Al Jazeera reports today from Kabwe in Zambia. The town used to be a big mining area until Anglo-American left. The workers were left to rot, and scrape a living from selling salvaged lead and scrap metal. Their children have no choice but to drink lead-poisoned water. The town doesn't even have facilities for testing for lead poisoning.

Just in case you were wondering whether large firms are generally naturally inclined towards 'community development' and corporate responsibility. When no-one's looking, this one at least takes what it can and then leaves its workers and their children in a poisonous pit.

I've written to them, but I've worked in Corporate Communications: its a whole team's job to put truth through a 'make-the-company-look-good-at-all-times' filter. Nevertheless, it'll be interesting to see what they say. They're actually in a position to deny everything, since they know I have no way of directly checking.