Rejoinder: Ken Saro-Wiwa: A Playwright And Revolutionary, But A Man With Trading Instinct

Dear Editor,

Please see and publish the article below with above headline.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Ben Ikari, author of Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP: The Story and Revelation; Rights and Environmental Justice Advocate.

Dear Janet Anderson:

Thank you for taking the time to write these good words credited to you about Ken Saro-Wiwa in the headline above. It was reportedly published in the Tempo Newspaper Nigeria, on Jan. 2, 1996 though originally printed in the Daily Telegraph of Nov. 13, 1995.  Saro-Wiwa was, of course, the foremost minority rights crusader of Africa. He was a prolific and accomplished writer who authored more than 27 books. He also had several newspaper publications and position papers to his name; a non-violent and peaceful, intelligent, smart and witty world’s environmental martyr he was. He was truly altruistic. read more

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Says the decriminalization of the Ogoni martyrs has become a key demand of the Ogonis

Calls for an End to Ogoni Killings

Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has hinted of a roadmap to Ogoni development. MOSOP leader, Fegalo Nsuke gave the hint on Sunday at a commemorative church service at the Methodist Church, Wesley Cathedral in Bori, the traditional headquarters of the Ogoni people, to mark the 24th anniversary of Ogoni martyrs day, a day set aside to honor the fallen heroes of the Ogoni struggle including renowned author and environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa..

Nsuke did not give details of the roadmap but while addressing the church service hinted that “if we can have a Niger Delta Development Commission, a Niger Delta Basic Development Authority, then we can also have an Ogoni Development Authority” read more

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SHELL RELATED EXTRACTS FROM AN ARTICLE BY JACOBIN PUBLISHED UNDER THE HEADLINE “THE NIGERIAN ACTIVIST WHOSE DEATH SHAMED SHELL”

AN INTERVIEW WITH ROY DORON / TOYIN FALOLA: 10 NOV 2019

Twenty-four years ago today, environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Nigerian state. His death brought international attention to the rapacious behavior of oil companies like Shell — and their complicity in the most violent forms of repression.

Born in 1941, Ken Saro-Wiwa came of age as Nigeria gained independence and became a lifelong advocate for the importance of minority rights within a unified national identity. A member of the Ogoni ethnic group, who at only half a million hold little sway in a country of two hundred million, Saro-Wiwa was central to mobilizing a popular movement that demanded accountability for companies like Shell that were extracting oil in the creeks of the Niger Delta. read more

Court blocks use of pub chat and leaked email in Shell unfair dismissal claim

 by Allister Thomas: 06/11/2019, 7:30 am

A former senior lawyer at Shell cannot use a leaked email or an overheard pub conversation in his discrimination claim, a court has ruled.

Michael Curless was senior legal counsel for the energy giant from 1990 until his termination in 2017, which Shell said was by reason of redundancy.

However Mr Curless, who suffers from obstructive sleep apnoea and type 2 diabetes, made an employment tribunal claim that he was the subject of “disability discrimination, victimisation and unfair dismissal” which Shell denies.

He also alleged that Shell used the planned reorganisation of its in-house legal department following its 2016 takeover of BG Group as a pretext for terminating his employment. read more

“Cambridge University should not welcome Shell to do research, buy influence, and greenwash their reputation. Shell should be in the International Court of Justice, pledging to rectify the human and environmental damage that they have brought to Ogoniland. They should not be on campus at the University of Cambridge”.

by Zac Ntim: Tuesday November 5 2019, 3:09pm

The donation, which was not mentioned in Cambridge’s annual disclosures of its financial sources, will fund research into oil and gas extraction

Cambridge University has accepted a £6m donation from multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell in March, The Guardian has revealed today.

The donation will fund research into oil extraction technology by a Cambridge University research group. This comes amid continued protests by students and staff calling on Cambridge to cut all investment and sponsorship relationships with fossil fuels companies.

Shell’s donation was approved by the University in March, however details were not included among other financial disclosures in July, when donations are typically announced. read more

Shell floating wind deal ‘sensible’ but won’t herald investment revolution, analyst says

by David McPhee: 06/11/2019, 7:15 am Updated: 06/11/2019, 7:35 am

The timing of oil giant Shell’s decision to acquire French floating wind firm Eolfi is “very sensible”, but isn’t likely to herald a revolution in how it invests its money, according to a top energy expert.

Adam Forsyth, head analyst at Longspur Research, said that while he considers the move to be a wise investment for Shell, he’s not entirely convinced that a great number of super-majors will follow.

He said: “It seems very sensible for Shell to be making this acquisition. read more

By Nick Cunningham – Nov 02, 2019, 4:00 PM CDT

The carbon bubble “continues to inflate,” according to a new report from Carbon Tracker. And yet no major oil company has aligned its operations with the goals set out in the Paris Climate Agreement.

This is not just a matter of bad corporate behavior. The oil industry is charging ahead with oil and gas projects that completely defy climate targets, which means that they are taking on serious financial risk. “Companies who continue to sanction higher-cost projects which do not fit with a lower demand scenario risk destroying significant shareholder value through the creation of stranded assets,” Carbon Tracker warned. The more companies delay, the greater risk they take on. read more

The Archbishop of York has called for urgent action to stop the oil spills that are devastating communities in Nigeria’s Bayelsa state.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC ahead of the interim report of the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission, which he chairs, the archbishop said that a slow environmental genocide is taking place.

Bayelsa is the region where oil was first discovered in the country in the 1950s. There are hundreds of oil spills each year in Nigeria, some caused by equipment failure – others by sabotage. read more

 by Mark Lammey: 31/10/2019, 11:11 am

A boss at Shell insisted today that leaving the huge concrete legs of the Brent platforms at sea was the “right thing to do”.

Chief financial officer Jessica Uhl said she “appreciated the sensitivities” around the issue, but hoped the “strong fundamentals” of Shell’s plans would “come through”.

Earlier this month, Greenpeace activists protested against Shell’s intention not to remove the legs of three of the platforms from the North Sea.

The Anglo-Dutch company submitted its decommissioning programme in 2017, but has yet to receive formal approval from the UK Government, which has the final say on whether to grant a permit for “derogation”. read more

Why Big Oil faces court cases that echo the litigation against Big Tobacco in the ’90s

Case that began in New York this week delves into what industry knew about climate change and when

Kelly Crowe · CBC News · Posted: Oct 24, 2019 

How much did the oil industry know about the impact of fossil fuel emissions on the climate? When did they know it? And what did they do with that knowledge?

Those are the central questions in a series of court cases attempting to hold companies accountable for their role in climate change.

It’s been called Big Oil’s “Big Tobacco” moment, echoing the famous litigation that exposed how tobacco companies deliberately generated scientific uncertainty even though they knew that cigarettes cause cancer. read more

The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) has said the Ogoni people completely reject plans by Nigerian oil industry actors and personal interest-driven initiatives to force oil resumption in Ogoni under any guise against the wishes of the people. read more

Nigeria’s Rivers state buys Shell’s stake in Ogoniland oilfield

LAGOS, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Rivers state has purchased Royal Dutch Shell’s stake in an oil mining licence in the restive Ogoniland region, the state’s governor said on Monday.

The license, OML 11, has been undeveloped for nearly 25 years, since the execution of regional activist Ken Saro-Wiwa under the military government of Sani Abacha.

(Reporting By Tife Owolabi; Writing by Libby George; Editing by Jan Harvey)

SOURCE

UPDATE 1-Nigeria’s Rivers state buys Shell’s stake in Ogoniland oilfield

PORT HARCOURT, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Rivers state has purchased Royal Dutch Shell’s stake in an oil mining licence in the restive Ogoniland region, the state’s governor said on Monday. read more

Directors of an Irish subcontractor, OSSL, testified under oath in an Irish court that OSSL distributed bribes on behalf of Shell, including over €30k in free alcohol to the Irish police. The purpose of the corruption was to smooth the path of the controversial Corrib Gas Project, which had attracted huge public protests in Ireland.

For more information read the Observer/Guardian article: “Strange tale of Shell’s pipeline battle, the Gardaí and £30,000 of booze.”

Published by John Donovan of royaldutchshellplc.com read more

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The Last 12 Months Of Insider Transactions At Royal Dutch Shell

Over the last year, we can see that the biggest insider sale was by the insider, Andrew Brown, for €1.7m worth of shares, at about €27.85 per share. So what is clear is that an insider saw fit to sell at around the current price of €27.07. We generally don’t like to see insider selling, but the lower the sale price, the more it concerns us. In this case, the big sale took place at around the current price, so it’s not too bad (but it’s still not a positive). The only individual insider seller over the last year was Andrew Brown. read more

FD Dutch News: Shell, Justice, KLM and hundreds of others internal network ‘wide open’ for months

The internal network of hundreds of companies, including Shell, KLM and Schiphol, has been ‘wide open’ for months because of serious vulnerabilities in their VPN connection. De Volkskrant writes this on Saturday based on its own research.

A VPN is a security connection between the user and the internal network, often used when people want to work at home on their corporate network. One of the four most important VPN providers in the world, Pulse Secure, suffered a leak that was discovered in March. The leak was resolved in April, but this required companies to update the system themselves. Some companies did not do this until the end of August. read more

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By John Donovan

I have published several articles over the years naming many Shell senior security people. They include the MI6 hires referred to by Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in a wiretapped telephone conversation relating to the OPL 245 corruption case. 

Some of their names have come up in leaked emails that have recently appeared on the Internet. I have combined the various emails into a single document.

The email participants include a former senior British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officer, Ian Forbes McCredie who until December 2010, was VP Corporate Affairs Security, Shell International B.V.  Mr McCredie is closely associated with the private spy firm Hakluyt sometimes described as the commercial offshoot of MI6. When I sent an email to Mr McCredie at Shell, I received an automated response giving me his Hakluyt email address. read more