Comments by "Tony Wilson" (@tonywilson4713) on "Central Asia on the verge of a water war" video.

  1. I'm Australian and we have seen a number of documentaries on the destruction for the Aral Sea. I find it truly staggering in this entire video DOES NOT MENTION the destruction of the Aral Sea. Those Soviet era dams built on those 2 huge rivers (Syr Darya and Amu Darya) destroyed the Aral Sea. That destruction is one of the greatest MANMADE disasters in history. Prior to its destruction the Aral Sea supported an enormous fishery that fed millions. That is all gone -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea The other thing he does not mention is that those enclaves were deliberately created by Stalin. He did it to create the sorts of situations we now see all across the ex-Soviet Republics. He literally grabbed chunks of populations and swapped them to create these enclaves. These enclaves didn't "naturally" develop over centuries they are a fairly recent (in terms of history) Soviet construct designed to displace people from their traditional homelands.
    17
  2.  @dirremoire  Well let me tell you about your ARROGANCE. 1: I don't watch Sky News and I don't know anyone with a functioning brain who does. Occasionally I will watcha YouTube on something they have said so I can answer claims others make. HOW DARE YOU ASSSUME I WATCH THEM FOR INFORMATION. 2: I NEVER said they drained the Aral Sea. Seriously how stupid do you think people are? I said the Soviets building those dams destroyed the Aral Sea without going into the details that the water was diverted mainly for cotton farming. 3: As for Stalin's displacing of people that is well known. He wasn't the first to even practice that concept of disconnecting people from their traditional lands. The Americans did it with their First Nations. Every time anyone does an even half reasonable story involving ex-Soviet Republics and enclaves the subject of Stalin gets mentioned. So here's my advice to you -> In future don't be so effng arrogant, presumptive or STUPID and people wont think you're a FK-wit.
    15
  3.  @toomaskotkas4467  I'm not certain what to say to you looking back through your comments to others. The only thing you seem intent on is starting arguments with everyone by throwing cheap insults. You started with no-one cares and considering your reply to Brian McGucken why don't you FK-off back to your village and play with your chisel and ball of yarn.
    11
  4. I'm Australian and we have a similar problem here with our main river system the Murray-Darling. Because it travels through 4 different states and each of those states regulates its own water resources they don't have to care about the downstream states. We even dammed another river (the Snowy) which had the highest flow of any river in our country to generate electricity and provide for irrigation. 90% of it now flows into the Murray which doubled the Murray's flow. The Murray which eventually connects with the Darling (our longest river) no longer even reaches the ocean. So we took our biggest river system then doubled its flow and now it fails to reach the ocean. DOES THAT SOUND FAMILIAR? Go look what the Americans have down with the Colorado River system or look at what's happening with the ground water systems in California and Nebraska. DOES IT SOUND FAMILIAR? What the Soviets did to the Aral Sea was idiotic. What we and others are also doing is just as idiotic. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
    9
  5.  @toomaskotkas4467  That's quite possibly true. In Australia we have had more than a few make the same claim about our first nations. I went to college in America and they have people who say the same there about their first nations. As far as I know the Romans said the same about the Barbarians of Northern Europe 2000 years ago. Its a very common claim by those who invade or those who take over or those who come in bearing gifts and promising development. I just saw a story the other day about a Rio Tinto mine in South Africa where there's violence. The locals were promised jobs and development and have seen neither. We have had similar claims here in Australia about mining companies and gas companies coming in promising a "golden era" of jobs and prosperity. Funny how the same story keeps getting repeated. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
    7
  6. It does get covered at times which is how I know these 2 things. What is truly staggering in this entire video DOES NOT MENTION the destruction of the Aral Sea. Those Soviet era dams built on those 2 huge rivers (Syr Darya and Amu Darya) destroyed the Aral Sea. That destruction is one of the greatest MANMADE disasters in history. Prior to its destruction the Aral Sea supported an enormous fishery that fed millions. That is all gone -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea The other thing he does not mention is that those enclaves were deliberately created by Stalin. He did it to create the sorts of situations we now see all across the ex-Soviet Republics. He literally grabbed chunks of populations and swapped them to create these enclaves. These enclaves didn't "naturally" develop over centuries they are a fairly recent (in terms of history) Soviet construct designed to displace people from their traditional homelands.
    4
  7. What is truly staggering in this entire video DOES NOT MENTION the destruction of the Aral Sea. Those Soviet era dams built on those 2 huge rivers (Syr Darya and Amu Darya) destroyed the Aral Sea. That destruction is one of the greatest MANMADE disasters in history. Prior to its destruction the Aral Sea supported an enormous fishery that fed millions. That is all gone -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea The other thing he does not mention is that those enclaves were deliberately created by Stalin. He did it to create the sorts of situations we now see all across the ex-Soviet Republics. He literally grabbed chunks of populations and swapped them to create these enclaves. These enclaves didn't "naturally" develop over centuries they are a fairly recent (in terms of history) Soviet construct designed to displace people from their traditional homelands.
    3
  8.  @markfish8403  We have major international companies buying farms like mad in Australia for nut farming as well and its causing huge issues with our agricultural water supplies. Large nut farms need constant water 365 days a year. Many years a go an American came to Australia and set up what is now one of the worlds largest Pecan nut farms. He was looking for cheaper land and plentiful water. WHEN HE SET UP here it was fine as back then we had plenty of suitable land and enough water that it didn't stuff things up. BUT NOW we have all these others trying to cash in and we don't have enough water to go around and its causing chaos. At some point we are going to have to tell these big corporations and their bonus chasing CEOs ENOUGH.
    3
  9.  @markfish8403  AT least one of the new players in Oz is Canadian. The Saudis are also major players in our agriculture along with Brits and Americans. I don't know about others. We keep doing stupid things when it comes to foreign investments. We have a banking sector with TOO MUCH SAY in too many things. They are addicted to cash and they don't care where its from. One section of that sector has as its mantra "foreign investment is good." They NEVER allow anyone to question if any particular investment is good. Its an ideology that must not be questioned not a sound economic principle.
    2
  10. I'm Australian and we have seen a number of documentaries on the destruction for the Aral Sea. I find it truly staggering in this entire video DOES NOT MENTION the destruction of the Aral Sea. Those Soviet era dams built on those 2 huge rivers (Syr Darya and Amu Darya) destroyed the Aral Sea. That destruction is one of the greatest MANMADE disasters in history. Prior to its destruction the Aral Sea supported an enormous fishery that fed millions. That is all gone -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aral_Sea The other thing he does not mention is that those enclaves were deliberately created by Stalin. He did it to create the sorts of situations we now see all across the ex-Soviet Republics. He literally grabbed chunks of populations and swapped them to create these enclaves. These enclaves didn't "naturally" develop over centuries they are a fairly recent (in terms of history) Soviet construct designed to displace people from their traditional homelands.
    2
  11.  @josha136  Your right Russia is desperate to still be regarded as a super power. Any reasonable check into Putin's background and what you have is a person who's addicted to power in a very bad way. But do be careful about the EU being fantastic as it has a number of problems that could easily lead it to collapse. The most obvious is that the member states have no control over their own individual currency. That concentrates a lot of power in Brussels and that level of concentration never works out well in the long term because it also concentrates influence peddling and corruption. Look at Washington. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
    2
  12.  @josha136  good points all around. My main point was be careful holding any system up TOO MUCH above another without considering the flaws. No one has a perfect system, everyone has some level of corruption, its just in some its more obvious. Arguably the biggest issue we all have is the pandering to the wants of the top 1% irrespective of the system. I'm Australian and I joke that down here BOTH sides of our politics have a common policy called "What do the billionaires want?" Its less obvious here than in America but its here and we cant avoid it. If there is one thing Western Democracies do have is that if we get sick of one side we can throw them out and let the other side have a go. You can't throw the Chinese CP out. Its almost impossible to get Putin out. At least (for the moment) Europe and others can still throw people out of government.
    2
  13.  @markfish8403  The problem was never the one massive Pecan farm. The guy who did it found that America could not supply its own demand. There wasn't suitable land available in America. So he looked elsewhere. People were curious at first but as years went by it was great. He made money, paid taxes, employed people, generated export $$$ and all was great. The problem was when a lot of others wanted to do the same with other nuts when we simply don't have the water resources for that many nut trees. This is just one example of one of humanities big problems: We have too many for whom the words "NO - you can't have that" are some kind of crime. Look at this issue with these rivers. If the industry operates within the capability of the resource there isn't a problem. Look at California and the issues with all the wells drying up because there's big ag sucking the Southern Cal Aquifer dry. They don't care that it can't last. They only care about the next quarterly statement. Its one of the things I try to point out to people THESE ISSSUES ARE COMMON EVERYWHERE. If you go looking about the world its the same thing in place after place. Its like no one is considering what happens next year let alone 5 years or 10 or 20. Prof Mark Blyth (Brown U.) has coined the term Angrynomics and it has to do with with the fact there's a lot of anger in the world these days. Part of what he's saying is that we should have had a major reset to how we operate our economies AFTER the 2008 GFC just like they did after the Great Depression and like they did in the 1970s as inflation got out of control. Instead the top 1% went "FK NO" we're making too much $$$$ and the rest of you can suck it. Here's one of his comments just after Trump won in 2016 to highlight why so many turned on the establishment of the GOP and DNC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWMmBG3Z4DI&t=1104s Basically the US federal government could supplement every person on minimum wage by $2-5 and hour just by taxing the bonuses from Wall St. The crazy is, it would boost Wall St profits enormously because it would be pumping billions into the economy at the base. The only losers would be a few billionaires. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️ Here's his basic 3minute primer on Angrynomics and a longer lecture on "How we got here." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXJD5rE4omY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJoe_daP0DE
    1
  14.  @markfish8403  There's a couple of good in depth news vids on water over on the German DW news pages. Sadly one on Australia is currently unavailable - I don't know why.
    1
  15.  @irinaivanovna6380  I've seen a couple of stories on it. Very bold, very brave and they deserve praise & support for the effort.
    1
  16.  @ppazpppaz8618  What sort of stupid question is that? Nobody can organize a natural disaster. They can create one by mismanagement or wanton destruction. In Australia our greatest mismanagement is water followed by land clearing. Both have lead to serious environmental issues that will take decades to fix and billions in costs.
    1
  17.  @paranoidrodent  You're on the right path. We have several big Canadian Agri businesses operating in Australia. They usually do it as a joint venture with locals. As far as I know the main reason we let them in, is because we always let in people who arrive with suitcases of money. Our clowns in Canberra are addicted to foreign investment and they make it very worthwhile. For the Canadians its an easy place to come. There's no language barriers. The currencies are effectively 1 to 1. The flipped seasons are great for out of season supply But best of all they don't have to deal with America or Americans. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
    1
  18.  @k0zzu21  Go watch/listen to Prof. Mark Blyth on the myth of inflation. Your spouting the common neo-liberal garbage that the top 1% have kept the other 99% trapped for the last 40+ years. I have no time for it.
    1
  19.  @k0zzu21  Dude Mark Blyth has the RESULTS that says he knows what he's talking about. Who the f--k are you again? Some people are smart enough to listen to experts in the effort to learn something. Yeah, I did economics 101 too and what I learnt was that most economic theorists are idiots who can't do math. Listening and learning from Mark and others has been an education. AND IT COST ME NOTHING BUT TIME and a WILLINGNESS TO LEARN. Feel free to join the club.
    1
  20.  @k0zzu21  Its pretty simple I am not getting into an argument with an idiot. who thinks he smarter than some of the best political economists in the world. Especially when all he's spouting is the neo-liberal crap that's driven the world to where it is.
    1
  21.  @k0zzu21  Great way to get credibility - slag off at the guy who predicted Brexit and Trump when so many others didn't. Not getting into throwing sticks as you throw sticks. Yeah - how does that work? Which university did you study at and conferences do you speak at and which major corporations listen to you? If you don't like being told your full of shite then don't spout shite. 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♀️
    1