Day 21 - A Right Royal Frack Up

I don't have any royal connections unfortunately. I didn't crack the nod for an invite either. I'm very disappointed to have been left out. Oh well I'll just 'ave to eat me cucumber sandwiches and wave me flag alone at 'ome. 

Three weeks have passed since starting this. As of now 895 page views. I am competative...so this time tomorrow? 1000 page views? Yesterday it was all about sex and today its all about royalty. Tonight, somewhere in London it will probably be about both. 
I sit here keeping one eye on the wedding of the day / month/ year / decade / century. Waity Katie and Prince Willie will join in holy matrimony, until paparazzi do they part.
The anticipated numbers who will be watching this spectacle run into the billions, 8000 journos are accredited to report on the occasion. Lets go back a step here; 8000! Thats a lot of words. A lot of newsprint. A lot of pretty much of the same images. What it does bring to the fore is how 8000 people will each throw their own slant onto the same occasion, onto the same procession. How each will have their own opinion and how will each have exclusivity, at least of their own thoughts. 


I have often wondered how intelligent, well balanced people (am I well balanced?) are often incapable of seeing both sides of a story. How we allow our emotions, for and against, to cloud this view, how sometimes our 'exclusive' view of an event determines our decisions, and often our future and the future of people important to us. How incapable we are of seeing the other side. You will know that this manifests itself in every situation in your life...the last fight with your spouse, both sides fail to see the merits of the others side, your view of your teams performance, the reasons your business does well or poorly and so on. 
It seems no subject is immune to this. Religion and our personal beliefs that differ to someone else's tears the world apart every day. I day or two ago I wrote about my travels to Bosnia - during their war, children and women from both sides were slaughtered because of the beliefs. The twin towers burned and collapsed because of the radical beliefs of a few.


In South Africa, the Shell Oil Company, displays classic signs of this behaviour. They are, it seems, intent on completely fucking up a large area of the natural Karoo.  Lewis Pugh - who you may know as the 'Human Polar Bear' is rallying support to fight against this. He Recently gave a speech in Cape Town and below is an excerpt of it.


"Enshrined in our new Constitution, is the Right to a Healthy Environment and the Right to Water. Our Constitution states that we have the Right to have our environment protected for the benefit of our generation and for the benefit of future generations.

Fellow South Africans, let us not dishonour these rights. Let us not dishonour those men and women who fought and died for these rights. Let us not allow corporate greed to disrespect our Constitution and desecrate our environment.

Never, ever did I think that there would be a debate in this arid country about which was more important - gas or water. We can survive without gas....  We cannot live without water.

If we damage our limited water supply - and fracking will do just that we will have conflict again here in South Africa. Look around the world. Wherever you damage the environment you have conflict.

Fellow South Africans, we have had enough conflict in this land - now is the time for peace.

A few months ago I gave a speech with former President of Costa Rica.  Afterwards I asked him "Mr President, how do you balance the demands of development against the need to protect the environment?"

He looked at me and said : "It is not a balancing act. It is a simple business decision. If we cut down our forests in Costa Rica to satisfy a timber company, what will be left for our future?"

But he pointed out : "It is also a moral decision. It would be morally wrong to chop down our forests and leave nothing for my children and my grandchildren."

Ladies and gentlemen, that is what is at stake here today: Our children's future. And that of our childrens’ children.

There may be gas beneath our ground in the Karoo. But are we prepared to destroy our environment for 5 to 10 years worth of fossil fuel and further damage our climate?

Yes, people will be employed - but for a short while. And when the drilling is over, and Shell have packed their bags and disappeared, then what? Who will be there to clean up? And what jobs will our children be able to eke out?

Now Shell will tell you that their intentions are honourable. That fracking in the Karoo will not damage our environment. That they will not contaminate our precious water. That they will bring jobs to South Africa.

That gas is clean and green. And that they will help secure our energy supplies.

When I hear this - I have one burning question. Why should we trust them?  Africa is to Shell what the Gulf of Mexico is to BP.

Shell, you have a shocking record here in Africa. Just look at your operations in Nigeria. You have spilt more than 9 million barrels of crude oil into the Niger Delta. That's twice the amount of oil that BP spilt into the Gulf of Mexico.

You were found guilty of bribing Nigerian officials - and to make the case go away in America - you paid an admission of guilt fine of US$48 million.

And to top it all, you stand accused of being complicit in the execution of Nigeria's leading environmental campaigner - Ken Saro-Wira and 8 other activists.

If you were innocent, why did you pay US$15.5 million to the widows and children to settle the case out of Court?

Shell, the path you want us to take us down is not sustainable. I have visited the Arctic for 7 summers in a row. I have seen the tundra thawing.

I have seen the retreating glaciers. And I have seen the melting sea ice.  And I have seen the impact of global warming from the Himalayas all the way down to the low-lying Maldive Islands. Wherever I go - I see it.

Now is the time for change. We cannot drill our way out of the energy crisis. The era of fossil fuels is over. We must invest in renewable energy. And we must not delay!

Shell, we look to the north of our continent and we see how people got tired of political tyranny. We have watched as despots, who have ruled ruthlessly year after year, have been toppled in a matter of weeks.

We too are tired. Tired of corporate tyranny. Tired of your short term, unsustainable practices.

We watched as Dr Ian Player, a game ranger from Natal, and his friends, took on Rio Tinto (one of the biggest mining companies in the world) and won.

And we watched as young activists from across Europe, brought you down to your knees, when you tried to dump an enormous oil rig into the North Sea.

Shell, we do not want our Karoo to become another Niger Delta.

Do not underestimate us. Goliath can be brought down. We are proud of what we have achieved in this young democracy - and we are not about to let your company come in and destroy it.

So let this be a Call to Arms to everyone across South Africa, who is sitting in the shadow of Goliath: Stand up and demand these fundamental human rights promised to you by our Constitution. Use your voices - tweet, blog, petition, rally the weight of your neighbours and of people in power.

Let us speak out from every hilltop. Let us not go quietly into this bleak future.

Let me end off by saying this - You have lit a fire in our bellies, which no man or woman can extinguish. And if we need to, we will take this fight all the way from your petrol pumps to the very highest Court in this land. We will take this fight from the farms and towns of the Karoo to the streets of London and Amsterdam. And we will take this fight to every one of your shareholders. And I have no doubt, that in the end, good will triumph over evil."

Like Shell, I am incapable of seeing the other side, their side, of the story. Shell and its businesses will no longer benefit by my meager patronage. They will sneer at me. But if we all do the same....if we all stop buying their products and if we all tell them that there actions are wrong their arrogant sneers will soon turn to tears. If we stand together we can make a difference.

Until tomorrow.