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Should the Left Cheer the Dollar's Drop? How to make the bankers scream: Robert Pollin, world's best obituarist of Clintonomics, explains it all for you. Do police states make people feel safer? Vicente Navarro on Franco's Spain, Cockburn on Ireland in the Fifties under the Catholic Hierarchy, Alevtina Rea on growing up in Brezhnev-time. Capitalism's true utopia? St Clair on the Pentagon's no-bid arms contracts. How's the press doing in Iraq? Patrick Cockburn tells all to Omar Waraich. Get the answers you're looking for in the latest subscriber-only edition of CounterPunch... CounterPunch Online is read by millions of viewers each month! But remember, we are funded solely by the subscribers to the print edition of CounterPunch. Please support this website by buying a subscription to our newsletter, which contains fresh material you won't find anywhere else, or by making a donation for the online edition. Remember contributions are tax-deductible. Click here to make a donation. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe Now! or write CounterPunch, PO BOX 228, Petrolia, CA 95558 |
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Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY  Today's Stories May 6, 2005 P.
Saineth
May 5, 2005 Carles
Mutaner Carl
G. Estabrook Farrah
Hassen Kevin
Zeese Michael
Leonardi Bennett
Ramberg Ray
McGovern Norman
Solomon Nicole
Colson Brian
Concannon, Jr.
May 4, 2005 Colin
Kalmbacher John
Walsh Greg
Moses Ali
Khan Chris
Floyd Linda
S. Heard Dave
Zirin William
S. Lind Gary
Leupp Website
of the Day
May 3, 2005 Dave
Lindorff Brian
Cloughley Ira
Kurzban Seth
Sandronsky Gilad
Atzmon Michael
Donnelly Alex
Sanchez Peter
Linebaugh
May 2, 2005 Ron
Jacobs Stan
Goff Karyn
Strickler Joshua
Frank Kevin
Zeese Vicente
Navarro
April 30 / May 1, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Gabriel
Kolko Jennifer
Loewenstein Lee
Sustar Saul
Landau T.W.
Croft Nikolas
Kozloff William
Blum Dave
Lindorff Joshua
Frank Doug
Giebel Steven
Erlanger Fred
Gardner Mike
Whitney Kurt
Nimmo Joe
DeRaymond Michael
Dickinson Mickey
Z. Justin
Taylor Poets
Basement Website
of the Weekend
April 29, 2005 W.
John Green Luke
Brothers Norman
Solomon M.
Junaid Alam Jackie
Corr Hunter
Greer Sharon
Smith Website
of the Day
April 28, 2005 Omar
Waraich Kevin
Zeese Dave
Lindorff Greg
Moses Toni
Solo Niranjan
Ramakrishnan Werther
April 27, 2005 John
Ross Joshua
Frank Ray
McGovern Mark
Donham Dan
Smith
April 26, 2005 Dave
Lindorff Alevtina
Rea Greg
Moses Joshua
Frank Diana
Johnstone
April 25, 2005 Uri
Avnery Alison
Weir Lee
Sustar Leonardo
Boff Gary
Leupp
April 23 / 24, 2005 Alexander
Cockburn Gary
Leupp James
Petras Harry
Browne Fred
Gardner Ron
Jacobs Elizabeth
Schulte Chris
Floyd
April 22, 2005 Saul
Landau Kevin
Zeese Joshua
Frank Mike
Whitney Michael
Flynn Lee
Sustar Website
of the Day
April 21, 2005 Bill
Quigley Dave
Lindorff Jason
Leopold Kathleen
Christison
April 20, 2005 John Ross Kevin Zeese Uri Avnery Website of the Day
April 19, 2005 Jean-Guy Allard Dave Lindorff Neve Gordon Brian Concannon, Jr Murray Hudson Frank B. Ford Monty Python Michael Dickinson Paul Craig
Roberts Website of the Day
Linda Schade
/ Kevin Zeese John Ross Brian McKenna Mike Whitney Patrick Cockburn Dave Zirin Eli Stephens Harry Browne Website of
the Day
April 16 / 17, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Mark Dow Omar Waraich Robert Buzzanco Sherry Wolf Fred Gardner Ron Jacobs Mark Weisbrot John Pardon Yoshie Furuhashi Mike Roselle Ralph Nader Ramzy Baroud Jackson Thoreau Michael Dickinson Richard Neville Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend
April 15, 2005 Brian Cloughley Bill Glahn Mickey Z. Stephanie McMillan Josh Mahan David Russitano Jorge Mariscal Rodolfo "Corky"
Gonzales Tom Reeves
April 14, 2005 Karyn Strickler Pat Williams Jessica Pupovac Joshua Frank Jerzy Mankowski Talli Naumann Antony Loewenstein Virginia Rodino Saul Landau
/ Farrah Hassen Website of the Day
April 13, 2005 Maria Carrión Mike Whitney Terry Jones Dave Lindorff Nathaniel Livingston, Jr. Kurt Nimmo Don Fitz Tom Crumpacker JG Jack McCarthy Kevin Zeese Jeffrey St.
Clair
April 12, 2005 John Wheat
Gibson Kevin Zeese Alan Farago Dave Lindorff Ron Jacobs Nelson P. Valdes Dave Zirin Website of the Day
April 11, 2005 Tom Barry Saul Landau Monique Dols Phil Gasper Mike Whitney Edwin Krales Paul de Rooij Website of the Day
April 9 / 10, 2005 Jeffrey St.
Clair William A. Cook Gary Leupp Alan Maass Laura Carlsen Joe DeRaymond Nikolas Kozloff Dave Lindorff Greg Moses Fred Gardner Justin Smith Ron Jacobs M. Junaid Alam Ira Kay Elizabeth Schulte Jackie Corr Christopher
Brauchli Leslie A. Fiedler Ben Tripp Poets Basement Website of
the Weekend
Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Subcomandante
Marcos Norman Finkelstein Steve Niva Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams Steve
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Rampton and John Stauber Wendell
Berry CounterPunch
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May 6, 2005 That Drop in the Bucket Will Cost YouIndia's Bloody Water WarsBy P. SAINETH
It has been happening for some time. Maharashtra is not the first State. It won't be the last. The drive towards privatisation of water in this country was planned by the World Bank in the 1990s. The just-passed Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Bill reeks of Bank edicts already promulgated in 1998. In that year, the "The Irrigation Sector" report of the Bank (teamed up with the Indian Government) laid down the line. [Maharashtra (in western India) is a state of close to 100 million people. Mumbai with 17 million people is its capital. A lot of wealth is concentrated in this state particularly in Mumbai. Editors' note.] It listed things that "need to be urgently put into practice." Among them: "drastically increasing and rationalising the current water rates." The rest of its "urgent needs" were the standard Bank rules for the capture of a country's farming by corporations. In pushing brutal hikes, the Bank was frank. Its report opposed gradual hikes. "The more recent experience is that `a big bang' approach may be better." Laughably, it cites Andhra Pradesh and Mexico as among the success stories of that approach.
Latin America is strewn with the corpses of economies and governments that went for the `big bang' approach. Water, especially, has been a giant factor in the rage of peoples there against regimes. This year, The New York Times ran a front-page piece on the collapse of privatised water services across Latin America. Being the Times, it coyly sidestepped any criticism of corporations. Or even of the basic concepts themselves. But it did measure the Big Bang. In Andhra Pradesh, the voters threw in a bang of their own last May . You'd think we'd learn something from all this. [Editors' note: Andhra Pradesh is a southern Indian state close to 80 million people, which the NYT correctly described (at that time) as the darling of western governments and corporations. A year ago the voters there threw out the World Bank's posterboy chief minister, Naidu, entirely against the fervent predictions of Naidu's innumerable choristers in the Indian and US press.] Yet the new Maharashtra bill does not stray from the righteous path. It too, regurgitates the same jargon and ideas imposed by the Bank and its pet politicians and paid-for bureaucrats on the people of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Never mind that both States saw giant disasters in that sector. Orissa's sham (Bank-made) `pani panchayats' shattered poor farmers in Angul district. They also handed over irrigation to a small bunch of rich landlords. (`Little pani, less panchayats' The Hindu Sunday Magazine September 15 and 22, 2002.) In Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu's regime passed an order that aimed for much of what the Maharashtra bill now does. [Editors' note: Panchayat: local village council elected by direct voting. Earlier, simply village council for one village, now can comprise more than one village, not too many though. Orissa (in eastern India) is a state with fabulous mineral wealth that the multinational corporations are lusting for. Its also a state with the highest concentration of poor people, especially the regions where the MNCs are going.]
In Andhra Pradesh, too, a farce of `Water Users Associations' was set up to the applause of the Bank. Indeed, "The Irrigation Sector" report lavishly praises the Andhra Pradesh `example'. The term `water users' itself is intriguing. Are the rest of us non-users? Some kind of dry-land bacilli? The cheers for Mr. Naidu's good example came even as his Government sold cleaned and treated water to soft drinks companies at 25 paise a litre in Hyderabad. That, at a time, when most colonies of the city were getting water for half an hour once every two days. Meanwhile the `users' groups proved user-friendly. They sidelined elected panchayats. The rich have always found democracy tiresome. So favoured were these groups that James Wolfensohn came all the way to Andhra Pradesh for them. To inaugurate a confederation of water users associations in 2000. He was to do this at the Koil Sagar Dam in Mahbubnagar. Alas, large mobs of angry `non-users, furious at the loss of their water, blocked the highway. The `users,' far fewer in number, were given a run for their money and their limbs. Mr. Wolfensohn could not reach the site. But if Muhammad can't go to the mountain, the mountain must go to Muhammad. The Naidu Government, famed for its efficiency in these matters, shifted the dam. In name, anyway. It took down the dam's plaque and flew it to a safe venue. Away from the ugly baying of non-users. There it had a sham of an inaugural in hiding. All this happened under the `liberal' Wolfensohn. As against the `hardliner' Paul Wolfowitz coming in now. It doesn't really matter, though, which Wolf is at the door, canis lupis or canis rufus. The family Canidae are predatory by nature. How did the Bank view the mess in Andhra Pradesh? As the "remarkable strength of government commitment in Andhra Pradesh to irrigation sector reform."
Maharashtra seems set to outdo that level of commitment. This bill parrots all the pet phrases of the Bank. It dittos the ideas, rules and structures that the Bank's own vision lays out. In parts, the jargon is near identical. But it breaks some new ground. `Entitlement' in this bill is not defined as the right or claim of a citizen or community. Here it means `any authorisation by any river basin agency to use the water for the purposes of this act.' In short, the entitlements of authority, not of society, are what drive the bill. The bill also equates private companies with citizens. The section on State Water Planning is clear on this. "The expression `person' shall include individual, group of individuals, all local authorities, association, societies, companies etc.," In short, petty officials and giant corporates will have the same rights as citizens and farmers.
It warns that in some regions, "Water shall not be made available from the canal ... " Not "unless the cultivator adopts drip irrigation or sprinkler irrigation ..." Or whatever the authority orders. This could add Rs. 15-20,000 per acre to the farmers' costs for just installation. Running costs would be a further burden. This is a rip-off. Well-known private companies close to the ruling outfit will strike gold. The State might even buy this equipment from them in the name of subsidies to the farmer. Even if the farmer cannot cope with running costs. The new Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority "shall consist of a chairperson and two other members." The chair will be of Chief Secretary rank. Of the other two, one "shall be an expert from the field of water resources engineering." The other, likewise, "in the field of water resources economy." There's another open door for the private sector - right on the top floor. This body will ensure that "water charges shall reflect the full recovery of the cost of irrigation management, administration, operation and maintenance of water resources project." Also hidden in the deal is a clause that sailed through when the bill was first passed by the Legislative Council. That talks of partial "recovery of capital investment." These levels of cost recovery are aimed at clearing the way for private investors. The Maharashtra bill, as economist and former State Planning Board member H.M. Desarda points out, could make costs unbearable. Perhaps as much as Rs. 8,000 an acre. That would simply evict hundreds of thousands of small holders from farming. Some of those who back the bill, like MLC B.T. Deshmukh, point out that it gives priority to backward regions. That new projects must come first to hard-hit Vidharbha and Marathwada. True, the terms of the bill do imply this. And so? It's like if the Bombay Gymkhana were to give first preference in membership to those living in the slums of Dharavi. Sure, they'd get priority. Could they afford an `nth' of the charges? [Editors' note: Bombay Gymkhana is the elite club of the city. Dharavi slum could be the world's biggest, at least second biggest, with over one million people.
Two-child norm The uproar on the bill centred around the obnoxious two-child norm. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. On April 28, M.P. Veerendrakumar drew the Lok Sabha's attention to The Hindu 's reports on the subject during a discussion on the Finance Bill. "Marginalised farmers and those who take agriculture as a livelihood will be driven out. The field will be entirely open for big tycoons and MNCs... " "Whenever agriculture issues are raised in the House," he argued "the reply is that it is a State subject." But he points out, "the moment some bureaucrat goes to some country, he signs an international agreement." With whose authority, he demanded to know. He believes a constitutional amendment is needed to root out the secrecy, intrigue and plain old corruption that are tied with such legislation. [Editors' note: Lok Sabha (of which Veerendrakumar is a member) is the People's House (or directly elected house) of what people in the US would call the federal parliament. The word MLC used for BT Deshmukh refers to Member of Legislative Council of the state of Maharashtra. The distribution of water already stands privatised in parts of several towns across the country. But applied to farming, will it work? Can such massive rates be recovered? Absolutely not. No one can pay. So why bother, then? Because it will destroy countless small farmers. It will establish, yet again, water as a private good not as a human right. (What impact the costs will have on food prices has not even been looked at.) It will hand over agriculture to the rich and corporations. It will worsen the terrible situation of poor farmers in the State - amongst whom there have been hundreds of suicides. And it will doubtless be touted as a national and global `model.' Watch out for that big bang. P. Sainath is India's fiercest reporter on the neoliberal onslaught on India and the toll it has exacted. He originally wrote this piece for The Hindu. He can be reached at psainath@vsnl.com.
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