This was the top story on the BBC website this morning (link).
Ever since hearing about the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa in 1995 I have boycotted Shell. I am proud to say that I have not spent one penny at any Shell station in the 13 years since. At times this was inconvinient and I almost ran out of gas a few times trying to find a non-Shell station, once while in New Zealand. Shell seems to be almost everywhere around the world.
The news this morning was that they made a $15.5 million out-of-court settlement in a case accusing it of human rights abuses in Nigeria in 1995. Specifically, "The lawsuit alleged that Shell officials helped to supply Nigerian police with weapons," ... "Shell participated in security sweeps in parts of Ogoniland and hired government troops that shot at villagers," ... "Shell helped the government capture and hang Ken Saro-Wiwa and several of his colleagues."
However, in the settlement Shell denied any wrongdoing, which does not incline me to break my boycott any decade soon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment