Shell got the beautiful Niger Delta from us. And now the delta is no more. The oil that has leaked into the ground for fifty years has destroyed fields, rivers and trees. Leaked away there is also health in humans, chimpanzees, leopard and elephant.
Shell also got our smart children from us. Once upon a time, children were not only intelligent, but also in love with earth, humans and animals. Over the years, we saw the apples of our eyes turn into lawyers and lobbyists from Shell’s headquarters to justify the fact that the clouds are now carrying poison at the hands of fossil fuels.
We gave Shell our freedom. Perhaps because time was complex and we were so intensely afraid. An old slave simply prefers the security that his master guarantees him over all the uncertainties of an unfettered life.
Shell was the biscuit on the table. Shell himself sat at that table, we waited for the crumbs, always found them on the floor and thought we were lucky.
Mirror
Every time we gave something to Shell. We gave the North Pole, Groningen, Brazil, Argentina, Curaçao and many more. Then we looked in the mirror and saw that we had also given away the feeling that we could be good people to Shell.
And now it is serious and is no longer the time when innocence reigned and the most essential questions about death and life in man were asked. In the mirror we no longer see our own faces, but the approaching death of the planet and only the stupid and the indifferent still have a good night’s sleep.
So we also gave our night’s rest to Shell. Despite this, Shell’s hunger was not satisfied. Not only the natural springs, the rivers, the mountains, the oceans wanted Shell in the shell, which is the huge mouth of a monster in real life. Shell also wanted to have our opinions and went to war against the scientific facts about the appalling state of nature, environment and climate caused by Shell and was not stingy when it came to the compensation of the lobbyists, the information officers, the lawyers.
Well-oiled machine
We became teething in a machine oiled by Shell itself, whose mission was to pulverize not only nature and all bodies, but especially thinking as well. We have experienced that our thoughts no longer came about on their own. They are driven from one cavern to another in the cars that are fully fueled at Shell. We gave the keys to those cars to Shell.
It is only nostalgia that we once dreamed of a humanity that would rise up against the system Shell had in mind. We would be able to break the devastating cooperation between the dictator, the patriarchy and Shell. To then create a world where progress did not come down to collecting wealth and polluting the environment, but meant more freedom and more happiness for people.
Shell was supreme. We couldn’t compete with Shell and we also gave our dreams to Shell.
Crazy climate
Shell made us believe that in this regime we need not fear crises and that in its system every crisis offers new opportunities. Now we have a twisted climate, the forest fires, the floods. Hunger is all around us in our world. Due to persistently high inflation, more and more people in poor countries are begging for food on the streets. Here with us, the elderly stand in line at the food banks.
Since Shell also announced record profits in these times of crisis and because we had given so much to Shell, we dared to hope for help from Shell. Couldn’t Shell give up some of its profits to lower oil prices and throw a lifeline in our direction?
We have expressed this hope in newspapers and in social media. Shell acted like it didn’t hear us. Now we look with sorrow at the new gas and petrol prices, know that the worst winter is coming and acquiesce like tame sheep in our fate.
Because, we also gave Shell the balls we once had.
Erdal Balcic is a writer and journalist, and writes an exchange column with Flheteur Jongepier every other week.