Photos from “Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta

The lure of oil is its cheapness. What we mean is that oil is a cheap source of energy. It is cheap partly because oil’s costs of extraction—in the Niger Delta and much of the tropical world—are not reflected in the price at the pump, and what Calvino called the “puny power of paper money,” .

One consequence of the unfettered and wreckless exploration and exploitation of oil in the delta is that the poor people continue to subsidize the costs of crude oil through the losses they suffer in environmental services, quality of life, and extreme environmental degradation. In turn, opportunistic groups— oil bunkerers, gangs, militants—find space to extract (and extort) financial gains from the system.

Rather than getting better, the crisis in the Niger Delta appears to be getting more intractable. Meetings, programs, projects, and commissions multiply—yet the many-headed hydra that is mass poverty in the Delta simply grows more appendages. The path of crude oil development is strewn with skeletons and soaked in human blood across the world.

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Nigeria
Niger Delta
Oil
Shell + Nigeria

After three weeks a much belated report on the impact of the Tsunami on Somalia is published today on IRIN News. The tsunami which travelled at about 805km per hour retained most of its force when it hit the Somali coastline wiping out entire villages.    This report and other smaller ones give a confusing picture of what exactly is happening in the various villages and areas hit. In some places there has been outbreak of diseases such as malaria, typhoid, respiratory-tract infections, and diarrhea. 

Garacad one of the cities that was hit is a major fishing industry centre selling seaford to markets in the Middle East and Africa.   The livelihoods of 780 families (4,8000 people) were affected.   In the region of Puntland, 16,270 families (100,000) people were affected.

The Somali transitional government appealed to the international community to aid the tsunami affected people who have so far received very little aid or acknowledgement of their plight.   

"I would like to appeal to the international community for strong assistance in order to help these affected people to help these people is very important - the assistance to other countries has been great, while the assistance to Somalia as yet has been minimal.

"Our people have been through four years of drought and now the tsunami. There are no medical facilities or means of emergency care in most of these areas."

The worst hit area, Hafun has received some aid from UNICEF and the Red Crescent to provide clean water.  200 children have been vacinated against measles and women are to be vacincated against tetanus.

Like most coastal areas, the main industry is fishing and all the fishing equipment, boats and homes have been destroyed.   Although a few agencies have tried to bring in aid their job has been  hampered by  extremely poor roads and a general lack of infrastructure.   Meanwhile after three weeks people in some many communities are stilling living under plastic sheets on high ground some way from the coastline, still waiting for the aid organisations to reach them with food, shelter and medical equipment as well as help to rebuild their lives.

A brilliant piece in this weeks Pambazuka News by Fatoumata Touré  entitled "The Slaves Are Not Tsunami Compliant".   

I didn’t have a happy New Year and I am galled because the
slaves are in fact elbowing one another to stay in the master’s house. My
brother Tajudeen in his postcard aptly states that the saturation coverage on
the tsunami has more to do with the number of Westerners killed in the disaster!
Yet one cannot but cringe at the fact that the catastrophe not only wreaked
havoc on its victims but also brought out the baser instincts. Poor orphans
watch greedy kin cashing in, bereaved families contend with self appointed
"corpse finders" demanding cash upfront!

As an African woman I am not
comfortable with the fact that the reporting has been uneven and there is the
tendency to obscure certain unpalatable issues. Some of those countries are
favourite destinations for the hordes of shameless sex tourists exerting their
power on what the Cuban poet laureate Nicolas Guillén termed “dark smiling
natives”. Isn’t there the the risk of stepped up trafficking of women and girls
with the paedophilia brigade relocating to our look the other way countries?
Secondly I am concerned at the lower rung reserved for all things African when
it comes to the scale of priorities. Even in disaster relief must we cool our
heels awaiting the crumbs from the Annan-Eagland-CNN table of compassion and
coverage by affirmative action?

The slaves have not left and in fact are
on overtime! I weep for the African casualties who may never be known, for the
lone Kenyan boy who died on the beach at Malindi, the coastal resort town famed
as a playground of the affluent ranging from rowdy royals like the Prince of
Hanover to retired colonial spies, mercenaries, livestock officers and new rich
expatriates. The kind who can smuggle in a ton of cocaine labelled personal,
purchase a speed boat to transfer the loot onto a waiting liner in the high seas
then beat it as a well placed “contact” tips them off on the impending police
“raid”! Hollywood? No.Malindi. Where the North shuts out the South using the
compliant South, sanitizing itself of its ill gotten gains and unleashing the
attack dogs of privilege on the natives they have disempowered with their SAPs
and knee pads…

Enter the tsunami. Over one hundred Somalis, ten
Tanzanians, one South African and one Kenyan meet their Maker. One statistic at
Malindi. All his poor parents could get was a Government vehicle but no fuel.
The same day the Chinese Embassy finally located them in the slums of Nairobi
and donated 100,000 Kenya shillings towards the funeral expenses, the State
donated 100,00 Kenya shillings to the S.E Asia victims, boxes of tea (Boxing
day? ) and thirty doctors.. .A case of therefore those that have shall be
given!

I beg to differ slightly with Tajudeen and the Gandhi quote. The
issue is not just greed for wealth and power in both hemispheres! Those who have
held the world in the bondage of debt and abject poverty are ably aided and
abetted by our non tsunami compliant ruling elites whose very survival is at
stake. Why, their alienation quotient is on autopilot!

The slaves cannot
leave the master’s house until we say: Kumepambazuka!

Sidney Blumenthal’s article in the Guardian  discusses how the  US support for Indonesia’ army is compromising it’s relief effort.

Two days after the tsunami struck, President Bush, who had made no public statement, was vacationing at his ranch in Texas, and a junior spokesman was trotted out. The offer of US aid was $15m - $2m less than the star pitcher of the Boston Red Sox was paid that year.

On his tour of Banda Aceh, Powell made no determined effort to restore the cease-fire. Meanwhile, GAM reports that the Indonesia military is using the catastrophe to launch a new offensive. "The Indonesians get the message when you have no high-level condemnation of what they’re doing,"

Reports are emerging from Somalia that the numbers of people affected are far more than was initially thought and so far no aid is reaching the affected people.  The latest count is that 200 people have been reported killed but according to Alert Net   some 50,000 are in need of food, water, shelter and medical care.   The tsunami disaster comes on top of a 4 year drought in the country and this together with the endemic violence, lawlessness and the devastation of a 13 year civil war has exacerbated the situation in the "country".   Once aid does begin to arrive,  distribution  in Somalia will be extremely difficult as their has been no infrastructure or government  to speak about for the past 15 years.

The UN is appealing for $13 million to provide urgent relief for Somalia.  I don’t quite understand why the UN is appealing for separate monies for Somalia.  I am under the impression that all the funds donated by countries and people around the world is to provide relief for all the affected countries.  Surely it is up to the UN, all the aid agencies and NGOs who have received money to assess the needs of each affected country and begin to deal with and distribute aid.   

One excuse reported for the possible failure of aid agencies to assess the damage in Somalia is the presence of anti-aircraft guns.   These however did not stop the US from invading the country in 1993 and there is no evidence to suggest that the UN or any other aid organisation will be fired on by anyone in the country.