Talk:Kendra Okonski

I saw Kendra Okonski speak at an American Enterprise Institute(AEI) symposium on "Water Scarcity" broadcast on 3/22/06 on CSPAN. Ms. Okonski was identified as the Director of Environmental Programs for the International Policy Network.

The symposium focused on privatization of drinking water systems, particularly in third world nations. Okonski gave a powerpoint and was obnoxiously and rabidly ideological in support of private markets, contracts, private property rights, and rule of [private] law. She bashed government, regulation, politics [democracy] and the Mexican and central american protesting ignorant "globophobes".

Interestingly, in addition to the standard reflexive claims about market efficiency, she tried to make the case for markets and privatization in terms of better service for the POOR and a lowering of mortality rates for the POOR, because the POOR are exluded from government allocations of clean water because the POOR lack economic resources and government. Accordingly to Okonski, government only provides services to those with economic resources and political power!! She claimed governments - not market forces - were driving the poor off the land and seizing ownership and control of land rights.

She and a law & economics professor also tried to claim that markets do better than regulation in protecting the environment and clean water.

These folks are well funded ideologues, and very, very dangerous.

Bill Wolfe bill_wolfe@concast.net

See water wars. Artificial Intelligence 14:56, 23 Mar 2006 (EST)