Archive for category: Global Poverty

Key articles and information on global poverty.

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Guatemala City’s ‘Basurero’

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According to Vice, the “basurero”, Guatemala City’s garbage dump, is considered an official neighborhood within the city despite the humanitarian crisis it creates.

Benjamin Reeves, the author of the article, said roughly 7,000 people, including poor families, visit the site every day to look for sellable items that can potentially earn them a few extra bucks.

“Many families have been driven to the basurero by poverty brought on by the global economic crisis coupled with mismanagement on the part of the Guatemalan government,” said Reeves.

The people who live in or near the basurero are called “guajeros”. The work environment of the guajeros is often hazardous. Accidents occur frequently and the air quality makes it difficult for residents to breathe.

The most recent fire broke out in January 2014. Reeves said that the local fire department hardly put any effort in extinguishing “the inferno” that was “fueled by the chemical waste and toxic refuse” below the trash.

“Residents of the basurero complain of chronic congestion, constant headaches, and high rates of asthma and respiratory problems,” Reeves explained.

Although the basurero itself is problematic, the situation for the guajeros is not any better across the street from the mountain of trash.

The “maras”, Guatemala City’s most infamous street gangs, wield more power than NGOs within the neighborhood.

“On a good day, a guajero earns around 40 Quetzales ($5). However, the street gangs regularly extort the workers for about half of their daily earnings, often leaving them with as little as $2.50 for an entire day of back-breaking labor,” said Reeves.

Crimes such as rape, homicide, theft and child abuse are common in the basurero despite the police’s presence. Most of the time they would look the other way or hardly make any effort to maintain order and protect the residents.

While these crimes and fires continue to occur, Reeves argues that the Guatemalan media fails to report the issues related to the basurero.

Why do people live in impoverished conditions in or near Guatemala City in the first place?

According to Gretchen Kroth, a research associate at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, the extreme poverty and economic inequality affecting the city are due to a civil war, which started in 1960 and ended in 1996.

The conflict fought between the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity (URNG) and Guatemalan government in rural locations “forced the migration of many families from the highlands of Guatemala to urban centers, including the neighborhoods adjacent to the landfill,” explained Kroth in a Counterpunch article regarding the education system of the basurero.

Kroth argues that the Guatemalan government today does little to support the poorly structured educational system around the country.

“As public schools are sparsely equipped due to limited government funding a corrupt management, private schools have been established to provide educational services in their place for those who can afford the fee”, she said. But the families of the children who live in the basurero cannot afford paying $20 to $60 a month for education expenses.

As Reeves explained, the guajeros can make up to $5 on a good day. Thus, how can people living in the basurero pay for an education when the money for it does not exist?

To alleviate poverty, more needs to be done in Guatemala apart from receiving the attention of the world, such as the government taking the goal of eliminating poverty seriously and learning how to manage the economy in an honest and transparent fashion.

Each day the government refuses to aid what Reeves calls “a humanitarian crisis”, the lives of the guajeros will continue to be threatened by the conditions in the basurero.

– Juan Campos

Sources: Counterpunch, Vice
Photo: Taringa

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Architectural Award Winner Receives Acclaim for Refugee Work

Celebrated architects are mostly known for the great buildings they design in expensive, multi-million dollar projects. Thus, when the Japanese architect Shigeru Ban was honored with the Pritzker Architecture Prize, it was remarkable in that he has largely been known for his innovation in refugee shelters. The refugee work that Ban has done in his home nation of Japan has helped many displaced by the earthquake/tsunami disaster of 2011, as well as refugees in other parts of the world.

The innovation from Ban comes from his use of disposable and recyclable material. The voters of the award said of Ban, “His buildings provide shelter, community centers and spiritual places for those who have suffered tremendous loss and destruction.” In 2011 the famous Christchurch Cathedral was decimated after a New Zealand earthquake. Ban built a temporary devotional structure out of cardboard tubes for those left without their religious sanctuary, giving the community an outlet in their time of difficulty.

Ban first got involved with refugee structures in the wake of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Ban saw the conditions the refugees were living in, and he said, “I thought we could improve them.” Working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Ban designed tents using paper tent poles that gave a cheap yet efficient and easily transportable shelter for the refugees. The UNHCR made Ban a consultant after his work in Rwanda.

His work in Kobe, Japan after the 1995 earthquake foreshadowed the work he would do in this decade. Ban designed houses made of cardboard for those displaced and even built a “Paper Church community center.” Some of the structures he made in Kobe were “meant to be used for three years were used for 10.” Ban’s work in these places has not only made a lasting emotional impact, but clearly a physical impact on the landscape as well.

The work that Shigeru Ban has done is exactly the type of innovative refugee work that should be encouraged in dealing with burgeoning international crises. Resources are stretched thin when working at so many different levels at once, and innovative minds like Ban’s can help remedy that strain. The Borgen Project and advocacy groups like it encourage funding for this type of innovative relief work.

The work that Ban has done in Japan since the 2011 disaster has capped off a career of humanitarian work. Ban has built partitions for families living in gyms, making life easier in a difficult situation. He even designed a three-story refugee shelter on the grounds of a baseball stadium. Ban sees the work that he has done in his home country as a necessity that is seen too little among the best of his profession. Ban says, “I was very disappointed in our profession. Because we are mostly working for privileged people, with power and money.”

With this recent award and the $100,000 grant that comes with it, one can hope that Ban is starting a wider trend in the architectural profession.

– Eric Gustafsson

Sources: BBC, New York Times, PBS
Photo: CNN

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UNHRC to Investigate Civil War in Sri Lanka

On March 27, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted to open an investigation in Sri Lanka, based on allegations of human rights abuses and other crimes related to the civil war in Sri Lanka that ended in 2009.

In a press release, Secretary of State John Kerry said that the resolution “reaffirms the commitment of the international community to support the Government of Sri Lanka as it pursues reconciliation and respect for human rights and democratic governance.”

In 2009, Sri Lanka’s 26-year- long and extremely bloody civil war ended when Sri Lanka’s military defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Earlier in March, Sri Lanka detained two well-known human rights activists for 48 hours under their anti-terrorism laws. The government has also denied allegations of human rights abuses, brought to them by various human rights groups.

The resolution calls on the UNHRC’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct an investigation in Sri Lanka based on allegations of human rights violations on both sides. The 47 members of the council voted 23 to 12 for the resolution, with 12 members choosing to abstain.

Kerry went on to say that the HRC is “deeply concerned by recent actions against some of Sri Lanka’s citizens, including detentions and harassment of civil society activists.”

Navi Pillay, the UNHRC high commissioner, had previously wanted to investigate human rights violations in the country because he believed that the country’s authorities had not made a great deal of progress in their own investigations.

This investigation has been called “long overdue,” as two years after the war ended in 2009, the HRC passed a resolution that commended Sri Lanka’s way of bringing the war to a close.

Prior to the vote on March 27, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the HRC Ravinatha Aryasinha was not in favor of the resolution that would open a new investigation. Aryasinha said that the resolution would be a “grave threat to the sovereignty of U.N. member states” and that the resolution also went against international law.

Pakistan’s ambassador Zamir Akram also protested the resolution claiming that it based on political motives rather than about human rights. Akram also questioned whether the UNHRC had the resources to open the investigation at all.

India chose to abstain from the vote, claiming that it was concerned about going forward with an independent investigation. This decision was off-putting, as many nations expected India to support the independent investigation. In the past, India supported “tamer” resolutions regarding the war and supported previous proposal to open investigations.

The UNHRC’s investigation will focus on the bloodshed and violations that occurred at the end of the war in Sri Lanka. It was reported that approximately 40,000 civilians were killed at the end of the war, largely due to military offensives.

Additionally, the resolution calls for continuous monitoring of human rights conditions in Sri Lanka. The United States has said that it is important to improve human rights in Sri Lanka in response to the continuing abductions, torture, and extrajudicial killings that are taking place.

– Julie Guacci

Sources: The New York Times, U.S. Department of State, BBC News
Photo: The Independent

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Saudi Arabia’s Ban on Female Drivers

Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that forbids women from driving vehicles. The Interior Ministry, the head of the traffic police in Saudi Arabia, will not issue driver’s licenses to women. Although there is no formal traffic law that specifically prohibits female drivers, females will get arrested and punished by law enforcement for driving. This strict prohibition on female driving can be traced to Saudi Arabia’s cultural and religious identity.

In Saudi Arabia, a strict branch of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism establishes the laws and rules of the country. Wahhabism segregates males and females in both the private and the public spheres of life. It creates a system that forces women and girls into second-class citizenry confined to the domestic sphere. Females typically rely on the permission of their male guardians (fathers, brothers or husbands) for all activities that they participate in.

They have little independence and agency to make their own decisions and partake in events of their choosing. Professor Jaime Kucinskas at Indiana University argues, “the ideal of feminine piety is associated with home, the need for protection and subsequent seclusion. Driving symbolizes the opposite: freedom in the public sphere.”

Why is this ban on female driving significant? After all, supporters of the ban argue that banning women from driving can protect them from potential dangers on the road and from potential harassment and violence from other male drivers.

However, through this ban, Saudi women have their freedom of movement completely taken away. This ban is only one factor that contributes to the gender disparity in the country and is part of a larger system that makes Saudi Arabia one of the worst countries for women’s rights.

Prohibiting women from driving prevents them from acquiring jobs, contributing to public life and to the formal economy. It preserves women’s dependence upon males and perpetuates the Wahhabism ideal of
femininity.

There have been some small, but meaningful victories in women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. In 2011, Women2Drive started campaigning to overturn the ban by openly driving vehicles in Saudi Arabia. Women are now able to ride bicycles and motorcycles for recreation, but not as a mode of transportation. There is now female representation in the Shoura Council, an advisory body of Saudi Arabia.

Although women’s rights activists are campaigning to end the ban, their larger goal is to transform the social, religious, economic and political systems that oppress Saudi women. Saudi females are taught from a young age of their fragility and of their piousness. National laws and cultural norms prevent Saudi women from becoming empowered and having the freedom of movement and having the freedom to make their own decisions.

– Sarah Yan

Sources: Washington Post, Internations, The Atlantic
Photo: The Telegraph

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Reinvigorated Childhood, Courtesy of Shakespeare

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Struck by the catastrophic circumstances of their previous lives in Syria, children in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan spoke of bullets, bombs and death. Nawwar Bulbul wanted to change that. A prominent soap opera actor until being blacklisted by the Syrian government on account of joining in protests against the regime, Bulbul brought his love for theater with him as he fled.

The Zaatari Camp in northern Jordan has ballooned with the recent inundation of Syrian refugees fleeing over the border and, with a lofty 102,704 residents, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, currently stands as the world’s second-largest refugee camp. Basic needs such as food and water are met on a marginalized basis by various international organizations attempting to help quell the trauma of the current Syrian crisis, yet children require more than that in order to live with the hope of successful and fulfilling futures. With less than 40 percent of refugee children attending school, there is a huge deficit of arts and culture among traumatized population.

For over two months, Bulbul has worked to bring happiness to the lives of these children. Because of the impressive initiative taken by this actor-turned-director, 100 refugee children come together to rehearse Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” Translated to classical Arabic from its original Bard’s English, the play brings joy to its performers and a renewed sense of childhood innocence to those who have been stripped of such rights and privileges.

One young girl named Ammari, who came to Jordan along with five sisters and a brother, says she feels the transformation.

“I do not feel lonely any more in this place,” she told reporters. She has found something to finally entertain her and take her mind off of the victims of calamity around her.

Though some may claim that this particular Shakespeare tragedy is not suitable for children, Bulbul argues otherwise. He says he took only the roots of the story for the children’s adaptation, and focused primarily on the differences between lying and telling the truth. While Bulbul’s initiative received no support from international organizations and only minimal support from friends in the Syrian community, the past two months of play practice have shown outstanding success for the youth.

In discussions of Shakespeare’s plays, the participants showed behavioral and emotional development. The children involved learned quite a bit about controlling anger as well as the violent and destructive consequences of seeking revenge. For a group that has spent a good portion of life so far living amid death, destruction and humiliation, these are lessons some may have thought unfathomable in previous months.

Yet Shakespeare is not the only poetry in this situation. Bulbul translates from Arabic to mean bird, or oftentimes nightingale, a bird primarily known for singing in the dark. So as Nawwar Bulbul brings the song of hope and joy to the inner darkness of an overpopulated refugee camp, he does, so beautifully, live up to his name.

– Jaclyn Stutz

Sources: Ahram Online, Times of Israel, Global Arab Network
Photo: Times of Israel

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Exo Housing Units: Disaster Housing of the Future

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In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of thousands of people and families were displaced. They were sheltered in football stadiums while the Federal Emergency Management Agency worked to respond to the disaster. Families were separated, shelter was inadequate and the infamous trailers that the government delivered as temporary housing were ineffective. While Hurricane Katrina was handled particularly poorly, this kind of scenario is typical of disaster relief. A coffee cup may have changed all that.

Inspired by a Coffee Cup

Michael McDaniel, founder and CEO of Reaction Housing, was disturbed by the way that disaster relief for Hurricane Katrina was handled. He wanted to find a new, better way to house refugees after disasters, and an upside-down coffee cup gave him the idea of where to start.

The Exo Housing Unit is a simple structure consisting of two parts, an upper domed shell and a lower flooring unit. The two pieces snap together, just like a disposable coffee cup and its lid.

Stats of the Exo

At 80 square feet, Exo Housing Units sleep four adults, are climate controlled, have digital door locks and beds included and cost an astounding $5,000.

For comparison, each unit costs a quarter of the price of a traditional trailer, the likes of which were used following Hurricane Katrina and a third of the price of a modified shipping container.

Also, unlike traditional trailers, Exo’s can be used repeatedly, or recycled to make material for new units.

The Exo is strong and light with the bottom shell made up of birch and steel, and the upper composed of Tegris, a durable aircraft-grade aluminum composite material.

Altogether, each unit weighs about 400 pounds, meaning that four adults can easily set them up without any power tools in under five minutes.

Additionally, the Exo’s design makes it stackable, meaning that it can be easily transported in bulk, making more units accessible to disaster sites more quickly.

The Human Element

One of the most traumatizing consequences of a natural disaster is being separated from family and friends. The design of the Exo allows for units to be placed in any kind of configuration, even attaching in a straight line for larger families and neighborhood units.

The software included in the Exo makes them far safer than traditional disaster housing as well. Their digital locks provide protection from the outside, and the units are remotely monitored for temperature, making fire detection and prevention far more feasible.

The units are also wired for electricity, giving people the ability to keep electronics charged, keeping them in touch with family and friends outside the disaster zone.

Bringing Exo to the World

So far, Reaction Housing has raised around $1.5 million from donations and investors. This amount is enough to generate a core team and start up a manufacturing and supply chain. With prototypes already being manufactured, the next step is to raise the money for production. In fact, Reaction’s goal is to have those funds raised in a year at the latest. Demand is already coming in for Exo Housing Units, and rather than ignoring the people who need assistance now, Reaction plans to send out a number of prototypes.

The company has set up an Indiegogo campaign and has already exceeded its $50,000 goal. The campaign will remain open to donations until April 3, before the prototypes will be sent out on their test trials.

While there are still hurdles to jump, with proper funding, the Exo may be a huge part of disaster relief in the near future.

– Cameron Barney

Sources: Reaction Housing, Vimeo, Fast Company, CNN Money, Indiegogo
Photo: Gizmag

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5 Must-Reads for Young Humanitarians

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The best way to lean about humanitarian work is to participate in it. But for those who are still getting their feet wet or are unsure where they fit in, the following books are must-reads to offer inspiration and possibly get your blood burning enough to climb on board whole-heartedly.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
By Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn

Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning husband-and-wife journalists Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the book follows its authors’ belief that individual stories are more powerful for calling people to action than statistics. The book is set up in two parts, where the first half is a series of essays recounting Kristof and WuDunn’s research regarding the oppression of women in (mostly) the developing countries of the world, and the second is a call for action – complete with steps to be taken and records of what is already being done.

Humanitarian Alert: NGO Information and Its Impact on US Foreign Policy
By Abby Stoddard

Stoddard writes a convincing account of how NGOs, even those unfunded in the country of action, have the power to effect local state policy. Her book compares the negative and positive aspects of NGOs, sifting through to determine an estimation of usefulness. Humanitarian Alert promises “[a]n array of sources, from embassy telegrams to interviews with state and non-state actors, creat[ing] a compelling picture of how narratives and numbers in humanitarian crises help or hinder response.”

Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty
By Roger Thurow & Scott Kilman

Written by two former Wall Street Journal reporters, Enough asks how it can be that there are people starving when we possess the tools and technology to feed everyone. With research and personal accounts from all over the world this book will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about how people are fed in the world today.

An Imperfect Offering
By James Orbinski

The memoir of the man who has become one of the world’s foremost humanitarian doctors, the book recounts the suffering and dispassion left unchallenged in the world today and carries Orbinski’s belief in “the good we can be if we so choose.” The Observer writes, “A lesser man could have capitulated. Not so Orbinski, for whom, one feels, celebrity of any kind is far less interesting than the central question with which he struggles in this compelling book: ‘How are we to be in relation to the suffering of others?’”

In the Eyes of Others: How People in Crises Perceive Humanitarian Aid
By Caroline Abu-Sada

The misconceptions about aid held by those who benefit from it can be baffling. By divulging many of these false beliefs, Abu-Sada alerts humanitarian aid groups from all over the world to improve the way they promote themselves to those they are trying to help. The misconceptions of those in crisis and the developing world can greatly hinder the work for groups such as Doctors Without Borders and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), but In the Eyes of Others Abu-Sada explains how best to avoid common confusion and promote the true purpose of an organization in ways that will be positively received by foreign communities.

Whether any one of these listed books suggests your true calling, they each have a lot to teach us about how foreign policy and aid are received by, and influence, those they are meant to help.

-Lydia Caswell

Sources: Farming First, Amazon, The Guardian
Photo: Innovation Story

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When Art and Sports Collide for Street Children

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The second Street Child World Cup has officially kicked off as of March 28 where it first originated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

With the excitement surrounding the highly anticipated FIFA World Cup, the Street Child World Cup was set to precede FIFA.

The Street Child World Cup is an event made to focus on the plight of street children around the world while incorporating their love of soccer and arts to share their experiences with one another as well as bringing awareness to the public.

You may be asking yourself, what is a street child? The answer is as simple as the name sounds. A street child is a child forced to live a life on the streets doing whatever they can to survive with poverty more often than not being the heart of the problem.

Many street children are without homes or even families to go back to. Some have been torn away from their families during the outbreak of a war and others have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS.

There are also those children who are left to live a life on the streets as a means to provide for their family the best they can.

Warchild.org reports that the number of street children in the world is estimated to be over 100 million. To put this statistic in perspective, that is nearly one-third of the United States population.

The Street Child World Cup is more than just a soccer game where children around the world gather together. It is a global campaign to bring recognition to a marginalized youth and push for the protection of an easily overlooked group.

This 10-day event brings together teams of street children from up to 20 countries that will get the opportunity to interact with one another throughout the various workshops hosted.

In fact, rather than making the games the main focus, the campaign provides children with a creative outlet enabling them to express their plight through various workshops.

The workshops offer something for all of the participants ranging from technology based workshops, to the choir, photography, cooking, yoga, etc.

This campaign is being used to challenge the negative perceptions and treatment of street children around the world.

Street Child World Cup places the hardships that street children endure everyday at the forefront of the public consciousness by putting street children in the spotlight as media coverage and interest levels rise around the soccer games.

“Street Child World Cup is an initiative of UK registered charity Street Child United. The aim is to provide a platform for street children to be heard, to challenge negative stereotypes of street children and to promote the rights of street children.”

UNICEF reported that one billion children are deprived of at least one service essential to development and survival. Street children fall under this category all too well.

The Street Child World Cup gives the children a place to escape the dangers that have unfortunately become just another aspect of their lives.

 – Janelle Mills

Sources: Street Child World Cup (1), Street Child World Cup (2), War Child, The Borgen Project
Photo: WordPress

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Roberta Jacobson Visits Paraguay and Brazil


The Assistant Secretary of State Roberta Jacobson met in Asunción last Friday with Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes to discuss regional issues covering topics such as transnational crime, education and investment. Following the meeting, Jacobson highlighted the “common perspective” of the two administrations regarding transnational crime.

Authorities in Paraguay are concerned about Brazilian drug cartels operating in their country, which use Paraguay as a holding source after shipping in cocaine and marijuana from the Andean region.

Both countries emphasized their similar worldview on the local, regional and worldwide level. Roberta Jacobson stressed their cooperation on democracy, transparency, education and economic development.

Increasing cooperation on issues like education is important for Paraguay, where more than half of third graders cannot solve simple addition problems. Programs by the Inter-American Development Bank use comparative techniques to improve education standards.

In particular, one study compared the teaching techniques of Paraguayan teachers with techniques used in the United States. The study uncovered that most of the teachers in Paraguay made their pupils copy from the blackboard instead of actually solving math problems.

In Brazil, Jacobson visited the Minerao stadium in Belo Horizonte, where the US soccer team is set to play during the upcoming World Cup. Jacobson also discussed educational relations between Brazil and the U.S. and opened an Education USA office in Belo Horizonte. The Education USA office is intended to increase educational cooperation between the two countries by providing information about US colleges and universities to international applicants, thereby increasing international student enrolment within the U.S.

Education USA is headed by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, along with the new program “100K Strong in the Americas,” designed to increase Latin American student enrollment in the U.S. to 100,000 and American student enrollment in Latin America to 100,000 by the year 2020.

– Jeff Meyer

Sources: Merco Press, La Nacion, Shanghai Daily, Inter-American Development Bank
Photo: Guanajuato

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The Pros and Cons of Brazil’s Port Development


A port owned by a mining company in northeast Brazil is helping the local economy but polluting the region.

The Ponta da Madeira terminal was established in 1986 by Vale for the shipment of iron ore while simultaneously guaranteeing job stability for young people in Itaqui-Bacanga, an impoverished location in Brazil.

“Company trains arrive at the port, transporting minerals from Carajas, a huge mining province in the eastern Amazon region that has made vale the world leader in iron ore production,” said Global Issues. “The port also exports a large proportion of the soya grown in the centre-north of Brazil.”

However, George Pereira, the secretary of the Itaqui-Bacanga Community Association (ACIB), said Vale and other companies located around the area brought the wrong type of development into the region.

“We have more money in our pockets but no water to drink, because the rivers are polluted,” said Pereira. He believes that sanitation and education developments are more important for the community.

According to the article, ACIB was ironically created by Vale a decade ago to clean up the Itaqui-Bacanga area. However, Vale’s own creation is being awfully easy on the corporation.

On the other hand, Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) calls Vale the worst corporation in the world today.

The organization claims that the mining company is also among the largest producers of raw materials and has reported a profit of $17 billion in 2010.

But a FoEI study also found that Vale failed to help keep the environment clean.

“Despite setting out in 2008 its intention to cut its carbon dioxide emissions, Vale emitted – according to tis own figures – 20 million tons of CO2 in 2010, an increase of a third on 2007 levels (15 million tons),” said FoEI.

Moreover, FoEI also said that Vale has representatives both in the Brazilian government and the UN delegation who work hard to promote policies that “undermine global action on the climate crisis”.

Although Vale was able to create jobs for the impoverished in Itaqui-Bacanga, the company is actually causing more damage to the earth in the long run.

– Juan Campos

Sources: Global Issues, Friends of the Earth International
Photo: Panoramio