ShellNews.net: Saving and Serving Lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina: "In view of recent publicly made allegations against Shell management that it has displayed racist policies towards its former employees in Malaysia...": Tuesday 13 Sept 2005 16.48 PM EDT

By Dr John Huong (Also published on "Tell Shell")

I would like to convey through the medium of the Tell Shell forum my condolences in respect of the poor souls in the Gulf States of the USA who tragically lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Katrina. I pray for relatives and friends of the deceased and for the huge number of people who have lost everything and now find themselves living as refugees a long way from their homes.

There has been some criticism of the oil companies for giving alleged derisory donations to assist in the response to this unprecedented natural disaster in North America. I understand (correct me if I am wrong) that my former employer Shell has given $1 million USD. In view of recent publicly made allegations against Shell management that it has displayed racist policies towards its former employees in Malaysia (which I am sure must be unfounded), I would respectfully suggest that Shell could dispel any such notion by making a much more significant donation to the charities supporting the refugees, many of whom are impoverished.

Shell has a massive windfall cash flow generating multibillion quarterly profits from astronomically high oil prices, so a donation of one billion dollars would be affordable and presumably tax deductible. Such a move would go a long way to restoring the respect for Royal Dutch Shell, as well as hopefully persuading other oil giants to follow Shell’s lead.

The worlds leading retailer, Wal-Mart, like Shell, has been under intense public and media scrutiny in recent times. As a result of its huge generosity in response to Hurricane Katrina, it has done a great deal to turn around its public image almost overnight. That is an example which Shell could follow.

I have also submitted this posting to ShellNews.net

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