Checklist to Lower Cholesterol

Know your numbers:- Have you had a lipid profile? Do you understand the numbers? If you are going to successfully lower cholesterol you need to know your numbers and what they mean. The most effective way to raise HDL is not necessarily the best way to lower LDL.

Evaluate your lifestyle:- There are risk factors for high cholesterol that you can not control, such as age, gender, and family history, but there are factors you can control. For example, you can reduce risk by not smoking, increasing your activity, and losing extra weight.

Balance your fats:- Reduce unhealthy saturated fats in your diet and replace them with heart healthy unsaturated fats. Total fat intake should be 30% or less of your total daily calories. Out of this 30%, saturated fat should be limited to 7%.

Be active:- Physical activity lowers triglycerides and raises HDL (good) cholesterol. Shoot for 30 minutes 5 or more days a week. If you are not currently active, check with your MD before beginning an activity program.

Eliminate trans fats:- You need to be food label savvy and watch out for trans fats. Trans fats raise LDL (bad) cholesterol, lower HDL (good) cholesterol, and raise triglycerides. Limit trans fats to 1% or less of your daily caloric intake.

Understand triglycerides:- Triglycerides are impacted the most by your simple sugar and alcohol intake. If you are struggling with high triglycerides, you need to use a different strategy to get your cholesterol under control.

Increase dietary fiber:-A high fiber diet is necessary for heart health. You need 25-35 grams of dietary fiber daily, especially soluble fiber. For every 1-2 grams of daily soluble fiber intake, LDL (bad) cholesterol is lowered 1%.

How Choose a Health Club

When shopping for health clubs consider the following:

• Location
• Try Before You Buy
• Make Sure They Have What You Want
• Member Profile
• Staff
• Costs and Contracts

Some health clubs have a one-time initiation fee and require purchasing a minimum of three months up front. Depending on your budget, you may want to find a club that allows you to go on a month-to-month basis. In addition, find out if the health club debits the funds directly out of your Visa or checking account. This can make it easier to pay membership fees but make sure that it's easy to cancel if you decide you don't like the club. Be sure you read the contract before you sign so you're not "locked" into paying even if you move out of town or change health clubs.

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Ladder of Fitness

Of course, your ideal weight depends on your individual build. If you refer to it ,you have an approximate idea of what you should aim for.

The four rungs to fitness

The + 5 kg rung: If you are overweight by 5 kg or more, you are within finger-touching distance of the fitness rung. Obviously, your food intake is not excessive. All you need to do is exercise. Use those legs to burn away the excess fat and grasp the top rung.

The +6-12 kg rung: If you are overweight by 6 to 12 kg, work out more, eat less fat. Modify your 'mighty' meals. You could cut off red meat and chomp on lean, mean cuts. Simultaneously, get your legs going. It figures that with less fat entering your body, your muscles will work at fueling the remaining fat for energy. So, switch on the fat-burners and watch them cleave into the fat zones!

The +13-23 kg rung: If you are 13 to 23 kg overweight cut out all red meats, fries and sweets. Do not splurge on weekends. And whip up your leg muscles into fat-burning activity, These vital immediate steps will help you climb up to the higher + 6-12 kg rung... +5 kg rung and finally... victory!

The + 24 kg or more rung: If you are overweight by 24 kg or more, it would be wise to consult your doctor. No, do not panic. The good doctor is sure to prescribe a daily brisk walk and a fatless, sugar-free diet. Follow his prescribed path - you can't go wrong. Start walking. Or swimming. Or stationary cycling. Score your required run-rate per week.

Do not got caught in that vicious spiral- where you want to exercise but do not feel energetic enough to start. Where you find it easier to overeat and add on more kg. that saps you even more. This way you will feel utterly hopeless both physically and mentally. And hate yourself. Harsh self­condemnation is itself like an overdose of fatty food - pretty near impossible to digest which is why it takes up all your mental energy and leaves none for positive physical action.

Take a vital decision right away - decide to be your own best friend, give yourself a daily dose of unconditional love. Gift yourself with a swim or a walk -every day. Don't stop after the first or second day. Don't deprive yourself of that gift - it is yours for a lifetime.

You see, your body houses the brain and its five senses - its raw data that can be easily triggered into positive channels. You channelise it by moving your legs. Don't expect immediate results but be content to know that those miraculous changes are materialising in your body. Initially, your muscles will strengthen themselves, then they will start their work- burning the fat.

It is important you don't give up at this point. Forget your weighing scales. Give your muscles time. And, one day, that great feeling will strike you. You may not have reached anywhere close to your 'ideal' weight, but your kick-hormone and happy- feetings hormone would have begun rising inside you. You won't feel their positive effects if you are mentally tuned into your old negative feelings. Negative thoughts block positive ones. Stop thinking about yourself. Then, it can happen any time while "bathing, walking, watching TV, listening to music. reading, anything... Suddenly, you will feel tranquil. A sense of peace win descend upon you. You will be literally able to feel your inner self, your inner mind smiling. It is those hormones at work. Hold on to that tranquility - its your body telling you that the fitness path has opened and you are walking on it.

These are not exaggerations to coax you into exercising. We have been on that path ourselves. And those calm feelings have suddenly swept through us at the most unexpected of times. Share them with your spouse, sibling or friend. They are an important part of you. They are you. For Nature meant you to be fit and tranquil. And to think, that all these great, indescribably delightful feelings begin with your legs! In fact, you will reach a point where you won't feel your day is complete without your walk. Your brain is now used to living on that, 'high', it will silently propel you to seek out that level. Yes, fitness is addictive, but the best addiction to be afflicted by! You can be sure of one thing.

Body building tips

Body building is much more than pumping weights and eating dietary supplements. Speak to any professional body builder and he will tell you that body building is a well planned activity and it requires years of hard work following a strict regimen to build the picture perfect body. If you are planning to build up your body, or you want to take up body building professionally, this article is designed to offer you some basic tips for effective body building.

To begin, you have to be dressed for the occasion; do not wear tight fitting clothes to the gym. It is important to let your body breathe and for sweat glands to function properly during a workout. Wear cotton clothing as much as possible, cotton absorbs sweat easily and also prevents body odour. You should wear loose fitting clothes that allow easy movement of body parts. To prevent dehydration, you should drink water or supplement drinks like Gatorade regularly. Drinking water does not hamper your work out and it is important drink water before and after each exercise session. In fact, even when you are not working out you should get into the habit of drinking water regularly.

It is vital to use proper lifting techniques, do not assume the simplest way to lift weights is also the best. If you are not sure how you can build up muscle mass by lifting weights, speak to a specialist. Chance are the gym you are member of already has a couple of seasoned body builders or a trained gym instructor, do not hesitate in asking for help. Incorrect techniques can result in muscle damage or worse result in stress fractures.

Before you being your exercise routine carry out a few warm up exercises. Ideally you should spend 5-10 minutes on the treadmill or spend time doing stretching exercises. Muscles are susceptible to damage if they are forced into action without notice. Warm up exercises increase blood flow in muscles and prepare muscles for strenuous exercise. Don’t restrict your warming up to just time on the treadmill, start by lifting lighter weights and only once the stiffness in the muscles dissipates should you start lifting heavier weights.

All body building routines involve exercising in sets. Instead of spending half an hour lifting dumbbells and then spending the remaining time strengthening your deltoids, it is advisable to do dumbbells for 10 minutes, strengthen your deltoids next and then do dumbbells again. You don’t need to warm up before every set; a single warm up is good enough. Finally, it is important to not overdo the weights; you should know your limitations. Don’t try and lift too much weight in the false hope that it will speed up the process of muscle building. Lifting too much weight will only end up putting undue stress on your body, make sure that you increase the amount of weight you lift over a period of time. It is important to remember that body building is not an overnight phenomenon; it takes time to build the perfect body.

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Dental Insurance - A complete guide to dental insurance including the different plans available for individual budgets

Leukemia – Causes, Symptoms, Types And Treatment

Leukaemia is a type of cancer. Cancer is a group of more than 100 diseases which have oimportant things in common. One is that certain cells in the body become abnormal. Another is that the body continues to produce a great number of these abnormal cells.The cancer of leukaemia is cells of blood. To include/understand leukaemia, it is useful to know the normal cells of blood and what arrives at them when leukaemia develops.

Symptoms of Leukemia :-

There are many symptoms of leukemia and everyone will not experience the same symptoms. Some of the symptoms are: Weakness or chronic fatigue, Fever of unknown origin, Weight loss that is not due to dieting or exercise, Frequent bacterial or viral infections, Headaches, Skin rash, Nonspecific bone pain, Easy bruising, Bleeding from gums or nose, Blood in urine or stools, Enlarged lymph nodes and/or spleen, and Abdominal fullness.

Causes :-

CML can occur in adults (usually middle-aged) and children. The disease affects 1 to 2 people per 100,000 and accounts for 7 - 20% cases of leukemia. It is usually associated with a chromosome abnormality called the Philadelphia chromosome.

Persons with this type of cancer have abnormal cells inside their bone marrow. The cells grow very fast, and replace healthy blood cells. The bone marrow, which helps the body fight infections, eventually stops working correctly. Persons with AML become more prone to infections and have an increased risk for bleeding as the numbers of healthy blood cells decrease.

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Is There A Natural Cure For Diabetes?

In our apple ancestry there accept been abundant attempts to cure diabetes by itself from ethnicities throughout time like the Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Babylonians, Arabs etc. These accustomed treatments are not absolutely accustomed by the avant-garde "western" medicine. Keep in apperception aswell that every animal getting is unique, so even avant-garde anesthetic uses a array of drugs to amusement the aforementioned ache from being to person. There is not such affair as "best analysis for diabetes" because every being reacts altered to the methods and substances used.

There are 3 elements that all systems that affirmation to amusement diabetes by itself should have: 1.they accept to be safe after abounding and abundant side-effects, 2.they should be affordable and 3. Easy to implement. An another analysis that supports a spaceship cruise to the moon, so you can cure your diabetes by itself would be off the list!

I would like actuality to accent that there are abounding "gurus" around, babble about the best accustomed analysis for diabetes and that they apperceive a way to cure diabetes. Always do a analysis first, accumulate some advice and argue your claimed doctor. Your activity is not to be taken by others agilely so they can amuse their egos!Some of the accessible treatments that use accustomed agency to amusement diabetes are:

Chromotherapy. This is a adjustment area colors are acclimated in adjustment for the physique to achieve its concrete antithesis and so enhance the ascendancy of claret glucose. Mud analysis uses clay accomplished with assertive elements that are believed to advice our close systems to action properly. Hydrotherapy suggests that circadian captivation in hot baptize for diabetics can accord them the befalling to amusement diabetes naturally.

5 Tips For Healing Acne Scars

Here are some of the most common treatments used to treat the scarring acne can leave behind.

Soft Tissue Fillers

With this treatment, collagen, or excess fat from another part of your body, is injected under the skin to fill in the scar. As a result, acne scarring will be less noticeable. The downside as that the treatments are temporary, so you'd have to get more injections periodically. The results of collagen injections, for example, last about 6 to 12 weeks.

Microdermabrasion

A microdermabrasion treatment removes surface skin cells. Think of it as buffing the skin. The results of these treatments can be less visible acne scars.

The microdermabrasion procedure takes about 30 minutes to an hour. And there is no real recovery ti5 Methods For Healing Acne Scarsme, so you won't be wearing bandages out of the dermatologist's office. However, you'll probably need several treatments to see real results.



Dermabrasion
With dermabrasion, the top layer of the skin is removed with a rotating wire brush. Acne scars on the surface of the skin are removed as well. The appearance of deeper scars is also diminished.

Because it's among the more drastic procedures, dermabrasion is usually only performed on those with pretty severe acne scarring.



Laser Resurfacing

With this method, a laser is used to destroy the outer layer of the skin, and heat the layer of skin beneath that. As the damage heals, new, healthy skin forms, and acne scarring becomes less noticeable.

Chemical Peels

Chemical peels can sometimes make mild acne scarring less noticeable.

Chemical peels, which contain acid, are painted onto your face and left on for a period of time. When the peel is removed, the dead upper layers of skin are lifted away.

National Health Care

Hillary Clinton announced her support for a universal health care system. If Hillary is to become president she hopes to extend coverage to over forty-seven Americans that are currently without health care. She strongly believes that “every man, woman, child—should have quality, affordable health care in America” (Los Angeles Times). Though this may seem like a strong humanitarian rights move, it is only an attempt to correct what once failed. When Clinton served as the first lady to her husband she attempted to create a similar bill, yet was unsuccessful. It is this failure that “almost derailed Bill Clinton’s presidency and helped put Republicans in control of Congress for years to come” (Los Angeles Times). This incident alone is enough for the public to question Clinton’s affectability. For if she was not able to fallow through as first lady how will she be able to handle presidency. Thus, this idealistic goal is an attempt to gain the publics trust, and ensure them that she has learned from her failures, and will not allow the government to repeat the past. In a way she is drawing attention to her situation. Before anyone can even question her credibility, or bring up this past failure, she drew attention to it herself, and is ensuring the people that she is fighting to overcome it by saying, “Perhaps more than anybody else I know just how hard this fight will be” (Los Angeles Times). Universal health care is not a new issue among democratic presidential nominees, I propose that come 2008 it will be one of the leading debates. Hillary Clinton, however, may have the most to gain by highlighting this debate.

One can also not ignore the negative side effects of national health care. Taxes will be raised in order to compensate for this program, and patient care will decrease do to the magnitude of patients seeking care. Those that will feel the greatest effect from the health care are those that have to pay for it, through taxes, but do not even get to receive the benefits of health care. With Hillary’s plain if you are currently happy with your health care you can continue to pay for it, and not receive the government program. Regardless of this however you will still need to pay for it. To me this seems fare from fair. For some families will be taxed heavily for something they do not what and do not need. It seems like Hillary’s solution to the gross importation of people with health care to those that do not have it, is to force the people that do have it to pay for those that do not.

My baby won’t stop crying – is it Colic?

What is Colic?

Websters Dictionary defines Colic as: Paroxysms of pain. This condition usually occurs in the abdominal region but may occur in other body regions as well.

(Paroxysms - . A sudden uncontrollable attack; "a paroxysm of giggling"; "a fit of coughing".)

But really that doesn't answer your question. In terms of babies, we know that colic causes babies to cry and cry, much more than other babies who are not suffering from colic. What are signs of Colic? Babies with colic cry and often appear to be in pain. They may draw their legs or arms in tight toward their bodies. Or other times they stretch out their arms and legs and stiffen, then draw up tight again. You may notice that baby's face turns bright red from excessive crying.

Babies are diagnosed with colic when their crying lasts for more than three hours a day. You may find that colicky babies get fussier toward the end of the day, but colic can happen at any time.

A baby with colic may cry for long periods or may cry almost all of the time. When your baby cries, they may swallow air. This swallowing is likely to give your baby uncomfortable gas. Having an extra amount of gas in your baby's tummy will make it look swollen and feel tight, which can of course make your baby more uncomfortable. What Causes Colic? This has long been a question without a definite answer. Still no one is quite sure what actually causes colic. Babies with colic are healthy, so it does not appear to be caused by a medical problem. And colic is not caused by the way a baby is cared for. Without a doubt it is not any fault of the parent.

And without a doubt, try massaging your baby's tummy. In some cases, gently massaging baby's tummy has helped to move uncomfortable gasses out of the intestinal tract relieving tightness and discomfort. Using your full soft hand, massage should be given to your baby in a clockwise circular motion. This massage specifically pinpoints the digestive tract and should help to ease your baby's pain by helping them to pass painful gas. How to cope when your baby has colic? If your baby has colic, surely your family life has been turned upside down. You may find it extremely stressful and upsetting when your baby is crying for hours and cannot be easily comforted. Of course like many parents, you may feel guilty even though you are not the cause of your little one's colic. No one wants to see their baby in pain.

It's very important to be sure to take care of yourself, as caring for a baby with colic can be extremely stressful.

Don't blame yourself or your baby for the constant crying - colic is nobody's fault. Try to relax, and remember that your baby will eventually outgrow this phase. It is absolutely okay if you need a break. It may be necessary for you to call on friends or family as reinforcement.

If you're unsure whether your baby's crying is colic or a symptom of another illness, call your doctor.
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WATER FOR SALE

Just at the time governments are backing away from their regulatory responsibilities, giant transnational water, food, energy and shipping corporations are lining up to take advantage of the world's water shortage, acquiring control of water through the ownership of dams and waterways; the development of new technologies such as water desalination and purification; control over the burgeoning bottled water industry; the privatization of municipal and regional water services, including sewage and water delivery; the construction of water infrastructure; and water exportation.

'Water is the last infrastructure frontier for private investors," says Johan Bastin of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Tragically, water is also the last frontier of nature and the commons.

The Globe and Mail of Canada states that privatizing water looms as the national mega-industry of the next decade, with potential investment in the tens of billions of dollars. "Water is fast becoming a globalized corporate industry." In May 2000, Fortune magazine stated that, in a world fleeing the vagaries of technology stocks, water is the best investment sector for the century. The World Bank places the value of the current water market at close to $1 trillion; however, with only 5 percent of the world's population currently getting its water from corporations, the profit potential is unlimited.

The world of privatized water is overwhelmingly dominated by two French transnationals. Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux (which built the Suez Canal and had 1999 profits of $1.5 billion on sales of $32 billion) and Vivendi SA are referred to as the General Motors and Ford Motor Company of the water world. Both are ranked among the 100 largest corporations in the world by the Global Fortune 500. Between them they own, or have controlling interests in, water companies in over 120 countries on five continents, and distribute water to almost 100 million people in the world.

Suez's CEO, Gerard Mestrallet, says that he wants to take a page from his country's past and develop in his company the philosophy of "conquest" as Suez moves into new markets around the world. Suez is more than just a water company. According to Fortune, "its a fresh invention ...a diversified utility that offers cities a full range of infrastructure services, from water and sewer to trash collection, cable TV, and electric power." The company, which projects an annual 10 percent expansion of its water business, has just signed its first major business contracts in China, which Mestrallet says "will be a prime market at the onset of [this]century."

Both Suez and Vivendi are vying for the lucrative U.S. market, estimated to be the world's largest with annual revenues at $90 billion. New U.S. Iaws have opened the way to greater private sector involvement in the U.S. water supply and treatment business. Until now, this sector has been almost exclusively controlled by small public-sector operators. Now these companies are poised to promote the massive privatization of the American water market. In 1999, Suez paid $1 billion for United Water Resources and bought two major water treatment chemical producers, Nalco and Calgon, for $4.5 billion. In the same year, Vivendi purchased U.S. Filter Corp. for more than $6 billion in cash, giving the new company a projected revenue of $12 billion in annual sales. Vivendi also owns 42 percent of Air and Water Technologies (AWT).

Another French company, SAUR, owned by the construction company, Bouygues, is also emerging in a number of countries. The Spanish transnational Aguas de Barcelona is active in Latin America, and Great Britain's Thames Water and Biwater are acquiring water concessions in Asia and South Africa. United Utilities of Britain has joined up with the American construction and engineering giant, Bechtel, to promote privatization schemes in North and South America.

Recently, a number of large pipeline and energy and electricity companies have entered the water field, promising great stock profits from what they are calling "convergence"-the prospect of a single company carrying natural gas, water and electricity to millions of customers on a for-profit basis. General Electric has joined forces with the World Bank and investment speculator George Soros to invest billions of dollars in a "Global Power Fund" to privatize energy and water around the world, according to the Guardian Weekly.

U.S. energy giant Enron, having acquired Wessex Water PLC of Britain, is bidding for huge contracts against the established players for newly privatized water services in Bulgaria, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin and Panama under its new water division, Azurix. The RWE Group, Germany's largest electricity producer, is also emerging as a major player in water and wastewater services.A POOR TRACK RECORD

The privatization of municipal water services around the world has a terrible track record. Since water services were privatized in France, customer fees have increased by 150 percent. The government of France also reports that the post-privatization drinking water of over five million people was contaminated. For most of the past decade, French magistrates have been investigating allegations of corruption against executives of the two major French water companies who have been convicted on three occasions of paying bribes to obtain water contracts in France.

Public Services International (PSI) reports that in England, between 1989 (the year water was privatized) and 1995, there was a 106 percent increase in the rate charged to customers, while the profits of the companies increased by 692 percent. The salary of the highest paid director of North West Water, for example, increased by 708 percent. As a result of these price hikes, the number of customers who have had their water disconnected has risen by 50 percent since privatization. British water corporations have been among the worst environmental offenders in the U.K. Between 1989 and 1997, Anglian, Severn Trent, Northumbrian, Wessex (a subsidiary of Enron) and Yorkshire were successfully prosecuted 128 times.

Furthermore, privatization is almost always accompanied by lay-offs. In Great Britain, the private companies fired almost 25 percent of the work force, approximately 100,000 workers, when they acquired rights to the water system. In December 1999, when companies were ordered by the government to make price cuts, they announced thousands of further layoffs, even though they were enjoying wide profit margins. In central Europe, private water companies reduced the work force of seven cities (whose rights they acquired) by 30 percent in just a few years. In Sydney, Australia, after the Water Board was privatized, thousands of workers lost their jobs and prices for consumers almost doubled in four years.When water is privatized, the public often loses its right to access information about water quality and standards. A furor erupted when it was discovered in the summer of 1998 that the water supply of Sydney, Australia, now controlled by Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, contained high levels of the parasites giardia and cryptosporidium and that the public had not been informed of the problem when it was first discovered.

In Ontario, Canada, the government introduced what it called a "Common Sense Revolution." Key to this "revolution" were massive cuts to the environment budget, the privatization of water testing labs, the deregulation of water protection infrastructure, and massive lay-offs of trained water testing experts. In fact, in 1999, just after a Canadian federal government study revealed that a third of Ontario's rural wells were contaminated with E. coli, the Ontario government dropped testing for E. coli from its Drinking Water Surveillance Program and, a year later, closed the program down entirely.The results were catastrophic. E. coli outbreaks in a number of communities sent waves of panic through rural Ontario. In June 2000 at least seven people, one of them a baby, died from drinking the water in the small town of Walkerton. The town had subcontracted to a branch plant of a private testing company from Tennessee. The lab, A&L Laboratories, discovered E. coli in the water, but failed to report the contamination to provincial authorities, an option it has under the new "common sense" rules. A lab spokesman said that the test results were "confidential intellectual property" and, as such, belonged only to the "client" -the public officials of Walkerton who were not trained to deal with the tests.

WORLD BANK IN THE LEAD
The story in the non-industrial world is far worse because international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are aggressively promoting the privatization of water. As Public Services International explains, the policies of these institutions distort nations' choices by imposing water privatization as a condition of loans and debt relief, financing water transnationals in preference to efficient public enterprises, and selling water utilities to reduce national debt.

World Bank-sponsored water privatization projects promote monopolies and protect rampant corruption and bribery and are often negotiated entirely in secret. The agreements are considered "intellectual property" and the public has no access to their terms. Collusion with dictators such as Indonesia's Suharto are too frequent. The Bank often puts up the lion's share of the investment while the company takes home the profits. Suez promised to invest $1 billion to privatize the water system of Buenos Aires, but only put up $30 million; the rest came from a World Bank agency.

When water is privatized, prices are set on the open market. Says Suez Director During, "We are here to make money. Sooner or later the company that invests recoups its investment, which means the customer has to pay for it." The result in the Third World is that millions of poor people are paying exorbitant prices for water, while others have been cut off. Because the companies are motivated by profit and not public service, they have no incentive to supply the poor with affordable water.

For example, in India, some households pay a staggering 25 percent of their income on water. The water system of Manila, in the Philippines, was divided by the World Bank into two zones in 1997, each run by a separate consortium. One consortium included Bechtel, the other, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. Only months into the new arrangement, these consortiums sharply raised customer rates, contrary to their proclaimed intention to keep rates low, to compensate for revenues lost due to the regional currency crisis. A year later, Biwater Plc. corporation increased water rates in Subic Bay in the Philippines by 400 percent.

For example, in India, some households pay a staggering 25 percent of their income on water. The water system of Manila, in the Philippines, was divided by the World Bank into two zones in 1997, each run by a separate consortium. One consortium included Bechtel, the other, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. Only months into the new arrangement, these consortiums sharply raised customer rates, contrary to their proclaimed intention to keep rates low, to compensate for revenues lost due to the regional currency crisis. A year later, Biwater Plc. corporation increased water rates in Subic Bay in the Philippines by 400 percent.

The union's position is firm "Water privatization is a crucial issue for public debate. Human lives depend on the equitable distribution of water resources; the public should be given a voice in deciding whether an overseas-based transnational corporation whose primary interest is profit maximization, should control those critical resources...Water is a life-giving scarce resource which therefore must remain in the hands of the community through public sector delivery. Water must not be provided for profit, but to meet needs."

The union's position is firm "Water privatization is a crucial issue for public debate. Human lives depend on the equitable distribution of water resources; the public should be given a voice in deciding whether an overseas-based transnational corporation whose primary interest is profit maximization, should control those critical resources...Water is a life-giving scarce resource which therefore must remain in the hands of the community through public sector delivery. Water must not be provided for profit, but to meet needs."

Further, the global trend to commodify what has been a public service reduces the involvement of citizens in water management decisions. Private water projects brokered by the World Bank, for example, have minimal disclosure requirements. A water corporation executive at the March 2000 World Water Forum in The Hague, said publicly that as long as water was coming out of the tap, the public had no right to any information as to how it got there. The concentration of power in the hands of a single corporation and the inability of governments to reclaim management of water services allows corporations to impose their interests on government, reducing the democratic power of citizens.Pro-privatization advocates argue that they are seeking private-public partnerships, and give assurances that governments will still be able to establish regulations. However, because the provision of water services itself does not provide sufficient return, water corporations are increasingly seeking exclusive control over water service provision through acquisitions of infrastructure and water licenses and closing the loop around public involvement. In early 1999, when the government of Ontario announced the break up of the public utility, Ontario Hydro, into three new private companies, it also made public its intention to eliminate access to information laws.In their support for large-scale project financing, the World Bank and others give preference to large multi-utility infrastructure projects that favor the biggest corporations, leading to monopolies against which local suppliers cannot compete. To add insult to injury, the World Bank is underwriting these giant corporations with public money, and often incurs the risk, yet the private company reaps the profit. And often governments, supposedly representing their people, have to assure a return to the shareholder. For example, Chile had to guarantee a profit margin of 33 percent to Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux as a World Bank loan condition-regardless of performance.

Most disturbing, the close alliance between governments, the World Bank and the water companies gives these corporations undue influence over government policies, such as deregulation and free trade, and preferred access to upcoming water contracts that favor their interests. The stated goal of the World Bank water loan to Budapest was to "ease political resistance to private sector involvement." In the Philippines, the water corporations can appeal government decisions and actions against them to an international arbitration panel appointed by the International Chamber of Commerce.

form of "democracy insurance." A recent contract between this Azurix corporation and the Argentine government guarantees cash payment for "expropriation" if a future government changes its mind and wants to bring water services back under public control.

WATER WAR
In 1998, the World Bank refused to guarantee a $25 million loan to refinance water services in Cochabamba, Bolivia, unless the government sold the public water system to the private sector and passed the costs on to consumers. Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in the world, finally acquiesced. Only one bid was considered, and the company was turned over to Aguas del Tunari, a subsidiary of a conglomerate led by Bechtel, the giant San Francisco engineering and construction company.

In December 1999, before making any infrastructure investments, the private water company, Aguas del Tunari, announced the doubling of water prices. For most Bolivians, this meant that water would now cost more than food; for those on minimum wage or unemployed, water bills suddenly accounted for close to half their monthly budgets, and for many, water was shut off completely. To add to the problem, the Bolivian government, prompted by the World Bank, granted absolute monopolies to private water concessionaires, announced its support for full-cost water pricing, pegged the cost of water to the American dollar and declared that none of the World Bank loan could be used to subsidize water services for the poor. All water, even from community wells, required permits to access, and even peasants and small farmers had to buy permits to gather rainwater on their property.

The selling-off of public enterprises such as transportation, electrical utilities and education to foreign corporations has been a heated economic debate in Bolivia. But this was different; polls showed that 90 percent of the public wanted Bechtel out. Debate turned to protest and one of the world's first "water wars" was launched.

Led by Oscar Olivera, a former machinist turned union activist, a broad-based movement of workers, peasants, farmers and others created La Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (the Coalition in Defense of Water and Life) to "de-privatize" the local water system. Between January and early February, 2000, hundreds of thousands of Bolivians marched to Cochabamba in a showdown with the government, and a general strike and transportation stoppage brought the city to a standstill. Police reacted with violence and arrests and in early April 2000, the government declared martial law. Activists were arrested during the night; radio and television programs were shut down in mid-program. A 1 7-year-old boy, Victor Hugo Danza, was shot through the face and killed.

Finally, on April 10, 2000, the directors of Aguas del Tunari and Bechtel abandoned Bolivia, taking with them key personnel files, documents and computers and leaving behind a broken company with substantial debts. Under popular pressure, the government revoked its hated water privatization legislation. With no one to run the local water company, Servico Municipal del Agua Potable y Alcantarillado (SEMAPO), the government handed water services over to the work force of SEMAPO and the people, complete with debts.

The people accepted the challenge, and set out to elect a new board of directors for the water company and to develop a new mandate based on a firm set of principles. The principles stated that the company must be efficient, free of corruption, fair to the workers, guided by a commitment to social justice (providing first for those without water), and it must act as a catalyst to further engage and organize the grassroots.

The first act of the new company was to operationalize a huge water tank in the poorest neighborhoods, establishing connections to 400 communities that had been abandoned by the old company. Then the company established an active presence in the neighborhoods, listening to the people and working with them to solve problems. In Summer 2000, La Coordinadora organized its first public hearings on SEMAPA to begin a public process on building a broad, consensus-based definition of what the company must become, and received many proposals from civil society.The company has also taken a strong stand against any compensation to Bechtel for its "losses." Bechtel is suing the government of Bolivia for close to $40 million at the World Bank's International Court for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. It is claiming "expropriation" rights under a t992 Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) that Bolivia signed with Holland. Bechtel, an American company, must have sensed the conflicts in Bolivia brewing. In late 1999, it moved its holding company for Tunari from the Cayman Islands to Holland, thereby gaining the right to sue South America's poorest country.

While the Bolivian government has officially said it will fight this challenge, there are those in the government who feel it best to pay Bechtel its compensation to prove that Bolivia is ready for economic globalization and will be a "good" global player in the WTO. There is a real concern that the government of Bolivia is now in secret negotiations with Bechtel to settle that dispute out of court.

In the early months of 2001, a very disturbing pattern of surveillance, infiltration, harassment and physical attacks against members of La Coordinadora emerged. It is widely understood that both La Coordinadora and SEMAPA have powerful enemies in the echelons of power in the Bolivian and state governments. A failure on the part of the citizens to run their own water company could be used as a warning to others around the world who stand up to water privatization and the power of the World Bank.

HIGH-TECH WATER GUZZLERS
Similar water conflicts are growing in the computer industry, where big corporations are claiming unfair shares of local water supplies. Computer manufacturers use massive quantities of de-ionized freshwater to produce their goods and are constantly searching for new sources. Increasingly, this search is pitting giant high-tech corporations against economically and socially marginalized peoples in a battle for local water sources.

Electronics is the world's fastest-growing manufacturing industry, according to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. Giants such as IBM, AT&T, Intel, NEC, Fujitsu, Siemans, Phillips, Sumitomo, Honeywell, and Samsung have annual net sales exceeding the gross domestic product of many countries. Originally thought to be a "clean" industry, high-tech has left a staggering pollution legacy in its short history. In 1980, the U.S. Congress set up the Superfund program through the EPA to locate, investigate and clean up the worst sites in the nation. Presently, the Silicon Valley has more EPA toxic Superfund sites than any other area in the U.S. plus more than 150 groundwater contamination sites, many related to high-tech manufacturing. Close to 30 percent of the ground water beneath and around Phoenix, Arizona, has been contaminated, well over half by the high-tech sector.

There are currently about 900 semi-conductor manufacturing plants, or fabrication facilities (fabs) making computer wafers (used for computer chips) around the world. Another 140 plants are now under construction. These plants consume a staggering amount of water. For example, Intel Fab, a software company located on the high desert near Albuquerque, New Mexico, is permitted to use nearly 6 million gallons (18 million liters) of water per day, or enough to supply a small town. At this rate (including the new plants under construction) the industry will be using over 500 billion gallons ( 1,500 billion liters) of water and producing over 100 billion gallons (300 billion liters) of waste water each year. Much of the new construction for high-tech manufacturing is in water-poor countries or in the desert, but as local activists say, 'Water flows uphill to money."

The question is: where will the water come from? The Southwest Network for Economic Justice and the Campaign for Responsible Technology explains "In an arena of such limited resources, a struggle ensues between those who have traditionally enjoyed these resources and those newcomers who look at these resources with covetous eyes."

High-tech companies are engaging in mechanisms to capture traditional water rights water pricing, whereby industry pressures governments for subsidies and circumvents city utility equipment to directly pump water, thus paying much less than residential water users pay for water; water mining, whereby companies gain rights to deplete the aquifers while driving up the access costs to smaller users such as family farmers; water ranching, whereby industry buys up water rights of ranches and farmers; and waste dumping, whereby industry contaminates the local water sources and then passes the costs on to the community.Despite increasing industrial demand, conservation programs aimed at ordinary people are not applied to industry. "While some residents tore out their lawns last year [ 1996] to save water," the Albuquerque Tribune wrote of a city conservation project, "it poured with increasing volume through the spigots of industry." While residents had to decrease their use by 30 percent, Intel Fab was allowed to increase its use by the same amount. In addition, Intel pays four times less than the city's residents for its water. Perhaps the most disturbing trend, however, is the deliberate destruction of a local pueblo traditional acequia-a collective system of agricultural water distribution-to feed the voracious appetite of the high-tech giants.

Under the new commercial system, water is separated from the land it belongs to and transported great distances; this is anathema to the local indigenous ways. Says John Carangelo, a mayordomo of the La Joya Acequia Association, "In New Mexico, where the total finite supply of water is allegedly fully appropriated, the location of a high-tech industry is dependent on the purchase of existing water rights. This high demand for water and their vast financial resources makes water a valuable commercial product." He warns that water trading could hollow out rural America.

Local sources, however, will clearly not be sufficient to meet industrial needs, given the aquifer depletion taking place in many high-tech-intensive areas. The companies are starting to look farther afield within their own countries or abroad for new sources of water; the global trade in water provides a possible new source. Given the rapid growth of high-tech companies in the non-industrial world, particularly China, it is entirely possible that current bulk water exports are being negotiated to feed the voracious water appetite of the global technology industry.

from....
Blue GoldIndex of
WebsiteHome Page
William Danshin
www.watercorp.com

IS OUR WATER CLEAN ENOUGH

IS OUR WATER CLEAN ENOUGH?



THE ENVIRONMENTALISTS’ POSITION:
“It’s definitely not clean enough. We think industrial CEOs should replace their bottled water with water taken directly from their effluent streams. But we suspect that ‘Dioxin Tea with a Twist of Lemon’ will not become a favorite.”

THE POLLUTERS’ POSITION:
“Yes, it’s clean enough. There are no longer any rivers that are actually on fire, and Deep Purple proved that a little ‘Smoke on the Water’ can be a good thing.”

THE WATER’S POSITION:

“You’d think I would be very upset about all the toxic industrial waste, the endocrine disrupting chemicals, the pesticide and fertilizer runoff from lawns and farms, the untreated sewage, and all the rest of the pollution that finds its way into me. But, hey, I’m inanimate. So if you bio-reactive water-drinkers don’t care about all that contamination, why should I?”

Peter Barabus — Effluent Manufacturers Industrial Association "We haven't seen anyone able to walk on water recently, so how polluted can the water be?"
Perhaps you accept the Non-Sequitur Society's position on water pollution: 'Some water contaminants are natural, so man-made contaminants are irrelevant.' If not, you might like to find out just how relevant they are in our water pollution effects.

Baby Bath

Most babies love a nice bath. It's warm, it's soothing, and it's relaxing. And because babies love skin-to-skin contact, bathing offers another great opportunity for warm interaction between you and your little one.

Make sure you have everything you need for the bath. You can maintain the soap soft, of the balls of cotton and a clean shaped nappy in a shoebox or any other container. Then you can bring the box inside with the towel and the washcloth to the room where you bathe your baby. When all is ready, get your baby.

If you can, to turn to the bottom your water-heater to 120 degrees. The babies can obtain scalded easily. To fill sink or bucket which you will bathe your baby inside with water heat. always examine water with your wrist or bends. Water should be comfortably hot, not heat.

Don't let your child soak in a tub full of soapy water or bubble bath

Baby Clothing

Baby Clothing

When you are expecting your first baby you might think that choosing clothes for your new baby is easy but it's not at all easy as you may think. There is a chance that you might not know the gender of your baby during pregnancy but this does not count so much regarding baby clothes.

First of all, you have to be practical in your choice. As you get ready for the birth of your baby, you can advise relatives and friends of what you need as baby gifts. Make sure to keep practicality in mind. You can think about it from you point of view but you can also ask friends who have recently had babies for tips.
There are some tips when buying baby clothes.

You have to think to the accessibility of the baby clothes. The baby needs to be changed frequently so it's a bad choice if you've chosen baby clothes with too many buttons, straps, and fasteners. You will find them annoying.

Always remember that babies get messy, and that you and your partner are the only ones who will be cleaning up after them. You can make it easy on yourselves by selecting baby clothes with simple and quick access,easy to put on and take off .

Look is less important than well-being. Some people buy baby clothes that look so cute and attractive, even designer wear that will lead to baby fashion parades. They forget the important things to consider when buying baby clothing. They should consider that the skin of their new born is very sensitive. The outfit you might choose may be fundamental in prettiness bu it could cause discomfort as well. This can happen if the clothes are too restrictive, do not breathe easily or are made of the inappropriate materials. The newborn baby should wear all-natural fibers. Clothes for a newborn baby should be soft and absorbent as well in order to protect the baby's skin. Pure cotton is the best when choosing baby clothes.

The easy care of the baby clothes is another important factor. You have to look at the care labels while you are still in the clothing shop, and make sure that the item is machine washable, without any restrictions.

Cotton clothing is great for infants. It keeps them cool during the warm months. It helps prevent harmful rays from the sun burning their sensitive skin and the most important thing for you as a parent is that it's a fabric that's easy to take care of. Cotton is, without doubt, the fabric of choice for baby clothing for the reasons mentioned above.

By:- Kianna