A List
2/9/99

SLU PROF USES VIDEO TO HIGHLIGHT ENVIRONMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

CANTON - St. Lawrence University Professor of Chemistry Paul Connett is 
hoping to draw attention to a community he visited in South Africa last 
year, and that the attention will result in government assistance to move 
the community's residents to a safer environment.
	The videotape, made while Connett was in South Africa in August 
of 1998 while on sabbatical leave from St. Lawrence, shows residents of 
the small settlement Aloes, near Port Elizabeth. Some 100 families live 
there, between a leaking hazardous waste landfill and a regional medical 
waste incinerator. Fearing health problems resulting from their proximity 
to these facilities, the residents are seeking government assistance to 
be moved to another location.
	Connett has scheduled a screening of the 41-minute video, titled 
"Aloes Weeping," on Tuesday, February 16, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of 
Hepburn Hall at St. Lawrence. It includes interviews he conducted with 
Aloes community leader Nelson Fezi, and a recording by the Soweto String 
Quartet of the song "Weeping," from their CD Renaissance.
	Connett has also given a copy of his tape to the South African 
Embassy in Washington, D.C., and is urging those who see the tape to write 
to the embassy in support of moving the residents of Aloes.

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