@Stacky and Corcaigh 32
oHi, thankyou for your intelligent and well argued responses. I was delighted to get something other than insults and assertions. I would be delighted to engage further with you both on this issue. I will be happy to go further into any of the points I raised in my contribution or to respond to your claims about Shell acting within the laws of the land (a dubious concept in itself, especially as applied in Belmullet district court but there you go).
Have either of you been up to visit Erris since the project began over 10 years ago? Have you talked to or got to know any of the people living in the area who are directly affected by the project, on either side of the conflict?
Do you have any experience with other situations of this nature where large companies have set up to operate in an area against the will of the people livingthere? From the tones of your responses I am guessing you have not but I am willing to be proved wrong.
In my previous post I referred to three parallels between Shell in Erris and fracking. These parallels run beyond both these issues and to understand what is currently going on and be able to respond to it effectively it is necessary to grasp this.
The most important is the appropriation issue since everything else follows from it.
Since the early 1970s and probably much earlier the real assets of Ireland, (along with many other countries around the world) have been systematically stripped. To cut a very long story short . When Ireland joined the EEC in 1973 our fishing rights were signed away in exchange for financial support and the dubious benefits. We gave away something real and solid that if managed sensibly could have sustained us indefinitely in exchange for an illusion.
Over the next 20 years or so changes were made to our laws and structures to facilitate the insanely generous deal that Shell now have with us. Effectively, they take our gas and oil. We buy it back off them.
There are moves afoot by foreign entities to gain control over large tracts of Ireland’s landmass and seafloor through mechanisms like International Forestry Funds, prospecting licences and behind closed doors sales which could give away our aquifers and water basins along with our timber and whatever minerals or fossil fuels are in the ground. In return for all this we will receive electronic blips in a bank account somewhere that mean fuck all without something solid to back them. We will also receive the effects of the ecological devastation that this will cause on our landscapes, in our water and air and on our minds and souls.
Today I visited a site in Tipperary where a North American company are conducting test drilling for zinc and lead, a process that consists of taking core samples for inspection. If these results prove favourable for the company and it carries out its plans the whole area will be mined. I do not know what agreement there is with the company but it is unlikely to be favourable to us. Industry of this type cannot be carried out without causing damage to geology, water tables, landscape and communities.
In this type of situation it can be irrelevant what the law says because companies like Shell have the time and power to manipulate national and local laws to suit themselves. Anyone attempting to fight a legal battle is at a huge disadvantage, which is why we will see more and more direct action as people shift the struggle onto different ground over a myriad of different local and national issues that all have the same roots.
We have a choice at this point……
oHi, thankyou for your intelligent and well argued responses. I was delighted to get something other than insults and assertions. I would be delighted to engage further with you both on this issue. I will be happy to go further into any of the points I raised in my contribution or to respond to your claims about Shell acting within the laws of the land (a dubious concept in itself, especially as applied in Belmullet district court but there you go).
Have either of you been up to visit Erris since the project began over 10 years ago? Have you talked to or got to know any of the people living in the area who are directly affected by the project, on either side of the conflict?
Do you have any experience with other situations of this nature where large companies have set up to operate in an area against the will of the people livingthere? From the tones of your responses I am guessing you have not but I am willing to be proved wrong.
In my previous post I referred to three parallels between Shell in Erris and fracking. These parallels run beyond both these issues and to understand what is currently going on and be able to respond to it effectively it is necessary to grasp this.
The most important is the appropriation issue since everything else follows from it.
Since the early 1970s and probably much earlier the real assets of Ireland, (along with many other countries around the world) have been systematically stripped. To cut a very long story short . When Ireland joined the EEC in 1973 our fishing rights were signed away in exchange for financial support and the dubious benefits. We gave away something real and solid that if managed sensibly could have sustained us indefinitely in exchange for an illusion.
Over the next 20 years or so changes were made to our laws and structures to facilitate the insanely generous deal that Shell now have with us. Effectively, they take our gas and oil. We buy it back off them.
There are moves afoot by foreign entities to gain control over large tracts of Ireland’s landmass and seafloor through mechanisms like International Forestry Funds, prospecting licences and behind closed doors sales which could give away our aquifers and water basins along with our timber and whatever minerals or fossil fuels are in the ground. In return for all this we will receive electronic blips in a bank account somewhere that mean fuck all without something solid to back them. We will also receive the effects of the ecological devastation that this will cause on our landscapes, in our water and air and on our minds and souls.
Today I visited a site in Tipperary where a North American company are conducting test drilling for zinc and lead, a process that consists of taking core samples for inspection. If these results prove favourable for the company and it carries out its plans the whole area will be mined. I do not know what agreement there is with the company but it is unlikely to be favourable to us. Industry of this type cannot be carried out without causing damage to geology, water tables, landscape and communities.
In this type of situation it can be irrelevant what the law says because companies like Shell have the time and power to manipulate national and local laws to suit themselves. Anyone attempting to fight a legal battle is at a huge disadvantage, which is why we will see more and more direct action as people shift the struggle onto different ground over a myriad of different local and national issues that all have the same roots.
We have a choice at this point……
