Predatory corporations vs. engaged citizens.
Preston C. Enright | Denver, CO United States | 11/25/2008
(5 out of 5 stars)
"There's a battle going on for the source of life, water. Our corporate media isn't saying much about it, but across the globe citizens are struggling against transnational corporations like Nestle and Vivendi which are seizing the dwindling fresh water supplies. It's an absolutely critical topic that this film explains in an informative and inspiring fashion. "Flow" takes us to Bolivia Cochabamba!: Water War in Bolivia, South Africa, India Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, Michigan and beyond; and introduces us to the people who are being harmed by corporate tyrannies that are claiming the water of their land. Big businesses are making a fortune as they pollute or divert water supplies, or bottle it for sale at prices that the world's poor cannot afford.
People in the wealthy nations may feel they are immune from this crisis, but they too are being ripped off by the bottled water racket and poisoned by the continuing toxification of water with synthetic chemicals Toxic Legacy: Synthetic Toxins in the Food, Water and Air of American Cities.
"Flow" features many heroes we don't yet know the names of, like Vandana Shiva and Maude Barlow; but we are fortunate they have been slowing the march of the corporate fundamentalists The Corporation. People concerned about health and justice will want to contribute to the cause of water rights for humans, not for CEOs. Buying and sharing this film is a great first step. Subscribing to magazines like Onearth also helps, as the Natural Resources Defense Council is featured in this film due to the research and litigation they've been advancing on this and so many other pressing environmental issues.
Parts of this film will anger the viewer, but that mood is a natural and necessary part of the process toward social change. The film ends on an optimistic note about the power of the people, something that elites have feared for centuries The Chomsky Sessions: Noam Chomsky On The World.
Let's make the change we and our children so desperately need Yes!.
See also:
Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It
Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water
Water Consciousness
"
Pay attention !!!!
Kathy Peterson | Kansas City | 01/17/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I work in the water field where protecting our water supply and paying attention to when and how it is used, and this video was even an eye opener for me. The case for greed is the platform at hand as always, the almighty dollar. The problem comes down to demand. If we as stewards of the earth stop buying the products, i.e. bottled water, the demand would dwindle and the lack of attractiveness of the industry's drain on the earth's water would help preserve this natural resouce for generations to come.
Walk away from, Coca Cola, Nestle and Pepsi bottled water. Look at the label. Pay attention and just do your part."
A Must See Film
kd | 01/04/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This film shows how corporations are claiming water rights across the globe. Using the IMF and World Bank they are forcing third world countries to privitize their water systems. After this is done, the poor are unable to purchase the water.
Water is the next "blue gold." A must see film.
"
You Must See This Film
Howard M. Kindel | 11/19/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Of the films I've seen and books I've read about current topics, this is the first that I genuinely feel compelled to recommend that everyone should get. It's not possible to understate the significance of the subject - access to decent water - or to overstate the growing threat from the giant water congromerates. The film focuses on three corporations primarily - Thames Water, Vivendi, and Suez. Suez, the French company, has been around for 150 years, so it's gotten quite a good start. Almost no one in the US has ever heard of these companies because they operate mostly in the "third world" and in growing markets like India. The film traces their path across the world; and shows the devastation left in their wake. However, the film also showcases the few instances where the people of a region have been successful in taking back their water, or at least holding off the companies' attempts to corner the market. The culprit is generally the same throughout the third world: the World Bank, which keeps lending money to impoverished areas then demands, as payback, the privitization of public utilities - electricity and water - which results in massive increases in the cost of these utilities. And, of course, the biggest ally privitization has is corrupt governments. The single most compelling piece of the entire film is about a community in India, in an essentially barren region, which built - literally stone by stone - a system of canals to catch and hold what little rain there was. This community created a lush, self-sustaining eco-system which brings in extra cash by permitting it to sell the excess crops. Now, facing the central Indian government's new mandates to make water a for-profit resource, it may become illegal for this community to keep the water it collects. Then, just when you might think this is all other people's problems, the film focuses on a water bottling plant in upstate Michigan which extracts the clean water, replaces it with polluted water, and gets a 90-year tax break to do so. The citizens are fighting the plant; they won the first round in court; but so far the appeals courts are siding with the plant against the community. Nor is this Michigan plant the only one in the US. The problem, like anything left unchecked, is growing exponentially."