editorial writers".
Thanks,
Chidi.
On Jul 25, 2:54 pm, Chidi Anthony Opara <chidi.op...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Why is it that oil spillages in the advanced countries are treated as
> national, nay, International disasters, yet in Nigeria, and in other
> developing countries, oil spillages are treated as non issues by
> western politicians, environmental activists and opinion editorial
> writers?
>
> Chidi Anthony Opara
> (Poet)
>
> On Jul 24, 2:31 pm, Toyin Falola <toyin.fal...@mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Oil's Shame in Africa
> > In Nigeria, spills are weekly events.
>
> > by Julia BairdJuly 18, 2010, Newsweek
>
> > Sunday Alamba / AP
> > Men walk in an oil slick covering a creek near Bodo City in Nigeria in June
> > It was hard to believe BP when it announced oil had stopped gushing
> > into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, July 15. It had taken 87 days.
> > There was relief but little jubilation: it will take many years to
> > clean the shores and the birds, and for the sea to begin to repair
> > itself from the onslaught of poisonous oil. Surely we can no longer
> > call it a "spill"-it seems too light and trite a word.
> > What's even more troubling is that in Nigeria, the country that has
> > arguably suffered most from oil drilling, oil "accidents"-large and
> > small-occur almost weekly, and we hear little about it. A lethal
> > combination of sloppiness, corruption, weak regulation, and lack of
> > accountability has meant that each year since the 1960s, there has
> > been a spill the size of the Exxon Valdez's into the Niger Delta.
> > Large purple slicks cover once fertile fields, and rivers are clogged
> > with oil leaked decades ago. It has been called the "black tide": a
> > stain of thick, gooey oil that has oozed over vast tracts of land and
> > poisoned the air for millions of Africans. In some areas fish and
> > birds have disappeared: the swamps are silent.
>
> > Americans consume a quarter of the world's oil-and 10 percent of the
> > oil we consume comes from Nigeria. Why are we not worried and angry
> > about this? Or at least demanding global accountability from
> > companies we support? Especially now that we can see how destructive
> > it is for those who depend on the sea for their livelihood, how foul
> > the impact is, and how devastating the results of poor decisions and
> > ill-equipped response teams are.
> > Many Nigerians watched, amazed, as Americans berated BP for the
> > Deepwater Horizon spill, then saw progress: our president visited the
> > site and demanded immediate action and compensation. Not so in
> > Africa. According to a group of independent experts, between
> > 9 million and 13 million barrels of oil have been spilled in the
> > Niger Delta since drilling began in 1958. Cleanups have been
> > halfhearted, and compensation has been paltry. The Nigerian
> > government estimates that 7,000 "spills," large and small, occurred
> > between 1970 and 2000. Locals complain of sore eyes, breathing
> > problems, and lesions on their skin. It's sickening stuff: a 2009
> > Amnesty International report found many have lost basic human
> > rights-health, access to food, clean water, and an ability to work.
> > Today about 2,000 oil-polluted sites still need cleaning up.
>
> > The world's worst man-made environmental disasters. View photo gallery.
> > Eco Catastrophes
> > There are many reasons this has occurred: sabotage, faulty equipment,
> > corroded infrastructure. The regulations are weak, rarely enforced,
> > and there are few punitive measures to ensure that spills are
> > managed, monitored, and cleaned up. The oil companies are,
> > effectively, asked to self-regulate. The new Nigerian president,
> > aptly named Goodluck Jonathan, has promised to hold them accountable,
> > but the regulatory agencies are toothless, weakened by decades of
> > rule by corrupt dictators who acted in concert with oil companies and
> > siphoned off much of the oil wealth (80 percent of the state's
> > revenue comes from oil). The money that has come from oil drilling in
> > Nigeria-$600 billion so far-has gone to very few; most Nigerians live
> > in extreme poverty.
> > So this has been happening, in Africa, for decades, as our motors
> > purr and air conditioners hum, and we have barely blinked. As Prof.
> > Rebecca Bratspies from CUNY School of Law says, "Problems associated
> > with oil production are usually invisible to those of us who consume
> > vast quantities. We don't see how dirty it is. [The gulf] is a more
> > extreme version of daily events in Nigeria, where the oil companies
> > have had a complete and total disregard for the environmental
> > implications of their actions."
>
> > Weekly Podcast and Radio Program 7/19/10: BP: Well Done?; Afghan
> > Alternatives; Jihad Unlimited: Al Shabab; Health on Wheels: Mobile
> > Health Care; Haiti Disaster Update; Former Vice President Dick
> > Cheney's Heart Surgery; From the Archives: Walter Cronkite, George
> > Steinbrenner. SUBSCRIBE OR DOWNLOAD PODCAST:http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/newsweek-on-air/id73329823
> > Obama asked that $20 billion be set aside to cover cleanup costs in
> > the gulf. Will it be enough? How much would companies like Shell and
> > ExxonMobil have to pay if Africa were well regulated and proper
> > compensation demanded for the loss of livelihoods, illness, and
> > damage to the environment?
> > This is the perfect time to assess oil-industry practices. America
> > should lead a push to ensure global scrutiny and monitoring of oil
> > drilling, on- and offshore. It's messy and will never be entirely
> > safe, but why should we accept different standards for countries with
> > less money and clout? Global companies should develop adequate global
> > response and compensation mechanisms.
> > One simple but clever idea from Bratspies is that we, through
> > worldwide coordination, ensure that oil companies cannot drill unless
> > they have the proven technology and capacity to respond to leaks,
> > saboteurs, and explosions. If we made it a requirement, it would lead
> > to a "tremendous spur in innovation in clean-up technology." That's
> > something every country would benefit from, rich or poor.
> > Julia Baird is a Deputy Editor of Newsweek. Follow her on Twitter athttp://twitter.com/bairdnewsweek.
> > --
> > Toyin Falola
> > Department of History
> > The University of Texas at Austin
> > 1 University Station
> > Austin, TX 78712-0220
> > USA
> > 512 475 7224
> > 512 475 7222 (fax)http://www.toyinfalola.com/www.utexas.edu/conferences/africahttp://gr...- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
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