Open Letter To Mayor of D'Iberville

Visual Artists Guild, P. O. Box 861132, Los Angeles, Ca. 90086,
Phone 310-539-0234 Fax 310-539-0234

                                                                  June 27, 2006

Mayor Rusty Quave
City of D'Iberville
10383 Automall Parkway
D'Iberville, MS 39540

Dear Hon. Mayor Rusty Quave,

        I read about your city looking into the possibility of engaging the services of Beijing Construction Engineering Co. Ltd and Beijing Urban Construction International Co for the rebuilding of your city after the disasters brought on by hurricane Katrina last year.

         As a fellow American, I am in sympathy with what the citizens of D’Iberville had suffered and can understand the need for your city to recover as soon as possible and the need to hire companies that can provide such services to you at a timely and cost effective manner. 

        Before you make any decision, I would like for you to please read the attached recent news clipping from www.channelnewsasia.com
    http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific_business/view/215031/1/.html
which detailed the failure of Beijing Urban Construction Groups’ to pay its worker after the workers have worked for a year building Beijing’s new subway line. 

        In your consideration of hiring any companies, please consider the following questions about the prospective companies:

• Is it owned or partially owned by the same government which ordered the massacre of its own young students during their pro-democracy demonstration of 1989 at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square?
• Is it owned or partially owned by the Peoples Liberation Army which carried out the massacre?
• Does the company have a history of abusing or exploiting its workers?
• Does the company have a history of not paying, underpaying, or delaying payment of its workers?

      I am sure that in your wisdom you will make your decision based on what will make the citizens of the City of D’Iberville proud. 

                                                                        Yours truly,
                                                                         Ann Lau
                                                                         Chair, Visual Artists Guild

 Cc: Hon. Brenda Broussard, Hon. Henry Toncrey, Hon. Teddy Harder, Hon. Bob Bellman, Hon Glenn Ellis