I måndags delades det "alternativa nobelpriset" ut till fyra värdiga kandidater i riksdagens andra kammarsal. Priset heter egentligen Right Livelhood Award. Jag fick äran att introducera arkitekten och miljökämpen Nnimmo Bassey från Nigeria som under många år kämpat för att uppmärksamma vilka konsekvenser det får för landet när de stora oljebolagen utvinner olja. Det blir miljökatastroferna och mänskliga katastrofer som inte världen uppmärksammar. Här nedan ser du min introduktion:
Ladies and Gentleman
Resist, mobilise and transform are some of the key words for Nnimmo Bassey - and, it seems as if he has always tried to combine academics - art - and action in his work. When he studied architecture in Nigeria, in the late seventies, he became aware of unjust economic relations and wanted to work for change. In the eighties he got involved in human rights issues and wrote articles and made cartoons as a way to alert. In the nineties the particular relationship between environmental rights and human rights became very clear to him in the context of the Niger Delta where peaceful protest against pollution by big oil corporations often ended up in violent repression. This was when he, together with others, built up Environmental Rights Action, but also a time when he had to go into hiding, and a time when his book 'Poems on the run' was published. "Keep the oil in the soil, the coal in the hole and the tar sand in the land" - are words one can hear from Nnimmo Bassey, recently re-elected Chair for Friends of the Earth International. He has a way with words this man. Please, Nnimmo Bassey, welcome up to deliver your words of this evening!
Ladies and Gentleman
Resist, mobilise and transform are some of the key words for Nnimmo Bassey - and, it seems as if he has always tried to combine academics - art - and action in his work. When he studied architecture in Nigeria, in the late seventies, he became aware of unjust economic relations and wanted to work for change. In the eighties he got involved in human rights issues and wrote articles and made cartoons as a way to alert. In the nineties the particular relationship between environmental rights and human rights became very clear to him in the context of the Niger Delta where peaceful protest against pollution by big oil corporations often ended up in violent repression. This was when he, together with others, built up Environmental Rights Action, but also a time when he had to go into hiding, and a time when his book 'Poems on the run' was published. "Keep the oil in the soil, the coal in the hole and the tar sand in the land" - are words one can hear from Nnimmo Bassey, recently re-elected Chair for Friends of the Earth International. He has a way with words this man. Please, Nnimmo Bassey, welcome up to deliver your words of this evening!