How Religion Incubates Anti-Vax Paranoia | Adam Lee

How Religion Incubates Anti-Vax Paranoia | Adam Lee

War Profiteers

"Germany approves sale of three Thyssenkrupp submarines to Israel" - http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-thyssenkrupp-israel/germany-approves-sale-of-three-thyssenkrupp-submarines-to-israel-idUKKBN1CS1DI

Global military spending

Global military spending was down in 2012 for the first time since 1998. And for the second year in a row, arms sales from private industry to governments were down as well.

Despite the decline in military spending, the business of war remains a good one. The 100 largest arms producers and military services contractors recorded $395 billion in arms sales in 2012. Lockheed Martin, the largest arms seller, alone accounted for $36 billion in such sales during 2012. Based on figures compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), 24/7 Wall St. examined the 10 companies profiting most from war.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan is among the biggest reasons for the drop in military spending, according to SIPRI. Spending on these campaigns fell from $159 billion to $115 billion between 2011 and 2012.

Austerity also contributed to cuts in military spending. Budget control measures were responsible for a $15 billion reduction in U.S. military expenditures in 2012. Belt-tightening in Europe also had an impact on arms sales. In 20 of the 37 countries in Western and Central Europe, military spending declined by more than 10% between 2008 and 2012.

In an interview with 24/7 Wall St., Dr. Samuel Perlo-Freeman, director of the SIPRI Programme on Military Expenditure and Arms Production, said that while government military spending is waning in the United States and Western Europe, many developing countries are increasing their expenditures. Arms sellers in several countries, most notably Russia, are benefiting from their nation’s military budget expansion, Perlo-Freeman noted. While U.S. military expenses declined in 2012, Russia’s increased by an estimated 16% that year.

Companies reacted differently to the sales downturn. L-3 Communications spun off part of its business in 2012 to limit exposure to declining government military spending. Other government contractors wrote off significant losses in response to decreased military spending, including General Dynamics, which took a $2 billion goodwill charge related to declining opportunities in the defense sector.

Faced with possible tough times, some companies have engaged in corrupt practices. Last year, the CEO of Italian aerospace and defense firm Finmeccanica was charged by Italian prosecutors with fraud and corruption related to the company’s sale of helicopters to the Indian government. However, according to Perlo-Freeman, this is nothing new. “The arms industry has always been associated with corruption both in international arms transfers and sometimes in domestic procurement.”

Arms sales have remained concentrated among the same small number of companies for more than a decade. The top 10 companies have largely remained in place because industry consolidation in the 1990s made them dominant players, even through fluctuations in government military spending. “These companies tend to have their core competencies in getting money out of governments,” Perlo-Freeman said.

To identify the 10 companies profiting most from war, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 companies with the most arms sales based on SIPRI’s list of the top 100 arms sellers in 2012. Arms sales, including advisory, planes, vehicles and weapons, were defined by sales to military customers, as well as contracts to government militaries. We also considered the company’s 2012 total sales and profits, and the total number of employees at the company, as well as nation-level military spending, all provided by SIPRI.

These are the companies profiting the most from war.

10. L-3 Communications
> Arm sales 2012: $10.8 billion
> Total sales 2012: $13.1 billion
> 2012 profit: $782 million
> 2012 employment: 51,000

L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (NYSE: LLL) moved down a notch in the rankings from the previous year. The company’s 2012 arms sales totaled $10.8 billion, down from $12.5 billion the year before. Still, arms sales accounted for 82% of L-3’s total 2012 sales. The company has four main business units: secure communications, electronics systems, platform and logistical solutions, and national security solutions. In July 2012, L-3 spun off its government services business into a standalone company, called Engility. With the spinoff, L-3 aimed to limit its exposure to cuts in government spending on defense contractors.

9. Finmeccanica

> Arm sales 2012: $12.5 billion
> Total sales 2012: $22.1 billion
> 2012 profit: -$1.0 billion
> 2012 employment: 67,408

Ongoing corruption probes may have hurt Italian aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica, which posted $12.5 billion in arms sales in 2012, roughly $2 billion less than in 2011. Finmeccanica posted a net loss of $1 billion in 2012, mostly due to a write-down of the value of its U.S. defense electronics unit, DRS Technologies. Following his February 2013 arrest in connection with charges of bribery of Indian government officials regarding a contract for 12 military helicopters, Finmeccanica’s CEO, Giuseppe Orsi, resigned from the company. The bribery charges have also held up payment from India for the helicopters, causing the highly indebted company to lose an important source of cash.

8. United Technologies
> Arm sales 2012: $13.5 billion
> Total sales 2012: $62.2 billion
> 2012 profit: $5.2 billion
> 2012 employment: 218,300

United Technologies Corp.’s (NYSE: UTX) 2012 arms sales increased from the year before, the only company in the top 10 ranking with a year-over-year increase in its arms sales. The company recorded $13.5 billion in arms sales in 2012, up from $11.6 billion in 2011. The company’s total profit that year was $5.2 billion, third among all arms companies. Its Sikorsky division, known for the Black Hawk and Seahawk military helicopters, accounted for $4.5 billion in arms sales that year. Its Pratt & Whitney division, which produces aircraft engines, accounted for $3.7 billion in 2012 arms sales. The company also sold parts of its Hamilton Sundstrand subsidiary in July 2012 for $3.5 billion to a venture led by private equity managers, The Carlyle Group and BC Partners. The sale helped United Technologies fund its more-than $16 billion purchase of aircraft parts maker Goodrich to expand further into the commercial aerospace sector.

7. EADS
> Arm sales 2012: $15.4 billion
> Total sales 2012: $72.6 billion
> 2012 profit: $1.6 billion
> 2012 employment: 140,000

The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company tried to complete a $45 billion mega-merger with fellow arms company BAE in 2012. While European leaders nixed the merger because of antitrust laws, the European Union Institute for Security Studies noted in late 2012 that European austerity may eventually prompt further industry consolidation in the future. EADS’ total arm sales were $15.4 billion in 2012, down by $1 billion versus the prior year. Still, it was able to hold onto its seventh-place ranking among arms dealers. Arms sales accounted for just 21% of its $72.6 billion in total sales during 2012. To reflect the massive contribution of its Airbus commercial aircraft business to company revenue, EADS changed its name to Airbus Group in 2014.

6. Northrop Grumman
> Arm sales 2012: $19.4 billion
> Total sales 2012: $25.2 billion
> 2012 profit: $2.0 billion
> 2012 employment: 68,100

Virginia-based Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) specializes in producing unmanned systems, missile defense radars and critical incident response systems. In February 2012, the U.S. Navy awarded the company a contract worth as much as $638 million to provide Navy ships with a networked common computing environment. In January of that year, the Navy also began using Northrop’s high-altitude drone to monitor activity in Iran. Last year, the company was awarded nearly $8.6 billion in such contracts, second-most of any company in the nation. The company’s arms sales, which totaled more than $19 billion in 2012, accounted for 77% of its total revenue that year. The company’s 2012 profit was nearly $2 billion.

5. General Dynamics
> Arm sales 2012: $20.9 billion
> Total sales 2012: $31.5 billion
> 2012 profit: -$332 million
> 2012 employment: 92,200

Like many of its defense-sector competitors, Virginia-based General Dynamics Corp. (NYSE: GD) felt the sting of the decreased U.S. military spending. The company, which specializes in aircraft, land and expeditionary combat vehicles, and shipbuilding, lost $332 million in 2012, and its arms sales totaled $20.9 billion, down from $23.3 billion the year before. The loss was due, in large part, to a $2 billion goodwill charge related to declining business opportunities in the defense sector. In its most recent year, the company reported a 16.4% drop in sales in its combat systems group, for which the U.S. Army is major customer.

4. Raytheon

> Arm sales 2012: $22.5 billion
> Total sales 2012: $24.4 billion
> 2012 profit: $1.9 billion
> 2012 employment: 67,800

While Raytheon’s 2012 arm sales of $22.5 billion were slightly lower compared to 2011, they remained high enough for the company to rank fourth among arms companies. The company, which traces its history back to 1922, assisted the United States in multiple wars, as well as the Apollo 11 moon landing. Raytheon Co. (NYSE: RTN) provides services in a variety of fields, from air and missile defense to radar and cybersecurity. In all, 92% of the company’s sales came from arms sales in 2012. But while the U.S. has cut defense spending in recent years, Raytheon has benefited from a surge in exports to foreign countries, which has helped to offset federal government belt-tightening.

3. BAE Systems
> Arm sales 2012: $26.9 billion
> Total sales 2012: $28.3 billion
> 2012 profit: $2.6 billion
> 2012 employment: 88,200

BAE Systems is the largest non-U.S. military contractor. It had $26.9 billion in arms sales in 2012, which represented some 95% of the company’s total sales. However, the British company’s year-over-year arms sales declined that year from $29.2 billion in 2011. Cuts by England’s Ministry of Defence have taken a toll on the company. As the U.K.’s largest military contractor, it received 13.7% of procurement funds spent in 2012 to 2013. In May 2012, the company announced it would close its Armstrong plant — which made tanks for the nation in World War I and had been in operation since 1847 — and cut 330 jobs as a result. BAE’s failed $45 billion merger with fellow defense contractor EADS in 2012 also hurt prospective sales of England’s main fighter jet, the British Tornado, for which BAE makes the parts.

2. Boeing
> Arm sales 2012: $27.6 billion
> Total sales 2012: $81.7 billion
> 2012 profit: $3.9 billion
> 2012 employment: 174,400

Although arms sales accounted for just 34% of Boeing’s revenue in 2012, Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) was still the world’s second largest military contractor that year. In all, the company’s total revenue was nearly $82 billion in 2012. The company’s commercial airplane segment accounted for a large portion of its sales, with $49.1 billion in revenue that year. Boeing ended 2012 with $3.9 billion in profit and with more than 174,400 employees. Last year, Boeing and union workers in Washington state engaged in heated negotiations, with Boeing threatening to move jobs away from the state unless union workers agreed to concessions related to their pension plan.

1. Lockheed Martin
> Arm sales 2012: $36 billion
> Total sales 2012: $47.2 billion
> 2012 profit: 2.7 billion
> 2012 employment: 120,000

In 2012, Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) led the world in arms sales, even as its arms sales declined slightly from $36.2 billion in 2011 to $36 billion in 2012. Such sales accounted for 95% of the Maryland company’s total revenue. The company, which employed 120,000 workers as of 2012, specializes in aerospace, global security and information technology systems for the military. It is also known for the C-5 Galaxy Class airplane — the largest air military transport plane in the world. Lockheed Martin has been the largest recipient of government procurement contracts and the top-ranked company on the Washington Technology Top 100 for 19 consecutive years. However, this has also left the company exposed to changes in the federal budget. In October 2012, at the request of President Obama, the company held off on firing thousands of workers that it previously warned it would have to lay off due to military spending cuts.

By Vince Calio and Alexander E.M. Hess

HANDBOOK for REVOLUTION

Blueprint for Revolution: 

How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men and Other Non-Violent Techniques to Galvanise Communities, Overthrow Dictators or Simply Change the World,

„All dictatorships are based on the same things“, 

„Corruption, nepotism, ineffective management, 

social injustice, power and fear. “ 

Revolution needs imagination. 

To break a firmly added regime, one begins best of all with 

protests against dogexcrement, 

the unwarranted rise of the pancake prices 

or the salt tax – 

this is more effective than to throw Molotov cocktails.

Based on ideas of the non violence theorists 

here are methods to prepare effectively actions, 

and to to avoid the same mistakes, 

which are used by the authoritarian regimes 

ruthlessly and to diminish fear.

Humor is the best action. 

If you’re hoping to get a mass movement going 

within a very short span of time i

n the age of the internet, 

humour is a key strategy. 

Also, by and large, dictators hate jokes.

While the state propaganda News were on TV the Solidarnosc-trade unionists have 

carted her television sets at the moment of the news through the streets 

– a graphic, but harmless action, 

because no law forbids such an after-dinner walk … 

After 15 years of "ridiculous making" 

The activist & author Popovic is persuaded of the fact that 

„the policemen are not prepared to handle with comedians. “ 

This would unnerve them.

It can happen anywhere

Innumerable would-be activists have come to me over the years saying “I like what you teach, and I know it worked for Serbia, but revolution will never happen here.”


Judging from history, it seems as if violence is what shapes the world. When you are facing state brutality, widespread corruption and an authoritarian system that thrives on fear, it is easy to feel that way.

But time and again I have seen many of those very same people go on to spark revolutions in their own countries. Even under the direst conditions, it is still possible to get people to fight for a cause. So the first step in starting a revolution is believing that it can happen, wherever you are.

Pick your battles

„Select fights for which the application 

is worth and also with view of success. “ 

In The Art of War, Sun Tzu emphasises the importance of trying to match your strong points against your enemy’s weak points.

The best revolutionary leaders are adept at spotting these and planning their campaigns around them. Your opponent may have superior military might, but perhaps you have greater numbers, or are more nimble, or are simply a lot cooler.

In Serbia, my friends and I made Milosevic a laughing stock simply by painting his face on a barrel and encouraging people to beat it with sticks. That was funny enough, but when the police arrived to arrest the barrel things really took off. It’s hard to remember to be scared when you can’t stop laughing. And what is less cool than sending armed men to arrest a joke?
Another examples:
Gandhi fights first against the unfair salt tax of the Britons
and only late against her colonial regime.

Or the Californian Harvey Milk who was chosen on grounds of an anti-dog excrement campaign in the town council, before he rose to a leading figure of the gay's movement and lesbian movement.

Against it Popovic criticised the lacking compromise readiness of the students on the place of the heavenly peace who should have yielded after the first concessions of the Communist party of China,
or also the very media-oriented, but Femen a little capable of consensus.

„Use all modern communicative devices “

Thus went the video of the young Saudi Arabian 

who went without permission of a man by the car 

on the social networks around the whole world.

Therefore, the "commercials" aspect should not be neglected: 

You bet, posters, public contacts are necessary 

to become an inalienable interlocutor. 

Thus Popovic criticises the name and the draught of the "Occupy" movement -

„you take Wall Street, and what do you make then?“ – 

where, nevertheless, her slogan – 

„We are 99%“ – 

could have served as a basis of a mass movement.

Hobbits can save the world

Galadriel tells the hobbit Frodo that 

“even the smallest creature can change the world”.

From the Iliad onwards, history seems to have been intent on 

telling us that our heroes should be elite warriors or genius outliers. 

But when you look at some of the people 

who have had an enduring impact on our culture today - 

Harvey Milk, say, or Malala Yousafzai - 

many of them aren’t obvious hero material. 

They started out as ordinary, even unassuming individuals, 

but went on to achieve exceptional things. 

In other words, they are hobbits.

Anything but blue-eyed 

And above all

Popovic persists on the principle of the freedom of violence 

– not to attack first the dictatorships where her strength lies, 

its their battleground - not yours.

Remember that violence doesn’t work

I have dedicated my life to non-violence, 

but the reality is that you can be opposed to violence in all its forms and yet when you pick up a gun, still feel, in some dark place in your soul, as if there is no challenge you can’t face and no problem you can’t solve. 

Being armed changes people, and sometimes revolutions that start out peaceful can turn violent. 

But before you consider a turn to the dark side, consider the fact that research shows that it is often 

the person with the gun who fails most miserably. 

In an analysis of every conflict between 1900 and 2006, 

two US academics discovered that

non-violent resistance campaigns were nearly t

wice as likely to succeed as violent ones. 

Keep that at the forefront of your mind for the times

when your principles are challenged.

Popovic remembers that the saucepan concerts of the indignant grandmothers 

embarrassed the police of Milosevic because they did not want to force back 

the frail old ladies before running camera by force.

About Srdja Popovic, serbian-activist-protester

He has now published a highly readable book, the deftly titled Blueprint for Revolution: How to Use Rice Pudding, Lego Men and Other Non-Violent Techniques to Galvanise Communities, Overthrow Dictators or Simply Change the World, combining an entertaining primer on the theory and practice of peaceful protest with a very personal account of his own involvement with it.

Revolution braucht Fantasie. Und um ein fest gefügtes Regime zu stürzen, beginnt man am besten mit Protesten gegen Hundekot, die ungerechtfertigte Erhöhung der Pfannkuchen-Preise oder die Salzsteuer – das ist wirksamer als Molotov-Cocktails zu werfen. 

Mehr zum Thema: 

Beruf: Revolutionär. Unser Interview mit Srdja Popovic. 

„Protest! Wie man die Mächtigen das Fürchten lehrt.“(Fischer Verlag) ist keine langweilige politische Abhandlung für Schreibtisch-Guerilleros. In diesem Handbuch 2.0. für alle Empörten, die sich gegenüber bösen Machthabern ohnmächtig fühlen, wimmelt es nur so von aussagekräftigen Formulierungen und amüsanten Anekdoten. Das Buch beruht auf Erfahrungen mit Aktivisten aus aller Welt, mit denen Popovic und andere Milosevic-Bezwinger bei Schulungen stundenlang diskutiert haben, und die zunächst voller Skepsis ausriefen: „Serbien und Otpor! ... das alles ist schön und gut, aber bei uns wird das nie funktionieren!“   

Das Einmaleins des gewaltlosen Widerstands

„Alle Diktaturen beruhen auf denselben Dingen“, erklärt der CANVAS-Gründer. „Korruption, Vetternwirtschaft, ineffiziente Verwaltung, soziale Ungerechtigkeit, Gewalt und Angst.“  Ausgehend von den Ideen des non-violence-Theoretikers Gene Sharpe hat CANVAS Methoden entwickelt, um Aktionen wirkungsvoll vorzubereiten, Fehler zu vermeiden, die von den autoritären Regimen schonungslos ausgenutzt werden, und Angst abzubauen. 

Erste Regel: Humor ist das beste Aktionsmittel. So haben die Solidarnosc- Gewerkschafter die staatliche Propaganda bloßgestellt, indem sie ihre Fernsehgeräte zur Zeit der Nachrichten durch die Straßen karrten – eine demonstrative, aber harmlose Aktion, denn kein Gesetz verbietet einen solchen Verdauungsspaziergang… Nach 15 Jahren „Lächerlich-Machen“ ist Popovic davon überzeugt, dass „die Polizisten nicht darauf vorbereitet sind, mit Spaßmachern umzugehen.“ Das würde sie verunsichern.       

Zweite Regel: „Kämpfe auswählen, für die sich der Einsatz lohnt, die aber auch Aussicht auf Erfolg haben.“  Ein Beispiel: Gandhi kämpft zunächst gegen die ungerechte Salzsteuer der Briten und erst später gegen ihr Kolonialregime. Oder der Kalifornier Harvey Milk, der auf Grund einer anti-Hundekot-Kampagne in den Stadtrat gewählt wurde, bevor er zu einer Leitfigur der Schwulen- und Lesbenbewegung avancierte. Dagegen kritisierte Popovic die mangelnde Kompromissbereitschaft der Studenten auf dem Platz des Himmlischen Friedens, die nach den ersten Zugeständnissen der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas hätten einlenken sollen, oder auch die sehr medienwirksamen, aber wenig konsensfähigen Femen.  

Dritte Regel: „Die modernen Kommunikationsmittel nutzen“. So ging das Video der jungen Saudi-Araberin, die ohne die Erlaubnis eines Mannes mit dem Auto fuhr, über die sozialen Netzwerke um die ganze Welt. Deshalb soll der „Werbe“-Aspekt nicht vernachlässigt werden: Logo, Plakate, öffentliche Kontakte sind vonnöten, um zu einem unverzichtbaren Gesprächspartner zu werden. So kritisiert Popovic den Namen und das Konzept der „Occupy“-Bewegung  - „Ihr besetzt Wall Street, und was macht ihr dann?“ – wo doch ihr Slogan – „Wir sind die 99%“ – als Grundlage einer Massenbewegung hätte dienen können.

 Und vor allem beharrt Popovic auf dem Prinzip der Gewaltfreiheit – um erstens die Diktaturen nicht dort zu attackieren, wo ihre Stärke liegt, und zweitens um nicht die „Großmütter, Ärzte, Dorfpfarrer und Dichter“ zu vergraulen, also die breite Masse, die unumgänglich ist, um die herrschende Minderheit zu stürzen. Popovic erinnert sich daran, dass die Kochtopf-Konzerte der empörten Großmütter die Polizei von Milosevic aus der Fassung brachten, weil sie die gebrechlichen alten Damen nicht vor laufender Kamera gewaltsam zurückdrängen wollten.   

The Black Rock

"...we must move away from dogma, 

whether it’s conspiracy theories or free-market,”

James Glattfelder. 

There 
may be 

147 companies in the world 

that own everything,

and 
they are dominated by 

investment companies.

But it’s not you and I 
who really control those companies,

 even though much of our money is in them.

 Given the nature of how money is invested, 

there are four companies in the shadows 

that really control 
those companies that own everything.

That means 
the real power to control the world 
lies with four companies:

1. McGraw-Hill, 

which owns

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services

S&P Dow Jones Indices

S&P Capital IQ

Platts

J.D. Power

2. Northwestern Mutual, 

which owns

#Russell Investments,

#Fidelity,

#American Funds,

#MFS,

#Pimco,

#Franklin Templeton Investments,

#American Century Investments

3. CME Group 

which owns 

90% of Dow Jones Indexes

&
Exchange Partners, :
DME
S&P Cash Indices
Eris Exchange
Minneapolis Grain Exchange
BM&F BOVESPA
Mercado Mexicano de Derivados - MexDer
Korea Exchange - KRX
Bursa Malaysia Derivatives - BMD

4. Barclay’s, 

A multi-asset shareholder,
which took over Lehman Brothers 

and its Lehman Aggregate Bond Index,

the dominant world bond fund index. 

Together, 
these four firms 
dominate the world of indexing.

And in turn, 
that means they hold real sway 
over the world’s money.

AS PROTESTS against financial power sweep the world, science may have confirmed the protesters’ worst fears. An analysis of the relationships between 43,000 transnational corporations has identified a relatively small group of companies, mainly banks, with disproportionate power over the global economy.

Vanguard, Fidelity

& 

the Investment Bank

BlackRock

Nr. 12 OF THE 25 LARGEST 

U.S. ENDOWMENTS & FOUNDATIONS

89 OUT OF THE FORTUNE 100 are BlackRock´s partners & clients

and holds 91% OF THE LARGEST U.S. RETIREMENT PLANS

which control a staggering 

$30 trillion in global wealth.

(30,000,000,000,000; 

30 x million x million)

or the other side:

BlackRock operates worldwide

for instance: GERMANY 2009

GERMANY 2015

Siemens

Allianz

Daimler

BASF

SAP

Lufthansa, BlackRock biggest shareholder

Deutsche Bank, Blackrock biggest private shareholder: 6,62%

E.ON

Rheinmetall

RWE

Gerresheimer

Deutsche Telekom, BlackRock shareholder 4,5 %
Allianz SE, BlackRock shareholder 5,3 %
Klöckner Pentaplast
Jack Wolfskin
Euler Hermes.

more

BlackRock 

superconnected 

companies:

FMR - Fidelity Management and Research Company 4.71% 03/31/2015

JP Morgan Chase & Co 

Vanguard Group Inc

UBS AG The Bank for Banks

Merrill Lynch & Co Inc 

Deutsche Bank AG

Goldman Sachs Group Inc

Morgan Stanley

BNP Paribas 

The Carlyle Group - Partners

AT&T

Freddy Mac

Google

HSBC

MetLife

Merryl Lynch

Southern Cross Healthcare
Spirit Group
TRW Automotive,
Nalco,

Freescale Semiconductor

Merlin Entertainments Group,
Universal Orlando Resort,

Cineworld,

Houghton Mifflin,

SeaWorld

Allied Waste,

Texas Genco

Graham Packaging

Calpers, 

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority,

Porcelain Industries, Inc.

BlackRock Advisors LLC

BlackRock Fund Advisors

BlackRock Investment Management LLC

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

University of Pennsylvania

BlackRock Financial Management, Inc.

NYU Langone Medical Center

Norwalk Health Services Corp.

NYU Hospitals Center

BlackRock CoRI Funds

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust

Robin Hood Foundation

BlackRock Capital Management, Inc.

The Lexington Master LP

iShares Trust

New York University

The Boys' Club of New York

Automated Security (Holdings) Plc

The Financial Services Roundtable

The Norwalk Hospital Association

The Museum of Modern Art

Fieldpoint Private Bank & Trust, Inc.

Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.

Hope & Heroes Children's Cancer Fund

Augustana College (Illinois)

Periwinkle Theatre For Youth

Extra Mile Education Foundation

iShares, Inc.

Confluence Technologies, Inc.

BlackRock 
peers with

Apple

ExxonMobil 

Chevron

McDonald's

Microsoft

Shell

and

Holder	Shares	% Held
Norges Bank Investment Management as of 24 Apr 2015	86.63m	2.72%
The Vanguard Group, Inc. as of 30 Sep 2015	57.95m	1.82%
UBS AG (Investment Management) as of 28 Sep 2015	39.34m	1.23%
Massachusetts Financial Services Co. as of 30 Sep 2015	38.53m	1.21%
Credit Suisse AG as of 01 Oct 2015	37.24m	1.17%
BlackRock Fund Advisors as of 08 Oct 2015	27.03m	0.85%
Capital Research & Management Co. (World Investors) as of 31 Jul 2015	23.76m	0.75%
Capital Research & Management Co. (Global Investors) as of 31 Jul 2015	23.39m	0.73%
MFS International (UK) Ltd. as of 31 Aug 2015	21.41m	0.67%
BlackRock Advisors (UK) Ltd. as of 08 Oct 2015	17.50m	0.55%

There are few things as fundamentally crucial to the existence of human beings and, indeed, all life on Earth as water. It is difficult to believe any human being thinks water is privately-owned, a commodity, to use for profit at the expense of human life, but Americans know there are entities that will go to any lengths to feed their corporate greed. In several states in this country, climate change is wreaking havoc on the people in the form of severe, multi-year droughts. So, with extreme water shortages, what do two industries do with the vanishing precious resource? They either mix it with deadly carcinogens and pump it, under extremely high pressure, back into the ground, often directly over active earthquake faults, or draw it out of the ground, bottle it, and sell it for profit. It is a wealthy corporations’ ideal business model; free raw materials and a product no human being can survive without.

California, like many states primarily in the southwestern United States, is facing one of its most severe droughts on record. The conditions are so severe that in January Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought state of emergency in preparation for water shortages that are especially dangerous during the summer months. The critically severe drought has entered its third year of a projected decade (at least) long drought, and throughout California water restrictions are having a profound impact on agriculture. In fact, the water shortage is so severe that farmers in some of the most agricultural-rich areas of the country are being forewarned there may be no water within two years at best; that is if the extreme conservation measures work.

However, while the rest of the state is attempting to conserve what little life-sustaining water California has left, the Nestle Company ignores the emergency measures the state adopted because its water bottling plant is conveniently located on a Native American reservation. Like all N.A. reservations, it is considered a sovereign nation by the US government. It is a water-theft enterprise any greedy corporation would lust after because unlike farmers, individual Californians, and every municipality in the state, Nestle is exempt from complying with any water-saving state or federal regulations. To make matters worse, Nestle is depleting what precious water reserves lie deep underground in the aquifer and pumping it directly to its bottling plant and selling it for profit. This is not a new endeavor for Nestle, and their blatant disregard for Californians’ need for basic survival was best expressed by Nestle’s CEO and Chairman.

According to the former CEO and now Chairman of the largest food product manufacturer in the world, Nestle, corporations own every drop of water on the planet, and because he believeswater is not a basic human right; if human beings get thirsty, they have to pay or die. It is the ultimate privatization insult to mankind, and worse because Nestle is intent on privatizing water the world over; a natural resource that falls from the sky and seeps into the Earth for man to use for survival. In the case of California, and other regions around the world, what precious little water remains for basic survival is being stolen by a filthy corporation to sell to those who can afford to survive, and they are being assisted by Native Americans claiming to be good stewards of the Earth. Maybe this is Native American vengeance on the white man for invading their sovereign land, massacring them, and sending the survivors to permanent interment camps with high-sounding names like “sovereign nations.” But that is another story altogether; this is about Nestle draining California’s water.

UNILEVER 

is on shopping-list of 

BlackRock

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 
Washington, D.C. 20549 
SCHEDULE 13G
Under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(Amendment No:  5) 
UNILEVER PLC
--------------------------------------------------------
(Name of Issuer) 
Common Stock
--------------------------------------------------------
(Title of Class of Securities) 
B10RZP7
--------------------------------------------------------
(SEDOL Number) 
December 31, 2014
--------------------------------------------------------
SEDOL No.   B10RZP7
(1)Names of reporting persons. BlackRock, Inc.
(2) Check the appropriate box if a member of a group 
(a) [  ]
(b) [X]
(3) SEC use only
(4) Citizenship or place of organization 
Delaware

Brands of

The

Head 

of BlackRock

Laurence D. Fink, 

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BlackRock, 

also leads the Global Executive Committee.