Financial Times: Global village: “A Shell annual meeting is a snapshot of globalisation and of the reach of a multinational company.”: Wednesday 29 June 2005

By Clay Harris

Published: June 29 2005

A Shell annual meeting is a snapshot of globalisation and of the reach of a multinational company.

From Sakhalin and São Paulo, Nigeria and the Philippines, Durban in South Africa and Port Arthur in Texas, representatives of areas affected by Shell operations came to make their points.

Even if the exercise had been orchestrated by Friends of the Earth, the clarity of argument - even through translators - appeared directly proportional to the distance travelled. It made a contrast with the usual-suspect nature of some of the UK shareholder questions.

The only disruption was by fewer than a dozen people who shouted "Shell is hell" and the name of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the activist who was executed by Nigeria's then-military government in 1995.

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