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Le portail rinoceros d’informations sur les initiatives citoyennes pour la construction d’un autre monde a été intégré au nouveau site Ritimo pour une recherche simplifiée et élargie.

Ce site (http://www.rinoceros.org/) constitue une archive des articles publiés avant 2008 qui n'ont pas été transférés.

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key words index  > privatization

privatization

articles FR [10] EN [9] ES [4]
dossiers EN [2] ES [2]
books and publications FR [3] EN [2] ES [1]
actors FR [1] EN [2]
campaigns FR [2] EN [1]
recommended sites EN [1]

articles

Common Dreams

The Campaign to Privatize the World

> By David Macaray

One of the biggest con games going on at the moment is the sustained attack on the U.S. public school system. It’s being perpetrated by predatory entrepreneurs (disguised as “concerned citizens” and “education reformers”) hoping to persuade the parents of school-age children that the only way their kids are going to get a decent education is by paying for something that they can already get for free. You might say it’s the same marketing campaign that launched bottled water. The profit impulse (...) read

date of on-line publication : 20 April 2012

Water and Culture

Italy’s public Says “No” to water privatization

Italy’s voting public have overturned no less than four laws by the Berlusconi government in today’s referendum. In the wake of Fukushima the public’s clear ballot against a revival of nuclear energy in Italy understandably takes up a prominent position in news headlines. The ballot is also being seen as one of a number of heavy blows Berlusconi’s fragile coalition has been dealt recently, after two serious regional defeats in Naples and Milan. In today’s referendum several questions were to be (...) read

date of on-line publication : 15 June 2011

JAFFRI Afsar

World Bank attempt to privatise Mumbai’s water runs aground: Citizens reject report

> Focus on the Global South

On 3rd June, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) held a stakeholders meeting in which the New Zealand based consultant group Castalia (hired by the World Bank and the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility) to conduct a study in the K-east ward of Mumbai, presented their findings and recommendations after a year-long study, for the Water Distribution Improvement Programme (WDIP). The meeting was attended by the MCGM Labour Union, K-east ward residents, activists, (...) read

date of on-line publication : 21 June 2007

Transnational Institute (TNI)

Public services in South Africa : transformation or stasis

> In "Beyond the Market : The Future of Public Services", Greg Ruiters, April 2006, 9 p. (pdf)

Although the South African state has shifted away from uncritical promotion of neo-liberal public management, the government continues to mesh limited welfarism with market-driven reforms. It has tried to use service delivery to win political loyalty, but this strategy has largely backfired. There is growing public awareness that the current failures and inequities in access to public services can no longer be blamed on the legacy of apartheid. Read Public services in South Africa : (...) read

date of on-line publication : 21 March 2007

Transnational Institute (TNI)

Hungary : water privatisation in the context of transition

> In "Beyond the Market: The Future of Public Services", Zsolt Boda and Gábor Scheiring, April 2006, 7 p. (pdf)

Privatisation was to be the key to creating a healthy economy with competent companies that provide jobs for people and pay taxes, rather than being dependent upon state policies and subsidies. Just a few years into the transition to a marketeconomy, however, Hungarians have discovered that private ownership does not necessarily mean efficiency, and that the argument of additional investment is also questionable. The process of water privatisation well illustrates the pitfalls of (...) read

date of on-line publication : 13 March 2007

BELTRAN Elizabeth Peredo

Water, privatization and conflict

> April 2004, Fundación Solon, 54 p., (pdf)

An analysis of the role of women in the struggle against water privatisation, with a focus on the events in the Cochabamba Valley, Bolivia, where the community was able to kick out the private water company Betchel. « In both city and rural areas, women are at the heart of managing water for their communities (...) In a district where water is scarce, women have been forced to develop strategies to provide water for daily life. Women are the ones who get up at 3 or 4am to collect water from (...) read

date of on-line publication : 5 December 2005

World Development Movement

Dirty aid, dirty water : the UK government’s push to privatise water and sanitation in poor countries

> February 2005, 73 p, (pdf)

As part of their campaign, Dirty aid, dirty water, World Development Movement exposes the actions of the UK government to privatise water and sanitation in poor countries. This report gives an introduction to privatisation of water, the reasons for its failure, the UK’s involvement in private ventures and its use of consultants which favour privatisation. Finally the report proposes workable alternatives in the context of the Millenium Development Goals. Read the whole report on Dirty aid, (...) read

date of on-line publication : 8 November 2005

Massan d’Almeida

Is Water a Public Good or a Commodity?

> Appeared on Globalizacija site in English, October 2004. (Original text from AWID in French)

This article considers first the ethical principles by which access to water should be viewed. It argues that using the current approach of considering water as a commodity and privatising its supply will not allow us to reach the target of the Millennium Development Goals to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water. Finally it presents the reasons for and the benefits of an international binding convention on water. (...) read

date of on-line publication : 8 November 2005

SHIVA Vandana

India’s Water Future

The commodification of water

> 3rd November, 2005, ZNet

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/conte (...)

This commentary looks at the World Bank’s efforts to reduce water to a “market economy” and its intentions for privatisation in India. The author also brings in a comparison with the Seed Act of 2004. Furthermore, the author argues: “by ignoring the ecological and hydrological limits of water availability and allowing water access and water distribution to be driven by insatiable markets, the Bank is prescribing a deepening of the water crisis and a growing polarization in access the water. The Bank’s future vision is the vision for a hydro-apartheid.”

  • More commentaries by the same author on the subjects of water and biopiracy can be found here.
 read

date of on-line publication : 8 November 2005

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