WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

eal beneficiaries of this “development aid” are the water companies
of the industrialised western nations, whose high percentage of votes
dominates World Bank policies (see chapter on Neoliberal Conspiracy/
World Bank, page 151).
While dust – in the form of Good Samaritan clichés – is being
thrown into the eyes of the public, the protagonists continue to pursue
their plan according to economic reasoning, which has nothing at all
to do with the interests of the poor. How could it possibly have A
joint stock company, by its very nature, has commitments towards its
investors and is under obligation to make profits. Investments will not
be made unless capital returns plus appropriate profits are guaranteed.
The state provides such guarantees – in Germany, the Hermes AG has
agreed to take on export credit guarantees, while the KfW grants the
actual export loans. A large company will only get involved when there
are profits to be made or where profit guarantees have been agreed
on beforehand with the government. Under no circumstances will it
venture out into the slums, the favelas or rural regions of the Third
World, where the poorest of the poor live and where outside help is
most desperately needed.
“Let them come and see men and women and
children who know how to live, whose joy of life
has not yet been killed by those who claimed to
teach other nations how to live.”
Nigerian author Chinualumogu Achebe in “No Longer at Ease”, London,
1960; the name Chinualumogu means “God is fighting on my side”.
What the rich nations actually mean when they talk about
“development aid” is the promotion of trade in favour of multinational
conglomerates under the pretext of carrying out acts of charity. Nothing
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