Work Abroad but earn in USD

Monday, August 29, 2005

We're Here to Steal the Water!

I received a comment on the blog the other day about the United States' secret plan to, through the use of military bases and systematic foreign land acquisitions, acquire the "Acuifero Guaraní" in the tri-border area. Apparently this speculation is being fueled by a new film called "Sed", which was just recently released.

The reader states, "I think it is a bit ignorant to laugh at this as being a bizarre conspiracy theory. It is a very well known although admittedly controversial issue. Greenpeace co-founder Rex Wyler said recently in a news article (Clarín 28/08-2004) that war over water reserves is likely not far off in the future, and compared it to USA's war over oil in Iraq."

The Water Conspiracy

There's plenty of fresh water in the United States. Has anyone thought just how we're supposedly going to transport all this water from Argentina to the U.S.? You'd have to build either a canal or the mother of all pipes to transport the water north. You'd have to get multilateral cooperation of every country between Argentina and the United States. Just think about the effort involved here. Let's be realistic people. Look at the effort involved to build the Panama Canal, which is only 51 miles long. Now think about building a canal 5000 miles north between Argentina and the United States. Getting the picture of the effort involved here? This is nothing more than bizarre conspiracy theories from people who've watched too many X-Files episodes.

Other Argentine Conspiracy Theories

Just a few weeks ago, I was talking to people in the office here and the most of the people here believed the U.S. faked the moon trip and shot the whole thing inside a TV studio. From what I've been told, a lot of people here don't believe the moon trips actually happened. It was just another U.S. conspiracy. There are 400,000 employees and contractors who worked on the Apollo program who would disagree. But I'm sure they're all part of the conspiracy, right?

Let's Start Getting Real

The more likely explanation is that Ted Turner and all these other people who are buying up land are just rich people who like open spaces or are looking to make money on timber, hunting & fishing, etc. Ted Turner is the largest landholder in the United States and so its not surprising that these same land-obsessed guys want to come to Argentina and buy land here also. I'm certain there's no grand conspiracy at work here.

Labels:

11 Comments:

Blogger SoyYo said...

Understood, Rick. I was meaning no disrespect to any Argentines in that post. I can understand what happens when you never get the truth from your leaders, you hear so many bad things, and pretty soon its hard to distinguish the real from the conspiracy theories.

There's no shortage of conspiracy nuts in the U.S. either. Whether its that wackos that believe aliens are landing in Roswell or those nuts over at the Flat Earth Society, there are plenty of people who believe in strange things to go around.

8/30/2005 01:59:00 PM  
Blogger Turribeach.com.ar said...

Expat: Of course I agree that all those theories are just people's imagination. However, your "analysis" on the The Water Conspiracy is by far too weak. Of course building a canal or a mother pipe is impossible. But think this:
- In almost all countries I have been in the world 1 litre of gasoline is cheaper than a litre of mineral water. If water becomes a scarse resource, prices will go up. If oil can be transported is ships, why water can not?

BTW, they are many countries that get water from ships, including many in the Red Sea.

8/30/2005 03:51:00 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I did it! Finally. I book my flight today from Chicago to Buenos Aires. Janaury 4-May 31st!

I am so excited. I think I got a good price, too. Please respond to me via email. I'd love to talk more.

~Tony
TonySchep@yahoo.com

8/30/2005 05:35:00 PM  
Blogger A.M. Mora y Leon said...

This is a first-rate blog and a first-rate discussion.

I agree with the 'lied to' theory. The first thing I think of regarding the tradition of lies told by the government in Argentina, is that 'all your bank deposits are safe.' And 'your currency's value is guaranteed at a dollar to a peso' - it was printed right on the money as 'convertible.' It doesn't make logical sense, for the lies and actions were done by the government, but I get the feeling that the blame is on the US because of the failure of the money and banking system. The money in Argentina was tied to the US money and the bond was betrayed.

9/05/2005 05:28:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What about that?

http://qollasuyu.indymedia.org/es/2004/08/1018.shtml

Argentina gorvenamet lie too much to Argentinians.

But the yakes too.

1/18/2006 12:39:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. I enlarged that page from indymedia. It's an english language text, but the language characterizing the bordering countries as "cruel" and "miserable" earmark it as a fringe group publication. It made me laugh.

Then again, I had to fight to keep intelligent design out of my schools.........

1/19/2006 07:36:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think the source of this fear is a justified one. The Guarani' acquifer is a tremendous natural resource. The fear is not so much that the U.S. would take the water and transport it overseas but, rather, that a multinational corporation (be it based in the U.S. or elsewhere) would gain the rights/ability to exploit and profit from this resource. Another concern is that one or more corporations exploiting the resource could pollute it or extract too much water to allow for sustainability.

Consider the perception that mining, oil and gas companies extract resources in the developing world, but most of the profits go to the developed world. Consider the polemics over French-based Suez's (recently cancelled) water contacts in Argentina. It doesn't seem vey far-fetched for Argentines to be concerned about protecting the Guarani' acquifer- it would be foolish not to be concerned.

3/28/2006 02:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry but you're naive to dismiss conspiracy theories so casually.

First off, the "water-conspiracy" has a precedent in Bolivia (it's already
happened there, but the people took back the water rights that were stolen).
It's not about taking the water to ship/use elsewhere. It's about using
water, a resource everyone needs, to control the population, and usually
profit is involved but not always. It's about power. You are definitely
wrong if you think that there is no coordinated assault on property water
rights happening in various places around the world. People should definitely
take these "conspiracy theories" more seriously.

As far as other theories go, they are all usually based on good logic/reason.
The main difference between you and "conspiracy theorists" is that you are
discounting just how much you think you know is dependent on what others in
authoritative positions are telling you. You are trusting these sources
blindly, and I bet you don't even realize just how dependent on this you are.
This is your weakness, not theirs. It is very evident that throughout history
authorities lie to their followers. Govts can usually guard their lies
however long they want until people are actually affected by them. The fact
that the people were affected by them in Argentina has caused people to
realize the possibility of govt betrayal of trust, which Americans have yet
to realize. But I assure you it's happening in the USA in mass-scale right
now on many levels.

3/05/2007 05:00:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Remember that when you live in the present you can never tell the future of the world. In 2005 we could barely think there would ever have food shortages in the Northern Hemisphere. Commodities are going up and will continue to go up. So no, it is not that far-fetched to think of this water conspiracy. Water is precious and when you have government rebellions these are the things that could go down easy. Right now, the South America is a paradise for these things...

3/13/2011 01:15:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

So this post is old, 8-2005, its 2011 and the water conspiracy "theory" is now a proven FACT. There are many docu's out there covering this issue. You have many elites buying up land all around the globe that have natural aquafers underneath them. It is very easy to invoke the "conspiracy theory" argument to rationalize away your fears but it does NOT disprove the facts. The great lakes in the US are being diminished by global corps and T. Boone Pickins is buying up land all over Texas to get the water. GWB's daughter bought a whole bunch of land in 06 in Paraguay with a very large amount of water and these bastards are trying to rape the natural resources from your lands. Its a conspiracy alright, but it is no theory, it's a FACT. Anytime someone just throws the conspiracy theory argument out there only shows their ignorance to the facts. They also show their unwillingness to investigate further because the are lazy! BOOM, and I thought this site was interesting, not now, blah blah blah...

5/24/2011 04:10:00 PM  
Anonymous Argentine Lawyer said...

Try these lawyers: Limeres.com

They helped me and were fabulous

Heather

7/20/2012 01:51:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home