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How she had smuggled the device past the hawk-eyed security guards was a mystery, but now she was wielding it with telling effect.
So often at other meetings that Daniel had attended, the questions from the floor, no matter how pertinent or penetrating, had lost all their force simply because they were not audible to the bulk of the audience.
What did he say? and Speak up!
were the cries that greeted them, and the game was lost with the first delivery.
This was not happening to Kelly Ki
She was smaller than Daniel had expected, but her neat little body was poised and graceful, almost birdlike, and there was a force and presence about her that transcended her physical size. Mr. Chairman, BOSS has very recently included the image of a green tree in the company emblem.
What I want to know is whether this is to enable you to cut it down?
There was a stu
The thick dark braid of hair hanging down between her shoulder-blades twitched like the tail of a lioness. For thirty years, BOSS has been ripping the mineral riches from Africa's soil and leaving gaping craters and devastation in its wake. That's the "dig it up" mentality.
For thirty years, BOSS has been slashing down the natural forests and putting the land to cotton and ground-nuts and other cash crops that drain the soil, that poison it with nitrate fertilisers, that contaminate the streams and rivers. That's the "chop it down" philosophy. Her whole body quivered with indignation, a phenomenon that intrigued Daniel. Those cash crops produce no food for the people who once lived upon the land. They are forced to trek away from the devastation that BOSS has created to live in the odious slums of Africa's sprawling new towns. These people are turned into outcasts by BOSS's greed. Sir Peter turned his head and raised an eyebrow at the company secretary. Obediently the secretary leapt to his feet. Will you please state your name, and put your question briefly and clearly?
My name is Doctor Kelly Ki
You are haranguing. . Listen to me, she ordered, and hopped around on the chair to face the ballroom filled with shareholders. For most of us, our personal welfare ranks far ahead of tropical forests and lakes in a faraway land. The princely dividends paid by BOSS are more important to us than exotic birds and unfamiliar animals and tribes of indigenous people. It's so easy to pay lip service to the environment as long as it doesn't affect our own pockets-'Order! Order, please!
bawled the company secretary. You are out of order, Doctor Ki
You are not asking a question. All right, Kelly rounded on him. I'll ask a question. Is the chairman of BOSS aware that while we sit here, the tropical rain forests of Ubomo are being destroyed? She glared at him.
Does the chairman realize that over fifty species of wildlife have become extinct in Ubomo as a direct result of the activities of BossFShame! Sit down! The death of a species affects us directly.
It will lead in the end to our own extinction, the death of man on earth.
There was a hum of indignation and outrage from the shareholders.
Sir Peter Harrison smiled and shook his head pityingly, making no attempt to respond to her attack. He knew where the loyalty of his shareholders lay. Sit down! somebody shouted again. You silly bitch!
Doctor Ki
The woman's a lunatic One of them attempted to pull Kelly down off her chair, but it was obvious that she had surrounded herself with a small group of supporters of her own, half a dozen young men and women in casual dress, but with determined expressions. They closed up around her. One of the young men pushed her attackers away. Let her speaK!
I accuse you of the rape of Ubomo.
Already your bulldozers are ripping into the forest set her out of here!
Doctor Ki
Answer me! Kelly yelled at him, surrounded by her struggling cohorts.
Fifty species doomed to extinction so that you can drive around in your Rolls-'Ushers! Ushers! yelped the company secretary, and from every corner of the room the uniformed security men leapt, into the fray.
As one of them elbowed Daniel aside and charged forward, Daniel could not help himself. He thrust out his right foot, a cu
The press photographers loved it, and their flashes bloomed and lit the ball with a flickering like summer lightning. While you mouth your sanctimonious platitudes and put a little green tree on the BOSS emblem, your bulldozers are tearing the guts out of one of the most vulnerable and precious forests in the world. Kelly Ki
They broke through her ring of defenders and reached up to drag Kelly Ki
Between them they dragged her down off her perch and bore her, kicking and clawing and biting, from the hall. A kind of awed calm returned.
Like the survivors of a bomb blast, the shareholders picked up the chairs and straightened their clothing and examined themselves for injuries.