Friday, September 12

"Flow- The Tale of The Earth’s Blue Gold"

On September 12, 2008, twenty-two Levermore Global Scholars visited the Angelika Film Center in NYC to see the film FLOW – For the Love of Water. The film was followed by a panel discussion with Irena Salina – Director of FLOW, Wenonah Hauter – Executive Director of Food & Water Watch, Maude Barlow, Council For Canadians and author of “Blue Gold,” and Leah Margulies from Corporate Accountability. Below is a reflection and film review written by John Campana, LGS Freshman.

Nature has given us the opportunity to build our world and improve ourselves as humans. Although this is true, we as humans have relied on our natural resources so much that we have let a commodity become a rarity. This resource that we as Americans take for granted is water, the “blue gold” of our time. Water is a commodity that has transformed from being a natural right of every individual to something that can be bought and sold. Due to our consumerist nature, we have made water one of the largest industries in the world – third behind oil and electricity. All of these facts are introduced in FLOW, a film that educates the world about how human beings deny other humans their natural right to clean water.

FLOW was made in order to establish the voice of change that will be needed in order to better the world for all those who do not have access to clean, usable water. In the movie FLOW we are introduced to statistics that are eye-opening and sometimes even horrid. For instance, an average American uses 158 gallons of water a day, while in other countries one person cannot find even five. The film also takes into views the perspective of people that suffer because companies such as Suez and Vivendi are trying to privatize water. Poor people are being asked to pay for something that they have a fundamental human right to!

FLOW also educates the audience about how bottled water is not as safe as it is advertised to be. The most shocking fact is that the entire industry is regulated by less than 1 person at the FDA. Also, the fact that tap water is often tested 500 times a month proves to the public that tap water is sometimes safer than bottled water. Furthermore, most people do not taste the difference between tap water and bottled water when they are asked to identify the source of the water in their cups.

The movie established within me the desire to educate everyone about water. I want to help eliminate people’s ignorance of the water crisis, just like the film did for me. One statistic presented by the film stated that "the cost per person per year having 10 liters of safe drinking water everyday is just $2 USD." This quote galvanized me to start a water initiative called H20- Go Blue! at Adelphi University. All of this happened immediately after I saw FLOW.

Written by John Campana
Edited by Yana Kusayeva