“Every time I go for blood tests, I hold my breath. I am always accompanied by fear," says 1 of the protagonists of the documentary “To the Last Drop” directed by Ewa Ewart.
I watched the movie during 8th global legislature of Economics Values Open Eyes Economy Summit (OEES), which took place on 21-22 November 2023 in Krakow. For me, it was the strongest part of the show. "The paper reveals global costs and consequences of natural demolition in the name of progress". The rivers have suffered particularly, and present they are among the most degraded ecosystems." The movie was filmed in Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Albania and Poland. The Oder fishery in 2022 changes the mind.
Most importantly, the paper shows that opposition makes sense and that 1 can win with the greed of politicians, technocrats and businessmen who destruct our rivers.
"This is our planet. These are our rivers. We decide." What is needed to defy “believe in progress”? As 1 of the activists notes, “the fear and death of the loved ones give courage to say NO”. For me, this is further proof that the first thing that changes us is the contact of death that we feel on our own.
"Death is our eternal companion. He's always on our left, pulling his arm out. Death is the only wise counselor we have. Whenever you feel, and you always feel that everything goes incorrect and falls apart, turn to your death and ask if it's true. She'll tell you that you're wrong, that nothing truly matters but to contact her. Your death will tell you, “I haven’t touched you yet.” (‘Travel to Ixtlan’, Carlos Castaneda)
The movie was followed by a debate with manager Ewa Ewart and screenwriter Piotr Nieznański. "It's a war movie. Nobody drops bombs on anybody. That's where you kill yourself. The movie shows how irresponsible we are," said the director. Water Wars They'll just get bigger.
OEES’23 debate after the movie “To the Last Drop”The screenwriter stressed that we have a mediocre quality of Polish waters. Only 1.1% of water is in good ecological condition.
Regulating and Sewering rivers contributes to specified disasters specified as the Oder in 2022. If there was political will, the substance would have been settled long ago. The company should be obliged to desalinate the water they throw into the rivers. "If the strategy is not working, bottom-up initiatives are very important. We cannot be indifferent as a society," emphasized Piotr Nieznański.
One of legislature participants asked the question, "Shell, banks, why don't we connect dots?" I heard that, and I was happy to hear that there was individual else in the area who had dots in common with me. Let me explain.
Shell is hell.
There was an interesting coincidence in the legislature program. I don't think this is simply a deliberate action by OEES organizers. The film's emissions took place immediately after the discussion panel, which was titled "Business as a social energy generator". The conversation was attended by six ladies from six different companies, including Shell and ING Bank Śląski. Participants talked about what drives them to work in business and about corporate social responsibility. I admit with my hand on my heart that I was only able to last 30 minutes and had to leave the area due to the fact that I was sick. Why?
I was reminded of the second half of the 1990s, erstwhile business in the form of British-Dutch corp Shell generated social energy in me. At the time, I co-organized protests against the presence of Shell corp in Nigeria. Protests resembling the communicative of author and social activist Ken Saro-Wiva.
Ken Saro-Wiwa came from the Ogoni people inhabiting the Niger Delta. Hell began in 1956 erstwhile Shell discovered and began to exploit oil deposits in the land of Ogoni. In the 1990s, Shell was the most crucial company in Nigeria. In 1995, he mined almost a million barrels of oil a day. The consequence of the extraction of oil was, and is, the contamination of drinking water, the devastation of agricultural land and the poorness of the Ogoni people resulting from the failure of conventional livelihoods. Additionally, there is widespread corruption and death.
Ken Saro-Wiva, along with his neighbors, established the Movement for the endurance of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). In January 1993, MOSOP declared that Shell is no longer welcome in the Niger Delta. Ken Saro-Wiwa began taking action against his government and Shell corporation.
He was effective. Effective adequate that the military dictatorship decided to kill him.
In 1994, he was arrested and spent almost a year in prison. On 10 November 1995, after a fake lawsuit, he was hanged, along with 8 another MOSOP activists.
"In fact, Shell global is behind this process, but I believe that there will come a day erstwhile people learn from this lesson. In his heart, I have no uncertainty that sooner or later this ecological war, which is being waged by the Niger Delta, will be named by name and its crimes will be condemned," said Ken Saro Wiwa in his speech before the court.
And a passage from the message that Sarah-Wiwie was not allowed to read in the courtroom after the death conviction was pronounced: “My God, we are all facing history. I'm a man of peace and ideas. Motivated by the increasing poorness of my people, surviving in areas abounding in all goods, destroyed by political marginalization and economical exploitation, angry due to the fact that their nature was destroyed, wanting to preserve the right to decent life, determined to introduce a democratic strategy in the country – I devoted all my intellectual and material resources to something that I believe in and from which no 1 can drive me distant either through blackmail or intimidation.
On May 21, 1994, the military killed 4 of my associates. This government-provoked execution was an excuse for interior safety forces to start raiding the villages of the Ogoni people, murdering unarmed men, old men and children, raping women. Hundreds of innocent people were murdered then, thousands missing without news. The crime they committed was to request respect for their rights by the government and Shell. The punishment for this was genocide on the Niger Delta."
Shell always denied that the company played any function in the murders and violent human rights violations that occurred in Nigeria in the 1990s. What the fact is, you can read in the study entitled "Criminal venture? Shell's commitment to human rights violations in Nigeria in the 1990s", which came to light in 2017.
Amnesty global reviewed in item thousands of interior pages of company papers and witness statements. The investigation reveals what Shell knew and how he worked with Nigerian safety services to silence the protests of the local community in the Niger Delta.
In 1998, I learned about Shell's "dark side" by watching a movie entitled "Ken Saro-Wiwa's Memoirs" ("In Memory: Ken Saro-Wiwa"), which was aired on Planete channel. The movie was directed by Glenn Ellis in 1996. I urge you watch, it is available in parts on the You Tube platform.
I besides urge a book. “The land of dictators. About the people who stole Africa” published in Poland by the Jagiellonian University Publishing House. 1 of her chapters is devoted to the past of Ken Saro-Wiva. Fragment about Shell: "The oil company mixed in a boiler of Nigerian politics and took a strong position on the side of the military dictatorship".
Other clues in search of the fact about social energy generated by Shell corporations lead to the book ‘Nigeria’s Resource Wars’ and undergraduate work "Responsibility of Shell Nigeria for the harm caused by oil extraction in Niger Delta".
The good news is that in 2021 4 Nigerian farmers won a 13-year conflict in the Dutch court. They accused Shell of oil spills from pipelines that destroyed their farms in the Niger Delta. opposition makes sense.
Social energy generators
Returning to the legislature of Economics of Values an interesting point of the programme was the Prime Minister of the civilian paper entitled "Social energy generators. Citizens' reflection". In the debate on the report Paweł Łukasiak of the Academy of improvement of Philanthropy in Poland pointed out that the publication answers the question of how to build a space that is an area for civic activity, not for the performance of tasks by the authorities. It besides answers the question of why social energy is wasted, can disappear, citizens abandon their activity.
"The language of the public debate, the language of our discussion on public matters, can be said to be rotten. It is essential to reconstruct value to certain terms, but besides to search fresh wordings, fresh metaphors" - said prof. Cezary Obracht-Prondzyński.
On the another hand, Joanna Sadik from the Spring Association stressed that social energy would not be generated in the country of fenced settlements.
The report, which is the consequence of the work of more than 100 people, contains recommendations on how to make Poland a citizen. I urge reading.
OEES’23 study "Social energy generators. Citizens' reflection"Google War on Citizens
The strategical sponsor of Open Eyes Economy Summit 2023 was the Google Corporation.
When I read about it, I remembered what said Prof. Barry Lynn “New York Times”“Google is very aggressive in Washington and Brussels and pulls strings. (...) People are very afraid of Google today.”
I mention readers curious in the subject to my text "Google War with Citizens".
I dream of the organizers of the legislature of Economics of Values inviting prof. Shoshana Zuboff, author of the book in 2024 "The age of capitalism of surveillance. Fighting for the future of humanity on a fresh border of power”. A retired Harvard University prof. worked on a book for 10 years. On 830 pages with Benedictine patience and clockwork accuracy, he explains how the Google corp is waged war against us citizens. He's at war with you.
I think a debate involving Zuboff and a typical of Google corp would be a strong point of the program. After all, the intent of OEES is to talk about the economics of value and business activity, in which values are not just a decoration or an addition, but are the foundation and bustle of business activities and consumer choices.
Live meeting
The legislature of Economics of Values is an chance to meet others, get out of its bubble and talk about crucial civilian matters. I peculiarly consider it valuable to have a live meeting. We request as much space to meet people face to face as possible, not online. Today, what Prof. Neil Postman wrote in "Technopol" about people who want to defy technopol became even more relevant: "When they want to make real contact with someone, they anticipate that individual will be in 1 area with them."
Here I thank the Open Eyes Economy Summit squad for creating specified a "peace".
See you next year.
