Terrorism, Corporate Crime, and Global Health Equity

I'm going to the land of no internet for a few days, but this time I've lined up a guest poster.  If all goes to plan, a new post should go up once a day or so.

I'm happy to introduce Joshua Deutsch.  He's a good friend, a former roommate and just got his Masters from the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.  You'll get to meet him in the comments, as I'm sure his writings will raise the ire of some folks.

Terrorism, Corporate Crime, and Global Health Equity
Guest Writer Joshua Deutsch

Pretend that a “terrorist” was planning to contaminate the water supply of your town. This would certainly constitute a major threat to public health. The first step might be to notify the community and the authorities of the town. But let’s say that the authorities didn’t care; they feel inclined to allow the “terrorist” to contaminate your community’s water supply. This would be an outrage. There would be no choice but to take direct action. The community must detain or kill the “terrorist” to save the water. Then it would overthrow the authorities for their complicity in this horrendous crime.

This is more or less a true story.

Since 1950 Shell oil in Nigeria has extracted $30 billion in oil from the land of the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta. Not only have the Ogoni been deprived of this wealth, but many still live without running water or electricity, and their land and water have been poisoned by open pipelines, oil spills and gas fires. In 1993, Nobel Prize Nominee Ken Saro-Wiwa started MOSOP, the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People to demand compensation. Mounting protests forced Shell to halt production, and call on the Nigerian military to suppress the dissent. Thousands of Ogoni were killed and tortured. In 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed. Through sustained protests, the Ogoni have been able to keep Shell from drilling on their land, but they have not received reparations for the permanent harm to their drinking water and ecosystem. Meanwhile, the battles rage on in other parts of Nigeria. In October 1998, Nigerian protesters seized two Shell helicopters, nine relay stations, and a drilling rig, halting 250,000 barrels of oil per day.

Is Shell’s contamination of the drinking water a form of terrorism? There are two common justifications for why this corporate crime is distinct from ordinary acts of terrorism:

First, some argue that government consent makes the corporate actions legal, and that legal actions cannot be called terrorism. But if the terrorist bribed local officials and gained permission to contaminate the water supply, then his actions would also be legal. Moreover, bribery of the political process increases the terror in the community and increases the severity of the crime. Legal and moral questions are distinct. Hitler’s genocide was legal. The Rwandan genocide was also legal. Government consent does not resolve questions of morality. And when forces beyond your control are poisoning your water, it sends sickness and terror into communities irrespective of the law.

Second, some argue that the corporate criminal is motivated by money, not by malicious intent. But if the terrorist received $10,000 every time he contaminated the water supply, would this make the action more palatable? In contrast, the strong economic incentives for corporations and governments to commit human rights abuses make them even more threatening to the health of the people. There is every indication that if left unchecked, they will continue to do it again and again. As long as they get paid, they will never stop, whereas the ordinary terrorist is much more likely to stop after only one poisoning.

Terrorism is any imposed condition that strikes fear or misery into a community in pursuit of a particular agenda. Most premature deaths in the world are preventable with just a modest allocation of resources. But rigid adherence to liberalism and the accumulation of wealth prevent prudent action to minimize the suffering of the poor. The 4 million deaths per year due to inadequate food are a form of terrorism. So are the 2 million deaths per year due to unsafe drinking water, the 2 million due to zinc, iron, and vitamin A deficiencies, and the 4 million due to AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The bottom line is that the rich and powerful, whether through their actions or their negligent inaction, pose the greatest threat to the health and well being of the majority of the world’s population. And they will not stop until the people of the world force them to. When their selfish actions and ideological agenda impose misery, suffering, pain, and despair on our people, these actions constitute terrorism. It does not matter that there is no clearly identifiable culprit. The entire world is responsible for correcting this flagrant violation of human rights, so the most capable actors are the guiltiest. We have the right to take progressively assertive action until this state of affairs is corrected.

Comments

[Joshua Deutsch]

What's up everyone, this is Joshua Deutsch. I'm a political activist, an angry white kid, and a recent graduate of the school of public health at UC Berkeley. I'm also a good friend of Scott and this is the first of four articles that I have submitted to the Angry White Kid blog. I hope that these articles stimulate discussion and debate. Feel free to Email me at [email protected] with any comments or criticisms. But preferably, post them to this site so that everyone has the opportunity to read your commentary. Peace,
Joshua Deutsch