Monday, December 27, 2010
Why SHELL wont SUE BILL CAMPBELL ?
Why won't Shell
sue its former
HSE Group Auditor
Bill Campbell for libel?
By John Donovan
Printed below are extracts from an email I sent on 9 August 2006 to the then CEO of Royal Dutch Shell Plc., Mr Jeroen van der Veer.
It concerned very serious published allegations against Shell management by the former HSE Group Auditor of Shell International, Mr Bill Campbell. His allegations related to the Brent Bravo explosion in which two Shell employees lost their lives as a consequence of alleged criminal negligence. It was an investigation led by Bill Campbell that revealed the notorious "Touch Fu** All" safety culture for Shell North Sea production platforms, endorsed by Shell management.
Mr Campbell has also alleged a cover-up involving senior executive directors of Royal Dutch Shell.
No reply or acknowledgment was received in response to the email. Shell did contact Mr Campbell's solicitors in the hope of ending his contact with us. That maneuver was unsuccessful.
We understand that following a long investigation by the Grampion Police, a decision by the Scottish legal authorities on launching a prosecution is imminent.
THE EMAIL
Dear Mr Van der Veer
As a long term Shell shareholder I am extremely concerned by the serious allegations made by the former Shell International Group Auditor, Mr Bill Campbell, concerning alleged falsification of records in relation to the Shell Brent scandal.
We really cannot have a distinguished former high level Shell official being allowed to make such accusations without Shell taking action against him for defamation if, as Shell claims, they are untrue.
This is not a case of some outsider ignorant of the facts making wild accusations. The charges in this case are being made by a person of high reputation and considerable expertise following his authorised investigation as Group Auditor into the Brent safety regime.
Since a number of "accidental" deaths have occurred on Brent Bravo, two of which resulted in a record breaking £900,000 fine imposed on Shell, the allegation of falsification of records could result in criminal charges if true.
Mr Campbell is on record as claiming that he has personally met with you to discuss these matters. If this is correct, then you must be fully briefed on the issues and the allegations he has publicly made. They have been repeated in various mass media sources and in trade publications including, for example, UpstreamOnline.
Mr Campbell says that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times. He further alleges that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and the Shell Expro Managing Director in 1999 (Malcolm Brinded), contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
My father and I have published some outspoken articles about Shell ourselves but nothing as serious as the charges levelled against Shell management by your own former Group Auditor. And as you are aware, we have a special dispensation from Shell International Petroleum Company to say what we like about Shell.
Surely Shell is not going to allow Mr Campbell to continued repeating these devastating allegations? If they are unfounded, why have you not already instituted libel proceedings? If they are true, why have you not sacked Malcolm Brinded? Why has he not done the honourable thing and resigned?
If you do not take action, people will naturally assume that Shell management is unwilling to do so because Mr Campbell is speaking the truth and can prove it.
If anyone says anything untrue about Shell, it is your duty Mr Van der Veer to take action to protect the reputation of the Shell brand. However, you have my sympathy to some degree because Shell management blunders and misdeeds have been so wide-ranging that people who wish to criticise have an almost unlimited supply of ammunition.
Conclusion: the fact that Shell has not obtained an injunction to prevent Mr Campbell making his allegations speaks volumes. He is plainly a man of great courage speaking the truth.
Yours sincerely
John Donovan
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Nazi Style Reprisals and Terrorism
NAZI STYLE REPRISALS AND CORPORATE
TERRORISM AGAINST FORMER SHELL EMPLOYEE
COMING SOON:
THE TRUE STORY OF ASTONISHING NAZI STYLE REPRISALS AND CORPORATE TERRORISM AGAINST A FORMER SHELL EMPLOYEE OF ALMOST 30 YEARS, A DEEPLY RELIGIOUS, CONSCIENCE DRIVEN MAN, WHO BELIEVED IN SHELL'S BUSINESS PRINCIPLES. UNFORTUNATELY, LIKE BILL CAMPBELL, FORMER HSE GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL, AND MANY OTHERS, HE DISCOVERED THAT THE CLAIMED PRINCIPLES ARE A SHAM PROMOTED BY SHELL'S PROPAGANDA MINISTRY. THIS IS THE MAN WHO BLEW THE WHISTLE INTERNALLY, ON SHELL'S OIL AND GAS RESERVES FRAUD.
Payback time for corporate villains?
"Although Shell has extracted more than £30bn from the area,the people who live on the land survive on less than 60 pence a day, with barely any roads, schools or hospitals. Many of the Ogoni people who have spoken out against this scandal have been killed by the Nigerian state."
By Johann Hari
At the moment, foreign victims of UK corporations are left with almost no ability to answer back
Article first published: 08 June 2006At first glance, it seems almost comically boring, a triple dose of political Mogadon. The Company Law Reform Bill appeared for its second reading in the House of Commons yesterday, and although it's easy to see why the biggest reform of Britain's corporate rules in 150 years is a big deal, it's hard to keep your mind focussed on the 900 pages of mind-numbing detail – until you realise one thing. There is a clear path running from these dry, jargon-packed pages to a human rights campaigner hanging by his neck on a rope in Nigeria and to the trashed rainforests of Indonesia.
The best guide on this long and bloody road is Hannah Ellis, chair of Britain's Corporate Responsibility Coalition (Core). She is campaigning – with the support of more than 200 MPs and all the major human rights organisations – to have the Bill amended to include a very basic principle. "At the moment, a British company director is held responsible for losing profits, or for being corrupt," she says. "So why shouldn't he be held responsible for environmental or human rights abuses his company commits too?" Ellis wants to see every British company legally required to audit the impact they have on human rights and the environment every year – at the moment, many don't even bother to look – and, crucially, for the victims of any abuses to be able to sue them in a British court.
Enter bloodied victims, stage left. At the moment, the foreign victims of British corporations are left with almost no ability to answer back. Ellis suggests a crop of corporations which might face legal action if the law was amended to make them answerable for killings and burnings abroad.
One of the most obvious contenders is Shell for its oily behaviour in the Niger Delta. Ken Saro-Wiwa, a human rights campaigner, described the effect Shell had on his community back in 1992: "Oil exploration has turned Ogoni into a wasteland: lands, stream and creeks are totally and continually polluted; the atmosphere has been poisoned.
"Acid rain, oil spillages and oil blowouts have devastated Ogonia territory."
Not only has their environment been destroyed; the people of the Niger Delta have seen none of the profits. Although Shell has extracted more than £30bn from the area, the people who live on the land survive on less than 60 pence a day, with barely any roads, schools or hospitals. Many of the Ogoni people who have spoken out against this scandal have been killed by the Nigerian state. Shortly before he was seized on ludicrous trumped-up charges, Saro-Wiwa said: "This is it. They are going to arrest us all and execute us all for Shell." Although Shell vociferously denies responsibility, their close business partner swiftly hanged Saro-Wiwa, and a major critic of the corporation was conveniently silenced.
It has not stopped. In a recent report, Amnesty International said that 10 years on, government security forces – protecting the interests of Shell and other oil companies – are still destroying villages that cause trouble. Even Shell Nigeria's own former head of environmental studies, J P Van Dessel, said in 1996: "It is clear to me that Shell was devastating the area." If the Company Law Reform Bill is amended," Ellis says, "the Ogoni people could begin to make Shell answer their charges in a British court.
There are other alleged crimes being committed by British corporations, Ellis says, that will rebound even more terribly on us at home. For example, the world's second-largest rainforests, in Indonesia, are being systematically destroyed by British corporations, in an act of environmental vandalism that will make the effects of global warming on our rainy island even more extreme.
Friends of the Earth recently documented that the Indonesian island of Sumatra has lost 70 per cent of its rainforest cover in the past few decades due to logging – and for what? To clear space to make palm oil, a product that you certainly have in your lipstick, bars of soap, margarine and bread. Britain is the second-biggest consumer in Europe. At the current rate of destruction, the rainforest will be almost gone in 12 years, and the orang-utan, one of our closest cousins, will be extinct.
But can the corporations responsible be held accountable under British law? No. Not our problem, guv. (Not until hurricane season, anyway). Up until very recently, the UK's largest supermarket, Tesco, did not use any of its £2bn-a-year profits to figure out if the palm oil it sells you is sourced from the wrecked rainforests of Indonesia. They will "be ready to participate" when "the issues are clear", they said in their explanation of why they refused to make the issue clear by checking their own supply lines. Only after massive pressure did they admit that some of their palm oil is from uncertain sources and make rote promises to look into it – but the ongoing ambiguity could make them another candidate for prosecution for potential environmental crimes if the current Bill is reformed.
At the moment, the proposed Bill asks company directors to "consider" the environmental and human rights consequences of their actions, but it puts in place no legal measures – none – to make them do so. This is the classic New Labour approach to corporate abuse, which is to stress voluntary adherence to voluntary codes. But how many people would follow Asbos if they were voluntary? Has anybody suggested the new measures on knife crime should be up to the whim of the offender, on the grounds that young thugs can be "trusted" to see the rules are "in their own best interests"?
Corporate CEOs will only ever respond to the bottom line, and it is preposterously naïve, at best, to suggest otherwise. If they do not deliver maximum profits to their shareholders, they will be sacked and replaced with somebody who will. The only way to make them behave better is to make it cost. A lot. Mega-bucks prosecutions from their victims in the corruption-free British courts are one way to make it happen. But the Government – bowing to corporate pressure – still clings to its belief in a unified globalised economy where there is only fractured, localised legal responsibility. This is virtually a charter for corporate abuse.
At his show-trial, Ken Saro-Wiwa warned: "I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial too … for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the company has waged in the Delta will be called into question sooner or later, and the crimes of that war will be duly punished."
If we amend that dry, dull Bill sitting in the House of Commons, we may yet wring some hope from Wiwa's dying cry.
j.hari@independent.co.uk
MESSAGE TO SHELL MANAGEMENT
Message to Shell
management from
a blunt American
BY A FORMER EMPLOYEE OF SHELL OIL USAI have been reading and contributing to this blog for some months now, and it is clear that RD Shell has pretty much made an implacable enemy out of the Donovan's. They have done so unnecessarily and through managerial arrogance and complete incompetence.
Unlike RD Shell management John and Alfred conduct themselves with a good degree of 'class' and humor, and respect for the law, and I commend them for this.
I think I know a little about John's attitude towards you folks, and I sympathize with him. That attitude could probably be most colorfully stated by quoting a famous fictional character of American literature, Captain Ahab, of Herman Melville's 'Mody Dick' (I presume you people do read good literature, on occasion). To wit:
"To the end I will grapple with thee;
From Hell's heart I will stab at thee;
and for Hate's sake I will spit my last breath at thee."
From Hell's heart I will stab at thee;
and for Hate's sake I will spit my last breath at thee."
John would never cast his approach to you folks in such a harsh and colorfully blunt form. He is British, after all, and has manners that we Americans sometimes fail to appreciate.
I am American, and therefore far more blunt in my approach to such matters. Hense, the above quotation (which does a pretty good job of describing my attitude). However, the point should not be lost on you people. You folks in RD Shell management need to be a lot more careful about whose shoe's you piss on. Dealing with people unfairly has a nasty way of coming back to haunt you, BIG TIME. As Bill Clinton once said: 'Doesn't take a tree full of owls to figure that one out.'
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Donna Getz allegations against Shell
Donna Getz
allegations
against Shell
The following information
is generated from emails
received from Donna Getz,
who makes self
explanatory
allegations against Shell
and other parties.
BY DONNA GETZ
Read your articles about Royal Dutch Shell. It makes me sick what they can get away with.
I am going to tell you what happened to myself and my family.
We were caretaking a ranch near Tumbler Ridge, BC about six years ago. We were looking after their horses and ours. We never received payment for this.
Unknown to us, Shell Oil was drilling a well 3 km across country from us.
When they started to flare the well, something went wrong. We got hurt from this. The spruce trees had golden patches on them, the leaves on the cottonwood turned upside down, the game left or died. Four of our horses died over time from this and we have one that is still wheezing from it. I have 30% lungs left, my husband and daughter 50% left. Our truck we had at the time, rusted out on one side.
The Oil and Gas Commission came out and took pictures, etc. They told me to forget about my face, my family and animals because Shell was putting money into the community, they were staying in the hotels, eating at restaurants and spending time in the pubs. I have letters from two politicians, Blair Lekstrom and Richard Neufeld (now a senator) saying the same thing.
Shell flew me to Edmonton to specialists. They told me I was okay. While I was there, the Shell rep took the specialists aside and talked to them. Later on they received money from Shell. Did I get a good report or a bought report?
We later went to specialists on our own and found out that we lost lung function. We also found out that when the specialist was flushing our lungs out that the saline solution turned to a white foam. He told us we could not live by the ocean or be near it for long as this foam would form in our lungs. We cannot live in the gas fields.
We obtained a lawyer, Brian Sutton from Naniamo, BC. He led us on for over five years then told us we did not have enough money to fight Shell. He wanted to get off the case. We tried to get a second opinion and no lawyer in BC will look at the case or talk to us. In the mean time, Shell put it into court and the judge said we had to pay Shell costs. Their lawyer just sent us a bill. We have no money, no lawyer and no law. I talked to Shell's lawyer after we received the bill.
I took Brian Sutton to the Law Society of BC and they found lots of wrong doings. They are disciplining him but that still doesn't help us. We do not know where to go from here.
We were shocked by what we read on your website. We will never buy Shell products and haven't for a long time.
Go ahead and publish, it cannot do any more harm to us. It may even help us and other people. We are going to start letting it be known all over the world. It is sad when a company like Shell can make it so a person who is hurt by them has no recourse. Besides what they did with the flaring, they wanted to go back in the same hole to fix what went wrong but couldn't do it while we were there so they had us run out of Tumber Ridge. We had no money and no place to go. My husband's disabled sister in Norway gave us some money to move away.
The people who had the ranch threw us out. They figured that Shell, Western Canada Coal and Encana were going to pay them money for the ranch. They ended up with nothing, they cannot even stay overnight on the ranch.
Shell Oil has a rep on the Oil and Gas Commission Board. Good regulatory body for the gas companies, isn't it. It's like asking the fox to take care of the chickens!!
Thank you for your time.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
LAMPSHADES MADE FROM HUMAN SKIN
Royal Dutch Shell
and the
lampshades
made from
HUMAN SKIN
The Sun newspaper has published an article horrifically confirming,following a DNA test, that a lampshade bought at a New Orleans car boot sale is made from human skin. A gruesome relic from Nazi crimes against humanity in the 2nd World War. As the main financier of the Nazis, does Royal Dutch Shell bear any moral (or legal) responsibility for the crimes of Hitler and his equally evil henchmen?Extract:
We've all heard the stories of the Nazi human lampshades.There have been many fakes over the years but no proven examples of a real Nazi lamp made from the skin of Jewish prisoners in concentration camps during the Second World War.However, one crucial early scientific test set this lamp apart.When Mark, an American, sent a small piece away for DNA testing at Bode Technology near Washington DC it came back as "100 per cent human".Royal Dutch Shell had no involvement in the concentration camps, but driven by greed, the company did in the crucial years prior to the 2nd World War, save the Nazi party from financial collapse and continue to pump funds into the Nazi regime in a variety of ways.
Greed and fat cat egotism won out over mere moral considerations. Shell knowingly collaborated directly with Hitler and the Nazis – the most evil regime in history. Without Shell's financial backing, history might have unfolded without the horrors of the 2nd World War.
What transpired all those years ago obviously has no reflection on current Shell employees, the vast majority of whom are decent hard working people.
Those events do however stain forever the name of Royal Dutch Shell and the brand name by which the company is best known throughout the world: Shell.
--
Antonio L. Buensuceso Jr.
We've all heard the stories of the Nazi human lampshades.
There have been many fakes over the years but no proven examples of a real Nazi lamp made from the skin of Jewish prisoners in concentration camps during the Second World War.
However, one crucial early scientific test set this lamp apart.
When Mark, an American, sent a small piece away for DNA testing at Bode Technology near Washington DC it came back as "100 per cent human".
Saturday, November 6, 2010
SHELL NAZI SECRETS
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL NAZI SECRETS
Posted on November 6th, 2010
by John Donovan in All News
Read 130 times.
By Alfred Donovan and John Donovan
We have previously revealed how Royal Dutch Shell Group and its founder, Sir Henri Deterding, saved the Nazi Party when it was in danger of financial collapse.
After considerable further research, we have now published in 9 parts, extensive information revealing the variety of ways Shell found to provide huge financial support to the most evil regime in history.
We also provide comprehensive information/evidence of how Royal Dutch Shell (and/or its German subsidiary): -
- was arguably indirectly responsible for over 30 million deaths in World War 2
- sold out its own Jewish employees to the Nazis, some of whom did not survive the war
- instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant
- engaged in anti-Semitic policies against Shell employees
- financed the Nazis
- appeased the Nazis
- collaborated with the Nazis
- used slave labor
- conspired directly with Hitler
- got into bed with I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children
- continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri as the Chief Executive of the Royal Dutch Shell Group and even after his death
All information is supported by independent verifiable evidence from reputable sources.
We have also published stunning photographs as further evidence of the Royal Dutch Shell/Nazi association.
With the except of the section headed "BRIBERY & CORRUPTION" in Part 7, Shell (via Mr Richard Wiseman) has had advance sight of all nine parts,including associated photographs/graphics, plus the information under the heading "Authors relationship with Shell". Royal Dutch Shell was invited to correct any inaccurate information and supply any comment to be published alongside the article on an unedited basis. No response was forthcoming. Some minor editing has taken place as part of the proof reading process. Nothing substantial has changed.
Royal Dutch Shell Nazi Secrets Part 1: The Funeral
Royal Dutch Shell Nazi Secrets Part 2: Financier of the Third Reich
Royal Dutch Shell Nazi Secrets Part 3: Relationship continued after Deterding retirement
Royal Dutch Shell and the Nazis Part 4: Royal Dutch Shell Anti-Semitism
Royal Dutch Shell and the Nazis Part 5: Evidence of Shell/Deterding financial support for the Nazis
Royal Dutch Shell and the Nazi Part 6: I.G. Farben, Royal Dutch Shell and Nazi slave labor
Royal Dutch Shell Nazis Secrets Part 7: Why does it still matter?
Royal Dutch Shell Nazi Secrets Part 8: Nazi connections
Royal Dutch Shell Nazi Secrets Part 9: Further evidence
Royal Dutch Shell Nazi Secrets: Authors relationship with Shell (Alfred Donovan and John Donovan)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
BACK TO BUSINESS
FROM BILL CAMPBELL, FORMER GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: SENT FROM 24 JULY 2007
Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.
Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.
My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.
As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.
When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.
Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking £900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.
Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).
Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record – the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions - tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.
I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.
My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.
However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.
At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.
Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell
Saturday, September 4, 2010
TIA NENE
MAALAALA MO KAYA
Dear Charo,
Para sa pinakamamahal kong Tia Nene.
Sa buhay ng tao may mga pagkakataon na tayo ay kailangan na pumili ng nang mga bagay na haharapin natin at mga bagay na tatalikdan. At tulad ng mga kababayan natin na nangibang bansa...sila tulad ko sa pagsuong nila sa hamon ng pag hanap ng magandang kapalaran sa ibang bayan eh naranasan na rin nila ang bigat ng kalooban sa paglisan lalo at higit sa pagkakataong ang taong aalis ay may iiwan mahal sa buhay na nasa malubhang karamdaman.....
Marso 2008...takdang paglipad namin mag asawa at bunsong anak tungong Amerika.......umalis kami iwan ang aming dalawang anak na dalaga at isang apo at ang aking ina-inahan na may malubhang kapansanan sa balakang...siya si Tia Nene at ang kuento ng buhay niya ang ilalahad ko sa iyo ngayon.....
Dear Charo,
Salamat sa mga pagkakataong ipinagkaloob ng Panginoon na magkaroon kami ng pagkakataong magkakilala...magkasama..maging bahagi ng buhay ng isat-isa... pagkakataon na naranasan ko ang pagkakaroon ng dalawang tatawaging aking ina...dalawang ina na nagbuhos ng pagmamahal, pag-aaruga, pag gabay at pag-unawa, higit noong aking kamusmusan.
Dear Charo,
Malapit sa akin si Tia Nene sa dahilang sa aming walong magkakapatid ay ako ang nagkaroon kaagad ng kasunod sa loob ng isang taon at isang buwan, isang dahilan na kapag ako ay may pangangailangan bilang bata ay si Tia Nene na ang tumutugon dahil sa ang aking ina ay ang abala na sa mas nakababatang anak na sumunod sa akin.
Naala-ala ko pa na kapag ako ay matutulog ay di ako makatulog ng hindi ko katabi si Tia Nene. Tatawagin ko siya habang siya ay nasa silong at nananahi..ramdam kong hihinto ang makina at dinig ko ang mga yabag ng hakbang niya patungo sa aking tabi...nandyan nasiya.. himbing naman ako agad .. maaring pagkatulog ko ay muli nyang itutuloy ang kanyang pananahi ...yun di ko na alam.
Ngunit ang aking higit na natatandaan ay kapag ako ay may sakit o lagnat: pupunasan nya ako at lalagyan ang aking noo ng kapirasong katsa na basa ng suka ..at paiinumin ng medicol o kaya cortal at babantayan na nya ako hanggang ako ay tuluyan nang gumaling... kapag naman ako ay papasok sa Central (school) ay siya ang nagpapaligo at nagbibihis sa akin at naghahanda ng pagkain at gamit sa pagpasok... at pagkadating ko naman eh sya ang magpapalit ng aking damit na basa ng pawis at bibihisan naman ako ng pambahay at panlaro.
Magtatapos ang dekada 50 noong natatandaan kong isinama ako ni Tia Nene sa bulubundukin ng Baguilawa, akay akay nya ako tungo sa paradahan ng dyip patungong Baguilawa ..yun na siguro ang huling biyahe dahilang hapon na, palubog na ang araw at konti na lang ang mga tao sa palengke... punong puno ang dyip ng pasahero,ng sako.. sako ng bigas, pakain sa baboy...
patuka..gaas...mga kung ano-anong bagay na pinamalengke... basta alam ko nakatayo ako sa loob ng dyip sa harapan ni Tia Nene ... nakakapit ako sa hawakan na nasa likod ng driver na nakaupong patagilid upang mapagkasya ang may ilang tao sa harapan ..bukod pa ang ilang pasahero na nakaupo sa ibabaw ng hood... ganoon pa man ang karga ng dyip ay nakakatakbo pa rin ito..tanda ko rin ang pangalan ng dyip.. TITA-ME.
Ilang sandali pa ay pinaandar na ng driver ang dyip na Tita-me at dumaan kami sa isang tulay na bato at pagkatapos ay dalawa namang makipot na tulay na may bahaging bakal at ang gitna ay dalawang malapad na tabla akma sa lugal na daraanan ng gulong ng sasakyan...bagaman kahit ito ay bakal hindi naman maari na magsalubungan ang sasakyan dahil sa ito ay makipot at maliiit lamang...pagkatapos lumagpas sa ikalawang tulay na bakal ay mga ilang saglit ay kumanan na ang Tita-me at nagsimula na magbago ang ugong ng makina ..naging malagong na parang nagagalit na dinosaur at pagdating sa may kataasan ay natambad na sa aking paningin ang unti-unting paglitaw ng mga ilaw sa tabi ng karagatan habang lumalaganap ang karimlan..kay gandang malasin at sariwaain kahit sa isipan lang...Dito sa pagdalaw na ito ng Tia Nene sa Baguilawa, una kong namalas ang kagandahan ng tabihang dagat ng Bauan. Dito rin noong panahong iyon natikman ang gulay na purong malunggay na may sangkap na bawang na isasabaw sa kanin na sa paglapat sa aking dila ay .. ito ay aking pagugulungin sa aking dila at sa sarap ng langhap at dulas ng kanin ay tuloy tuloy agad iyon sa aking lalamunan...at kinabukasan naman para sa pananghalian ay inihuli at ipinagpatay kami ng dumalagang manok na tagalog at lutong may lahok na papaya at dahon ng sili.
Sa akin namang paglalaro ay naging kasama-sama si Tanoy, isang kababata na taga roon, sa pagkuyabit sa puno ng chico sa likod ng kanilang bahay na malapit sa school.
Halos kahit saan mang lugal na magpunta si Tia Nene ay nais kong sumama o humahabol ako, kaya kahit sa pamimili ni Tia Nene at pagbibili ng tapilan ay naging kasakasama niya ako. Noon ibibili nya ako ng dalawang pirasong pan de sal na kapag pinagsagup ay sinlaki na ng aking ulo noong panahong iyon at iiwan na niya ako sa gilid ng isang tindahan sa palengke na kinatatayuan ng ngayon ay Bay Mall. Habang siya ay namimili ay utay utay ko namang nginungotngot o kinakain ang dalawang pan de sal at sa loob ng dalawang oras ay makikita ko na ang sarili ko nakaupo na sa ibabaw ng dalawang sako ng tapilan na salop salop na pinamili ni Tia Nene. Pagkatapos ay isinakay namin yun sa dyip na biyaheng Lipa para doon naman ipagbili.
Hindi mawala sa aking ala-ala noong ibaba namin sa loob ng palengke ang sako ng tapilan. Mula sa loob ng dyip ay itinulak ni Tia Nene ang sako na puno ng tapilan sa pamamagitan ng paa, na saglit lang na lumapat ang sako ng tapilan sa daan nang biglang darating ang kasunod na dyip at sinagasaan ang sako ng tapilan. Wala na akong iba pang natandaan liban lang sadinadakot namin ang mga kumalat na tapilan at isinasalin sa ibang sako.. buti na lang at di naman kami nasaktan. Ngunit ako ay nabahala na baka sa nangyaring yun sa tapilan ay di na makayanan ni Tia Nene na bayaran pa ang inutang na 5 daang piso na puhunan sa Bauan Rural Bank. Nasabi ni Tia Nene ang bagay na yun at itinanong niya sa akin na kung di siya makabayad at siya ay makulong ay ano ang aking gagawin. Ako ay nag-isip papaano nga baga iyon? Sagot ko sa kanya eh, sasama ako sa kanya sa kulungan. Sa kabutihang palad sa awa ng Diyos nakabayad naman siya sa kanyang inutang.
Maging sa pag-ibig ..mukhang ako ay naging balakid sa mga nais manligaw noon kay Tia Nene.Sinumang binatang parang umaaligid sa kanya ay nakakaranas ng aking pagtutol sa pamamagitan isang putol na kahoy na panggatong na aking kinukuha sa ilalim ng abuhan... palagay ko kapag hindi lumayo yun manliligaw nayun o di tumakbo ay matitikman niya ang gulpe buhat sa hampas ng panggatong na bitbit ko. Nanatili na ngang dalaga si Tia Nene noong panahong yaon.
Gayunpaman noong magtatapos ang taong 1978 ay naipaalam ko kay Tia Nene ang aking balak na mag-asawa na sa Mayo 1979 ngunit, makailang araw naman ay sinabi sa akin ni Tia Nene na magpapakasal na raw sila ng Tio Idro sa Enero, una ng mga 5 buwan sa takdang kasal ko. Ako ay nagulat di ko kasi akalain na iibig pa si Tia Nene, dahil kahit na minsan ay di ko nakita na harapin ni Tia Nene si Tio Idro..tanda ko pa na pumapanhik sa balkonahe ang Tio Idro upang manligaw ay mabilis namang bumababa sa batalan ang Tia Nene, hindi lang isang beses kong nasaksihan ang ganoong eksena kundi napakaraming beses ...kaya noong sabihin sa aking mag-papakasal na sila ng Tio Idro ...papaano nangyari yun, ang tanong ko sa sarili ko..siguro natakot rin si Tia Nene na sa pag-aasawa ko ay mahirap mabuhay ng solo... kaya gagawin niya iyon o dili kaya ay matagal na rin niyang pinipigil na magmahal dahil sa akin.
Nagpakasal nga sila ni Tio Idro noong Enero 1979 at ako naman noong dumating ang Mayo.. naging maligaya si Tia Nene sa piling ng Tio Idro ngunit sa di katagalan ay lumisan na sa daigdig si Tio Idro at noon namuhay ng solo si Tia Nene.. ang pagkamatay na yun ni Tio Idro ay isang mabigat na dalahin sa kanyang kalooban ngunit itong dalahin ay higit na bumigat noong bahay na kanilang tirahan ay nasunog at halos walang naisalbang ari-arian...sinabi ko sa kanya na sumama na lang sa amin at pumayag naman siya..pero tuwing hapon ay napapansin kong siya ay lumuluha ...at itinanong ko kung bakit..ani niya nagpapakita raw sa kanya si Tio Idro at itinatanong kung bakit siya ay nasa amin ganong me bahay naman daw sila...kaya sinabi ko sa kanya na huwag mag-alaala at magtatayo muli tayo ng bahay sa lugal ng nasunog na dati nilang bahay.. nayari at lumipat na muli si Tia Nene sa kanyang bagong bahay..
Nakita kong muli ang kaligayahan sa kanyang mukha subalit isang pangyayari na hindi nais ni Tia Nene na mangyari sa kanya ang naganap noong siya bagaman malakas pa sa edad 88 ay nadulas habang nagpupunas ng basang sahig sa kusina dahilan para mapataktak sa sahig na semento ang kanyang balakang at nagmula noon ay di na muli siyang nakatayo at nakalakad...sa ganoong kondisyon ay sinamahan ko na siya sa kanyang bahay at ako ang nag-intindina ng kanyang pangangailangan sa tulong na rin ng iba pa niyang pamangkin. pinagtulong tulungan naming mapaginhawa ang kanyang kalagayan.
Ngunit talagang mapagbiro ang tadhana dahil makalipas naman halos ang isang lingo ay dumating naman sa akin ang abiso ng US embassy na approve na raw ang immigrant petition puntang Amerika na dalawamput apat na taon kong hinintay at schedule na raw kami for interview para sa immigrant petition namin tungong Amerika.... hindi ko na ito kaagad sinabi kay Tia Nene dahil ayaw ko siyang mag-ala-ala..ngunit ang ilang beses kong pagluwas luwas para sa requirements ng petition ay di na nailihim sa kanya..marahil kapag ako ay wala eh, merong di sinasadyang nabangit sa kanyang maaring kami ay aalis patungong Amerika..ito ay itinanong niya sa akin...sagot ko eh, kung papalarin ho..at siya ay lumuha ...sambit niya ... sana mamayapa muna siya bago ako umalis..nayakap ko siya at pinalakas ang loob ..sabi ko ...gagaling pakayo at pagbabalik ko ay magaling na kayo...
Dear Charo,
Damang dama ko ang bigat na dinadala ni Tia Nene noong mga sandaling iyon.Ang batang itinuring niyang isang tunay na anak at inaasahan na aalalay sa kanya sa kanyang katandaan eh, sa mga pagkakataong iyon ay nagpapahiwatig ng paglisan kung kelan pang nasa malubha siyang kalagayan. Pakiwari ko ang sakit na kanyang nararamdaman sa kanyang kalooban ay lalong higit na masakit kesa sa sakit dulot ng kirot ng bali ng kanyang balakang na sa bawat kibo ay maririnig ko ang kanyang daing, huni,at haluyhoy....kirot na di na maampat ng anumang pain reliever na kanyang iniinom.
Ang bahay niya ay may kalayuan sa bahay na tirahan namin inisip kong kumbinsihin siya na sumama na sa aming bahay para lagi siyang matingnan ng aking dalawang anak na dalaga kung sakaling kami ay umalis patungong Amerika.
Dahan dahan o unti unti niyaya ko na siya sa amin na sumama..dahil mahirap para sa mga anak ko na alagaan siya sa San Diego Barangay 4 habang ang mga anak ko naman ay nasa Markaban, Barangay 2... una bantulot si Tia Nene na lumipat sa amin ngunit bandang huli ay pumayag na rin siya.
Makalipas ang 5 buwan ay napatakda na ang paglipad namin tungong Amerika isang bagay na napakabigat gawin sa ganoong kalagayan nag-alaga sa akin na dapat ay aking aalagaan sa kanyang kalagayan ay aking maiiwan.. naala-ala ko pa ang laging tanong niya sa akin kung huhugasan ko ang kanyang puwit pag siya ay matanda na ... ang sagot ko ay .. oho pero ngayon ako ang dapat maghugas sa kanya ay siya itong mapapalayo.. tanda ko pa kapag ako ay may sakit ..tinatawag ko si Tia Nene ...kagyat nandyan agad siya sa aking tabi.. ngayong alam kong ako naman ang kanyang tinatawag ay di ko nagawang tabihan siya...patawad Tia Nene ..alam ko nauunawaan niya ako..Laging ganoon ..lagi niya akong inuunawa at pinagbibigyan.. mula noong bata hihilahin ko ang kamay niya hanggang makarating sa plaza kung fiesta at ituturo ko sa kanya ang laruang gitarang lata na may tansing kuerdas at iyon ay binibili agad niya sa akin tulad rin ng baril barilang yari sa palayok na hiniling ko sa kanya ay agad rin binili niya para sa akin ....
Laking pasasalamat ko kay Tia Nene sa kanyang paglingap, pag unawa at pagmamahal sa akin at maging sa aking mga anak. Batid ko ang pagnanais ni Tia Nene na ako ay makita bago siya pumanaw at iyon ay kanyang pinagtiisan at batid ko inialay niya yun para sa magandang kinabukasan ng aking mga anak. Para sa amin napakabait at dakila ni Tia Nene at iyon ay tatanawin naming malaking utang na loob sa kanya habang buhay.
Lubos na gumagalang,
Antonio L. Buensuceso, Jr.
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