Top10%: Meredith Alexander, London Commissioner

In the Top 10% by selection and character, Meredith Alexander who works for the charity ActionAid, resigned from the Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 to bring attention to the “toxic legacy” of Bhopal.

She said that to endorse Dow as Olympic sponsor is ‘untenable and unacceptable’. 

Facing questioning by the redoubtable Jeremy Paxman on the TV programme Newsnight, she made her case with strength and clarity, saying “I feel I was part of a lobby which legitimised Dow’s claims that it had no responsibility for Bhopal . . . This is an iconic case. It’s one of the worst abuses of human rights in my generation and I just could not stand idly by . . . To be part of a body that publicly endorsed Dow is untenable and unacceptable.” 

Rashida Bee, president of the Bhopal Gas Women’s Workers group said: “By speaking the truth so boldly Meredith has nailed Dow Chemical’s lies that the London Olympic Committee and its Chairman Lord Coe believed and propagated till recently. We hope this will make the organisers dump Dow Chemical as a sponsor of the London Games.” 

Read about the Bhopal tragedy and see the interview here.

Open letter 5: To Bill Gates and other philanthropists

It is good for those with income surplus to their needs to help the less fortunate but, Mr Gates, please re-examine your funding strategy.

You could promote intensive organic agriculture like Kapilbhai

It is reported that in your Annual Letter you write about the plight of over 1 billion people who live in extreme poverty: “On most days, they worry about whether their family will have enough food to eat. There is irony in this, since most of them live and work on farms. The problem is that their farms, which tend to be just a couple of acres in size, don’t produce enough food for a family to live on.”

That is true, if the hapless farmers have been persuaded to acquire debt in order to buy hybrid seeds synthetic fertilisers and pesticides and buy multinational rather than locally or self-produced items. They cannot afford to satisfy the desires created by corporate advertising, which induce the poor to buy coloured, sweet-smelling soap, instead of the less glamorous product made in rural communities at very little cost.

Your Foundation invests in agribusiness, which uses agrochemicals proven to damage the health of workers and pollute ground water; UN reports and the research of Professor Jules Pretty indicate that intensive organic methods steadily raise small-holding yields.

India produces more than enough food for its people.

It needs more storage capacity – rural and urban godowns.

You could invest in basic medical care for a large number of people, rather than specific intervention for the relative few

The Foundation invests in nuclear reactors and in health projects which are said to be attracting personnel and resources away from more basic medical care – a “brain drain”, pulling away trained staff from children and those suffering from ‘common killers’. It has been reported that the focus on a few diseases has overlooked basic needs such as nutrition and transportation . . .

If an individual is suffering from starvation it may be impossible to stomach the medication meant to help them. It is alleged that many AIDS patients have so little food they vomit their free AIDS pills. For lack of the bus fare, others cannot get to clinics that offer lifesaving treatment.

The poor cannot afford corporate medicine, which often has side-effects more serious than the ailment treated, unlike traditional herbal medicine.

Mosquitos bite wherever people gather, not simply when they are in bed. So insecticide-impregnated mosquito nets make a minute – and controversial contribution. Public health with regard to malaria and other conditions would be well served by clearing areas of stagnant water and garbage in which mosquitos breed.

Help to promote adequate nourishment which enables people to resist and survive

Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) is heavily funded by the industry and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Companies such as Britannia are bidding to get into the mid-day meal scheme and other nutrition-related programmes of the government.They claim that biscuits and cookies fortified with iron and other nutrients are the only option to tackle malnutrition and hunger.

This corporate chemical ‘fix’ is no substitute for the healthy traditional Indian diet which varies from state to state but includes roti, rice, pulses, vegetables and fruit.

Investment

Finally critics allege that the foundation prefers to make grants which benefit multinational agribusiness, companies that pollute heavily and pharmaceutical companies that don’t make products needed by the developing world and the foundation continues to invest for maximum financial return in some companies which adversely affect the poor and vulnerable.

Time for change?

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POSTSCRIPT on geoengineering

From a reader who caused the writer to find a source: 

“A small group of leading climate scientists, financially supported by billionaires including Bill Gates, are lobbying governments and international bodies to back experiments into manipulating the climate on a global scale to avoid catastrophic climate change . . . 

“Solar geoengineering techniques are highly controversial: while some climate scientists believe they may prove a quick and relatively cheap way to slow global warming, others fear that when conducted in the upper atmosphere, they could irrevocably alter rainfall patterns and interfere with the earth’s climate.” 

Mr Gates, please observe the precautionary principle.

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Open letter 4: to Tony Blair, written by young Kazakhs

 

Tony Blair is a senior aide to the President of Kazakhstan: Nursultan Nazarbayev. His consultancy team has been engaged to improve the reputation and business links of the oil and gas-rich country.  News of civil unrest is summarised here. 

Fifty opposition leaders – including young politicians, youth workers and journalists – wrote an open letter published in the opposition newspaper Respublika, calling for the former British premier to resign as advisor to their president Nursultan Nazarbayev. 

Excerpts quoted in the press include:  

‘It is known that you were an adviser to the bloody dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

‘The whole world saw with its own eyes that he used weapons against civilians in his country, trying hard to suppress the riots. The bloody scenario of Libya was repeated in Kazakhstan. 

‘The leadership of Kazakhstan in peacetime opened fire and shot at unarmed citizens.  Such bloody methods are being used in our country since you became an adviser to President Nursultan Nazarbayev. 

‘You are an adviser to Kazakhstan’s leadership. Why within the last seven months were authorities deaf to the demands of oil workers? And finally, they shot at its citizens?’ 

‘We once again urge you to resign from the position of presidential adviser and to stop co-operating with the criminal regime.’ # 

To avoid further embarrassment to people in Britain, Mr Blair, please retire into a decent obscurity.

Top 10%: Sir Adrian Cadbury

“Our regime does not work in the interests of most people. We need politicians who will listen to the views and ideas of those on the ground, who are living with the situation – and then act on their findings.” 

Adrian Cadbury, a pioneer in raising awareness and stimulating debate on corporate governance, chaired the Committee on The Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance (commonly known as the Cadbury Committee) between 1991 and 1995, which published its Report and Code of Best Practice in December 1992. 

Less well-known is his work supporting many regional initiatives. One is the setting up and chairing the Aston Commission – no doubt inspired by his work with the Birmingham Settlement in Newtown . . .

The majority of Cadbury-Schweppes family shares went to a range of Cadbury charitable trusts 

When Cadbury-Schweppes was publicly quoted in 1962, the great majority of the company’s shares were held by Cadbury charitable trusts and retained after the quotation. Those trusts continue to follow the principles of their founders to the benefit of the community. 

Adrian Cadbury is making a fine contribution to the greater good – other ten-per-centers please note!

ARCHIVED: to read more about his work for democracy, devolution, localisation, access here.