Posts on ‘June 18th, 1999’

Sebastian: The oil companies are right to flare off gas - it's very cheap to do so. Apparently because it's cheap makes it right for them to right? A dictator was right to commit mass murder and plunder the economy because it was easy for him to? (I will resist all temptations to name you appropriately for making such a nonsensical argument). I find your line of reasoning absurd: The people of the Niger delta asked for it by welcoming Alamaesigha in their number? What has that got to do with anything? I agree that the people of the Niger Delta are responsible mostly for what is going on now. The major misfortune of the Niger Delta is the failure of its present leaders and those of it's recent past. Here are some things to consider: They were conveniently ignored during the decades of Scholarships Abroad from FG (believe me, there were a multitude of school cert holders who were willing but who had to make do with little jobs in Lagos). The culture of Looking out for your tribal brother didn't help the idea of federalism. What I am trying to say is that the level of illiteracy in the Niger delta hasn't been entirely without cause. Try to think Here is really the question I want to ask: Is it the responsibility of the Niger Delta citizens to negotiate with oil companies issues about pollution, environmental regulations? Does the government not owe that duty of care? Isn't it the government's duty to insist on cleaner technology? If the Niger delta is expected to take care of itself in this sense, shouldn't it as well be self governing? I know fully well that The Federal Government will rather have the oil companies pay the fat penalty for not meeting up to standard, which also is cheaper for the company which would rather not invest in costly cleaner technology. Lastly: There are no affirmation actions or free rides to Federal universities for people of the Niger delta. No such things exist. Scholarships are being claimed and used. And the universities there are flooded with students, as badly maintained as they may be.I wish we had time for facts, numbers, so we are more empirical instead of all the unnecessary emotion. I am not denying the senselessness of the Niger delta politician (thieves all of them). Or that illiteracy is rife and poverty too. Nice breeding ground for crime, gangs etc. Niger delta people need to get off their lazy asses and stop crying victim. Yar'adua needs to know what he is doing. And you need to try to understand first. We all the need to ask the right questions before we can get right answers. Else we all end up with wayward results. Plus Ken Saro-Wiwa was something of a literary giant and intellectual. Many young people of the Niger Delta will join that list. You watch and see.

Abdlatif: i want to thank everyone of you who has been iettresend in this our struggle with shell.i want to say it here that we are not only demanding these that is already on the news but i want to personally see that shell nigeria and international is brought to an international court to bring shell to justice and make them pay for the destruction of our ecosystem.gas flaring,Oil spills and every other environment pollution due to their oil exploration and exploitation we need help and all the links to take shell to court especial a court in the USA..as shell has been made to pay the ogonis so i did want shell to pay us .your support and links will help us to take shell to court in a foreign..shell dont obey court rulings in nigeria this is why we desire to have them prosecuted in a court in the US if you are willing to help us in this please feel free to contact me.PASTOR RANAMI AFAGHA.EMAIL:pastorranami@aol.com PHONE: +2348083743386, +2347061127571.THANKS

Bashir: It is totally uelvbienable that a world highly respected organisation such as the UNEP could collude with Shell and the Nigerian government to condemn the natural owners of the resources that has sustained the country for over 50 years. I think that Mr Mike Cowing should re-examine his position rather than planning to take more money from Shell and the Nigerian government to do the remediation work. The UNEP claim with destroy stakeholder trust instead of building good relationship with the communities that has been persecuted for their resources. The Ogoni people are calling on the international community and all people of goodwill to come to their aid to stop their being stigmatised as polluters of their own environment. Oil operation started in the Ogoni area in about 1956 and the campaign that Mr Ken Saro-Wiwa wages against oil pollution could not have been caused by Ogoni people. the so-called oil bunkering started only about 5 years ago and every investigation carried out by Ogonis and the authorities have revealed that these bunkerings are supported by the same cabal who have always being in-charge of spending or mis-managing the national resources.

Mica: I doubt the letter is genuine. The excerpts that were published makes it sound as though it was written by an activist group. Shell employs thousands of people in Nigeria, and it is unlikely that the only people who know the truths as to what Shell is doing in Nigeria are a few activist groups, Shell’s brutal management elite, and nobody else.

LondonLad: So the title of this somewhat misleading article (“Shell admits funding Niger Delta warlords”) was NOT made by you but by Ben Amunwa? REPLY BY JOHN: The headline came with the article. It was not made by me. Just click on "SOURCE".

LondonLad: “Shell admits funding Niger Delta warlords” – yet again this is tabloid titillation Donovan and not what Sunmonu said!! All he states (in your reprinted article) is prefaced by “could have”. Yet again an expansion of the facts to suit the objective of this website. As an add on Donovan, I am sure you (and probably a large percentage of the UK population) have inadvertently contributed in some way to causes that are illegal, dodgy or unliked. By using the word “could have” the person is being honest and realistic. Your reporting at times with these tabloid add-ons is not honest. REPLY BY JOHN: You see to be getting over-excited again. I am not the author of the article in question. I have not changed a single word of what the author stated. I have not added a single word to the article. Only a link to a related article. The author is careful in what he has stated and provided links to a video containing what he describes as an "admission". Visitors are able to watch the video and draw their own conclusions.

an observer of Shell: On the IT reorganisation of 2004. It would be nice to hear from some insider whether the huge IT reorganisation (or was it change for the sake of change) in 2004 and beyond has achieved what it set out to do and if not, what lessons were learned? I have the suspicion that it all turned out much more costly and did not achieve its objectives. It did create a lot of pain with the IT staff involved and the benefits for the business were not too clear. I seem to remember there was a lot of management speak and the leading lights of that day presumably have looked after themselves and moved on, leaving a mess behind.

Target: Rumour has it that Shell Canada is planning to sell Retail unit

uscitizen: Nice John, just another attack - you stick your neck out the way you do and people will respond. Do you see us running a hate Donovan website ??- we certainly have enough reason and material too, but we do not. Enjoy your hatefull life, I can not imagine letting unjustified hate run my life. REPLY BY JOHN: Glad to see that you are still paying attention. If you set up a Hate Donovan website will it be presented in your own name, so that you take legal responsibly for what you publish, as I do, or will you still hide behind an alias? For the record, I don't hate anyone or any company. I am simply campaigning for Royal Dutch Shell executives to act at all times in accordance with Shell General Business Principles which include the claimed core principles of honesty, integrity, openness and respect for people in all of Shell’s dealings. This is surely not an unreasonable ambition given that the principles were devised by Shell, are promoted by Shell and are supposedly current and binding on all Shell operations everywhere. In other words, we are only asking Shell executives to do what they already claim to be doing. The SGBP is being used as a PR tool to promote undeserved confidence in the scruples and honesty of Shell senior management. For example, the SGBP featured in the Form 20F Declarations filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission thereby generating confidence in the proven reserves volumes which had been inflated i.e. were false. While Shell execs continue to make pledges of ethical trading which they flout, we will continue our humble efforts to expose their hypocrisy.

LondonLad: Hmmm. Seems like Donovan has accepted defeat and now doesn't want me to make any further comments on this biased site. Heh ho his loss. REPLY BY JOHN: Visitors can read my responses to your recent postings and decide for themselves if I have conceded defeat as you claim. I have told you before that your postings are welcome because they provide some balance. The same applies to USCitizen, the other unofficial spokesperson for Shell. If you choose to make a personal attack on me, then I will point out that it is a cowardly act on your part when hiding behind an alias. Something I have never done. You said that I had tried to stick the murder of Neil Heywood onto Shell. That allegation was completely false and you are self-evidently not enough of a gentleman to withdraw the allegation. As to this site being biased, it certainly is towards pressing Shell management to act at all times in accordance with Shell's own Statement of General Principles, pledging honesty, integrity, transparency ect in all of Shell's dealings. If Shell management had done so, it would not have been responsible for so many scandals, including the reserves securities fraud when Shell was found guilty of market abuse and received massive fines from the US Securities & Exchange Commission and the UK Financial Services Authority.