Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: I don't know that it is easier to get a cold can of Coca-Cola than it is to get a fresh glass of water, because I think this question addresses a certain affordability. If a person who can afford a cold can of Coca-Cola is, that is able to afford this Coca-Cola would also be able to easily afford a fresh glass of water. Where you have people who cannot afford to have a cold can of Coca-Cola, it may very well be the case that these people will also not be able to have a fresh glass of water. That they probably would be living in areas where the water is polluted, where access to water may be very difficult to get. So to the extent it is easy to get Coca Cola, it will also be easy to get fresh water. But again when we think about the aspect of water, we have to see the problem of the increasing privatization of water, which is really a public resource coming into private ownership and having to pay for water. So it becomes a way of life where actually only the well-to-do people who can afford to buy clean water, bottled water, will be able to drink this clean water, and the people who will not be able to afford bottled water or clean water will have to drink the chemicalized, polluted water.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Avi Primor: That isn't true. You can get as well a glass of water as a glass of Coke. When people consume a lot of Coke it's because they want to. Yes you can always tell me that's the advertising. Yes, there is advertising. But who finances advertising? It's the consumers, that means those who want to consume a Coke. So is that a vicious circle? Yes it is a vicious circle. The people consume what they like and they finance advertising and advertising makes the people consume. That's true. But after all people do what they want. And water? Yes, people drink water. I have even the impression that more water is consumed. At the expense of Coca-Cola or other beverages. Many people don't want to have sweets either. That's also a kind of advertising against sweets and that also goes against Coca-Cola. The consumers find a balance and it isn't necessary to care about this. There are things which are much more important.

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: Because Coca-Cola, to get a fresh can of Coca-Cola. A fresh can of Coca Cola or stale glass of water even. I was in Mexico and there was a child that came to me and he wanted a peso for a Coca-Cola and even though water is more expensive, my wife and I then couldn't give, we say, “I will buy you some water” and the kid say “No, No, Coca-Cola on peso, Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola”. Because the sugar in the Coca-Cola and the addiction of that child to the Coca-Cola he was getting more from the Coca-Cola than from the water. And valuing the water as a fresh giving life, if we see a fresh glass of water as what we are, we are water and if we see that this fresh glass of water isn’t aiding to our system and that Coca-Cola is full of different impurities or artificial flavorings, and if that what we’re putting into ourselves then once we can realized that then, we’ll say, “I want water, I want some fresh glass of water”. And that’s what has come about it, is that people are like, “I want some fresh water”, Now we see Coca-Cola with fresh water. So, to get fresh water will be even more challenging in the times to come, a fresh glass of water.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: From what I can see in my country, in the past this was true. But today is not true any more. Almost, you can see besides a bottle of every Coca-Cola, you can see a bottle of water. So this force you to think, what is happening with water? Water used to be a public resource. Now it's becoming a commodity. And if it's become to be a commodity in the next future, probably we'd have a situation where it just gonna reinforce the cycle of poverty, where rich people can have access to water, and poor people will not have access to water. So we need to rethink a little bit in what we're doing in terms of the use of natural resources as water, to be keep it public, besides that really that this can give the possibility for the more marginalized communities in our countries to have access to this vital resource.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: That’s pretty sad but true, I suspect. Marketing. The Coca-Cola Company is very successful and you get a can of Coke, unless it’s been sitting in the sun for a long time, it tastes the same. And we’re very habitual creatures so we become habituated to that taste. But it’s very troubling in fact that people now are going in to restaurants or convenience stores and buying water that was shipped at great illogical expense from halfway around the world when there’s no evidence that the local water can’t be filtered or treated in some way to be as healthy, in fact this is industrially produced water, it’s certainly not a good thing. So what does this mean about us that we have ships moving water from Fiji, putting it in little plastic bottles and selling them for dollars a bottle when the water that’s coming out of the tap is perfectly fine? There’s not a lot of money to be made in selling a simple reusable water container, quite stylish, so marketing people can sell anything even if it makes no sense. Who would have thunk it?

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: There in that can of pleasure product called coca cola, which is for me non tasty and similar to soap, purest matter of some water spring was extracted almost for free. Despite that, that spring placed on some furthest and smallest place on the earth has much bigger value, which was devalued in mastodon can of trash.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: Why is it easier? Well, for me it’s really difficult. It’s only easy if you want it. I suppose the short answer is of why is it easier, maybe why is it more available? It’s because corporate mass marketing and corporate mass distribution basically seduced us; hypnotized us into believing that this stuff is actually worth drinking. I mean originally, as probably most of you know, Coca Cola actually had cocaine in it and was used as a drink for people under stress conditions like the Armed Forces. In fact, the forward base of most of the American military was usually preceded by the Coca Cola base. Well anyway, that seems to have changed now. It’s now just full of sugar and whatever else. But so, it shouldn’t be easier. It’s actually easier to get fresh water if you really want it, but you’ve got to want it. You’ve got to value it. You’ve got to ask for it. So, the short answer is, you know, drop it. Actually, while we’re just finishing this question, let’s go back to economic localization. When you create the strategy in your town, you need to form little groups called “economic localization groups” and in Willits we’ve defined our role as midWIFE-ing the future, and WIFE is an acronym, W-I-F-E. It stands for Watchdog Incubator Facilitator Educator. So, part of what we’re doing in our town and we now have dozens of communities in the United States and more around the world. There’s over 100 communities now moving in this direction because we have to Watchdog for vulnerabilities in our future and what’s coming into our town in the way of bad developments. Things like big boxes and junk food, fast food and junk food places. Then also, Incubate new businesses that can build things like renewable energy technology and so on. Facilitate dialogue and then Educate ourselves about what’s really important. In a nutshell, that’s what economic localization is.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Catherine David: I think that this is not really a metaphysical question and I believe that the question has two levels if it is… Why is it easier to get a small can of coke than a fresh glass of still tap water for free? I think that everybody understands the reason why. On the other hand, I do not think that it is completely true that a more difficult to get a bottle of Evian or Perrier – without making publicity – than a can of coke. So, I think that it is a wrong correct question at the same time because one could give so many answers. Why is it easier to get a glass of beer than a glass of tap water for free? I think that, today the custom of the glass of tap water that goes with a good coffee is no longer valid and, for example, I have never seen that anybody pays for a glass of water that goes with a good coffee in Egypt and not even in Italy. So, I think these questions navigate between economy and culture.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: Answertext will be available soon.

by China Keitetsi

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Dedi Baron: Answertext will be available soon.

by Dedi Baron

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas: Well, this is -- for me this is related on business side. Of course because of its nature as a commercialization that’s geared towards producing profit, Coca-Cola is easily accessed in nature because of the very nature of its business, that is profit-oriented compared to a fresh water which a need driven. However, with the commercialization of water at the moment, it will be the same that you can access water anywhere in this world although we are not, of course, sure whether that water is pure or not because of the processing. But what I am telling now is the reason why Coca-Cola is accessible is because of the nature that it’s a profit-oriented venture and it’s now becoming like water. Especially that we are now facing the scarcity of water at the moment because everybody is doing business in water as the value. For me, we are still lucky that we have fresh water right from the spring. We have lots of fresh terraces; we have lots of fresh terraces being watered by mineral water from the spring. That's why our rice is very expensive because it’s being watered by mineral water.

by Donato Bayu Bay Bumacas

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Dritëro Kasapi:

by Dritëro Kasapi

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Eddie Glaude: It’s pretty straightforward; profits, the relentless pursuit of profit, greed, and corporate greed that has little to no concern for the well being of others, of communities. So the only answer I can give and I think it’s a question that actually presupposes its own answer, is profit. It’s the kind of world we live in and it’s the kind of world that needs to be changed fundamentally.

by Eddie Glaude

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Eliane Potiguara: In the world of drugs, in the world of the sick society, in the superficial world it is easier to get a glass of beer or alcool than a plate with food. If people tried to order a plate with typical food, they wouldn’t get it. If they were out at night in the streets they would get easier some drugs than a plate with food or a glass of water. This is why it is easier to get a cold Coke than a glass of fresh water. There is a psychological problem of people and some people of this society, in the universities, in the streets and cities are too much attracted by those things and by this world of Coca Cola and of the media which tells them and their children that it is good to drink Coke. Thus water is the last thing you would drink. We are living in this world of the media and if you don’t participate in it you are not part of the society. If you liked to drink milk people would laugh about you because milk is not in the media. The management knows how to influence people and they know what they like most and they know how to touch them. The management knows it, it is trained for this. But people should be trained against it.

by Eliane Potiguara

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Eliot Weinberger: Well, I am not so sure that’s true. But, certainly, as we know from what happened in India in recent weeks, that cold can of Coca Cola is made out of water that contains a lot of pesticides that are coming from the ground water. Coca Cola is an interesting phenomenon in that it was the creation of a truly international food. And in fact, we could say that the first artifact of globalization was Coca Cola, because Coca Cola was the first food that everyone in the world really liked. And Coca Cola was also a democratic food. Andy Warhol is famous for saying that Coca Cola is wonderful because I drink a can of Coca Cola and Jackie Kennedy drinks a can of Coca Cola or the bottle then, bottle of Coca Cola and it is the same Coca Cola. And no matter how rich you are, you all end up, we all drink the same bottle of Coca Cola. So, it is curious that Coca Cola, while clearly something that is not terribly healthy, is kind of our -- the first artifact and a kind of a [proto] artifact of what is increasingly becoming the 21st century world.

by Eliot Weinberger

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Elisabet Sahtouris: Again, this question is about doing things for profit. And in India what Coca-Cola and other beverage companies have done to the water supply—Coca-Cola of course is made from water—is an absolute disaster. These companies are mining the fresh water of the upper Ganges River, the sacred river of India, in order to make things like canned Coca-Cola or canned or bottled water. And actually depriving the villagers of their own water supply in order to do it. It is a criminal thing in this world that fresh water should be ownable. This is one of the basic resources of the planet that should be commons. It should be a human right to have fresh water available. No one should be able to own freshwater sources and commercialize them. We have undo some of these things that our economy has done because it has run rampant and it has—patenting life forms, preventing native people from using their native plants for medicines as they have for centuries is a crazy thing. We’ve just, our economy has run amok and we have to reign it in again. We have to figure out ways to feed ourselves in healthy ways and to get our water pure again, to get fresh water supplies. It was a wonderful scientist in Germany, named Kate Zeidel who showed that plants can clean any pollutant out of water that man has thought up to put in it. So there are cheap efficient easy ways to clean water. We can get clean water on the planet again but we have to stop the privatization of water. That’s absolutely essential.

by Elisabet Sahtouris

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Ervin Laszlo: Because there are millions and millions of dollars that is being spent to market Coca Cola, so people want to get that. Nobody is marketing water. If they are marketing, they want to get money for it. But, fresh glasses of water which would otherwise be available is not valued, not valued this high as something that you are being told has a value in itself because you are paying for it. So, whatever is marketing is what is easy to get into this commercial society.

by Ervin Laszlo