An old climbing buddy stopped by last weekend. I haven't seen him in probably 15 years, but of course he's much the same person he always was, except he is doing something even more necky than running it out far above his gear.
I'd heard he was down in Colombia where all the death squads are, and Baghdad too. Had he taken up war tourism or what?
I talked to Paul for most of the afternoon and into the evening. I'd talked to him at length before, but I'd forgotten what a conversationalist he is. His wide experiences inform his thoughts of course but he always had a gift for seeing past the BS and laughing about it. It's exactly that ability to see a situation clearly and laugh at life's absurdity that made him a joy to climb with. Eventualy the conversation drifted to just what in the heck it is he's doing.
Human rights lawyer, third world ambulance chaser, hard to say, I'd for sure say making a buck isn't the goal, I could think about ten million easier safer and more lucrative to make a living. Paul goes to unsettled areas where there is ongoing conflict and represents people who are intentionally harmed by American companies. Like killed, you know shot and hacked to death. Now I and you know this all goes on. Any reasonably informed person knows terrible things happen every day, it's a big world, but what after all is to be done? And of course no one likes it that American companies are advocating murder and mayhem, but other than phoning your congressman or signing a petition to be thrown away what are you going to do? Paul got a law degree, he takes them to court, that's what we do in America.
He doesn't file suit against the people with the machetes or guns in their hands, but rather the people who pay their salaries.
His big case is Chiquita the banana folks. They've pled guilty, as in copped a plea, in US courts to hiring right wing death squads to act as security for them down in Colombia, and they've killed thousands and thousands of people. Maybe tens of thousands? I don't even want to know. They knew they were breaking the law, it was discussed many times at board meetings.
Well there are still all those families and civil cases. But this isn't ancient history, more in the nature of current events. Paul signs them up. He becomes their lawyer. Kind of like a third world conflict area litigator. If a case is ever decided I hope he is able to stop living out of a suitcase.
And bear in mind those folks who have lost family members, most usually the breadwinner, deserve some compensation. Chiquita's hired death squaddies drove down the cost of labor, unions were tossed out, no more collective bargaining. Mass murder, torture, disappearances and torching of whole towns are very effective methods of union busting.
Others have done what they call piggy backing. That's filing similar suits for other people via Colombian Lawyers acting as their proxies in Colombia. But Paul was the guy to just go into the middle of the conflict area and set up an office. And years later he's still alive.
He also works in Baghdad and Kabul now. Paul looks for instances where private US companies kill foreign nationals on purpose for no reason. The world is what you might call a target rich environment these days, as our companies have been allowed, and even encouraged to act in ways usually reserved for armies.
Here he is being interviewed in a story by Al Jazeera, mostly at around minute 4:30 and 12:00, but watch the whole thing. Despite the slight dramatization for effect there's a lot of info packed into a short segment.