OK, perhaps I have been too quiet previously in bringing out this topic. Perhaps because it is about water people are taking it for granted. Perhaps it is true that on this blog you don't get recommended because of the issue but because of your name. So here goes again: PEOPLE ARE KILLING EACH OTHER FOR WATER, and this is not something that is going to go away by tomorrow.
As a matter of fact, at the current rate of climate change taking place in this world (the topic some find unimportant) combined with war, poverty, political unrest, corruption, disease, and population rates that exist, WATER will be a much more valuable resource than oil, and people will kill to get it. Terrorists will take advantage of this situation. Corporations ARE taking advantage of the poor, and that too is killing them.
Please come in...
This is even happening right here in America now, and people need to know about it. Does your own faucet have to be turned off before you can get a feel for what these people in Africa and other places are going through? In this country we do take so much for granted... but we better not take water for granted. For without it WE DIE, and those controlling the spicket won't give a damn as long as they make $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
This diary then needs to be recommended, and I am asking that it be because this needs to be seen by as many people as we can possibly get it out to. I never ask that, but I'm asking it now. WATER WARS are already here, and it has been spoken about with people being warned of what was to come for years. If you know of the genocide taking place in Sudan, then multiply those rates tenfold, realizing that we are killing ourselves if we do not take this seriously.
There is water to sustain all of us, only it isn't getting to those who need it the most because of corporate influence, government intervention, and terrorism. And yes, THIS IS TERRORISM. And human nature is now kicking in... survival of the fittest...the law of the jungle (which is exactly the law companies like Halliburton, EXXON, and Bechtel to name a few live by.) Those who are stronger or connected who can get it, get it. Those too weak or poor DIE.
NO ONE in this world should have to go without the basic necessity of life, which is water. NO ONE.
I have tried on several other occasions to impart to those who read here the utter LIFE AND DEATH situation millions of people in Africa, Asia, South America are in NOW, and yes, the situation Americans will find themselves in if we do not face this problem. YOU DON'T THINK YOU COULD KILL FOR WATER? Think again, and PLEASE read the information here and the story below. Then PLEASE make sure you get this information out to as many as you can, and reflect on what you can do to see that this necessary and precious gift of life is given to those who need it most. Then, make sure that you know for sure where your own water is now coming from. You may be surprised to find out the true source.
This is just but one example of what is to come throughout this world by 2015 (not too long in coming) if we don't get truly serious about the water scarcity in this world:
Kenyans Fighting Each Other For Water
Kenyans Fighting Each Other for Water
By CHRIS TOMLINSON, Associated Press Writer
Wed Mar 15, 2:26 PM ET
OROPOYI, Kenya - Akiru Lomukuny's clan already has seen one boy killed, a girl raped and dozens of women beaten just for trying to get a drink of water. Now, she says, things are about to get a lot worse.
Generations of east Africans have clashed sporadically over cattle, pasture and, most importantly, water. The drought sweeping the region is making the fight for resources more desperate.
Lomukuny is a member of the Turkana tribe. Among these nomads, a family is judged by its cows. The Turkana walk their cows, goats and sheep through Kenya's northwestern corner, along the borders with Uganda and Sudan.
It hasn't rained here in more than a year, and her clan -- along with more than 11 million other people in this semiarid region that also includes Ethiopia and Somalia -- is getting desperate.
Lomukuny knows where she can get water 10 miles away, but the spring is in Uganda. She and her daughters -- usually with Lomukuny's three grandchildren strapped to their backs -- have gone there for water in the past, only to be ambushed by Dados tribesmen.
"We were usually attacked on our way back," she said. "We would lose all of our water ... sometimes they strip us naked, take all of our beads."
In January, Lomukuny's clan of some 600 families retreated back into Kenya to a secret place where water collects in the rugged hills. But now that supply has run out, and they must look across the unmarked border again.
"Drought always presents a great risk for us because the alternative is to go to Uganda, where we've had a lot of experience being attacked," she said. "The next move has to be to find water. There is water in Uganda, so we have to move there."
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As Lomukuny spoke, dressed in a traditional blanket and leather skirt, dozens of children crowded around, their foreheads covered with an orange fuzz that is a sign of protein deficiency. They are skinny, but don't have the bloated stomachs of the severely malnourished.
Only the night before, Dados raiders stole 28 cows from two families in the clan, leaving them destitute. The clan already has lost cattle to the drought, and more become weak and sick every day for lack of enough water.
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The Rev. Bernard Ruhnan, a German priest who has been trying to end the tribal fighting in the area for 34 years, said there have been minor clashes, but nothing too serious since the drought began. He is working with tribal leaders on an agreement to share resources, but worries about what will happen if the rains don't come soon.
Normally, there are several rainy season in the region. But there was no rain in October or December, and now the expected rain in March has yet to come.
"If we don't get rain in the next month, it will become much more serious," he said. He said already there were militant elements in both tribes trying to make sure they don't have to share anything.
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Oxfam and other charities have also been trying to help the Turkana survive the drought without fighting. The British group has drilled water wells and installed pumps. They have also bought livestock from the Turkana, slaughtering them and giving the meat to the needy.
But those programs are too small and too far away to help Lomukuny's clan.
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"I don't care if I lose a child, or my husband, it is a desperate state now," she said. "We have to go."
She looked a reporter straight in the eye.
"If you want to help me," the grandmother said with immense dignity. "Give me a gun."
I think this speaks for itself.
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This is an excerpt from a diary I wrote recently, and want to post it again. This is an issue that is very close to my heart, because for the life of me I cannot understand raping and killing a child just to take their water from them!!!!
Water Wars Coming-You Were Warned
Water signifies purity, peace, serenity, and is the essence of our souls. It is what sustains us, as the air we breathe. Water is essential for all life forms. For example it makes up 60 to 70% by weight of all living organisms and is essential for photosynthesis. The sustainability of all life on Earth is determined chiefly by the presence of water and the reliability of the cycles that keep it unchanged.
Water covers 75% of the Earth's surface. Nearly 98% of the Earth's water is in the oceans, making it unusable by humans because of its saline content. Fresh water makes up less than 3% of water on Earth, with over two thirds of it tied up in polar ice caps and glaciers. Fresh water lakes and rivers make up only 0.009% of water on Earth and ground water makes up 0.28%.
According to this article today
Jack Reid On Water Wars
these circumstances added to the spectre of climate change which is already drying up rivers in China, Brazil, and countries worldwide making water sources scarce, will ultimately lead to worldwide wars for water, perhaps within the next thirty years.
So while so many discuss only peak oil and wars in the Middle East for oil, the current situation regarding the scarcity of water, it's privatization, and the effects of that privatization (backed by the World Bank) combined with global warming that is killing people, is not getting the attention it deserves. Hopefully these links will impart a bit more knowledge on this most important topic for our future sustainability. Simply put, without water, we die.
Half the world facing water shortages by 2025
A must read interview with Vandana Shiva about privatization, the World Bank, and Earth Democracy
By Vandana Shiva
Water scarcity in the Middle East
Wars Over Water?
Water wars-The Middle East- and yes, this also effects Israel
Bechtel's water wars
This issue MUST see the light of day. That is why I also then hope that Al Gore will somewhere in the future corrolate this to what he is now telling people about climate change. There have been warnings about this for years. It has been happening for years. And we now ignore it at our peril.
End of diary excerpt.
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Climate change is killing the poor. Anyone who thinks that isn't an important issue and is only to be used to write diaries about who they want to run for President, NEEDS to read up more on this issue. This is more important than running for President. This is LIFE AND DEATH, and thank God people like Al Gore see this and want to do something about it now.
Also, please read about Water Partners International and do anything you can to help them. I do know how hopeless so much can seem to be to us each day, but if we already HAVE what is neccessary to survive and it is simply a matter of us opening our hearts to get it to those who need it, we MUST do it.
THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. And to those who would like to know what I am doing personally, I am saving all of my pennies and have almost a hundred dollars worth that I will wrap and send to this organization on my own to help dig wells in villages and towns that need safe water that is accessible to their people and especially their children. You can do that as well, and it will not be something that will be too much for you. I am also hoping to have a fund drive for this organization through my PAC, Patriots for Al Gore, sometime this year after our Spring Fundraiser, which is sending equal shares of all donations to our Cafe Press Store to the Carl Sagan Foundation and America's Second Harvest.
I will also be doing more research on this topic and getting in touch with certain people in this Congress to relay to them the life and death situation they are only exacerbating by their enabling of war in the Middle East. Those in this regime as well who have dismissed climate change as a non issue have killed more people than they ever hoped to imagine. It is time for this to stop.