June 1, 2021 Reflection

The reason we write blogs after each class is to reflect upon what we have learned and as a place to share our opinions about our learnings, but this requires that we take in the correct information and note it down for the reflection blog. The class started with Mr. Paterson telling us about the hokum that happened on a blog post from a few weeks ago where a student misremembered certain facts about the ostracism experience. This lead him to believe that we weren't capable of taking correct notes so he used the fact that half of the class missed a lecture to test how accurately we took our notes. Mr. Paterson broke us into 3 groups with a few people who attended the class and others who didn't to allow the students who knew the lesson to reteach the class. Though I took on this challenge with alacrity, there were few members in my group who felt discontent, which made me a little worried if I'll be able to understand the explanation. This was what I got from the explanation of the story from the first person who taught me. 

The American Oil company, Chevron went to Ecuador to excavate oil but in the process of obtaining the resource, the company polluted the land around it and wasn't bothered to clean it. The Ecuadorian government, who were furious about this sued Chevron for the skulduggery, won the suit, and was able to get a fine from the company. Chevron was obviously not convinced and filed a suit against the lawyer for using uncertain evidence, stating that it was a travesty to the truth and indefinitely ruined their image and fought against the Ecuadorians in a New York court. The lawyer named Steven Donzigger lost against Chevron and was put under severe punishment for his "unlawful" acts and was shown as a scofflaw in the media. The cockamamie punishment included him being disbarred and placed under house arrest. In class, they were told that this was because the judge had connections with the board on Chevron was backed up by the company, leading to the judge inevitably giving a biased verdict. The thing that caused the most hullabaloo is the fact that this kerfuffle wasn't covered by large companies. 

We then discussed the Bhopal accident and how the US didn't take responsibility for the problem. 

Throughout our lessons on the media, we learn about all these companies and how they evade responsibility for their unfathomable actions. I feel like these problems are going to get worse and worse as time moves as the difference in power between these large companies widens. Therefore, I feel like it best, and maybe the only time to stop this is when it only involves two companies. In my opinion, these companies who take these malicious actions won't just stop here and will continue, involving more bigger companies to do the same. If larger companies continue to bully smaller companies into doting what they want, it would become harder for the government or other countries to stop them.