Published on : 18 May 2011 – 12:29pm | By Hélène Michaud
It is his very first visit to the Netherlands, home of the company that he says has destroyed his familys investments: Our fish ponds, our bakery, our land. He wants them back.
The green parks, the urban infrastructure, trains that arrive on time: Eric Dooh is impressed at what hes seen in the Hague, where hes just attended Royal Dutch Shell plcs Annual General Meeting . He says he came to inform the companys shareholders about the ongoing level of devastation caused by oil spills in Goi, his community in the Niger delta.
Since 2003, we dont produce fish anymore, theres not a single fish in the water. The source of drinking water is oil. When we cook, our food smells like kerosene. We grow cassava and yam: if you cook them, you get a taste of crude. He asked when Shell would use part of its benefits to clean up the water and the land.
Smiling very soon
Shells response was consistent. CEO Peter Voser said that sabotage and theft accounts for more than 80% of the volume of oil spilt in 2010, amounting to around 100,000 barrels a day. When asked when if it has a timetable to clean up the spills or end gas flaring, the company responds that it is committed to do so, but that this depends on the Nigerian governments willingness to invest and on limited access to sites because of violence by militant groups.
Eric Dooh says the answers are purely political. Ive been hearing this story for so long. When governments want to deceive you, they say: The people will soon smile. So now Shell is telling us we will soon smile, and I asked: How soon? They told me: Very soon.
Dutch pension funds concerned
In recent years, shareholders big and small, have become increasingly vocal when it comes to Shell´s environmental record in Nigeria. At this year´s AGM, Sylvia van Waveren speaking on behalf of the Dutch APG pension fund, the Robeco investment fund and other important shareholders with pension funds worth over 500 billion euro, said they remain highly concerned with the operations in Nigeria and the potential damage to Shell´s reputation. She said they were equally concerned about the low standard and quality of Shell´s dialogue with stakeholders, especially in indigenous communities in Canada where controversial oil sands are being exploited and in Nigeria.
Eric Dooh, wearing a black hat a la Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan and large necklaces with red and white beads around his neck, is impressed. I noticed that people of this part of the world have great interest in the suffering of the people in the Niger delta. You dont know us, and yet you are agitating for how the benefits of oil are being used in developing this area. I find this commendable.
On trial
Eric Doohs Goi community and three other Niger Delta communities, supported by the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth, have started legal proceedings against Shell in the Netherlands. On Thursday, the trial resumes in the Hague. At stake is whether Royal Dutch Shell plc in the Netherlands can be held accountable for Shell Nigerias activities. They want their communities to be cleaned up and they want reasonable compensation for the loss of their livelihoods.
Chief Dooh will be sitting in the tribune during Thursdays hearing. Before coming here he says he told his daughter that Im going to defend you, your mom and your grand dad in the Netherlands. He says that if he is finally granted compensation he will send her to study abroad so that she can attain the same knowledge that those people in charge of these multinationals have acquired.
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
