Future Fridays: Water Must NOT Be Traded as a Commodity

So, the other night we were watching a December episode of A Late Show with Stephen Colbert and he reported that Wall Street is trading WATER like gold and oil. Talk about a splash of cold water in my face! Check this out:

The country’s first water market launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange this week with $1.1 billion in contracts tied to water prices in California, Bloomberg News reported.

The market allows farmers, hedge funds, and municipalities to hedge bets on the future price of water and water availability in the American West. The new trading scheme was announced in September, prompted by the region’s worsening heat, drought, and wildfires fueled by climate change. There were two trades when the market went live Monday (December 7th 2020)*.

Shutterstock photo

 
How and why would people treat water, the basis of life, like a commodity?

“Climate change, droughts, population growth, and pollution are likely to make water scarcity issues and pricing a hot topic for years to come,” RBC Capital Markets managing director and analyst Deane Dray told Bloomberg. “We are definitely going to watch how this new water futures contract develops.”

I remember when former President Enrique Bolaños (2002-2007) tried to privatize water in Nicaragua. The country rose up in defiance. Although basically health care and education were privatized to a degree, water never was.

Last November, the Nicaragua government voted to open consignments on water to get clean water into areas that do not have access, but water is still in the government's hands.

 
The World Bank estimates by 2025 that 2/3rds of the world’s population will experience a shortage in clean drinking water. Two-thirds!

According to Water for All, they list these ten reasons for not privatizing water: 

1. Privatization will lean to rate increases.
2. Privatization will undermine water quality.
3. Companies will be responsible to their shareholders and not to consumers.
4. Privatization will increase corruption.
5. It will reduce local control and limit the public's right to water.
6. It will lead to job losses.
7. Private financing is more costly than public financing.
8. Privatization is hard to reverse.
9. It will lead to bulk water exports.
10. It can leave the poor with no access to clean water.

Privatization of water is terrifying.  We all need to rise up in defiance. This needs to be nipped in the bud NOW.

-Kathleen

*Yet, another reason for 2020 to be a crappy year!

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Organic Peanuts: a Roll of the Dice

Peanuts originated in South America, but are now a global commodity and used in many cooking styles from Thai and many Asian dishes, to African Groundnut Stew, to peanut brittle in the South, and peanut butter eaten world wide.  Not to mention peanut oil.

I hate peanuts. I mean I like the taste of peanuts and I cook with peanuts; but peanut crops are like a harsh mistress to COPROEXNIC (the organic agriculture cooperative) and its farmers. They promise a great deal and seldom come through.

Sesame grows well here. If it rains too much, it usually survives just fine. If there is not enough rain, it can survive…not so with peanuts.

Coffee does pretty well in the higher parts of Nicaragua. It can be damaged with too early rains that then stop after the plants have produced blossoms. Volcanic ash can damage the blossoms and with too much rain at harvest the berries can swell and fall off the plant. The higher temperatures each year is slowly hurting the coffee productions, but coffee is still sturdier than peanuts.

Organic peanut inspection - photo Dave Landstein, Multiple Organics

Peanuts grow in the ground. They are actually legumes, not nuts at all. Peanuts are healthy: high in protein and good fats.

The peanut plants are amazing at fixing nitrogen from the air and putting it in the soil, which is why they are a great crop for the earth to replenish the nitrogen that other plants absorb…but finicky! My heavens! They are finicky!

Because they grow in the ground, they are susceptible to fungi. Too much rain and they get all “fungus-y” which can develop aflatoxins…got that last part “toxins”….that’s right, "poison". Aflatoxin can cause cancer.

Vermin LOVE peanuts. Behind our property, someone grows a field of peanuts. After they harvest, our property gets the many mice and rats who no longer have peanuts to munch on.

Pests LOVE peanuts. If peanuts are not processed in a timely manner then they are infested with bugs, which requires freezing the peanuts to kill the insects.

And for the fungi that creates aflatoxins… one way to reduce aflatoxins is to blanch the peanuts. Now we have TWO additional processes added to the peanuts which gets really costly. Add to that we have YET to find a processor who will process the COPROEXNIC peanuts in a timely and correct manner.

Peanut processing - Once Again Nut Butter visit

BUT when the rains are good and not overly heavy, peanuts grow well here.  Organic peanuts processed well and on time are an excellent cash crop and they build up the soil's nitrogen.

Unlike the other crops that COPROEXNIC grows and markets, peanuts are like the little girl with a curl right in the middle of her forehead…when they are good…they are very, very good…but when they are bad, they are horrid.

Unfortunately, with climate change affecting Nicaragua so much, growing peanuts is getting to be a bit like betting on a roulette wheel and I am no gambler. But the farmers and the managers of COPROEXNIC keep hoping…at least peanuts help the soil.

-Kathleen

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Assembly of People Into Giving a S**t: Am I on My Own?

As I write this, I am thinking about 25 years ago when our youngest, Joseph, came into the world. We had only been in Nicaragua for a year-and-a-half. I was 41 years old and had already birthed two sons and had a miscarriage. Everything was going well with the pregnancy, which was good, because I was really anxious after the miscarriage.

Public hospitals and even the private hospitals here in Nicaragua gave me the willies since I didn’t speak Spanish and health care was no priority then. We had found an obstetrician who spoke English and was willing to do a home birth.

Our life-style was much rougher then than it is now. We had no telephone. We had no hot water. The electricity went out all the time and with it went the water. We lived out in the middle of the campo on a badly maintained dirt road which was our only access to “civilization” or medical care. Yet we did have tiled floors, showers (when the water was on), and we had a community.

After a false alarm the night before when Mama and Daddy arrived in-country, Mike, Mama and I went bouncing in the truck to see the doctor. On the way home, labor was jostled into full blown.

When it was time to push Joseph out, I learned that the doctor who had been here for a couple of hours waiting, had left to find a phone (no cell phones then) to call the pediatrician to come.

Kathy went with the doctor to use the friend's phone that we borrowed in that house. Pat kept Daddy busy talking with him. Mama was praying. Sarah was watching anxiously for the doctor to return. Jessica was keeping Coury (almost 7 years old) and Daniel (age 3) entertained, and Mike was with me in the bathroom. The next happened in about three minutes…

Mike saved Joseph from being born in a toilet. I pushed once in our bed, and Joseph came plopping out screaming with the cord wrapped around his neck three times. Mike calmed me and unwrapped the cord…as family and community flooded in…and handed me our little Joseph to hold.

Very soon Sarah with a very embarrassed doctor came in. As the post-birthing activities took place…cutting the cord, wrapping Joseph, etc. … my placenta refused to budge.

Then came the scaping manually of the placenta with no anesthesia at all…Mike supported me. Mama prayed and the rest held Joseph, cooed and aahed, and helped Coury and Daniel meet and hold their new brother. I only had to focus on not kicking the doctor in the face.

I have always been offended by couples who say, “We’re pregnant.” After four pregnancies, puking my insides out with morning sickness, back aches, false labor contractions, swollen feet, and being so uncomfortable…I insist that only I was pregnant…WE were having a baby.

I have also said, “Doctors do not deliver babies unless in labor themselves…they help.” After three labors…believe me, neither the midwives nor the doctor worked like I did. 

Joseph's baptism - 1996

But having my community with me meant that labor was easier. I knew before the labor I could count on them to help me if the doctor could not come… and they did. Knowing that the other small ones were being cared for left me to concentrate on relaxing during contractions and Mike coaching me. Knowing that Daddy and Mama were being hosted allowed me to focus on the job at-hand. And I knew when Mike told me the doctor was not here, that Mike would help me get Joseph out safely.

We are interdependent on each other.

No one is completely independent. No one can make their own success by themselves. No one can pull themselves up by their boot straps. And having a baby alone would be terrifying.  We are all interdependent.

Many doctors may think that they are God’s gift to humanity because of all their studying, but without their nurses and lab techs they struggle…I have seen this when they have come to work down here in our Clinic without them. They depend on the support and tests.

Many lawyers may think that they are the right-hand of the law, but without their secretaries and paralegals, they are bogged down in paperwork and may miss crucial aspect found in the books of law.

Many founders of businesses think that they made the business themselves and deserve huge salaries, but without the infrastructure of the roads, electricity and water…without the support of their workers…they would just have good ideas brewing in their brains.

The poor know this. They know that they that they only survive together.

And the rich know that if the poor truly unionize and join together, despite race and religion, they will be a force that demands more equality.

We are all interdependent.

EVERY. SINGLE. LAST. ONE. OF. US.

And that includes cities, states, nations, and continents…even Antarctica is dependent on us to do our part to save the ice.

If climate change has taught anything, it has taught us that we are all dependent on each other. We all share the same air, the same water, the same hurricanes and fires, the same droughts and floods, the same sea-level risings.

When leaders of our world seek to divide us, we need to grab the hands closest to us and keep reaching to bring us all together.  Together we are a force to be reckoned with.

-Kathleen

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Assembly of People Into Giving a Sh*t: Hypocritical, Me?

Several years ago, when memes were first brought to my attention, I loved the ones that made fun of First World Problems with a white woman looking distraught with her head in her hand. I thought, “I’m going to do one and post it!” I thought and thought and finally came up with something like “Trying to think of a First World Problem meme and not succeeding” [is a First World Problem].

Today I have been wracking my brain to find an example of how I am hypocritical. I even asked Mike and being the loving (and smart) partner that he is, he, too, couldn’t come up with an example. But not knowing HOW I am hypocritical is hypocritical in and of itself.

Hypocrisy is something that I detest and I try extremely hard not to be hypocritical. I would rather be honest and just admit that in our lives there are places where we fail at self-awareness.

Hypocrisy was one aspect of the 2016 U.S. presidential elections that drove me insane with rage. I remember our dear friend, Josh, saying “2016 is the year that will be known as the most hypocritical year in the U.S.”.

I could not believe all those Christians voting for a man who was extremely unethical, immoral, and blatantly so. I could not believe that there were women who voted for this man who openly talked about grabbing women by their p------. I could not believe that there were poor people who voted for this billionaire who was handed his empire on a silver platter and squandered it. I could not believe there were college graduates who voted for this man who ran a bogus university and made fun of people with disabilities, veterans, and used words like “bigly” and ignored science.

It was a year of hypocrisy. The last four years were years of hypocrisy, but now the U.S. has Pres. Biden and what is one of the first things that he does….

After having his election questioned with people breaking into the Capitol on the grounds of stopping the Congressional vote to approve his win of the presidency, he…Pres. Biden…is still acknowledging Juan Guaido as the legitimate leader of Venezuela. Guaido, who has not ever won the Venezuelan presidential elections. Pres. Biden refused to acknowledge the Venezuelan elections because of “irregularities"… sound familiar? If you had listened to Former Pres. Trump rant about U.S. Democrats, it would sound very familiar.

Hypocrisy. We learned on Real Time with Bill Mahr that the woman who was shot and killed in the assault on the Capitol was an Air Force veteran, Ashli Babbit, from San Diego, CA. We learned that living in California, one of the most progressive states in the U.S., she had to borrow from a lending firm at 169% interest in order to purchase her family’s small business -  a pool supply company. How can such a lending firm operate within the laws of one of the most progressive states? Hypocrisy.

Here in Nicaragua closer to our home, the opposition to this present Sandinista government consists of the local hierarchy of the Catholic Church, many intellectuals, former Sandinistas who fought against the U.S.-backed dictatorships of the Somoza family, the insurrectionists of the Contra War in the 1980s, as well as others. The Catholic Church leaders called for arms in 2018…they were even taped as saying they would work with homosexuals, drug traffickers, and abortionists to overthrow this government. Hypocrisy.

The intellectuals thought they were the only ones capable of running a country like Nicaragua, despite the fact that the Sandinistas have tremendously improved the nation's infrastructure, education, health care in the country, and have lifted so many out of poverty. The intellectuals think they are the only ones who understand “democracy” even though the poor who vote have differed greatly with them, by voting the Sandinistas into office by more than a majority in each election. Hypocrisy.

And in 2018 many of the disillusioned Sandinista founders and fighters went to the U.S. Congress to ask for support for their own attempt at a coup here. The highest form of hypocrisy.

Jesus said, “Why, then, do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How dare you say to your brother, ‘Please, let me take that speck out of your eye,’ when you have a log in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matt 7:3-5) 

As individuals, societies, and nations, before we think we know best for someone else, we need to seriously removed the blinders off our own eyes.

We need to look at ourselves, our own societies, our own nations, our own biases and eliminate them BEFORE we going poking around in someone else’s life, society, and nation.

We must be honest…and clear sighted…that is the path forward.

-Kathleen

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When There's No Such Thing as a Rainy Day Fund

Thanks to so many of you, we finished 2020 in the black!  We even have a small surplus which clinic expenses are going through like water through a sieve.

We have to order some medications from abroad now, because some labs here in Nicaragua closed in 2018, and the U.S. State Department has imposed sanctions on Nicaragua.  To make it worthwhile to the distributors, we have to order in bulk, as the sellers will not bother with a small order.

As a result, we buy all our birth control implants for the year at once.  They are good for three years and it will save us money in the long run, not to mention no unwanted children being born to families barely getting by financially.

We also buy a year's worth of medications for our Parkinson's and epilepsy patients.  If you have ever watched someone having a seizure, you can identify with the need to control them for patients.  If you have ever seen someone with Parkinson's try to steady their hands to grab a fork, you can identify how desperately people with Parkinson's just want to control their shakes.  

Chronic Care patient receiving medicine at Nueva Vida Clinic

With the purchase of the implants and these medications, we are looking at spending an extra $11,400!

We are also needing to vaccinate our Nueva Vida Clinic staff with the two doses each of Hepatitis B vaccine, which will cost $1,950.  Nicaragua now vaccinates children as part of its free childhood immunization program, but does not have enough vaccine to cover all the adults, and there is Hepatitis B in Nueva Vida.  I know that this need seems outside of everyone's focus on COVID-19 vaccines coming, but Hepatitis B is not curable and is passed through blood. In a health clinic - blood is an issue.

Add to all of that - our lab needs a new hemoglobin testing machine.  We have an old, working one, but the machine's reagents are no longer available.  Sometimes I get extremely frustrated that the industry has to make old, reliable machinery obsolete.  The least expensive machine not in the old unusable style, is $6,500.  Yikes!

Lab technician Massiel at Nueva Vida Clinic

If we just laid out all this money, our funds would be gone.

When the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, God sent them manna to eat, but they were not to save the manna, except for use on the Sabbath.  We save very little, using what we have as we have it.  Some of us worry that if a staff member resigns, we won't have saved the five months' salary of severance pay that the law requires us to pay, and yet we always manage to pay people.

We try our best to keep reserves, but when an expense arises, somehow we always pay for it. Our finances drive business people crazy.

But manna appears when needed, thanks to you and the Provider.

- Kathleen

NOTE: If you are reading this blog using the mobile version, click on "web version" to see the full blog with all the features including "subscribe to blog by email".  

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