I welcome the letter to the editor that James shared and also the comment by Loy Rego.
I writing from Tanzania, where workers on building sites and in mines are frequently killed. In Tanzania the development paradigm has gradually shifted from the founding president, Julius Nyerere's, notion of 'socialism and self reliance' to a full-on scramble for overseas direct investment (ODI), preferably in the form of mega projects -- massive infrastructure. Leaving aside the question of kickbacks and corruption whose percolation through the whole society is in itself a social disaster and also the question of who benefits from this infrastructure (largely built to support ODI in mining and energy extraction and by US agri-business that will benefit from land grabs, displace and proletarianize the small farmers), there is question of RISK to workers of mega projects. Tanzania's newly formed re-insurance company, TAN-RE, states that mega projects bring mega risks and new risks. It is concerned with the completion 'on time and on budget' of these ports, gas pipelines, rail lines, etc. What, however, of the risk to the workers themselves? To the people in the surrounding peri-urban and rural zones? To the environment? To future generations?
Those are questions none of the big shots who jet around from G8 to Singapore to Beijing to sign these deals are inclined to ask.
Alas, to add insult to injury, President Obama is in the thick of all this, pushing the interests of US agribusiness and, in fact, coming to Tanzania next week to bless the wholesale expropriation of millions of small farmers in a great swath of the richest land in Tanzania, the so-called Southern Corridor, that runs from Lake Tanganyika across the Southern Highlands and rich valley of the Ruaha River to the Indian Ocean Coast. From drones to Guantanamo to land grabs, it is hard to continue to support, as I have done twice, a president who speaks well of common humanity, but whose deeds perpetuate the status quo. Famous for its proverbs, Swahili says, 'Mwungwana ni kitendo' (meaning, 'A gentleman is judged by his actions'.
The same lack of attention to the interest of the common people can be seen in the collapse of bridges, explosions of natural gas pipelines, recent explosion of the fertilizer plant in Texas and absurd, tragic and quasi-criminal neglect to add safe rooms to the two schools that were demolished by tornadoes just a few weeks ago.
As previous RADIX'ers have written, this is not a 'developing country' issue alone.
The issue of worker safety and, more generally, what are usually called 'technological hazards' really MUST be part of HFA2.
Regards,
BEN
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