30th Aug: Taking shape

30 August 2002

Hello. With only 48 hours to go, today has been dominated by final preparations for our Hear our voice art action on Sunday.

We've braved the treacherous Jo'burg roads to pick up equipment, done lots of boring paperwork and had intense phone calls with the UN.

View through the
giant's knee

Corporate giant making

Everything seems to be in place, although the giant, who will represent big business in our installation, is not 'quite' finished yet.

Trent at work

Trent, the South African artist in charge of building him, is confident that he'll be ready in time though.

The corporate giant is being made from 6 tonnes of scrap metal. His legs alone are three rusty steel metres high.

The giant's body is an old electricity transformer which the scrap dealer couldn't believe he wanted to buy.

I can't wait to see it.

It's actually harder to make something out of objects we have found than from scratch.

Trent on the making of a corporate giant

Giant corporate faking

Inside the conference centre there is talk of an outrageous deal between BP and the Turkish Government. It would mean BP could operate outside Turkish law while they build a pipeline through the country.

Campaigners outside BP's HQ, London today

So the surrounding environment and the people who live there would not be protected by law from anything BP might do.

It wasn't long ago that BP rebranded itself as "Beyond Petroleum". Looks like it might be time to question whether they were trying to pull the wool over our eyes. We need rules to prevent this.

BP is masquerading as a saviour of the planet within the oil industry.
Meanwhile they've negotiated complete freedom from any rules which protect the people and environment of Turkey

Kate Hampton, International Climate
Campaigner, Friends of the Earth

I've now got twenty minutes to grab something to eat before I go to our Friends of the Earth International fringe event. Indigestion is the least of our worries here.

Don't let big business rule the world!

Love Sarah

Sarah Donnelly, our Policy and Campaigns Co-ordination Assistant is sending daily updates direct from the Earth Summit.

Images: © Elaine Gilligan/Friends of the Earth, Hannah Griffiths/Friends of the Earth