Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle
Obama sips it. Paris Hilton loves it. Mary J. Blige won't sing without it. How did a plastic water bottle, imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away, become the epitome of cool?
THE INTERNET CAFÉ in the Fijian capital, Suva, was usually open all night long. Dimly lit, with rows of sleek, modern terminals, the place was packed at all hours with teenage boys playing boisterous rounds of video games. But one day soon after I arrived, the staff told me they now had to shut down by 5 p.m. Police orders, they shrugged: The country's military junta had declared martial law a few days before, and things were a bit tense.
I sat down and sent out a few emails—filling friends in on my visit to the Fiji Water bottling plant, forwarding a story about foreign journalists being kicked off the island. Then my connection died. "It will just be a few minutes," one of the clerks said.
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Moments later, a pair of police officers walked in. They headed for a woman at another terminal; I turned to my screen to compose a note about how cops were even showing up in the Internet cafés. Then I saw them coming toward me. "We're going to take you in for questioning about the emails you've been writing," they said.
What followed, in a windowless room at the main police station, felt like a bad cop movie. "Who are you really?" the bespectacled inspector wearing a khaki uniform and a smug grin asked me over and over, as if my passport, press credentials, and stacks of notes about Fiji Water weren't sufficient clues to my identity. (My iPod, he surmised tensely, was "good for transmitting information.") I asked him to call my editors, even a UN official who could vouch for me. "Shut up!" he snapped. He rifled through my bags, read my notebooks and emails. "I'd hate to see a young lady like you go into a jail full of men," he averred, smiling grimly. "You know what happened to women during the 2000 coup, don't you?"
Eventually, it dawned on me that his concern wasn't just with my potentially seditious emails; he was worried that my reporting would taint the Fiji Water brand. "Who do you work for, another water company? It would be good to come here and try to take away Fiji Water's business, wouldn't it?" Then he switched tacks and offered to protect me—from other Fijian officials, who he said would soon be after me—by letting me go so I could leave the country. I walked out into the muggy morning, hid in a stairwell, and called a Fijian friend. Within minutes, a US Embassy van was speeding toward me on the seawall.
Until that day, I hadn't fully appreciated the paranoia of Fiji's military regime. The junta had been declared unconstitutional the previous week by the country's second highest court; in response it had abolished the judiciary, banned unauthorized public gatherings, delayed elections until 2014, and clamped down on the media. (Only the "journalism of hope" is now permitted.) The prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, promised to root out corruption and bring democracy to a country that has seen four coups in the past 25 years; the government said it will start working on a new constitution in 2012.
The slogan on Fiji Water's website—"And remember this—we saved you a trip to Fiji"—suddenly felt like a dark joke. Every day, more soldiers showed up on the streets. When I called the courthouse, not a single official would give me his name. Even tour guides were running scared—one told me that one of his colleagues had been picked up and beaten for talking politics with tourists. When I later asked Fiji Water spokesman Rob Six what the company thought of all this, he said the policy was not to comment on the government "unless something really affects us."
The Audacity of Branding
Seizing on the bottles' ubiquity, Tourism Fiji has taken to circulating a photo of President Obama at an event featuring Fiji Water.
If you drink bottled water, you've probably drunk Fiji. Or wanted to. Even though it's shipped from the opposite end of the globe, even though it retails for nearly three times as much as your basic supermarket water, Fiji is now America's leading imported water, beating out Evian. It has spent millions pushing not only the seemingly life-changing properties of the product itself, but also the company's green cred and its charity work. Put all that together in an iconic bottle emblazoned with a cheerful hibiscus, and everybody, from the Obamas to Paris and Nicole to Diddy and Kimora, is seen sipping Fiji.
That's by design. Ever since a Canadian mining and real estate mogul named David Gilmour launched Fiji Water in 1995, the company has positioned itself squarely at the nexus of pop-culture glamour and progressive politics. Fiji Water's chief marketing whiz and co-owner (with her husband, Stewart) is Lynda Resnick, a well-known liberal donor who casually name-drops her friends Arianna Huffington and Laurie David. ("Of course I know everyone in the world," Resnick told the UK's Observer in 2005, "every mogul, every movie star.") Manhattan's trendy Carlyle hotel pours only Fiji Water in its dog bowls, and this year's SXSW music festival featured a Fiji Water Detox Spa. "Each piece of lobster sashimi," celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa declared in 2007, "should be dipped into Fiji Water seven to ten times."
Drinking Buds
Fiji Water owner Lynda Resnick, pictured with Arianna Huffington, has aimed her brand squarely at the nexus of glamour and green.
And even as bottled water has come under attack as the embodiment of waste, Fiji seems immune. Fiji Water took out a full-page ad in Vanity Fair's 2007 green issue, nestled among stories about the death of the world's water. Two bottles sat on a table between Al Gore and Mos Def during a 2006 MySpace "Artist on Artist" discussion on climate change. Fiji was what panelists sipped at the "Life After Capitalism" conference held in New York City during the 2004 RNC protests; Fiji reps were even credentialed at last year's Democratic convention, where they handed out tens of thousands of bottles.
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—despite the owners' talk of financial transparency—set up in tax havens like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg; or the fact that its signature bottle is made from Chinese plastic in a diesel-fueled plant and hauled thousands of miles to its ecoconscious consumers. And, of course, you won't find mention of the military junta for which Fiji Water is a major source of global recognition and legitimacy. (Gilmour has described the square bottles as "little ambassadors" for the poverty-stricken nation.)
"We are Fiji," declare Fiji Water posters across the island, and the slogan is almost eerily accurate: The reality of Fiji, the country, has been eclipsed by the glistening brand of Fiji, the water.
ON THE MAP, Fiji looks as if someone dropped a fistful of confetti on the ocean. The country is made up of more than 300 islands (100 inhabited) that have provided the setting for everything from The Blue Lagoon to Survivor to Cast Away. Suva is a bustling multicultural hub with a mix of shopping centers, colonial buildings, and curry houses; some 40 percent of the population is of Indian ancestry, descendants of indentured sugarcane workers brought in by the British in the mid-19th century. (The Indian-descended and native communities have been wrangling for power ever since.) The primary industries are tourism and sugar. Fiji Water says its operations make up about 20 percent of exports and 3 percent of GDP, which stands at $3,900 per capita.
Getting to the Fiji Water factory requires a bone-jarring four-hour trek into the volcanic foothills of the Yaqara Valley. My bus' speakers blasted an earsplitting soundtrack of Fijian reggae, Bob Marley, Tupac, and Big Daddy Kane as we swerved up unpaved mountain roads linked by rickety wooden bridges. Cow pastures ringed by palm trees gave way to villages of corrugated-metal shacks and wooden homes painted in Technicolor hues. Chickens scurried past stands selling cell phone minutes. Sugarcane stalks burning in the fields sent a sweet smoke curling into the air.
Our last rest stop, half an hour from the bottling plant, was Rakiraki, a small town with a square of dusty shops and a marketplace advertising "Coffin Box for Sale—Cheapest in Town." My Lonely Planet guide warned that Rakiraki water "has been deemed unfit for human consumption," and groceries were stocked with Fiji Water going for 90 cents a pint—almost as much as it costs in the US.
Rakiraki has experienced the full range of Fiji's water problems—crumbling pipes, a lack of adequate wells, dysfunctional or flooded water treatment plants, and droughts that are expected to get worse with climate change. Half the country has at times relied on emergency water supplies, with rations as low as four gallons a week per family; dirty water has led to outbreaks of typhoid and parasitic infections. Patients have reportedly had to cart their own water to hospitals, and schoolchildren complain about their pipes spewing shells, leaves, and frogs. Some Fijians have taken to smashing open fire hydrants and bribing water truck drivers for a regular supply.
Suva, Fiji - Photo by Anna Lenzer
The bus dropped me off at a deserted intersection, where a weather-beaten sign warning off would-be trespassers in English, Fijian, and Hindi rattled in the tropical wind. Once I reached the plant, the bucolic quiet gave way to the hum of machinery spitting out some 50,000 square bottles (made on the spot with plastic imported from China) per hour. The production process spreads across two factory floors, blowing, filling, capping, labeling, and shrink-wrapping 24 hours a day, five days a week. The company won't disclose its total sales; Fiji Water's vice president of corporate communications told me the estimate of 180 million bottles sold in 2006, given in a legal declaration by his boss, was wrong, but declined to provide a more solid number.
From here, the bottles are shipped to the four corners of the globe; the company—which, unlike most of its competitors, offers detailed carbon-footprint estimates on its website—insists that they travel on ships that would be making the trip anyway, and that the Fiji payload only causes them to use 2 percent more fuel. In 2007, Fiji Water announced that it planned to go carbon negative by offsetting 120 percent of emissions via conservation and energy projects starting in 2008. It has also promised to reduce its pre-offset carbon footprint by 25 percent next year and to use 50 percent renewable energy, in part by installing a windmill at the plant.
Page 1 of 3 
Please
This small islands only resource for export and cash for its economy? Give them a break and watch them thrive and evolve.
It has to start someplace. They need help to evolve and make the best use of its new export/resource.
Uplifting the Noble Savage
If we are the Noblesse Obligee, then surely what you want is for us to lift the dark-skinned, noble savages to their rightful place in the world market.
However, to say that Fiji's only resource is water is ridiculous. Left alone, the Fijians spent a long, long time without a world market to depend on. They had the bounty of the ocean, agricultural practices brought from the Asian mainlands by their forebears...
I shouldn't use the past tense, they still have all those things. The difference now is that of the lowly Fijians, only those in cahoots with the tourism industry and apparently the water-robbing industry can control the gov't and reap the rewards. If you think a free, open, and prosperous society will somehow, magically "evolve" out of a corporatist police-state, you are naive and I don't want you involved in our political process here at all.
It's funny how the east
It's funny how the east Indian population, that has made the biggest contributions to the Fijian economy, seem not to be of any concern to these foreign coporations operating in Fiji. Never do we hear of a majority Indian school being funded by such coporations or any other charitable actions towards them. And it's no surprise since Fijian tribal law seems to still be flourishing in this so called democracy that has gone through 3 coups, all of them directed towards east Indians. It is no wonder that coporate giants such as FIJI Water exclusively focus on the native Fijian population in a cheap attempt to buy them off. This little island had a lot of potential some 30 years ago.
Did you read the WHOLE
Did you read the WHOLE article? The point is that Fiji is being pillaged, not helped.
And the aquifer is HARDLY Fiji's only resource. Coconuts, tourism, and sugar are the major industries in Fiji. "Fiji Water says its operations make up about...3 percent of GDP..." That's not very much, especially in such a tiny country. Tourism is Fiji's most profitable industry - export is not the only way to make money.
Then my connection died. "It
Then my connection died. "It will just be a few minutes," one of the clerks said.
economics what?
-
tagged as:
- result
IF:
your country's only export is bottled water,
THEN:
your country should consider recycling itself and finding something else.
Thinking about visiting Fiji?
It's true, Fiji no longer has exports, except from FIJI Water.
So without the company, what would happen to their country?
And is this a reason they shouldn't be required to give back to the country with the resource their exploiting?
If you plan on coming as a tourist, watch the movie lifeindebt.org.
Think about more than your safety when you visit a place. Think about where your toilet water goes when you flush, and why. And then think about where the nearest hospital is and how few there are.
As tourists, companies and humans, we need to stop exploiting and taking and begin giving back to the places we visit and do business. It's time you the consumer got educated. Think and research before you buy or travel. If you come to Fiji, take an eco tour or come to help build a school. But don't come sit on a beach and go home as dumb as you came.
You would have a point if
You would have a point if Fiji were a democracy and the profit brought by Fiji Water actually trickled down to the people; but it is not, and so it's people do NOT thrive. They suffer under an authoritarian government and from a lack of clean water.
Great! Go
Great! Go on
-------------
meridia blog
I don't think so...
I agree, this is a bunch of crap.
Agree with you my
Agree with you my friend!
--------------
meridia blog
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I agree with FIJI. I mean,
I agree with FIJI. I mean, I agree with anonymous.
I'll drink my own tap water, thanks.
I disagree with Fiji water. I will not drink Fiji water when I need to buy bottled water (not that I need to do so often, as I drink my own filtered tap water out of my own stainless bottle).
I've never been impressed by their hype, anyway. Their water doesn't taste particularly great to me, and they're too expensive.
If Fiji water's been so good for them up till now, they're now dependent on it and the status quo, which means they will not be likely to even want to "evolve".
Also...
the nerve of that officer threatening this reporter with gang rape in a jail as a means to intimidate her. That really pisses me off more than anything.
This article has some merit
This article has some merit but it is unbelievably sensationalized and paints Fiji with a condescending stereotype of a perceived third-world country. Obviously, the author does not understand the main political problem in the country, that of the native landholders with their relaxed, community-based culture who are in direct opposition with the descendents of the almost-as-large Indian (from the subcontinent) population who were imported to Fiji when it was under British rule to serve in the sugarcane fields. The cultural make up of this group is extremely different than that of the natives -- very business oriented and aggressive. This cultural clash has been the root of so many of the country's political upheavals since the nation has obtained independence. But it helps keep Fiji the vibrant country that, in reality, it is.
I have spent many weeks in Fiji and would like very much to retire there. My experience with authorities has been extremely different than the author's -- the authorities have been friendly and respectful -- although several of them have had that "British sense of humour" that is often misunderstood by Americans. I have been in Fiji more than once when a "coup" took place -- the worst impact on me was seeing soldiers on the streets stopping the occasional local car -- no guns drawn, nothing threatening. In fact, one of the problems for Fiji is the unmerited fear of coups and violence that much too much of the western press bandy about to make their stories sensational. This has hurt the tourist industry, thus the economy, and made projects like Fiji water seem more necessary.
Is Fiji without corruption? No. No country is, but this particular article seemed to wander far afield from the implications of the product of bottled water of all types to an undeserved indictment of a country as a whole. I certainly hope that Mother Jones articles in areas that I am not as familiar with are more spot-on less sensationalized than this one.
Jeanie Kilgour works for Fiji
Jeanie Kilgour, seriously, what the hell are you talking about? Sensationalized story? Geez, you're a retard. You sound like a friggn' Libertarian.
Thirsty people should look into atmospheric water generators. Free water, no source needed. (except humidity in the air)
Peace
Fiji water
ChangetheRide,
First,I think your comments are completely uncivil.
Second, for you to equate being a libertarian with being, as you put it, "a retard," reveals, in my opinion, a certain lack of knowledge. By any fair measure, the founders of the US were mostly libertarian as that term is now used, and by any fair measure they were not "retards."
I suspect desalinization is more viable than "atmospheric water generators" though I confess to knowing little about the former and less about the latter. In any case, it has nothing to do with thirst. The people who are buying Fiji water have access to plenty of safe water.
atmosphere actually still in use kthxbi
Access to the atmosphere aquifer is going to take a little more regulation than access to the atmosphere electrical grid; but selling mineral water that reminds one to mind the details in designing spaces, that's ace of you.
For my next trick, I'm going to sell ya shoes that put 4 layers of plants between you and the shuddering volcanic city and keep off the metal worry. Like masai shoes, they'll have a quirk: Sizes 10 and up (38.5 W/ 43cm M) only.
The email nanny thought you could use a man; the seduction craze is just mainland; glad the US embassy could send you a van.
ChangeTheRide needs to CheckTheirFacts
Dear ChangeTheRide,
I am appalled by your lack of understanding and complete lack of knowledge of what is going on in Fiji. Which news reports have you been reading exactly?
Jeanie Kilgour's piece was very truthful and, quite frankly, I think you owe her an apology for your dreadful and unjustified remarks.
May I ask if you have ever been to Fiji yourself? Do you have anything upon which to base your wild opinions?
I have lived in Fiji for a number of years. I was married in Fiji last year, and I travel frequently throughout the Fiji Islands with my wife and our team completing photoshoots for our international travel magazine - Discover Fiji Time. My wife is part-Fijian, her ancestry going back many generations to Lovoni village on the island of Ovalau in the Lomaiviti group of islands in Fiji.
I believe I am qualified to say that, in my opinion, Fiji Water in fact does a huge amount of GOOD for Fiji and her people. If you were to research this properly you would understand the huge benefit a company such as Fiji Water brings to the small nation of Fiji. It's a shame that you did not take the time to fully research and understand the situation before opening your mouth.
It is unfortunate but yes a huge amount of overseas media (who also have little idea, in my opinion, of what is actually going on in Fiji) have been sensationalizing a lot of things about Fiji recently.
If you or anyone else would like further information to help you understand what is really going on 'on-the-ground' in Fiji, feel free to send an email to elliot@discoverfijitime.com and I will do my best to help clarify things for you.
Have a great day,
Regards,
Elliot Stubbs
Publisher | Co-Editor | Photographer
Discover Fiji Time Magazine
www.discoverfijitime.com
Thanks, Jeanne. Our reply to
Thanks, Jeanne. Our reply to this point--and Fiji Water's response to the story--is here: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/08/mother-jones-responds-fiji-water.
jeanie, you have been a
jeanie,
you have been a tourist. a tourist! you know more about this place because you were a tourist!?? the author of this piece had a horrifying experience more in line with people who actually live in third world countries. you must be one of those people making a living exploiting people in 3rd world countries. i have seen your type before. get over yourself. you probably love to bribe and lay everything around you to waste.
did you not read this story??
Who says the media is dead? Beautifully reported and enraging. The comments already posted here seem to have been posted by Fiji Water's PR team or to have been written by people who didn't actually read the story. Or both. Where are your specific and fact-based complaints about this piece? And what are your sources for these facts? This isn't about tourism, or about why we should be "nice" to the residents of Fiji, or how it'll be fun to retire there, for crying out loud. This piece is entirely and skillfully on-point. Bottled water is a terrible new trend, one that has gross political and environmental consequences. Drinkable water will soon be the new oil, the subject of awful new resource wars around the world. We're seeing this happen already - read this story again and educate yourselves. Thanks, Mother Jones. As usual, best reporting out there.
FIJI WATER IS GOOD TO FIJIANS
It took a longtime to get Fiji water to establish their investment in our area. I and all people in our villages rejoiced when it finally happened. We can send our kids to school now and build better homes becuase of Fiji Water. Our land was initially taken away from us by colonial powers in the early 19th century now you are trying to take away our livelihood. A minister in the military government had tried to close Fiji Water down but we the land owners protested and that it why it has remained operational. You will be doing the military dictators a favour by campaigning against Fiji Water. Don't drink it if you mustn't, but please don't shut us down.
Thanks, Vuki. Nothing about
Thanks, Vuki. Nothing about this article is trying to shut Fiji Water down--we're in the business of reporting, not running companies. Our response on this and other points is here: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/08/mother-jones-responds-fiji-water.
-- Monika Bauerlein, Editor, Mother Jones
Who needs bottled water anyway?
Excellent article. Ms. Lenzer presented a sobering peak into the opaque world of the Fiji bottle water company. I find it interesting that large corporations seem to always find fertile investing ground in countries where the government's power is enforced and largely ran by military dictatorships. I wonder why that is.
Fiji, the Pacific Florida
Nothing to see here, no that is not a military takeover it is merely a parade in honor of the President. It's more of a surprise party really and we are celebrating this exciting time by sending all of our tax revenue to the Camans. It seems that we have learned a lot from the United States _kai_
Factual and unbiased.
Fantastic reporting once again, Mother Jones.
From this day, I will not drink Fuji again and I will pass on this article to the 800 people in my e-address book.
Fiji CORP are selfish, ignorant liars with fat wallets who who refuse to be responsible with their wealth.
I am recommending that my colleagues NY Times cover this. People need to know the truth.
I will not agree or disagree
I will not agree or disagree with the article or its contents. I personally don't care much for the owners of the company, but I will also say that they are marketing geniuses and that is what makes America great.
I am only going to say, to you, that it's their money and they may be as greedy and selfish as they please with their "fat wallets". It sounds to me like you're envious of their wealth. How dare you tell somebody what to do with their own money. You sound to me like a communist and I don't care for your rhetoric. If you don't like it, and judging by your hatered of rich people, it sounds like you should move to Venezuela. Enjoy it.
fiji water
Shocking but not in a way....so much corruption in the world today. Glad to have the reporting that educates us. I don't use disposable water bottles anymore just refill glass juice bottles if I need to carry water. We are all a bunch of babies carrying our bottles around anyway. Wah. I really dislike people and companies that rape the world and take advantage of the local population. Selfish people suck.
Riveting story
It is a riveting story, but very strongly painted. It should be noted that Fiji's military dictatorship occurred 10 years after the Fiji water company was formed.
There is not a doubt that certain issues, especially those threats are extremely disturbing. However, there is a strong brush also painting a terrifying slant to this piece...which I believe dilutes any sense of truth from that point onward. The reporter seems to have conveyed that paranoia well enough. But perhaps let it skew everything onward.
Muckraking should also convey some truth of self, should it not? Therein lies the weakness.
BD
(Muckraking should also
(Muckraking should also convey some truth of self, should it not? Therein lies the weakness.
BD)
What, exactly, does "convey some truth of self" mean? I understand the muckraking part, that's what this story does, and well.
Hi B.D., thanks for the
Hi B.D., thanks for the comment. The story does note Fiji's history--the point is, though, that Fiji Water doesn't comment on the military junta now. Our response on this and other points is here.
--Monika Bauerlein, Editor, Mother Jones
The strawman fallacy
Your "rebuttal" tries to suggest that the article claims Fiji Water is behind the military junta, something the article doesn't do. That, dear sir, is known as "attacking a straw man", or setting up a parody for the explicit purpose of rebutting it.
For shame. You should realise that the readers of Mother Jones are more savvy than to fall for such cheap tricks.
I knew that something was up with this water....
... the entire packaging - from the funny shaped bottle, to the fact that the water was shipped half way around the world struck me as entirely unappealing.
The idea of paying such exhorbitant prices for water, essentially a commodity is shocking - how foolish US consumers are to pay such prices for this product, when they have ready access to running tap water and stainless steel bottles.
I knew that something was up with this water....
... the entire packaging - from the funny shaped bottle, to the fact that the water was shipped half way around the world struck me as entirely unappealing.
The idea of paying such exhorbitant prices for water, essentially a commodity is shocking - how foolish US consumers are to pay such prices for this product, when they have ready access to running tap water and stainless steel bottles.
When I drank bottled water I
When I drank bottled water I would drink it as it had a nice taste but considering the cost to transport something from the other side of the earth it makes no sense.
My tap water sits in the fridge in a bottle with the cap off in hopes the chemicals will bleed off and it tastes fine. Everyday I pick up discarded plastic water bottles from the curb and park grass across the street, there is never a shortage.
In my spare time I race motorcycles and I have A BLOG about it: http://kayamawasailor.blogspot.com/
FIJI Water Responds to Mother Jones Article
Below please find our response to this article as posted on our blog at: http://blog.fijigreen.com/2009/08/fiji-water-responds-to-mother-jones-ar...
We strongly disagree with the author’s premise that because we are in business in Fiji somehow that legitimizes a military dictatorship. We bought FIJI Water in November 2004 when Fiji was governed by a democratically-elected government. We cannot and will not speak for the government, but we will not back down from our commitment to the people, development, and communities of Fiji.
We consider Fiji our home and as such, we have dramatically increased our investment and resources over the past five years to play a valuable role in the advancement of Fiji.
It is true that Fiji is a poor country, but we believe that the private sector has a critical role to play to address the underserved areas of Fiji’s development, with special attention to economic opportunities, health, education, water and sanitation.
First, we employ nearly 350 Fijians in a rural part of Fiji with very little economic opportunity. We are one of the highest paying employers in the country with an annual payroll of nearly $5 million; we provide health care and other fringe benefits; and we have created advancement opportunities for women. There are also a number of smaller, entrepreneurial enterprises that have been created in the local region to supply our facility.
As an active member of the Fiji community, FIJI Water is committed to enabling positive change by means of social investment, capacity building, and sustainable development. It is important to us that we give back to the communities in which we work and live. We know that Fiji has tremendous potential because we see it realized at our factory every day.
Part of our investment in Fiji comes from royalty and trust payments paid each year that is a percentage of our total volume. As we grow our business, we are able to contribute more in royalty payments. In 2008 alone, we paid $1.3 million USD in royalties representing 1.5% of gross revenues of our Fijian company. These payments have allowed us to bring clean drinking water to the surrounding villages, infrastructure projects like electrification, kindergartens, secondary schools, renovations of community halls and much-needed health care clinics.
In addition, in late 2007 we created the FIJI Water Foundation to serve as a vehicle for social investment around the islands of Fiji. The Foundation has played a critical role in flood relief in Fiji, renovation of schools, and bringing much needed health care to rural villages. We have also partnered with the Rotary Club and Pacific Water for Life to bring clean water to 100 communities in Fiji this year. To date, FIJI Water Foundation has invested $600,000 USD, directly impacting more than 50,000 beneficiaries in 11 of Fiji’s 14 Provinces. You can learn more about the specific projects we have funded at www.fijiwaterfoundation.org.
With respect to the environmental issues raised in the article, our commitments are quite clear and laid out in www.FIJIGreen.com. We are the only bottled water company in the industry to publicly report its entire life cycle carbon emissions. We are independently audited and report to the Carbon Disclosure Project. And we are offsetting these emissions by 120%.
Land access issues are very delicate to negotiate in Fiji, but the Sovi Basin project remains on track and the 50,000 acres of the last remaining lowland rainforest in the South Pacific is protected now and through perpetuity from logging. The project will pay the local villagers not to sell their timber rights to logging companies. Deforestation of our tropical rainforests is one of the largest sources of carbon emissions. Protecting the Sovi Basin is the equivalent of removing 2 million cars from the highway.
Our carbon offset project in Fiji includes replanting the rainforests that have been decimated to plant sugarcane fields. Part of this effort includes planting native tree species, such as mango trees, to provide local villagers with a source of income. We are proud to create projects that protect the environment as well as provide for a source of sustainable income for the local Fijians.
It’s unfortunate that the reporter did not have the opportunity to speak to any one of the thousands of local people whose lives have been impacted in a very positive way because of FIJI Water. Had we known she was in Fiji, we would have been happy to escort her to any one of the 75 villages who have been a beneficiary of a clean water project sponsored by FIJI Water this year alone. She could have visited one of the villages surrounding our plant to visit a kindergarten that was recently built or to meet a local Fijian who received a life-saving corrective heart surgery by a physician we brought to the island.
The real irony here is that the reporter suggests that buying FIJI Water somehow legitimizes a military dictatorship, when in fact the jobs, revenues, and community projects supported by FIJI Water are strong contributors to growth in the well-being of the Fijian people.
MoJo's response
Rob--thanks for the comment (and for speaking with our reporter when she was working on the story). Here's our response (also posted here: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2009/08/mother-jones-responds-fiji-water).
Six’s key points are the same he and other Fiji executives have repeatedly made, and which are reflected in detail in my story: Donating money for water access projects or kindergartens is laudable, and I discuss Fiji’s charitable projects in Fiji (despite numerous requests, Fiji wouldn’t disclose how much it spends on most of these projects). The piece also makes it clear that Fiji Water accounts for significant economic activity in Fiji, and company executives are quoted to that effect.
Six doesn't address the key questions raised in my Mother Jones story, from the polluting background of Fiji Water’s owners past and present, to the company’s decision to funnel assets through tax havens, to its silence on the human rights abuses of the Fijian government. My piece doesn’t argue that Fiji Water actively props up the regime, but that its silence amounts to acquiescence.
"We cannot and will not speak for the government," Six writes. I didn't ask them to speak for the government, I asked them to comment on it. Though Fiji Water casts itself as a progressive, outspoken company in the US, it has a policy of not discussing Fiji’s regime “unless something really affects us,” as Six was quoted in the story.
The regime clearly benefits from the company's dollar global branding campaign characterizing Fiji as a "paradise" where there is "no word for stress." Fiji's tourism agencies use Fiji Water as props in their promotional campaigns, and the company itself has publicized pictures of President Obama drinking Fiji Water. This is a point repeatedly made by international observers, including a UN official who in a recent commentary (titled "Why Obama should stop drinking Fiji water”) called for sanctions on Fiji, and singled out Fiji Water as the one company with enough leverage to force the junta to budge. Yet the most pointed criticism the company has made of the regime was when it opposed a tax as "draconian;" it has never used language like that to refer to the junta's human rights abuses.
It’s worth remembering that there aren’t very many countries ruled by military juntas today, and Americans prefer not to do business with those that are. We don't import Burma Water or Libya Water.
As to Six’ point that the company didn’t know I was in Fiji: I did contact Fiji Water before my trip, and Six mentioned that the company "takes journalists to Fiji"; I didn't follow up about joining such a junket. Despite news reports showing that Fiji wouldn’t cooperate with journalists who went there independently, I chose to do so and visited the factory on a public tour. I had planned to speak to Fiji Water’s local representatives, and to visit the surrounding villages, afterward. But it was at that point that I was arrested by Fijian police, interrogated about my plans to write about Fiji Water, and threatened with imprisonment and rape. After that incident, personnel at the US embassy strongly encouraged me not to visit the villages. I did discuss my trip to the islands with Six after I returned, and had extensive correspondence with him on numerous questions, many of which he has not addressed to this day, including:
- Why won't the company disclose the total amount of money that Fiji Water spends on its charity work? Do its charitable contributions come close to matching the 30 percent corporate tax rate it would be paying had it not been granted a tax holiday in Fiji since 1995?
- Will Fiji Water owners Lynda and Stewart Resnick, who in the company’s PR materials contrast the “dead water” that comes out of our taps with the “living water” found in their bottles, disclose the full volume of pesticides that their farming and flower companies use every year? Could limiting those inputs create better water here at home?
- Fiji touts its commitments to lighten its plastic bottle (which is twice as heavy as many competitors’) by 20 percent next year, to offset its carbon emissions by 120 percent, and to restore environmentally sensitive areas in Fiji, but its public statements never acknowledge that these projects are, in many cases, still on the drawing board or in the negotiating stages. Why?
--Monika Bauerlein, Editor, Mother Jones
I think that it is just
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tagged as:
- solution
I think that it is just plain wrong for some people to have so much when others have so little.
It's just plain wrong to take without asking- to take without consent.
Fiji Water would be wise to own up to the implications of the colonial past, and work toward an equitable redistribution of wealth and resources.
I suggest that the owners and executive officers of Fiji Water accept salaries that are no higher than the lowest paid factory worker.
I would characterize the
I would characterize the author's main point as this: Third world countries are exploited by corporations, who make large profits and make little investment in the local communities. It's not a problem limited to FIJI. FIJI just happens to be a salient example. Google "banana republic" or "Niger River delta" for other examples.
Another key theme was the hip Green image, but only for purposes of advertising.
Rob, you're a sell-out. Find your honesty, find your humanity.
If FIJI Water cared about the people of Fiji, or even the planet, it would not have taken a previous, revealing article in Fast Company magazine for Lynda Resnick to decide to conveniently, "go green"
It's pathetic that FIJI Water has made labels and run print, TV and web campaigns (for over a year now), touting the land "preserved and protected in perpetuity" (P.S. horrible writing), when it wasn't. Mrs. Resnick, this is about as dishonest as marketing can get. Proud of yourself?
If FIJI Water gave a damn about Fiji and was not interested in exploiting the people or the country, then you would not accept tax-exempt status. If FIJI Water cared about the people and the future of Fiji, you would build an entire infrastructure in the country of Fiji (yes, the entire country), including public access to your aqueduct. If FIJI WAter cared about the people of Fiji, you would care about their future – so you would educate and offer job skills training to more than a few villages. If FIJI Water didn't want to exploit Fiji, then they would help farmers to become self-sustaining and set up an inter-island trade market for the people.
Bottled water is completely unnecessary. If Lynda Resnick wants to leave a legacy, she needs to ask herself what kind. It is morally wrong to sell an unnecessary product such as bottled water, and then pay to offset the environmental damage and claim it has no environmental effects. But it is even more morally irresponsible to manipulatively suggest that tap water is universally risky for health.
Anyone who works for the Resnicks should expect to see them in hell. Then again, perhaps you're already there.
I am an ex-pat American
I am an ex-pat American resident of Fiji, and have been coming tho Fiji for over 15 years. I have been here for several of the coups, which have been generally non-violent, as was this one. The major effect of the coup has been the sensationalizing of the the term "Military Coup", which has destroyed tourism and made NGO's turn away a large portion of thier aide. The writer did not mention why the coup took place in the first place. The newly "democratically elected" president had started changing the constitution in very negative and prejudicial ways. Does that sound familiar to any Americans? Give me a coup anyday, rather than 8 years of the Bush administration. Yes there are problems to be overcome in Fiji, but they tend to have been caused by the western world's involvement in the first place. (ie; the Brittish bringing Indians here to work the cane fields and promissing them land that wasn't theirs to give away) Fiji should be supported to move forward with thier elections and assisted to make the right choices for it's future. Fiji is a totally safe place to travel and live in, and the best way to stabilize the government is come and see for youself.
Thank you, Anonymous
Thank you, Anonymous ex-pat.
My wife and I will be joining you soon. On our visits we asked pretty much everyone we met how the coup affected them, and every one replied that it didn't have any effect on their daily life. It seems like a great place to live. Friendliest people on Earth.
The threats received by the journalist are disturbing, not least for the free speech/internet privacy questions it brings up. But to paint Fiji as a banana republic police state does not jibe with my experience.
Vinaka ni sa moce.
I arrived, the staff told me
I arrived, the staff told me they now had to shut down by 5 p.m. Police orders, they shrugged: The country's military junta had declared martial law a few days before, and things were a bit tense. (Cheap Logo Design - stationery design )
fiji water
this article is further damning evidence of water-biz ruthlessness, at the expense of thirsty locals.
if in doubt, check the stunning doco "Flow" www.flowthefilm.com/takeaction
FYI just because an article
FYI just because an article "enrages you" does not make it good reporting. i live in fiji and this article is full of hyperbole. what else would you expect from someone who comes in and takes a one week snapshot of life here.
while i have no reason to defend fiji water, i do think that successful business investments such as theirs are the way forward for developing nations. enough of the aid pouring in and disappearing into the wrong pockets, or being misused on one-off projects that crumple and fade.
business and international trade is the development that sustains. it's why microlending is all the rage in india and africa and among the most forward-thinking foundations.
of course there is incentive to attack a successful and trendy bottled water. whenever you're at the top of your game you attract critics. keep it up fiji water. we're proud to say we comd from here.
Never once said being enraged was a sign of good reporting
M. Tovilo - For the record, I thought the reporting was excellent AND I felt enraged at the end of reading it. The end. I feel angry when I read bad reporting for other reasons. Yours isn't a very sophisticated argument. "Successful business practices" that you praise are successful for Fiji Water, a corporation that depends on billions of plastic bottles that can't be fully recycled and regular, planet-heating plane travel to get their super-product to consumers. They contribute to Global Warming - and people who drink the water from so far away do too- even as they extol the virtues of the so-called pure perfect water they drain from Fiji. A very similar product (minus the ad campaigns) comes out of every tap in New York City or Seattle, Washington or Washington D.C. This project is not so "successful" for the locals (or their aquifer)
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YI just because an article new
Submitted by Mere Tovilo (not verified) on August 12, 2009 - 3:24pm.
FYI just because an article "enrages you" does not make it good reporting. i live in fiji and this article is full of hyperbole. what else would you expect from someone who comes in and takes a one week snapshot of life here.
while i have no reason to defend fiji water, i do think that successful business investments such as theirs are the way forward for developing nations. enough of the aid pouring in and disappearing into the wrong pockets, or being misused on one-off projects that crumple and fade.
business and international trade is the development that sustains. it's why microlending is all the rage in india and africa and among the most forward-thinking foundations.
of course there is incentive to attack a successful and trendy bottled water. whenever you're at the top of your game you attract critics. keep it up fiji water. we're proud to say we comd from here.
