Foreign corporations didn’t used to be allowed to just move in and act as if they owned the place, but money changed hands at the national level – and who knows how much at the local level. So they keep moving in, promising money, jobs and more money, jobs.
Canadian corporations are the most intrusive, e.g., Cooke with its ever-expanding caged fish pens along Maine’s coast, Irving woodlands as the largest landowner in Maine cutting down the Maine Woods, our electricity supplier Versant located out in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan or near there, and a Canadian mining corporation drilling test bores in Pembroke looking for metals to mine.
None of these is good for us as they continue the degradation of our woods and waters to our detriment. When large corporations spread enough money around, some people forget why we live here.
Do we want to end up like New Jersey’s coast, all built up, used up, and polluted?
The Chinese own the pulp mill in Baileyville plus several other paper mills in town. The Japanese own woodlands in Northern Maine, and now we have the Dutch wanting to put in a huge – and it is huge – fish-growing plant which they claim will create lots of “good-paying jobs”.
It seems all you have to say is “money, jobs, money, jobs” and some people will buy into it, especially if they feel they will personally profit.
I saw the letter in last week’s MVNO from the Sunrise County Economic Council which touted the Dutch corporation’s fish-growing scheme. So I looked up SCEC’s Board of directors and – guess what? – Kingfish Maine’s person is right there on SCEC’s Board of Directors [Megan Sorby]. Wonder what that cost the Dutch in donations to the always fundraising SCEC?
Oh, yes, and then there’s this person from somewhere with his truly lunatic scheme of shooting rockets off Water Island, each of which rockets would drop pieces on its way up and down! Which would land who knows where? Good grief!
The local real estate agent who is making money from both the Dutch and the rocket man ought to be satisfied with his huge bank account from all the buying and selling of real estate the past couple of years, instead encouraging the ruination of Jonesport’s real world fishing industries.
Oh, yes, one other thing. What happens when the power goes out for days, even a week or two? I asked the Kingfish people and they said they have generators. Well, generators need gasoline and when their supply runs out, there will be no more until electricity returns. What happens to their effluent then?
Foreign corporations like these are swarming in here because there aren’t many un-ruined places left. Some developers think we’re just backwater peasants and will fall for their “money, jobs, money, jobs” schemes. But, no, we won’t.
Just a note – when our clean waters are gone, and Kingfish cannot help but pollute no matter what they say, then it’s gone.
Do we want our land, water, and food controlled by foreign – or domestic – corporations, which only care about profits, not whether people are fed properly?
Earth has only so many resources so this “grow, grow” mentality cannot be allowed to continue. At some point – and I hope it’s now – commons sense has to prevail.
If we grow more of our own food, we won’t be so dependent on far-away and foreign corporations for sustenance. If we encourage young people to start small farms, and perhaps raise some fish in backyard ponds, we can be more self-sufficient.
Kingfish does public relations well, but their scheme will, without a doubt, pollute the waters. I live on these same waters, not far as the tide flows, from their planned project. I vote NO.
Time to keep out ridiculous, intrusive, and destructive schemes.
Nancy Oden lives in Jonesboro, email [email protected].