Imagine you have been transported into the future. Imagine every electronic gadget in your house is blasting a warning from the Universal Breathable Air Company. Your account is in arrears.
Imagine this is the threatening message. "Based on the occupancy rate for two adults, two children, one infant and a dog, your current indebtedness to our company is $312.43. The Canadian Clean Air Sales Act gives us the authority to replace the clean air being supplied to your location with dense smog unless your account is paid in full within three days of the date of this notice. Should you fail to comply with your legal obligation, we remind you that the standard Clean Air Re-connect fee is $500."
This hasn't happened yet, but it could.
Although there are no headlines about it in any of the commercial news media, the presses of the small, not-for-profit periodicals operated by our self-appointed ecological guardians are squealing loudly in their task of revealing the latest conflict between Need and Greed.
They tell their readers a huge American corporation that has never produced anything drinkable has created a company whose purpose is to take over as many municipal waterworks as it can get. Furthermore, it intends to export Canadian fresh water to the highest bidder in volumes rivalling Canadian exports of crude petroleum and liquefied natural gas. In keeping with their dislike of Harperitis, the small magazines hint that the federal government is giving tacit approval to the proposed venture.
When greedy corporations and big government operate as a team, their relationship is as secret as an illicit love affair. When the secret is exposed, they smother the public with a moth-eaten blanket of economic verbiage. Watch for it. When newspapers and television screens begin to tell us that exports of fresh water and privatization of municipal waterworks are economic benefits, the jaws of the trap are ready to close.
I am in harmony with the culture of aboriginal Canadians who see indwelling spirits in everything in nature. They believe we should be grateful for all that has been given to us.
Water is the essential blessing. Pure air is another. We are also blessed by the plants and animals with which we share this threatened planet. Some may say these are gifts of Nature. Others see them as gifts of the gods, either singular or plural. We need no philosophical justifications. The life-giving treasures of Earth are the heritage of all of humankind. They don't belong to the robber barons of our present neo-feudal era.
Do I really think the corporate crooks will try to charge all of us peasants for pure air?
They will if they can find a way of doing it and have powerful friends in government to help them. And if the peasants don't revolt.
