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Bodo v Shell court documents
Here are the documents filed for the claimants in the landmark lawsuit Bodo v Shell. The case has its first hearing at the High Court in London today. Shell has admitted liability for two major oil spills in Bodo town, Rivers State, Nigeria in 2008 and 2009. Over three years on, Shell has failed to clean…
18 Jun 2012 admin -
Nazim Hikmet: “The Oil Road” meets “The Ballad of those who drink the Sun”
To mark Sunday’s performance of “The Ballad of Those tho Drink the Sun” celebrating the life and work of Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, Platform is publishing a book excerpt on Nazim Hikmet, poetry & technology, the Euphrates versus BP’s Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. This is an edited excerpt from our upcoming book “The Oil Road: A Journey…
16 Jun 2012 admin -
New timeline launched on oil and conflict in Nigeria
Oil watchdog Platform has launched an online timeline which maps out the leaked US embassy cables on oil conflict in the Niger Delta. You can view the timeline here. Some 4,521 leaked US cables came from Nigeria between 2001 to 2010. The idea behind the timeline is to provide easy access to the wealth of information contained in these…
14 Jun 2012 admin -
Piracy – Don’t believe the Hype
An article published on Maritime Executive's website last week claimed that “pirate attacks against commercial ships, especially by Somalia and Africa's east coast, are becoming increasingly violent and frequent”. Quoting the International Maritime Organisation, the article stated that global piracy reached its peak in 2011. But NATO figures, published in January, paint a rather different picture.…
14 Jun 2012 admin -
Take the money and run? New piece by Platform on arts and corporate sponsorship in Arts Professional.
Read the piece here. We welcome any comments. Arts Professional is a leading national bi-weekly news and analysis magazine for arts managers, fundraisers, and policy-makers. AP invited Platform to write this after reading the Study Room Guide of the same name which Live Art Development Agency commissioned from Platform earlier this year.
11 Jun 2012 jane -
Is BP trying to pull a “climategate” with Gulf research emails?
Two oceanographers are accusing BP of attacking academic freedom after a subpoena from the company forced them to hand over more than 3,000 confidential emails relating to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. After BP and the Coast Guards asked Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for help in order to assess the magnitude of the damage caused by…
6 Jun 2012 admin -
BP sponsors lobby group that welcomed executions in Egypt “to restore order” in post-election crackdown
BP is sponsoring a business lobby organisation that enthusiastically welcomed election promises to crack down on dissent in Egypt with executions and brutal force, aiming to crush the revolution after the imminent Presidential elections AmCham – the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt – hosted Mubarak-era Prime Minister and current Presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq for…
6 Jun 2012 admin -
Planes, claims and Arctic extraction
In April the Canadian House of Commons passed an 'austerity' budget that included the loss of 19,200 public sector jobs, cutting federal programs by $5.2 billion per year and raising the retirement age from 65 to 67. Yet Canada is significantly less austere when it comes to their military spending. This week it was announced…
1 Jun 2012 admin -
RBS finance for tar sands revealed on eve of AGM – students protest
Platform [1], UK Tar Sands Network [2] and the Indigenous Environmental Network [3] have revealed that in the past year the Royal Bank of Scotland underwrote bonds worth $131.25 million [4] for controversial Canadian tar sands pipeline company Enbridge Energy Partners [5]. At the RBS AGM tomorrow in Edinburgh student groups are planning to protest…
