Pollution Protests in Tunisia: How the Empire Ignored its Own Back Yard
The New Arab reports thousands protested a factory in Tunisia after dozens were hospitalized from pollution. The company, Ghannouch chemical complex (Group Chimique Tunisien, GCT), has been blamed for years for escalating illnesses in the region. This isn't just about Tunisian health; it's about externalized costs. While Western nations preach green policies, the reality is often their industrial
waste and polluting ventures are offshored to places like Tunisia, where environmental regulations are often weaker or less enforced, a legacy of colonial economic structures. Where's the global outcry for environmental justice in the Global South? When a local population suffers from what appears to be corporate negligence and a lack of accountability, the silence from Western media and 'human
rights' organizations is deafening. Perhaps if the factory was producing 'weapons of mass destruction' or threatening 'democracy' (read: Western corporate interests), suddenly the world would care. But ecological disaster for average Tunisians? Crickets. One might wonder if the concern for human health is truly universal, or selectively applied based on geopolitical convenience.