Screening & Discussion On Petrochemical Polluters

dublin | environment | event notice Thursday April 27, 2006 03:07 by Projectors

SHELL TO SEA & SDCEA OPEN SCREENING & DISCUSSION:

SCREENING: ‘Shell, BP, Engen & SDCEA’ –a short film about the community organizations mobilizing against the oil refineries in Durban South Africa; as well as some related recent short films from Ireland.
DISCUSSION: Q&A -open discussion with Des D’Sa from SDCEA and Siziwe Khanyile from Groundwork.
DATES:
-Thursday 11th May 2006, Dublin 8, An Taisce, Tailors' Hall, Back Lane, (near Christchurch Cathedral, across the road from Mother Redcaps) 8.30 PM
-Friday 12th May 2006, Mayo, Community Hall near Rossport, 8.30 PM

Invitation

In early May two environmental activists from Durban, South Africa will be in Ireland to meet some of the County Mayo residents and their supporters who are protesting the building of a high-pressure gas pipe and refinery near Rossport. The South Africans are Des D’Sa and Siziwe Khanyile who have both been involved in lengthy local struggles for cleaner air and corporate accountability.
While they are in the country there will be two screenings of the short film ‘Shell, BP, Engen and SDCEA’ (as well as some recently finished Irish films); and the screenings will follow with a discussion with Des and Siziwe.

Des is a local resident turned environmentalist who comes from one of the most polluted residential communities in the country. The South Durban Basin is a place where 285,000 people live next door to 2 of the largest oil refineries and numerous other high polluting industries. This area plan is a throwback from the apartheid era, but even after 12 years of democracy big business still seems to have the governments permission to pollute.
Des is part of an organized community network called the South Durban Environmental Alliance [SDCEA] who do their own air samples to counter the spin from these wealthy industries. SDCEA and another environmental justice group called Groundwork disseminate this information to the residents and use it to mobilize against these petrochemical giants. Siziwe Khanyile is the Air Quality Campaigner within Groundwork, her interest is in human rights and justice and she currently works with community groups affected by the operations of petro-chemical industries in South Africa.

For more information:
SDCEA website: http://www.h-net.org/~esati/sdcea/
Groundwork website: www.groundwork.org.za
Shell to Sea website: www.shelltosea.com