Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h/t JoNova; Extinction rebellion have staged a protest at an oil conference in South Africa, calling African conference delegates “climate criminals” for discussing how to develop their oil resource windfalls.

Extinction Rebellion calls Africa Oil Week delegates “climate criminals”

8 November 2019 
By Madison Yauger

Activists are demanding that government declare a “climate and ecological emergency”

Extinction Rebellion protestors surprised conference-goers at Africa Oil Week for a second time this week. At noon on Friday, five protestors began hanging a massive banner at the Cape Town International City Centre (CTICC) with “Africa oil week Climate Criminals Conference” and displaying the Extinction Rebellion logo.

Seven men and women, dubbed the “Red Brigade”, dressed in bright red robes and wearing white face paint, walked silently and took up poses around the CTICC.

According to one anonymous protestor, the red symbolised the common blood of all humans.

“There are climate criminals making deals behind closed doors that put our futures at risk and we feel that is our duty to rebel for all life on Earth,” said another protester, 21-year-old protestor Shannon Goodman.

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Read more: https://www.groundup.org.za/article/extinction-rebellion-calls-africa-oil-week-delegates-climate-criminals/

Delegates were largely unmoved by the Extinction Rebellion protest.

No apologies: Africans say their need for oil cash outweighs climate concerns

Libby George, Shadia Nasralla
5 MIN READ

CAPE TOWN/LONDON (Reuters) – A handful of protesters on the ground floor of the cavernous Cape Town International Convention Centre spread fake oil on the ground and chanted, demanding an end to fossil fuels.

Two floors above, the hundreds of delegates at Africa Oil Week were largely unaware – and mostly unmoved – by the display. 

“Under no circumstances are we going to be apologizing,” said Gabriel Obiang Lima, energy minister of Equatorial Guinea, adding that they need to exploit those resources to create jobs and boost economic development. 

“Anybody out of the continent saying we should not develop those fields, that is criminal. It is very unfair.” 

The tension keenly felt at oil conferences in Europe was largely absent over the three-day event in Cape Town; there was little focus on climate change, apart from the shadow renewables cast over long-term demand.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-africa-oil-climate/no-apologies-africans-say-their-need-for-oil-cash-outweighs-climate-concerns-idUSKBN1XI16X

My thought; this latest Extinction Rebellion effort recalls the days of the British Empire, a bunch of privileged white people trying to tell poor African nations how to run their countries. The protestors even wore whiteface, to drive home their point.