Swiss company Trafigura is today's Cunt of the Day.
You may remember Trafigura from last October when the company tried to get a super injunction to stop the press reporting a question in UK parliament. That little stunt backfired spectacularly, giving both Trafigura and their lawyers, Carter Ruck (perhaps one of the most evil law firms on the planet), more attention than a wannabe porn starlet getting ass-fisted on the 6 o'clock news.
We now know that Trafigura was responsible for shipping toxic waste to Côte d'Ivoire which caused, according to Wikipedia, 17 people to die, and as many as 30,000 others to become ill. In a case of cheque book justice, Trafigura shelled out over €150m in compensation, all the while denying any wrongdoing.
Ian Hislop gives an excellent summation of the story here:
Today, in another case of cheque book justice for Trafigura, a Dutch court has fined the company €1m for the criminal charge of exporting the waste to West Africa from Amsterdam. Although small recompense, this is still a tiny victory.
This tragic story is a reminder of the world that we live in; a world filled with corporations who unscrupulously put profit over ethics, a world where ignoring the health and well being of those in the third world is routine, a world where we are supposed to accept paltry fines imposed on greedy multinationals for their despicable, unethical and often lethal business practices.
Many of us would prefer to live in a world where the nameless, faceless cunts that run some of these companies could be hanged, drawn and quartered for their greed and blithe disregard of human life.
