BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?

Subject: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 12:25 PM

Why not, lets drink lots and lots of Coca Cola and help our schools, which what is being done at the University of British Columbia. I figure its just a matter of time ( if it isn't already) before the same is done in our elementary and high schools.

At the Faculty of Education at UBC, BC's largest university, there is only one public drinking fountain, the rest, all 17, have been sealed with plastic or removed, although you can purchase lots of soft drinks and bottled water from the vending machines standing beside them.

When questioned by students, the administration said that the 40 year old pipes make the drinking water unsafe, but these are the same pipes that supply the only operating fountain and the cafeteria and tests done by outside labs show that the water is perfectly safe.

A more logical reason, deemed by students, is the University's 10 year contract with Coca Cola which expires in a couple of years. Seems the University is about 2 million cokes short of a full commitment and if they don't sell those 2 million cokes by the end of the contract, they are going to have to cough up big bucks back to Coca Cola.

Now I don't blame Coca Cola, there known for expanding their markets, I think that UBC foolishly entered into a bad deal, their choice, (although when your strapped for cash, some questionable things look great, but that is a side issue) and considering that vending machines are now rampant in our public school system (which I opposed in the first place), I'm a bit ticked at having to pay Coca Cola, through my taxes, if students don't drink enough of their product, not to mention the health issues of the whole fiasco.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 12:53 PM

At the primary school where I teach the children have all been provided with bottles which we fill daily from a large water filter. The claim is that the water is therefore purer - ha! When we had water fountains in every playground the water flowed through and cleaned them each time they were used - now the bottles sit in the class room harbouring any number of germs (even though we rinse them each day). It creates extra work for classroom assistants and I can't help thinking that the water filter company are making a mint out of the local authority especially when tap water is much cleaner than ANY bottled water!

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Teresa
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 01:25 PM

[sarcasm]
Ah, you know public fountains and coolers harbor dangerous subversive activity. Therefore, they should most definitely be banned.
[/end sarcasm] :>
Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 01:39 PM

Scare 'em good and they'll pay extra for it, but bottled water aside, there is a concerted effort to privitise public water systems, in this country, so if we think the turmoil over oil is over the top, we ain't seen nuthin', like what's going to happen over clean drinking water in the future.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Wesley S
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 01:40 PM

You mean a large orginization is going to choose profit over the health and safety of human beings ?

Besides - didn't the commies lace all of those water fountains with floride back in the 60's ??

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 01:44 PM

Teresa, my daughter has a large poster from the 1950s hanging in her bathroom, with the title "Does Your Washroom Breed Bosheviks?" put out as an ad by the Scott Paper Company.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 01:52 PM

it was obvious at one time that the powers that be worried that the peasants were revolting and decided they could be quelled with clean paper towels and a warm place to shit.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Teresa
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 02:11 PM

It's amazing where the power lies. Telephone poles, web fora and drinking fountains. :)
Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 05:09 PM

Place any coin into glass of cola -see the result, that's your stomach that is!

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: GUEST,petr
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 05:49 PM

yes, I have a friend who worked at ubc, and personally, I think its illegal (and if not it should be) as by law you have to provide public bathrooms etc. its a clear case of selling out to big business.

besides there really are no regulations as far as bottled water goes,
- a friend who has a private investigations firm, said that more than one water provider has been caught - selling tapwater.

if the pipes arent safe, then they should be replaced.

of course I just saw The Corporation in which Michael Walker of the Fraser INstitute (a right wing think tank) advocates private ownership of everything (air, every stream etc, as the owner will be
always have incentive to keep it clean) - another scene in the movie
discusses the water problems that people in Bolivia had - after the world bank stepped in after a financial crisis. the aid to bolivia
was conditional on privatizing the water industry - so people who had
meagre incomes already had to pay huge amounts for water.

Imagine it being illegal to collect rain water in a bucket.
(because it belonged to some company)
Im afraid you may be right Metchosin, this is the thin edge of the wedge.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 08:28 PM

In Australia, it's illegal to collect runoff rain water in a farm dam without paying a licence fee for it now.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Amergin
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 08:32 PM

in Sydney anyways...if you get caught washing your car with a hose you can get fined a couple of thousand dollars...

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 08:37 PM

"...advocates private ownership of everything (air, every stream etc), as the owner will be always have incentive to keep it clean"

Nothing really changes - that's essentially the argument they used to have in defence of slavery, that it's in the interests of an owner to look after his slaves well...

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: dianavan
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 11:31 PM

I hope the students at UBC demand drinking water. Can you imagine a university signing such a contract? Doesn't say much for the university but heh...

What about the students? Now that only the children of the rich can actually afford university, who will complain?

Actually thats a broad generalization since my daughter (environmental planning)is far from rich. In fact, she owes about $30,000 so far. But she doesn't attend UBC anyway.

What about the faculty? They're all Liberals (not the same as the USA) and are mostly bean counters. Takes a brain, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Metchosin
Date: 28 Jan 04 - 12:25 AM

Sure I can imagine it, dianavan, its what the Frazer Institute and their current political minions in government have been wanking on about for years.

I'd be very surprised if UBC students held a mass demonstration for the return of their drinking fountains, UBC has never been noted as a "hotbed" of "radical" thought, you used to have to go to Simon Fraser for that sort of stuff, at least in the old days, when university education of the peons was actively promoted. The damned things could have been missing for the past eight years and somebody finally pointed it out now. Duh.   

Ever tried to find a public pay telephone when you needed one lately? The future is friendly if you have a cell phone and credit card and not reduced to actually using quarters and loons.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: dianavan
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 05:53 PM

Interesting that you mentioned the difference between U.B.C. and Simon Fraser (at least in the old days) since I, in fact, went to S.F.U.   
Since education has become a commodity that can be exported and the universities actively pursue the importation of "foreign" students, the climate on campus has certainly changed. Don't get me wrong. I lived in residence with many foreign students who became life-long friends and my children and their children have grown-up together. However, as an immigrant myself, I can say that it takes many years of residency before you feel that you have the right to speak out.

U.B.C. is often referred to as the University of a Billion Chinese.
How easy it is for U.B.C. to push forward the corporate agenda when foreign students feel that they do not have the right to speak out, when lower class students are denied the opportunity to attend, and when the remaining students are, in fact, the sons and daughters of the upper classes. Whose left to protest anything?

The very same thing can be said about any place with a very high immigrant population.

Funny though - one of the reasons I came to this country was that I felt that the multi-cultural policies of Canada provided the best opportunity for world peace.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: dianavan
Date: 30 Jan 04 - 06:25 PM

P.S. One of the features in my classroom is our very own drinking fountain! To cut down on the spread of "germs", I ask the students to bring their own water bottles rather than "drink" from the fountain. I encourage them to drink freely because it helps oxygenate the brain. I guess U.B.C. doesn't know that or at best, they think they have some kind of monopoly on brain activity. Another attempt at dumbing them down, I'd guess. So much for higher education!

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Melani
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 12:47 AM

When my daughter was a student at what is considered the best public high school in Oakland, CA, just a couple of years ago, she brought a water bottle to school with her every day rather than use the drinking fountain. The reason? Several years earlier, two students had been caught having sex in a bathroom. Therefore all bathrooms were locked except for one for each sex--for a student body of about 2,000. So the boys took to peeing in the drinking fountains. A parent uproar finally got the bathrooms unlocked.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Sooz
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 08:26 AM

I think drinking fountains have been outlawed by UK environmental health rules. There are a lot of initiatives to make drinking water available in schools - we have a plumbed in machine that filters and chills mains water at the touch of a button. Pupils are encouraged to fill a bottle and keep it with them.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Peace
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 02:04 PM

Coke and Pepsi began to work their way into schools in Alberta about 10-12 years ago. "Use our product exclusively, and we'll buy you a new scoreboard for your basketball games." It worked. The government cut the money it put into the school system (they blamed teachers for the high cost of education) and began to make all kinds of deals with companies to gain access to kids and their spending power. I was and am disgusted by it, but it will continue to happen as long as people put coins in the machines. And as long as we have government and business in bed together, we will get this type of offspring.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Metchosin
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 02:51 PM

There was a study done fairly recently here, I can't remember in which province, that tested the water in student water bottles. Most showed a very high incident of bacterial contamination despite being rinsed at school and at home. If I remember correctly, reccommendation was to bleach them, often. The re was also some concern about the water sitting about in PVC and the chemical contamination from the plastic as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: dianavan
Date: 31 Jan 04 - 06:01 PM

Gee, Metchosin, whats a body to do? Am I to ban the bottles and let them drink from the fountain? Trouble is, little ones tend to actually touch the fountain with their lips. How long does the water have to sit in the bottle before it is contaminated by plastic? Whats worse, bacteria or pvc's?

d

Subject: RE: BS: Should we ban drinking fountains?
From: Sooz
Date: 01 Feb 04 - 05:32 AM

We've discussed this before on this thread