What does 4,000 tons of toxic ash look like? Here it is on the beach in Gonaives, in all its photogenic glory. Click on any image for a preview, or download the print versions (jpgs, average size around 300K). (These images are available copyright-free for anyone who'd like to reproduce them.)
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[download]That last one is a close-up of the ash (the grey stuff on the left) falling into the water where Gonaives residents fish. Broken glass and other remnants of Philadelphia's garbage are visible in the ash.
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[download]These three are of a Witness for Peace demonstration which took place in front of the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince on March 15. All three are © 1998 Witness for Peace.
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[download]Here are two of Return to Sender members at a Philadelphia City Council meeting on May 30, 1997. Both are are © Ray Torres.
Valeska Populah created this cartoon of Philadelphia mayor Ed Rendell for us. If you need a print version, it's here (be warned, it's a huge file: 2.7 MB). If you do plan to use the cartoon, please give Populah credit and let her know at (202) 785-8700.
Finally, we have this beautiful black-and-white image from photographer Chantal Regnault. There are two piles of the ash - one still on the beach where it was dumped and another pile moved up a hill a few miles away. This picture is of the latter. Download the print version here (2.4MB). Please be sure to credit Regnault, who provided this caption (you may shorten it if you wish):
Haiti, December 1997. Morne Lapierre, 4 miles north of the provincial city of Gonaives -- site is a 20 by 20 meter wide and 70 m deep cement bunker containing toxic waste from Philadelphia shipped to Haiti in December 1987. Marguerite Laguerre and 5 of her 10 children are standing on top of it holding cardboard signs written in Creole asking foreigners (us) to take the toxic waste back. A local resident, she complains of having lost goats to the toxic site. She believes they were poisoned by eating grass growing around the cement bunker. She posts her children near it to prevent goats and pigs from feeding there.
