12 January, 2012Berne Declaration and Greenpeace launch the Public Eye Awards, a project where the public votes for the companies with the worst corporate practices in 2011.
GLOBAL: Organized every year since 2000 in opposition to the corporate driven Davos World Economic Forum, the Public Eye project involves a number of non-governmental organizations under the umbrella of the Swiss organizations Berne Declaration and Greenpeace Switzerland, who issue a shortlist of the socially and environmentally most irresponsible companies in the world.
At the end of January 2012 the Public Eye Award "winners" will be presented their shameful awards in an international media conference in Davos, Switzerland, and the organizations who nominated them will present their cases.
This year nominations for Public Eye Award include six world corporate mastodons:
- Japanese TEPCO, nominated for its gross negligence in safety practices at its nuclear power plants;
- Brazilian VALE, notorious for its anti-union practices, was submitted for building the Belo-Monte-Dam in the middle of the Amazonas rainforest, where potentially 40,000 people will be forcefully evicted;
- US mining corporation FREEPORT McMORAN, also known for its hostile attitude to the unions, joining this list for its pollution of the environment in West Papua;.
- Korean SAMSUNG, using banned and highly-toxic substances without informing and protecting its workers, resulting in deadly cancers;.
- Swiss SYNGENTA, a global seeds and pesticides company marketing its herbicide Paraquat in the Global South despite the fact that it has been banned in Europe, and that it already resulted in thousands deaths of farmers; and
- UK global banking and financial leader BARCLAYS, whose speculation on food "futures" drives up global food prices at the expense of the poorest.
Visit the Public Eye Award website and cast your vote against corporate greed that destroys our planet.
One year ago IMF suggested you vote for Foxconn for the Public Eye Award 2011. However the internet voting dedicated the "prize" to the Finnish agrofuel concern Neste Oil selling bio-diesel Europe-wide under the shameless name "Green Diesel." The huge jump in demand for palm oil fuels rain forest destruction in Indonesia and Malaysia.