From Mr S. Borg

Your unnamed Greenpeace sources misread the context of my reference to MV Sirius being monitored by French intelligence, in that I was specifically referring to the presence of the Sirius in Maltese waters.

While the ship was in Grand Harbour, a dinghy (damaged in a Greek campaign) being winched down from the ship for repairs in Manoel Island, generated a hive of activity on board a French warship that was apparently suspecting some surprise activity from the waterborne activists. Had the same sources not been so over-zealous in attacking my credibility, they could have easily verified this since other Greenpeace activists also witnessed the event.

The comment that I “hardly turned up at the Greenpeace office” is a clear misunderstanding of two issues. The first is the roles assigned to me on board vessels by Greenpeace officials, whose names and further proof I can attest in a court of law; the second, a serious lack of appreciation of what the “Revolution of the Consciousness” entailed.

In fact, part of my contribution was that of getting Greenpeace’s voice heard on the local media by exposing the Maltese public to new environmental realities that were by and large rarely mentioned in local news (hence the “Revolution of the Consciousness”). It was certainly not confined to being religiously present in “the Greenpeace office when (a third party) was in charge of campaigns”.

To mention one of the projects carried out successfully – the airing of Greenpeace footage and publicity spots free of charge on PBS in a series I co-directed called Scan – I was given unlimited access to Greenpeace film archives by the same administration in order to fulfil PR expectations, a move which I trust was hitherto unprecedented in local Greenpeace PR endeavours.

For further information you may wish to refer to an interview carried in The Times Weekender of 28 February 1998.

As to my “insignificant” contribution to Greenpeace locally, it curiously led to an offer of part-time employment with the organisation when the office was still in Paola. You may also refer to the December 1997 Greenpeace action carried out in front of the US Embassy in Floriana in connection with the American response to the Kyoto Protocol. Incidentally, two local dailies that carried photos of the event (The People and The Times, 12 December 1997), included my “insignificant” contribution on their front page, and my colleagues and I were described by your own journalist Miriam Dunn in The Malta Independent of the same date as “activists”.

Steve Borg