Thursday, October 21, 2010

Nigeria: Shell Oil's 'License to Kill'

by Abena Ampofoa Asare from Toward Freedom

US court paves the way for multi-national corporations to kill and pollute with impunity. This occurred in a recent ruling against Nigerian activists who protested some of the most egregious environmental destructive actions that has led to the deaths and illnesses of many Nigerians. 

The destruction of the environment in the Niger Delta is an ongoing event that is carried out by the multi-national oil companies through their support of, and in collaboration with, a brutally oppressive government. It is much like a never-ending BP Gulf of Mexico oil gusher, but Africans are of little concern to the US ruling class. See this and this.
Last month, Judge José A. Cabranes of the Manhattan-based federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a judicial opinion that sent international lawyers, human rights advocates and African environmental activists reeling.