Shell Oil's Settlement Is Only the Beginning
Steve Kretzmann is Executive Director of Oil Change International. He has worked on policy and movement building surrounding energy issues and the global oil industry for the last nineteen years. He served as the environmental advisor to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People in Nigeria. In April 2009, he testified in the US Congress on the impacts of the oil industry in Nigeria.
Now that Shell Oil has settled a lawsuit over the death of a Nigerian activist, Steve Kretzman-a fellow activist and expert in the field-says the Ogoni peoples' struggle for justice has only begun. Shell settled because they were scared.
How Much Is a Dead Nigerian Worth to Shell?
Joe McGinniss is the bestselling author of The Selling of the President, Fatal Vision and Never Enough, among others. His next book will be about how the little-known Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789 has enabled a new wave of 21st- century human-rights litigation.
The Dutch oil giant will pay out a paltry $15 million to the families of 10 murdered Nigerians, including activist Ken Saro-Wiwa-and it will admit no wrongdoing in their deaths. True-crime author Joe McGinniss smells a rat.
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Daily Beast Video curates the most essential and entertaining video, and brings you original and exclusive productions from our talented contributors.
Peter Beinart, senior political writer for The Daily Beast, is a professor of journalism and political science at City University of New York and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation.
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