Pearl Jam is offering an even flow of cash to the tune of $100,000 to help victims of the Brazilian mining tragedy last month in the state of Minas Gerais.
So far, 13 people and counting have died after two dams co-owned by Melbourne, Australia-based company BHP Billiton and Brazilian-based company Vale burst apart, causing a massive, toxic mudslide that lead to “one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in Brazil’s history,” according to Global Citizen. That’s quite a statement considering the clear-cutting of the rainforest there jeopardizing the environmental balance of the world on a daily basis.
The whereabouts and conditions of six more people are still as of yet unknown. Hundreds of homes have also been destroyed in the disaster.
While performing in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, Eddie Vedder stopped the show and spoke in Portuguese to the audience, offering his solidarity to the victims and their families as he called for the two companies to face severe punishment for their negligence and poor working conditions.
Then, on #GivingTuesday, Dec. 1, Pearl Jam tweeted that the band would donate $100,000 to help the mining disaster’s victims.
.@PearlJam will donate $100k to help the communities impacted by the #tragedia in #Brazil. #GivingTuesday pic.twitter.com/zs2ds21W4o
— Pearl Jam (@PearlJam) December 1, 2015
As so many have come to know not only in America, but especially around the rest of the world, capitalism often dictates what’s best for a company’s bottom line, not what’s best (or even safe) for its workers. In the quest for the almighty dollar, people’s lives are put at risk, and sometimes lost. Let us hope folks have not forgotten the Deepwater Horizon disaster, for example, already, which claimed the lives of 11 crew members and created a dead zone in the Gulf Coast from which both the local economy and ecosystem are still recovering to this day – and the list of such examples goes on and on.
Kudos to Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder for once again putting love, humanity, and their conscience above currency. Until stronger regulations and legislation are enacted to protect workers against the gambles of corporate greed, it is up to each of us to provide the solidarity to each other we so desperately need if the workers of the world are to receive any support whatsoever in the wake of such tragedies.
Let us hope Pearl Jam keeps on rocking in the free world, and beyond, for many years to come.
Featured image by Tammy Lo via Flickr, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
