Shell management: thugs in suits

Jun 22nd, 2012

by John Donovan.

FROM AN OUTSPOKEN CRITIC OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL

On Shell's website you will find the statement:

Shell is a global group of energy and petrochemicals companies. With around 90,000 employees in more than 80 countries and territories, Shell helps to meet the world's growing demand for energy in economically, environmentally and socially responsible ways.

Why do I find this statement hard to swallow and take at face value ???  What utter CRAP.

Let's get real people. Shell (and the oil industry in general) is in the business of natural resource EXPLOITATION. The oil industry is a 'rape, ruin, and run' industry. And don't try to tell me otherwise. I have worked in it for over 25 years, in the US and many countries overseas.

As a company Shell management's primary goal is and always has been to make money, and as much of it as they can, and as cheaply as they can. That is really all they care about. They don't give a crap about the environment or the damage their exploitation activities cause, socially or environmentally. Their business is PROFIT. Pure, plain and simple. The industry's 'touchy, feely, we are good corporate citizens' PR campaigns are so much 'bull' and window dressing for a gullible press, public, etc.

If Shell (and the industry in general) was truly environmentally and socially responsible they wouldn't be flaring god only knows how many bcf of methane a day in Nigeria, and god knows how many thousands of bbls of condensate along with that methane. What a frigging waste of resources !!! And Shell could give a fat rat's rear end what sort of environmental impact this flaring has on the Niger River delta ecosystem and the lives and health of the people living there. Shell management, and the oil industry in general, simply doesn't give a lusty crap. Never has, and never will.

Shell (and other companies as well) is clearly actively aiding and abetting the Nigerian government, such that it is, in the repression of the Nigerian people, because it pays. And it pays big time. Hell, with all the 'seconds' Shell has in Nigerian government agencies Shell (along with other majors) could almost be considered the governing agency for that country.

Look at a satellite nighttime photo of the Niger River Delta. You could probably read a newspaper from the light of those flares. This is responsible corporate conduct ??

Please. Angels and Ministers of Grace deliver us. In Nigeria Shell is engaged in nothing less that industrial feudalism, and that is the way they (and the other major) want it. God forbid the Nigerians get their act together and establish a government that is responsive to the needs of the people. That would end the gravy chain Shell has established. Shell won't tolerate that.

If you really want to understand the 'character' of Shell and Shell management (not to mention other oil companies) just look at how they operate in Nigeria. These people are thugs in suits.

Posted in: Business Principles, Environment, Gas, GoogleNews, Nigeria, Ogoniland, Oil,Outspoken Articles, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Tagged: Gas · Gas Flaring · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Royal Dutch Shell Plc

← Obama Administration holds Central Gulf of Mexico lease sale

Stay Young my Friend

From: Alfred Clayton
Date: Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 8:20 PM

 Stay Young My Friend

Stay Young My Friend

We all need to read this one over and over until it becomes part of who we are!



;
HOW TO STAY YOUNG

1.. Try everything twice.
On one woman's tombstone she said she wanted this epitaph: "Tried everything twice. Loved it both times!"

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
(Keep this in mind if you are one of those grouches!)



3. Keep learning:
Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever...
Never let the brain get idle. 'An idle mind is the devil's workshop.' And the devil's name is Alzheimer's!
4. Enjoy the simple things.
5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath. And if you have a friend who makes you laugh,spend lots and lots of time with HIM/HER.



6.. The tears happen: Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. LIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love: whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever..
Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health:
If it is good, preserve it.
If it is unstable, improve it.
If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.
9. Don't take guilt trips..
Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country, but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

I love you, my special friend!



11. Forgive now those who made you cry. You might not get a second chance..
And if you don't send this to at least 4 people - who cares? But do share this with someone.


Remember! Lost time can never be found.
Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

Wine does not make you FAT .... it makes you LEAN ....
(against tables, chairs, floors, walls and ugly people.)

Father's Day message

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

SAFETY: PreOperational Inspection, Child In Truck Wheel Well,

From: Mosses

Date: Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 12:43 PM


Always check around your car

Gentlemen:

Share this with all.

This is a good example of why you should look around your vehicle before leaving your driveway/parking area.
All –
Please see this young child in the wheel well of the truck. A Pike crew working for another Utility found this child while conducting a CIRCLE OF SAFETY of the company truck the crew members were driving. I don't want to think about what would have happened if the employee had gotten in the truck and drove off without doing a walk around. Please share this eye opening, bone chilling photo and experience with your work groups.

This crew has also reported children climbing into the back of company vehicles. Keep in mind children will be out of school on summer break soon so be sure to watch out for them!!

Just another reason for us to do the vehicle CIRCLE OF SAFETY before driving off in our vehicles.


Thanks,

Greenpeace vs. Shell: Duelling vessels

 head for Arctic from Seattle

Jun 12th, 2012

by John Donovan.

By Bellamy Pailthorp

Seattle's Elliott Bay is the epicenter of a global energy fight.

The Shell Oil Company has two rigs docked here, the Kulluk and the Noble Discoverer. Also in Elliott Bay is the Greenpeace vessel, Esperanza.

As soon as the ice clears, Shell's rigs will head out for the Arctic. They'll be the first to conduct exploratory drilling there in more than two decades. Greenpeace plans to shadow them, using submarines.

"… to bring back some of the baseline science and some of the information demonstrating what's out there in this pristine environment that really has never been explored by anyone before and yet, a place where Shell wants to begin drilling," says Jackie Dragon, the lead campaigner for Greenpeace's polar expedition.

Shell says there is no real risk.

"If we couldn't do this safely and responsibly, we wouldn't consider doing it," says Shell Spokesman Curtis Smith.

He declined KPLU's request for a tour of their rigs. But he says Shell has invested in retrofitting them to leave the smallest possible impact on the environment, for example, by making sure they capture the mud and cuttings from drilling, so the waste is not discharged in the path of migrating whales.

(KPLU was allowed on the Greenpeace vessel and our summer intern Lindsay Lowe shot this video of the crew preparing one of its two submarines for a test dive in Puget Sound.)

Ice rules

The Shell spokesman says the oil company has taken nothing for granted in its response plan for the remote seas.

"And that's why we are bringing everything that we need with us. Not just the drilling rigs and the personnel, but the on-site and the near-shore and the onshore oil spill response fleet, that in the very unlikely event it was called upon, could begin working and recovering oil within an hour," Smith says.

Greenpeace insists this is not enough. Dragon says the biggest risk is an accident at the end of the drilling window, when ice could prevent any of the response ships from getting to a gushing well.

"And if that occurs and they cannot get to it, and cap it off and drill a relief well, they stand to have an oil gusher that could go on for years," Dragon says. "And that would be devastating to the environment up there."

Shell says they won't let that happen. That's why they've been waiting for the ice to melt before pulling out of Seattle. Shell's drilling window begins "whenever the sea ice clears or on July 15, whichever is sooner," Smith says.

Not their first battle

Shell has a restraining order against Greenpeace. The activists have to respect a federally-mandated exclusion zone and stay one kilometer away from Shell's vessels. That's after some of them were arrested earlier this year for boarding an oil rig in New Zealand – and Shell sued.

(Photos of KPLU's visit aboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. For larger images and captions or if your device does not support Flash,see the gallery on our Flickr page.)

SOURCE

Posted in: Alaska, Arctic, Associated Press, Environment, Litigation, Oil, Pollution,Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Tagged: Alaska · Arctic Ocean · Beaufort Sea · Chukchi Sea · Greenpeace · Oil · Royal Dutch Shell Plc

← Greenpeace, Shell show off Arctic assets in Seattle

Giant Port Arthur refinery unit seen shut for months →

TALUMPATI NI P-NOY SA ARAW NG KALAYAAN

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

MY HEART WILL GO ON

My Heart Will Go on – Celine Dion Song Lyrics

The TRUTH will set you FREE.

Safety Message: Mercury...

From: Alfred Clayton

Date: Sun, Jun 10, 2012 at 8:58 AM
Subject: FW: Safety Message: Mercury...

This is TOTALLY GROSS!  However, If you have a weak stomach you may not want to view.  But thinking about safety – I wanted to pass the word along to be VERY CAREFUL with these new light bulbs.  Pix are extremely graphic.

---

 Use care when changing hot light bulbs
"H"

This is hard to look at!!!!

    

Shell's 'crimes against humanity'

Jun 6th, 2012

by John Donovan.

FROM A REGULAR CONTRIBUTOR

I have been reading with some interest your main-stream media posts and the accompanying discussions in your blog regarding Shell's complicity with the Nigerian government (or the Nigerian governments complicity with Shell) in the obvious political repression that occurred in the Ogoni tribal region. There was political repression, torture of dissidents, murder, rape, etc., all intended to intimidate and cow the Ogoni into 'acceptance' of the 'pillaging' of the natural resources found on and under Ogoni tribal lands. Furthermore, the resulting environmental damage has severely inhibited the traditional methods by which the Ogoni provided for themselves through fishing and farming, etc.

To a degree there are a number of parallels between the conduct of the Nigerian government and Shell against the Ogoni, and the way the Soviets treated the Ukrainian Cossacks (Kulaks) in the 1920′s. No rational person could convincingly argue against the notion that Stalin was a brutal dictator and that his policies, which led to perhaps 20 million deaths in his own country, did not constitute 'crimes against humanity'. The man was a mass murderer.

Now, if we fast forward to today and look at what is happening in Syria it is obvious that Syria leadership is engaged in wholesale political repression, which includes torture, murder, rape, etc. No rational person could argue against the notion that the Syrian government, upon orders of its dictatorial leader, is engaged in 'crimes against humanity'. Assad is likewise a mass murder. His ordered actions have simply not killed as many people as Stalin or Hitler, etc., did. He would completely depopulate Syria if he did. But there is no doubt that the man is a thug and a butcher.

So, if we revisit the situation in Nigeria, past and present, we must come to the same conclusion about the Nigerian government, and its various leaders, with regard to their treatment of the Ogoni's. Furthermore, Royal Dutch Shell was an active partner/ co-conspirator and instigator. This conduct by Royal Dutch Shell is really no different than IG Farben's conduct during WWII.

From what I know about Royal Dutch Shell, and I know a fair amount given that I once worked for the outfit, it is clear to me that Royal Dutch Shell  leadership should be held accountable for their complicity in what are clearly premeditated 'crimes against humanity'. Management at Royal Dutch Shell clearly has a neo-colonial attitude when dealing with peoples of the third world, their only goal being to make as muchmoney as quickly as possible, and give as little as possible back to the people whose resources they are plundering. It is a classic f*** you, rape, ruin and run philosophy, and so very typical of the oil industry.

I, for one, am delighted to see that the US Supreme Court is going to take up the matter. They can then take up the matter of Royal Dutch Shell's conduct in Brazil regarding pesticide production and pollution.

It is high time Royal Dutch Shell management be held accountable for their conduct.

Posted in: Corporate Governance, Human Rights, Litigation, Nigeria, Oil, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, United States.
Tagged: Human Rights · Militant Attacks · Niger Delta · Nigeria · Royal Dutch Shell Plc

← Shell and The Future of The Ogoni

Shell moves to help enable exploration off Zanzibar →

CEMETERY WATCHMAN

From: Alfred Clayton <clayalf@msn.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 4:30 PM

Thanks just isn't enough.....
Cemetery Watchman .

My friend Kevin and I are volunteers at a National cemetery in Oklahoma and put in a few days a month in a 'slightly larger' uniform. Today had been a long, long day and I just wanted to get the day over with and go down to Smokey's and have a cold one. Sneaking a look at my watch,

I saw the time, 16:55. Five minutes to go before the cemetery gates are closed for the day.

Full dress was hot in the August sun Oklahoma summertime was as bad as ever--the heat and humidity at the same level--both too high.

I saw the car pull into the drive, '69 or '70 model Cadillac Deville, looked factory-new. It pulled into the parking lot at a snail's pace.. An old woman got out so slow I thought she was paralyzed; she had a cane and a sheaf of flowers--about four or five bunches as best I could tell.

I couldn't help myself. The thought came unwanted, and left a slightly bitter taste: 'She's going to spend an hour, and for this old soldier, my hip hurts like hell and I'm ready to get out of here right now!' But for this day, my duty was to assist anyone coming in.

Kevin would lock the 'In' gate and if I could hurry the old biddy along, we might make it to Smokey's in time.

I broke post attention. My hip made gritty noises when I took the first step and the pain went up a notch. I must have made a real military sight: middle-aged man with a small pot gut and half a limp, in marine full-dress uniform, which had lost its razor crease about thirty minutes after I began the watch at the cemetery.

I stopped in front of her, halfway up the walk. She looked up at me with an old woman's squint.

'Ma'am, may I assist you in any way?'

She took long enough to answer.

'Yes, son. Can you carry these flowers? I seem to be moving a tad slow these days.'

'My pleasure, ma'am.'

(Well, it wasn't too much of a lie.)

She looked again. 'Marine, where were you stationed?'

' Vietnam , ma'am.. Ground-pounder. '69 to '71.'

She looked at me closer.

'Wounded in action, I see. Well done, Marine. I'll be as quick as I can.'

I lied a little bigger:

'No hurry, ma'am.'

She smiled and winked at me.

'Son, I'm 85-years-old and I can tell a lie from a long way off.. Let's get this done. Might be the last time I can do this. My name's Joanne Wieserman, and I've a few Marines I'd like to see one more time..'

'Yes, ma 'am. At your service.'

She headed for the World War I section, stopping at a stone. She picked one of the flower bunches out of my arm and laid it on top of the stone.

She murmured something I couldn't quite make out.. The name on the marble was,
Donald S. Davidson, USMC:
France 1918.

She turned away and made a straight line for the World War II section, stopping at one stone I saw a tear slowly tracking its way down her cheek.

She put a bunch on a stone; the name was,Stephen X. Davidson, USMC, 1943.

She went up the row a ways and laid another bunch on a stone, Stanley J. Wieserman, USMC, 1944.

She paused for a second and more tears flowed.

'Two more, son, and we'll be done'

I almost didn't say anything, but, 'Yes, ma'am. Take your time.'

She looked confused..

'Where's the Vietnam section, son? I seem to have lost my way.'

I pointed with my chin.

'That way, ma'am.'

'Oh!' she chuckled quietly.

'Son, me and old age ain't too friendly.'

She headed down the walk I'd pointed at. She stopped at a couple of stones before she found the ones she wanted. She placed a bunch on, Larry Wieserman, USMC, 1968, and the last on Darrel Wieserman, USMC, 1970.

She stood there and murmured a few words I still couldn't make out and more tears flowed.

'OK, son, I'm finished. Get me back to my car and you can go home.'

Yes, ma'am. If I may ask, were those your kinfolk?'

She paused.

'Yes, Donald Davidson was my father, Stephen was my uncle, Stanley was my Husband, Larry and Darrel were our sons. All killed in action, all Marines.'

She stopped! Whether she had finished, or couldn't finish, I don't know.

She made her way to her car, slowly and painfully.

I waited for a polite distance to come between us and then double-timed it over to Kevin, waiting by the car.

'Get to the 'Out' gate quick.. I have something I've got to do.'

Kevin started to say something, but saw the look I gave him. He broke the rules to get us down the service road fast. We beat her.

She hadn't made it around the rotunda yet.

'Kevin, stand at attention next to the gatepost.

Follow my lead.'

I humped it across the drive
to the other post.

When the Cadillac came puttering around from the hedges and began the short straight traverse to the gate, I called in my best gunny's voice:

'TehenHut!

Present Haaaarms!'

I have to hand it to Kevin; he never blinked an eye--full dress attention and a salute that would make his DI proud. She drove through that gate with two old worn-out soldiers giving her a send-off she deserved, for service rendered to her country, and for knowing duty, honor and sacrifice far beyond the realm of most.

I am not sure, but I think I saw a salute returned from that Cadillac.

Instead of 'The End,' just think of 'Taps.'

As a final thought on my part, let me share a favorite prayer:

'Lord, keep our servicemen and women safe, whether they serve at home or overseas.

Hold them in your loving hands and protect them as they protect us.'

Let's all keep those currently serving and those who have gone before in our thoughts. They are the reason for the many freedoms we enjoy.

'In God We Trust.'

Sorry about your monitor; it made mine blurry too!

If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under!