Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Photo: U2005.com (flickr)

Can a lotus bloom out of this recent economic mud? Dr. Muhammad Yunus seems to think so. In a recent interview with CriEnglish, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner says that the world should see the economic crisis as an incredible opportunity.

We shouldn't just look at it [the economic crisis] as a crisis only. It is the greatest of our opportunity to rebuild the economy, rebuild our concept, rebuild our way of doing things so that we move to the right direction with the right structure, because this [current] structure will create problems of the type that it already created...We just kind of put it — patched it — together to move again. Patchwork shouldn't be done this time. This is the real world we're overhauling. Take it apart. Take piece by piece and rebuild, redesign so that we can go on. I think that is the most important part.

Istanbul, Turkey. Photo: shioshvilli

Officials attending the World Water Forum in Turkey this week issued a statement that essentially said there's not enough water to waste.

That much was clear to one Canadian reporter attending the conference, who found that her press pass wasn’t enough to get her access to bathrooms with running water — reserved only for VIPs.

But it was less clear to two protesters from a California group, who were hosed by local police with water cannons — presumably the most “cost effective” way to respond.

But the water in those cannons is especially precious to Turkish residents, who are running out of water, according to Al Jazeera.

Turkey has experienced periods of extreme drought in recent years, and multinational companies have a stronghold on increasingly scarce water resources. Most locals drink bottled water, but that’s not a luxury everyone in Turkey can afford.

During the conference, Turkish engineers demonstrated against large firms that they say benefit cities by exploiting rural resources. Their view is that water talks need to focus on conservation, not privatization.

"We believe our drinking water should be managed so we don't need to buy it in bottles and it's freely available," lawmaker Ufuk Aras told Al Jazeera. "We were not born on this earth to help companies add to their profits."