Nestle CEO Doesn't Think Water Is A Basic Right, Should Be Privatized


"Amidst the fast and furious tweets of often contradictory information regarding the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber, this little gem caught my eye: "Nestle CEO wants to privatize water". Now at first I thought that the headline was merely a grabber to talk about the booming bottled water industry, but then I watched the video and realized, no this guy really thinks that it is a great virtue to be able to privatize water in the future.

There's no question that global climate change and the population boom has resulted in vital resources like water being in short supply. But listen to this guy fly his Ayn Rand freak flag and ask yourself, does this sound like he's interested in protecting a resource for impoverished populations or looking to make a buck?"

Nestle Wants Water Privatized, Previously Drained Millions of Gallons of Water from Arkansas Rivers

"Companies should own every single bit of water on the planet, according to Nestle's former CEO and now-Chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. His position, shared by many others in his ranks, is one of profits over people and corporate rights over human rights. They advocate a sort of survival-of-the-richest, where only those with money should have access to "privileges" like water.

Making rounds several years after its creation, a video depicting Brabeck-Letmathe suggests that while 1.5% of the world's water is for human usage, the other 98.5% "is not a human right". He states that it's this majority of water that should be "valued" through privatization. In other words, because the water is being treated as a human right (when in his mind it isn't), it is being taken for granted. In order to ensure it's used in an efficient manner, he suggests private corporations have access to owning it.

As if this isn’t frightening enough, Brabeck-Letmathe equates his position to that of Monsanto (another vile corporation who puts profits above people)."

One takes your food and the other takes your water leaving those refusing to be a slave to die as a matter of corporate right.

Major Corporations usually worry about running out of oil on the planet.
But its not oil we should be worried about its water, and for Nestl� CEO to mention all that about water he surely knows the imminent future and how essential water is...
.an everyday commodity that many of us take for granted

Only an idiot would take the essence of life for granted. And to be so trite on such an important resource is just....

"When Nestle subsidiary Poland Spring came to the tiny town of Fryeburg, Maine, USA nearly a decade ago, residents noticed that their water was vanishing. Lake levels were lowering. Streams were getting smaller. Nestle was pumping the aquifer under their town for all it could get.

When the citizens of Fryeburg spoke up, Nestle unleashed an aggressive, divide-and-conquer strategy. It sued the town, nearly bankrupting several local activists. It worked to ensure that local regulatory boards were friendly to its position and it took its case all the way to the state Supreme Court. But Nestle also set up a Poland Spring shop for local outreach, and established the Fryeburg Business Association -- staffed by a Nestle employee -- to lead a charm offensive. Local schools even have a bottled water vending machine and Nestle hands out bottles of water to people in the town.

That's right - a town sitting atop one of America's most famous aquifers is being sold its own water... in plastic bottles. Nestle is boldly planting a story -- telling the residents, even the children, of Fryeburg to get used to drinking their own spring water through Nestle's plastic bottles."

Oh, did I mention that Nestle is Swiss? But I guess that should have been obvious by the Ayn Rand remark in the Crooks and Liars post.

Well they certainly have a solid business strategy in this venture with minimal raw material expenditure and maximum profit.

Lol i didnt know nestle was swiss....kind of reminds me of swiss bankers considering their vague similarities