We were all taught not to lie from an early age. When we would do something bad, blame someone else for it and then get caught, our parents would punish us for lying.
These days so many people in high positions lie, cheat and steal like their parents never taught them anything. Big companies lie to us to get more sales, politicians lie to get more votes and people in general lie to have things go their way.
The recent headlines in most of the national newspapers and other media have been about Shell's plans of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing in the Karoo. The Karoo community, environmental activists and average South African citizens are trying to get the government to halt Shell's plans as they believe the fracking will be harmful to the environment and too much water will be lost because of the process of drilling into the earth.
I'm definitly not accusing Shell of lying to South Africans about the unharmful affects of fracking or accusing the citizens of South Africa and the Karoo of being overly sensitive. I'm trying to be biased, but still asking the question, how far would 'the big guy' go to trample on the little guy.
Would he lie, cheat and steal? In today's age of ruthlessness we never really know.
History has numerous examples of big corporates lying and cheating on communities - in an effort to rip them off Financially, and/or to dispossess them from their land. South Africa needs an Erin Brokinwich to take on Shell
ReplyDeleteI love the way you put that Daphne- you are spot on and as PR people we need to shine a light on the bad guys.
ReplyDelete