We hope you enjoyed April Fools this year as much as we did, thanks to the stellar jokesters the Yes Men who have a habit of impersonating corporate spokespeople.  The people of the Niger Delta still need you to

email Shell’s CEO, Peter Voser, or call Shell’s headquarters at (031) 70 377-9111, or US office at (713) 767-5400, to

encourage Shell to make real amends by ending gas flaring in the Niger Delta and investing in job training and educational opportunities for every resident of a village whose self-sufficient lifestyle was damaged by Shell.

If you missed the prank, read the statement below and watch the video above of Shell’s apology to the Niger Delta.

A huge thanks to the Yes Men for driving a 100% increase in traffic on JINN’s Facebook page over the last week!

from http://shellapologises.com/statement.html:

The Hague, 27 March 2010

Today, Royal Dutch Shell is holding back the tears no more. Shell apologises to all inhabitants of Nigeria’s Niger Delta for the many years of human rights violations, for which Shell takes full responsibility.

Confronted with massive evidence of human rights violations that can only be attributed to its operations in the Niger Delta, Royal Dutch Shell is extremely proud to be the first international petrochemical company to publicly say:

We are sorry.

Since Shell first discovered oil in the Niger Delta in 1956, the company has ravished the land and polluted the environment. “We thought these people didn’t know what was good for them,” explains Bradford Houppe, Vice-President of Shell’s newly established Ethical Affairs Committee. “We never knew that we were bringing them impoverishment, conflict, abuse and deprivation. Now we know.” Shell acknowledges that it is responsible for large-scale oil spills, waste dumping and gas flaring. Each year, hundreds of oil spills occur, many of which are caused by corrosion of oil pipes and poor maintenance of infrastructure. “Our failure to deal with these spills swiftly and the lack of effective clean-up greatly exacerbate their human rights and environmental impact,” says Houppe. “And that is wrong. It’s just really wrong.”
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