Unspun

Geez. Some people have all the money in this world but can’t come up with any better ideas than spin and piggyback riding.

Check out this website. It reminds Unspun of what a someone once said: You can’t make a sewage plant smell any better if you put up a sign saying “perfume factory” outside it.

The site is called Buyat Bay Facts and it concerns the “facts” concerning alleged pollution at Buyat Bay in Manado – as Newmont would interpret them. No wonder people like Walhi think they are sinister and guilty (for background just do a search on “Newmont” in this blog)

The best way for Newmont to establish its innocence is to tackle the issue full on. If it is really wronged by NGOs, as they claim, then the best course f action for them is to come out publicly and say it.

Instead it chose to have a website purporting to provide the “facts” surrounding Buyat Bay, not in Newmont’s own website but a free standing one where the only connection with Newmont is the small type at the bottom of the page.

If you squint your eyes you will see: “This website seeks to facilitate access to the reports, facts, and data related to the environment and the people around Buyat Bay. It also provides information pertaining to the criminal prosecution of PTNMR and Mr. Ness. It is being maintained by Newmont Mining Corporation.”

The website tries to secure some legitimacy by featuring in its front page links to august institutions such as the WHO, CSIRO, and blogs by Eric Ness (son of Rick Ness), Australian environmental commentator Jennifer Mahorasy (who is scheduled to be in Sulawesi end of this month to witness the court decision) and get this – THE UNSPUN BLOG!!!

Flattering to be up there with the starched collars and Jennifer but Unspun can’t help feeling that those guys are really desperate abd can’t do better than hitch a free ride on the street creds of others.

If Newmont is really so concerned about getting its point of view across it would do better to confront the issue and allegations full on. Set up a blog, where unmoderated comments are allowed. Then it will be able to engage even its harshest critics. But it will also mean that it has to be open and transparent – qualities that it has claimed it has been operating under all these years, so there should be no compromised situations there.

As it is, it smacks of an amateurish PR effort where the spokespersons would rather blame the whole world than to question their own competencies at getting the messages across in an authentic manner.

C’mon Newmont, get your act together. Already the company must be on record as having spent the maximum amount of money to the minimum of effect over the Buyat Bay case. In the meantime, hapless Rick Ness is facing a court decision soon – have things gotten this far because of ill-meaning environmentalists or internal mishandling and incompetence?