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Oil, power and a sign of hope

E-BookEPUB0 - No protectionE-Book
312 Seiten
Englisch
rüffer & rub Sachbuchverlagerschienen am20.04.20161. Auflage
'Mercedes AMG Petronas F1-Team'is the official name of the team that has been operated in the Formula 1 competition since the 2010 season by Germany's Daimler AG, one of the world's leading manufacturers of automobiles. The 'Petronas' forming part of the racing team's name is also emblazoned on its legendary Silver Arrow cars. Owned by the Malaysian government, Petronas is a multinational petroleum giant. It, in turn, is also the main owner of companies that have been producing oil for many years in South Sudan, which is the one of the poorest countries in the world. These methods of production have caused an environmental catastrophe. It has seriously damaged the health and livelihoods of the people living there. That the world knows about this catastrophe is the result of nine years of the dogged, often dangerous work undertaken by'Sign of Hope', the German NGO, which launched. 'Oil, power and Sign of Hope' documents the struggle to get the parties responsible at the oil companies and at their partners of sponsorship to adhere to internationally-applicable standards - and, by doing such, to enable 180,000 people to exercise their human right to clean water. Another thrust of Sign of Hope's endeavors is the preservation of one of the world's largest wetlands and of its unique biodiversity: There are ways and means of pushing the buttons of the managers responsible for making decisions at entities that are engaged in polluting the environment. These buttons just have to be really strongly pushed.

Klaus Stieglitz studied political and legal sciences, earning a masters degree in the process. He followed that up by conducting field work in eastern Africa, Asia and South America. Klaus Stieglitz has published a large number of articles on human rights and South Sudan, and on other subjects. Since 1997, Klaus Stieglitz has been responsible for Sign of Hope's efforts to protect human rights. In 2009, he became the organization's deputy chairperson. 'Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V.' - to give the NGO's full name - is an organization motivated by Christian values. It is not affiliated with a confession. Sign of Hope works to protect human rights and to render humanitarian assistance. It is headquartered in Konstanz, the southwestern German city.mehr
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E-BookEPUB0 - No protectionE-Book
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Produkt

Klappentext'Mercedes AMG Petronas F1-Team'is the official name of the team that has been operated in the Formula 1 competition since the 2010 season by Germany's Daimler AG, one of the world's leading manufacturers of automobiles. The 'Petronas' forming part of the racing team's name is also emblazoned on its legendary Silver Arrow cars. Owned by the Malaysian government, Petronas is a multinational petroleum giant. It, in turn, is also the main owner of companies that have been producing oil for many years in South Sudan, which is the one of the poorest countries in the world. These methods of production have caused an environmental catastrophe. It has seriously damaged the health and livelihoods of the people living there. That the world knows about this catastrophe is the result of nine years of the dogged, often dangerous work undertaken by'Sign of Hope', the German NGO, which launched. 'Oil, power and Sign of Hope' documents the struggle to get the parties responsible at the oil companies and at their partners of sponsorship to adhere to internationally-applicable standards - and, by doing such, to enable 180,000 people to exercise their human right to clean water. Another thrust of Sign of Hope's endeavors is the preservation of one of the world's largest wetlands and of its unique biodiversity: There are ways and means of pushing the buttons of the managers responsible for making decisions at entities that are engaged in polluting the environment. These buttons just have to be really strongly pushed.

Klaus Stieglitz studied political and legal sciences, earning a masters degree in the process. He followed that up by conducting field work in eastern Africa, Asia and South America. Klaus Stieglitz has published a large number of articles on human rights and South Sudan, and on other subjects. Since 1997, Klaus Stieglitz has been responsible for Sign of Hope's efforts to protect human rights. In 2009, he became the organization's deputy chairperson. 'Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V.' - to give the NGO's full name - is an organization motivated by Christian values. It is not affiliated with a confession. Sign of Hope works to protect human rights and to render humanitarian assistance. It is headquartered in Konstanz, the southwestern German city.
Details
Weitere ISBN/GTIN9783906304021
ProduktartE-Book
EinbandartE-Book
FormatEPUB
Format Hinweis0 - No protection
FormatE101
Erscheinungsjahr2016
Erscheinungsdatum20.04.2016
Auflage1. Auflage
Seiten312 Seiten
SpracheEnglisch
Dateigrösse7509 Kbytes
Artikel-Nr.14295635
Rubriken
Genre9201
Verwandte Artikel

Inhalt/Kritik

Leseprobe




PROLOGUE

Powerless people

July, 2012. Sarnico, a town in northern Italy. Throngs of paparazzi. George Clooney is shooting a commercial for a luxury version of Mercedes-Benz´s E-class of cars. The commercial covers the star´s determined attempts to get a close-up on the car. This entails him initially grabbing an aquaplane, which then follows a silver-colored model of the car as it winds its way down the spectacular road hugging the banks of the Lago d´Iseo. Clooney´s next step is to grab a speedboat, which flies him up close to the object of his desire. Great chase scene. The commercial´s message: the new model of Mercedes causes this womanizer to mobilize all of the well-known determination and charm that he normally displays when wooing an exquisitely attractive woman.

Clooney relaxes during the breaks between shooting by enjoying a bit of joshing with his fans, and by bringing food to the members of the crew. He lets himself be photographed while doing such. The world´s media snap up the photos.

Clooney makes an announcement during the day of shooting. He is going to auction off his 2008 Tesla Signature 100 Roadster, which has only 1,700 miles on its clock. And he is going to donate the proceeds to a project of assistance in Sudan.

August, 2012: $US 99,000. That´s the amount raised by the auctioning of Clooney´s four years old car. The funds go to the Satellite Sentinel Project, which Clooney helped found and which operates in Sudan.

*

It was sometime around 60 A.D. that the Emperor Nero decided to split off two of his centurions and their centuries (companies) from his legions stationed in Rome´s province of Egypt, and to send them south. The mission´s purpose was to scout the unknown lands stretching down to the sources of the White Nile, and to claim them for Rome, which would thus gain new, sub-Saharan lands. Nero was greedy for the gold supposed to be lying around for the picking in these lands, which comprised the ancient kingdom of Meroe. It was located in what is today´s Sudan. In the interests of maximizing his cost-benefits ratio, Nero gave his scouting party a clearly-defined mission: find out whether or not these unknown lands had any resources at all worthy of exploitation.

Overcoming and surviving unimaginably-challenging obstacles, the Roman legionnaires managed to reach Lake Victoria, the source of the White Nile. One of these obstacles was so challenging that it put an end to any visions of lasting conquest of the region: the Sudd . This gigantic, contiguous expanse of wetlands-nearly 6 million hectares in size-is located in Southern Sudan, and is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The Sudd is comprised of the White Nile´s countless arms and of the land between them. These streams are too shallow to be navigated by ships. The rest of the region is covered by such aquatic plants as papyrus and other reeds. These preclude any attempts at wading through it.

Seneca, the Roman historian, bequeathed us a telling description of the Sudd wetlands. It constitutes the first firmly documented mentioning of the region. Sudd stems from the Arabic Sadet , which means barrier or dam .

*

In May, 1847, Johannes von Müller, a researching botanist from southwestern Germany, embarked upon an expedition in Africa. He was accompanied by his secretary and trusty helper Alfred Brehm, who was the son of an ornithologist. The expedition started in Egypt. Its plan was to traverse the entire continent of Africa, and to research its fauna in the process. In January, 1848, von Müller and Brehm arrived in Sudan, which was under the control of the Ottoman Empire in those days. The Ottoman had expanded their sway over the Sudan from their base in Egypt ten years previously. Brehm made a copious amount of notes about and sketches of the people encountered in his travels. Brehm was especially moved and distressed by the slave trade, which was widespread in the Sudan of those days. Especially distressing to him was the exacting and unscrupulous treatment of the slaves by the Europeans living in the Sudan. During Brehm´s sojourn in the Sudan, he was witness to the arrival of slaves from a march that had started in the south of the region. The state of the dark-skinned humans, who were member of the Dinka ethnic group, especially bothered Brehm: It was a ghastly sight, one that no words suffice to describe. It remained in my soul for weeks-as the epitome of horror. It took place on January 12, 1848. 1 As Brehm noted: This fate of being regarded as objects of sale applies to all the ethnic groups of Abyssinia, including the Galla, Shewa, Makate, Amhara, [...], the Shilluk, Dinka, Takhallaui, Darfuri, Sheibuni, Kik and Nuer. 2

In his notes, Brehm described the cycle of violence and counter-violence prevailing in Africa. According to Brehm the former stemmed from the whites, who employed slavery as one of their means of ruthlessly oppressing the people of Sub-Saharan Africa. This oppression produced a widespread hostility towards whites-an attitude that Brehm found completely understandable-among the Africans. This hostility prevented von Müller and Brehm from proceeding upon their travels in Southern Sudan. As he noted resignedly: The hunting for slaves bars the way for researchers seeking to explore the central lands of Africa. 3

*

Daniele Comboni was a Catholic priest. In 1857, he embarked upon his first trip to Africa. He was accompanied by five other missionaries. Their trip brought them to Southern Sudan, where he experienced first hand the misery and the enslavement of Africans. These experiences led him to found a mission. Comboni´s main objective was to put an end to slavery. His approach to missionary work sounds like it could have been formulated today: Enabling Africa to rescue Africa. 4 Overcoming strong objections from within the ranks of his own church, Comboni recruited women and laypersons to participate in missionary work.5 The greatest difference between Comboni´s approach and those of previous missions was that he granted Africans full respect by viewing them as equals, ones well capable of being responsible for the managing of their affairs. One of Comboni´s main principles was that the Europeans could well support and teach their counterparts-but should not patronize striving to form Africans according to European model.6

Comboni´s missionary work proved to be a huge success. The ethnic groups living in Southern Sudan are cultures highly open to the Christians´ visions of divinity. The effects have proved lasting. Southern Sudan is still the realm of nature-based religions and of Christianity-in contrast to northern Sudan, in which Islam predominantly prevails.

*

June 11, 1955. 4 pm. The start of the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans. The weather is hot and humid. A thunderstorm is in the offing - as shown by the dark clouds crowding the horizon. The sun is still, however, shining over the race course.

More than 200,000 spectators are lining the 13 kilometers of the race course, which is, on non-race days, comprised of normal-use roads. Case-in-point: the long straightaway. It is part of the road connecting Le Mans and Tours. The fastest cars reach speeds of nearly 300 kilometers an hour on the straightaway. Not surprisingly, this is the most popular place from which to watch the race. These Populaires are cheap. That´s because fans have to stand. The Populaires are located in front of the more expensive bleachers. The former offer, however, the best views of the starting positions and the pits. The crowd in the Populaires gets to hear the yelling of the race managers and the mechanics, and gets to sample the odor of fuels and of abraded clutches and brakes. The crowd is comprised of thousands of people, all thronging the race course, from which they are separated only by a nearly one meter-high fence made of bales of hay and of planks. The crowd is enjoying itself. The race is being covered on-site by the world´s media, many of which are reporting live from Le Mans. Among the media are film teams, which are shooting full-color, Cinemascope news flashes for the weekly reports shown in cinemas.

174 minutes after the race has commenced, several race cars zoom into the narrow stretch in front of the bleachers. The crowd cranes to get a good view. This is because the race´s leaders are in the pack. Among the leaders: the UK´s Mike Hawthorn, who is driving a Jaguar, and the drivers of both of the Mercedes Silver Arrows . These three are in a neck-on-neck battle for victory. The cars´ manufacturers -Jaguar and Mercedes-are contending for both the World Cup´s drivers´ and manufacturer´s championships. Mercedes is under pressure. It has to notch a victory in Le Mans if it plans on retaining its opportunity to win the title.7 At first glance, this battle is about prestige and about gaining incentives that convince potential buyers to purchase the manufacturers´ vehicles. These incentives constitute powerful, not-to-be-underestimated advertising. A victory in Le Mans showcases the technical superiority of the manufacturer´s products-in an era in which the automobile industry is embarking upon its boom.

This battle is also about something more, something deeper. World War II concluded a scant ten years previously. This battle is thus between the UK and Germany.8 Mike Hawthorn´s nationalism is well-known. During the days...


mehr

Autor

Klaus Stieglitz studied political and legal sciences, earning a masters degree in the process. He followed that up by conducting field work in eastern Africa, Asia and South America. Klaus Stieglitz has published a large number of articles on human rights and South Sudan, and on other subjects.

Since 1997, Klaus Stieglitz has been responsible for Sign of Hope's efforts to protect human rights. In 2009, he became the organization's deputy chairperson. "Hoffnungszeichen | Sign of Hope e.V." ¿ to give the NGO's full name ¿ is an organization motivated by Christian values. It is not affiliated with a confession. Sign of Hope works to protect human rights and to render humanitarian assistance. It is headquartered in Konstanz, the southwestern German city.
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