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.

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?

*

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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Top 10%: Tracy Worcester: http://addressingthetenpercent.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/top-ten-per-centers-use-your-energy-time-and-brains-like-tracy-worcester-the-country-could-be-transformed/

John Cooper has been involved in many important cases of both for the Prosecution and Defence. They include what has been described as the world’s largest fraud in the Bank of Credit and Commerce International when he successfully represented the employees.

He recently acted for surgeon David Halpin, to seek a ruling that Attorney-General Dominic Grieve had acted “unlawfully and irrationally” in failing to order an inquest into the death of Government scientist and weapons inspector, Dr David Kelly.  He told the court “public anguish” remained over the case, along with concerns the Hutton Inquiry had failed to get to the truth.

Protestors and media listened attentively barrister John Cooper, QC, who will represent them (pro bono) in court, spoke to the Occupy London camp at St Paul’s in London on November 17, 2011. Join them here.

Occupy London, part of the global movement for social and economic justice, awaits a court judgement on 11 January 2011, and say that even if this goes against them, “the struggle is far from over”.

The latest news: John Cooper introduced an adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by Timberlake Wertenbaker on steps of St Paul’s – a highlight of Occupy London’s end-of-year celebrations.

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

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.

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.

You vowed to “take the power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman on the street,” but the practice continues unabated under your regime . . .

ENDS:

Since the ‘70s, political decisions by successive governments have demonstrably benefited a wealthy elite instead of those they were elected to serve.  

Prime Minister please be true to your pre-election undertaking. 

ARCHIVED: to read the whole letter, access here.

“Waitrose believes that farmers have the right to be paid fairly and we have bucked market trends in times of crisis for the industry. For example, earlier this year, we set a rate for its British lamb above market rates, because we felt the market rate was unsustainable for the industry. 

“As British growers struggled with the shock weather last July, we pledged to support growers with damaged crops by selling hail damaged fruit. With the weather showing no signs of improving, we pledged to still take crops at a fair price, and highlight to shoppers – on packaging and in our shops – the reasons for the fruit’s less than perfect appearance.” 

Waitrose received an Attwood Group regional Fair Deal award

Left: Waitrose manager, right, dairy farmer

SNIP!

ARCHIVED: to read on, access here.

The Occupy movement and many other commentators, including Jonathon Porritt select the 1% with great wealth.

Read Jonathon Porritt’s masterly exposition, Occupying Our Minds, which opens:

“It’s stark, but dividing the world up into the 1% (the self-perpetuating elite currently laying claim to the lion’s share of the world’s wealth) and the 99% (everybody else) is certainly focussing people’s minds. . .”

and ends:

“Capitalism 1.0 has clearly failed.  Capitalism 2.0 (an equitable and genuinely sustainable variant of capitalism) could still deliver what most people want: access to a good education and good work; high-quality public services; infrastructure renewed; the environment properly looked after and recognised as the foundation for all wealth creation; and the interests of future generations factored into every decision we take in our own interests today.

“For those in the 1% who remain uncertain or even apprehensive, ask yourself what the alternative is.  It’s either that – our last, best chance of enabling capitalism to provide for the needs of all people alive today and those still to be born – or capitalism will implode.  

“Why people don’t see this as a proverbial “no-brainer” remains something of a mystery.”

On reading your letter about the huge potential of investment in Iraq on the Political Cleanup site: Iraq, to the victor, the spoils, we wish you would reconsider and urge a redirection from exploitative foreign ventures to the rebuilding of the British economy. 

Archived: access here.