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Only thing that comes to mind is South Park's "We're sooorrry" clip. This sentence in the Dec 2020 article says it all, doesn't it? "They were seen as one of
by alex_c 5y ago
Only thing that comes to mind is South Park's "We're sooorrry" clip. This sentence in the Dec 2020 article says it all, doesn't it?
"They were seen as one of Australia's most significant archaeological research sites, but they also had more than eight million tonnes of high-grade iron ore, with an estimated value of £75m (A$132m; $96m)."
Rio Tinto's official page on this is also worth a read.
https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/inquiry-into-juukan-gorge https://www.riotinto.com/en/news/inquiry-into-juukan-gorge
Fascinating where they choose to use passive vs active voice.
- "Our relationship with the PKKP people extends over more than 17 years"
- "We are engaging with the PKKP people"
- "In partnership with the PKKP people, we are focusing on understanding"
- "We can re-establish a sense of place"
Contrast with:
- "The decision to destroy the rock shelters was taken nearly eight years ago"
- "the site was reclassified as ‘cleared’ for mining"
- "knowledge and awareness of the location and significance of the site was progressively lost"
- "the Juukan 2 rock shelter is likely to be irreparably damaged"
- jermaustin1 5y agois £75m even really that much money anymore? Why sacrifice a historic site for some rocks in the ground worth only £75m???
- fakedang 5y agoExactly my thoughts, but then again, commodity gatherers have to do everything and anything - including blowing up archeological sites - to make living money these days due to extremely low commodity prices. Not that I sympathize with those guys, but rather that I can smell the desperation on them.
- chefkoch 5y agohttps://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/AU/XASX/RIO/financials/annual/income-statement https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/AU/XASX/RIO/financial... it looks like they're just scraping by.
- fakedang 5y agoThey could have made way way more than that with the prices of 2010 though. Especially for a company of Rio Tinto's scale.
- warent 5y agoSociopathy?
- praptak 5y agoOr capitalism. No test exists that tells one from the other.
- gruez 5y agoI'm glad that non-capitalist entities (in other words, non-privately own means of production) do not engage in that sort of behavior. Oh wait: https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/03/americas/gulf-of-mexico-fire-intl/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/03/americas/gulf-of-mexico-fire-...
- guerrilla 5y agoNo, this is not any paritcular individuals fault but the system itself since the incentives and legal system are set up this way. If one wasn't like a sociopath then they either wouldn't be hired or would be fired for not doing their job. Due to the environment that the company ooerates in (which we have created), this is exactly what it'd be predicted to do regardless of the individuals involved.
- Gys 5y agoMaking your target, getting a bonus
- whymauri 5y agoMy favorite part about bloodsucking corporations like this and Verizon/AT&T is that the actual stock value of these corporations has barely moved in the last two decades. I thought this kind of unfettered profiteering and capitalism would be good for long term value? All this suffering and destruction to meekly underperform the stock market. Why do these executives have jobs?
- greenshackle2 5y agoAh, but the bloodsucking and profiteering is predictable, so it was already priced in. If they stopped and acted like responsible global citizens instead, now that would be a surprise, and their stock price would drop precipitously.
- totalZero 5y agoT and VZ pay substantial dividends.
- gruez 5y ago>My favorite part about bloodsucking corporations like this and Verizon/AT&T is that the actual stock value of these corporations has barely moved in the last two decades Maybe because they're paying out profits in dividends?
- whymauri 5y agoI actually didn't know this. Does Rio Tinto also fall into this category of 'objectively terrible for the human race, but pays wonderful dividends to the stakeholders'?
- totalZero 5y agoThe point is that the stock value remains in the same place because they distribute part of their earnings to shareholders. On the day of a dividend, the stock gets discounted by the amount of the dividend. So if you pay out a large dividend and the share price is static over the long term, that’s actually quite good for investors. (In other words, your earlier comment about bloodsucking profiteers misses the mark a little bit.)
- arthurcolle 5y agoMay I offer you an egg in this trying time?
- cko 5y agoWhy are two different users quoting IASIF? Am I missing something?
- goldenkey 5y agoCan I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?
- dmos62 5y agoWhat egg?
- cwkoss 5y agoIt's a reference to Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which has become a meme about impotently trying to soften tragedy. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/can-i-offer-you-a-nice-egg-in-this-trying-time https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/can-i-offer-you-a-nice-egg-in...
- robocat 5y agoI Google and post a comment with the answer. I think you are wasting others time with a too simple question: https://www.google.com/search?q=offer+you+an+egg+in+this+trying+time https://www.google.com/search?q=offer+you+an+egg+in+this+try... I suggest you do the same for acronyms that you don’t know.
- goldenkey 5y agoA beaver egg. https://churchofthought.org/blog/2020/06/25/busy-beaver-is-the-bios-of-our-universe/ https://churchofthought.org/blog/2020/06/25/busy-beaver-is-t...
- loufe 5y agoThis is a fantastic catch. I'm sure there's a great case study for business classes to be made from this.
- for_i_in_range 5y agoFascinating catch on their usage of active vs. passive language. The Hero, Villain, Victim triangle plays out beautifully there. In the Active, you have the company positioning itself as the Hero helping the Victim. In the Passive, you find them pointing to some unidentified character from the company’s past (8 years ago) who stands as the Villain responsible for this. They’ve positioned it as if the company is merely the Hero currently trying to help the Victims.
- techbio 5y agoThis is what it must mean when a corporation is "sorry", because no other sense can be made of such a statement. Anthropomorphism has taken an evolutionary leapfrog past people.