The PSA above has been running a lot on Socorro FM since last Sunday morning. Our sponsors for the airtime are: Western Wholesale Winston's Auto Service The Golden Spur Saloon Water Boy Transport Man in the Maze Productions
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Dan Rufenacht won the $100 bill for the
BEST WATER THIEF at The Golden Spur Saloon's
Halloween Party. Dan said he was trying to find
that perfect balance between a used car salesman
and a sleazy scumball member of some
"FAMILY" of foreign operators.
You done GOOD Dan!
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"Price hikes and water quality problems often follow on the heels of
privatization. While governments may expect to lower debt and transfer
the costs of infrastructure repair and maintenance via privatization,
the willingness of private companies to make such investments depends on
the profit stream. In fact, debt reduction, increased spending for
upgrades and the companies’ guaranteed profit margins will ultimately be
borne by citizens through higher bills. Privatization saddles consumers
with the dual responsibilities of public debt reduction and corporate
profitability, usually guaranteed by governments’ contracts.
Operating as a sanctioned monopoly, a private water company is able to exploit the lack of competition. Citizens have few avenues to voice dissatisfaction with broken promises. In fact, communities’ interests are often trampled and disregarded once public control is surrendered. Without transparency or accountability, water corporations are breeding grounds for bribery, kickbacks and other forms of corruption, many cases of which have been documented in the U.S. and abroad."
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Click on the water below to see the full article: "The ABC's of Water Privatization"
As one of the cardinal features of the Washington Consensus,
the private takeover of public institutions and enterprises has become the
prime instrument for the commodification of water. Public services like
the delivery of water, traditionally by municipal governments in
most countries, are taken over by corporations,
often foreign owned, in the interests of making a profit. Through this privatization process,
water is turned into a commodity, priced, put on the market, and sold,
usually on the basis of ability to pay.
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Water privatization generally occurs in one of three forms. First,
there is the complete sell-off by governments of public water delivery and
treatment systems to corporations, as has happened in the United Kingdom.
Second, there is the model developed in France, whereby water corporations are
granted concessions or leases by governments to take over delivery of
the service and carry the cost of operating and maintaining the system,
while collecting all the revenues for the water service and keeping the
surplus as a profit. Third, there is a more restrictive model, in which
a corporation is contracted by the government to manage water services
for an administrative fee, but is not able to take over the collection of revenues,
let alone reap profits from surpluses. While all three forms contain the
seeds of privatization, the most common one is the second model,
often referred to as "public-private partnerships."
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And here's the beginning of Page 5 of the LLC website:
A Public-Private Partnership.
Every year, New Mexico municipalities spend millions of dollars purchasing water rights in controversial offsets. None of these purchases deliver any actual water to the cities. Infrastructure stills needs to be built and every year, millions are spent on energy costs necessary to pump, treat and deliver the water.
The Bureau of Reclamation has spent significant funds throughout the year to increase stream flow in the Rio Grande. For example its 2012 budget includes over $6 million for the “acquisition of supplemental non-Federal water, and pumping from the low flow conveyance channel into the Rio Grande
during the irrigation season”.
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In spite of all these expenditures, the river is running dry and public officials are sounding the alarm: “The pressures on the Rio Grande now and other rivers of the state in the future are great. If we didn’t have the storage in northern New Mexico reservoirs and the San Juan-Chama project, the Rio Grande would be dry right now. That’s a pretty shocking thing . . . Where are we going to get the water?” Senator Tom Udall, Annual Water Conference, Las Cruces, August 2012. .
The value of the water rights at the benchmark prices New Mexico municipalities are paying exceeds the estimated construction cost of the Augustin Plains Ranch project. Operation and Maintenance costs of the project are significantly below current costs to the municipalities since no expensive energy is required to convey the project water to the Albuquerque Metropolitan Area.
.Our proposed Public Private Partnership will supply 54,000 Acre Feet of water every year to the Middle Rio Grande, at no additional costs
to the citizens of New Mexico.
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Here's the link to the entire page from the website: http://sanaugustinwater.com/partnership.html The graphic illustration below is how they see the "stakeholders," though it's interesting to note that the LLC isn't included in the graphic. The LLC being of course the Augustin Plains Ranch LLC, otherwise known as "the foreigners" - Bruno Modena and his son Vittorio, from Milan, Italy, the multi-millionaire father-son team, and unnamed as yet other investors. The would-be water thieves. . . BusinessDictionary.com defines "stakeholder" as "A person, group or organization that has interest or concern in an organization.. Stakeholders can affect or be affected by the organization's actions, objectives and policies. Some examples of key stakeholders are creditors, directors, employees, government (and its agencies), owners (shareholders), suppliers, unions, and the community from which the business draws its resources." . If they were included in the graphic, it would certainly be represented as a giant leech, disguised like a big oval bladder, called "OWNERS" - with tentacles attached everywhere, sucking blood, money, and water from "The People." . They ought to be represented in the graphic. They'll be getting the water, and all the damn money that will come to them as a result of their theft. In most respects, they've got the biggest stake. Potentially, a huge fortune rides on the outcome here. And the people of Catron and Socorro Counties, and the people of New Mexico in the big picture, have the most to lose. .
. And, without wanting to sound inhospitable, or lacking basic human charity, the following needs to be said: THESE GUYS DON'T SEEM TO GET IT. NO ONE WANTS THEM AS A PARTNER. PEOPLE WANT THEM TO LEAVE, TO GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. IF THERE'S A PARTNERSHIP TO BE HAD, IT WON'T BE WITH THE LIKES OF THESE. IT WOULD BE BEST FOR ALL IF THEY JUST MOVED ON. PERIOD. .
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The little that's known about these people is either very bad, or worse. Check the early blog posts about their financial adventure in Maine. It was a whole new form of extortion. Everything else is hidden - no financial statements, no tax returns, no nothing. . From all appearances, (and this is just appearances), they're international mobsters of some sort, very secretive, very closed. They don't want anyone to know ANYTHING about them. If they did, they'd have put up a financial profile that was somewhat believable. Who they are. Where all the damn money comes from. They never have put up any info - it's just a Santa Fe or New York lawyer's office as an address. They sure as hell don't come out to western New Mexico, announce who they are, and invite everyone over to a Bar-B-Q.
They're off in Norway, Germany, or maybe Italy, or visiting Ukraine, Moldova, or Israel. Or God Knows Where.
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[Editor's Note 10/15 Those countries, along with the U.S., compose the Top 7 world audience for hits on the blog. United Kingdom is coming on strong as a new contender at #8.]
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These are international operators, why else would all these people be interested? This can't all be hits from kids in college "World Business Ethics 310" classes. I see a family portrait in the mirror.
But, obviously, the less people know, the better, as far as the Modenas and their organization are concerned. It's nice to know folks watch us though. There's a snake in the grass. Beware. . But quien sabe, who knows, maybe they're in the hospitality business. Or maybe they are simply trying to figure out how to launder a ton of cash, and make a Sultan's ransom in the process. Whatever. These are NOT the kind of people you want to do business with, especially WITH WATER. .
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You should note that while there are
numerous claims about "costs" in their web
copy, there are NO figures - NONE, NADA.
No proof, just "take our word for it."
Their Project Director is a liar and thief from the Louis Berger Group, a federal contractor working in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, that got hit with the largest war-time fine for a federal contractor - in U.S. history. This LLC Project Director, Michel Jichlinski, was President and CEO of the outfit during the period
that the whisleblower's evidence covered.
He's not American, he's a foreigner,
carrying passports from....
. It was a massive fraud scheme via exotic accounting overbilling practices, and where bribes to ANYONE were common, which the company called "grease money". The entire company, the Louis Berger Group, was called "a culture of fraud" by the whistleblower. The FEDS believed him, obviously, after they saw the evidence. The biggest fine ever for a war-time contractor - 69.3 million dollars - included both civil and criminal penalties. .
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But Jichlinski didn't go to jail, though a few others did. It'd be no surprise to find out that he's got big connections on the Beltway.
Congressman Scumbag and he probably shoot a few holes at Bethesda, when they're not busy counting their money, or working on a western water project. As we all know, in Washington, money talks. Sometimes a little too loudly. "You know Congressman, it just requires a little bit more grease money, and then we'll have it in the bag. And of course we'll recognize your great efforts on the behalf of our investment group, who have so generously put up an offer here, an offer you couldn't refuse. FORE!" .
. Above: Michel Jichlinski, Project Director of the WATER GRAB. Below is a link to an article about the issue
from the McClatchy Washington Bureau - a
well-respected investigative newspaper/web outfit. Below that is a link to a story about how the Louis Berger Group went on to win even more contracts. They have much more on the issue if you're interested. Search it.
Take his word?
You've GOT to be kidding!
This guy's anti-American. Period.
You ARE if you steal from us.
And this guy STOLE MILLIONS!
He's a foreign OPERATOR.
Mob connected? Probably.
It hardly matters. HE'S A PIG! A federal contractor who lined his pockets with U.S. cash by fraud - milking millions and millions of your taxdollars in illegal profits, on projects in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan - by fraud, by cooking the books, as they say. We should take him to a gathering of New Mexico combat veterans to pitch his plan. Could he live through it? When pigs fly. .
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And now we continue where we left off with BLUE GOLD. . Shifting from public to private systems introduces, of course, a completely different set of commercial imperatives into water-service delivery. Although the water industry insists on "full cost recovery" in taking over a concession, this usually includes profit margins. After all, the owners and shareholders of the privatizing corporation are driven by demands for profits and dividends, which in turn, are generally redistributed for investment globally in other divisions of the corporation's overall operations. Maximizing profit is the prime goal, not ensuring sustainability or equal access to water. Management of water resources, therefore, is based on market dynamics of increasing consumption and profit maximization, rather than on a long-term sustainability of a scarce resource for future generations. As a result, the price that a corporation is prepared to pay for a water concession depends on the revenue and profit-generating stream that can be expected from the deal. .
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"In 1999, Pickens formed Mesa Water and began to
accumulate water rights to sell to thirsty cities such as El Paso,
Lubbock, or San Antonio. But as time passed, Mesa Water focused
on the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) Metroplex. Already the state's largest
water user, DFW's population was growing quickly in the midst
of a worsening drought.
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Many of Pickens's neighbors were alarmed by his plan to
privatize the groundwater, treating it as a commodity like oil or gas,
to be sold to the highest bidder. Some of them rallied against him
and threatened lawsuits; others joined Mesa Water, hoping to profit.
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As water supplies are stretched thin across the country,
this scenario is becoming increasingly familiar.
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For much of the nation's history, Americans have fought
over surface water - who gets to use how much of lake or river water -
but most of those disputes have been settled; today the
Water promises to be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century:
the precious commodity that determines the wealth of nations. Fortune
magazine, May 2000 . Imagine for a moment what life will be like in the
corporate-controlled world of the future. A handful of huge, powerful
corporations will be responsible for all the societal services now handled by
local, state and national governments - schools, police, prisons, military,
mail, elections, social security, and so on. Even more importantly, corporations
will control those things essential to human survival, namely food and water. If
they can figure out a way to commodify the air we breathe, they surely will
attempt to exert their control over the planet’s oxygen, as well. Services once
provided by government agencies, accountable to voters, will be provided by
corporations, accountable only to stockholders. With our governments in the sway
of the corporations, our minimal democracy having eroded even further, and
ultimate authority ceded to corporate- run international trade organizations, we
will have lost the power to control the things most important to our
survival. . Is this some remote and unlikely futuristic scenario? I wish it
was, but a corporate-owned and controlled planet is closer than you might think
- much closer - and unless we wake up soon and start taking back the reins, it
will become a reality. One of the most important struggles being waged around
the world against corporate control is over who owns our water. Water is
essential to all life on the planet, from microbes to humans. If ever there was
a natural resource that should remain part of the commons, this is it.. On
a world scale, freshwater is scarce and becoming scarcer, with demand growing
greater each year as the human population of our planet continues to swell. The
rate of global water consumption is currently doubling every 20 years. With more
than one billion human inhabitants of the Earth already lacking access to safe
drinking water, and that number growing daily, the scenario for the future is
already very frightening. The World Health Organization predicts that 48 nations
will face severe water shortages by 2025, and the World Bank has predicted that
by the year 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population will run short of fresh
drinking water. . As fresh drinking water becomes more and more scarce, the
world can expect violent conflicts over water to become more commonplace,
destabilizing entire regions of the world. Hotspots where water reserves are
dwindling include the Middle East, northern China, Mexico, California and almost
two dozen countries in Africa. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a ready
example of a water war already in progress, but the situation in the Middle East
and around the globe will undoubtedly grow worse in the years ahead. If you
think the current oil wars are bad, wait until the
water wars really kick
in. . Making a bad situation even worse, much worse, we have entered the
brave new world of water privatization, where huge, predatory, multinational
corporations are gradually gaining control over our once publicly-owned water
supplies. With growing scarcity, the market value of water will undoubtedly
rise. It is with good reason that Fortune magazine has dubbed water the
oil of the 21st century. According to Fortune, the annual profits of the
water industry now amount to about 40 percent of those of the oil sector,
and
are close to $1 trillion.
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International “free” trade agreements have given a tremendous boost to water
privatization. The World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA), established by and for large multinational
corporations, promote deregulation and privatization of goods and services,
including water. As a result of these trade agreements, it is now difficult for
a nation to control exports of its water beyond its borders, or to prevent
foreign corporations from establishing water operations inside the country. As
an example, under NAFTA’s rules, Canada may be forced to allow the bulk export
of water to the United States. Already, a California company is suing the
Canadian government for $10.5 billion because the province of British Columbia
banned the commercial export of bulk water. . The international water
cartel also receives a tremendous amount of help from international lending
institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Working hand-in-hand with the water giants, these lending institutions are both
actively pushing water privatization, forcing developing countries to abandon
their public water systems and contract with the corporations to provide water
to their citizens. The World Bank has recently changed its policy from
pressuring countries to privatize their water systems, to making water sector
loans contingent on privatization. With the water systems in many developing
countries in desperate need of repair, the countries have little choice but to
accept the terms dictated. . The challenge ahead of us is formidable. The
corporations involved in water privatization are extremely powerful, with strong
allies in government. In the words of Maude Barlow, author of Blue Gold, The
Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water, “It’s important to
remember that it’s a very small, incestuous circle - these water companies, the
World Water Council, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the IMF. There’s a lot of money to be made from the commodification of water, and these
people know that whoever controls water is going to be both very rich and very
powerful.” The momentum for privatization is considerable. If we are to protect
our public water resources and prevent the nightmare scenario of for-profit
corporations meting out costly water to a thirsty world, the time to act is
now.
