After More Than 30 Years ABN-AMRO's Loans to Cluster Bomb Makers Move Me To Close My Account

ZEVENBERGEN, Netherlands -- I remember opening my bank account with ABN just before I left high school in the Netherlands in the late 1970s. I started it with about 50 Guilders, perhaps the equivalent of $20 at the time. It was a rite of passage having my own account and with our country�s largest bank no less.

You might say banks are banks, but ABN AMRO (ABN later merged with AMRO) also stood for something iconic in my life. My whole family banked there. My aunt and uncle lived in an apartment above one of its branches in Zevenbergen, my dad�s hometown. (I am standing in front of that branch in the photo). With some Dutch pride, we followed the bank�s evolution into one of the world�s largest financial conglomerates as I grew up.

Over the years, I have had no complaints about ABN-AMRO, whose acronym stands for Algemene Bank Nederland and Amsterdam Rotterdam Bank. Its services are great. Its teller machines are everywhere. They have responsive, helpful employees. I never had a problem with a statement error. Even the interest rate isn�t bad.

But while in Holland to visit my elderly mother this month, I did something I never thought I would: I walked into the branch office of my bank�s largest competitor, RABO Bank and opened a new account there with the goal of closing the one I have had so long with ABN AMRO.

Why? Well, in the one of those moments that turns your stomach, I found out a few months ago that ABN-AMRO and another Dutch financial conglomerate, ING, made loans to European defense contractors that make cluster bombs.

ABN AMRO, ING and Fortis, a Dutch-Belgian bank, were part of syndicates which lent �1.5bn to French-Dutch defense group Thales and �3bn to European defense company EADS (based in the Netherlands) in 2005, according to Netwerk Vlaanderen, a Belgian organization monitoring arms trade funding.

ABN-AMRO's loan came after it made promises in its 2003 annual report to withdraw from further loans to "clients with operations directly involved in the manufacture and marketing of clusters bombs."

Earlier this year, 46 countries, including the Netherlands, pledged to work towards a ban on cluster bombs which spread tiny bombs over a large area and have a very high civilian casualty rate (See P-I Opinion Piece).

Cluster bombs are the reason we�re in Vietnam and why we send medical equipment and supplies to Laos. I have seen too many kids with lifelong injuries from cluster bombs in these countries to ignore the fact that my lifelong bank makes their fabrication possible through loans.

I intend to write the bank to let them know why I am closing my account as I hope other account holders will do. I have no illusion that my move will change the bank's policy. But ABN AMRO has been the target of several recent takeover bids by other European banking groups, including two from the United Kingdom.

Perhaps since the problems with landmines and cluster bombs are more deeply embedded in the British conscious because of the awareness brought to the issue there by the late Princess Diana, a new British owner of ABN AMRO will be moved to change its lending policies.

But I am not going to wait around for that.

Back from Baghdad: A Conversation with Corey Flintoff

A few years ago, NPR's Corey Flintoff helped out Clear Path by doing a voice over for our informational video. You can see the video embedded in this post below. I finally had a chance to meet Corey a few weeks ago while I was in DC on business for The Orvis Company.

What a great guy! Friendly, funny and smart. I hope someday he will take me up on our invitation to join us here in Vermont.

I just came across this "Conversation with Corey Flintoff" online at http://www.poynter.org. It really conveys what a thoughtful and professional journalist he is and also some great insights into the current situation in Iraq.

NPR's Corey Flintoff spent five weeks in Iraq reporting scenes like this one. He covered the burial of Saddam Hussein, child labor among poor families, changes in Iraq's nightlife, and more.

Since then, he's returned to his post as a newscaster for All Things Considered. He visited Poynter this week to talk about his experiences covering the war.

Read the article here.

Listen to the interview here.

Check out the Clear Path International with Corey's voice over video below.

Cambodia: Happy Khmer New Year!

My favorite part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, back in February, was how my co-workers would refer to it. Always the Chinese Happy New Year. I like how they would insert the "happy" right into the middle of the phrase. I was told it would be pretty uneventful, and it was. Yes, sure, there was the odd drumming sounds at all hours of the day, the sudden emergence of dragons dancing through the streets, and of course, the firecrackers. Oh, how I disliked the firecrackers. But, for the most part, the pace of the city was uninterrupted. This is not the case with the Khmer Happy New Year. It is upon us, and anything, but uneventful.

The holiday is officially three days long, running from April 14th through the 16th and represents the end of the harvest season. Its a time for farmers to enjoy the fruits of their labor and relax before the rainy season begins. I equate it to Christmas at home. While the government holiday is only 3 days, most people take a full week, if not 2 full weeks off. Everyone returns to their province to celebrate with their family.

When we celebrated the Chinese Happy New Year, I think someone asked me every single day what I would to do celebrate. I always had the same answer. "Uh. Nothing?" I mean - I will probably do the same stuff I do on any weekend; hang out with friends, read, go shopping, ... you know - the regular stuff. Often this was met with a very saddened look. "Ooooohh, you have nowhere to go?" The statement would drip with pity. I was never sure how to respond. I didn't want my new friends to feel sad for me, personally a weekend of reading, relaxing, and socializing with friends is all I could really ask for. But, I felt that I needed to find a response which would translate that sentiment while not discrediting the importance of returning to your province to visit with family. For the Khmer Happy New Year I was more prepared. I bought a ticket to Singapore for a long relaxing weekend in the world of malls, Starbucks, and movie theatres. I felt guilty about this for a long time. I mean, is it wrong to leave during the biggest holiday of the year and not soak up the culture?


Early in the week, you could see the changes. Strange structures being erected, signs, lights, all over the city. I started to get into the spirit, and I discuss the Khmer Happy New Year with everyone. What province are you from? How far is that? When will you go home? Kandar, Srey Rieng, Pursat - everyone is excited to talk about their home, their family, and a time to relax. It started to feel like Christmas. Its traditional for people to give gifts of money to their families, especially those who live in Phnom Penh and have so much more than their relatives in the countryside. I've been getting into the spirit of it, wishing everyone good luck in the Khmer Happy New Year. And as of yesterday, I started overpaying all of my moto drivers. I mean - it is the Khmer Happy New Year after all!

As the week has progressed, I realize I made the right choice in leaving. The city is slowly grinding to a halt. I'm not actually sure what I would do here, if I did stay. As near as I can tell, no one is actually from Phnom Penh. Everyone is from the provinces and everyone is leaving. I noticed it first on Wednesday when the woman who does my laundry had the gate pulled closed. On Thursday morning I was awakened to loud Khmer music. I thought perhaps it was coming from the structure in the park across from me. The strange new structure that appeared last weekend and is still a mystery to me. I looked out the window. No, the music was actually coming from a loudspeaker mounted on a van parked directly outside of my apartment and pointed at me. Oh happy Khmer New Year. On Thursday afternoon my regular moto driver left town and a few of my favorite restaurants were already closed. Today, Friday, I got kicked out of my favorite internet cafe. This is the first time in 3 months that it actually requires a little effort to find a moto driver. At night there has been an inordinate amount of loud techno music and dancing in the streets, which has been fun - unless you live next door to the loud techno music, and then sometimes you lose the Happy Khmer New Year spirit.

So, tonight I will abandon my new city, on the eve of the biggest holiday of the year. Although - I've been told that the boat festival in November, is when everyone comes from the provinces into the city. I hope I still live here then. That one I will definitely hang around for. In the meantime, I'm going to try to find one more open coffee shop, one more moto driver for a trip to the airport, and overpay everyone in the process. And, hope for a little good luck, in the happy new year.

YouTube: Bombhunters Now Available on DVD

Great news! I just got an email from our good friend Skye Fitzgerald who produced the film BOMBHUNTERS about scavengers of live bombs in Cambodia. The film is now available in DVD. The trailer is below the letter from Skye here:

Dear all,

At long last, our film BOMBHUNTERS is available on DVD in the US. If you don't already know about our efforts with the film in raising awareness of UXO scavenging and sale then you can learn more about the project, and the issue at www.bombhunters.com.

Following our public television broadcast last year, and the film's continued run on the festival circuit, we are now ready to offer the film on DVD in the US to universities, foundations, the mine action sector and individuals. As you may know we are motivated to have the film used as both an educational tool regarding the Unexploded Ordnance scavenging issue in Cambodia, and of course the larger global problem as well.

If you are interested in purchasing a DVD copy of the film in the US, simply email Spinfilm (at) gmail.com for arrangements.

We hope your work is going spendidly and apologize in advance for the bulk email. If you know of other organizations or individuals who may be interested in the film, we would appreciate your passing this infomation along to them.

Warm regards,

-Skye Fitzgerald
--
Skye Fitzgerald, MFA
Producer, SpinFilm
www.SpinFilm.org

YouTube: Cluster Bombs, A Weapon out of Control

Short film documenting the lethal effects of the use of cluster munitions worldwide, with commentary, statistics and analysis from Human Rights Watch. Footage shows how cluster munitions have endangered civilian populations from the Vietnam era through current conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon.

CPI Packs Another Shipping Container of Medical Supplies Bound For Laos

Remember how we got a 14-box truck from Hill Moving & Storage in Poulsbo a few weeks ago? Well, I had a chance to use it for the first time this week. On Tuesday, volunteer Brent Olson and I rounded up gurneys, operating room tables, vacuum pumps, tourniquets, etc. from Seattle Surgical Repair and we stopped by Overlake Hospital in Bellevue to pick up surgical supplies. We dropped those items off at the warehouse in Georgetown and the following morning volunteer Sary Math and I loaded the truck with mattresses, casting plaster, high-end orthopedic instruments and other items for our second container to Laos.

I drove the truck up Snoqualmie Pass and down to Ellensburg on Interstate 5, then branched off on Interstate 82 to Yakima. Just beyond Yakima is a small town called Wapato where a nursing home, Emerald Care, had offered us 46 hospital beds to send to Laos. I already had gathered a bunch of other goods for the National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane, which distributes the items through a network of seven hospitals in Laos that provide orthopedic care. The new truck allowed me to bring those items over to the container that came to Wapato for the beds.

Our Veterans advisor Frank Cole and his wife Susan had orchestrated a crew to help us load the 40-foot high-cube container and the nursing home provided a forklift to heave the beds and parts in. Usually, it takes a crew of four to lift the bed frames up to the container and another crew of two or three to position them inside because donors seldom have a loading dock or a forklift. Spared our backs!

In early January, Clear Path was offered a container load for Laos through a donor to Universal Aide Society, the Canada-based nonprofit that sponsors much of our shipping and for whom we secure relief donations for its network of consignees elsewhere in the world. Through this partnership, we have shipped 65 containers to 25 countries, more than half of them to Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines).

We were introduced to the National Rehabilitation Center in Vientiane through the kind folks at COPE (Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise), a group of NGOs working together to provide services for the country's many disabled, including landmine and UXO accident survivors. We met them last year on a four-day trip to Vientiane and promised we would help them with equipment and supplies.

Our second container loaded in Wapato included a number of goods they had asked for and others that are useful in any hospital, particularly the 46 hand-operated beds. The rest of the packing list with a total value of about $120,000 included 4 cast saws to cut plaster casts after bone setting or residual limb casting; 71 boxes of casting plaster; 28 boxes of gloves; 2 vacuum pumps; 4 pneumatic tourniquets; 5 wheelchairs; 2 exam stools; 1 patient lift; 1 cordless orthopedic reciprocating saw, 1 cordless orthopedic drill; and 1 hydrotherapy foot bath.

I want to thank Brent and Sary, our volunteers in Seattle; Jared and Scott from Seattle Surgical Repair; Leigh at Group Health; Chris and Marlene at Multicare Tacoma; Johnnie at Sunrise Medical; Terry and Jerry at Emerald Care in Wapato; and the Yakima crew: Frank, Susan, Steve, Ernie, Tim and Robert. Awesome job! And, of course, the Hill family for donating our great new truck.

Vietnam sits atop 600,000 Tons of Landmines and Bombs

Souce: Vietnam Net Bridge

According to the Bomb and Mine Disposal Technology Centre (BOMICEN) at the Engineering Command, 600,000 tons of war-time bombs and explosives currently lie under the ground throughout Vietnam.

This information was released on the occasion of the International Day for Landmine Awareness and Assistance, April 4. According to BOMICEN�s report, the above amount of bombs and explosives has contaminated about 6 million ha or 21.12% of Vietnam�s land area. And from 1975, when the American war ended, to 2000, an estimated number of 42,135 died and 62,163 were injured because of these landmines.

Explosive remnants of war piled near the road in Central Vietnam