A tall glass of water

People are people, and they all have their ways. I recently watched Flow: For Love of Water (which is a great film to catch; quite an eye-opener), and was musing upon the fact that my burg, Boise, Idaho, is one of the few major cities in the US who doesn’t own their own water supply. Have to find the source for that info. Here, in the meantime, is Boise’s water history.

You see, our water is controlled by Suez (who’s one of the villains of the piece mentioned above), but I can only assume that since we’re not a village in third world country we won’t be treated to their same special level of service.

So while we in Boise revisit the Tragedy of the Commons in other resource realms, it won’t be with water resources, since we don’t control that. (Oh wise city fathers who hold to the tenet — as do so many of my fellow citizens today — that corporations and private enterprise can do no wrong and should be given full rein.) So comforted am I: We are in that pool whose water is owned by those who’ve bought it up worldwide, recognizing it as a commodity more precious even than petroleum, since one can live without one but not the other. (I was so amused, watching Flow, by a company man who — in his Marie Antoinette manner — advised that the poor just needed to prioritize and economize so that they could pay for the water they previously had access to in common. Profligate poor.)

A tall glass of water posted 18 April 2009 in Film, Life, Local
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