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Published on Monday, July 19, 2010 by The Asian Age
The Killing Fields of Multi-National Corporations
Pesticides, Pollution and the Economies of Genocide
The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worst industrial disaster in human history. Twenty-five thousand people died, 500,000 were injured, and the injustice done to the victims of Bhopal over the past 25 years will go down as the worst case of jurisprudence ever.
The gas leak in Bhopal in December 1984 was from the Union Carbide pesticide plant which manufactured "carabaryl" (trade name "sevin") - a pesticide used mostly in cotton plants. It was, in fact, because of the Bhopal gas tragedy and the tragedy of extremist violence in Punjab that I woke up to the fact that agriculture had become a war zone. Pesticides are war chemicals that kill - every year 220,000 people are killed by pesticides worldwide.
After research I realised that we do not need toxic pesticides that kill humans and other species which maintain the web of life. Pesticides do not control pests, they create pests by killing beneficial species. We have safer, non-violent alternatives such as neem. That is why at the time of the Bhopal disaster I started the campaign "No more Bhopals, plant a neem". The neem campaign led to challenging the biopiracy of neem in 1994 when I found that a US multinational, W.R. Grace, had patented neem for use as pesticide and fungicide and was setting up a neem oil extraction plant in Tumkur, Karnataka. We fought the biopiracy case for 11 years and were eventually successful in striking down the biopiracy patent.
Meanwhile, the old pesticide industry was mutating into the biotechnology and genetic engineering industry. While genetic engineering was promoted as an alternative to pesticides, Bt cotton was introduced to end pesticide use. But Bt cotton has failed to control the bollworm and has instead created major new pests, leading to an increase in pesticide use.
The high costs of genetically-modified (GM) seeds and pesticides are pushing farmers into debt, and indebted farmers are committing suicide. If one adds the 200,000 farmer suicides in India to the 25,000 killed in Bhopal, we are witnessing a massive corporate genocide - the killing of people for super profits. To maintain these super profits, lies are told about how, without pesticides and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), there will be no food. In fact, the conclusions of International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, undertaken by the United Nations, shows that ecologically organic agriculture produces more food and better food at lower cost than either chemical agriculture or GMOs.
The agrochemical industry and its new avatar, the biotechnology industry, do not merely distort and manipulate knowledge, science and public policy. They also manipulate the law and the justice system. The reason justice has been denied to the victims of Bhopal is because corporations want to escape liability. Freedom from liability is, in fact, the real meaning of "free trade". The tragedy of Bhopal is dual.
Interestingly, the Bhopal disaster happened precisely when corporations were seeking deregulation and freedom from liability through the instruments of "free trade", "trade liberalisation" and "globalisation", both through bilateral pressure and through the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which led to the creation of the World Trade Organisation.
Injustice for Bhopal has been used to tell corporations that they can get away with murder. This is what senior politicians communicated to Dow Chemical. This is what the US-India Commission for Environmental Cooperation forum stated on June 11, 2010, in the context of the call from across India for justice for Bhopal victims. As one newspaper commented, Bhopal is being seen as a "road block and impediment to trade... the recommendations include removing road blocks to commercial trade by (India), and adoption of a nuclear liability regime".
Denial of justice to Bhopal has been the basis of all toxic investments since Bhopal, be it Bt cotton, DuPont's nylon plant or the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill.
Just as Bhopal victims were paid a mere Rs 12,000 (approximately $250) each, the proposed Nuclear Liability Bill also seeks to put a ceiling on liability of a mere $100 million on private operations of a nuclear power plant in case of a nuclear accident. Once again, people can be killed but corporations should not have to pay.
There has also been an intense debate in India on GMOs. An attempt was made by Monsanto/Mahyco to introduce Bt brinjal in 2009. As a result of public hearings across the country, a moratorium has been put on its commercialisation. Immediately after the moratorium a bill was introduced for a Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India -the bill does not only leave the biotechnology industry free of liability, but it also has a clause which empowers the government to arrest and fine those of us who question the need and safety of GMOs.
From Bhopal to pesticides to GMOs to nuclear plants, there are two lessons we can draw. One is that corporations introduce hazardous technologies like pesticides and GMOs for profits, and profits alone. And second lesson, related to trade, is that corporations are seeking to expand markets and relocate hazardous and environmentally costly technologies to countries like India.
Corporates seek to globalise production but they do not want to globalise justice and rights. The difference in the treatment of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical in the context of Bhopal, and of BP in the context of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico shows how an apartheid is being created. The devaluation of the life of people of the Third World and ecosystems is built into the project of globalisation. Globalisation is leading to the outsourcing of pollution - hazardous substances and technologies - to the Third World. This is at the heart of globalisation - the economies of genocide.
Lawrence Summers, who was the World Bank's chief economist and is now chief economic adviser to the Obama government, in a memo dated December 12, 1991, to senior World Bank staff, wrote, "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the less developed countries?"
Since wages are low in the Third World, economic costs of pollution arising from increased illness and death are least in the poorest countries. According to Mr Summers, the logic "of relocation of pollutants in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that".
All this and Bhopal must teach us to reclaim our universal and common humanity and build an Earth Democracy in which all are equal, and corporations are not allowed to get away with crimes against people and the planet.
The gas leak in Bhopal in December 1984 was from the Union Carbide pesticide plant which manufactured "carabaryl" (trade name "sevin") - a pesticide used mostly in cotton plants. It was, in fact, because of the Bhopal gas tragedy and the tragedy of extremist violence in Punjab that I woke up to the fact that agriculture had become a war zone. Pesticides are war chemicals that kill - every year 220,000 people are killed by pesticides worldwide.
After research I realised that we do not need toxic pesticides that kill humans and other species which maintain the web of life. Pesticides do not control pests, they create pests by killing beneficial species. We have safer, non-violent alternatives such as neem. That is why at the time of the Bhopal disaster I started the campaign "No more Bhopals, plant a neem". The neem campaign led to challenging the biopiracy of neem in 1994 when I found that a US multinational, W.R. Grace, had patented neem for use as pesticide and fungicide and was setting up a neem oil extraction plant in Tumkur, Karnataka. We fought the biopiracy case for 11 years and were eventually successful in striking down the biopiracy patent.
Meanwhile, the old pesticide industry was mutating into the biotechnology and genetic engineering industry. While genetic engineering was promoted as an alternative to pesticides, Bt cotton was introduced to end pesticide use. But Bt cotton has failed to control the bollworm and has instead created major new pests, leading to an increase in pesticide use.
The high costs of genetically-modified (GM) seeds and pesticides are pushing farmers into debt, and indebted farmers are committing suicide. If one adds the 200,000 farmer suicides in India to the 25,000 killed in Bhopal, we are witnessing a massive corporate genocide - the killing of people for super profits. To maintain these super profits, lies are told about how, without pesticides and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), there will be no food. In fact, the conclusions of International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development, undertaken by the United Nations, shows that ecologically organic agriculture produces more food and better food at lower cost than either chemical agriculture or GMOs.
The agrochemical industry and its new avatar, the biotechnology industry, do not merely distort and manipulate knowledge, science and public policy. They also manipulate the law and the justice system. The reason justice has been denied to the victims of Bhopal is because corporations want to escape liability. Freedom from liability is, in fact, the real meaning of "free trade". The tragedy of Bhopal is dual.
Interestingly, the Bhopal disaster happened precisely when corporations were seeking deregulation and freedom from liability through the instruments of "free trade", "trade liberalisation" and "globalisation", both through bilateral pressure and through the Uruguay Round of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) which led to the creation of the World Trade Organisation.
Injustice for Bhopal has been used to tell corporations that they can get away with murder. This is what senior politicians communicated to Dow Chemical. This is what the US-India Commission for Environmental Cooperation forum stated on June 11, 2010, in the context of the call from across India for justice for Bhopal victims. As one newspaper commented, Bhopal is being seen as a "road block and impediment to trade... the recommendations include removing road blocks to commercial trade by (India), and adoption of a nuclear liability regime".
Denial of justice to Bhopal has been the basis of all toxic investments since Bhopal, be it Bt cotton, DuPont's nylon plant or the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill.
Just as Bhopal victims were paid a mere Rs 12,000 (approximately $250) each, the proposed Nuclear Liability Bill also seeks to put a ceiling on liability of a mere $100 million on private operations of a nuclear power plant in case of a nuclear accident. Once again, people can be killed but corporations should not have to pay.
There has also been an intense debate in India on GMOs. An attempt was made by Monsanto/Mahyco to introduce Bt brinjal in 2009. As a result of public hearings across the country, a moratorium has been put on its commercialisation. Immediately after the moratorium a bill was introduced for a Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India -the bill does not only leave the biotechnology industry free of liability, but it also has a clause which empowers the government to arrest and fine those of us who question the need and safety of GMOs.
From Bhopal to pesticides to GMOs to nuclear plants, there are two lessons we can draw. One is that corporations introduce hazardous technologies like pesticides and GMOs for profits, and profits alone. And second lesson, related to trade, is that corporations are seeking to expand markets and relocate hazardous and environmentally costly technologies to countries like India.
Corporates seek to globalise production but they do not want to globalise justice and rights. The difference in the treatment of Union Carbide and Dow Chemical in the context of Bhopal, and of BP in the context of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico shows how an apartheid is being created. The devaluation of the life of people of the Third World and ecosystems is built into the project of globalisation. Globalisation is leading to the outsourcing of pollution - hazardous substances and technologies - to the Third World. This is at the heart of globalisation - the economies of genocide.
Lawrence Summers, who was the World Bank's chief economist and is now chief economic adviser to the Obama government, in a memo dated December 12, 1991, to senior World Bank staff, wrote, "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the less developed countries?"
Since wages are low in the Third World, economic costs of pollution arising from increased illness and death are least in the poorest countries. According to Mr Summers, the logic "of relocation of pollutants in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that".
All this and Bhopal must teach us to reclaim our universal and common humanity and build an Earth Democracy in which all are equal, and corporations are not allowed to get away with crimes against people and the planet.
© 2010 Asian Age
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35 Comments so far
Show AllNow a days, every-time we do get a politician or bill in that supports our cause we see it get corrupted, stripped, suddenly being turned as pro corporate interest and against us, the people. That's the signs of the end of passive change - voting, bringing bills before congress for regulating, etc. When the people don't have that option for change, bloody revolution, becomes their only answer.
Eventually corporations will destroy the place too far where we have nothing to lose, and the revolution will come. Corporate heads - the aristocracy of today - will be on the chopping block as well as politicians. I expect it in my lifetime.
If there is no new awakening then I believe your vision of the future will come to pass.
I fully believe that most of the people are awake and see the corruption plainly and are working against it. I also fully believe they are watching their work tossed out when it hits congress - or greatly corrupted to support the corporations those were bills were trying to regulate. Look at the health care and the wall street reform bills of late, as well as this president we elected because we really want change. We did the right thing - we brought the bills forward, we elected the politicians and that president, and we were sold out to our face, to corporations.
After the great Obama sellout - did he keep any of the change he promised? - I no longer believe we can elect someone that will do our will or anything but advance the corporate agenda of raping us and our resources.
The Noam Chomsky article currently on the front of Common Dreams points out the crux - the last time Haiti had a leader to turn it around that person was lead off by the US in handcuffs. We've killed many many civil leaders in Iraq that also tried to turn that place around and create agreement between the shias and sunnis. Our government does that repeatedly in other countries to protect corporate interest - do you think we wouldn't do that in our own?
I don't think for a minute that we would have the option of supporting a candidate that isn't already a vetted corporatist. I think that person would end up being arrested as a terrorists and taken to a secret prison off US soil, IF they didn't end up in a highly questionable suicide or accident. Do you believe differently?
Where is the leader we can elect for change? Which bill shall we put before congress to stop corruption, that we can expect to not be turned on us? Which member of congress do we trust? I've been sold out way too many times to believe any of that anymore. I'm going to sit and wait while it hits everyone else. It is hitting them. They're in the state of realizing there isn't a way to fix it in the system now - we can't trust who we elect. And they realize that it's not so bad that we have to fix it. It's not. It's not killing most of us yet only a lot who can't get health care. Eventually, it will be so bad that we have to fix it.
Sometimes you really hit the mark. Other times I just don't quite get it. Such is life.
You are close, but you're not awake yet- still thinking with the logic of the Dominant Paradigm. Keep searching. The answers are in a way simpler than fixing all the problems we've been creating.
I hear you. And for the US working class, it's such an awesome responsibility we have, for it is from the monied elite here most of the world's evil originates. I don't think the rest of the world has a chance if the elite win the class war here. They have many powerful forces in their favor-the media, the deep belief by John Q. Public that he can overcome his problems with more hard work, pulling himself up by his bootstraps, patriotism, indebtedness for the working class and poor, religion, the fact that they can throw a bone to the typical american, give him a uniform or a badge or something shiny to wear on his shirt, that will get him to kill, bludgeon or taze members of his own class, for reasons that are against his own best interests, in order to feel needed by the elite. All we have are numbers- the masses. We can win by overwhelming them with numbers. How do we awake the masses?
Only the pain of seeing their precious myths destroyed by a reality that can no longer be denied will awaken them. Too late I'm afraid to stop it all, but not too late I hope to rebuild the world...
Great article. Now I predict that the pro-GM shills will show up to tell us how safe the technology is, and how their crops have done well thanks to these products.
The same companies that get to tell us what's in our cereal design chemicals that kill entire ecosystems. Agent Orange and its cousins are classic examples.
Putting the safety of staple foods in the hands of war criminals is like having a child molester babysit for your children. Odd morality, that. Always there are the long-term HUMAN and ecological costs that the rest of us are forced to contend with.
Keep in mind also that the Senate is about to confirm a new SCOTUS justice who has sided with Monsanto. She will join justice Clarence Thomas who was employed by Monsanto prior to his appointment to SCOTUS.
Kagan and Clarance could come in "handy" for Monsanto should Obama and this Congress be taken to court by the public for passing a law outlawing speaking against GMO similar to what the Indian government is getting more likely to do.
I hope the citizens in India protest against that bill being passed that would allow for arresting anyone who speaks against GMO. If those GMO companies get their way there, they'll be ready to fly straight back to Washington and see to it that the same thing is done. Gandhi once said "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and then you win". Somehow, I get a bad feeling that the multinationals more than the people are doing a better job of using that quote to their advantage.
ooooooohhhhh... too true, I'm afraid.
I guess the human race will never learn.
Yet another example of an abuse of technology for profit over the infallibility of infinitely regenerative universe. Neem oil works with nature. Pesticides create more pests.
A War on Terror creates more "terrorists".
Drilling for oil gives us the fuel to drive our economy. The fuel then chokes us and bleeds us and leads us to ruin. We use technology with more and more abandon into deeper and deeper waters, into ever more pristine lands, in pursuit of short-term profit (and long-term oblivion).
The wealthiest among us will survive longer ...for now.
Hello Brother,
Tribal life was infinitely better than what we have now, but we can never go back. The angel with the flaming sword stands at the gate. The angle's name is not technology, but the knowledge of what we are prepared to do to each other---I never would have believed it but it happened: the torture, the mass murder, the disregard of the rights of the indigenous persons, napalm, nuclear war (I dare you to say we would not stoop to all-out nuclear war).
Peace, Nietzsche.
"The wealthiest among us will survive longer....for now"
I was pondering the same thing today. It really is just a matter of time, isn't it?
A few years probably, though it could happen any day.
If you really want to know what time it is check out the Crash Course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WuQ5-t3xM
Much of the developing world has already woken up, but we won't until it's too late.
To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.
Massive forces have been set in motion, but the clock is winding down. Once we begin to see this, so much becomes clear.
... sickening slide toward world nazism!
The total take over of food (allowing the mandating of pesticides and GMOs) is included in S 510, a "food safety" bill.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/s-510-is-hissing-in-the-grass/
For some reason, Common Dreams has put out articles written by lobbyists, promoting it.
The World Bank and international bankers are behind it. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Food-Safety-Reform-and-t-by-Nicole-Johnson-100426-437.html?show=votes
Monsanto designed it. http://tiny.cc/sTQN5
Let people know if they want to protect agriculture, they need to expose "food safety" which is to farming what US "Freedom and Democracy" was to Iraq.
My country has betrayed me and, like me those who are poor, imprisoned, suffering without anyone to care about their pain.
I owe my country nothing. like the corporation who became a person, my country thinks I exist to serve it----NOT BLOODY LIKELY.
Besides, that ain't what the constitution says. It's no wonder it was written by rich white male slave owners drunk with alcohol and stoned on weed----oh yes, it was around and they used it.
They were then most likely using this stuff when they decided to "sail the ocean blue" to come to another's land to pillage and murder?
"drunk on alcohol, and stoned on weed." I've tried both many times. There is no comparison. If everyone smoked weed, I an sure this world would be a kinder place.
The really offensive part of this story is that these Multi-National Corporations are raping and pillaging the planet on the dime of "We the People." These MNC's pay little to no US income tax and therefore use our military for free. Without our gun boats off the shores of victim states the MNC's would not be able to rape and pillage. The Niger delta is a good example. No US gun boats and jets and Shell Oil is shut down. BP would not have been able to steal all that oil from Iraq without our troops and jets in Iraq. The DOD never sends any multi-national a bill for services! "We the People" pick up their tab. Who says there is no free lunch.
Things are coming to a head. We don't have the money to make the world safe for multi-national corporate raiding parties anymore. Bush let South America slip away by not enforcing the Monroe Doctrine. Chavez started the Bank of SA and muscled out western financiers. China and Russia have established ties with Chavez. Bush was too busy stealing Iraqi oil and raiding the US Treasury.
China is now a world player. China is building a deep water fleet to defend their interests in SA and Africa. Again, Bush was preoccupied with the Middle East and let Africa slip into the Chinese sphere of influence. China now sends boat loads of AK-47's to Africa and not the CIA.
Russia is no slouch either. Their new T-50 jet fighter compares to our Raptor and will sell for 1/3 the price on the world market. Kiss that arms sale revenue goodbye.
The times they are a changing. Soon the US will only have its own citizens to rape and pillage just like in Orwell's 1984.
There are many, many guns in private hands, and their owners have a sense of entitlement.
They may back down, but they may not.
Unlike overseas, the ruling class will not allow the US to become a field of bomb craters.
They already have begun to rape and pillage the us citizens. The crapagandists are getting more and more insanely Orwellian. The ruling elite are increasingly showing their inbred poisoned thinking and behavior.
Are we starting to see how all this is coming down, playing itself out like the end of any empire: blood and flames and massive corruption and degeneracy. The real question is how long do we have to prepare? A few years probably, maybe less if war, catastrophe, or disease hastens the timeframe.
If you really want to know what time it is check out the Crash Course:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0WuQ5-t3xM
Much of the developing world has already woken up, but we in the US won't until it's too late. We are the Dominant Paradigm and we sow the seeds of our own destruction.
"To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction." - Newton
Massive forces have been set in motion, but the clock is winding down. Once we begin to see this, so much becomes clear.
Shiva uses the term "Killing Fields" and it's important to note how this term is used and understood in the U.S. and the rest of the West. It's used for the one brief moment in history where a peasant based political party ruled uncontested, and forced march town dwellers into the country to work that land. Of course, that country would be Cambodia circa 1975-79.
The reason why most people in the U.S. might have some awareness of Democratic Kampuchea, the government run by the Khmer Rouge, is because the victims of violence were mostly town dwellers perceived to be supporters of U.S. Indochina policy. Not because there is some principled concern for human life in the Third World.
Ten years before the Khmer Rouge take over of Cambodia, General Suharto came to power in Indonesia on the backs of a campaign of terror that killed about 500,000 - 1,000,000 people, mostly peasant farmers and people associated with, or perceived to be associated with, the Communist Party. When that happened the reaction in the U.S. media and in Washington of totally euphoria. An historic Great Celebration of Joy. "The best news to come out of Asia in years" was the way Time Magazine put it.
Never mind what had happened to the rural society of Cambodia circa 1969-73 in the immediate lead up to the Khmer Rouge take over. That would be one of the most, if not the most, intensive campaigns of aerial bombardment in history. Up to 230,000 missions and nearly 3 millions tons of bombs dropped from the air, almost all of it aimed at the rice growing region of Cambodia. An unconscionable campaign of modern military savagery that absolutely devastated the defenseless rural society of Cambodia.
So Americans have no business adopting a high moral tone about Democratic Kampuchea, absent a formal apology and reparations to Cambodia for destroying its countryside. This is one of the many ways in which the uses of the term "Killing Fields", and the uses of Cambodia in general, reflects and reinforces the complete contempt for the lives of peasant farmers throughout the world.
Shiva is right to use the term "genocide" when discussing the agricultural policies being imposed on Third World countries where the majority of farming is done by peasant farmers. The aim of these policies is to destroy the rural societies of the countries. Force the people who have worked the land for centuries and let them fend for themselves as easily exploitable slum dwellers in the cities.
My wife is from a farming family in rural Cambodia, and the life of a Cambodian farmer is as valuable as the life of a Cambodian town dweller.
Shiva uses the term "Killing Fields" and it's important to note how this term is used and understood in the U.S. and the rest of the West. It's used for the one brief moment in history where a peasant based political party ruled uncontested, and forced march town dwellers into the country to work that land. Of course, that country would be Cambodia circa 1975-79.
The reason why most people in the U.S. might have some awareness of Democratic Kampuchea, the government run by the Khmer Rouge, is because the victims of violence were mostly town dwellers perceived to be supporters of U.S. Indochina policy. Not because there is some principled concern for human life in the Third World.
Ten years before the Khmer Rouge take over of Cambodia, General Suharto came to power in Indonesia on the backs of a campaign of terror that killed about 500,000 - 1,000,000 people, mostly peasant farmers and people associated with, or perceived to be associated with, the Communist Party. When that happened the reaction in the U.S. media and in Washington of totally euphoria. An historic Great Celebration of Joy. "The best news to come out of Asia in years" was the way Time Magazine put it.
Never mind what had happened to the rural society of Cambodia circa 1969-73 in the immediate lead up to the Khmer Rouge take over. That would be one of the most, if not the most, intensive campaigns of aerial bombardment in history. Up to 230,000 missions and nearly 3 millions tons of bombs dropped from the air, almost all of it aimed at the rice growing region of Cambodia. An unconscionable campaign of modern military savagery that absolutely devastated the defenseless rural society of Cambodia.
So Americans have no business adopting a high moral tone about Democratic Kampuchea, absent a formal apology and reparations to Cambodia for destroying its countryside. This is one of the many ways in which the uses of the term "Killing Fields", and the uses of Cambodia in general, reflects and reinforces the complete contempt for the lives of peasant farmers throughout the world.
Shiva is right to use the term "genocide" when discussing the agricultural policies being imposed on Third World countries where the majority of farming is done by peasant farmers. The aim of these policies is to destroy the rural societies of the countries. Force the people who have worked the land for centuries and let them fend for themselves as easily exploitable slum dwellers in the cities.
My wife is from a farming family in rural Cambodia, and the life of a Cambodian farmer is as valuable as the life of a Cambodian town dweller.
I haven't posted here in a few weeks ...whew....
and GLAD to read among the first today - your comments. wonderfully put -- and wisely put.
I watched Vandana Shiva in a discussion panel on DemocracyNow...with another scientist (she is a trained scientist herself) - and she is TRULY eloquent, CLEAR and EXTREMELY organized in her presentations of ideas. she spoke about global warming, the loss of habitats, livelihoods, the FALSEHOOD of the "western" dogma of "efficiency" through Capitalism, corporatism and privatization and endless "technology"..and Profit motive.
she IS one of the world's true "heroes" today - following right after the footsteps of her fellow Indian - mahatma gandhi - and in matters even MORE dire today than ever before.
Where many world "speakers" are eloquent but largely about particular matters only -- such as "politics and economics" ...
She actually puts ALL these together in one web - to speak about
human civilization - and what ails it , capitalism - AND the "mother earth".
She is one heck of a MOTHER!!!! one that Hillary Clinton would NOT WANT to be on the stage with....because just the BOOMING voice of Shiva -- would reduce Hillary to a puddle...
I kid you not.
Vandana Shiva for UN Secretary General.
Vandana Shiva is a wise and compassionate woman. The fact that she is virtually unknown in America is proof of just how uninformed we are as a people. She is my hero and always on the top of my "People you would like to meet" list. I am always greatly troubled by what she has to say, but always greatly hopeful by the way she says it.
Solid overview of a problem that occurs the world over. Mainstream media across the globe should be telling this story in their own back yards. Corporate ethics as a whole have never been that good, and now appear to be headed even further downhill. There seems to be no effective legal recourse. This could grow more and more dangerous in the future.