Toxic waste mystery in Ivory Coast

Got some toxic waste? Too costly to dump in Europe? Hey, why not just dump it in Africa? Toxic waste mystery in Ivory Coast deepens – health – 15 September 2006 – New Scientist reports: Seven people are now reported dead, and 30,000 injured, by toxic waste dumped in August at 11 open tips around Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The Ivorian cabinet has resigned over the incident, and on Friday angry crowds burned the house of the port director. But some dumps are still reported to be unfenced, with children playing in them. Treatment of the victims will depend on what …

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“IMF wins new powers to police global economy”

When I saw the title to this article, which is the title of this post as well, I gaped. Why? A theme in an old, abandoned novel was the life of a WTO-UN soldier who was policing economic-development zones: a Chinese soldier, one of the many “extra” men who could not marry in Chinese due to shortages of women, who was serving in Africa. But he was literally “policing” the development of the economy in whichever country I plopped him into. I think this character needs to make another appearance, as the idea is pretty cool. But maybe it’d be …

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Disturbing

Miles Thirst is this character that Sprite seems to have invented to shore up sales among young black people and white teenagers. It’s sad when you can look at an advertising campaign and point out its motivation like that, but it’s so painfully obvious. Now, here’s the thing: it’s not just the weird, very white-suburban praise of hip-hop that seems to offensive to me — “If lovin’ hip-hop is wrong, I don’t wanna be right!” — nor the obvious patronizing that goes along with such a statement made, after all, with a big SPRITE sign in the background… ie. Is …

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