CEOs SERVE ONLY SHAREHOLDERS — NOT THE GENERAL PUBLIC The CEOs and Central Bankers of today are akin to the lords and high priests of the ancient world. When they speak they are expected to be listened to and obeyed — even though the words they say may be lies, wild guesses, gut feelings, or self-serving statements that sound reasonable but are in fact backed by no objective data (e.g., But organic is not best. After 15 years of eating GM food products in the USA, not one single case of illness has occurred from eating them to date. — Nestle former CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe). In fact the food manufacturers have lobbied very effectively for governments to fund little objective research questioning the health effects of GMOs, and any study that does emerge criticizing the industry is attacked in an effort to discredit and bury it. We must never forget that everything said by any CEO or corporate representative is to further the objectives of their shareholders, and ONLY their shareholders. It is up to us to ask ourselves as our government representatives create laws, enforce regulations, and establish contracts with private businesses on our behalf, whether the majority of benefits accrued from such efforts flow to the public and not to corporate shareholders. Whether we consider ourselves citizens of national democracies or people of the world, if we choose to accept the self-serving words companies and their representatives say to stake their claim on the world — the world we ALL must live on — then whatever they say will be transformed from an assertion into fact. It is up to us to refuse to be manipulated or accept the conditions that corporations and extreme capitalists are trying to impose upon us all. We must vote in government representatives at all levels that will push back and state clearly that there are valid alternative ways of managing the world and its limited resources — that better serves the majority of people, not just the elite few comprising the asset class of our society. WE CAN AND MUST CHOOSE WHAT SOCIETY WE WANT The many types of capitalism implemented throughout the world today clearly demonstrates that there is no one way of running a society. We can and should debate and CHOOSE how we want to live and manage our national resources and the resources of the global commons that we all must share (e.g., the air, the oceans, the creatures of the sea, etc.). Capitalism is a great way to encourage private individuals to invest their accumulated wealth into potentially profit-making ventures. It is not necessarily an ideal way to solve all problems for all people — especially problems that concern the poor (e.g., low-cost housing and education), those who have no opportunity for a free-market choice (e.g., non-optional health care), and projects with a profit window deemed too risky, long-term (e.g., infrastructure), or incapable of generating a sufficiently quick profit (e.g., new types of antibiotics). We must understand this if we are not to be tricked into allowing corporations to impose their profit-seeking vision onto every aspect of our lives and our world, while discouraging public interest and government investment into projects THEY deem unprofitable. HUMAN RIGHTS ARE HARD WON AND EASLY LOST Rights may appear to be the bedrock of our society but in fact they are very fragile. Rights are only what we as people are willing to assign to ourselves through our governments and the enforcement of laws. They can be established or taken away — sometimes at the whim of a leader, the advice of a respected but complicit lawyer, and the stroke of a pen (e.g., the right to privacy or unreasonable search and seizure without a warrant). We often see government officials and their agents acting against the Rights theyve been sworn to uphold by refusing to acknowledge or enforce them, or by attacking and imprisoning the very people such Rights were established to protect; typically when corrupted by corporate money or political ambition. It is up to us to decide what our Rights should be. Rights should and must serve and protect the interests of the people. ALL the people, rich and especially the poor. We must not allow ourselves to be swayed by the self-interested words of a corporate representative. — Kevin Davies, June 30, 2014. ARTICLE: Nestle CEO: Water is Not a Human Right, Should Be Privatized (May 9, 2014): themindunleashed.org/2014/05/nestle-ceo-water-human-right-privatized-2.html VIDEO: https://youtube/watch?v=SEFL8ElXHaU VIDEOS: CORPORATE CONTROL OF WATER BLUE GOLD - World Water Wars (1:29:44): youtube/watch?v=B1a3tjqQiBI youtube/watch?v=86N20IOigKE&list=PLxeXlDDGUP1sAn2bNPwEMz6Sg0MV0Nw5d youtube/watch?v=dXVBpjcTCQk&list=PL37D5219CDAA8E635 ARTICLE - Water Privatization - The Problems with Corporate Control of Water: foodandwaterwatch.org/global/latin-america/water-privatization-3/ ARTICLE - State Governments in USA Make Rainwater Collection Illegal (2010, 2012): naturalnews/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html offgridsurvival/rainwaterillegal/
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 09:59:53 +0000
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