examining the Drug Policy and Development Nexus for Shaping the UNGASS 2016 Discussion"
"Northern Fixes and Southern Realities: Three Climate Policy Debate Primers, Primer Three: Climate Finance and Bolivia"Etc. Clearly a mining expert! Well, what about Jim? This appears to be him:
I was raised in Whittier California, President Richard Nixon’s hometown, while he was President, which has a lot to do with how I became a political activist at an early age. After college at UC Berkeley I spent two decades deeply involved in California politics, as staff to the California Legislature, and as an advocate with Common Cause and Consumers Union (and in the middle took a detour to Harvard to earn a master’s degree). In 1991 my wife Lynn and I spent our first year of marriage as volunteers in an orphanage in Cochabamba and came home with a surprise daughter (today I am a father of three and soon to be a grandfather). In 1998 we returned to Bolivia for what was supposed to be a year and have stayed for almost twenty. As executive director of the Democracy Center for 25 years, it has been my privilege to work with citizen activists on five continents, from indigenous communities in Bolivia to senior leaders in the United Nations. I’ve also written three books, many articles and all along the way have done my level best to make sure David beats Goliath as often as possible. I publish on Medium, and I Tweet
You know, the author of such articles about intricate mining details such as "Feeling ‘the Bern,’ Before Bernie Sanders and After" and "When Anti-Immigrant Politics Came Back to Haunt the Republican Party"
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Re:Hmmm....
I know, all that privatization going on down there has been a nightmare, hasn't it?
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Re:Hang the lawyer with the guts of the bankers
Would that be the same business economics that would say Windows is the best operating system because it made Bill Gates makes the most money? Oops. As far as I'm concerned economics is an advanced snow job to try to convince people that it's in their best interest to receive a small amount of pay and to use up the planets resources at an exponentially growing rate such that our generation may be the last one to live any kind of decent life whatsoever so the current generation of Americans can buy mounds of cheap crap at Wal-Mart. Yes economics involves a lot of advanced calculus using derivatives and integrals and some fancy statistical techniques as well. Yet if the fundamental assumptions are wrong or biased then all those fancy 3-d charts and graphs are meaningless. For example does a greater GNP equal a happier life? Not if the things we are producing kill us with stress and pollution, and only 1% of the population really benefits from the increased wealth. I'm old school and back in the day there was a saying about bad code, garbage in garbage out, or GIGO. From what I can see most economics that assume the economies can grow forever and mainly benefit a small elite while stripping the planet of resources is GIGO. There are limits both to our resources and to how long people in the third world will put up with being driven off their land when we dump GMOd agricultural produce on their markets, and then how long they'll put up with working in factories after being made landless and homeless for less than a buck an hour while their drinking water and other fundamental needs have been "privatized" by the IMF. Bechtel was driven out of Bolivia by angry mobs after the IMF contracted them to privatize Bolivia's water supply.
http://www.democracyctr.org/bechtel/
Who's going to be the next multinational corporation to be driven out of a country by an angry mob? Hint WTO meetings need to be held on isolated islands because the G8 leaders and business interests are loathed so much by people for the terrible suffering they have caused.
So again I don't want to hear any crap about economics. Corporate globalization causes many people to suffer so a VERY few can live in obscene luxury despite what direction a graph may point in your economics textbook. There are graphs that are abstract and deceptive, and then there are empirical FACTS on the ground I suggest you do some reading about the facts on the ground. Start here:
http://globalexchange.org/ -
Re:Remember Iran:
If you honestly believe that there is an army of Muslims in the Arab world sitting in a dark room mutting "I hate those Americans, they're so damn.... FREE! I'll kill them for being so free!" then you need to take a good hard look inside your head and clear out the thoughts that have been proscribed for you by the media.
The Arab world (and indeed most of the third world including Africa, Indochina and South America) hate the Western powers not because they are democratic, but because they are exploitative fascists. The west is always pulling stunts like this which is why there are so many "terrorists" out there trying to bring the west down. The moment the US stops trying to act like a global dictator the sooner crazy lunatics will stop flying planes into US buildings.
Get a grip. And get rid of that huge gas guzzling 4x4 you use to haul your collection of shotguns around in. -
Re:In the other news
I don't know if this is what you were talking about, but here is another example over the commercialization of water. This is becoming a serious issue worldwide.
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Re:Civil Uprising Trump Money More Often Than Not
Ask this question again when some corporation has purchased the water rights to the area you live in (much like the Bechtel Corporation did in Cochabamba Bolivia in 1999)
http://www.democracyctr.org/waterwar/
So, in addition to the delivery fees (if any) you pay now, you'll also need to buy the actual water. And don't go thinking that you can just collect it as it falls from the sky, because that will be forbidden.
Turn off your television, open your eyes and have a good look at what's going on in the world. Read some foreign news sources. Put two and two together.
Or, put your head back into the Fox News. There that's more comfortable now isn't it? -
Re:The cities have a right
I don't necessarily want to see private industry providing water to individuals or processing sewage
Water has been called by various publications in business media including "Forbes" and others Blue Gold and Blue Oil. Several big multinational corporations are pushing hard to have water privatized, RWE's Thames, Suez, and American Water Company amoung them. In Cochabamba, Bolivia a 17 year old boy was killed a several people were shot in rioting after the city's water supply was privatized and "bought" by Bechtel Corporation. Once Bechtel took over Cochabamba's water supply they significantly increased water rates. The rate increase was devastating to the poor who couldn't afford to pay anymore.
BECHTEL VS. BOLIVIA
Falcon
THE BOLIVIAN WATER REVOLT -
Re:Not blackmailI don't think the parent poster was joking.
Illegal activities to coerce politicians to pass legislation for your corporation is dangerous (in all senses of the word) to society regardless of the means.
If you're a large corporation battling unions or a company getting a monopoly on water in Bolivia so people can't afford clean water or a company like this article, who is trying to gain a stranglehold on the Danish Economy by threatening government officials, people get hurt.