The Cement Company Found Complicit in Crimes Against Humanity | Tales From the Bottle
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- Опубликовано: 14 янв 2025
- How did a cement company get charged for complicity in crimes against humanity? Not in the way you think!
"According to The New York Times, a representative of the French construction company Lafarge S.A. met with representatives of numerous militias from northern Syria in Gaziantep in the autumn of 2012, a city in southern Turkey, to negotiate an agreement. Executives from Lafarge agreed to pay terrorist organizations like the Islamic State on a monthly basis in order to protect their business. The extremists offered to stifle competition and provided papers to the company's drivers assuring safe passage for its cargo. The company was continuing payments even though the Islamic State was capturing, torturing, and killing prisoners. In August 2014, about a month after the Islamic State executed the American journalist James M. Foley, executives arranged the delivery of financial advances to the group as part of their agreement to keep the facility operating, according to emails seized by the U.S. authorities.
In June 2016, France launched an investigation into Lafarge's activities in Syria, in response to reports by a French journalist Dorothée Myriam Kellou. Kellou's reports were published by Le Monde and France 24 and revealed deals Lafarge made with a variety of armed groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorist group, in order to keep its cement plant in Syria operational. On September 19, 2014, ISIL took control of the factory. LafargeHolcim executives were investigated in 2017 for these claims in the civil and criminal courts. That action followed a complaint filed in November by Sherpa, a nongovernmental organization, accusing Lafarge of involvement in war crimes by conducting business with the terrorist organisation Islamic State in order to keep its Syria facility operating, despite UN sanctions against the group.
The French court inquiry discovered that between 2012 and 2014, the business paid up to 13 million euros (approximately $17.5 million at the time) to various armed groups, including the Islamic State, via its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria. According to the study, the subsidiary paid these payments to maintain its cement facility in northeastern Syria operational despite the continuous fighting, kidnappings, and security concerns experienced by its workers. Lafarge tried to dismiss the claims that the payments were made not to support ISIS, but to allow Lafarge to continue commercial operations, and stated that the business and its executives could not be held liable for the actions of its Syrian subsidiary. Initially, the Paris Court of Appeals agreed with Lafarge.
In 2018, eight former firm leaders, including two former CEOs, were charged with supporting terrorists and endangering the lives of their employees in Syria. All of those executives resigned, and the firm merged in 2015 with the Swiss cement conglomerate Holcim. The former officials may face up to 10 years in jail if proven guilty of the accusation."
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good editing on this one - I'm impressed because I saw many details
I suppose one could say that a stable political climate is, in deed, helpful for conducting a business. Then again, a lot of buildings tend to crumble and fall down in war torn areas. The rebuilding of which, you've guessed, requires a LOT of cement. So...
@Qxir
Now, show Disney being complicit in literal concentration camps in Xinjiang!
You won't hurt my feelings a bit if you make the intermittent background specks go away. Thanks for the vids.
We don’t consume cement
-"You directly funded terrorism!"
-"Take this money."
-"Carry on."
They made 70 million from the whole fiasco and lost 770 million in court settlements and forfeiture to france in other words they lost over ten fold what they earned during it and are still having to deal with U.S Courts about it, there PR is now tanked as there that one cement company that worked with really bad people, And Nadia Murad is slamming them with a class action on top.
That is text book definition of a corporate dog piling on one company. But I get it it should have been way more given we are dealing with a company that owns billions people crap on equity in punishment but now when comments like this arrise now they know why I say it. Cause the poor are hurt way to much and the rich aren't hurt enough.
That's how many governments work unless they are funding the terrorists themselves.
I'm mostly mad that the Department of Justice fined them the full 777.8 million dollars instead of giving them a 0.99999% discount so the fine would be $777,777,777.77
_CIA receives money_
_funds more terrorism_
the department of justice is absolutely useless? in other words: the sky is blue and the grass in green
Crimes against humanity, the most serious crime possible in France that is not culinary or fashion related.
Lemme guess, you heard that story about certain bird cuisine
The severity of this crime is second only to being French.
@@gamechip06 You funny bastard
You've been misinformed, what you mean is crimes against _the_ humanities. Common mistake, no worries.
@@gamechip06As someone of both German and English ancestry, can confirm France is one giant crime against humanity
The cement must flow.
The cement must flow.
The cement must flow.
The city must survive.
The cement must flow.
(Cue scifi authoritarian epic empirical theme made be the 80s band Toto for a David Lynch movie based off a renowned novel)
I'm glad they took concrete action against the company.
They cemented their place on the wrong side of history.
They're real rubble-rousers.
To aggravate through aggregate ends in sorry fate for thee.
This joke is a new rock-bottom.
The man just told us about one crime against humanity and you lot go and commit a bunch of new ones in the comments.
I honestly thought it'd be more of a "YOU'RE TURNING HUMANS INTO CEMENT, THAT'S WHAT MY PROBLEM IS" kinda crime against humanity thing though I could be wrong.
Like that one mission in GTA 2 where you kidnap a bus full of people and have them sent to be processed into hotdog meat
In a way they were. The money going to ISIS certainly helped kill a lot of people. All at the expense of making cement
Me too. So I commented on one that was kinda like we'd expect. We'll see if he does it. Bad stuff so probably.
Didn’t we all… Didn’t we all… 😂
Same. I thought it would be about people putting stolen human bones in cement
I worked for a LaFarge-run cement plant over the summer of 2019.
None of this news is particularly shocking given how its run.
Damn
Yeah my company gets our mud from them 😂 didn’t shock me lol
I used to work in concrete, and now that I think about it, I never met someone that drove a cement mixer that wasn't also a huge piece of shit.
@@MyPhobo Noted
@@MyPhoboNoted
Syria might not seem like a stable place for a business venture, but what about rebuilding everything that's been destroyed? I feel like concrete may be in high demand!
"Wow, it seems like you guys place a new cement order every week! Is someone blowing it all up as soon as you build it or something? Ha ha ha! What? Oh, really? Well that's terrible, tell his wife I'm sorry."
@@johnladuke6475 i can picture a very looney tunes-esque scene where the CEO gets dollar sign eyes only to shake his head rapidly and say "Wow, that's...terrible"
Ukraine same thing different contracts.
Not a concrete place after all 🥁
C oncrete is always in high demand. It the most used material on the planet.
Im a truck driver, always stressing the roads meaning they need replaced, meaning i PERSONALLY create job security for all cement related industries. You can thank me later.
As a French, i''m happy you are showcasing the beauty of our cement companies to the world
Holsim owns it now not a French company anymore
As *le French
HWAUGH HWAUGH HWAUGH, I SPELL AT YOU
Don't forget our oil companies too!
Lmao
why is "as a French" so fucking funny to me
"Sometimes hard choices need to be made for the good of cement" is a great quote
Kronii
I almost legitimately felt bad for their situation at first, then they took it to a whole other level 💀
honestly, i have no idea how you make one of these a week. although not every one is animated, the scripts, the jokes, and the art is always top notch. keep up the good work!
8:02 Your humor is as dry as cement in the desert and I love it.
may you find peace in cement brother
May cement protect you and may the Schwartz be with you.
May the Cement Golem give you the strenght to support through these dark times.
Thanks for another tale from the bottle 🍼 🙌 🙏 🙂
goo goo ga ga
@@showmaker8168 That one was a dirty diaper huh? 😆
@@showmaker8168brown nosing at the finest. How the class snitch worked 😂😂
someone gotta check yo hard drive@@Pr0toPoTaT0
0:18 "...concrete is the 2nd most consumed resource on the planet, behind water."
And what does concrete need to properly form and cure?
Air
That's why it's BEHIND water, and not ahead of it...
A duck!
@@MrFoxxRaven Exactly. How far ahead would it be if concrete didn't need water? /s
@@MrFoxxRaven English is hard for some people.
Thank you for bringing back those super awesome animations it is definitely my favorite part😊
In all seriousness, cement is the backbone of modern infrastructure and it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves
Thank you cement
One could even say it's the foundation of modern infrastructure.
@@evankim2406one could even say it's the core of modern infrastructure
I would say concrete is the backbone since cement is just an ingredient in concrete.
@@Lemmon714_ 🤓
Thank you cement
I used to work at a concrete company and I got fired in fantastic fashion. I nailed a board in sideways because his idiot son specifically told me to, so the boss called me a Polish racial slur for Ukrainian and threw a hammer at me. Then he realized he goofed and let me have off for the rest of the day. Since I wasn’t there to kick the chucks, his illegal ass truck ran over his foot and he was so mad I got fired over text. The end!
Your boss sounds like a dick.
Wow.
I hope you find a better job with a better boss.
Wow, I feel like you could bring several lawsuits to him
@@WouldntULikeToKnow. would be like waxing a pig
You did well, that truck didn't run over your foot.
You might have gone to hospital because of that job, if you would have stayed.
1:35 it might seem dumb at first glance but this is a tactic that companies often use, when you invest into a country that most other companies aren't investing in it means that if the country ever became stable you could easily dominate the market for a product, at the same time they don't need to pay nearly as high wages as outside the countries so it is in a lot of ways cheaper, it's a pretty scummy practice
You're not wrong, but at the same time, there was still a need for concrete in the region. The people who lived there still needed jobs. It's not a totally evil practice.
yes, but the unfair pay and bad working conditions are, it's definitely not something done out of the good of they're heart from the company @@therealuncleowen2588
It’s very risky. People use the word “developing countries” but the truth is that extortion, embezzlement, and bribery are rampant; and most regress more often than they progress.
If I invest in the US or Israel, am I then complicit in their crimes?
Ummm…there’s already tons of competition for cement in Syria. They’re not even coming close to controlling the market there.
Furthermore…cement made in Syria is not exported. It’s used in Syria.
You HAVE to pay Syrian wages.
It’s not like cement is made with low wages in Syria, and sent to Europe to cut out the labor cost.
Not everything works like Nike.
Weird assumptions.
Nonsensical and totally unsubstantiated.
You’ve got the rhetoric down though. “Big bad corporations” MUST be doing something bad, right? 🙄
Thanks!
Thanks!
Missed oportunity to place a cementary joke somewhere
In the first 2 minutes ;)
Cement pun jokes got it.
Always good to see a new Qxir!
wonderful way to start a friday before work.
That guy really knew how to cement a relationship.
I guess you could say, they cemented their fate
Not the most concrete of puns, but I'll except it.
Solid pun
@@RowanJones-lp6iu concrete pun
@@Philyshark7 Sement🤤
you _solidified_ your spot as a cement joke expert
"So what were we supposed to do, close down the plant?..."
*YES!...*
Guaranteed head office was pushing them to continue running with the bribery and funding of terrorists just being the cost of doing business. If the fine was significantly more than the money they made from the factory it might act as a deterrent to them doing it again. If not, the fines are also just the cost of doing business.
Excellent story telling and animation! I would legit never hear about 90% of these if not for Qxir. Thank you for giving the victims a voice!
As a former cement “floater”(person that smooths the fresh poured concrete) this was a great video 👏🏻❤
You had my dream job :')
@@lauriestrings5582 I have COPD from all the concrete dust in my lungs, oxygen 24/7. I loved the work, but I have to be honest with you, it’s painful in the end.
@@billiep4338 And there goes my would-have-been comment about how "satisfying" your job must have been. Rip.
"Every time you say 'Cement' when you're talking about concrete, a civil engineer's calculator dies" - Grady, Practical Engineering
But cement is a word, and in this case, an accurate word. Even "cement worker" isn't holistically wrong, I do indeed work with cement, I just also work with sand and gravel.
To be clear. The company makes cement, the binding agent, and sell it wholesale
But this is about cement, not concrete. Lafarge makes cement
@@Nate-bd8fgno one said cement is not a word. Only that cement and concrete are not the same.
That's pretty crazy actually, there is a big Lafarge manufacturing plant about 10 miles from where I live and they have supposedly done some shady stuff too, I guess the company is just bad no matter where they are located!
All these people reviewing an 8minute video that’s been live for 1minute.
Why and how does that happen on every video
Channel members @@zaiz6018
bots
Yeah what the f***
Ever heard of Patreon?
I heard about this, and i agree:
The cement must flow.
The manager of the company didn't really have a choice.
Thanks for talking about the nobility and purity of cement. I love that stuff
This information has now been cemented into my brain. I wouldn't have believed this if it weren't for all of the concrete evidence.
I'll see myself to the door. Edit: I was gonna make a foundation pun but found no way to make it work
Tanks for coming out folks. He'll be here all weeks. Tip your server.
Nice!!! 👌
You had the foundation for a concrete joke but it crumbled in the end
@@KJMcLaws nice
@@KJMcLaws Bahahaha!
"a civil war does to a country's stability what an unsupervised toddler does to a house of cards whose foundations are built on biscuits" i love you man
Imagine Qxir runs out of crazy stories to tell and has to actually make new ones himself
I get the joke, but that's what capitalism did
Thinking communism or socialism will work without a strong sense of national identity and race is ignorant. Is communism comes with Is a war on different social classes? Normally the different social classes are made up of different ethnic groups and races. Sometimes, the top 1% of a country is a minority group like, for example, 2.4% of the American population is Jewish. Yes, they make up 40% of the billionaires. So are we supposed to have class warfare against them? Workers of the world unite and recognize your common enemy.@@ANDREALEONE95
@@ANDREALEONE95you sound like a child with a ver misguided understanding of what capitslism means 😂😂
The human race is too chaotic for that to happen any time soon
@@ANDREALEONE95 What did capitalism run out of?
As always.... a great fast paced information packed and entertaining video! Bravo my friend!!!!
I thought this would something like the radioactive steel rods that were sold in Chihuahua (Mexico) a while ago, you know, evil raw material
Hey @Qxir make a video about that one!
That would be pretty cool. @@Zilmayjaink
Spicy rods
Wow Qxie, I never knew you felt this way about cement. That was beautiful.
I’m going to have to be that guy (seeing as I work with concrete every single day and am the laboratory manager in a construction materials testing laboratory). Huge difference between cement and concrete.
Cement is a powder that you mix with rock, sand, and other ingredients like plasticizer and fibers to create a finished product called concrete.
So when people say cement, they usually are talking about concrete.
It is not a cement mixer. It’s a concrete mixer. The pavement outside is not cement. It’s concrete.
Just trying to enlighten y’all a little bit on this beautiful Friday afternoon. Cheers!
Man I love these style of videos! Keep up the good work
Hahahaha the drawing at 4:52 of isis in a boardroom had me rolling
Love the addition of the bloopers at the end.
The abonded Lafarge Syria plant was bombed by Turkish forces 2 months ago btw
eliminating competition.
@Qxir, i freaking always love your content bro! Keep them uploads coming!!!
Super freeking awesome animations 👌
this was a rollercoaster of emotions, loved every second!
I bet this video has a good foundation
Good shit man, what a humerous situation especially with your artwork
The US government was like "What do you think you're doing providing financial support to terrorist organizations, LaFarge? That's our job."
Welcome back qxir!! You seem more interested in this topic than other ones
This is one is a really fun story, the reality is more insane than fiction. Imagine the situation of not only dealing with ISIS, not only proving funds for their economy as ransoms, giving them the tools to increase the funding. The worst part is that the company could have easily just abandoned that factory and not getting involved with funding terrorist organizations.
Companies also love money. They willing to risk other people life as long they can squeeze as much profit from that area
It cost 160 million to build. Would you abandon 0.2 Billion approx?
@@curbyourshi1056 well, now they have to pay 0.8 Billion approx
This is by far the greatest story I have ever heard
That's quite a title.
This channel is so underrated
cement that's concrete baby
Your animations are getting pretty slick. Nice job
It’s a corporation. It already is a crime against humanity. This just made it more obvious than usual.
Sir, reddit is down the hall and to the left
Always good info and a laugh, loving the content.
Isn't the creation of cement itself a massive environmental hazard? I think I recall hearing about how cement factories cause an insane amount of pollution.
They eat gravel
Shhh! Don't tarnish the good name of cement.
Cement requires lime which is converted from limestone, releasing a ton of CO2 in the process. IIRC something like 22% of all CO2 emissions come from cement production.
Well, yeah, but at least it also is a very useful building material. Until we find a better way, it's difficult to replace cement.
@@therealuncleowen2588 Chewing gum is the way forward. The Chinese make good use of it in their construction, allegedly.
Love the outtakes.
Cards against humanity: fun card game
Crimes against humanity: 💀
I'm going to grab a patreon membership as always awesome video 😁
With or without this Channel having disturbing information- its one of the best channels on RUclips. In fact, *_*because_** of it being such a Channel with very well made videos AND is not some dime-a-dozen cat video Channel- it seriously stands out!
6:23 supporting terrorism for sure, but putting their employees in danger? I mean they were technically paying them protection money to keel them safe, kind of.
Loved this one,all of em crack me up and teach me summat.Nice one mate.Love the accent and art.
Corporations are above the law and don't care if they hurt people everywhere to get their profits. It's happening
I've worked at Lafarge South Africa, and for the record, nobody felt pride about providing valuable building materials or anything like that, we only worried about where the next beer is coming from.
Their "crimes" sound like they were just paying taxes
Funding terrorism isn't taxes, unless you live in the USA or UK
@@myview5840 If someone claims you broke the law, men will come to your house with guns. They will tell you to either come along with them, or get shot. How is that not terrorism by it's own definition? Because of a badge...? Anyone in charge tries to give themselves a badge of authority, but the only thing the badge stands for is, once again, men with guns.
@@riku12345122 sarcasm my dear Watson
OMG! I can't believe this, I've worked on the construction trade for over 30 years and had lots of dealings with lafarge . I'm lost for words!
Back in the 90s Chiquita was exposed for some of they stuff they were doing in south and central America. My cousin worked for Chiquita in central America, he was in charge of a banana plantion. According to him, yeah, they payed protection money. You wouldn't want anything to happen to your crop on the way to the port, would you? And it would be terrible if your employees were unable to get to work, wouldn't it? Thats how it worked. Doing business in lawless places sometimes means doing lawless things.
Giving protection money is one thing, teaching them to help the company to profit more is another
Chiquita brought that on themselves by funding guerillas and overthrowing Latin American governments
@@faizalf119 fair point.
@@AeroGuy07 chiquita is united fruit, look them up. made the country guatemala is today.
The best RUclips channel! One video a week doesn't satiate my appetite for more Qxir!
Bold of you to assume you aren't destroying anything with these videos you've been making.
Imagine Hank Hill being into Cement instead of propane.
I worked for Lagarge Holcim at a plant in TX when all this happened. They originally started paying the protection money overseas after a few of the truck drivers were pulled over and later beheaded.
Always want another one but love the videos
Please, never stop making these videos, you are getting me through college via entertainment 😂😂😂😂
The bloopers are beautiful!
Nice work there Qxir...
another one! good stuff Qxir!
Keep on creating there, bud. Love the Friday series'
Love your work
The art is the best
Proper brilliant writing that is
"Sometimes hard choices need to be made in the name of cement" is a funnier sentence than it has any right to be.
Great video.
Love your videos
I really liked your animations in this video. I got a good laugh from some of the characters.
Legend level again
Is anyone else surprised at how polite and pleasant the note from ISIS is?
Ikr imagine ever other organization giving out wholesome notes like that
Id expect a theocracy to mention theology in most things they do
You'd be surprised, they are like tribalist, so if you do good deeds to them you would be like treated like a village friend.
And ISIS are known to mimic middle age Islamic poetry, so their languange are often beautifully written
I love your animation/art style 🤘
I bloody loved that intro thank you XD
Thanks, Dude
I used work for a company that manufactured LaFarge's pallets, and know someone who works at LaFarge. When I got told about this a few years ago I was stunned
Finally someone covered these chucklefcks.
Family worked at a competitor, the jokes about it are not PC or repeatable, but everyone had a name for them.
I love how much nuance you coax out of a few, face-shaped squiggles...
"I hereby dedicate this video to the virtues of cement, and all those that choose to create rather than destroy."
I shall be sure to remember that as I write smut for the internet tonight 😔🙏
Also, in many cases Lafarge has also been buying up local companies, keeping their business name so they "appear" local, but are extracting the resources and stealing nonrenewable resources from our local economy. Here they are shipping our resources from northwest Washington to British Columbia where they sell the materials for more than they can sell them for here.
I’ve been watching you for so long just realized you only got 1mil subs how is that even possible
Based off the thumbnail and title I assumed they’d be putting bodies in the cement. Was gladly surprised