|
|
Tuesday, August 20, 2002
|
|
| |
|
|
|
From Chaordic Commons: Practices are the activities, products and services through which the Participants pursue the organization's Purpose and create value. The possibilities are infinite, so special attention is placed on Practices that cannot be achieved without a new organization, or those that are essential to making the organization a coherent yet flexible working whole. With clarity of shared Purpose and Principles, the right Participants, an effective Concept and a clear Constitution, Practices will naturally evolve in highly focused and effective ways. They will harmoniously blend cooperation and competition within a transcendent organization trusted by all. Purpose is then realized far beyond original expectations, in a self-organizing, self-governing system capable of constant learning and evolution. Work on this dimension of the chaordic design process results in a prioritized list of Practices or activities that the new organization - or its members - might undertake. When the work takes place within a single organization, rather than inter-organizationally, the focus is often on innovative approaches to collaboration that cross established boundaries or on activities that help the organization redefine itself by engaging a much broader community of participants. Work on Practices usually occurs throughout the chaordic design process, almost as a counterpoint to other phases. Skillfully done, without prematurely narrowing participants' focus to a small set of activities, it can illuminate the search for a powerful Purpose, compelling Principles, an inclusive definition of Participants and an innovative Organizational Concept. (08/20/02) | |
|
|
|
Global consumption of water is doubling every 20 years, more than twice the rate of human population growth. According to the United Nations, more than one billion people on Earth already lack access to fresh drinking water. If current trends persist, by 2025 the demand for fresh water is expected to rise by 56 percent more than is currently available. As the water crisis intensifies, governments around the world — under pressure from multinational corporations — are advocating a radical solution: the commodification and mass transport of water. Proponents of commodification, and subsequent privatization, say that such a system is the only way to distribute water to the world's thirsty. But, in fact, experience shows that selling water on the open market does not address the needs of poor, thirsty people. On the contrary, privatized water is delivered to those who can pay for it, such as wealthy cities and individuals and water intensive industries such as agriculture and high-tech. As one resident of the high desert in New Mexico observed after his community's water was diverted for use by the high-tech industry: "Water flows uphill to money." ... In India, some households pay a staggering 25 percent of their income on water. Poor residents of Lima, Peru, pay private vendors as much as $3 for a cubic meter for buckets of often-contaminated water while the more affluent pay 30 cents per cubic meter for treated municipal tap water. In the maquiladora zones of Mexico, water is so scarce that babies and children drink Coca-Cola and Pepsi instead. (08/19/02) | |
|
|
|
W.R. McDougall writes: Your constitution is a shambles thanks to "national security" measures resulting from what might well be U.S.-government-sanctioned terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington D.C., covert provocations designed to justify a malevolent, poisonous, oil-based military economy. Never mind that earth-friendly technology already exists to once and for all end dependence on oil, coal and nuclear energy from huge, out-of-control utilities and corporations. You would rather pay through the nose for your insecure comforts, wouldn't you America, and make others pay with their blood. ... Does any of this matter? No, it's simply time to eat. Go get your ten-billionth burger, America. Fatten your already fat asses with bacteria-and-hormone-ridden meat and do nothing as you sit stupefied before your mind-numbing television sets awaiting the next episode of sad families being humiliated on "Cops." Few among you are the least bit concerned that no real investigation of 911 has taken place, that no serious investigation of the anthrax attacks is moving forward, that no authentic investigation of Enron, or the murder of one of its top executives, is underway. (08/20/02) | |
|
|
|
The New Yorker-- The world is running out of fresh water, and the fight to control it has begun. ... There's water everywhere, of course, but less than three per cent of it is fresh, and most of that is locked up in polar ice caps and glaciers, unrecoverable for practical purposes. ... By 2025, the demand for water around the world is expected to exceed supply by fifty-six per cent. ... For strategic planners at some of the world's largest corporations, the global freshwater shortage coincides opportunely with privatization. According to Johan Bastin, of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, "Water is the last infrastructure frontier for private investors." In the past fifteen years, municipal and regional water systems have been steadily coming onto the international market. Two French corporations, Vivendi Environment and Suez, lead the industry: Vivendi runs eight thousand systems in a hundred countries; Suez has operations in a hundred and thirty countries. The biggest American player, Bechtel, whose directors include former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, has always been notable for its political connections. The United States is itself a field for direct foreign investment in water. Suez is running Atlanta's water system, and Vivendi recently bought U.S. Filter, a national water-services group, for more than six billion dollars. ... The World Bank is now getting out of the dam business and into water privatization. It often works closely with the conglomerates, helping them to acquire the water assets of debtor nations. (08/20/02) | |
|
|
|
Wired Magazine -- The final report of a contested eight-year, $7 million study soon to be released by the California Department of Health Services may be the most credible statement yet on the connection between electric power lines and a variety of health problems. "To one degree or another, all three of the DHS scientists are inclined to believe that EMFs (electric and magnetic fields) can cause some degree of increased risk of childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, and miscarriage," states a leaked copy of the final report from the California EMF Program, a study begun in 1993 on behalf of the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). (08/20/02) | |
|
|
|
BBC News -- More than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by the year 2025 if the world continues consuming water at the same rate, the United Nations has warned. ... According to the report, by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an estimated 1.1 billion people have no access to safe drinking water, 2.5 billion lack proper sanitation and more than five million people die from waterborne diseases each year - 10 times the number of casualties killed in wars around the globe. Less than 3% of the Earth's water is fresh and most of it is in the form of polar ice or too deep underground to reach. (08/20/02) | |
|
|
|
BBC News -- The world's supply of fresh water is running out. Already one person in five has no access to safe drinking water. (08/20/02) | |
12:22:10 AM 
|
|
|
|
© TrustMark
2002
Timothy Wilken.
Last update:
9/3/2002; 6:03:28 AM.
This theme is based on the SoundWaves
(blue) Manila theme. |
|
|
