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Business News for Tuesday January 6, 2009
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Olympics sponsors targeted over Darfur
Friday April 25, 2008
An activist group says it will organize protests against Beijing Olympics sponsors that it says have failed to press China to help end fighting in Darfur.
In a report Thursday, Dream for Darfur said 16 companies including General Electric Co., Coca-Cola Co. and Microsoft Corp. have shown "moral cowardice." With actress Mia Farrow as its spokeswoman, Dream for Darfur is the most prominent activist group lobbying companies to pressure Beijing, a major investor in Sudan. "The majority of the 2008 Olympic corporate sponsors in this report have distinguished themselves for moral cowardice in the hopes of safe profitability," the report said. "This is our second report card grading the companies' responsibility on humanity and on the ability to think outside the box on profitability and to open minds to social responsibility," Farrow said in a conference call with reporters. Dream for Darfur said it would protest at company headquarters and urge viewers to turn off commercials during the Games in August. The first demonstrations are planned against Coca-Cola in Atlanta on Saturday and New York on Sunday, and Staples in Boston on Sunday. Coca-Cola responded with a toughly worded statement, saying the report focused only on a willingness to lobby Beijing but ignored the company's charitable work in Sudan, including a $5 million (3 million euro) donation to water projects.
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