If you have a PayPal account, please send your donation directly to linhdinh99@yahoo.com, to save me the fees. Thanks a lot!

For just my articles, please go to SubStack.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

.









HUNGER-TAKES-THIS-BUS-TOO--Santa-Clara










.

13 comments:

x larry said...

who sponsored this, monsanto?
more bandaids--and no doubt even this 'do gooder' stuff brings if not great profits then at least a hefty salary for the ceo--but never touching the elephant in the room or even admitting its existence. 'we're feeding america!' they say, but people very much would and want to feed themselves if given any chance at all. but ask indian (from india) farmers about what the system, ie monsanto, dow chemical, dupont, singenta (?) REALLY want. i think the rate of suicides there is in the several thousands a year the past few years among farmers who are forced to buy seeds, fertilizers and the rest from these shitbags. but oh look!--SOMEONE'S feeding the hungry, nothing to worry about, now how about that club last night.

Ali said...

x larry,

You brought up DOW chemicals. Check this out: http://www.bhopalithemovie.com/amnesty-international-london-olympics-further-tainted-by-dow/

Also, this: http://rt.com/news/167012-coca-cola-factory-closed-india/

Ali said...

These two videos might be instructive too.

First video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEFL8ElXHaU

Second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dMA0_cLdeE

In the first video, the CEO of Nestle declares that water should be privatized. In around 2:10 of the video, he says (if the subtitles are correct):

"Water is of course the most important raw material we have today in the world. It's a question of whether we should privatise the normal water supply for the population. And there are two different opinions on the matter.

The one opinion which I think is extreme is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means that as a human being you should have a right to water. That's an extreme solution.

And the other view says that water is a foodstuff like any other and like any other foodstuff it should have a market value. Personally I think it's better to give a foodstuff a value so that we're all aware that it has its price and then that one should take specific specific measures for the part of the population that has no access to this water and there are many different possibilities there."


In the second video, he says: "There are apparently some misconceptions about my idea of water. Let me make it clear from the beginning: I have always supported the human right to water. Everyone should have clean, safe water to meet their fundamental daily needs. About 50 to 100 liters a day. But not to fill a pool, or wash a car. There is a difference."

Linh Dinh said...

And there's Stella Artois' "Buy a Lady a Drink" campaign.

Ian Keenan said...

Obesity takes the 653 (two seat compartments). Not showering after jogging off the quinoa shake takes the 109.

Ali said...

Linh,

Why are you wasting time with these "postcards"? Become the CEO of Coca Cola now and DOW chemicals now with your own "Buy a village a well" campaign that gives villages a five year subsidized access to a well each time they buy $200 of coke products or plastic products in a single receipt.

Ali said...

After reading Ian's comment, I looked at the picture closely and I find myself liking the juxtaposition of the sign, the jogger, the woman on the phone, the woman with the shopping cart behind her, and half of the golden arches on the far right. I like this picture.

Ian Keenan said...

Checking out that Stella Artois campaign.. There's the implicit Western joke by a beer company about Muslim women being bought a drink, and the good deed initiative (which notes none of the historic pitfalls - for the poor participants - of microcredit NGOs) steers far away from Middle East water politics, so there's no programs between sub-Saharan Africa and India.

Ian Keenan said...

The first meeting of the international marketing department at the Belgian beer company about partnering with water.org African microcredit: 'Do they do anything in the Congo?' 'No.' 'Well, we'll have a look then.'

x larry said...

ali, ian and linh,
interesting comments. i must say i don't understand some of ian's--638 seat one, or stuff about congo, or the other one. actually, ian, if you don't mind, could you explain your comments a bit more? (i can, i find, be a bit thick, plus i've got brain fog, plus brain sieve of late--since having a child four years ago and being nearly fifty). i'd appreciate it--the comments looked interesting.
ali, will try to check out vids--thanks to linh, too. checked out matt damon ad, looks super dodge. who is this water.org? (dumb question no doubt, just another shitbag company SELLING their 'do gooder' vision to guardian readers. oh thanks matt, your giving these poor ladies the opportunity to go on a journey, or was it have an adventure? no doubt matty's well versed in such things.
as to dow, those muthas...
i grew up in their hometown, midland michigan. i knew nothing of napalm or agent orange, a tiny bit about dioxin, and the breast implant scandal of the mid 80s of dow corning (across the street) was close to home--my first girlfriend's mother worked in that department (they had silicon breast implants and testicles on the coffee table), so she was worried about being made redundant. i grew up clueless. my parents were the only democrats in town, people just voted straight republican tickets, so we were sort of lovable freaks--my parents grew up in kc and moved us from there when we were young. but my best friend's dad was i heard once number four at the company, chief accountant it seems to me. rich and glamorous.
...........for what that was worth. cheers, dudes

x larry said...

ali,
i've checked out your first link, to dow and the london olympics.
these people are horrific.
a pretty good friend growing up i've heard is rising quickly up the corporate ladder at dow. i wanted to make a big sign, thinking he was quite possibly at the olympics here, saying something like 'ben matuska, what happened to you?' pathetic, sure, and that is his real name so do write him if you like. not that anything had happened to him, he was on the corporate fast track from day one of first grade. it was i with liberal city roots, also rural kansas ones, that was on the outside. anyway, i won't go more into all that.
my point: i was told by at least one person here in uk that they would throw any protesters within a mile of the olympics in jail.
i never actually watched any of them, save literally 30 seconds one night at the beach on a big screen tv of bole or whatever that sprinter's name is doing the 100m. i've since watched the opening or closing ceremony, can't remember which, but oh shit! let the conspiracy theories fly! also, i believe dow chemical wrapped the main olympic stadium with dow serran wrap.
i always think of the popular bumper sticker of my youth, 'dow lets you do great things'. once i saw a doctored one that read 'dow lets you eat things'.
sorry to be so wordy, but it seems vaguely relevant. the dow ceo's comment about the notion that dow has the slightest responsibility for bhopal that it was 'insane' i think.... i can picture the conversations in classrooms and elsewhere in midland--isn't that just insane? i mean, we're a different company! probably acompanied by some racist jokes.
behold my twisted upbringing! but aren't all of ours these days

Ian Keenan said...

xl, I enjoy your posts but hate to explain my jokes! I prefer to explain the writings of other people and sometimes that's simpler. I checked to see if the Stella Artois/ water.org campaign involved good deeds in the Congo, or conjured memories of the Belgian colonial history there, and assumed it was a bonus to them that it wasn't so conjured. Ali explained the other post better than I could. Best to you.

x larry said...

thanks ian,
i understand--was having an extra thicko moment