why should i ignore shandong's words?

Jumpstart wrote:

"Will we ever know the agenda? Any comment from anyone other than the Chairman of SD is BS."

So I went back to Shandong's letter for the first time in 10 days. I was amazed by how much I'd forgotten. It seems to me that those who question Shandong's intentions/agenda have either:

- chosen to discount the Chairmen's words as outright lies
- have forgotten what was said, or
- never read the Chairmen's letter in the first place.

Or I'm hopelessly naive and everyone knows that statements like those below aren't worth the paper they're written on...(my emphases in CAPS):

"The Shandong Gold team has spent a great amount of time in Australia seeking to establish a relationship with an Australian domiciled gold producer and developer which has strong potential to grow its resource base through continued EXPLORATION. Shandong Gold has selected Focus Minerals, because of the quality of its asset portfolio, the prospectivity of its tenements, the QUALITY and potential of its operations and, IMPORTANTLY, THE QUALITY OF ITS PEOPLE, INCLUDING ITS BOARD AND MANAGEMENT.

Shandong Gold will nominate three directors to an expanded Focus Minerals Board of seven directors. IF REQUESTED by the Board of Focus Minerals, Shandong Gold is prepared, ON ARM'S LENGTH TERMS, to make available to Focus Minerals some of its technical and management expertise, to help add SIGNIFICANT VALUE FOR ALL SHAREHOLDERS.

We believe that Focus Minerals will grow into a substantial gold producer, and we look forward to working WITH our Australian FRIENDS to achieve this aim".


So, I know I should be embarrassed, but I can't work out if:

- I should be embarrassed because I'm a wet-behind-the-ears wood duck who has been sucked in by some pretty, meaningless words in a press release that would have said exactly the same thing no matter how sinister Shandong's intentions really are...that everyone knows the minute the 51% is in the can the corroboration and commonality of goals will be out the window and we'll find out what they really want to do...OR

- I should be embarrassed at the thought that Don Taig, Li Zhongyi or Wang Jianhua might have read some of the vitriol and accusatory bile that's been spewed across these pages in the last 10 days, finding that a tiny minority of the shareholder base thinks they're dirty rotten liars.

I wish I knew which...