01 PM | 16 Nov

#BHP Billiton #mining #disaster wipes out Mariana in Brazil #sosriodoce [#geekgirl]

Posted by Leonel Zozoiaça on Sunday, November 15, 2015

Samarco is the mining company that built and operated the mine. It is a joint venture, owned by BHP Billiton, and the Brazilian iron ore giant Vale SA.

When the dam burst , it almost wiped out the town of Bento Rodrigues.

So far nine people have died and 19 are still missing.

Brazil’s #environmental regulator fined Samrco almost $100 million. It is not nothing, but it is a fraction of the damage this disaster has caused.

The full cost may not be apparent for years but estimates of a billion dollars do not seem exaggerated.

And that multi-million dollar fine will not be the end of the matter.

Source: ABC

 

06 PM | 04 Aug

No Morals Morrison Attacks the UN Refugee Convention [#geekgirl] [#wtf]

[Image Credit: SBS]

[Image Credit: SBS]

[From this SBS article] “Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has launched an attack on the UN Refugee Convention, saying it was being used to defend “death voyages”… Lawyers for…157 asylum seekers say the group were told they would be forced to go to India in three orange lifeboats, which they would be taught to use.

Human Rights Law Centre Executive Director Hugh de Kretser told media on Monday that the group were “absolutely terrified” over the incident, which reportedly happened around mid-June.

“Australian government officers on board the customs vessel told the group they would be forced to go to India in three orange lifeboats dropped in the ocean somewhere off the coast of India,” he said.

Mr de Kretser said he had been told that nine adults and two children were taken away from the rest of the group on July 14, when they were shown the lifeboats and told they would be put in them.

He said all instructions were given in English, which none of the asylum seekers are fluent in. Only a handful speak poor English.

“Whatever your personal views are on politics and refugee policy, this move was an affront to human decency,” he said.

Mr de Kretser also said the group were only allowed to change their clothes 11 days after being brought onto the Customs vessel, where they were kept in three windowless rooms 22 hours a day.”