Author: Brian Carnell

United Nations Conference on Water

Japan recently hosted the third World Water Forum that featured about 10,000 delegates from 150 countries.

The United Nations has set a goal of reducing by half the number of people without access to safe water and sanitation by 2015. But that seems very unlikely, especially as the forum itself was bogged down by competing interest groups and debate about the best approaches to bring about this admirable goal.

China received praise for its efforts to collect rainwater which has yielded enough drinking water for 15 million people. Such programs, however, rely on good governance which cannot necessarily be guaranteed over time. India also experienced a lot of initial success with a rainwater collection system which then fell victim to lack of maintenance and oversight.

But the oddest thing was the private vs. public water debate. A coalition of NGOs called the Blue Planet Project was unhappy that the last World Water Forum had given its approval for privatization of water facilities. The Blue Planet Project insists that access to water is a “right” that should be guaranteed by the state.

Right, since good governance of public resources is such a hallmark of developing countries that they are the obvious choice to manage water facilities. Privatizing water in such countries has the specific advantage of removing water management from the political realm where corruption has led to the mismanagement of water and other resources in the developing world.

Sources:

Forum tackles world water crisis. Tim Hirsch, The BBC, March 16, 2003.

World meets to tackle water crisis. Ben Sutherland, The BBC, March 15, 2003.

‘Ideological battle’ over world’s water. Tim Hirsch, The BBC, March 18, 2003.

Transitioning from Traditional to Industrial Fishing

The BBC’s Sarah Simpson recently wrote an excellent article on the sorts of problems that fish industries have encountered around the world as traditional methods of regulating the fish stock are increasingly made irrelevant by newer methods of harvesting the oceans.

Simpson reports on the fishing industry in Elmina, Ghana. Traditionally, fishing was (and is) carried out in canoes. As demand for fish has increased and Ghanans have limited economic opportunities, the rather predictable result has been overfishing that has depleted fishing stocks. Of course, this then leads to a cycle of additional overfishing which leads to yet smaller fishing yields which in turn fuels the overfishing problem. In January 2002, for example, the number of fishing permits issued in Ghana had increased by 800 percent.

Like most nation-states, the government of Ghana’s attempt to deal with the problem focuses on command-and-control regulations that try to limit catches by fiat. The problem, of course, is that Ghana lacks the resources to actually enforce such laws.

Meanwhile Simpson reports that even though the fisherman are just one step ahead of bankruptcy, they are resistant to any attempts to diversify the Elmina economy to reduce the reliance on fishing.

Fishing currently contributes an estimated 7 percent of Ghana’s GDP and is a major source of jobs and exports for the country. But handling the transition to intensive production while maintaining stocks will be a major challenge for Ghana and other nations.

Source:

Ghana Fishing Data. Agro-Ind.Com, 2002.

Fishing for a future. Sarah Simpson, The BBC, March 19, 2003.

Anti-French Nonsense Reaches Appropriate Climax

This Yahoo! story discusses how the Air Force One menu recently featured “Freedom Toast” — French toast being verboten because of France’s refusal to agree to war against Iraq.

There’s just one problem — French toast doesn’t have anything to do with France. Instead, the invention of French toast is widely credited to Joseph French, an American colonist who supposedly first served his recipe in 1724 in Albany, New York.

Morons.

The Really Important Post-War Iraq Debate Begins

According to the BBC, American and British firms are already fighting the next big war in Iraq. When the U.S. and U.K. rebuild Iraq, will it get a GSM or CDMA cellular network.

California Republican Darrell Issa is reportedly not happy that U.S. funds might be used to build a European-style GSM infrastructure rather than a CDMA network which prevails in the United States.

Source:

Iraq war sparks wireless row. BBC, March 28, 2003.

Salon.Com – Bush Is Like a Klansman

Whatever will we do once Salon.Com finally shutters its site (after the requisite party at my place that is). I mean, how will journalism go on without rambling nonsense by Anne Lamott like this,

I am going to pray for George Bush’s heart to change, so that he begins to want to be a part of the human family. . . . He’s family. I hate this, because he is a dangerous member of the family, like a Klansman.

Apparently Salon.Com’s goal is to make Al Sharpton’s anti-Bush rhetoric look moderate in comparison.

Source:

Good Friday world. Anne Lamott, Salon.Com, March 28, 2003.

Kenya Requests $800 Million In Aid to Cover Corruption

In March the new government of Kenya reported that its treasury had all but been drained by the former government of Daniel Arap Moi and that the country would need $800 million in aid from the international community.

The incoming National Rainbow Coalition thought the government deficit would be in the neighborhood of $400 million, but Kenya’s Finance Minister David Mwiraria told the BBC that it would end up being closer to $850 million, forcing the African nation to ask for money from international donors.

Mwiraria claims any Kenyan need for such aid would only be for the short term, but whether or not the National Rainbow Coalition will be able to tackle Kenya’s widespread corruption remains to be seen.

Source:

Kenya needs $800m of aid. The BBC, March 11, 2003.