Water...

I recently watched the movie Constant Gardener, with Ralph Fiennes, a movie adapted and directed by Fernando Meirelles (directed "City of God") from a book by John LeCarre. It was a thriller about a few individuals that tried to stop a pharmaceutical company and its Government backers from conducting fatal drug-testing on several African (nameless) victims in the name of corporate profits.

The acting was great, and one of the main characters was a woman named Tessa,(played by Rachel Weiss who won an Academy Award for her performance) a cheerful, energetic, passionate person who could not let go of the oppression, injustice and blind eyes that so many others were taking to the situation. I was applauding her...but her insistence on giving the victims a voice cost her life. It was a well directed movie that presented yet another view on how corporate profiteering and nationalistic pursuits can run along a very dangerous, hurtful path.

One part of the movie was not fiction. The filming of the villages was not contrived. The "sets" where the film took place was based on and actually created from real-life settings, no extras needed, no creation of thatched roofs, no planned landscapes that reflected lack of vegetation or water. It was already there.

As the features of the DVD revealed the footage taken in Kenya, it was amazing to see that there are whole villages where no water or septic systems or electricity is present. No water, no facilities for plumbing, no electrical outlets for the IPOD.

This impression of the realities of these villages impacted me more than I anticipated. I am not sure why now, but somehow, with this story fresh in my mind it hit home.

How lucky I found myself in my own situation, living in the part of the world where electricity, water, everything is in uber-abundance. The endless hot showers, the dishwashing of dishes (even if the dishwasher is not full), the lights left on in the house when no on is in the room. By the way, I all of sudden have been more cognizant of how I can personally contribute. I just feel so silly I never really thought about it more. I don't like sterotypes, but I wonder if my thoughtlessness qualifies for being so "American".

Just to see where the world is on this issue, here is a disturbing irony (thanks Pieter for finding this...):

One of the U.N. Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to drinking water and sanitation, but the United Nations says this may not be achieved. Why? Not enough money to sustain the goal.

The United Nations estimates that it would cost $6.7 billion a year to
meet MDG targets on water and sanitation - compared to the $17 billion spent by Europe and the United States annually on pet food.

Wow. Why can't we get our priorities straight???