January

Friends of the Earth International are at the event and will be reporting back with media releases, blogs, audio reports and photographs.

Watch this space for all the updates.

• Listen to our audio reports on Real World Radio

• Read the Friends of the Earth US blog written by Health and Environment Campaigner Ian Illuminato.
  

To the poet of the olives
Mahmoud Darwish (1942 -2008)
and for the children of Palestine.

Killing or war!
said the wise owl,
while waking up from its millenary dreams.
Killing!! Said the hawk,
while showing its sinister claws ...
Killing is the slogan!
Cried the Coryphaeus of death.

While the owl,
settled on my eyes,
I could not open
my tightly closed eyelids
due to the gruesome scene
of the Palestine massacre.

Who can sleep
and keep silence,
if this unpunished killing
hurts the heart
of humanity?

In the labyrinth of infamy,
missiles and bombs
killing the children,
torture the life of dreams
and strangle the heart of the mothers

Such land in Gaza
my throat is tightened,
pain tores
my silence.

I shouted and shouted with solidarity courage:
Where is the humanity of the
United Nations?
Brother, sister!:
The children,
the olive trees and the winds of the desert have died!

I heard the voice of the poet of the olives:
The "Birds are dying in Galilee"
And the joy is "withered in the borders."

I am skin and heart of all colors.
My soul embraces the planet
with the song of the lark
and the subtle flight of the hummingbird.

I love humanity,
without holocausts:
Africa, Asia, Australia, Latin America,

Without the Nazi genocide against Jews and Gypsies,
without martyrdom in Palestine.

I love freedom:
freedom of the olives,
freedom without walls
freedom of the water.
Freedom of the stories
in "a thousand and one nights."

I Dream of the poet of the olive trees:
with no occupied territories,
without financial crisis and hunger
due to the business of weapons, or
oil wars;
due to gold and emeralds.

My dreams want to shake
the conscience of the people
and overcome with love and rebellion
the hunter of the planet.
I dream of the freedom of Palestine, and
Honduras, my occupied homeland.
A free Homeland!
Homeland for all mankind!

Friends of the Earth International is calling for an immediate end to the destruction of the environment and the lives of the people living in the Niger Delta. Please join us in calling on the President of Nigeria to end gas flaring in all Niger Delta communities.

Gas is often found mixed with crude oil and must be separated. Burning the gas is the cheapest way to do this yet also the most environmentally destructive. Regardless, this is what the major oil producers in the Niger Delta have been doing for decades despite it being illegal in Nigeria since 1984.

Nigeria is the world’s second largest flarer of gas associated with crude oil extraction. The country burns 23 billion cubic meters annually. This practice, which costs $2.5 billion in annual revenue losses has led to a myriad of social, health and environmental costs, and is also a major factor in the tension and conflicts raging in the Niger Delta region.

In 2005 a Federal High court sitting in Benin ordered Shell to stop gas flaring in Iwhrekan, saying it violates the people’s fundamental right to life and dignity of human person. The judge ruled that gas flaring is a "gross violation" of the constitutionally-guaranteed rights to life and dignity, which include the right to a "clean poison-free, pollution-free healthy environment".

There can be no more excuses. We must act in large numbers and demand the government of Nigeria brings about an end to gas flaring once and for all.

Take action now!