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Rapper Sofia Ashraf took to YouTube to protest how one company's work practices have hurt the small Indian city of Kodaikanal.
In a video backed by Nick Minaj's Anaconda (AKA Sir Mixalot's Baby Got Back), Ashraf calls out Unilever and a local thermometer factory for damaging the health of workers and polluting water used by the city's citizens with dangerous levels of mercury.
The chorus states:
"Kodaikanal won't
Kodaikanal won't
Kodaikanal won't back down until you make amends now."
The video points viewers to a petition that asks Unilever CEO Paul Polman to clean up the pollution caused by the thermometer factory. It summarizes the plight felt by workers at the factory and its neighbors.
The factory operators did not give its workers any protective equipment or information about the disastrous impact that mercury has on health.
The factory owned by Hindustan Unilever also dumped toxic mercury around their plant, and this has not been cleaned up in the 14 years since this plant was shut down. The contamination continues to impact forests and groundwater.
The workers cannot afford private healthcare. They have been fighting for Unilever to clean up the toxic contamination and compensate them for their medical expenses as a result of mercury for many long years. They need us to stand with them now, more than ever.
The creators of the petition hope to gather 15,000 signatures and have received half that number so far.
If you (somehow) disagree with the politics, you can at least appreciate a very talented rapper making some good music.
