December 2003 - VOLUME 24 - NUMBER 12
T H E L A W R E N C E S U M M E R S M
E M O R I A L A W A R D
December 2003 - VOLUME 24 - NUMBER 12
T H E L A W R E N C E S U M M E R S M
E M O R I A L A W A R D
THE LAWRENCE SUMMERS MEMORIAL AWARD*The December 2003 Lawrence Summers Memorial Award* goes to Dow Chemical. With the chemical industry under fire for failing to take appropriate measures to protect vulnerable chemical plants from terrorist attack, Dow in December conducted a "terrorist drill" at its Piscataway, New Jersey facility. As reported by the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the drill, conducted in conjunction with the Piscataway Police Department's SWAT team, commenced "peacefully with five demonstrators marching outside a gate at the River Road plant. They were protesting against Warren Anderson, who was the CEO of the Dow subsidiary Union Carbide during one of the world's worst industrial disasters in Bhopal, India, in 1984. The tragedy claimed more than 20,000 lives." In the drill, the protesters turn out to be terrorists. After they stormed the chemical plant -- which proved in the drill to be vulnerable to attack -- the SWAT team ultimately "killed" the protester terrorists. Source: Chandra M. Hayslett, "Drill at Dow Plant Prepares for Terrorism," New Jersey Star-Ledger, December 15, 2003. |
| *In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and dirty industries from industrialized to developing countries. "Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs (lesser developed countries)?" wrote Summers, who went on to serve as Treasury Secretary during the Clinton administration. "I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that. ... I've always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City." Summers later said the memo was meant to be ironic. |