Word: delta
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...allies to stop the North's cigarette exports. But there are clear signs that pressure on Kim's regime is being ratcheted up as the U.S. targets the country's various sources of dubious income. Last September, for example, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Banco Delta Asia in Macau as a "primary money laundering concern" and alleged that it facilitated the North's criminal activities by circulating counterfeit currency (charges the bank denied). And a senior Treasury Department official called on the South Korean government last week to help the U.S. combat the North's alleged involvement in such businesses...
...Corporations seeking to rebuild their image can always open their checkbooks. For example, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, excoriated in the 1990s for polluting the Niger Delta, is spending millions of dollars to combat malaria and aids in Africa, and is funding other initiatives aimed at improving the lives of those affected by oil exploration. Other firms have tried to make their peace with often-critical NGOs. British oil company BP, French retailer Carrefour and Swedish packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak are working with the World Wildlife Fund on environmental issues...
...spending money is no guarantee that trust will be quickly won back. At least 17 people died earlier this month after an attack by armed militants on a Shell facility in the Niger Delta only days after four oil workers were kidnapped. Corporate alliances with some activist groups are often viewed suspiciously or derided as "greenwash" by more radical NGOs. Furedi, the University of Kent sociology professor, says that companies may ultimately be more hurt than helped if they try to make over their public image too aggressively, because they risk repudiating who and what they really...
...global scramble for energy, Nigeria is blessed. Its resources earn billions of dollars each year, and it bobs atop enough oil and gas reserves to ensure wealth for generations. Yet try telling that to impoverished villagers in the country's Niger Delta region, where Royal Dutch Shell has drilled for nearly 50 years. "Look at this?the crops are stunted, the water is polluted," rails Bari-Ara Kpalap, grabbing a wilted stalk of cassava as he stands ankle-deep in oily water. For Kpalap, a local activist, there is one obvious culprit: "A great part of our problems have been...
...years have passed since Nigerian soldiers hanged activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others after protests targeting Shell's operations turned violent. Today, the company?which has long maintained that pollution from its oil operations in the Delta is due largely to sabotage?is still struggling to regain the locals' trust. Shell has a new strategy. After seeing millions of dollars from its contributions to development funds vanish in the hands of corrupt officials, Shell last month signed a four-year contract with village leaders that puts $7.7 million at their direct disposal. There is no shortage of worthy causes...