<html>
<body>
<font size=2>March 06, 2012 <br>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/06/the-agent-orange-games/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/03/06/the-agent-orange-games/<br><br>
</a>An Open Letter to the London Olympics Committee<br><br>
</font><h1><b>The Agent Orange Games?</b></h1><font size=2>by LEN
ALDIS<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>Lord Coe. Chair; Sir Keith Mills, Deputy Chair; HRH the Princess
Royal; Charles Allen; Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari; Sir Phillip Craven; Paul
Deighton, Chief Exe; Jonathan Edwards; Tony Hall; Andrew Hunt; Justin
King; Stephen Lovegrove; Adam Penglly; Tim Reddish; Lord Moynihan; Sir
Craig Reedie; Martin Stewart; Sir Robin Wales. Mayor of Newham; Neil
Wood.<br><br>
</i>
</dl><font size=3>In a few weeks, unless you take action, the Olympic
Stadium will have been surrounded by a wrap comprising 336 giant panels
made by a company responsible for deaths of many thousands, including
thousands of babies that died in their mother’s womb. Responsible
for the deaths of many more thousands of those that lived for just a few
months.<br><br>
That company is Dow Chemical, whose record was known to each and everyone
of you through the many court cases it has had brought against them in
the United States for disposing of tonnes of highly toxic waste into
rivers and lakes near its plants. For lawsuits brought by American
Vietnam Veterans and Vietnamese suffering from the effects of Agent
Orange.<br><br>
But let me remind each of you, the biggest crime of Dow Chemical was its
part, along with 35 other U.S. Chemical Companies, headed by Monsanto, in
manufacturing Agent Orange used with devastating effect on Southern
Vietnam for a period of TEN-YEARS, yes, TEN-YEARS. 80 million
litres of the chemical was sprayed over the forests, crops, hamlets and
the PEOPLE themselves, from August 1961 to 1971, resulting in the deaths
mentioned above.<br><br>
Through the use of Agent Orange, Dow Chemical and the others have left a
legacy that today in Vietnam affects four million. It has also
entered into the fourth generation. From my first visit in 1989 and
each year since, I have met and seen many of these tragic victims, of all
ages, from new born babies that are minus feet and sometimes hand, young
children suffering from water on the brain, and their heads four-times
the normal size where their illness is slowly crushing the brain that
ends in death.<br><br>
I have met with youngsters minus a limb, some minus two; some will
be confined to a bed or wheelchair for the rest of their lives unable to
fend for themselves. In Dong Nai I met a mother and her two
daughters both unable to move or speak but just lay on their bed, the
mother looks after them and their needs and has done so for 42 years, the
age of her eldest daughter, the other daughter is 36 years. I could
describe more of the people I have met over the past 22 years. But
what angers me more is when I see children affected that were born after
the spraying stopped in 1971 and long after the ward ended in
1975.<br><br>
This is what Dow Chemicals has done to the people of Vietnam, and each of
you have seemed fit to support the appointment of the company to be a
sponsor of the Games that opens in London on 27th July despite the many
objections made by people from a number of countries<b>.<br><br>
</b><i>Shame on you all.<br><br>
</i>LEN ALDIS is secretary of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship
Society.<br><br>
<br><br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>