⛔️ this ep again mentions suicide.

Covering all loose ends from my recollections about working at Amec Foster Wheeler in Kuwait. Finally got to a point where I can move on from #GISchat about Kuwait.

Discussed:

0:00 - 3:24 - Emotional impact

3:24 - 3:42 - Agenda

3:42 - 22:50 - Use of ChatGPT to interpret arterial blood gas (ABG) test results and fully understand the brutality of the context of the assistant electrician being fired. The system also tells us the consequences in general of H2S gas poisoning.

22:50 - 32:56 - Use of ChatGPT to support whistleblowers more generally

32:56 - 38:23 Questioning a safety item on p. 37 of the 2016 Amec Foster Wheeler Sustainability Performance Report (https://ungc-production.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/attachments/cop_2017/394131/original/AmecFW_Sustainability_Report_2016_lower_res.pdf?1497623860),

38:23 - 42:36 - Using ChatGPT to help on the North Korean workers angle, leading me to UN Resolution 2397 (http://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/s/res/2397-%282017%29)

42:36 - 50:00 - Use of ChatGPT to support whistleblowers more generally, this section also contains the system's useful summary of all that I have recounted.

50:00 - 53:58 - What would be expected to happen _to someone left untreated_ who presented with the particular ABG test results this person had.

53:58 - 58:56 - Justice regarding the NBTC Camp 4 building fire and respect for the dead.

58:56 - 1:09:21 - Wood PLC compliance officer participation in the cover up and validity of an invitation from a colleague to do a secret investigation,

1:09:21 - 1:14:54 - National Crime Agency, invitation to make a police report and plan to do so

1:14:54 - 1:18:25 - International Labour Organisation and human trafficking charity (believe it may have been Unseen UK), engaging an investigative journalist

1:18:25 - 1:27:41 - Financial Conduct Authority, the stock price since I began whistleblowing and risk for pensioners who depend on these firms being properly policed such that their collapse does not put people's retirement at risk.

1:27:41 - 1:28:50 - Short sellers.

1:28:50 - 1:32:50 - Princess Bibi Nasser Al Sabah.

1:32:50 - 1:37:32 - Emotional impact and concluding thoughts about responsibilities of the safety staff who made these reports to me.

1:37:32 - The Map Maker's Border poem recital.

A final round exposing the evidence I collected during my time at Amec Foster Wheeler in Kuwait about human rights, ethics and safety violations. This is in the service of disclosing how safety matters to do with manpower company NBTC Group were handled by Amec Foster Wheeler, superintendent's representative on Kuwait Oil Company projects. Why? In 2024 a fire in an NBTC worker accommodation facility killed 49 men. One safety breach was that a door to the roof was locked, stopping them escaping to safety. I provide this disclosure in order that the public may understand Amec Foster Wheeler did not do enough in 2017 to control the poor safety standards of this company. This was something they were required to do as superintendent's representative. If they had, the chance would have reduced of this building fire killing 49 men 7 years later.

Caution - this episode contains some details of suicides that happened when I worked at Amec Foster Wheeler in Kuwait. If you need it, these are helplines you can call for the top 5 most popular countries for this newsletter:USA: 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.UK: 111 for the NHS.Canada: 988 for the Suicide Crisis Helpline.Australia: 1300 22 4636 for Beyond Blue.India: 9820466726 for Aasra.Continuing the testimony regarding my career in the worst country to be an expat, Kuwait. Until I joined Jacobs later on, I would also have contended it was at the worst place to be a consultant - Amec Foster Wheeler.

The story of injustice whilst at Amec Foster Wheeler in Kuwait continues.

Here we look at a missed opportunity to avoid the death of 49 people in an NBTC accommodation fire last year in Mangaf, Kuwait. The missed opportunity was in the firing of a worker in 2017 for calling an ambulance in response to an H2S gas poisoning at GC-30 in the North Kuwait Asset. Instead, he could have been listened to for stating that people are punished for speaking up about safety issues. NBTC, Amec Foster Wheeler, Petrofac and the Kuwait Oil Company could then have changed their safety practices. One is invited to wonder if the building fire killing 49 people 7 years later in 2024 would not have occurred if this change had occurred.

We will have one more episode on Kuwait, then move on to Qatar and London, UK.

Caution - this episode contains some details of suicides that happened when I worked at Amec Foster Wheeler in Kuwait. If you need it, these are helplines you can call for the top 5 most popular countries for this newsletter:

1. USA: 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
2. UK: 111 for the NHS.
3. Canada: 988 for the Suicide Crisis Helpline.
4. Australia: 1300 22 4636 for Beyond Blue.
5. India: 9820466726 for Aasra.

Continuing the testimony regarding my career in the worst country to be an expat, Kuwait. Until I joined Jacobs later on, I would also have contended it was at the worst place to be a consultant - Amec Foster Wheeler.

We went in to the weeds geospatially finally! Here is a link to the Mapillary track, showing the security workers at the first gate on the road to GC 31.

This is AMEC's office at GC-31 - https://maps.app.goo.gl/mwe8FrhLCKyiY8318.

This is the other gathering center they were working on in North Kuwait, GC-30: https://maps.app.goo.gl/GAsQJdn1yXNVB8Pu9.

For the separate video I made years ago animating the safety and other violations mentioned at these sites: https://youtu.be/9Ko-vrcIgEk?si=-MvPPxkslS-WgWtZ.

For the video uploaded years ago about my site visit to verify the circumstances of the fatal car accident at GC-31: https://youtu.be/Deg64MWKSsI?si=rKQUpyxBoDjUCjXo.

For a speech I gave in 2019 summarizing all this stuff at Spatial Information Day in Adelaide, South Australia: https://youtu.be/q-xkK3tKlpk?si=AyJcviEJ7F0Xq3wP.

Caution - this episode contains some details of suicides that happened when I worked at Amec Foster Wheeler in Kuwait. If you need it, these are helplines you can call for the top 5 most popular countries for this newsletter:

USA: 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

UK: 111 for the NHS.

Canada: 988 for the Suicide Crisis Helpline.

Australia: 1300 22 4636 for Beyond Blue.

India: 9820466726 for Aasra.

This is part 2 in a mini series about my career across Cambodia, Kuwait, Qatar and London. It contains reflections on my time in Kuwait working for Amec, Amec Foster Wheeler before it was purchased by Wood PLC in October 2017.

I continue to use Nick Haslam’s dehumanization continuum diagram as a tool to interpret what I saw. Here is the diagram again but against an animation of the bombs dropped on Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam:

https://youtu.be/wrIOj5zWzig

Reflections on doing geospatial in Cambodia. Prompted by Free The Map, a book about change in the way we do cartography. This is in the lead up to an episode with the author, Henk Van Houtum.

Dehumanization: An Integrative Review: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6927454_Dehumanization_An_Integrative_Review

Eviction and relocation events 1982-2012 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia: https://youtu.be/-7TEcs3lQFs?si=vL575_mAFsaENPjb

Kabul Falling, Episode 8, Still Falling: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4EvXclesyIwQGoL9xWHsNW

US Bombing of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. This is an animation of 1.6+m bombing sorties over Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam in the decade from 1965. It was an attack to stop communism: https://ndthl.carto.com/viz/3d0dbb10-a36e-11e5-91e4-0e5db1731f59/public_map

Free The Map: https://freethemap.org/

Making Maps Without Borders, a travel blog I kept about my time in Cambodia: http://v2.travelark.org/travel-blog/gisnoborders/1

Sahmakum Teang Tnaut: https://teangtnaut.org/en/

This episode relates to the just concluded Geo Week in Denver. I went yesterday after receiving free entry to the exhibition hall by the guest from today’s podcast. Similar to the Iceye episode released during Geospatial Risk Summit 2 weeks ago, this episode is a way to get a feel for the things discussed at Geo Week and who attends.

Hayden Howard is Executive Vice President atCompassData, Inc. We return to the theme of global base maps created by tech companies in this episode. It extends the last one of the topic withJordan Regenie. He mentioned CompassData as participating in the Microsoft campaign to create 3D cities and Streetside imagery for Bing Maps. Hayden was decent enough to come on and explain what they did. In their own words, they’re a “Leader in providing Global Ground Control Points (GCP) Survey data for remotely sensed data by satellites and other GIS applications.”

Hayden also told us a story about how epic these surveys can be - such as going around Australia.

A great episode and high time we hit the surveying subindex on the pod.

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