Good Article on Fiji Water Greenwash

[Montag]

Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle
by Anna Lenzer

Sept/Oct '09 Issue
http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/09 ... tle?page=1

excerpt:

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?

UPDATE: News broke in Fiji today (11/18/10) that Fiji Water's top official on the island, Director of External Affairs David Roth, was the reason for the abrupt resignation of the country’s acting prime minister, Ratu Epeli Ganilau. Ganilau shocked the island nation, which has been under martial law since 2009, by emailing his resignation to Prime Minister Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, who is traveling in China. Fiji Water is a huge economic force on the island, and the company has been criticized for tolerating Bainimarama’s military regime; see my in-depth report, below."We had some differences over the David Roth issue," Ganilau told the site FijiLive, without elaborating. Reports from Fiji indicate that a deportation order had been issued for Roth, and Ganilau resigned in protest. (Fiji Water has not yet responded to our request for comment.)

The fight comes at a potentially awkward moment for Fiji Water, which has just been nominated by the US State Department for its 2010 Corporate Excellence Award. The US Ambassador in Fiji has also been making "surprise" visits to Fiji Water's charity events,"touting Roth’s work. US relations with Fiji have been cool, but Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced during her Asia tour that the US will be re-engaging with Bainimarama’s regime by locating a $21 million USAID climate change office in Fiji—a step some consider an attempt to counter China’s rising influence there. "We are going to be working together with Australia to persuade the military government in Suva to meet its commitment to bring democracy back to Fiji," Clinton said.

Fiji Water owner Lynda Resnick has described Fiji as having "a rogue government that changes every five years with a new coup. Sometimes it's very hard to be in Fiji, but we do it."

I’ll have updates here at Mother Jones as the situation evolves tomorrow.

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.

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."
Barack Obama

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."

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.

[Sepka]

Fiji comes in square bottles, so if you knock over your water, you don't end up crawling around under furniture trying to find where it rolled. Of such things are purchasing decisions made.

[Montag]

Goodbye Fiji Water? Bottling Company Announces It's Shutting Down
by Tara Lohan

December 6, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/149013/

Editor's Note: Since this was published, Fiji Water announced they were re-opening. You can read more about there decision here.

It seems there is trouble in paradise. The boutique bottled water brand Fiji Water has announced that it is shutting down its operations in Fiji after the nation's government proposed a tax hike -- from 1/3 of a cent to 15 cents a liter. This comes just a week after one of the company's top executives, David Roth, was deported.

Fiji is run by a military junta that has imposed martial law on the country, something that Fiji Water never seemed to have a problem with, until the rogue government went for the company's pocketbook. Since the founding of the bottled water company in 1995, Fiji Water has worked to brand itself as the premiere bottled water brand (and its sales have now bested Perrier and Evian for the top bottled water import in the U.S.) and even one that is "green," despite the fact that it's shipped thousands of miles and sold in single-use plastic bottles, which mainly end up in landfills. The celebrity favorite, Fiji Water, is the baby of Stewart and Lynda Resnick, co-owners of the company, and well-known 'limousine liberals' and agribusiness billionaires, who rake in millions in water subsidies from the U.S. government.

In reaction to the announcement that Fiji Water was shutting its doors, Wenonah Hauter, the executive director of Food and Water Watch, said she hoped it was a permanent closure. "Fiji Water exports bottled water to the U.S., which enjoys clean and safe water from the tap, while half of Fijians lack access to safe water," said Hauter. "There is something wrong with this picture. Water must be managed as a common resource, not as a market commodity. Unfortunately, celebrities, sports figures and American consumers pay a premium for the Fiji Water brand, buying it at approximately 3,300 times the cost of U.S. tap water. According to the EPA, a gallon of tap water costs consumers anywhere from .002 to .003 cents. A liter of Fiji Water costs approximately $2.19."

Of course if you ask Lynda Resnick about the quality of U.S. water you'll get a different response. Anna Lenzer, in an investigative story on Mother Jones last year shared a quote from one of Resnick's books where she said, "You can no longer trust public or private water supplies," which I guess doesn't leave people with too many options, other than importing water from halfway across the globe from an impoverished nation run by a corrupt military junta, in which the nation's own people are desperate for drinkable water. As Lenzer reports about the town of Rakiraki, near Fiji Water's bottling plant:

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.

Not exactly the image that Fiji Water has tried to project of their company, but that's the nature of water commodification. "Like oil in the 20th century, water has become increasingly managed by corporate cartels that move it around the globe, where it flows out of communities and towards money," said Hauter. "The commodification of water will continue to contribute to human rights abuses around the world, whether it helps bolster undemocratic governments or drives water from a community where it is needed."

Whether or not this closure of Fiji Water is truly permanent or just a little business posturing to negotiate a better deal, remains to be seen. A few years ago the company temporarily shut down its operations in protest to tax hikes as well. If the shut down is permanent, it's likely that the company's owners will be on the hunt for new sources of water to exploit for profit, and according to Lenzer, that could be in New Zealand. As long as consumers continue to buy bottled water and give in to marketing gimmicks from boutique brands bottled in faraway places, there will always be companies hoping to cash in on our folly and there will likely be local populations getting the short end of the stick.

[Montag]

Fiji comes in square bottles, so if you knock over your water, you don't end up crawling around under furniture trying to find where it rolled. Of such things are purchasing decisions made.

Thank you for that Sepka... I can see you're a very compassionate consumer, lol.

p.s. Not taking a shot at you by the way, I find your response very whimsical if not indifferent to the plight of Fijians and Mother Earth as well (haha).

[StarmanSkye]

"The commodification of water will continue to contribute to human rights abuses around the world, whether it helps bolster undemocratic governments or drives water from a community where it is needed."

VERY similiar to how the mega softdrink companies operate, marketing their product in the midst of crumbling infrastructure and fractured communities their actions contribute to. What a horrifically skewed system pandering to marketted, conditioned desires while real, critical needs are shortchanged and even sabotaged. This drives my social conscience purchasing decisions, a total boycott on ALL bottled water and only a very occasional soft-drink. Tho I'm partial to coffee and tea, occasional beers and I'm fond of sippin' whiskey/scotch/rum (in moderation!)

What a convoluted world, bought out by corporations that can't see beyond the profit/loss bottom line.

[Montag]

VERY similiar to how the mega softdrink companies operate, marketing their product in the midst of crumbling infrastructure and fractured communities their actions contribute to. What a horrifically skewed system pandering to marketted, conditioned desires while real, critical needs are shortchanged and even sabotaged.

Yeah, it's "enlightened self-interest" isn't it beautiful? Waiting for the "invisible hand" to come around seems an awful lot like waiting for Godot to arrive.

[Sepka]

p.s. Not taking a shot at you by the way, I find your response very whimsical if not indifferent to the plight of Fijians and Mother Earth as well (haha).

No offense taken. I certainly hope you didn't think I drank the stuff because Al Gore and Barack Obama endorse it.

Quite frankly I don't see the Fijians as being in a 'plight', and if they are, I neither merit nor accept any responsibility for it. The Fijians are an independent people, and as such they're responsible for their own government, what forms it takes, and how it interacts with the citizenry. So long as that government is pro-American, then we have no excuse for interfering.

In matters where I *do* bear responsibility, my purchasing decisions reflect it. I buy only free-range eggs and meat, despite the extra cost. I shun any product that encourages disregard for the welfare of animals. Did it ever become an issue, I would structure my purchasing in such a way as not to harm the welfare of the people of American protectorates such as Puerto Rico, Guam or Samoa. We have a duty to oversee their welfare. We have no such duty towards Fiji.

[Montag]

Quite frankly I don't see the Fijians as being in a 'plight', and if they are, I neither merit nor accept any responsibility for it. The Fijians are an independent people, and as such they're responsible for their own government, what forms it takes, and how it interacts with the citizenry. So long as that government is pro-American, then we have no excuse for interfering.

I would have pegged you as an anti-interventionist. But I think I recall you mentioning something once about how we were essentially fighting wars as pantywaists, so I guess the response makes sense.

In matters where I *do* bear responsibility, my purchasing decisions reflect it. I buy only free-range eggs and meat, despite the extra cost. I shun any product that encourages disregard for the welfare of animals. Did it ever become an issue, I would structure my purchasing in such a way as not to harm the welfare of the people of American protectorates such as Puerto Rico, Guam or Samoa. We have a duty to oversee their welfare. We have no such duty towards Fiji.

I see, for our possessions we should benevolently oversee them, but screw the rest! As long as there is a good strong man in power, best of luck to them!

[Sepka]

I see, for our possessions we should benevolently oversee them, but screw the rest! As long as there is a good strong man in power, best of luck to them!

When you undertake to govern someone, then you're at least partly if not entirely responsible for their welfare. You bear no such responsibility towards independent peoples. So yes, best of luck to them, and I hope things work out.

[Montag]

When you undertake to govern someone, then you're at least partly if not entirely responsible for their welfare. You bear no such responsibility towards independent peoples. So yes, best of luck to them, and I hope things work out.

That's interesting that you say that, b/c you know the United States is involved in the internal politics of virtually every country in world, right?

[Sepka]

That's interesting that you say that, b/c you know the United States is involved in the internal politics of virtually every country in world, right?

Influencing the government is a very different thing from being the government.

[Montag]

Influencing the government is a very different thing from being the government.

Ah, so even though we're actually the power behind the throne (or at least a great influence) in many countries, that matters not. This reminds of a quote (I can't remember who from) from a documentary on Haiti that I once saw, but a man in the film said it would have been very easy for Baby Doc to have fallen out of power sooner. All it would have taken was a phone call from the United States.

p.s. I think the documentary was the Agronomist.

[Iamwhomiam]

Silly Montag!

Don't you know weasels always defend weasels?

[Montag]

Silly Montag!

Don't you know weasels always defend weasels?

Ah, there's a fraternal brotherhood between outer space weasels and terrestrial ones?

[Sepka]

Ah, so even though we're actually the power behind the throne (or at least a great influence) in many countries, that matters not. This reminds of a quote (I can't remember who from) from a documentary on Haiti that I once saw, but a man in the film said it would have been very easy for Baby Doc to have fallen out of power sooner. All it would have taken was a phone call from the United States.

p.s. I think the documentary was the Agronomist.

I've heard many statements to that effect regarding many situations. If America's influence is *that* great, then I'm left to wonder why our foreign policy initiaitives don't succeed more often.