TIME OUT: Free the Geeks! Release E-Stewards Rules!

In reviewing Parts 2 and 3 of the essay "Environmental Malpractice", I'm a bit stumped... because I don't know what the "Practice" E-Stewards requires actually IS.

E-Stewards markets itself as being superior to R2.  But R2, the Responsible Recycling standard developed by environmental organizations and EPA, is PUBLIC.  They have their document up for 2013 compliance changes, and are soliciting comments this month.

There is no similar public comment period for the E-Stewards Standards, and in fact you have to pay them money to see the rules, and agree not to republish them.   "Licensing" the path to goodness, it's a remarkable cause.  It's kinda now, kinda wow, kinda 1400 AD.  Just which "Madonna" are we talking about?

If there is a way to heaven, and you demand donations to tell the secrets that will free me from hell, just how noble is your cause?

FREE THE GEEKS!!!!!!!!!!

UPDATE:  Following this publication, we received news that Joseph Benson settled his case, after 3 years defending himself in court, for 11,000 British pounds.  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/owners-and-employees-of-a-string-of-waste-disposal-companies-fined-over-200000-for-exporting-dumped-electronics-to-the-developing-world-8386688.html

It would help a whole lot if BAN and E-Stewards released a public document showing how their "superior" audit works.   Part of defining Malpractice is being transparent about the practice.   Western medicine learned that a long, long time ago.  If this is really about environmental health and environmental justice, I call on BAN to release their rules and stop with the innuendo.  They already refused to release their sources of the "data" that 80% of electronics sold to Africa were obsolete or burned as "e-waste", and Joseph Benson of Nigeria was profiled and arrested based on it.

The "E-waste Hoax" article in AllVoices wasn't the best written, but NGO's silence about it is deafening.   Mr. Puckett still actually shows articles about the arrest of Joseph Benson (2009) in his powerpoints today.  That's incredibly insensitive.  The UNEP study is the most exhaustive, and it found 85% of imports were reused, and 85% of the disposal filmed at dumps was generated within Africa.  That's amazingly similar to the ASU study finding 87% reuse, my Monkeys Zoo analysis backing out 85% (before the others were published, based on costs analysis), and even BAN's own stupor-vised study in Kenya in 2006, which for all the "ghoulish" lingo actually states 90% reuse.

It's gotta be embarrassing to find out that someone accused was innocent.  But it's incredible to still use reports of the persons guilt as evidence of the "widespread problem" in your powerpoint presentations.

I'm more than happy to cooperate with BAN, but let us start by publishing the E-Stewards rules so they can be compared to R2, and by having BAN admit publicly that the 80% e-waste exports in "Digital Dump", given to CBS and Frontline, were phoney.    They don't like me using the word "Hoax", but I can take it down if they issue the darn correction.  The longer people like Joseph Benson are publicly defamed, the more shrill my commentary.

Before we can work on a cooperative project, BAN needs to disavow the 80% statistic which leads to the profiling of men and women like Joseph Benson, Gordon Chiu, Chicas Bravas, etc.  They have admitted the statistic was unsourced to me in private (I obviously already knew), said they haven't had time to read the 2011 Ghana E-Waste report, and are just fudging around now while the UK Guardian and Interpol write up theories of human beings guilt based on BAN's bad numbers.

See this UK Blog, still deriding Joseph Benson - AFTER the exonerating UNEP study was published!  Who is to blame?  Or more correctly, who is in the best position to help Mr. Benson?

Throw me a bone.  We all know the emperor of e-waste is naked.   Let's put facts on the table and get some people out of the box they are trapped in.  Then we can look at the way R2 and E-Stewards differ, factually, without the "ghoul" and "witch" and other toxic demon language.  It turns out to be like a free X-Box or free Playstation Coupon... not valid.

Free the Geeks.

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