"The government has relinquished control over the offshore areas of our industry. Norway was tough regarding oil companies from the start. You now have an almost embarrassingly large pension fund. The situation for Irish communities, however, is as in Ogoniland in Nigeria - oil is a curse,”
THE annual Ken Saro Wiwa Memorial Seminar takes place in Inver this weekend. The Justice and Peace Organisation, Afri, will take part in a series of events in the local community centre on Saturday next, November 28.
Organisers say the Commemoration, remembering Ken Saro Wiwa who was executed in Nigeria in November 1995, has a particular relevance this year in light of the recent decision by An Bord Pleaneála. “The decision vindicates the opposition of local people to the proposed high-powered pipeline through the heart of a rural community, suggesting that the proposed route is 'unacceptable' on grounds of health and safety,” said a spokesperson.
Contributors to the event will include Cathal Doyle, who is completing a PhD on the theme Free, Prior and Informed Consent and the Extractive Sector, with a particular focus on Indigenous People; Benny McCabe, who has worked in the area of human rights in Central America, Kosovo, Cambodia and has recent experience of human rights monitoring in Erris; Michael McCaughan, the well-known journalist and author, who among other books, has written The Price of Our Souls: Gas, Shell and Ireland, published by Afri and Eve Tessera, a lawyer who has worked with human rights organisations in Ireland, Guatemala and in the Extractive Department with the France-based NGO Sherpa. In addition, actor and playwright, Donal O’Kelly, will read from his new work, which relates the experience of a Security man who finds himself ‘Stuck in Erris’.