Unarmed women stormed four ChevronTexaco oil pipeline stations in southeastern Nigeria... the action was to draw attention to widespread poverty in villages with "nothing to show for over 30 years of the company's existence"
[ edited by stockticker on Jul 20, 2002 08:46 AM ]
posted on July 20, 2002 11:04:38 AM new
I don't want to copy and paste the whole article, Linda, but this part was really telling about how at least one American corporation has viewed its community responsibilities until it was forced to "rethink":
The unarmed women, some with babies bound to their backs, sang and danced on the facility's docks Monday when they learned the company had offered to hire at least 25 villagers over five years.
The company is also willing to build schools, provide water, electricity and a community center, and help the women establish poultry and fish farms to supply the terminal's cafeteria.
Niger Delta residents are among the poorest in this West African country, despite the region's oil wealth. Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil and the fifth-largest supplier to the United States.
posted on July 20, 2002 11:10:24 AM new
The ladys are upset because Chevron Texaco
will not hire their sons to work for the oil Co.The women have threatned to shame the Co.
If the Co. doesnt change their hireing practices.By shameing the Co. The women will strip all clothes off and parade around the Co. grounds.I'm with the girls on this one!
posted on July 20, 2002 11:42:57 AM new
IMF/World Bank loans require austerity measures that often divert money from social programs to pay loan interest. No money from the state, and the metanat won't hire local workers.
Stripping in solitary solidarity.
(Is it close to the full moon?) You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
posted on July 20, 2002 12:18:17 PM new
Thanks to each of you for sharing what it said. I understand about not posting the whole article.
I'm surprised that the company wasn't hiring the locals before. When my husband worked for a US company that had a division in Mexico, all the workers [including management] in that division were Mexicans.
I'm in agreement that these companies should be providing the benefits to the community that are mentioned.
posted on July 20, 2002 12:59:29 PM new
I wish more women from less affluent countries would raise up and try some similar things where the U.S. and foreign multi-nationals are taking over and raping their countries.
"The women, ranging in age from 30 to 90, used a traditional and powerful shaming gesture to maintain control over the Escravos facility — they threatened to remove their own clothing."
Maybe they should have considered the alternative approach of removing the clothing of the executives and middle execs of the company.
More exciting, less titillating for the men and the women could make cat calls, whistle, slap their behinds, fondle them and tell them what great (or little) body parts they have!
posted on July 20, 2002 01:31:32 PM newthe women could make cat calls, whistle, slap their behinds, fondle them and tell them what great (or little) body parts they have!
Why lower themselves? They are strong and dignified. You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
posted on July 20, 2002 01:33:53 PM new
No, unfortunately I don't think this story will have a happy ending.
Members of the Ijaw tribe seized control of at least four more oil terminals and have more demands.
Someone on another chatboard received an e-mail from ChevronTexaco. The company is offering a premium to security agents, with military and riot control experience, to work for them in the region. Quote: They have 6,000 positions to fill.....and they are paying extremely well.
This person is trying to convince other security agents and offices to refuse ChevronTexaco services. He also said:
Quote: I must give credit to the Tiakay enforcement agency, who not only sent a refusal but suggested that they may reroute a number of agents to insure that if "fighting" begins, Chevron may find someone firing back!
In all fairness to Chevron, I should mention that there were 700 employees that were originally taken hostage and there may have been outside agitators with their own agendas involved (I'm not clear about that), but still...
Irene
[ edited by stockticker on Jul 20, 2002 01:34 PM ]
posted on July 20, 2002 02:54:14 PM new
The article said it was "ethnic" strife. Meaning the woman took over the place because their tribe got less jobs than the rival tribe which was further away. They walk in and take the workers hostage.
Extortion, blackmail and kidnapping run rampant against corporations in Nigeria, so there is something wrong with hiring security????
posted on July 20, 2002 03:07:10 PM new
Desquirrel:
Do I think there's something wrong in "just hiring security" - 6,000 people with military and riot control experience to subdue the local natives of this poor third world country? Yes. Here's another quote from that same poster:
Nigeria is very weak militarily, and with 6,000 troops who are well armed and well trained, the company can run the entire country.
posted on July 20, 2002 04:00:56 PM new
Ever see "Blackhawk Down"? Where the "local natives" in the poor third world country did lots of real nasty stuff.
Given the size and numbers of the various Chevron installations that must be involved, 3 shifts, etc, etc., seems plausible to me.
posted on July 20, 2002 04:08:35 PM new
DeSquirrel, the company has been there how long? Over 30 years and zilch benefit to the local community. You could say that Chevron Texaco is exploiting that area. Sounds like how the gambling industry runs in Atlantic City.
6,000 people (mercenaries) is not security, it's a private army.
changeantoa
You have the right to an informed opinion -Harlan Ellison
[ edited by snowyegret on Jul 20, 2002 04:09 PM ]
posted on July 20, 2002 04:14:49 PM new
I wonder how much it is going to cost the company to pay premium wages to 6,000 foreigners to maintain security, which would probably never been needed if the company had shown some responsibility to the local community in its 30 years of existence there?
Imagine women simply rejoicing at the idea of the equivalent of 5 local people being hired a year, of new schools, water, electricity.
posted on July 20, 2002 10:03:50 PM new
The article was not an indictment of what Chevron has or has not done. It appeared to me that the company is caught in the middle of a tribal "war". The women claim that Chevron is favoring the other tribe with employment, et al when in fact the tribe THEY belong to inhabits the areas closest to the installation. This little war extends way into Nigerian gov politics.
At the end, they also mention that the "salaries" to be paid to the 2 chiefs were yet to be determined.
Given the fact that an installation like that has to pump a fortune into the local economy, the whole thing sounds like a Al Sharpton style shake down.
posted on July 21, 2002 06:10:37 AM new
DeSquirrel, oil is politics in Nigeria. Where did the money to prop up the very nasty military dictatorship come from?
As a global energy company, our job is to responsibly develop and deliver energy products and services that contribute to an improvement in quality of life[ for people around the world. Our mission is to do this in a manner that creates maximum value for you our stockholders.
and
A company must be judged by more than its results. It must also be judged by how it achieves those results. And at ChevronTexaco that means conducting our business with integrity and accountability, along with open and honest two-way communication.
And
partnerships that offer mutual benefit and reach deep into the communities where we work.
posted on July 21, 2002 06:51:30 AM new
From Snowy's first link:
For decades Shell and other foreign oil companies, including Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco, have operated behind the bayonets of successive military dictatorships -- extracting $300 billion worth of crude oil from this vast and environmentally fragile wetland while returning virtually nothing to the oil producing communities except abject poverty, bloody repression and massive pollution.
This cruel combination of environmental negligence, economic exploitation and violent repression has brought the Niger Delta oil fields to the brink of civil war and threatens the economic and political stability of Nigeria's emerging democracy.
Net Profit of Chevron that same year totalled $5,185 million.
I have no idea how much a trained mercenary soldier is paid and what the additional costs incurred are such as travel, accommodatiions, etc., but lets assume that the annual cost to Chevron per soldier is about US$25,000.
$25,000 x 6,000 soldiers = $150 million per year
Irene
[ edited by stockticker on Jul 21, 2002 10:17 AM ]
posted on July 21, 2002 10:33:40 AM new
it's so amazing to see people babble on about their imaginary ideals and ideas while they have no base in reality or function.
6,000 personnel is nothing when Nigeria went after idi amin they sent a quarter million troops in there. those 6,000 security people are a drop in the bucket Chicago has 10times that many for 1 /20th of the area
6,000 peopel on 3 shifts 2,000 a shift to protect from terrorists theives thugs murderers rapists you know just ,like New York or summerfest in Milwaukee.
posted on July 21, 2002 10:39:10 AM new
You know, Auroranorth, what you call the War of Independence in the schoolbooks you read was called the American Revolution in the schoolbooks I read.
posted on July 21, 2002 09:46:39 PM new
Yes some do,
I have a set that was published in 1912 that has a lot more detail because there was less to cover. It's not my only set. The colonists did not agree with each other on everything actually hardly on anything at all except that a large number of them were born here and simply could no longer relate to the ways of europe.
For example the current books talk about American agression and seizure of land from Mexico, they do not say that Lt Cross an American military dispatch rider was captured had his brains beaten out with rocks and that the Mexican troops then gambled away his clothing and personal belongings. and that the American forces upon hearing this attacked the Numerically spuerior forces of Mexico who were inside the border of the state of texas illegally attempting to seize territory they had lost when a childs with a gun found santa ana's masonic butt hiding in a well in his underwear.
They also talk about feasts of Long Pig, which has been removed from our fantasy books
look that one up.
