Today Amnesty International released a report on the illegal dumping of toxic waste by Trafigura in 2006 in Cote d'Ivoire and called for a full inquiry into the matter. For those who haven't heard of Trafigura, it's a Dutch multinational which trades commodities and in this case had leased a ship to move waste to a legal processing facility in Amsterdam.
When the processing facility realised the waste was actually rather toxic they upped the price for taking it. Understandably wanting to pocket as much profit as possible, Trafigura decided to try elsewhere. The ship sailed from Amsterdam and made its way down the West African coast looking for a port to dump the waste but got rejected everywhere until it reached Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. Trafigura made a deal with a newly formed waste processing company and here, rather than processing the waste, it was simply dumped. Since then over 100,000 have received medical treatment for illnesses attributed to the effects of the waste and 12 people are believed to have died as a result of exposure.
In 2007 Trafigura reached an out of court settlement with the government of Cote d'Ivoire which bought it immunity from further prosecution. Since then Trafigura has also taken out injunctions to prevent press reporting of the incident and to prevent the leaking of internal documents which acknowledge the known toxicity of the waste.
Amnesty International is calling for a full inquiry into the incident, for which no individual has been punished or made to answer for their actions. More information on the case and the full report published by Amnesty today is available here: http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=20342.
Tuesday, 25 September 2012
Wednesday, 19 September 2012
New things...
I'm supposed to be having an early night as I've been burning the candles a lot at both ends lately and that's set to continue with party conference season kicking off this weekend (it's one of the busiest points in my working year you see).
But having just looked at my blog for the first time in ages and realised quite how neglectful I've been I decided to do a quick post. I'm feeling very reflective at this point in the year, having been through a very turbulent, creative, sometimes difficult but often exhilirating 9 months of 2012 so far. So I thought I'd write a quick list of all the new things I've done as a result of taking on this challenge:
1. Talked to lots of people I never knew until this year and forged some great new friendships
2. Baked a hell of a lot of cake!
3. Learnt how to add a Paypal button my website (which does feel like a massive achievement to someone as technophobic as me)
4. Started a blog
5. Discovered I actually can cycle
6. Started drinking protein - who knew it came in liquid form for people who don't resemble Arnie?
7. Worn padded cycle leggings (and invited people to poke me in intimate places, only to discover there's 5 inches of padding between me and them)
8. Taught a whole class on piping techniques (still can't quite get over my graduation to teacher)
9. Sold my own photographs (see above)
10. Found a very effective new chat up line!
Ok, so the last one is not really valid point, but it does seem to work! I feel quite chuffed reading that list back. When I decided to take on the challenge I was emerging from basically a very crappy time in my life. I can't say this year has been the easiest one ever as there have been plenty of other challenges I've had to face, but I am really really glad I decided to do this as it's given me so many new strings to my bow. So at this point in time, despite having not yet actually completed the challenge myself, I'm throwing down the gauntlet to anyone else reading to say come and have a go! You honestly won't regret it.
And with that, goodnight!
But having just looked at my blog for the first time in ages and realised quite how neglectful I've been I decided to do a quick post. I'm feeling very reflective at this point in the year, having been through a very turbulent, creative, sometimes difficult but often exhilirating 9 months of 2012 so far. So I thought I'd write a quick list of all the new things I've done as a result of taking on this challenge:
1. Talked to lots of people I never knew until this year and forged some great new friendships
2. Baked a hell of a lot of cake!
3. Learnt how to add a Paypal button my website (which does feel like a massive achievement to someone as technophobic as me)
4. Started a blog
5. Discovered I actually can cycle
6. Started drinking protein - who knew it came in liquid form for people who don't resemble Arnie?
7. Worn padded cycle leggings (and invited people to poke me in intimate places, only to discover there's 5 inches of padding between me and them)
8. Taught a whole class on piping techniques (still can't quite get over my graduation to teacher)
9. Sold my own photographs (see above)
10. Found a very effective new chat up line!
Ok, so the last one is not really valid point, but it does seem to work! I feel quite chuffed reading that list back. When I decided to take on the challenge I was emerging from basically a very crappy time in my life. I can't say this year has been the easiest one ever as there have been plenty of other challenges I've had to face, but I am really really glad I decided to do this as it's given me so many new strings to my bow. So at this point in time, despite having not yet actually completed the challenge myself, I'm throwing down the gauntlet to anyone else reading to say come and have a go! You honestly won't regret it.
And with that, goodnight!
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