Tom Isbell's Adaptation of Ibsen's Explosive An Enemy of the People Sizzles. Kudos to the UMD Theater Team

"We're getting used to things we have no business getting used to."--Dr. Thomas Stockmann

Timing is often everything, and I must say that I could not have been better prepared to enjoy Saturday evening's UMD Theater presentation of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. I watched a film version a year ago, read the play itself afterwards, and saw a Hollywood version of the play this past spring (Steve McQueen's last film.) To say these experiences were stimulating is an understatement. Tom Isbell's updated version remains incisive and captures the story's heart. It's crisp, relevant and a lively adaptation that is fun while remaining exceedingly serious.

Henrik Ibsen was an important, influential playwright of the later19th century. His plays explored major themes that challenged conventions. A Doll's House addressed the role of women. Ghosts addressed incest and venereal disease. An Enemy of the People, completed in 1882, featured a man at odds with his community and the ethical compromises that result in a systemic suppression of the truth. It also underscores one of the fundamental weaknesses of Democracy.

The central character is Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Addison Sim), who with his wife Katherine (Jenessa Iverson) and daughter Petra (Rachel Williams) discover themselves to be at odds with their town for attempting to speak truth to power. The 85-minute play details this in an entertaining series of revelations, confrontations and maneuvers that never drags as it drags the audience into facing hard truths about our own times.

This last--helping us see our contemporary culture through a focused lens--was noted obliquely up front and with explicit directness at the end.

A Word About The Theater
The Marshall Performing Arts Theater has an intimate smaller space that was set up in a Theater in the Round format with two and three rows of seats set against all four walls. A table with four chairs had been set off-center in the open square that served as stage, the chairs parked upside down on the table, legs skyward.

The director used a clever device to set up and dismantle each of the scenes. Lights would be lowered and a rhythmic soundtrack would play as the stagehands and sometimes players marched in a circle, grabbing and placing chairs, relocating the table, removing a prop occasionally. It was an effective device that also foreshadowed the play's very last exclamation point.

The Setting
The original play is located in a Scandinavian town that has become increasingly famous for its healing waters. People come from far and wide to enjoy the beneficial effects of the waters here.

Even without seeing this modernized version of the play I couldn't help but think of the Twin Ports and the natural beauty here, the lakes and rivers that are so loved, especially our Great Lake that seems to nourish souls in a magical way. What  I mean is, I could picture Ibsen's setting being a town like Duluth that benefits from tourism.

As the play opens, Dr. Stockmann, a scientist employed by the spa, is waiting for results from a study he has conducted. He wanted to confirm, via an outside source, a hunch he's had about the waters. As it turns out, the results come and the proof is irrefutable. The waters are toxic.

Dr. Stockmann is sharing this information with the local press because he loves his community and cares about their welfare. "The community has to come first."

Mary Hovstad, the publisher (Leah Walk) and her ace reporter Alan Billing (Jake Nelson) seem eager to help get the word out. It's an important story, and Dr. Stockmann will be a hero.

The good man is not interested in fame, however. He's simply concerned about the health of the people who are using these lead-contaminated and disease-infected waters.

Petra, his daughter, lifts a glass and declares, "A toast to my father. A true friend of the people."

In the next scene, Dr. Stockmann presents the facts to his brother the mayor (Patrick Timmons) and the head of the Small Business Association Robin Aslaksen (Eukariah Tabaka). "I don't believe it," the mayor says.

The timing couldn't be worse as far as the mayor is concerned. The tourist season is just about to ramp up.

The exchanges here become quite comic, because the mayor refuses to read the report. He's already against it, yet firmly states, "I'm not convinced."

"But you didn't read it!" Dr. Stockmann exclaims.

The mayor and Aslaksen, representatives of the business interests and political interests, denounce the report not on the merits of its validity, but because they believe it will "bankrupt the city." Fixing the problem will be expensive. A better solution would be to ignore it for now and let the next generation fix it. (The Founding Fathers took this approach to the problem of slavery, and I suspect you are connecting the dots on our own contemporary crises.)

You can probably guess that the newspaper publisher soon has her arm twisted to get in alignment with the powers that be. If the town goes belly up, she's persuaded, the newspaper will have to fold. The whistleblower, no longer a hero, is now accused of treason.

Many Great Lines
This adaptation of the play might be faster paced than the original Ibsen play. The number of characters has been reduced. There were a number of great monologues by Dr. Stockmann in the original script which did not fit this streamlined re-telling of the story. You can read a few of my favorites in my earlier review of the film and original play Ibsen's An Enemy of the People Questions the Validity of Democracy.

Nevertheless, Tom Isbell's adaptation is both effective and entertaining, with comic lines that carry sharp barbs like this one in response to the equivocating media: "You might want to try growing a spine." And "What's the point of speaking truth to power if no one wants to hear the truth?"

Near the end this line of Dr. Stockmann's stood out: "The strongest person in the world is the one who stands most alone." Though Ibsen gave this to Dr. Stockmann, it echoes similar sentiments that appear throughout Nietzsche's writings.

* * * *

Since Dr. Stockmann is refusing to "cooperate" with the authorities, he not only is told that he's been released from his responsibilities at the spa, but that he is going to lose his pension, too. It's the whistleblower's dilemma. Bite the hand that feeds you and you're soon out on the street.

The consequences of choosing conscience over convenience impacts the whole family. The daughter is kicked out of school. His wife loses her job. But the family stands together. At the very end, the marching circle motif closes out the play, but with the Stockmann family marching in a smaller circle within the circle, in the opposite direction.

The play ends with individual players stepping out to declare facts regarding events from recent history, specifically the water crisis and similar covered up disasters in Flint, Michigan, Newark, NJ and elsewhere, showing how 130 years have passed yet Ibsen remains completely relevant.

If the play turns up in your town, I strongly encourage you to find a way to see it. Tom Isbell, who wrote this adaptation, is a Hollywood veteran who has returned to his home state after a ten-year stint on the West Coast. A Professor of Theater at UMD, Isbell appeared in 30 films, including True Lies, The Abyss and Clear and Present Danger.

Related Links
The original script of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People
Tom Isbell at Imdb.com
Tom Isbell's UMD bio and credits
Something's in the Water by Michael Savage
I'm throwing this in here because it came to mind while I was watching the play and again while writing about it. Mike's first novel dealt with an event that took place in the late 50s and 60s. The U.S. Government and Honeywell Corporation allegedly dumped 1467 barrels of toxic waste into Lake Superior. 

POSTSCRIPT
I came across the following Ibsen quote after writing this review of the play. It was especially amusing in light of the story and several lines. "It is inexcusable for scientists to torture animals; let them make their experiments on journalists and politicians." Ah, Mr. Ibsen. There are no doubt some who quite agree with you.

Throwback Thursday: Reflections on Water and Ice

34 below zero F. Coldest reading yet on our thermometer. The sun is a muted white, beaming from the southeast. Back down below, a prism of color rises from Rocky Run, a pulsing pillar that at times is quite pronounced and at other times so indistinct as to be invisible. It springs from the earth near two pines across the way which I have never noticed before, just this side of the gravel pit. It extends quite high at times, the endpiece of a rainbow. How strange this phenomenon on a cloudless morn.

How can it be so cold out there? Where does cold come from? Absence of heat... but the sun is no further, nor nearer, than another day 50 degrees warmer.
~ Journal note, 15 January 1994

While looking through one of my journals I came across the above observations. I was attempting to describe a phenomenon that I'd never seen before coming to Minnesota, the way fog and crystal-laden moisture refracts light in the context of intense cold. Here in the Northland you can sometimes tell how cold it is by the way it squeaks when walking on the frozen snow as you go out to fetch the paper in the morning.

Water is the strangest thing. The manner in which it changes based on temperature, and not just random temps but a specific temperature, at 0 degrees Celsius. And how it vanishes (becomes vapor) when it boils. Yet it is still H20 so that when it condenses it become moisture again.

The density of water is another mystery. You would think that when water freezes, becomes a solid, it would sink, wouldn't you? Yet when icebergs break off from Greenland they float. This seems very strange. Yet we just take it all for granted.

I was reading how water expands when it freezes. This, too, seems strange because the molecules are still H20, yet they re-form themselves somehow when they become crystals. My initial sense would be that frozen water would take less room, as if the fluid's molecules were arrange themselves tighter together when they became solid. But this is not the case. In point of fact, water expands by 9% when it freezes, hence the burst water pipes some of people have experienced in very cold weather in the Northland.

* * * *

Physics is the study of nature and natural phenomena in our world. I have fond memories of Mr. Dennison's physics class my junior year in high school. A former minor league pitcher who after 7 years finally came up for a pair of games with the Red Sox at the end of a season, he was also our Junior Varsity baseball coach. I learned a lot from Mr. Dennison about many things, but never quite got the answer to why it's so hard to hit a knuckleball.

* * * *

By the way, did you see the size of the moon last night? (Unfortunately, a sheet of clouds slid across the sky to hide the eclipse that occurred shortly after dark.) I find it intriguing that when the moon circles 'round the earth its influence causes the tides to advance and recede. Because of gravity the earth's bodies of water pull inward, or downward depending on your point of view. But when the moon passes overhead the gravitational pull of our lunar companion produces swelling seas. What's especially interesting is how the waters on the opposite side of the earth also bulge to produce a high tide there as well. (You can read how all this works here.)

* * * *

It's also interesting that water covers about two-thirds of the earth, and that when we mature our own bodies are about two-thirds water. (The ratio changes from infancy to maturity.)

* * * *

Here's another observation. Whereas water is essential for our nourishment to survive, water is also a destructive force, causing buildings to rot, dead trees to decay, and so on.

* * * *

For those who are interested in other mysteries and observations about water check out these links:

The Many Mysteries of Water

5 Weird Things About Water

Middle School Chemistry Lessons on Water and Ice

Observations on Melting and Freezing

In closing, a quote to float your boat: “Human nature is like water. It takes the shape of its container.” ― Wallace Stevens

EdNote: The journal entry that started this post was our second winter living just outside Duluth. Since that time I have since seen 42 below on our thermometer. Welcome to the Northland. The original blog post was published in 2015.

Water and Oils Mix

As I was listening to the radio yesterday it was noted that this week is Arts Week at KUMD. I realized suddenly that it's already the end of June and the Park Point Art Fair is this coming weekend. 43rd Annual to be precise, June 29 and 30, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

It's one of the most beautiful settings imaginable to locate an art fair. It's large enough to display a whole range of artisans and promoted enough to bring a crowd so that the artists don't feel their wasting their time. Yes, there's an economic factor at play and if the economics don't work for both the artists and the promoters, there will be no show next year. There's little danger of this, however, as the event is well established.

Nice Crowd Flow @ Water Works Show

Last Thursday evening's opening for the Water Works show at the Duluth Art Institute was worth the wait. The event was well attended. So well, in fact, that at one point I couldn't get near the paintings at all in the far gallery. That's O.K. The water-themed art will be on display for the duration of the summer. You can see a few examples from this show displayed here.

The works were of every size and variety of media, held together by a single theme, that precious resource, water. Having lived downtown overlooking the lake, it's easy to see why artists, poets, photographers and even engineers are inspired by it. 

Preserving the Lake

Even though Lake Superior is so massive, no one in this part of the world takes it for granted that it will always be so pure and undefiled. That's why countless hours have been spent trying to understand its ways, including what the threats are to its future.

This week an article by Sam Cook in the Duluth News Tribune focused on some of these efforts. A lake is only as clean as the tributaries that run into it. Therefore it is refreshing to notice that people are involved in keeping the rivers clean. The story, Grants will help planning to restore the river, noted that 3.3 million dollars has been released "to help make the river a better place for fish and wildlife as well as for the people who use the river for recreation."

The St. Louis River, which forms a natural border between the Twin Ports towns of Duluth and Superior, is also the great lake's largest tributary. Keeping the river clean is an essential condition for keeping the lake clean. The river is one of 38 "areas of concern" as regards pollution of Lake Superior. According to Nelson French, supervisor of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, their objective with this grant money is to kick off an effort to remove this river from being an "area of concern." 

Lake Superior Day

I received a note from Patricia Lenz that Lake Superior Day is just around the corner, so mark your calendars for July 21. There will be a writing contest, poetry, art and more at Barker's Island in Superior. I'll try to wring out details soon and share them here.

One of the best parts of all these activities is the price. Free admission for the art fair this weekend, free admission for the Lake Superior Day celebration. And of course, our parks and beaches are always free as well. There's something compelling about water, and we love immersing ourselves in its beauty.

They say water and oil don’t mix, but it’s been my observation that water and art certainly do, whatever medium you work in.

Worth seeing at the Duluth Art Institute:

Lago, by Liz James

A scene from the far wall of the gallery.

Pine Lake Panorama, by Steve Barloph

Detail of a work in glass by Ron Benson

Life is a gift. Drink it.

Something About the Water

Every field of endeavor has its slogans and the arts are no different. "Ars longa, vita brevis" has been attributed to the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates, famous for the Hippocratic Oath which persons in the medical professions swear by. ("First, do no harm.")

In the early 19th century the slogan l'art pour l'art' (Art for art's sake) was adopted as central to a movement that sought to liberate art, poetry and creative expression from the need to be utilized for causes or other purposes beyond its own existence. To some extent it was a reaction against pressure to use art as an evangelistic tool or to promote political or commercial ends.

To my knowledge, however, there is no universal philosophy to which all artists swear by, and for this reason art has been used for every imaginable endeavor from leading revolutions to winning a young maiden's heart to decorating a living room to inspiring a song.

Nor is there a universal subject matter for artists. Visual artists are often captivated by light. Many artists, Van Gogh for example, filled canvases with images of daily life, from shoes to farmers harvesting. Portraits are a common theme, especially when it comes to people of importance. A new portrait of the Queen of England was unveiled this week.

Nevertheless, there are some recurring themes that run through much that is created by artists. One of these is nature, and here in the North Country this is accompanied by a deep appreciation of and respect for the great lake that our city on a hillside stretches itself against as if in a passionate embrace.

All this is preface to a modest but interesting art show that is on display in the dining area of Duluth's Whole Foods Co-op from June 6-28.  Several local artists are involved in this group exhibition aimed at raising awareness for water-related issues leading up to Lake Superior Day in August. The exhibition, called Respect Protect Fulfill-We Humans Need Water to Exist will be followed by Tonya Borgeson's solo exhibit June 29 through August 7th called Waters, What about the Waters IV. The artists whose work is currently featured in June include Kristen Anderson, Tonya Borgeson, Sarah Brokke Erickson, Maritn DeWitt, Adu Gindy and Ann Klefstad.

Borgeson’s aim with this show is to increase the viewer’s global awareness and appreciation for the interconnection of all life. “Water is everybody's business,” she said.

The co-op, in case you were not aware, has some very tasty food in their deli for patrons of the store. The enclosed dining area has large windows so that if you face south you can see Lake Superior's vast wingspan, the largest freshwater lake in the world. Many of us take these pristine waters for granted. We are blissfully ignorant of the fact that 1.1 billion people on this planet have no access to safe, clean drinking water. Most of us are unaware that lack of clean water kills more people than war.

The show aims to help us think more deeply about this part of our lives we so often take for granted and to examine our daily patterns and actions related to water usage. I recommend checking it out, even if for no other reason than to appreciate the art for its own sake. Grab something to eat, and take a seat.

What do you think about the world's water crisis? It's something to think about.

All photos here provided by Tonya Borgeson who curated this show. 
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE

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Lying in Advertising: Is This PR Campaign All Wet?

About three years ago I wrote an article about synthetic motor oil designed to answer the question, "Are synthetic motor oils too expensive?" In the article I started by comparing the price of bottled water, which does not require a great deal of complex chemistry, to the process of making synthetic motor oils, which involves a variety of raw materials -- from base stocks to additive packages -- and a host of complex formulation issues.

So when the press release regarding an upcoming PR campaign against bottled water slid into my inbox yesterday, it caught my eye. At first blush, I wondered if I were seeing the front end of another Alar scare. But upon checking into it, there were some interesting and thought provoking facts brought up. I decided to pass this along and see what others think.

The campaign is called "Lying in Advertising." Being an ad man myself, campaigns need a theme, and this one does catch your attention. The headlines in the ads are all lies. For example, the first ad exclaims, "Bottled Water Makes Acid Rain Fall on Playgrounds." I'm like, "Huh?" How does bottled water cause acid rain. The next says, "Bottled Water is the Primary Cause of Restless Leg Syndrome." I guess I never knew that, but I never heard of RLS either.

The third, again over-the-top, announces that "Bottled Water Causes Blindness in Puppies." What! Kids, do NOT put our bottled water in the puppy dish, please. Finally, in a page from the global warming playbook, "Bottled Water: 98% Melted Ice Caps. 2% Polar Bear Tears."

Well, I bit, just like most readers who see these ads will probably bite. Because each headline has an asterisk. The askerisk leads to some fine print which says, *if bottled water companies can lie, we can too. Followed by links to two websites: tappening.com and startalie.com

The first is a blog about the project. The latter is a game, obviously intended to be fun, but not a lot of fun if you are marketing manager for a bottled water company.

Very clever. So who are these people and what's their motivation?

Evidently Tappening was founded by two guys whose aim is to encourage the public to drink tap water whenever possible, thereby sending a message to the bottled water industry about its unnecessary and extreme waste of fossil fuels and resultant pollution of the Earth.

Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum are New York PR guys. DiMassimo says, "We’ve spent these two years using our marketing and public relations abilities to un-sell bottled water hype. But I still see cascading waterfalls on labels that do not list the source of that water.”

Yaverbaum adds, “This creates an illusion that it is superior to tap water, because that’s what billions of dollars of bottled water advertising has claimed or implied. The thing is, that's simply not true."

For the record, I am not a bottled water guy myself, though not for environmental reasons. I am essentially a cheapskate. (Frugal is the nicer way to say it.) Thus I have had a lot of non-bottled water over the course of a half century, and frankly, some tap water tastes pretty bad. My experience is, however, that if you have ice on hand even the worst water is palatable. I'm fortunate in that the well at our rural home produces wonderful water. (Except every fourth year for about two weeks during the spring rains at which time the flavor takes on a hint of hydrogen sulphide, famously associated with the smell of rotten eggs.)

DiMassimo and Yaverbaum are sinking $535,000 into this campaign which will include what they call "wild postings" in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas. By means of Twitter, Tappening Facebook and MySpace groups, and Friendfeed they expect more than 100,000 of their viral ads to fly around the Internet within 24 hours of release.

While we're on the subject of bottled water, did you know that there is magnetically energized water from a spring in Japan’s Magnetic Mountain that purportedly makes you resistant to disease and gives you longer life. At $99.95 per milliliter, or $10,000 a liter, you won’t want to spill a drop. That's no lie. (Not the part about healing, but the latter part, about not wanting to spill a drop at 10K per liter.)

Well, I hope I've given you something to drink about... I mean, think about. What do you drink? I mean, think. Am I all wet?

Of Time and the River

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” ~ Norman Maclean

A comment in a book I was reading yesterday made me think about rivers, about their origins, their flow and destinations. A river’s origin or source may be a spring, or a set of creeks which serve as tributaries into a channel which flows along toward a broader body of water such as great lake, gulf or ocean.

Here in Minnesota we have the headwaters of the Mississippi, the starting point of the world’s third longest river. Twenty-five years ago I used to run along this same river bank three mornings a week when I lived for a time in Bloomington. Over a century ago young Sam Clemens swam in this same river further south, traveling much of its length from Missouri to the Mississippi Delta.

And near two centuries ago the elderly Daniel Boone, who had moved most of his family to Missouri from Kentucky in order to escape the encroachments on his freedom by our U.S. legal system, decided to explore the Mississippi northward with a Negro via canoe. A brutal snowstorm from the north bore down upon them as they neared the headwaters here in Minnesota and for three days it appeared that he was about to die as they lay beneath the canoe striving to survive. He recited to his dark skinned companion his last will and testament, but the storm broke and he found himself recovering. They got back into the canoe returned to Missouri where he lived out the rest of his years.

Rivers have been part of human history for ages, serving as transportation routes, power generators, geographic barriers, political boundaries, and more. Rivers have also served as a source of inspiration for poets, writers, artists and philosophers.

An interesting feature of the Mississippi is that not far from its source there is an unusual triple watershed. Watersheds are high points where rain drainage diverges in different directions or to separate destinies. In the Colorado Rockies, for example, there is a divide where water falling to the West flows to the Pacific Ocean, and to the East it flows to the mighty Mississippi and ultimately to the Gulf of Mexico. But here, not far from where I am sitting, there is a triple point which Native Americans recognized long before the white man came, and held council meetings there.

Rain that falls in this small area can have one of three outcomes once it joins other creeks, streams and tributaries. It can flow into Lake Superior and into the St. Lawrence Seaway system, or it can flow into the headwaters of the Mississippi, or it can drain northward to the Arctic Ocean… a truly diverse set of destinies.

Our minds are like rivers sometimes. Ideas fall like rain into our mental landscape. Some drops evaporate quickly and are gone. Others merge with existing streams and make them more powerful as they cut deeper channels through the interior of our souls. Occasionally, due to weather patterns chiefly, there are floods which overflow their banks and spill across the landscape, sometimes tearing down trees and buildings and causing great upheavals.

The river’s origins are simple and small, bearing no resemblance to the mile wide expanse downstream.

When the river is flowing hard and fast, it energizes us. When the river becomes wide, flowing lazily through time and space, it relaxes us. So too, our minds and mental states.

The flowing river is a theme upon which many minds have meditated. Twain, Hesse, Annie Dillard, Norman Maclean have all included reflections on rivers. Here is the culmination of Hesse’s Siddhartha as the great wise man contemplates the meaning of his life while watching, and listening to, the river.

Siddhartha tried to listen better. The picture of his father, his own picture, and the picture of his son all flowed into each other. Kamala's picture also appeared and flowed on, and the picture of Govinda and others emerged and passed on. They all became part of the river. It was the goal of all of them, yearning, desiring, suffering; and the river's voice was full of longing, full of smarting woe, full of insatiable desire. The river flowed on towards its goal. Siddhartha saw the river hasten, made up of himself and his relatives and all the people he had ever seen. All the waves and water hastened, suffering, towards goals, many goals, to the waterfall, to the sea, to the current, to the ocean and all goals were reaced and each one was succeeded by another. The water changed to vapor and rose, became rain and came down again, became spring, brook and river, changed anew, flowed anew. But the yearning voice had altered. It still echoed sorrowfully, searcingly, but other voices accompanied it, voices of pleasure and sorrow, good and evil voices, laughing and lamenting voices, hundreds of voices, thousands of voices.

Siddhartha listened. He was now listening intently, completely absorbed, quite empty, taking in everything... He could no longer distinguish the different voices – the merry voice from the weeping voice, the childish voice from the manly voice. They all belonged to each other: the lament of those who yearn, the laughter of the wise, the cry of indignation and the groan of the dying. They were all interwoven and interlocked, entwined in a thousand ways. And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.

Aqua, Por Favor

I woke this morning to a strange sound coming from my basement, a repeating periodic tone, a vibration of sorts. When I got up to go to the bathroom and get a drink of water, I learned what it was. My well pump was no longer functioning. We were without water.

It made me think of a scene from the film No Country For Old Men. Llewelyn Moss comes across a drug deal gone bad out in the wilderness where he is hunting. In addition to several dead bodies there is a wounded Mexican bleeding in a car. Moss warily approaches. The man looks at him with pleading eyes and says, "Agua. Agua, por favor."

This is what happens when we bleed. We get cold and thirsty. Fluids are essential to life, and without water, whether bleeding or not, we die.

I was reminded of our year in Mexico and a couple of our visits to Mexico City. We stayed for a week with a family in the barrios and learned how precious water is when it is not readily available. Because of the immense population, water was rationed. The water would only be turned on for ninety minutes a day, and the people would fill their 55 gallon drums at that assigned time. The sector we stayed at only had flowing water from three a.m. to four thirty.

To be sure, water is just one of the many conveniences we Americans take for granted.

While my own well was kaput this morning, I did a quick Internet search to see what other parts of the world were experiencing water shortages. Here is just a small portion, and a big reminder that we ought not, can not, take this precious commodity for granted.

Pakistan

From a story about the water and power crisis in Islamabad: "With the arrival of summer, the capital’s water crisis has assumed a new dimension leaving tanks and taps in thousands of homes in several sectors running virtually dry."

Israel

Water allocations to farmers need to be cut due to shortages. "Israel can't afford to continue supporting the farming community - from the perspective of water. There just isn't enough, say ministers." ...from story titled "Looming water crisis endangers local food supply."

India

An article about India's water situation states that the "crisis has reached critical levels."

East Africa

Article titled "A water crisis of unimaginable proportions."

Zanzibar

A week long power outage has resulted in fears of an outbreak of cholera due to the bad water situation.

Niger

Another story introduces readers to a killer drought that is having a devastating affect in this African nation.

When I mentioned to the two men who came to replace our submersible pump that the experience of being without water (for several hours) led me to think about those whose hardships in this regard were far more grave. I told him I would be writing about it on my blog tonight. He said that he'd be willing to postpone fixing our well for a couple days so that we could have a more intimate understanding of the experience. I thanked him for the gesture, but was pleased when by noon today we had running water again.

Let's not forget the less fortunate. And let's not forget to be grateful for the many things we take for granted.