Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal caves (2020)

Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by alex_c on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @02:47PM (#27987941)

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

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"

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by for_i_in_range on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:43PM (#27988775)

Fascinating 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.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by techbio on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @05:11PM (#27989773)

This 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.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by jermaustin1 on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:06PM (#27988227)

is £75m even really that much money anymore? Why sacrifice a historic site for some rocks in the ground worth only £75m???

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by Gys on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:16PM (#27988367)

Making your target, getting a bonus

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by whymauri on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:19PM (#27988415)

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. 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?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by greenshackle2 on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:28PM (#27988550)

Ah, 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.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by gruez on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:32PM (#27988619)

>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?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by whymauri on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:43PM (#27988763)

I 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'?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by totalZero on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @06:57PM (#27990826)

The 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.)

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by totalZero on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:31PM (#27988596)

T and VZ pay substantial dividends.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by nicoburns on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:06PM (#27989048)

> I thought this kind of unfettered profiteering and capitalism would be good for long term value?

No, it's only good for short term value. Long-term the regulatory and social environment evolves to punish these kind of companies.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by warent on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:13PM (#27988321)

Sociopathy?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by guerrilla on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:44PM (#27988779)

No, 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.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by praptak on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:37PM (#27988685)

Or capitalism. No test exists that tells one from the other.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by gruez on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:43PM (#27988768)

I'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-...

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by goldenkey on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:47PM (#27988831)

Can I offer you a nice egg in this trying time?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by dmos62 on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:55PM (#27988931)

What egg?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by cwkoss on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:09PM (#27989098)

It'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...

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by robocat on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:30PM (#27989325)

I 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+try...

I suggest you do the same for acronyms that you don’t know.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by goldenkey on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @08:11PM (#27991316)

A beaver egg.

https://churchofthought.org/blog/2020/06/25/busy-beaver-is-t...

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by arthurcolle on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:20PM (#27988437)

May I offer you an egg in this trying time?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by cko on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:05PM (#27989047)

Why are two different users quoting IASIF? Am I missing something?

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by fakedang on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:13PM (#27988319)

Exactly 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.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by chefkoch on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:10PM (#27989102)

https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/AU/XASX/RIO/financial...

it looks like they're just scraping by.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by fakedang on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:28PM (#27989305)

They could have made way way more than that with the prices of 2010 though. Especially for a company of Rio Tinto's scale.

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Re:Mining firm Rio Tinto sorry for destroying Aboriginal cav... by loufe on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:20PM (#27988434)

This is a fantastic catch. I'm sure there's a great case study for business classes to be made from this.

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