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More On Vivendi, Water, Globalization

By Les Aaron

Seagram, Vivendi now is apparently ready to move on to a new suitor: NBC. In case you didn't know, Vivendi is one of the biggest exploiters of water in the world. They pump out a natural resource, purify it ( or so they claim) and bottle it. They are making a profit on what should be a natural birthright. You can't any more sell the water than pieces of the sky. But they are doing it. Now, Vivendi is going to become part of GE which owns NBC. Think about it: One wonders whether they will have the chutzpah to bottle the Hudson the same way they the Ganghis water is being packaged and re-sold to the people who have been drinking it for generations.

If so, would GE still be obligated to clean it up. Afterall, isn't GE the worst polluter of the Hudson? And since PCBs have been found in very high percentages in studies of fish who spawn at the mouth of the Hudson and PCBs have been linked with cancers, one would think that GE would feel a moral obligation. Sure! Jack Welch wasn't exactly your philanthropist for the day; not while he was making all that profit and pocketing big bonuses and writing books about how to steal without getting caught.

Fortunately for the crew running GE, it has a little vest pocket company that is expert at running interference, ie. NBC. NBC has done a great job of keeping its parent company out of the news which is where it wants to be. This makes it possible for GE to continue its assault on the air and water with little intervention from a friendly government. So where does this leave Vivendi. Well, we can be sure of one thing: Even though Vivendi may be selling natural resources back to the people and taking on the aspect of a 21st century villian of amazing proportions, we won't hear anything about it on NBC. And because the other guys are pretty much in cahoots, the poor in this country cannot expect much better treatment from the rest of the media. Not surprisingly, this kind of economic assault on the environment and nature is going on around the world from Africa to South Asia.

Never let it be said that industry will pass up an opportunity to make a profit off the backs of the poor. It is an example of what globalization really means when a few have the ability to control all of the resources of the world and there is no recourse for the people. Not a pretty thought. But it is what Bush was referring to when he talked about a new world order. People working for peanuts and having to pay for their own water from a starvation wage. If this is compassionate conservatism at its best, we're all in mighty big trouble. les aaron

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