Saturday 27th of April 2024
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trinkets & tricksters .....

trinkets & tricksters .....

There's an easy way to find oil. Go to some remote and gorgeous natural sanctuary, say Alaska or the Amazon, find some Indians, then drill down under them.

If the indigenous folk complain, well, just shoo them away. Shooing methods include: bulldozers, bullets, crooked politicians and fake land sales.

But be aware. Lately, the natives are shooing back. Last week, indigenous Peruvians seized an oil pumping station, grabbed the nine policemen guarding it and, say reports, executed them. This followed the government's murder of more than a dozen rain forest residents, who had protested the seizure of their property for oil drilling.

Big Oil treats indigenous blood like a cheap gasoline additive. That's why the Peruvians are up in arms. The Cofan of Ecuador, unlike their brothers in Peru, have taken no hostages. Rather, they have heavily armed themselves with lawyers.

But Chevron and its Big Oil brethren remain dismissive of the law. This week, Shell Oil, got rid of a nasty PR problem by paying $15 million to the Ogoni people and the family of Ken Saro-Wiwa for the oil giant's alleged role in the killing of Wiwa and his associates, activists who had defended these Nigeria Delta people against drilling contamination. Shell pocketed $31 billion last year in profits and hopes the payoff will clear the way for a drilling partnership with Nigeria's government.

Congratulations, Shell. $15 million: For a license to kill and drill, that's a quite a bargain.

http://www.gregpalast.com/oil-and-indians-dont-mix/

meanwhile .....

During the last week, deep in the Peruvian Amazon, confrontations between nonviolent indigenous protesters and police have left up to 100 people dead. The vast majority of the casualties are civilians, who have been conducting peaceful demonstrations in defense of the Amazon rain forest.

For almost two months, as many as 30,000 indigenous people have been blocking road and river traffic, demanding the repeal of presidential decrees issued last year to facilitate implementation of the US-Peru FTA. According to the indigenous leaders, several of these decrees directly threaten indigenous territories and rights. After having attempted several times to negotiate with the government the repeal of the most egregious of the decrees, and faced with a permanent influx of extraction equipment into the region, the people decided it was imperative to "put their bodies in front of the machines" in order to prevent this equipment from entering their territory.

On Friday, June 5, the government decided the protests needed to end and launched an aggressive assault against the people protesting on the road outside of Bagua. The dislocation was conducted from helicopters and the ground, with police and army using automatic weapons and heavy equipment against people armed with only rocks and spears. As videos, photos and testimonies from the region slowly emerge, it is clear that this was designed to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible, and deter those in other regions from continuing protests. Pictures circulating on the Internet depict snipers in uniform firing at protesters from the streets, tanks and from on top of buildings. On Saturday, in Lima, Peru's capital, a large spontaneous demonstration in support of the Amazonian indigenous was broken up by police.

http://www.truthout.org/061109B

a glimpse of hope .....

Indigenous groups in Peru have called off protests after two land laws which led to deadly fighting were revoked.

Hailing victory, Amazonian Indian groups said it was an "historic day".

At least 34 people died during weeks of strikes against the legislation, which allowed foreign companies to exploit resources in the Amazon forest.

The violence provoked tension with Peru's neighbour, Bolivia, where President Evo Morales backed the Peruvian Indians' tribal rights.

"This is a historic day for indigenous people because it shows that our demands and our battles were just," said Daysi Zapata, vice president of the Amazon Indian confederation that led the protests.

She urged fellow activists to end their action by lifting blockades of jungle rivers and roads set up since April across six provinces in the Peruvian Amazon.

The controversial laws, passed to implement a free trade agreement with the US, were revoked by Peru's Congress by a margin of 82-12 after a five-hour debate.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/8109021.stm

messages from dave .....

Dave O'Reilly, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Chevron Corporation, says ....

"The world is changing, but our values are not.

Around the globe, economies are searching for solid ground, and people are re-evaluating their faith in institutions. Against these currents, The Chevron Way is our anchor. Through good times and bad, The Chevron Way principles guide what we do and how we do it. Ask one of our nearly 62,000 employees to summarize The Chevron Way in a sentence, and he or she will likely say, "It's about getting results the right way.""

horseshit dave ....

Chevron says: "Chevron's programs are anchored in partnerships with governments, communities, local and international nongovernmental organizations, and development agencies. We have built a number of partnerships on trust, transparency, mutual learning and a common purpose to promote human progress and economic development. We address social issues by working together and delivering results "on the ground."

Our community engagement programs enhance our ability to conduct business in many parts of the world. In 2008, we invested $160 million in our community engagement initiatives, with 50 percent in North America; 22 percent in Africa; 14 percent in Asia-Pacific; 9 percent in Eurasia, Europe and the Middle East; and 5 percent in Latin America. Most was invested in our three primary focus areas - improving access to basic human needs, enabling education and training opportunities, and promoting sustainable livelihoods.

more horseshit dave .....

Chevron says: "Chevron's comprehensive environmental management system drives continuous improvement across our operations. Our design standards for new capital projects require consideration of environmental aspects and resource conservation. New projects must avoid continuous gas flaring and venting and must incorporate reinjection of produced water where feasible. In addition, we are systematically implementing performance standards at our existing operations to minimize emissions, discharges and waste and to promote responsible waste management practices."

pure horseshit dave .....

Meanwhile, Chevron's Kent Robertson has a different message for the native tribes of the Amazon .....

Kent says: "There was no evidence that any death or illness had been caused by its operations. He said that when Texaco left Ecuador in the early 1990s, it arranged for 40 per cent of the pits to be decontaminated and signed a contract with the Ecuadorian government that Petroecuador would deal with the rest. Any sign of contamination now was Petroecuador's work, he said.

Asked whether the firm had fulfilled its moral obligations to the Ecuadorians, he said: "We are in the business of producing energy for the future, not the cleaning up after other companies or making trial lawyers rich."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/ecuador/6574580/Ecuadors-Amazonians-sue-Chevron-over-poison-waterways.html

Onya Kent .... Dave would be pleased .....

Now Chevron are advertising their "human energy" message on SBS .... sickening & not a good look for SBS but then, Carla's SBS is all about keeping-up appearances .... substance is so passé.