On the news yesterday morning was an item about Shell being sued for being involved in the death of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa. On several of the news casts it was told that Shell had changed their ways and were taking their social responsibility seriously when doing business in Nigeria.
As it was only 14 years ago that mr. Saro-Wiwa was hanged for his activism, I was wondering why behaving ethical and socially responsible was such a hard thing to do back then. And is it so much easier now.
Yesterday at the end of the day while driving - the best time for thinking - I was wondering if we have had good role models in business for behaving responsibly and ethically. Maybe we do now and maybe there were examples in the past, but a whole generation grew up with Dallas and Dynasty. And I was wondering if Alexis and JR may have colored our view on how (oil) business should be done. You would certainly think so when hearing stories like those about Shell.
