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Healing Our World: Weekly Comment By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. We Must Care More
I would like you to know The local newspaper carried a comment by a resident of a town just outside of Seattle that is being impacted by local development. The man said, “I don’t have any control over the future of this town. But I know I am going to enjoy it while it still fits.” This attitude is becoming all too common among a population that is increasingly becoming more and more disconnected from its roots. Examples abound that suggest politicians and advertisers have been successful in creating a populace that is fearful, anxious, disillusioned and filled with people who believe they are powerless. This is actually a positive development for those who consider the economy the number one priority. Fearful, disillusioned, and powerless individuals make much better consumers than those who believe that they have a voice and who have embraced their connections to the natural world.
People on a New York City street. (Photo courtesy FreeFoto)I recently began teaching classes on ethics in business at a national university specializing in helping adults complete their undergraduate degrees. I have been shocked at the complete disregard that these people, who represent a pretty accurate cross section of mostly white, Middle America, have had all their lives for the critical importance of creating a set of ethical standards by which all progress and development must be measured. Other instructors who teach this class have mirrored my concerns.A few years ago, the Discovery Channel's “Discovery Journal” series aired an hour long program called “The Price of Profit.” It was about a Texas border town and the Mexican town on the other side of the U.S. - Mexico border. All towns along the border were, and still are, being tragically impacted by pollution caused by U.S. companies that moved just a few hundred yards south of the border to take advantage of Mexico's lack of environmental regulations. The “Price of Profit” showed that many of the people in the largely female workforce for the Kemet electronics factory in Matamoros, Mexico were gravely ill. This factory used very toxic chemicals. Birth defects were common in the workers' children and a few workers were finally speaking out, even though it meant that their jobs would be at risk. I was struck by the fact that one particularly horrifying birth defect known as anencephaly, where the baby is born virtually without a brain and the head is imbedded in the torso, was appearing with terrifying frequency, not only in the Kemet workers, but in Brownsville, Texas on the other side of the border. In the U.S. population as a whole, this defect has shown up maybe once every five to 10 years. In this tiny border town, anencephaly occurred THREE TIMES IN 36 HOURS! It is believed that toxic dumping from the unregulated industries south of the border has contaminated irrigation canals that eventually enter the Rio Grande River. Toxic chemicals like zylene were found at 52,000 times acceptable levels in these irrigation canals. Yet the way we practice science, the way we look at the world, the way we examine risks and trade-offs, and the way we perceive reality allowed the finding of "no connection" between the industrial waste and anencephaly to be reported. Something is very wrong. I have often asked myself why the entire world did not stop and take notice of those horrifying birth defects and do something about it - right then. Why wasn't every headline of every paper in the U.S. dedicated to reporting that situation and every resource put into solving the problem? It wasn't. It was just another TV program reporting just another problem. The next day there was no mention of it in the "L.A. Times" and the same talk shows appeared on TV. I showed that segment to my ethics class this week. I hadn’t seen it in a few years and I was immediately reminded of the shock and the horror of it. It was the first time I showed the piece at this university and the first time I had seen it since I became a father two and a half years ago. The graphic scenes of the horrifying birth defects caused by the toxic chemicals that the women were forced to work around struck me deeply. I became angrier and angrier. As the film ended, I turned to the class to begin our discussion, but said that we should probably take a break first. I was unprepared for the apathetic response that followed. People jumped up to get their snacks and beverages and began the usual banter that takes place during breaks. I was horrified. They were joking with one another about unrelated topics as I stood there in stunned silence.
Women factory workers from Matamoros receive training in community organizing from the Environmental Education Council for the Californias (Photo courtesy EECC)How could they not be deeply affected by images of a young boy dragging his lifeless legs across his home or hearing the mothers speak of their despair and horror at seeing their nearly headless babies that died a few hours after birth, particularly since it was caused by U.S. businesses who intentionally moved to Mexico to escape environmental and worker safety regulations?The discussion that followed was also deeply disappointing. The students, all working adults in various businesses, spoke of unionizing and of how the businesses could choose to serve the greater good instead of their current path. I was brutally honest about each and every one of their ideas and how they were unrealistic. The people working in those factories represent the most powerless people on the planet. They have no rights and without their meager salaries, their families would not survive. They would continue to die. The class had a hard time hearing that we are the ones ultimately responsible for the tragedy in Matamoros, Mexico and countless other places around the world. We demand low prices for our food, our gasoline, and the countless widgets and other items we insist we need to survive, regardless of the global cost. I ended the class with a plea. “Please, please, please, get angry about this,” I begged as I sent them home to continue the routine of their lives. Mark Small, vice president for environment, safety and health at Sony Electronics, Inc., said in a newspaper story a few years ago that electronics waste, and the subsequent toxic byproducts that people in factories are exposed to, is a small fraction of the total waste generated by the manufacturing of toys, clothing and other items made in Asia. “To be blunt,” he said, “we need those low labor rates to get value out of products, so that you can go to Wal-Mart and buy a boombox for $30.” Our indifference translates into a profound disconnection from the natural world and a loss of our roots and our home. Abusing our environment and ignoring the cries of pain of our neighbors is easy if you don’t feel a connection to the world. Shed your layers of intentional or unintentional indifference. Look below the surface of every issue in your life. Don’t wonder – find out. Don’t shy away from knowing and don’t fear the truth. Knowing the consequences of your choices can’t hurt you as much as ignoring them will. And when you see the pain of a fellow traveler on this world, stop everything in your life until you have tried to stop it. If you don’t, why bother to live at all? RESOURCES 1. Visit the Non-violence Web at: http://www.nonviolence.org/ 2. Find out who your elected representatives are and contact them. Tell them we must begin respecting the life support systems of our planet now. You can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html 3. Keep track of worldwide anti-war protests at: http://www.protest.net/iraq_action_digest_dec_3.html 4. Read about the cancers and birth defects in the children of Iraq from the radioactive material left by the U.S. after the 1991 bombing at: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/95178_du12.shtml 5. 20/20 Vision will help keep you informed of issues at: http://www.2020vision.org/ 6. Learn what to buy and what not to buy through the Boycott Action News at: http://www.coopamerica.org/boycotts/index.html 7. For international activism information, visit: http://flag.blackened.net/agony/links.html for a listing of worldwide sites. {Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of "Healing Our World, A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at: http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html and “Of This Earth, Reflections on Connections,” available at: http://ofthisearth.org. Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at: jackie@healingourworld.com and visit his website at: http://www.healingourworld.com} |
