This is an extremely righteous example of citizen intelligence–a brilliant compilation of FACTS presented in a compelling manner intended to inspire ACTION by hundreds of millions of independent citizens whose governments cannot be relied upon to produce public intelligence in the public interest.
– Much of the water is tapped water rather than spring water–both are contaminated from the overflow of chemicals that we allow to freely enter our groundwater sources.
– More water is used in the manufacture and transport of bottled water than is contained in the bottles themselves.
– There is no regulatory oversight beyond ONE person on the safety of this water.
Meme 1: Separate Agency Budget Intelligence (SABI). The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) may be within a year of a huge management advance, understanding, with decision-support, the relative return on investment (ROI) of its investments in relation to the ten high-level threats, many of which it is uniquely positioned to address. Understanding that clean water and sanitation is the most important medical advancement since 1840, UNESCO is poised to call into question its excessive investments in vaccinations that yield little return and often create broader health issues, as opposed to focusing on micro-education (see meme 3) and micro-financiing of clean water initiatives.
Meme 2: integrated missions’ assessment and planning. This is the United Nations (UN) equivalent of Whole of Government planning, programming. and budgeting. While non-existent within most governments, the UN appears to be realizing that with its back to the fall and the fate of over 175 “failed states” on the table, it might be time to add intelligence (decision-support) to how it does business. This means understanding that all threats and all policies have to be evaluated together and in relation (the Eastern way), and that all budgets and behaviors must be planned–harmonized–so as to achieve integrated outcomes, not outcomes in isolation that undermine “rest of system” stability.
Meme 3: micro-education. This is a brand new meme but it defines practices that already exist and could be brought together. With the vast majority of subsistence farmers still using ancient methods such as furrow irrigation, and many not recognizing the value of rain harvesting, there is a route opening for UNESCO by which it can leverage Alvin Toffler's insight and substitute information for capital, labor, time, and space. Put bluntly, some micro-education is vastly more important than a complete (albeit mediocre) elementary education. Micro-education on water and health appears to be the center of gravity for jump-starting the entrepreneurial possibilities among the extreme poor. What no one has done is create a stacked list of “Essential Elements of Information” (EEI) that should be taught to the poor in priority order as part of “any and all” encounters.
Among the food scares in recent years was a deadly E. coli outbreak tied to spinach. In most cases, it's unknown how or why people get ill from what they eat. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / September 15, 2006)
Phi Beta Iota: The second sentence is ignorant. It is well-known that between industrial farming with zero regard for either the spill-over of animal shit into fields growing fruits and vegatables, combined with an exotic array of antibiotics for the animals (living in ghetto conditions) and pesticides for the plants, most of which have NOT been tested and are NOT regulated because of multiple legal loopholes, most of what we eat is mostly comprised of oil and corn and neither safe nor nutritious. Corporate irresponsibility survives because government complacency has been purchased. This is a superb example of “true cost” economics that will hit the marketplace like a tsunami in the next five years. When man-made illnesses are combined with over-kill on man-made antibiotics, we end up with untreatable bacterial and other diseases, all of this forecast in the strongest possible terms in the past 20 years.
The below book selections are pulled from Chapter 20 on 21st Century Counterintelligence: Evaluating the Health of the Nation. The fragementation of knowledge, and the ignorance of the media, the government, and the academy are now profoundly pathological.
Scientists at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) have successfully designed portable, efficient, bacteria-based water treatment units. Two of the devices are on their way to Army bases in Afghanistan, and the research team is in talks with the Pentagon about sending a working prototype to help relief efforts in Haiti.
Very neat search. Before your search, there was not much. Here are just a couple of links that we found worthy outside of Phi Beta Iota, and then below, our two graphics that the US Government still refuses to contemplate, but which are essential if we are ever to get to coherent sustainable strategy, Whole of Government operations, and a balanced budget. Kudos to AID for getting this duality right, but it's much more complicated than that, and what's good for water or energy might be bad for all the other pieces of the Whole.
Phi Beta Iota: It might help to stop farmers from selling tanker fulls of water from their land, reducing the national aquifers as the dirt cheap rate of $4 a tanker load. Not their water to sell!
Phi Beta Iota: Short story with two big points: a sound analytic model and creating the database is both essential and immediately actionable; and what you can learn from data in recommending alternative strategies can reduce need for new financial investments.
