highlyeccentric (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
highlyeccentric) wrote2008-03-13 08:39 pm
highlyeccentric) wrote2008-03-13 08:39 pm
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And now, a story about nuns...
Actually, a story about a lovely lady who is not a nun, and the rather awesome thing she was able to do, with the aid of a group of nuns. Her name is Mary Assunta, she was a resident of Women's College for six years- so she's been around the whole time that I've been here- and she's just finished her PHD and is working for the Australian Cancer Council, involved in tobacco control in the asia-pacific. A few years ago she recieved the prestigious Luther Terry Award.
One of the exploits which put her on the map of global anti-tobacco advocacy was getting up, in the middle of the 1998 stockholders meeting of Phillip Morris International- before six hundred immediate spectators and live global video feeds- to ask the amusingly-named CEO, Bible, why so much tobacco marketing in Malaysia was being aimed at minors.
And how did a Malaysian anti-tobacco campaigner come to be in the stockholder's meeting for Phillip Morris? Ah, well, here's where the nuns come in...
There's a lovely little community of nuns, somewhere in the US, whose convent owns a nice chunk of Phillip Morris shares, and has done for the last hundred years or so. Having decided that actually, the tobacco industry is a nasty thing, did they sell their stocks? No, they did not. Instead, they hung onto them, and routinely nominate anti-tobacco campaigners as their proxies to stockholder meetings. Mary was the first international anti-tobacco advocate they had ever sent.
Isn't that cool?
Aaand... coming up, as a special present to those on my flist: tales of guerilla advocacy.
One of the exploits which put her on the map of global anti-tobacco advocacy was getting up, in the middle of the 1998 stockholders meeting of Phillip Morris International- before six hundred immediate spectators and live global video feeds- to ask the amusingly-named CEO, Bible, why so much tobacco marketing in Malaysia was being aimed at minors.
And how did a Malaysian anti-tobacco campaigner come to be in the stockholder's meeting for Phillip Morris? Ah, well, here's where the nuns come in...
There's a lovely little community of nuns, somewhere in the US, whose convent owns a nice chunk of Phillip Morris shares, and has done for the last hundred years or so. Having decided that actually, the tobacco industry is a nasty thing, did they sell their stocks? No, they did not. Instead, they hung onto them, and routinely nominate anti-tobacco campaigners as their proxies to stockholder meetings. Mary was the first international anti-tobacco advocate they had ever sent.
Isn't that cool?
Aaand... coming up, as a special present to those on my flist: tales of guerilla advocacy.