How greedy and irresponsible can you be?
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This makes me angry beyond words.Global Sludge Ends in Tragedy for Ivory Coast[/b]Recently a Greek-owned tanker, who wanted to avoid paying heavy fees for properly disposing a toxic mix of chemicals in Europe, decided to dump its waste near the shore of the Ivory Coast. With healthcare in a fragile state and many living in abject poverty, the effects have been devastating. *taken from a href="http://www.dorkmag.com/http://www.dorkmag.com/br />
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Sept. 28 ??? It was his infant son???s cries, gasping and insistent, that first woke Salif Oudrawogol one night last month. The smell hit him moments later, wafting into the family???s hut, a noxious m??lange reminiscent of rotten eggs, garlic and petroleum.Mr. Oudrawogol went outside to investigate. Beside the family???s compound, near his manioc and corn fields, he saw a stinking slick of black sludge.???The smell was so bad we were afraid,??? Mr. Oudrawogol said. ???It burned our noses and eyes.???Over the next few days, the skin of his 6-month-old son, Salam, bloomed with blisters, which burst into weeping sores all over his body. The whole family suffered headaches, nosebleeds and stomach aches.How that slick, a highly toxic cocktail of petrochemical waste and caustic soda, ended up in Mr. Oudrawogol???s backyard in a suburb north of Abidjan is a dark tale of globalization. It came from a Greek-owned tanker flying a Panamanian flag and leased by the London branch of a Swiss trading corporation whose fiscal headquarters are in the Netherlands. Safe disposal in Europe would have cost about $300,000, or perhaps twice that, counting the cost of delays. But because of decisions and actions made not only here but also in Europe, it was dumped on the doorstep of some of the world???s poorest people.So far eight people have died, dozens have been hospitalized and 85,000 have sought medical attention, paralyzing the fragile health care system in a country divided and impoverished by civil war, and the crisis has forced a government shakeup.???In 30 years of doing this kind of work I have never seen anything like this,??? said Jean-Loup Qu??ru, an engineer with a French cleanup company brought in by the Ivorian government to remove the waste. ???This kind of industrial waste, dumped in this urban setting, in the middle of the city, never.??? read the entire NYT article
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast, Sept. 28 ??? It was his infant son???s cries, gasping and insistent, that first woke Salif Oudrawogol one night last month. The smell hit him moments later, wafting into the family???s hut, a noxious m??lange reminiscent of rotten eggs, garlic and petroleum.Mr. Oudrawogol went outside to investigate. Beside the family???s compound, near his manioc and corn fields, he saw a stinking slick of black sludge.???The smell was so bad we were afraid,??? Mr. Oudrawogol said. ???It burned our noses and eyes.???Over the next few days, the skin of his 6-month-old son, Salam, bloomed with blisters, which burst into weeping sores all over his body. The whole family suffered headaches, nosebleeds and stomach aches.How that slick, a highly toxic cocktail of petrochemical waste and caustic soda, ended up in Mr. Oudrawogol???s backyard in a suburb north of Abidjan is a dark tale of globalization. It came from a Greek-owned tanker flying a Panamanian flag and leased by the London branch of a Swiss trading corporation whose fiscal headquarters are in the Netherlands. Safe disposal in Europe would have cost about $300,000, or perhaps twice that, counting the cost of delays. But because of decisions and actions made not only here but also in Europe, it was dumped on the doorstep of some of the world???s poorest people.So far eight people have died, dozens have been hospitalized and 85,000 have sought medical attention, paralyzing the fragile health care system in a country divided and impoverished by civil war, and the crisis has forced a government shakeup.???In 30 years of doing this kind of work I have never seen anything like this,??? said Jean-Loup Qu??ru, an engineer with a French cleanup company brought in by the Ivorian government to remove the waste. ???This kind of industrial waste, dumped in this urban setting, in the middle of the city, never.??? read the entire NYT article
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