akshayxyz Posted October 6, 2011 Posted October 6, 2011 http://blog.platformlondon.org/2011/10/03/counting-the-cost-corporations-and-human-rights-abuses-in-the-niger-delta/ Not sure about the authenticity of the mentioned references.. read and decide yourself.
akshayxyz Posted October 6, 2011 Author Posted October 6, 2011 some comments from the Reddit post ( in response to someone defending Shell). a) Shell has been there since before Nigeria was a "democracy" - they were drilling before there was any government giving permits, they had royal grants going back to colonial times, which was basically yesterday. Nigeria is not as much a democracy as anywhere else. Nigeria today is a direct product of a predatory colonial system that is the biggest part of the reason Nigeria is as crazy as it is, the same system that put shell there. You think shell wants a stable government in Nigeria? You can almost guarantee that a unified nationalist movement in Nigeria would prompt war from Britain and America. In a lot of ways, shell's behavior is perfectly reminiscent of colonial policy. You destabilize the area by playing groups against each other, pacifying the locals while you suck the land dry. b) Shell hasn't just paid militants, they also paid the Nigerian army to kill and destroy entire villages because they dared protest against the hideous environmental damage caused by Shell's drilling. Shell is just trying to make itself look like a victim and you're a goddamn stupid, ignorant **** for believing a goddamn oil company, jesus christ what the **** is wrong with you idiots Another article on the topic..that mentions wikileaks on the subject. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/dec/08/wikileaks-cables-shell-nigeria-spying And a Video. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfwmgWVuWpo]Age of Stupid: Making Of: Layefa introduction - YouTube[/ame]
achilles Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 And we thought barbarism of such order could only be in the storylines of films (like Shooter). Quite shocking. Also, the US knew about it and what did they do? Nothing, I guess. About time the world realized that its every man for himself.
Clarke Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 They're all the same and its our demand that fuels this barbarism. Go ahead, boycott BP. Not only do you get to send a message to the company that has proved incapable of stopping the undersea gusher unleashed on April 20, but (unless you live in a one-gas-station town) you can do it without much pain to yourself. Drive right on by the BP station and pull up to the pumps from Exxon, the company responsible for the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989 and, more recently, one of the biggest corporate funders of the movement to tar the science of climate change. Exxon also managed to reduce the $5 billion in punitive damages awarded by an Anchorage jury for the Valdez disaster to $507.5 million; the Valdez fishermen and other victims have still not been made whole. (Fun fact: to protect itself in case the original judgment was affirmed, Exxon got a line of credit from JP Morgan, which the bank then parlayed into the first credit default swap, as recounted in the 2009 book FoolÃÔ Gold by Gillian Tett. These are the exotic financial instruments that helped trigger the Great Recession of 2008?9.) Or roll into the Texaco or Chevron station (Chevron bought Texaco in 2001). Texaco is being sued by people in Ecuador for contaminating their groundwater, causing hundreds of residents to develop fatal cancers and causing other environmental damage near the Lago Agrio oilfield, where Texaco dumped oil-production waste (18.5 billion gallons into open, unlined pits) for almost 20 years. (For those of you moved by First Amendment issues, Chevron has also gone to court to force filmmaker Joe Berlinger to turn over more than 600 hours of outtake footage he shot for his documentary on the case, titled Crude.) Chevron counters that dumping sludge was standard operating procedure at the time. Or roll up to the Citgo pumps. Citgo is a wholly owned subsidiary of the state oil company of Venezuela, which is ruled by the always-entertaining (except to political opponents he has silenced) Hugo Chá×ez. A 2009 fire at CitgoÃÔ refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, sent toxic fumes into nearby neighborhoods for two days. Uncomfortable giving your money to a petrodictator? ThereÃÔ a Shell station up ahead. Too bad Shell has been accused of human-rights violations in Nigeria, through its collaboration with the countryÃÔ former military rulers who executed activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others in 1995, committed crimes against humanity, and tortured opponents. (Shell settled the case for $15.5 million last year.) Shell has also been accused of despoiling the Niger Delta through its oil operations there: a ruptured oil pipeline that killed 100 people in 2008; polluted drinking wells; fields and farmland poisoned by leaked oil. In other words, pick which malefactor or criminalÃÆnvironmental or humanÃÚouÃÅ like to support when you gas up. And the list above doesnÃÕ even include the fact that what the oil companies sell is one of the major contributors to catastrophic climate change. So unless your boycott of BP extends to all oil companiesÃÃh, and throw in coal companies and natural-gas utilitiesÃÚou get points for symbolism and self-righteousness but not much else. http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/06/07/boycott-bp.html
Stuge Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 3 letter word OIL is the reason why we had so many wars in the middle east .I'm not at surprised to hear this at all . "Even the venomous snake on the planet isn't venomous as Humans .We humans have poisoned the planet for our own greed, and have put the future of all the living beings into jeopardy."-source -Me
achilles Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 3 letter word OIL is the reason why we had so many wars in the middle east .I'm not at surprised to hear this at all . "Even the venomous snake on the planet isn't venomous as Humans .We humans have poisoned the planet for our own greed, and have put the future of all the living beings into jeopardy."-source -Me I completely agree with your quote. We humans are destroying ourselves for well, ourselves.
ganeshran Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 We need a viable alternative energy source as soon as possible...The politics around Oil will get fiercer as reserves decrease..
bulbul Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 We need a viable alternative energy source as soon as possible...The politics around Oil will get fiercer as reserves decrease.. you think such kind of things wont happen in Alternative energy sources.. Wikileaks earlier in the year published repoerts about BP company almost owning government in one of the African countries... most of govts around the world listens to the corportaions compare to common peoples issues..
WC2011INDIA Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 you think such kind of things wont happen in Alternative energy sources.. Wikileaks earlier in the year published repoerts about BP company almost owning government in one of the African countries... most of govts around the world listens to the corportaions compare to common peoples issues.. That's why India is what it is. The corporates in India control the gov't and the policy makers. I feel bad for politicians. 90% of the decisions they make are because of pressure from these big corporates like Tata, Reliance, Mahindra, Birla etc.
bulbul Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 That's why India is what it is. The corporates in India control the gov't and the policy makers. I feel bad for politicians. 90% of the decisions they make are because of pressure from these big corporates like Tata, Reliance, Mahindra, Birla etc. Not only India even Great USA is under corporate influence...Samsung literally rules Korea.. maybbe only exception is China
WC2011INDIA Posted October 7, 2011 Posted October 7, 2011 Not only India even Great USA is under corporate influence...Samsung literally rules Korea.. maybe only exception is China Agreed. However, there is a lot of corruption in China too. It's just that the media can't reveal it because they are controlled by the government I wish India was like China in other things such as infrastructure, cleanliness, manufacturing etc. I cannot wait for my China trip next year to see if the hype is real or just hype.
Clarke Posted October 8, 2011 Posted October 8, 2011 We need a viable alternative energy source as soon as possible...The politics around Oil will get fiercer as reserves decrease.. Shale oil/gas is a major breakthrough and should cover the next few decades of demand. The worry might be the effects on climate & air/water/soil quality due to the 'reliance' on fossil fuels.
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