Raised Voices

• watch the video

• listen to the audio

We don't have a say in how they exploit the planet, we don't have say in how it's done. And if we did I think things would happen in a very different way. But there is this attitude that basically we've got to find a way to make these corporate entities nice. Some of these people that are running these companies are probably very nice people. But it's not because they are nasty that they do these horrific things to the environment, it's because it is highly profitable. And they get subsidised by you and I to actually make that profit. It's called development. That's what the name of the game is. I think we have to be really hard to say look let's look at why this is happening and it's happening because it is a profitable enterprise for people to exploit natural resources. I think a good example of the kind of contradictions people get into is this whole debate about carbon trading. It's absurd. Imagine if you said well okay this year New York only had X number of murders and in Nairobi they had Y number of murders. So Nairobi has under-killed this year so it can sell off how many people can be killed somewhere else. I mean it's absurd. It's not a system we can accept and I think some really hard talking needs to be done about this.

• watch the video

• listen to the audio

Hi, my name's Firoze. I'm from Kenya. You asked me what I thought was the main problem with the environmental movement. There's no doubt that they've done a huge amount to bring publicity around the major crises facing humanity in terms of the destruction of the planet, the destruction of communities and so on. But the real problem is that it's presented as if this is a problem for humanity to solve. This is something that we are responsible for creating. Over and over on the radio you will hear this is what humans have done to the planet. But it's not humans who have done it to the planet in that sense. Why is it that we take the blame? Why is it that we are held responsible for decisions that are made by corporate entities? I don't decide or benefit from the profits that these companies make. I don't have say in where they exploit and extract resources. I don't have a say in how communities lives will be affected by this exploitation. So it's not a question of saying it's humanity who is causing this problem, it is in fact corporate entities who are doing it.

• watch the video

• listen to the audio

My name is Desmond Desai. I'm from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance in South Africa. We are concerned in South Africa that the major multinational corporations are continuously dumping their toxic chemicals with impunity on poor communities who are living on their fenceline.

• watch the video

• listen to the audio

I am Tayo Adesina. I am from Nigeria. I'd like to speak on the issue of corruption. People in the West have talked about corruption in Africa, especially as it pertains to African leaders. But it is quite important to note the corruption in Africa has a direct bearing with the relationship between the Westand Africa. Western companies operating in Africa have been vectors of corruption. So have banks in the West. So there is no way you can talk about corruption in Africa without dragging the West into it. The day the West stops being corrupt that is when corruption in Africa will stop. Without the West cutting the wings of their companies. Without the West cutting the wings of their banks, the proceeds of some of our vital resources in Africa will continue to be diverted to the West. And so African peoples will continue to suffer. And so I believe that Western leaders should try as much as possible to educate their people about the evils of corruption in Africa and then it will have an effect on African leadership. Once corruption stops then people in Africa will have a new beginning. Thank you.

• watch the video

• listen to the audio

Many of the politicians there mainly represent the interest of big business. For instance we found that as AIDS activists in South Africa, that the George Bush regime tends to, will provide AIDS funding to developing countries only if they use brand name drugs produced by multinationals like Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim.

• watch the video

• listen to the audio

We don't want multinational companies to operate in West Papua because they came, took our land and destroyed our environment, our way of life. Their interested not in human beings, they're interested in our resources. So that's why there's the impacts of killing, that's why they are moving people to other villages. This is the impact of rich people in the world. I would say – leave us alone. That's very good. We want to run everything, we want control. But people came and said, “do this, do this.