Sitting on my desk …

… is about an inch of water in a plastic bottle labeled “Fiji” and the notation: “Natural artesian water.”

The label says the water was bottled at Yaqara, Vita Lavu, Fiji Islands.

If anyone wondered about the early 21st Century wealth of the world, the plastic bottle with an inch of water is proof. That is, a company can fill 500 ml bottles with water, ship the filled bottles to the U.S. and make money.

A note: Someone else bought the Fiji water and left it on my desk.

Of course, nothing is as it seems.

“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?”

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/fiji-spin-bottle