What the hell is this? http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-...inuing-asbestos-exports/3653384?section=world "A Canadian health expert has described his government as a "purveyor of death" for continuing to export asbestos to India." I was shocked, it is really not something I would have expected from Canada. The damage that this is going to do to the Indian population in the next 50 years as this stuff starts breaking down... it's very disturbing, to say the least. Not to mention the thousands of workers who are exposed. This is just so unethical... it's ridiculous.
Many examples of this kind of stuff. Here, from a documentary I watched a few years ago, it was amazing. The beach is a dangerous polluted wasteland where entire ships are run ashore to die and be scraped. Workers have less safety or rights then the early 20th century in the west. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/alang-the-place-where-ships-go-to-die-1779656.html Amazing documentary if you can find it.
India is a sovereign country. And the people there are smart enough to understand the risks associated with these products. India also has a very large population, living in a very small country with minimal resources. They need cheap, effective building materials, so they don't lose tens of thousands of people every time there is a flood or an earthquake. If we don't sell them this stuff, they'll buy it from someone else. Or they'll go back to living in mud huts and dying by the thousands of cholera every time there is a lot of rain. And since we're on the topic of knowing what's best for others, wouldn't it make more sense for us to simply exercise our right not to buy goods from countries that don't live up to our standards of human rights? I'm talking about china of course, where tens of millions of people work long hours in poor working conditions. You think the kids who glue your shoes together don't die of cancer from working around solvents all day?
I saw that documentary. An entire huge russian ship was rapidly deconstructed by a swarm of poor Bangladeshis without shoes or shirts. Nothing was wasted. Most of the people in Bangladesh live in desperate poverty, in large part due to the fact that they are muslims and have high fertility rates, overpopulating their small country.