No Fear
A Whistleblower's Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA
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- CHF 19.00
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- CHF 19.00
Description de l’éditeur
As a young, black, MIT-educated social scientist, Marsha Coleman-Adebayo landed her dream job at the EPA, working with Al Gore, assisting post-apartheid South Africa. But when she tried to get the government to investigate allegations that a multinational corporation was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of South Africans mining vanadium—a vital strategic mineral--she found that the EPA was the first line of defense for the corporation. When the agency stonewalled, Coleman-Adebayo blew the whistle.
How could she know that the agency with a hippie-like logo would use every racist and sexist trick in their playbook in retaliation? The EPA cost her her career, endangered her family, and sacrificed more lives in the vanadium mines of South Africa—but also brought about an upwelling of support from others in the federal bureaucracy who were fed up with its crushing repression.
Upon prevailing in court, Coleman-Adebayo organized a grassroots struggle to bring protection to all federal employees facing discrimination and retribution from the government. The No FEAR Coalition that she organized waged a two-year-long battle with Congress over the need to protect whistleblowers—and won. This book is her harrowing story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this sprawling memoir cum political expos , Coleman-Adebayo, a former senior policy analyst at the EPA, describes her ascendance to the top ranks of the federal agency, and the hostility and harassment that compelled her to speak out against the unfair treatment she received. After spearheading the EPA's involvement in the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing, Coleman-Adebayo was selected to run the Gore-Mbeki Commission, a high-profile assignment that aimed to improve the living and working conditions of South Africans in the postapartheid era. The American experts and South African leaders quickly discovered extensive exploitation of South African vanadium mine workers, many of whom were suffering from exposure to the radioactive substance. But when African-American scholar Coleman-Adebayo tried to take action, her efforts were stymied from within the EPA. Eventually, Coleman-Adebayo was removed from her post despite her outstanding record. Alleging the firing was retribution for her complaints, Coleman-Adebayo fought the agency in court, winning her case and spurring the creation of the No FEAR Act, which now protects whistle-blowers within the federal government. The story weaves personal reflection, policy discussions, court transcripts, and legislative maneuverings, making for an engaging if occasionally dry narrative of a public servant's rise and fall and eventual triumph.