(read the field report)

GPS Coordinates:  Blocked bridge – Elev:9m, N 05°11.657’’, E006°29.574’’ and  Well 2 site – Elev:4m, N 05°11.655’’, E 006°29.574’’

Shell has not been fair to the community in terms of amenities says the leaders of the JK4 community, even though so much wealth is pumped out from our community soil daily. We have been drinking from the Taylor Creek that has often been polluted by crude oil spills from the company’s failed oil facilities. ERA/FoEN heard of a protest by women in the community and promptly visited the community.

LAGOS, Nigeria — Shell and Nigeria’s government contributed to 50 years of pollution in a region of the Niger Delta that could need the world’s largest ever oil cleanup, the United Nations said in a report Thursday, adding that the work would take up to 30 years and require an initial tab estimated at $1 billion.  READ THE ARTICLE

According to Chevron’s YouTube page and its “We Agree” ad campaign, it has used these immense profits to help the environment, keep workers safe, and promote education. In its 2010 annual report, CEO John Watson calls 2010 “an outstanding year for Chevron.” Women worldwide who say they have experienced the horrific environmental and human health tolls of Chevron’s business tactics beg to differ on all counts. They joined with other activists at GlobalExchange to create a third annual alternative annual report [PDF] for Chevron. It demands that instead of trying to clean up its image by greenwashing its ads, the corporation clean up its act.

Emem Okon was there and spoke out!  Read more…

Jorgia’s comments:
“As a young person I was involved in demonstrations at Woolworths in Berkeley and Los Angeles in support of the sit-ins at the lunch counters in the south.

I joined the Freedom Riders to Mississippi in 1961 and spent 40 days in jail for breach of the peace, the act of going into a train station waiting room as an intergrated group.

After that experience I worked with CORE and SCLC in New York organizing fundraisers and support activities for those who were in the trenches of the South. I was very active in preparing groups to go on the l963 March on Washington and met with A Phillip Randolph at his office in Harlem. Along with two large buses that we filled with community people from the Lower Eastside of New York, the highlight of that event was a concert with Marvin Gaye in our neighborhood. Today, I am a retired registered nurse, mother and grandmother and supporter of all causes that bring peace, justice, health, sustenance and joy to our planet.”

When watching the news or reading the papers, where so many men are mingling in the streets in Egypt or, recently, Algeria, still only a few women are visible. Yet their presence is important, their actions and their rights can’t get lost in the shuffle.

Two articles appearing in two different papers, both in the op ed pages, have brought to light this reflection. One article is from The New York Times, February 2, 2011–Watching Thugs With Razors and Clubs at Tahrir Square by Nicholas D. Kristof. What he remarks on of special significance is how two women stand up to some of the pro-Mubarak thugs sent in to stomp down the protesters. Kristof was impressed by how these women, two sisters, stood their ground, determined to continue their journey to Tahrir Square, where they could also lift their voice. The journalist’s question, arising from his encounter with the women and his witnessing of the clashes between protesters and government supporters, is if these women, “armed only with their principles, can stand up to Mr. Mubarak’s thuggery, can’t we all do the same?” Indeed. The two sisters are sisters not only to each other, but to women and men around the world with the courage and determination to stand up for their own rights and needs and those of their fellow citizens. They are family to all those who believe in the freedom to choose how to live in our countries, not to be cowed down by force.

Another article, in the English-language version of El País, and from the same date (2/2/2011), is written by one of Spain’s most significant contemporary writers and thinkers, Juan Goytisolo, who has lived the past twenty years in the Maghreb, in Morocco. Titled Believe It or Not, the article discusses how a retrograde form of Islam has been expanding throughout the Arab world, through the dismantling of secular educational systems and the revival of “anachronistic customs and dogmas.” This has in part been responsible for forming a youth that is not prepared for work in the contemporary world: “The contrast between the astronomic military budgets (where there is oil) of the region’s regimes and the mediocre educational levels of the younger generations is striking. The young perform poorly in the hard sciences, and are utterly ignorant in the (proscribed) humanities.” This has of course created a culture that is easily manipulated, and thoroughly impoverished in every way. Lighting a fire again in these communities, and from within, seems to be a necessary choice by members of the society who recognize that their people must be enlightened again and must be given choice in their lives and greater possibilities through education and work, pushing back against repressive systems. He writes: “Events since the Twin Towers attack point to a new time of turbulence. The wave of suicide attacks against Christian communities living in Iraq and Egypt since before the time of Islam reveal to what point the regression in civic and educational values in these countries constitutes an obstacle to their acceptance of universal standards of human rights, particularly those of women.” Goytisolo’s point is that the communities must recognize this repression and revolt against it, take responsibility for their right to be a part of the modern world–starting with the basic rights of dignity and work. And that the whole of the community, from all of its youth, to its women, must benefit.