Privatizing public goods: Our lives up for sale

THE JAKARTA POST – Opinion & Editorial, Monday, 15 July 2002

by Yanuar Nugroho

Beware. In the coming years, we in Indonesia may have to pay more not only for our drinking water, but also for bathing and watering flowers at home. We may also have to pay for permission to dig a well in our backyards.

Worse, farmers and villagers may no longer be able to access water from rivers or springs, for corporations will already have been given the right to access all water resources.

Descartes might say: ‘I buy, therefore I am’

THE JAKARTA POST – Opinion and Editorial – July 10, 2002

Have you watched the TV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It is a successful game show that has now been shown in 51 countries, reaping regular audiences of up to 20 million, and shows how much we all desire to share in the capitalist dream. Soap operas showing the rich getting richer, like Dallas or Dynasty, lost their appeal by the 1990s; today many like to believe that wealth is within reach of all of us.