Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: It´s not so. It´s not hundred percent right. Of course, there are countries where you cannot get one glass of pure water. We must fight for this that all people have a right to the glass of pure water. Because there is nothing more beautiful than to have the possibility to drink one glass of pure water. It´s a wonder, it´s a wonder of Creator. But people must have a feeling that they are responsible for this clean water towards our children. In a short space of time we get so many problems. And it wouldn´t be anywhere in Afrika but at our table. We would go in the shop and we wouldn´t have enough money to buy one glass of simply clean water, you know. There would be bottles with polluted water, plastic rest, with chemicals inside, you know. I grew up in Siberia, in the city ... It´s a global problem for all people what we can do in order to get people what we can do in order to get a glass of clean water in 10-20 years one glass of clean water. Now we must speak about this problem in newspapers and fight for this and make our world more sustainable to have clean water and clean air.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: The reason for that is exactly the same one why we prefer the canned food on fresh fruits. We should think together about the reasons that enabled a social system to manage to change our tastes and to create a new industrial style of life. There were so many talks about this issue but the problem is getting bigger, which is the artificiality of every thing in life like food.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: Well, I find this question a bitt silly, but I suppose the question is relevant to the previous one. We are used to consume rubbish and we are used to consume poison. It is because we are victims of the market forces. They have been selling to us this poison from our childhood on and now it is easier to have access to a can of Coca Cola because all this business has been inoculated to us by communication media. The water seems simply too boring. But I think the next question will be about water, so we´ll wait for it.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea:

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Thanks for the question Dagmar. You know the interesting thing about Coca-Cola is that it’s globally regulated. It’s as poisonous as hell, but it’s globally regulated, so you know exactly what you’re getting. It’s marketed, it’s branded in such a manner that it’s instantly recognizable, you know that you’re not going to die of some waterborne disease, and so when you travel to certain countries, you know, water as we know it is not instantly available any more. That’s the first question – issue. Second issue is that, you know, Coke is branded in such a manner, so Coca Cola has an image attached to it. It’s desirable to drink Coca Cola even although you know that it’s going to whack your system. It’s got addictive additives to it. You know your whole system is locked into the caffeine and the sugar. I mean you know something like twenty-one teaspoons of sugar in a can of Coke, notwithstanding the enormously high levels of caffeine. So not only do you get a hit, but you’re also dependent upon that hit. So there are two issues. Water, water is polluted. We never know for sure whether that water is clean enough. Secondly, I think we know a Coke, we know exactly that it’s globally regulated as a brand. Thirdly, I believe it’s addictive.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: The question has a lot to do with the previous question about why the food we get is of such bad quality. The reality is a whole industry has developed around the selling of drinks that have absolutely no nutritional value. In fact, in many cases, are detrimental to our health, but which are profitable. And Coke, Pepsi and other soft drinks are one of the major industries that have succeeded in creating artificial needs, artificial wants, selling a lifestyle as a way of getting people to consume drinks, which are harmful to our health. And at the same time, that system of production based on what’s profitable, based on how companies like Coca Cola can make billions of dollars has no concern for the fact that millions, in fact billions of people go without access to safe drinking water, and that people today are dying from easily preventable water-borne diseases and lack of access to water resource, which could easily and affordably be provided to everyone in the world safely and naturally, and which is really the foundation of a decent and humane society, access to water, and yet has become something that is removed for more than 2 billion people in the world today. And yet companies like Coca Cola having more and more access to more and more markets to spread this model of capitalist consumption, creation of artificial needs and creation of an image that is used to sell products that are so detrimental to our health.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: It is the soft -- strong hold of flavors mixed and [inaudible]. So I think strong hold what I mean is that it also is the demand and that there is the question of demand. So there is a demand for food and the rest. So that is why I think everybody loves this [inaudible]. So that is why it has a very strong hold. Again you can, if it is -- we can drink ice if we can get better quality...

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Well, it is easier today to get a can of Coca-Cola if you have the money in your pocket and the same goes for having access to a plain drinking water. Increasingly, all over the world, we are seeing privatization of our commons, and water is a very important common that is being privatized as we speak. Because we are not seeing water as a human right, that we need water for our survival, it is not a luxury item. It is a human right. And as long as we don’t see our commons and people’s access and control and nurture of commons as a basic human right, we will see companies such as Coca-Cola being able to go into countries like India, pollute the ground water. You will see them being able to market their, what I call, the sewage of the industrialized world into communities, which is like a pesticide being sold in countries like India, whereas the communities will not have access to clean drinking water. It is also the withdrawal of the state from the role it needs to play in terms of ensuring that there is money in the budgets, in the national budgets to ensure basic needs of people. And water is definitely, again, like I said before, not a luxury item, but a need and therefore a human right.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 2:40:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: There is a certain humour in this question. I find it difficult to get both a cold can of Coke or a cold glass of water. It’s interesting because I find in my consciousness of water and drinking clean pure water. In the last decade, I’ve really begun to carry bottles of water with me when I travel. I never did that before. And I realize I’ve come to be conscious as I travel to different countries, a sensitivity to the water I drink. I’ve always had that sensitivity, more now than ever. So in a way, I’ve been conscious of having to think about water, as I never had before. And all through my travel, staying in hotels, I try to make sure I have water, day and night with me, everywhere I go. So in a way, there is new consciousness about water. And it’s interesting that to get fresh, clean, pure glass of water is more and more a rare commodity that we need to think about. And that’s the interesting question here. And I think it’s the same thing for food. If you just look at the marketplace, it’s harder to find natural food. You will think it’ll be the easiest thing to find, natural organic foods. But we have to pay more for organic foods in the marketplace than the high mass produced foods in the culture, which is symptomatic of the can of Coca-Cola. So I think that’s what the question is inviting us to think about. That is there a way to reorganize our life and our consciousness and our way of being in culture, so that these natural requirements of life like clean water and natural food will be much more accessible and organic, compared to the inorganic and artificial foods that we have from our artificial ego-based culture.

by Ashok Gangadean

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