The military government of the Republic of the Fiji Islands and Fiji Water, one of the world’s most dominant purveyors of bottled water, are deeply in cahoots in a relationship to deprive the Fijian people of their rights and prosperity in exchange for immense private profits.
 In the name of U.S. corporate interests, the Fijian military makes sure that there is no such thing as a free sip of clean water. |
Fiji, comprising over 300 islands east of Australia in the South Pacific, was colonized by the British in the 19th century until independence was gained in 1970. British imperialism cast aside traditional society and modes of production, replacing them with a class society dominated by the colonial masters and Indian indentured workers imported to toil on massive sugar plantations. Indigenous people were banned by law from participating in colonial administration.
In the post-colonial period, tensions between indigenous Fijians and the descendants of Indian workers, who were viewed as disproportionately powerful in the new government, led to the first of a series of coups in 1987.
Compared to countries of similar size, Fiji has a large and well-funded military. Fijian forces often take part in United Nations “peacekeeping” missions outside the country in exchange for monetary aid from imperialist countries, especially the United States.
It is that service to imperialism on the part of the Fijian elite that created the conditions under which foreign capitalists have come to dominate the national economy and the military has become the center of political power, especially under the martial law declared in April 2009.
According to a Mother Jones piece, by Anna Lenzer, Fiji Water was founded by Canadian billionaire David Gilmour in 1995 after he learned of a large natural aquifer discovered by the bourgeois democratic government. Familiar with the country due to his resort holdings there, Gilmour was able to secure a 99-year lease for most of the land over the aquifer, dreaming of a “niche project for the elite,” as Lenzer described it in a Sept. 3 interview on Democracy Now!.
Using clever product placement, Fiji Water quickly became identified as an exclusive, hip brand that, despite its high price, became a mainstream favorite that yields enormous profits.
Fiji Water creates false progressive image
Gilmour sold the company in 2004 to agribusiness billionaires Lynda and Steward Resnick. To further bolster their product’s image, the Resnicks positioned Fiji Water as a leader in sustainable practice, boasting of the purchase of carbon credits to offset its environmental impact, and a progressive economic engine for Fiji itself, building schools and protecting the islands’ environment. They have also interjected their product into major events, creating imagery of celebrities, including President Obama, drinking Fiji Water.
“Nowhere in Fiji Water’s glossy marketing materials will you find reference to the typhoid outbreaks that plague Fijians because of the island’s faulty water supplies; the corporate entities that Fiji Water has … set up in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg,” Lenzer writes.
Lenzer highlights the lack of potable water for the Fijian people, including those living in the town of Rakiraki, a half-hour’s drive from the Fiji Water bottling plant, who must resort to extreme measures like theft and bribery to avoid paying extortionate U.S.-level prices—almost a dollar a liter—for water pumped literally from their own back yard.
Lenzer also noted the mutually beneficial relationship between Fiji’s military government and the water conglomerate. The company, often working through Fiji’s embassies in other countries, benefits from the government’s cooperation and protection. (Lenzer, believed to be working for another water company, was arrested and threatened with gang rape in prison if she did not leave the country). Consequently, Fiji water provides cover for the government by deliberately cultivating an image of Fiji as a tropical paradise occupied by a benevolent, progressive company.
This cozy relationship is quite revealing. For the imperialists, the form of government is of far less importance than its essential role as the guardian of private property and their right to the unhindered pursuit of maximum profits. The military rulers in Fiji have played that part well. The champions of “democracy” and “freedom” in the U.S. government and media are conspicuously silent when U.S. capital finds itself well-served.
But the Fijian people, even in the face of military repression, have resisted imperialist control over their resources. During the 2000 coup, Lenzer wrote, “a small posse of villagers … seized on the chaos to take over the bottling plant and threaten to burn it down. ‘The land is sacred and central to our continued existence and identity,’ a village spokesman told the Fiji Times, adding that ‘no Fijian should live off the breadcrumbs of past colonial injustices.’”
