Feature story - February 6, 2006
NEW DELHI, India — Even as the experts ponder technicalities, venerable judges sit behind closed doors and examine legalities, politicians take positions (or remain clueless), the toxic Clemenceau is being tugged without let or hindrance to the hellish ship-breaking yards of Alang. And if you think Greenpeace is single-handedly going to stop this warship, you’re only partly correct.
A student in the IP college campus in New Delhi putting garbage into a bag bearing the words 'France: Your Waste Kills'. Thousands of these bags will be dumped at the French Embassy as a mark of protest against the Clemenceau
This is where you come in.
There’s a simple way of letting the French and Indian governments know that the Clemenceau is not welcome here.
Thousands of people just like you can fill protest bags with garbage, collect enough of it, and dump the lot right at the doorstep of the French embassy in Delhi’s posh and spotless diplomatic enclave.
Thousands of people just like you can sign postcards addressed to Environment Minister A. Raja, asking him to get his head screwed on straight, and do the best thing for this country, its people and its environment. In short, asking him to do his job.
Thousands of people just like you are already, even as you read this, joining the campaign. They’re filling postcards. They’re filling garbage bags. They’re building pressure. They’re doing more.
If three is a crowd, thirty thousand is a really big crowd.
On 16th January, angry with the Indian Government for failing to stop the Clemenceau, two students of the Indraprastha University came to Greenpeace. They’d heard about the postcard campaign that Greenpeace has launched in eight cities across the country and wondered if they could add their weight to it. Less than a week later, Ravi and Jiten were with us in person to deliver the postcards they’d collected.
Then, on 4th February, sufi rocker Rabbi Shergil, along with social activists Swami Agnivesh and Nafisa Ali, filled protest bags with garbage. Adding to the thousands of garbage bags already collected, they called on citizens concerned about the environment and human rights to follow suit. Every bag that piles up represents an Indian voice against the dumping of First World trash on our shores.
How many will it take? A thousand? Twenty thousand? Thirty? We’re not stopping until the Clemenceau has stopped. Together, we can (quite literally) raise a stink. One whose whiff will linger till Chirac’s visit to India later this month.
You can make a difference. And you can do it now. Call (+91) 98455-35418 to know how and where you can sign a postcard or fill a garbage bag. Alternately, email us at greenpeace.delhi@gmail.com with a message against the Clemenceau’s entry, and we’ll send you details on how you can join the campaign.