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Friday, September 19, 2003
Naomi Kein: Free Trade Is War On September 9, seven antiprivatization activists were arrested in Soweto for blocking the installation of prepaid water meters. The meters are a privatized answer to the fact that millions of poor South Africans cannot pay their water bills. The new gadgets work like pay-as-you-go cell phones, only instead of having a dead phone when you run out of money, you have dead people, sickened by drinking cholera-infested water. On the same day South Africa's "water warriors" were locked up, Argentina's negotiations with the International Monetary Fund bogged down. The sticking point was rate hikes for privatized utility companies. In a country where 50 percent of the population is living in poverty, the IMF is demanding that multinational water and electricity companies be allowed to increase their rates by a staggering 30 percent. At trade summits, debates about privatization can seem wonkish and abstract. On the ground, they are as clear and urgent as the right to survive. Because it's a Naomi Klein kind of day...now this is a great female role model.  |
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