Human Rights

14th October

Students studying Geography for A Level at my school went to a conference on water conflicts. It wasn't as uninteresting as I thought it would be although I take little interest in the subject and the Geography A Level course as a whole. It was chaired by the BBC anchor George Alagiah - who, upon going to the toilet, I saw taking a piss before the lecture. Talk about 'humanising' somebody off the tele...he pisses...JUST LIKE ME!
An interesting point brought up by one of the audience members was the possibility of water access being a human right. I thought that was an extremely intelligent thing to say because the buzz phrase - 'human rights' - seems to be one of the only things that can dampen the exploitation of water usage and purchasing by Trans National Corporations. Once that phrase is thrown about companies suddenly back off and are more willing to alter their ways. More because of the fact that any accusation of human rights abuse will damage product sales than because of the moral downsides to the infringements themselves but either way the point stands.
Sanctions or diplomatic agreements tend to be disproportionate or unfair due to economic and social reasons. For instance one country may be in a stronger financial position than another and therefore be able to demand a greater share of the water. If water was a human right then a state's economy wouldn't provide grounds for the claim of more water. Other countries will just be more skilled negotiators or have a larger proportion of the river basin in question within their own territory and thus would be reluctant to give any potential water supply away. Additionally both of the speakers thought that we may well see 'Water Wars' - similar to those over oil (or Weapons of Mass Destruction depending on how gullible you are) but over water. So I learnt about a potential threat that isn't usually mentioned.
Anyway, I agreed that making water access a human right may well be the only definite way to ensure water is distributed fairly, especially around nations in arid regions like in Sub Saharan Africa. So I learnt to look at this issue in a different light.

I've often referred to the idyll of a place were myself and others like me could just go to hang each weekend without it becoming boring. I think the nearest place to that description is an evening in a pub somewhere. I suppose if that's the closest we can get to my idyllic 'vision' then it'll do. After the lecture a few of us went to a pub in Camden just to hang.
Oddly, I still get that feeling of being out of my own territory when I go to a pub. Similarly if someone asked to see my ID I'd hand it over tongue-in-cheek even though my ID is totally legitimate and states my legal age. I learnt I still get that 'rush'-like feeling I occasionally get when I go into a pub even though I can do it within legal means now. Weird.