all up on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/user/peipeiwu
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
STATEMENT: Chevron and Iraq: TJ Buonomo, former Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army: "Chevron's Disdain for Human Rights Will Bring Political and Financial Costs"
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Global Exchange Chevron Program Media | 2017 Mission St. | San Francisco | CA | 94110 |
Chevron Denies Nigerians Entry to AGM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 26, 2010
CONTACT:
Abby Rubinson
Justice In Nigeria Now
(415) 990-0792
Chevron Silences Voices from Nigeria and around the World, Denying them the Right to Speak at its Annual Shareholders Meeting
New CEO Bans Human Rights and Environmental Critics Even As He Announces a Company Human Rights Policy Dedicated to “Two-Way Communication” with Concerned Community Members
Houston, TX – After traveling halfway around the world from Nigeria to the U.S., Emem Okon, along with 17 other people representing oil-producing communities around the globe, stood today as shareholders ready to attend Chevron’s Annual General Meeting of the Shareholders. Chevron arbitrarily denied Ms. Okon and at least 13 others entry to the meeting despite the fact that other representatives from Chevron-impacted communities were allowed to enter the meeting.
Ms. Okon traveled to Houston from Nigeria’s Niger Delta, the oil-producing region of the country. The women whose voices and stories Ms. Okon wanted to convey to the Chevron Board and Shareholders have contacted Chevron many times at home in Nigeria, but the company has not responded to them. The women have called, written letters, and peacefully protested, urging the company “to clean up the environment, end gas flaring, and to respect their human rights policies, which call for two-way communication between Chevron and the community people,” says Ms. Okon.
Indeed, Chevron’s 2009 Human Rights Policy states the following: “Community: We respect human rights in the following ways…By fostering ongoing, proactive two-way communication with communities and knowledgeable stakeholders.”
The company’s behavior today in Houston contradicted its own Human Rights Policy by silencing the voices of people from Nigeria, Australia, Burma, Richmond (California), and elsewhere by preventing them from communicating with the company’s shareholders–without any legal basis for that denial.
Nigerian Omoyele Sowore explains, “By its actions today, Chevron continues its criminal behavior by denying its shareholders a voice, as it has denied impacted communities a voice about pollution and climate change, and continues its connivance and collusion with military dictators around the world to suppress the voices of people in the communities where it operates.”
Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN) is a San Francisco-based organization working in solidarity with communities in Nigeria and allies in the U.S. to promote peace and corporate accountability and to ensure that extractive industries operate in a manner that respects human rights, protects the environment and enhances community livelihood.
The Price of Oil: Indigenous People, US consumption and the Environment
http://www.lacccenter.org/2010/05/450/?sms_ss=facebook
The Price of Oil: Indigeneous People, US consumption and the Environment.
Listen Now and Tune in to Radio Diaspora this Saturday May 29th as we speak to live to activists and communities about the cost of oil in the United States as well as abroad. www.wrfg.org
RELEASE: Chevron denies access to shareholder representatives in a bid to silence truth about its operations
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Videos of people being kicked out of today's shareholder meeting
Mitch Anderson, AmazonWatch
Dr. Henry Clark, West County Toxics Coalition (Richmond, CA)
Neil Mackenzie, Original Australian from the Broom region, Kimberley Coast, Australia
Dr. Henry Clark, West County Toxics Coalition (Richmond, CA)
Neil Mackenzie, Original Australian from the Broom region, Kimberley Coast, Australia
North Slope crude spills from Alaska pipeline
North Slope crude spills from Alaska pipeline
(CNN) -- Several thousand barrels of North Slope crude oil spilled into a containment area along the Alaska pipeline Tuesday when an open valve at a pump station allowed oil to overflow a tank, the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company said.
Alyeska said the incident took place about 10:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. ET) during a planned pipeline shutdown while the company was conducting fire command and valve leak testing at the pump station.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation said a battery failed to control the valve when power was switched from the main grid during Alyeska's tests. The valve has been closed, shutting off the flow, the department said, but the pipeline remains shut down.
The department said the next steps would be to clean up the oil in the containment area, determine the cause of the problem and restart oil flowing in the pipeline. No oil has been reported outside the containment area.
Mark MacIntyre, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency in Seattle, Washington, said two EPA coordinators would arrive on the scene from Anchorage on Wednesday and have a report in the afternoon.
The pump station is near Delta Junction, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks. Ayleska said the lined containment area that took the spill has a capacity of about 104,500 barrels.
Ayleska also said there were no injuries and the pump station was evacuated. An incident management team and other responders were dispatched.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/05/25/alaska.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T3
Chevron Protest in Nigeria Now
Warri — Activities at the Warri administrative office of Chevron Nigeria Limited(CNL) came to a standstill yesterday following a protest embarked upon by women and youths from Ekpan Community in Uvwie Local Government Council of Delta State, which resulted in the dumping of two coffins in front of the gate.
Besides, the protesters, who came with juju priests, set up a shrine and slaughtered a chicken and goat to appease the gods, and sprinkled the blood on the coffins draped in red.
They were also armed with machetes , pots and other traditional paraphernalia to draw attention and further demostrate that they were on a very serious mission.
Staff of the American oil firm, holed up in their offices as nobody was allowed to go in or come out, even as security operatives , including the mobile policemen and Joint Task Forces (JTF), just took some distance away from the scene and watched proceedings which was largely peaceful.
Relevant Links
The protesters chanted anti-establishment songs with various placards depicting their grievances against the oil giant, which they claimed has refused to honour the agreement reached with the community since 2001.
Some of the placards read, "Chevron , We Want Real Development", "We Want Our Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU) Signed Now", Chevron , Stop This Marginalisation", among others.
The oil company and representatives of the community, met at the Government House Annex , Warri, to sort out the differences, but the parley ended in a stalemate, prompting a fresh meeting which was be for fixed today in the same venue to be chaired by the Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.
The Chairman of Ekpan Development Committee, Franklin Akemu, who led the protest, decried the poor treatment meted out by Chevron to its host, Ekpan Community.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
RELEASE: Chevron Disrespects Community Leaders Exposing True Cost of Chevron
Yes! Thank you all so much!Sent from my iPhone
On May 25, 2010, at 5:41 PM, Hallie Boas <hallie@globaljusticeecology.org> wrote:
Hi Diana-
The release is now up on the Climate Connections blog. http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/press-conference-global-leaders-expose-true-cost-chevron-in-u-s-gulf-coast-around-the-world-2/ We will also get the videos up either tonight or tomorrow morning. Thanks so much!Best,
HallieOn Tue, May 25, 2010 at 2:02 PM, Diana Wu <dianapeiwu@gmail.com> wrote:
Also: youtube videos online at: http://pitch.oe/66288
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PRESS RELEASE
Press Conference: Global Leaders Expose True Cost Chevron in U.S. Gulf Coast & Around the World
Press Release
PRESS RELEASE www.TrueCostofChevron.com Media Release
May 25, 2010 Contacts:
Diana Pei Wu, dianapeiwu@gmail.com, 510-333-3889
Sangita Nayak, emailsangita@gmail.com, 414-412-4518 Chevron Disrespects Community Leaders Exposing True Cost of Chevron
Indigenous and global leaders ignored by Chevron decision-makers, expect showdown at shareholder meeting Hi res, rights free photos available at http://rainforestactionnetwork.smugmug.com/Change-Chevron/True-Cost-of-Chevron-Press/12311033_j4CMA#878829788_Uw4tB Houston, TX - After traveling from as far as Australia, Burma, Nigeria, Ecuador and Alaska, community leaders and authors of the newly released report "The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report" were rebuffed by Chevron CEO John Watson when they tried to deliver their report at the company's Houston office today. The report details Chevron's human rights abuses and environmental destruction around the globe. "Chevron refuses to face its own true cost. Community and Indigenous leaders came from around the world from the locations where Chevron operates, and they were left waiting in a lobby," said Antonia Juhasz, lead author and editor of the new report and director of the Chevron Program at Global Exchange, calling the Chevron actions "disrespectful." She and the rest of the Coalition await the shareholder meeting tomorrow, where a Chevron representative agreed to a "point by point rebuttal" to the new report. Indigenous community leaders Guillermo Grefa (Kichwa) from Rumipamba, Ecuador and Emem Okon from Nigeria accused Chevron's operations of causing the extinction of indigenous peoples, while Debora Barros Fince (Organizacion Wayuu Munserrat, La Guajira, Colombia) added that Chevron supports the paramilitary operations of the current government in Colombia. Grefa asked, "When are you going to clean up what you have contaminated?" Many of the leaders demanded that Chevron be held accountable for the deaths of their community members, such as Reverend Ken Davis, from Richmond California, who said, "Chevron takes out profits, and I have to see people to their graves." T.J. Buonomo, a former U.S. Army military intelligence officer and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, challenged the Chevron representative on Chevron's practices lobbying the Iraq government and the U.S. government to allow oil extraction in Iraq while it is still under military occupation. He said, "You don't consider that inappropriate? You can't bring those lives back." At the press conference preceding the confrontation with Chevron, Elias Isaac of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa in Angola said that "Chevron's CEO John Watson has said that he is "humbled" by BP's explosion in the U.S. Gulf, "instead, he should be ashamed of his own company's offshore operations which cause persistent, ongoing, daily abuses of the environment, our livelihoods, and public health." The devastation caused by Chevron's offshore operations was also the focus of remarks given by Tom Evans of Cook InletKeeper, Homer, Alaska and Emem Okon of Keebetkache Women Development and Resource Center in Nigeria. The True Cost of Chevron network leaders, experts and supporters will be rallying outside the shareholder meeting tomorrow, Wednesday, May 26, at 7 a.m., at 1500 Louisiana St in Houston, TX, and over forty will be attending the shareholder meeting at 8 a.m. They will also attend a Houston community-led toxic tour of Chevron's operations in the Houston Ship Channel immediately following the toxic tour.# # #
RELEASE: Chevron Disrespects Community Leaders Exposing True Cost of Chevron
Also: youtube videos online at: http://pitch.oe/66288
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Monday, May 24, 2010
It's working! Chevron shareholder meeting, Chevron and BP in the news again
In the Houston Chronicle, SF Chronicle Business Sections!7 minutes ago
Spill shouldn't halt drilling, Chevron CEO says
Brett Clanton, Houston Chronicle
Monday, May 24, 2010
Chevron Corp. CEO John Watson said he was humbled by the fatal rig explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and that the incident has clearly hurt the industry's reputation, but stressed that offshore drilling is too important to U.S. energy supplies and the economy not to go forward.
"It's not an either or. We need to drill safely, and we need to produce the supplies that are needed," he said.
But to regain the confidence of the American people, he acknowledged, "it may be that we need to raise the bar to be sure that everyone is operating at the same high standards."
Watson - speaking ahead of the San Ramon oil giant's annual shareholder meeting in Houston on Wednesday - said what is taking place in the gulf today is not what the public should expect from the offshore drilling industry going forward.
"This is a humbling accident, and it's important for us to recognize that the American people want energy to be supplied, but they expect it to be provided in a safe and reliable fashion," he said. "In this instance, that didn't happen."
Though Chevron has no ownership in BP's well - still spewing oil into the gulf after a deadly April 20 rig fire there killed 11 workers, sank a rig and launched an environmental catastrophe - the company has a big stake in seeing the disaster is quickly resolved.
At the end of 2009, the nation's no. 2 oil company was the largest leaseholder in the Gulf of Mexico and had one of the biggest positions in the deepwater, defined by U.S. regulators as more than 1,000 feet, which has come under particular scrutiny since the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Though virtually nonexistent in the gulf as recently as the early 1980s, oil and gas exploration and production in the deepwater has accelerated with the advent of better drilling technology and limited access elsewhere. The region now accounts for roughly a third of the U.S. oil supply.
isks of drilling
But as the current situation illustrates - BP has repeatedly talked about the difficulty of plugging a well in 5,000 feet of water - it also comes with bigger risks.
Watson said he feels very confident in Chevron's deepwater procedures, which nevertheless have been reviewed since the BP incident.
Even so, "our industry has to show some humility here and see if we can learn and enhance the practices from where they are today," he said. That includes both drilling procedures and equipment as well as practices for responding to spills, he said.
This month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said no new offshore drilling permits would be issued until at least Friday, his department's deadline for producing a report to President Obama on ways to improve offshore safety. Last week, an industry task force including representatives from Chevron submitted a report to Salazar with recommendations.
While the temporary ban is in place, the oil and gas industry could be forced to delay between $1.6 billion and $2.9 billion in spending, according to industry consultant Wood MacKenzie. Extended for six months, it could postpone up to 4 percent of deepwater oil production now slated for 2011, the firm said in a report this month.
ccepting scrutiny
Watson said the freeze on new permits has not yet had a significant impact on Chevron. He even gave a nod to the Obama administration for striking the "right balance" in responding to the spill so far.
But he said the industry must get back to work quickly or jobs and vital oil supplies could be jeopardized - even if it means doing so with additional oversight by regulators.
"We're not troubled by more scrutiny," he said.
The gulf oil spill will be an unavoidable part of the backdrop as Chevron gathers in Houston for its annual meeting. The company also will have to contend with a phalanx of environmental and human rights groups expected to protest its alleged abuses from Ecuador to Nigeria.
Shareholders, meanwhile, will hope for word of better days ahead, after the company's net income dropped 56 percent last year to $10.5 billion amid the turbulent economy and lower commodity prices.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/24/BUV61DJTA8.DTL
This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Guillermo Grefa, Ecuador, joins True Cost of Chevron
Guillermo Grefa, Kichwa from Ecuador, joins 40 activists, experts and community leaders from all over the world to raise the profile of Chevron's abuses and to ask Chevron to be responsible for the messes created by its operations.
Interview with Elias Isaac, Open Society Institute - Angola
Elias Isaac, Open Society Institute - Angola, talks about (1) his vision for the future of oil and why he is here in Houston this week; (2) Angola and Chevron's impacts there; (3) relationship to BP and what is happening now in the Gulf Coast and (4) what YOU can do.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Global Leaders in Houston to Expose the True Cost of Chevron has been sent
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Saturday, May 22, 2010
Chevron's response to their Human rights and environmental abuses
Check this out. Hmmm!
From the May 10 edition of the NYT:
"What did Chevron do when it learned that “60 Minutes” was preparing a potentially damaging report about oil company contamination of the Amazon rain forestin Ecuador? It hired a former journalist to produce a mirror image of the report, from the corporation’s point of view."
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Alternet: Is a Chevron oil spill next?
This from Brianna at RAN:
"This Alternet blog which connects the 1 mo anniversary of the oil spill with the True Cost report findings, and Chevron in Ecuador. Bam!!" http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/20/is-a-chevron-oil-spill-next/
As I was doing some research this evening, to the harmony of my sister's dogs barking, I found out that Chevron is all over the news today.1. Intimidating journalists. For trying to get the footage from the filmmaker of "Crude." The journalist sphere, of course, is all up in arms because this is akin to reporters' ability to protect their sources, a key tenet of journalistic freedom. Bill Moyers is all over this one.
2. Layoffs. For cutting 295 truck drivers and mechanics nationwide, about 71 in the Bay Areahttp://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_15119834?source=rss&nclick_check=1 and for laying off 570 workers in the Houston area. http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/othercities/houston/stories/2010/05/17/daily2.html?s=industry&i=energy A week ago they announced layoffs of over 900 workers also in the Bay Area:http://www.ktvu.com/news/23548634/detail.htmlIn the "True Cost of Chevron," (truecostofchevron.com/report.html) released yesterday, a worker charged with neutralizing toxic waste tells of her years-long battle with Chevron to get compensated for severe work-related injuries that were clearly not her fault. You'd think that a corporation reporting record profits in the first quarter of 2010 could spare a few thousand dollars in hospital bills for a worker who'd been with the company for a long time. 3. Can't clean up. Finally, this is all over the Canadian news:Chevron basically told the Canadian government that they would not be able to clean up an oil spill off the Newfoundland coast, if it should happen, in the areas where they have offshore rigs. So, labor, environment and free speech. Again, the True Cost of Chevron Alternative Annual Report reveals the depth of Chevron's abuses of human rights, human health, the environment, indigenous cultures and endangered species, as well as their corporate practices and influence in continuing the war in Iraq and shady policy brokering there. I know these violations and abuses are systemic to large corporations. but, really? Chevron's own Annual Report makes claims about community partnerships, human rights (the Jesuits seem to support their human rights, what's up with Jesuits being in bed with Big Oil?!) and environmental quality. http://www.jesuit.org/index.php/2010/04/14/jesuits-respond-to-new-chevron-human-rights-policy/Brazen and sick. You know, one blogger for the SF Chron is like, oh the report doesn't do a system analysis. I think it certainly does, as well as doing a global analysis. It points to systemic abuses of human rights and environmental degradation in all their subsidiaries, around the world. What else is consistent? Their most egregious abuses are concentrated in communities that are often marginalized within national discourses. - This is just wrong.
"This Alternet blog which connects the 1 mo anniversary of the oil spill with the True Cost report findings, and Chevron in Ecuador. Bam!!" http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/20/is-a-chevron-oil-spill-next/
http://www.truthout.org/chevrons-crude-attempt-suppress-free-speech59512
2. Layoffs. For cutting 295 truck drivers and mechanics nationwide, about 71 in the Bay Areahttp://www.contracostatimes.com/ci_15119834?source=rss&nclick_check=1 and for laying off 570 workers in the Houston area. http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/othercities/houston/stories/2010/05/17/daily2.html?s=industry&i=energy A week ago they announced layoffs of over 900 workers also in the Bay Area:http://www.ktvu.com/news/23548634/detail.htmlIn the "True Cost of Chevron," (truecostofchevron.com/report.html) released yesterday, a worker charged with neutralizing toxic waste tells of her years-long battle with Chevron to get compensated for severe work-related injuries that were clearly not her fault. You'd think that a corporation reporting record profits in the first quarter of 2010 could spare a few thousand dollars in hospital bills for a worker who'd been with the company for a long time. 3. Can't clean up. Finally, this is all over the Canadian news:Chevron basically told the Canadian government that they would not be able to clean up an oil spill off the Newfoundland coast, if it should happen, in the areas where they have offshore rigs. So, labor, environment and free speech. Again, the True Cost of Chevron Alternative Annual Report reveals the depth of Chevron's abuses of human rights, human health, the environment, indigenous cultures and endangered species, as well as their corporate practices and influence in continuing the war in Iraq and shady policy brokering there. I know these violations and abuses are systemic to large corporations. but, really? Chevron's own Annual Report makes claims about community partnerships, human rights (the Jesuits seem to support their human rights, what's up with Jesuits being in bed with Big Oil?!) and environmental quality. http://www.jesuit.org/index.php/2010/04/14/jesuits-respond-to-new-chevron-human-rights-policy/Brazen and sick. You know, one blogger for the SF Chron is like, oh the report doesn't do a system analysis. I think it certainly does, as well as doing a global analysis. It points to systemic abuses of human rights and environmental degradation in all their subsidiaries, around the world. What else is consistent? Their most egregious abuses are concentrated in communities that are often marginalized within national discourses. - This is just wrong.
Untitled
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| THE TRUE COST OF CHEVRON: AN ALTERNATIVE ANNUAL REPORT, MAY 2010 INTERVIEWEE INFORMATION LIST (Biographies Follow) |
For interviews with Report Authors, Contact:
Diana Pei Wu, dianapeiwu@gmail.com, 510-333-3889
Sangita Nayak, emailsangita@gmail.com, 414-412-4518
Note: IH = In Houston week of May 24; available for live interviews!
Primary Alternative Annual Report Contact Person:
IH - Antonia Juhasz
Global Exchange
www.GlobalExchange.org/chevron
Lead author & editor, The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report, 2010 and 2009 editions. Chevron Corporate Basics; Alternative Energy Investments; and Lobbying/Political Profile, Overview of all issues.
COAL
John Kinney
Black Warrior River Keeper
Birmingham, AL
http://www.blackwarriorriver.org/
Issue: Chevron coal production; Environmental/public health devastation.
IH - Elouise Brown (Navajo)
Dooda Desert Rock
San Juan, New Mexico
Issue: Chevron coal production, Environmental/public health devastation.
Languages: Navajo, English
Brad Morhmann
Powder River Basin Sierra Club
Sheridan, WY
Issue: Proposed new Chevron Coal Mine, first new mine in Powder River Basin in 15 years in already devastated area. Chevron’s current WY mine, Kemmerer, was recently named one of the most dangerous mines in America
REFINERIES
California
IH - Jesse Marquez
Coalition for a Safe Environment
Los Angeles, CA
Issue: Chevron El Segundo Refinery
Health and environmental danger to community
IH - Jessica Tovar &
IH – Reverend Ken Davis
Communities for a Better Environment
Oakland, CA www.cbecal.org
IH – Dr. Henry Clark
West County Toxics Coalition
Richmond, CA
www.westcountytoxicscoalition.org
Issue: Chevron Richmond Refinery, largest Green House Gas Emitter in State of California; in serious non-compliance for air standards; public health, environmental, and economic abuse of community. Recent major victory by local community against Chevron blocking it from refining heavier more polluting crude after years of struggle.
Mississippi
Steve Shepard &
IH - Miranda Vandermeulen
Gulf Coast Sierra Club
Gautier, MS
Issue: Pascagoula Refinery, health and environmental danger to community.
Utah
Jenna Helf
Former Chevron Field Operator
Salt Lake City Refinery
Salt Lake City, UT
Issue: Former worker horribly injured in preventable accident. Suit against Chevron at Utah Supreme Court.
OFFSHORE PRODUCTION
Alaska
Bob Shavelson &
IH - Tom Evans (Native Alaskan)
Cook Inletkeeper
Homer, AK
Issue: Chevron’s heavily polluting offshore oilrigs. The mission of Cook Inletkeeper is to protect Alaska’s Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains.
Offshore Drilling – U.S. Gulf Coast & More
Antonia Juhasz
Global Exchange
San Francisco, CA
www.GlobalExchange.org/chevron
Issues: Chevron’s massive offshore drilling operations and plans for more threaten climate, environment, coastal communities, livelihoods, and more.
Texas
IH - Bryan Parras
Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS)
Houston, TX
Issue: Chevron in Houston, Chevron Phillips Chemical facility spews toxic waste harming communities; Chevron offshore operations threaten Gulf.
Languages spoken: English, Spanish
Luke Metzger
Environment Texas
Austin, TX
Issue: Lawsuit against Chevron Phillips Chemical facility for mass toxic pollution.
INTERNATIONAL
Angola
IH - Elias Mateus Isaac
Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa
Luanda, Angola
& Kirstin Reed
Issue: Support of brutal dictatorship engaged in gross human rights abuse; environmental & public health devastation; economic abuse
Australia
IH - Neil McKenzie (Indigenous Traditional Owner - Aborigines)
IH - Joshua Coates
The Wilderness Society of Western Australia
West Perth, Australia
Issue: Proposed enormous new LNG facility to destroy indigenous land; environment; economy; native species habitat, including endangered whales.
Teri Shore
Turtle Island Restoration Network
Forest Knolls, CA
Issue: Chevron current and proposed Australian and current U.S. offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico threaten habitat of endangered sea turtles.
Burma
IH - Paul Donowitz &
IH - Naing Htoo
EarthRights International
Washington, DC and Thailand
Issue: Chevron’s Burma operations. With Total, Chevron is the single largest financial contributor to the Burmese Junta and the only major U.S. Corporation still operating in Burma.
Canada
Eriel Deranger (Dene indigenous First Nation) & Brant Olson
Rainforest Action Network,
George Poitras (Mikisew Cree indigenous First Nation), and
IH - Ryan Derange
Alberta, Canada and San Francisco, CA
Issue: Chevron expanding already extensive operations in Alberta tarsands harming indigenous communities, environment, climate, livelihoods, health.
Colombia/Venezuela
IH - Debora Barros Fince (Indigenous Wayuu) (Spanish speaker only)
Organizacion Wayuu Munsurat
La Guajira, Colombia
www.organizacionwayuumunsurat.blogspot.com
Issue: Chevron former coal production and current natural gas production and pipeline harm environment and economic survivability of indigenous Wayuu of Colombia & Venezuela.
Language: Spanish
Ecuador
IH - Han Shan &
IH - Mitchell Anderson
Amazon Watch
San Francisco, CA
Languages: English, Spanish
Maria Ramos &
IH - Ginger Cassady
Rainforest Action Network
San Francisco, CA
IH - Ecuadorian indigenous leaders who are plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Chevron will be in Houston and available for interviews in Spanish or with English translation.
Issue: World’s largest oil spill in the Ecuadorian Amazon from Texaco’s operations. Chevron has been fighting Ecuadorians in court since acquiring Texaco in 2001. Facing largest potential liability against any corporation in world history - $27 billion in damages for environmental and public health devastation.
Indonesia
Hariansyah Usman & Pius Ginting
Friends of the Earth Indonesia (WALHI)
Jakarta, Indonesia
Issue: Chevron’s Indonesian operations, human rights abuse, displacement, environmental and public health danger to community
Iraq
IH - Thomas J. Buonomo
Former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer
Member, Iraq Veterans Against the War
San Francisco, CA
Issue: Chevron’s pursuit of Iraqi oil through U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Kazakhstan/Turkmenistan
IH - Michelle Kinman &
IH - Sergey Solyanik
Crude Accountability
Alexandria, VA and Kazakhstan
Issues: Chevron in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, massive environmental and public health disasters, displacement.
Nigeria
IH - Emem Okon
Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre
Nigeria
IH - Sowore Omoyele
Nigerian human rights activist
New York, NY
IH - Laura Livoti &
Abby Rubinson
Justice In Nigeria Now
San Francisco, CA
Issue: gross human rights abuse, environmental, public health, and livelihood devastation, flaring.
Philippines
IH - Aileen Suzara
Filipino-American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity
San Francisco, CA
Issue: Oil depot in the heart of Manilla, security, environmental, & public health threat.
Issue: Chevron oil depot in the Philippines, environmental public health danger to community.
Languages: English, Tagalog/Filipino
Thailand
Sayamol Kaiyoorawong
Project for Ecological Awareness Building
Muang, Trang, Thailand
Issue: Environmental & public health devastation; economic and livelihood abuse.
INTERVIEWEE FULL BIOGRAPHIES
Antonia Juhasz is the director of The Chevron Program at Global Exchange. She is the lead author and editor of both the 2010 and 2009 editions of “The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report.” She is author of The Tyranny of Oil: the World’s Most Powerful Industry—And What We Must Do To Stop It (HarperCollins, 2008) and The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (HarperCollins 2006). She is on the National Advisory Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War and is a Senior Policy Analyst with Foreign Policy in Focus. A former Legislative Assistant to two U.S. Members of Congress, Juhasz holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, London Observer, and Los Angeles Times, among many other outlets. She was featured in the CNBC documentary, “The Hunt for Black Gold,” and has appeared on programs including, CNBC’s Kudlow & Company, Fox’s Hannity & Colmes, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.
Elouise Brown is the president of the Dooda Desert Rock Organization, an unincorporated association of Navajos and supporters who say “no!” (dooda) to the proposed Desert Rock coal-fired, mine-mouth disaster planned for the Four Corners area. She is also the treasurer for the Hada’asidi Organization (“The Vigilant Ones”), an ad hoc reform group, and she is an advisor to The Forgotten People. She is part of the New Mexico 1Sky campaign that seeks to address global warming through new energy solutions.
She is Navajo, born in the Navajo Nation, and she is very active in the Sanostee Chapter (her local community). She is a Navajo warrior and she is also committed to issues of cancer, DWI prevention and uranium, given her background and the impact of those evils on members of her family.
Elouise Brown is committed to positive change through grassroots political activism, grant writing, lobbying, and a savvy command of the media. She is a traditionalist who listens to the voices of the Elders so they can be heard in translated English to preserve the environment and the Dine Way of Life. She believes that energy consumption matters to the environment and the economy, but Navajo Natural Law tells us that you cannot buy back health from cancer and there are consequences to exposure to fossil fuels, including coal-fired power plants.
Dr. Henry Clark, Executive, West County Toxics Coalition.
Graduate:Masters, Social Science, Interdicplinary Studies. Doctor of Spirtiual Holistic Health. The West County Toxics Coalition started in the early 1980's. The organization is over twenty-five years old. The organization was formed primarily to address pollution and environmental issues from the Richmond, CA, Chevron Refinery.
Miranda Vandermeulen and Ryan Vandermeulen have spent many days hiking in the woodlands, swamps, and beaches of Mississippi and wish to protect them. From volunteering with the National Park Service and working with stranded marine life to raising awareness of natural resource protection, they have been environmental advocates working to defend the MS Gulf Coast from industrialized over-development in an opposing political atmosphere.
The Mississippi Chapter of Sierra Club, Gulf Coast Group, has been strong advocate for environmental protection in an area with many challenges due to heavy industry developments such as the largest Chevron refinery in the country located in Pascagoula, and one of the top dioxin polluters in the country, DuPont DeLisle. With an energy lobbyist as governor the state has faced many challenges. Within the last year, the Coast Group successfully prevented gas drilling near the Gulf Islands National Seashore, successfully prevented the construction of a dam on the Leaf River in the breeding grounds for the Gulf sturgeon, and opposed a tremendously destructive proposal to expand the Strategic Petroleum Reserve into salt domes in Richton. That project, which would have had major negative environmental consequences for the Pascagoula River, recently was removed from the DOE budget.
Bryan Parras
T.E.J.A.S. is dedicated to providing community members with the tools necessary to create sustainable, environmentally healthy communities by educating individuals on health concerns and implications arising from environmental pollution, empowering individuals with an understanding of applicable environmental laws and regulations and promoting their enforcement, and offering community building skills and resources for effective community action and greater public participation. Our goal is to promote environmental protection through education, policy development, community awareness, and legal action. Our guiding principle is that everyone, regardless of race or income, is entitled to live in a clean environment.
Elias Isaac has served as the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) Programme Country Manager in charge of providing managerial and programmatic leadership for all activities since 2005. Currently supervises an office with thirteen member staff and coordinates over a USD 2.5 million programme per year. The programmes range from human rights, democracy building (mostly elections and parliamentary building) education, economic justice, media, HIV/Aids, gender, ICTs and National languages. Also served as the senior advisor and resource person for the USAID/Angola democracy and governance portfolio, in the areas of rule of law, elections and political parties building, transparency and accountability, media and civil society development. Experience includes more than 10 years of work for religious and social organizations, multilateral donor agencies, international and regional non-governmental organizations in the areas of humanitarian assistance and community development, promotion of democracy and good governance, development of civil society and advocacy activities, local government capacity building, human rights, gender development and enhancement of women’s participation in social and political process, social and political reintegration of internal displaced persons (IDPs), returnees and ex-
combatants and projects to establish conflict mitigation and prevention. Experience working in countries in conflict and post conflict.
Teri Shore – Program Director. Teri Shore joined Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN) as Program Director in 2008. In this role, she directs all aspects of conservation, policy and advocacy campaigns for sea turtles and sustainable fisheries in California, Texas, Costa Rica, and Papa New Guinea – all key nesting or foraging habitats for endangered sea turtles. Shore has also engaged in sea turtle research in Australia and begun campaigning to protect sea turtles in Northwestern Australia from Big Oil including Chevron.
Previously as campaign director for Sea Turtle Restoration Project (the main project of TIRN), she directed the national campaign that achieved a sea turtle marine reserve closed to shrimp fishing in Texas waters and advanced the turtle-safe shrimp certification program.
Shore also worked for 7 years as Campaign Director for Clean Vessels at Friends of the Earth (previously Bluewater Network) to advocate for cleaner marine vessels, from passenger ferries to cruise liners and commercial ocean-going ships. During that time she worked with the marine industry, legislators, regulators, environmental groups and public health advocates to achieve stringent ferry emissions standards and new pollution laws for cruise ships and ocean-going vessels in California, the U. S. and internationally.
Shore is also a journalist who has authored environmental articles and reports. She sits on the board of the Sierra Club San Francisco Bay Chapter Backpack Section Board and is a past-president of the California Alpine Club.
Naing Htoo is a Program Coordinator EarthRights International (ERI). He is Karen (ethnic group from Burma) man and graduate from the EarthRights School. He has worked with ERI since 1998, coordinating ERI’s documentation on forced labor, particularly surrounding development projects in Burma. Naing Htoo also conducts advocacy with international financial institutions on Burma. His research and fact-finding have reached key policymakers at the International Labour Organization, the United Nations, and various governments around the world. Naing Htoo speaks Skaw Karen, Thai, Burmese and English.
Paul Donowitz is the Campaigns Director with the international NGO, EarthRights International (ERI), based in Washington, DC. Paul formerly worked as a Senior Policy Analyst at the trade union, the Service Employees International Union, organizing workers in the public sector. He has served as national coordinator for an international human rights organization. Other experience includes work for Social Accountability International, a labor standard setting and accreditation organization, and experience conducting research and training in India with the human rights groups. Paul holds an undergraduate degree in South Asian Studies and Sociology from University of Wisconsin-Madison and a law degree from Columbia University School of Law.
Debora Barros Fince - Director of Wayuumunsurat, “Mujeres Tejiendo Paz.” Debora is“a young Wayúu lawyer and leader of the Organización Wayúu Munsurat.” Debora is quoted as stating of the Chevron pipeline “[w]hen the company came here, it was all bad intentions.” She said “[t]hey came here promising all sorts of opportunities and benefits for the communities, something that has not been true.” Debora has a law degree with “a diploma in Civil Procedural Law and an emphasis on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.” She “conducts trainings and provides legal support for individuals, communities and indigenous Wayuu people in Human and Women’s Rights.
Han Shan, Clean Up Ecuador Coordinator, Amazon Watch – Based in New York City, Han is a long-time human rights and environmental activist. As Program Director of The Ruckus Society, Han trained thousands of grassroots activists in effective nonviolent action, and played a key role in the historic 1999 demonstrations against the World Trade Organization in Seattle. Han also serves on the board of Students for a Free Tibet and is proud to have been banned from China for his outspoken activism. Han is a also a photographer and producer for Rikshaw Films, an independent production company that creates award-winning documentary films and issue-driven content for television and the web
Mitchell Anderson, Corporate Campaigns Director, Amazon Watch -- Prior to joining Amazon Watch, Mitch coordinated a regional human rights investigation in Chiapas, Mexcio, documenting and exposing the effects of militarization on indigenous communities. He has spearheaded multiple international fundraising campaigns to support indigenous resistance and autonomy around the world. Mitch also worked as a freelance investigative journalist and as a certified spanish-english interpreter.
Maria Lya Ramos is the director of Rainforest Action Network’s Change Chevron program. She has worked alongside Indigenous and rural communities across Latin American and has engaged the top echelons of major banks and corporations. She has served as a consultant to the Center for International Environmental Law and the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala on strategies to curtail through metal mining in the Guatemalan highlands. Previously she served as the Southern Amazon Program Coordinator at Amazon Watch, where she led advocacy efforts to protect Indigenous peoples and their territories from harmful extractive industry projects in the Peruvian Amazon. As Greenpeace’s National Field Organizer, she trained and mobilized community members and students across the country on grassroots environmental campaigns. Prior to this position, Maria headed the Washington Peace Center, a clearinghouse and resource center for nonviolent social change. She has worked with the National Coalition for Peace & Justice on national mobilizations in response to the curtailment of civil liberties and expansion of the war in the Middle East. She is a native Spanish speaker. Maria holds a Master's degree in international development from The George Washington University and a political science degree from the University of Florida.
Ginger Cassady - Senior Campaigner Rainforest Action Network - Change Chevron Campaign. Ginger has worked as a campaigner and actions coordinator on national and international human rights and environmental issues for the past twelve years. She has a degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Colorado in Boulder. During this time she directed the Wilderness Study Group and was the state delegate for National Forest Protection Alliance focusing on national forest legislation and management in the United States. Upon graduating, Ginger became a campaigner for Greenpeace USA where she spent five years working on Climate Change, Genetic Engineering and Forest Conservation. For two years she coordinated the international markets campaign targeting tissue paper giant, Kimberly-Clark. Other international work has focused on illegal logging in South America and South East Asia. Ginger was a Senior Campaigner at Forest Ethics where she ran the Paper Program and was a member of their Corporate Action Team. She is currently a senior a campaigner at Rainforest Action Network working on the Change Chevron Campaign. She also serves on the Board of Students For A Free Tibet.
Sergey Solyanik is a consultant for Crude Accountability. Sergey has been an active participant in Kazakhstan’s environmental movement since 1990. For nearly twenty years he worked at the Ecological Society “Green Salvation,” one of the oldest and most respected public environmental organizations in the country. Sergey has a degree in electrical engineering and a Masters in Environmental Politics from Keele University in the UK, which he earned under a Chevening Scholarship granted by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2001, Sergey participated in the US government sponsored “Contemporary Issues Program,” through which he conducted research on the interactions between American non-governmental organizations and transnational corporations. Sergey’s interests include protecting the human right to a healthy environment, and monitoring and influencing the activities of transnational corporations and international financial institutions operating in Kazakhstan and throughout Central Asia. Sergey speaks Russian and English.
Michelle Kinman is co-founder and Deputy Director of Crude Accountability. As such, Michelle is closely involved in both the programmatic and organizational development of the organization. In Crude Accountability’s first few years, Michelle led the international campaign to ensure greater public participation in the decision-making process surrounding the Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea, and conducted extensive research on oil spill prevention and response measures to be adapted to the Caspian region. More recently, Michelle has turned her attention to shedding light on the need for greater corporate responsibility by the petroleum industry, researching and writing about oil and gas companies active in Turkmenistan and about Chevron’s activities in Kazakhstan. She is also the lead web and communications officer for Crude Accountability. Michelle was formerly Caspian and Natural Resources Program Officer at ISAR, where she worked on programs from 1997-2003. Michelle has a BA in Russian Language and Literature and International Studies from Washington University in St. Louis, and currently is pursuing a graduate certificate in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Denver.
Emem Okon - Founder and Executive Director of Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre. Ms. Okon is a women's rights activist and advocate from the Niger Delta’s oil impacted region of Nigeria. She is a campaigner against all forms of violence including that directed at women and the environment. Women’s rights are inextricable with environmental health, because environmental damage harms the survival and livelihood of women farmers and fisher folks. The destruction of self sufficient lifestyles can lead women to seek wages through sex work, which has resulted in increasing rates of HIV & AIDS
Through her work, Ms. Okon organizes women for civic engagement. Ms. Okon works to give marginalized rural women in oil impacted communities a voice. By building skills and knowledge among women, Ms. Okon facilitates the participation of rural women in decisionmaking in their communities.
Ms. Okon was a leader of the powerful women’s protests of Chevron Corporation for its environmental and human rights abuses in Nigeria which garnered international media attention when a group of women took over an oil installation and threatened to take off their clothes if the company did not negotiate with them. She has coordinated several women’s networks and coalitions in the Niger Delta region, including Civil Society on HIV & AIDS, Gender and Constitution Reform Network, International Network on Women and Environment, and National Coalition on Affirmative Action, to mention a few.
Omoyele Sowore has spent the last 15 years working to promote human rights and democracy in Nigeria, and to stop the militarization and violence that multinational oil companies have brought to his country. He is the publisher of the popular online magazine, Saharareporters, which focuses on corruption fueled by petro-dollars in Nigeria. His activism began when he was a high school student in 1989. He protested the conditions of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of $120 million to be used for a Nigerian oil pipeline -- the IMF loan conditions were to reduce the number of universities in the country from 28 to just 5. In 1992, Sowore led student protest at the University of Lagos, where police opened fire, killing seven. Sowore was arrested, interrogated and beaten, and later found out that the police had pressured his family. But he refused to back down in the struggle for decent education in his country, and was elected executive president of the university student union.
“Shell and Chevron are among the biggest corporations in the world and they have benefited only a few people, the clique that runs the country,” said Sowore who has been imprisoned eight times and tortured for his activism. “The Niger Delta area is polluted, occupied and heavily militarized. People get killed on behalf of the major oil companies. That cannot be right."
Sowore has spoken out about human rights abuses and multinational oil companies degradation of Nigeria at universities and conferences throughout the United States; he also participated in the award-winning radio documentary, "Drilling and Killing: Chevron and the Nigerian Oil Dictatorship" produced by Amy Goodman and Jeremy Scahill of Democracy Now!
Laura Livoti serves as Senior Program Officer at FACT for a portfolio of grassroots organizations in California and the South. Laura designed and manages FACT’s program on building strong organizations. Previously she was Director of the National Radio Project. Laura's Board/Steering Committee responsibilities have included the Funders Network on Trade and Globalization, the Funders Network on Civic Participation, the Center for Economic Justice, Media Alliance, the International Media Project, the League of Young Voters and the 50 Years is Enough Network. She has been an active member of the Social Justice Infrastructure Funders and the Women's Action Coalition. Laura was a founder of several organizations including the Committee in Support of the People of Nigeria, Economic Justice for Africa Now, West African Girls Empowerment (WAGE) and Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN). She also helped start the West African Rainforest Network (WARN).
Abby Rubinson, Coordinator of Justice in Nigeria Now (JINN), joined JINN after working as one of the lawyers on the plaintiffs' legal team in the Bowoto v. Chevron and Wiwa v. Shell cases—both of which alleged the oil companies’ complicity in grave human rights violations in the Niger Delta.
An international environmental human rights attorney, Abby brings a strong interest in corporate accountability and advocacy, as well as a determination to inform the public about the realities of the human rights and environmental situation in the Niger Delta. Prior to working at JINN, Abby conducted fact-finding interviews and research in South Africa related to corporate complicity in human rights abuses for the In re South African Apartheid litigation.
Abby also worked with Human Rights Watch in Brazil as a post-graduate fellow in 2007-08, and conducted research in Brazil in 2006, affiliated with the International Rivers Network, on the human rights and environmental impacts of dam projects in Brazil. Abby holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan.
Aileen Suzara is a second generation Filipina, educator, and environmental justice advocate with the Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES). In '05 and '08, Aileen co-led FACES delegation to Pandacan, Manila and witnessed the struggles of residents living fenceline to a hazardous Chevron depot. Compelled to take action, she now works with FACES' Chevron Campaign and aims to bridge the stories from the Philippine fenceline with the global movement for accountability.
T.J. Buonomo is a Chevron Program Associate at Global Exchange. He is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and former Military Intelligence Officer, U.S. Army. In 2007 he was discharged from the Army after criticizing the Bush administration's efforts to open the Iraqi oil industry to U.S. multinational corporations. Since leaving the military, T.J. has also worked as a Field Organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War and a National Programs Associate for Veterans Green Jobs, where he developed a resource conflict and energy policy education curriculum focused on the Middle East and Central Asia.
Jessica Tovar is originally from Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles. The housing projects which she grew up in are directly across the street from an industrial city known as the City of Vernon. In early 2002 Jessica’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She knew it had to do with the pollution in the community where her family lived and worked. She believes in the prevention of cancer and other illnesses is more effective than to spend money on a cure that will only be available to the privileged. This is why she chose to work for environmental justice and seek alternatives to polluting industry.
Jessica currently works for Communities for a Better Environment and has spent four years fighting the Chevron Refinery expansion in Richmond, California. This is an unprecedented campaign victory where community groups have fought and won big oil for violating their “right to know” under the Calfornia Environmental Quality Act for not disclosing the grades of crude oil to be refined nor providing data and mitigation measures on greenhouse gas emissions.
Reverend Ken Davis, “Our health is not for sale!” Reverend Kenneth Davis came to Richmond in 1965, moved away and then returned to North Richmond where he is an Associate Minister for North Richmond Missionary Baptist Church. He has been an active leader and advocate for environmental justice throughout the Chevron Refinery expansion fight since 2006 with Communities for a Better Environment. Ken is aware of the extensive health effects that plague his community downwind of the refinery. As an Associate Minister he has had to help visit the sick and preside over funerals of his parish.
Ken Davis’s involvement ranges from grassroots door knocking to public testimony to the Richmond City Council and the Chevron Shareholders meeting in San Ramon of 2009. He was recently brought onto the North Richmond Neighborhood Council, was involved with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and started his own organization called the Bay Area Coalition for Concerned Citizens.
Josh Coates is the Kimberley Campaigner with The Wilderness Society in Western Australia.
The Wilderness Society (TWS) is a national, community-based, environmental advocacy organization whose purpose is to protect, promote and restore wilderness and natural processes across Australia for the survival and ongoing evolution of life on Earth. Established in 1976, TWS is a not-for-profit, non-government organization. The vast majority of funding is obtained from membership dues, donations, public fundraising.
TWS works through the avenues of public education and empowerment, advocacy and negotiation, and desk and field research. TWS is politically unaligned, but uses democratic processes to maximize wise conservation decisions.
Josh has been involved with TWS for around 5 years and in the current role for over 2 years. Josh draws on his love for wilderness, experience in the non-government environmental organization sector, background in marine science and extensive experience working with Indigenous people in the North of Australia to advocate for landscape scale conservation action to protect the Kimberley region.
The Kimberley region of northern WA is one of the world’s great natural and Indigenous cultural regions. Its vast savannah landscapes, wild rivers, extensive wetlands, spectacular coast and rich marine environments provide a multitude of habitats that are home to an extraordinary diversity of species. The amazing wildlife of the region includes the recently discovered snubfin dolphin, humpback whales (which give birth on the Kimberley coast), gouldian finches, northern quoll and the golden bandicoot.
Incredibly, the far north-west Kimberley sub-region is the only part of Western Australia, and one of very few in Australia, that appears to have retained its complete native fauna species diversity without extinction since European settlement. In view of its global significance and the serious chronic and emerging problems confronting the Kimberley, The Wilderness Society has decided to make the protection of the region’s natural values a high priority. As always, The Wilderness Society will seek to work closely with the region’s Traditional Owners to ensure that improved conservation outcomes go hand in hand with improved outcomes for Indigenous communities.
The urgent reality is that right now the WA Government and companies including Chevron are pressing ahead with plans for a huge industrial hub to process Browse basin gas into LNG for export on the Kimberley coast. This development would act as a ‘thin edge of the wedge’ facilitating further industrialization including damaging downstream industries such as aluminium refineries, fertiliser and explosives factories. The impacts of industrialisation on the coastline – including proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants – would destroy a large and remote wilderness area with many ecosystems that are yet to be studied.
Fortunately, there are many viable alternatives, such as leaving the gas in the ground, or processing the gas offshore via floating LNG technology, or piping the gas to existing LNG facilities further south.
The Wilderness Society calls on Chevron to pull out of the proposal to develop LNG processing on the Kimberley coast, encourage its joint venture partners to do the same and to explore more environmentally and culturally appropriate options.
Neil McKenzie - Yawuru Traditional Owner and Law Boss – Cultural Custodian of Yawuru and Jabirr Jabirr country including James Price Point.
Born in the native hospital in Derby in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia, Neil grew up with his grandparents and was taught traditional values and cultural practices by his elders. He was taught from a very early age that if you look after and respect country, it will always provide.
Neil remains an environmentalist, conservationist and aboriginal activist - looking after and preserving country and culture. He has worked as a cultural tour guide for 25 years.
In 2003 he helped set up the Helping Young People Engage (HYPE) project in Broome after overwhelming community concern over antisocial and offending behaviours in areas were young people were gathering. 10-15 youth workers now patrol the trouble-spots of Broome by foot, typically on a Friday and Saturday night to support young people with issues of homelessness, domestic violence and substance abuse.
From 2004 to 2010 Neil has worked voluntarily on the Roebuck Bay Working Group (RBWG) since its inception (2004), providing cultural advice and assistance with each stage of the community driven management planning which is aimed at protecting, restoring and maintaining Roebuck Bay in Broome. The committed and active community group has embarked upon sustainable management of Roebuck Bay, a tropical marine embayment that holds an enormous and highly valued diversity of cultural and natural heritage.
In 2006 he became a founding member of the “Save the Kimberley” organisation (STK), in response to oil and gas companies wanting to process LNG on his country. He is now Co-Chair of STK and speaks passionately for his country and his culture.
Neil has met with several representatives from Shell, BHP, Chevron and Woodside asking them to leave his country alone and pipe the gas from the Browse Basin to a brown fields site in the already industrialised Pilbara region.
He is a confident public speaker who speaks from his heart. He has had many interviews with the media and has recently featured in a televis
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