author: Brian A. Pace
Let me start by saying that this feels like a truly global movement. This year's WSF has been held in India to encourage greater participation from Africa and Asia. Taking a quick glance around me I can attest that the strategy succeeded. Trade Unions make up the majority of the organizations but the Indian participants far outweigh any other group. The NESCO grounds are huge, with 5 major indoor presentation halls, 3 exhibition centers filled with mazes of Non Governmental Organization (NGO) stalls. Glossy pictures depicting heart rending scenes of child exploitation, the effects of chemical contamination and the conditions Indian sanitation workers endure line every available space. There are scores of seminar tents all over and 5 food courts with not a Starbucks or Burger King in sight. There is more: two open air stages and the Media Center which manages to meet the needs of journalists and houses the film festival.
After the morning panel discussion I had planned on stopping by the panel on Kashmiri Cultural Integration. I did not make it. As I was walking by a tent where a woman on the microphone was talking about psycho-tronic weaponry, exotic energy systems and the effort to suppress these systems. It sounded right up my alley, so I sat down. I turned out she was a physicist and had personally taken Rep. Dennis Kucinich's Space Preservation Act to the next level by successfully lobbying the UN to get Electro-Magnetic Weaponry included as a category of WMD. Her name is Lynn Surgalla and she was telling the audience of 75 or so that some of the inventors of these exotic energy production units had been murdered by "the transnational crime syndicate that is currently in power" to keep the technology from getting to the market. What luck! I thought. This aspect of the death-grip that the Petro-Chemical cartel has on the global economy almost never finds a public forum. I, having collaborated in the organization of an event along very similar lines never expected to hear about it at the WSF!
I listened for a moment more and figured out I was in a seminar on sustainable energy organized by the Transnational Institute. When Ms. Surgalla sat down I wandered over, introduced myself and inquired whether she was familiar with another group which worked on very similar issues, the Disclosure Project. In fact Ms. Surgalla knew the Disclosure Project's founder, Dr. Steven Greer and knew many of the scientists who were working very hard to bring this information into the light. We exchanged contact info as she said she had a lot of articles to share. I am sure that all kinds of alliances are being made on issues just as obscure here at the WSF only perhaps in Cantonese or Hindi. The seminar ended after several thoughtful speakers and I headed for one of the many food courts to grab some lunch before heading to a forum on Corporate Crime. For less than 50 cents (20 rupees) I obtained nutrients.
The Corporate Crime forum showcased testimonies from communities victimized around the world. Dow Chemical was the common thread. In Bhopal in December of 1984 15 to 30 thousand people perished as a result of a chemical gas leak from a company called Union Carbide. While community survivors were demanding extradition of UC executives to India for trial Dow bought Union Carbide and flatly refused to take any responsibility for Union Carbide's disaster. However, Dow accepted responsibility for some of Union Carbide's pending financial obligations in the United States.
Bhopal is a perfect example of just how hard it is to hold corporations accountable for crimes they commit. The people of Bhopal have three simple demands: 1. Dow Chemical must assist in bringing Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson into court to be tried as an individual for his negligent role in the disaster and also assist with litigation against the corporate entity. 2. Dow must pay for medical care, research and monitoring of the affected population. 3. Dow must clean up the 500,000 tons of hazardous waste dumped by Union Carbide that remains on site now, 19 years later.
Dow Chemical's headquarters are located in Midland, Michigan, a community also poisoned by levels of dioxin in the Tippawassee River at 8 times the legal limit. Dioxin is one of the most lethal and durable chemicals known to man which mutates genes and bio-accumulates. The Tippawassee has been the dumping ground for Dow for nearly a century and dioxin has been found 5 feet deep in the riverbed sediment.
Dow has bought and paid for the local and state government of Michigan. In the flood plane of the Tippawassee Dow has created what is now an official hazardous waste site. Toxicity in the flood plane communities is so hight the state is telling these people not to mow their lawns without wearing a mask and when they dust because inhalation is the main method of contamination. Dioxin now permeates the people in the surrounding communities of Midland to such a degree that not even the public hand-washing facilities recently installed can wash it away.
First Dow claimed that the dioxin found in the water was not their's and pointed the finger at General Motors. When it was established through chemical fingerprinting that it was in fact Dow's dioxin they claimed dioxin was not toxic. When toxicity was proved they denied people were being exposed. When blood and urine samples proved they were they tried to change the environmental standards behind closed doors and garner attention for their own "studies" which painted a rosy picture.
The activists in Bhopal and activists in Midland have realized that their fates are intertwined. The two communities have since made common cause against Dow and together are demanding justice. Tomorrow there is a march scheduled to converge on Dow's Indian headquarters and I will be covering it.
I am very tired. After two nights sleeping under a table in an empty seminar tent I could use a shower and a hotel room. I am not likely to get my wish, although the latter might be possible at the Youth Forum that I am about to visit.
Difficult as it may be to both participate in the WSF and accurately cover it as it happens is, it's worth it. I am not on vacation right now. There are so many more people here who have worked much harder and longer to be heard at a forum like this one and I will not let their stories go unheard. Tomorrow I hope to have pictures of the Dow march after I pick up some new batteries for my digital camera.
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