Phulbari: Santa visits GCM Resources, but investors are left wanting

By , City Diary Editor Telegraph

Environmental activist Ashley Feils was evicted from the GCM Resources AGM after presenting chairman Gerard Holden with a stocking full of coal

Where now for GCM Resources? controversial mining project in Bangladesh, after a protestor dressed as Santa Claus stormed the company?s pre-Christmas AGM and deposited a stocking full of coal in the lap of chairman Gerard Holden?
It seems the Aim-listed miner has already shrugged off the scenes of the St Nicholas imposter ? 19-year-old grass-roots activist Ashley Feils of the Climate Justice Collective ? being frogmarched out of the meeting at the Institute of Directors.
A spokesman says GCM Resources is still ?very committed? to getting the project approved, and plans to meet Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina ?as soon as possible? to discuss how the project can address the country?s energy needs.
The groups opposing the mine say the Phulbari Coal Project could displace 220,000 people. Not so, responds GCM, which claims 40,000 people will be resettled over 10 years, and that 17,000 new jobs will be created as the open-pit coal project develops.
?We welcome the opportunity to speak in a constructive dialogue with any group, but have not yet been taken up on this offer,? says GCM, which has reassured shareholders it is ?aware? of their frustration.
Please Retweet #Bangladesh #Phulbari #coal #mining #resistance

Author: Shahidul Alam

Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018. A photographer, writer, curator and activist, Shahidul Alam obtained a PhD in chemistry before switching to photography. His seminal work “The Struggle for Democracy” contributed to the removal of General Ershad. Former president of the Bangladesh Photographic Society, Alam set up the Drik agency, Chobi Mela festival and Pathshala, South Asian Media Institute, considered one of the finest schools of photography in the world. Shown in MOMA New York, Centre Georges Pompidou, Royal Albert Hall and Tate Modern, Alam has been guest curator of Whitechapel Gallery, Winterthur Gallery and Musee de Quai Branly. His awards include Mother Jones, Shilpakala Award and Lifetime Achievement Award at the Dali International Festival of Photography. Speaker at Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, Oxford and Cambridge universities, TEDx, POPTech and National Geographic, Alam chaired the international jury of the prestigious World Press Photo contest. Honorary Fellow of Royal Photographic Society, Alam is visiting professor of Sunderland University in UK and advisory board member of National Geographic Society. John Morris, the former picture editor of Life Magazine describes his book “My journey as a witness”, (listed in “Best Photo Books of 2011” by American Photo), as “The most important book ever written by a photographer.”

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