After waiting 8 years, Chevron oil company is finally being brought to trial in the US over the murder of villagers in the Niger Delta in 1998 and 1999

“found evidence that CNL [Chevron Nigeria Limited] personnel were directly involved in the attacks; CNL transported the GSF [Nigerian government security forces], CNL paid the GSF; and CNL knew that GSF were prone to use excessive force.”
The report alleged that the crime occurred when the Nigerian Military and Police were paid by Chevron to shoot and torture protesters opposed to the company’s activities in the troubled region. Chevron helicopters and boats were used by the security forces, resulting in torture and wrongful death, it further alleged.
The said evidence, the Judge said, will allow a jury to find that Chevron knew the attacks would happen and supported the military’s plan.

This is excellent news for the people of the ND as it also sets a precedent for other cases against multinational oil companies in the region. I hope that the case will not end with the oil companies and that the Nigerian Army will also have to account for their actions and those who took part in these and other acts of violence will be brought to trial. For the full story……..

Tags:
Niger Delta;
Chevron
Nigeria

Bono’s Red Campaign or rather campaign for “conspicuous consumption” disguised as “helping the poor” spends $100 million on marketing and receives $18 million in sales!

Enormous outlay
By any measure, the buzz has been extraordinary and the collective marketing outlay by Gap, Apple and Motorola has been enormous, with some estimates as high as $100 million. Gap alone spent $7.8 million of its $58 million outlay on Red during last year’s fourth quarter, according to Nielsen Media Research’s Nielsen Adviews……..
But contributions don’t seem to be living up to the hype. Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the recipient of money raised by Red, told The Boston Globe in December, “We may be over the $100 million mark by the end of Christmas.”

Familiar names raced to be at the forefront of the biggest charity hype [swipe / con] feeding into obsessive consumption “I buy cause I am” - something like that was displayed in Selfridges London a couple of xmas’s ago.

Steven Spielberg smiling down from billboards in San Francisco; Christy Turlington striking a yoga pose in a New Yorker ad; Bono cruising Chicago’s Michigan Avenue with Oprah Winfrey, eagerly snapping up Red products; Chris Rock appearing in Motorola TV

And how much money did this group of con artists make from their smiley smiley faces dripping out at passers by from billboards and glossy mags? Well Bono for one reaped a fair share of bling… For example in the Bono’s “ONE” campaign (to persuade the US government to donate an additional 1% to ending poverty) U2 received “$389 in gross profits” (apparently the 2nd most lucrative tour of all times!) Add to this sales of merchandise then you get the real figure of what these already multi-millionaires are racking in on the backs of young kids not to speak of contributing to the bling consumption mentality that is eating up the world’s resources faster than a mouse chased by a cat.

The Gang of Red obviously deny all this saying that $11 million was given to Rwanda and Swaziland for health related products - we have to take their word for it. But so what? First how much was actually spent on marketing to get that $11 million, the money (marketing and donations) all comes from pressurising mostly young people to spend spend spend - what kind of values are being taught here - that if you spend money you help poor people? more like if you spend money you make money for business meanwhile the young consumer gets into debt (red) and Bono along with the rest of this gang of reds who are already worth $billions are making even more $billions. Rwanda and Swaziland get $11 million from Dread Red and have to pay $50 million in debt payments back to the west that gave them the $11 in the first place that was raised by getting young people to buy stuff they dont need and put them into debt too. 419 by any other name!

Tags: Red Campaign; Bono

One World have nominated Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as one of the finalists for their “People of the Year”. The write up on the Gates and other super rich “The Philanthropreneurs” is nauseating and seems to have been written by a sycophant who doesnt even attempt to look beyond the superficialness of this philanthropy. I am suggesting and hoping that as many people as possible will write in to One World on why the Gates Foundation should not win and to call upon One World to demand full social responsibility from the Foundation and all the other “philanthropreneurs”.

The Gates foundation is worth some $31.9 billion out of which $750 million has gone into the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. One group of children who are benefiting from the immunization (measles and polio) programme are those living in the Niger Delta. While the Gates foundation is busy giving away huge sums of money to “good causes” like the immunization programme, the foundation is also benefiting from the returns on investments in Shell, Chevron and the other oil companies operating in the region.

The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.

With the right hand the children of the Niger Delta are being saved from getting polio and measles and with the left hand they are suffering from bronchitis, asthma, eczema, boils and other skin problems as well as cancer due to the continued flaring of gas(1 billion cubic feet of gas per day) in the region by the oil companies and the pollution of drinking and fishing waters from oil spills and old rotten pipelines that leak oil – both at the expense of the Gates Foundation…………

Oil companies are not the only socially irresponsible organisations associated with the Gates Foundation. Other companies that rank high as polluters as well as the very pharmaceutical companies that produce anti-retroviral drugs that are unaffordable to the majority world. Ironic when one of the Foundation’s major donations goes to HIV/AIDS. An investigation by the Los Angeles Times reports

the Gates Foundation has holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.

Whilst the Gates hold themselves up to the world as numero uno philanthropists they are receiving huge tax breaks, investing in unethical companies that contribute to the illness and misery of the very people they donate money too. If this sounds familiar then yes you got it - its a scam, the perfect 419!

Like Kameelah writes “dead black bodies” all over the place being killed off. In this instance under the pretence of being saved by the likes of Bill Gates and others like him around the world. Kameelah asks “at what point does our silence and inaction become a betrayal?” Ah those dirty little secrets.. I think we all know the answer!

Tags: Bill Gates Foundation; Niger Delta; Shell + Chevron;

Since 1998 over 2500 people have died and thousands more injured from oil pipeline fires. That is the official figure. The real numbers of deaths and injured will never be known as they happen in and around small villages in the Niger Delta on a regular basis. The latest has so far claimed between 300 and 500 lives and who knows how many injured. Given the state of the hospitals and the fact that those injured are the poorest members of the community it is hard to be convinced that they will receive anything like adequate health care or compensation from the government.

The official story is the pipe lines were damaged by oil thieves who took what they wanted then left the leaking pipeline. As has happened before, local residents fled to the scene to try to collect as much oil as possible and then the explosions. It is easy for the government to blame the explosion and deaths on oil thieves but one needs to look below the surface to find the real causes none of which are new to Nigerians. The problem of petrol scarcity and rising prices of petroleum products on the one hand and on the other 40 years of corruption and mismanagement of the petroleum industry by the government and the oil companies.

Democracy Now has an excellent interview with Sandy Cioffi, the director of the film “Sweet Crude,” who has just returned from the Niger Delta region and discusses oil, the multinationals and militancy in the region.

Tags: Nigeria; Oil