A new movie 'Mine Your Own Business' details how environmental campaigner have stopped development in parts of the world that crave development. How they have denied poor people opportunity.
The same activists have also run campaigns against foreigners who have dared develop projects in remote and environmentally sensitive parts of the world. In the case of Richard Ness they are destroying his life.
As his son Eric explains at RichardNess.org, a website dedicated to his father:
"My father, Richard Ness is currently on trial in Indonesia for a crime that never happened and is currently facing ten years in prison and a US$ 60,000 fine. He is accused of polluting the environment and causing illnesses when over 30 independent studies* have repeatedly confirmed that there is no environmental damage and most importantly medical analysis have established that there is no incidence of arsenic or mercury poisoning among the local community."
I wrote about the case a year ago in a blog piece entitled 'Did Newmont Do It?'.
Just the other day I received an email from Richard Ness:
"Jennifer,
I found your article of November 16, of last year very interesting (sorry it took me a year to find it on the web). While missing a few details which are hard to figure out in this part of the world, your write up is very close to reality. Your blog is one of the best short analysis I have seen on the subject.
With regard to your comment : "In many ways it is a pity the case is not going to trial, so all the evidence could be laid out. But then again, who gets a fair trial in Indonesia?"
For your information, the case did go to trial and the trial is still continuing after over one year in court. What you picked up on as the bases for your story was a civil charge for which Newmont basically agreed to form a foundation to fund a scientific panel to conduct independent monitoring for 10 years to prove to the world Buyat Bay was not, nor is polluted.
What has came out so far in court has been a sad story of manipulation of people and communities funded by a political party through select NGO's. Even the baby the group was using as a "poster child" was blocked from proper medical treatment so they could parade her around as a banner of pollution.
That poor baby died as a result of lack of care and treatment from a dermatitis and upper respiratory infection. After the babies death, it was found that the prescribed medications for a common illness were never administered.
What has come out from court ordered resampling of the bay was that the Waters of Buyat are cleaner then on average, the Atlantic, Pacific and English Channel.
My oldest son, Eric who lives in the USA has created a blog to keep friends and the public up to speed on the latest case developments. The site he created is at www.richardness.org. You may find it interesting reading if you have the time as it bridges the time period of your last Novembers blog until now of ongoing developments in the case.
All the best,
Richard Ness
President Director
Newmont Minahasa Raya"
I am reminded of some words from Phelim McAleer:
"Remove the collar from the man with the evangelical zeal and make him a member of an environmental organisation and suddenly we start paying serious attention to these modern day prophets of doom.
Once, according to our religious leaders, it was our sins that were leading us to damnation. Now, according to our environmental leaders, it is polluting actions of man that will lead to our damnation.
How little we have all progressed and how we still love to listen to harbingers of doom would be mildly amusing if it were not for the pernicious effects of such beliefs on the poorest people in some of the poorest countries in the world."
...and Richard Ness.
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* Including reports from the United Nations World Health Organization, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation of Australia and National Institute for Minamata Disease. The CSIRO report can be downloaded from RichardNess.org, but beware it is 16MB.
Ann,
Leave it to Greenpeace to come up with anecdotal evidence!
Greenpeace aren't humanitarians. They're content to see millions of humans die of malaria because of the mythical qualities of DDT. Greenpeace is content to see millions of children go blind rather than allow the cultivation of Golden Rice. Greenpeace is content to see malnutrition across Africa rather than to allow Africans to eat the same GM corn that Westerners consume routinely.
Floating a few doctors around in a boat doesn't make Greenpeace humanitarians. And if you want to tally up the score, environmentalists have killed more humans than Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Hitler.
Interesting that the biggest killers on the list are Marxists, but I digress.
Only Steve Munn has the time to count all the words..
Rog; that Dolomatrix ref on the www looks interesting.
But given that the Dolocrete process exists here now for sites like we had under say Orica in Sydney and more particularly arsenic trioxide in places like WA recently; what happened at Newmont or any other similar operation before Dolocrete came to the rescue?
Seems like an epoxy type fudge finally made the grade with the EPA or was it concrete?
At a glance there is not enough info posted to convince an old industrial skeptic like me.
Volumes of treatments, continuous volumes 24/7 please.
Some of that stuff mentioned on your Dolo Matrix ref has been in the too hard basket for decades. And guess what industry everywhere did with it?
Recall; I had some experience with that liquid “Santobrite” (note it has a dozen other trade names). PCP was used quite widely like organic mercury to kill slime build up and I can say hardly anyone around us thought either were particularly dangerous; and the simple reason for that? Nobody was told early on.
Squeaky clean processes don’t exist yet.
I write about glib governments too.
Steve,
If you would like to tell us something about the Indonesians also accused in the case against Newmont - please post as much in a comment or send me some stuff for a new thread.
I have written about Richard Ness here because Richard contacted me and later said it was OK to post the text from that email. Also his son has a great website.
Please desist from making racist innuendo. Its insulting including to my daughter.
10,000 plus words of mostly gibberish and still not one brown-skinned person has been given a name and a face.
Sigh.
..After applying their biased version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the most recent Lebanese War Amnesty International have proved their true intent, they are inherently anti west and pro left.
An Australian company, Dolomatrix, have a process which converts toxic mining waste into an inert form
http://www.dolomatrix.com/index.htm
Clever man is Doumbos