Butterflying - PeacePATH Foundation - In Memory of Crizell Valencia, 6, in Phillipines
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By Kelly Hayes-Raitt | February 25th, 2008 |
“She wanted to fly so high, she could see all the people on earth,” Dina Valencia says of her daughter. Six-year-old Crizel died eight years ago today from leukemia likely caused by the toxic wastes the US left behind when it formally closed Clark Air Base.
pict1860.JPG
Crizel leaves behind a portfolio of vibrant drawings of psychedelic butterflies, floating hearts, lush flowers and dancing vegetables. Her mother thumbs through a scrapbook of Crizel’s artwork, proudly showing off her daughter’s colorful spirit.
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She also leaves behind a year of painful memories for one frantic mother and a legacy of media interviews as the face of the impact of American military presence in the Philippines.
Clark was under US military control for 88 years until the Philippine Senate voted to close all 22 American bases on August 21, 1991. As we handed Clark over to the Philippine government that November, families from the surrounding communities who had been displaced by the recent eruption of Mount Pinatubo were relocated to the base’s old “motor pool,” where military vehicles had been brought for repair…and where toxic wastes had been dumped for years. Twenty-five million gallons of petroleum, oil, lubricants and other stuff were stored here, over time releasing PCBs, TCEs, mercury, pesticides, asbestos, far in excess of what our government’s environmental standard would allow in an American community. Toxics seeped into water, saturated the soil and scattered via dust particles.
During the next 14 years, 20,000 impoverished families, displaced from the volcano disaster, would live on this toxic land, would drink from the contaminated wells, and would breathe the poisoned air.
The entire base, the size of Singapore, is likely contaminated. Two rivers flow downhill, plaguing additional generations.....
Click link for more on this heartbreaking story of mothers and loss due to military activities.
____________________________________
From TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com for Memorial Day in remembrance of little Crizill Valencia and all victims worldwide of toxic pollution, including American and other soldiers, from military actions who are an unacceptable collateral damage of waging war.
“She wanted to fly so high, she could see all the people on earth,” Dina Valencia says of her daughter. Six-year-old Crizel died eight years ago today from leukemia likely caused by the toxic wastes the US left behind when it formally closed Clark Air Base.
pict1860.JPG
Crizel leaves behind a portfolio of vibrant drawings of psychedelic butterflies, floating hearts, lush flowers and dancing vegetables. Her mother thumbs through a scrapbook of Crizel’s artwork, proudly showing off her daughter’s colorful spirit.
pict1839.JPG
She also leaves behind a year of painful memories for one frantic mother and a legacy of media interviews as the face of the impact of American military presence in the Philippines.
Clark was under US military control for 88 years until the Philippine Senate voted to close all 22 American bases on August 21, 1991. As we handed Clark over to the Philippine government that November, families from the surrounding communities who had been displaced by the recent eruption of Mount Pinatubo were relocated to the base’s old “motor pool,” where military vehicles had been brought for repair…and where toxic wastes had been dumped for years. Twenty-five million gallons of petroleum, oil, lubricants and other stuff were stored here, over time releasing PCBs, TCEs, mercury, pesticides, asbestos, far in excess of what our government’s environmental standard would allow in an American community. Toxics seeped into water, saturated the soil and scattered via dust particles.
During the next 14 years, 20,000 impoverished families, displaced from the volcano disaster, would live on this toxic land, would drink from the contaminated wells, and would breathe the poisoned air.
The entire base, the size of Singapore, is likely contaminated. Two rivers flow downhill, plaguing additional generations.....
Click link for more on this heartbreaking story of mothers and loss due to military activities.
____________________________________
From TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com for Memorial Day in remembrance of little Crizill Valencia and all victims worldwide of toxic pollution, including American and other soldiers, from military actions who are an unacceptable collateral damage of waging war.
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