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is a 40% stakeholder in
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The world's biggest online trader in shark fins. |
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Surprised to learn that yet another global corporation is robbing our children of the joy of seeing pristine natural habitat? Probably not, it's been going on for decades, but a household name such as yahoo!, one that greets us smiling from our browsers every day, you might think would retain some kind of concience when it comes to preserving precious natural resources. The debate on global warming has brought to the fore the urgent necessity to preserve the natural world, and we are continually realising that we are an integral part of the natural world, and not immune to it's destruction. A collapse in the natural order would, we understand, mean a collapse in our own wellbeing. |
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Surprising then to learn that Yahoo! is a forty percent stakeholder in alibaba.com who just happens to be the largest online trader of shark fins. Many shark species are in danger of imminent collapse, due to unsustainable fishing practices, compounded by low reproductivity. The market is fuelled by growing economic wealth in Asia, where alibaba was founded and does most of its trading. Unlike e-bay, alibaba is used by wholesalers in many goods, including shark fins. |
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An innocent slip of corporate policy by Yahoo!? Unwittingly not doing proper research, accidentally ignoring the traditional users of yahoo!'s wishes that they should be supporting a company that receives financial benefit from the anhilation of a wild apex predator? Probably not when you learn that Yahoo! know fully well that alibaba.com trade in shark fins, and that alibaba's PR company is no less than Hill and Knowlton. |
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Who? You know, Hill and Knowlton, the PR company that managed many human and environmental PR disasters. |
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Still never heard of them? OK....remember the US gypsum scandal and the PR company that managed the disaster, stating that asbestos presented no danger to humans? Oh and then there was the time when they tried to control testimony of scientists during a case over a since banned cattle growth hormone. Remember the International Olympic Committee's host city bribery scandal? The damage limitation was managed by...guess who...H & K. OK now we're getting the gist of it. Tobacco? That's not a cancer causing product is it? No of course not, not according to H & K who organised the PR for that little campaign not so long ago. Remember the Chemical and Industrial disasters of Coode and Three Mile Islands? H & K do, they managed the campaigns for the guilty parties. Money laundering by BCCI, Corporate corruption giants Enron, pro abortion catholic bishops needing a little PR help? Maybe scientologist need an image polishing. Oh and lets not forget the way they managed the media campaign on the US public presuading them of the need to protect the interests of Kuwait and invade Iraq during the first gulf war. Yes that's right, without concience, but with a very large invoice, Hill and Knowlton are there to mop up the disasters and make them look like they never really happened, or that they weren't as bad as you thought they might be, just so you can sleep at night knowing the world is as cosey as you hoped it might be. How nice of them. (source http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=380#other) |
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| So, we know that alibaba trade shark fins on a large scale, we know that it has a souless PR company willing to tell lies, bend truth and even pressure key witnesses to protect its client. We know that Yahoo! directors know all of this. So how do we, the little men and women of the world do something to stop this lunacy? |
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Start by cancelling all your yahoo! mail accounts and webspaces, and go with another company, next write to your local and national press and tell them what's going on, as well as your local MP and you MEP. Also tell all of your friends about this article so that they can do the same. |
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