Venue for an Artist

Most Vulnerable

By Bunyan Bryant

The polluted air on hot fill night,
Makes for shallow breathing and chest-filled tight.
Pollution confines the elderly to heat-filled room,
Causing suffocation and life-threatening doom.

Often we can't see it, smell it, or taste it.
Hazardous waste has brought us grief,
Much to our disbelief.
How can I stand it when babies born without brain,
To this I dread and complain.
Indigenous children playing on mounds of uranium tailings,
Whose energies are zapped by cancer and health is failing.

Mothers in protest and stormy hate,
Blue babies suffocate,
From water bearing nitrate.
When baby Jim died,
Oh how we cried.
Did the death of this boy subsidize the wealth of the nation,
Even though this baby was one of God's creation.

About Me: On the School of Natural Resources and Environment faculty, Bryant is a member of the Urban Technological and Environmental Planning Program and adjunct professor with the Center of Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan. In 1973, he did post-doctoral work in Town and Country Planning at the University of Manchester in England. His current research interests include developing case studies on corporate, agency and community responses to hazardous waste sites. He was co-principal investigator of the University of Michigan 1990 Detroit Area Study on Race and Toxic Waste. For more, visit his site at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbryant/bio.html.

News You Use

Earth in the Balance

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." President Dwight Eisenhower (4-16-53)

According to published news reports, some thirty-six states in the USA face an emerging threat from a chemical used in rocket fuel and defense manufacturing which has polluted drinking water supplies. Called perchlorate, this oxidant is used in fireworks and road flares and as a rocket fuel accelerant. High amounts of this chemical can interrupt the production of thyroid hormones, which are needed for pre- and postnatal development. The chemical is found to be widespread around defense manufacturing sites and military bases.

In June 2005, a Government Accountability Project (GAP) study showed radioactive contamination from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is moving into the food chain. The U.S. Department of Energy spends $2.8 million a year monitoring radiation in water, soil, plants and animals on and around the multibillion-dollar cleanup site. According to Tom Carpenter, director of the GAP's nuclear oversight campaign, Hanford's contamination is "getting to areas where there are people."

These and other reports of environmental pollution dovetail the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). Called for in 2000 by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the five-year, landmark report concludes that humans have dramatically altered the ecosystem over the past fifty years and, in the process, compromised the ability of ecosystems to provide essential services to people around the world. According to MA, ecosystem degradation will significantly worsen over the next 50 years, undermining if not reversing efforts to end poverty. To read the complete report, visit www.maweb.org.

Bit of History

Wangari Muta Maathai

Born April 1, 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya, Wangari Maathai earned a B.S. in biology from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas, USA (1964) and a M.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, USA (1966). She studied in Germany and at the University of Nairobi, where she obtained her Ph.D. in Anatomy (1971), the first for a central or eastern African woman. In 1976, Dr. Maathai became Chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, and Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Anatomy, both firsts at the University of Nairobi for a woman.

Epitomizing the power of one to effect change, she founded the Green Belt Movement (1977), the largest tree-planting project in Africa. GBM promotes biodiversity, while creating jobs and empowering women. Carried out primarily by Kenyan women, GBM has planted millions of trees to prevent soil erosion and provide firewood. It established a Pan-African Green Belt Network (1986) and has launched successful initiatives in a number of African nations.

In 1998, Time Magazine voted Dr. Maathai "Hero of the Planet." She co-chaired the Jubilee 2000 Africa Campaign, which advocates for canceling non-repayable African debts. Over the years, she and Green Belt have received numerous awards. A Kennedy fellow, she has received honorary doctoral degrees from institutions around the world. In January 2002, Dr. Maathai accepted a position as Visiting Fellow at Yale University's Global Institute for Sustainable Forestry.

In December 2002, Dr. Maathai was elected to Kenya's parliament. President Mwai Kibaki appointed her Assistant Minister for Environment and Natural Resources (2003) in Kenya's ninth parliament. On October 8, 2004, Dr. Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Awarded the prize for standing at the "front of the fight to promote ecologically viable social, economic and cultural development in Africa," Dr. Maathai urged "rich countries in the world to consider patterns of lifestyle that can reduce pollution of the environment. To not do that is to put the burden on the poor countries, which do not consume as much, don't pollute as such but do suffer from that pollution." (Sources: www.aaregistry.com, www.womenshistory.about.com and http://gbmna.org/w.php?id=3)

Hood Notes

Toxic Waste Tsunami

The tsunami that battered northern Somalia in December 2004 is believed to have done more than kill approximately 300 people and destroy thousands of homes. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the deadly waves broke up rusting barrels and other containers housing tons of nuclear and toxic waste, creating a very serious environmental hazard in Somalia and the eastern Africa sub-region.

Toxic waste was first dumped in Somalia in the late 1980s, but sharply accelerated during the civil war after the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. Somali sources close to the trade claim dumped materials included radioactive uranium, lead, cadmium, mercury and industrial, hospital, chemical and various other toxic wastes. In 1997 and 1998, the Italian newspaper Famiglia Cristiana jointly investigated these allegations with the Italian branch of Greenpeace and published a series of articles detailing illegal dumping by Achair Partners, a Swiss firm, and Progresso, an Italian waste broker.

These revelations were confirmed when the European Green Party produced copies of contracts signed by the companies and representatives of Somali President Ali Mahdi Mohamed. These documents show the government accepted 10 million tons of toxic waste in exchange for $80 million or $8 per ton. By comparison, the cost of disposal and treatment of toxic waste material in Europe could easily exceed $1,000 per ton.

UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttal said that a UN assessment mission that recently returned from Somalia reported diseases consistent with radiation sickness. The initial UN report also found people in areas on the Indian Ocean coast suffered from far higher than normal cases of respiratory infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding, abdominal hemorrhaging and unusual skin infections. As people gradually recover from the tsunami, toxic waste poses a far greater threat to human health.

Comments from the Bat Cave

In the sweltering heat of summer, the Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is not one for conversation. He prefers chilling in air-conditioned comfort, eating his favorite foods and watching television. When bugged by his grandma for comments, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro volunteered, "Talk to Toi!" His year-old sister's vocabulary consists of "hi," "bye" and “mine.”

Funky Hood

Update 2005: No Assessment?

In 1998, The DISH asked, "What's that smell making the hood so funky?" It launched an investigation into the sources of air pollution in predominantly black South DeKalb County, Georgia and discovered environmental racism. One of the fastest growing black communities in the United States, South DeKalb has become like a magnet attracting blacks from all across the country. In addition to being one of the wealthiest black areas, where upwardly mobile blacks reside in large modern homes and drive high-priced automobiles, South DeKalb is home to most of the landfills and wastewater treatment plants serving the region.

During its investigation, The DISH learned the DeKalb County Commission planned to build a recreational facility on land around Ward Lake to serve the needs of the rapidly growing community. At the time, community activists, including Rev. O.C. White and Second Chance Community Services, Inc., opposed the plan. They contended Ward Lake had been polluted by groundwater contaminants from the country-owned Seminole Landfill. Moreover, area residents believed landfill pollution posed long term health consequences.

At a meeting held to address residents' concerns, county officials strenuously stressed that contamination from the unlined section of Phase I of the landfill flowed south to Henry County and did not pose a threat to Ward Lake or area residents. Concerned citizens refused to waiver in their objection to the county building a recreational facility on land they believed to be polluted and, therefore, posed health risks to their families.

Representatives from the Georgia Department of Human Resources (GDHR) attending that meeting promised to look into the community's health concerns. For years, Rev. White and Second Chance had been trying to obtain a comprehensive analysis of the state of health in and around Seminole Landfill. After GDHR produced a health consultation, which merely looked at methane gas, an odorless by-product of landfills, Second Chance and The DISH teamed up in early 1999 to formerly request a public health assessment, which would in theory lead to a health study. We were informed the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and GDHR would conduct such an assessment of groundwater, surface water and soil contamination at Seminole Landfill and publish a report.

In a letter dated 2/3/00, GDHR representative Jane Perry Britt stated, "The GDHR has completed the final draft of the public health assessment. The draft report has been submitted to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry for publication. After publication, there will be a public comment period." Five years later, it is GDHR's position that no public health assessment has been completed on Seminole Landfill.

For more, visit The DISH online at www.thedish.org. Click on the skunk at Funky Hood.

Politics Y2K5

Unhappy Taxpayer and Voter

Under the Georgia Open Records Law, the grassroots organization Unhappy Taxpayer and Voter Alliance requested copies of all documents held by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), EPA, EPD, the State Board of Health and the DeKalb Board of Health that refer to a health and environment study related to any landfill and/or hazardous waste site in DeKalb County. This request produced a number of documents, including one titled "Public Health Assessment/Seminole Road Landfill/DeKalb County, Georgia."

Stamped "For Internal Use Only," neither this nor any similar document was disseminated to the public for review or comments. Consequently, its raises more questions. For answers, the Unhappy Taxpayer and Voter Alliance turned to federal, state and local elected officials. In a memorandum dated June 15, 2005, the Alliance raised a number of issues from environment contamination in residential areas near public and private landfills to disparate treatment in how state and local agencies disseminate vital information to black and white communities affected, and how these agencies respond to concerns expressed by members of different communities.

For more about the Unhappy Taxpayer and Voter, including its mission and commitment to building coalitions and holding elected officials and government agencies accountable, visit the organization's web site at www.unhappytaxpayerandvoter.com. If you would like more information about the organization's memorandum to Georgia's elected officials, contact Ruby Lee Bozeman-Davis or Viola Davis at 770-256-0034 or email Unhappy Taxpayer at vdavis1119@aol.com. Copies of the memorandum and undisclosed health assessment will be made available to the public for downloading via the organization's and other web sites, including The DISH at www.thedish.org in the near future. So, stay tuned.

Disgruntled feels: Distraction! A student of the arts of manipulating public opinion and annihilating political opposition, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove learned from the master dirty trickster and saboteur Donald Segretti. Before tales of the CIA leak could gain traction in the minds of an easily distracted public, George W. Bush, no doubt coached by his brain-Rove- announced appellate court judge John Roberts, a strict constructionist, with more experience as a corporate lawyer and lobbyist than as a jurist, to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the resignation of Sandra Day O'Connor. Predictably, mainstream media pounced on the announcement, leaving behind the CIA incident. So, before we all fall for the distraction, let us not forget Plamegate is not about Rove and White House revenge against Joseph Wilson for telling the truth. It is about the lies told to justify the Iraqi war, a more serious offense.

Disgruntled says: According to US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, insurgencies like the type being waged in Iraq can last for a decade or more. The US is building permanent military bases; it is in Iraq to stay. Troops are necessary for a military occupation, yet US military recruitment is down considerably. One reason is, the death toll. While the official US military casualty count is low, less than 1800 dead, if the US is there ten years or longer, the death toll will certainly be much greater. Some war critics charge the US is keeping the death count low, just like during the Vietnam War. This may explain the prohibition against photographing the returning dead and wounded. Mothers across the US refuse to encourage their children to volunteer for the killing fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather than the sons and daughters of middle class and poor families, the chicken hawks that started this war and those who believe it is a just cause should be the first to die for Iraqi oil and profits for corporations like Haliburton.

Disgruntled wants to know: Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman captured news headlines across the country when he apologized on behalf of his party for the racist southern strategy, a divisive political tactic that fueled southern white hatred of blacks and garnered votes for Republican candidates. While generally associated with Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, clearly other Republicans and Democrats have used similar ploys to energize their base and win votes. Ronald Reagan used the term states' rights and George W. Bush uses strict construction to deliver his racist message of support for the most divisive clause in the US Constitution, i.e., the 3/5 Compromise of Article 1 Section 2. Apologies are meaningless and cheap when the practice continues unabated. Better than an apology, when will the RNC and their Democratic counterparts apologize to blacks and pay reparations for the hostile environment created by their racist policies.

Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes and Telephone Calls

E-mail gkohls@cpinternet.com Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter # 211..at www.newstarget.com/z008191.html. You may want to think twice before eating your next sandwich on white bread. Studies show that alloxan, the chemical that makes white flour look "clean" and "beautiful," destroys the beta cells of the pancreas. That's right; you may be devastating your pancreas and putting yourself at risk for diabetes, all for the sake of eating "beautiful" flour. Is it worth it?

E-mail www.canada.com A former US government packing plant veterinarian says the United States government is hiding cases of mad cow disease. Dr. Lester Friedlander has been vocal in his criticism of the United States Department of Agriculture inspection practices. During a speaking visit to Edmonton, he said production practices in the US and Canada are similar enough that the USDA should be finding more BSE cases.

Email www.turkishpress.com Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant widely used during the Vietnam War by US forces, is associated with diabetes found in American veterans. "Results from the 2002 physical examination support adult-onset diabetes as the most important health problem seen in the Air Force Health Study" among veterans examined. Agent Orange contains the highly toxic agent dioxin. The Pentagon study "suggests that as dioxin levels increase, not only are the presence and severity of adult-onset diabetes increased, but the time to onset of the disease is decreased."

Email ItsNewsT0Me@aol.com Incinerating Iraqis: The Napalm Cover-Up by Mike Whitney..The UK Independent ran an article that confirmed the US had "lied to Britain over the use of napalm in Iraq." (6-17-05) Since then, not one American newspaper or TV station has picked up the story even though the Pentagon has verified the claims. This is the extent to which the American "free press" is yoked to the center of power in Washington.

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