Day: 20 January 2006

Bolivia vs. Bechtel

BechtelJim Shultz, from The Democracy Center brought good news today.

“This morning, the Bechtel Corporation will sign an agreement dropping its $50 million legal case against the people of Cochabamba (Bolivia) for kicking Bechtel out in the 2000 water revolt” said Shultz. “Instead of the fortune it demanded, Bechtel will fly home with a token settlement of two shiny Bolivian coins worth a total of thirty cents. One of the biggest, most powerful corporations on Earth has been defeated by an army of concerned citizens all over the world.”

Good for the people of Bolivia!!

For more information on this, check out democracyctr.org and boliviasoberana.org (in Spanish). For more information on privatization of water around the world, go to waternotforsale.org

Dirty Antibiotics Resisters

Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada have looked into their soil to find a lot of resistance. The research scientists took some soil samples and found that a lot of microbes are not affected by antibiotics.

480 microbes were tested and a; showed resistance to two drugs, and most were resistant to 7 or 8 more of the 21 drugs tested. The scientists tried traditional medicines and recently designed drugs.

At first, you might think that this is not good news. I’d say that this is good news because by looking at these microbes we can gain a better understanding of why more and more microbes are resisting antibiotics. The more we know about this the better we can treat people.