Chapter 12: Taking Back Your Own Back Yard

The acronym NIMBY, also known as "Not In My Back Yard," is gradually being changed to NIABY meaning Not In Anybody's Backyard; which is much more appropriate in making the effort to have a clean and healthy environment.  In NIMBY activism, people are taking an active role in shaping their futures and in running their government instead of letting it run them. Rural families, whose heath or property has been damaged by toxic sludge, are heroes for spending their own time and money while enduring personal attacks from the government and corporate PR people.  When reading this chapter in Toxic Sludge, I thought of and related it to the movie Erin Brockovich.  Her efforts were portrayed in this movie as she advocated against the harmful effects of chemicals that existed in people's backyards.  Brockovich pursued many anti-pollution cases that affected the health and wellness of children and families.  She was instrumental in the case against PG&E, which alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium(VI), in the southern California town of Hinkley.  If everyone became a "NIMBY" activist, their understanding of government would be profoundly changed and deepened.  

Chapter 11: "All the News That's Fit to Print"

The Revolving Doors section in Chapter 11 "All the News That's Fit to Print" interested me because of the truth to the statement that the media habitually fails to report on itself. Additionally, the media fails to report on the PR industry. When a TV news show airs a video news release, the PR firm that produced the segment pays for all the costs of scripting, filming, and editing.  Likewise, PR-supplied experts enable reports to produce authentic-sounding stories with a minimum of time and effort.  The public rarely notices the bias that creeps into the news with these stories. It is a problem that corporate advertisers have such power to influence news coverage, even though editors' state the contrary.  Furthermore, the idea that "business and editorial decisions in the press and media are totally separate is a myth." An interesting quote from Susan Trento appealed to me when finishing this section.  She stated, "Nothing seems to change.  Nothing seems to get done.  Nothing seems to get cleaned up... it seems that the same people are doing the same things over and over, and never getting punished--and no one seems to care.  The triangle--the media, the government, and the lobbying and PR firms--protect each other."

Chapter 10: The Torturer's Lobby

In Chapter 10: The Torturer's Lobby, a section titled "From Villain to Victim" discusses Colombia's reputation as the world's largest drug empire. The country's image suffered an additional blow in 1991 when the government stopped extradition of drug traffickers into the US and negotiated an in-country "surrender" of Pablo Escobar, the head of the notorious Medellin drug cartel.  At the time, Escobar was facing nine indictments in the US for drug trafficking and murder.  Under the terms of the surrender, he was picked up by a government helicopter and flown to a luxury jail dubbed the "Hilton prison" by US Congressman James Traficante.  Escobar's mountaintop jail came equipped with jacuzzi, air conditioning, three huge bedrooms and a guest room, walk-in closets and private baths, phone and fax machines, a soccer field, a game room, and a panoramic view of the Medellin valley.  He was also allowed to designate his own prison guards, and although police were banned from entering the "prison," well-placed bribes enabled Escobar to "escape" and "surrender" at will.   I think that entire report is absolutely ridiculous.  It gives Colombia the terrible reputation it deserves as they treated their criminals like kings.  It is as though the government disregarded all the crimes Escobar committed because they were willing to accept bribes, which is corrupt and absolutely absurd.   Furthermore, the Colombian Army's frequent collaboration with drug traffickers is despicable.  Turning a villain into a victim is a crime, and transforming the victim into a hero and leader in the war on drugs is simply ridiculous.  It seems that every country's government puts a spin on things to make themselves look favorable and right in any situation.