The Oil Slick
$400 billion dollar theft is being reported in Nigeria, where the estimate that this much has been robbed from the oil revenues by corrupt officials. With a background like this, it seems somewhat amazing that only now have the local people who work for pitiful wages while watching their natural resources drained off by officials, with collusion of the industries that are making top dollar from their oil, begun to make war on the robbers. Watching a news report on the news, I am looking at young men who can't support themselves and families who have taken up arms and are the new 'insurgents' against the West.
The list of people with big influence over the $2 trillion-a-year global oil market has long been an exclusive one, topped by Saudi princes and American presidents. This year, someone calling himself Jomo Gbomo emailed his way into the club. Since January, the obscure Nigerian rebel group that he claims to speak for has battled Nigeria's military, blown up oil facilities and kidnapped foreign oil workers. All the while, Mr. Gbomo (pronounced BO-mo) has fired off emails to the international media taking responsibility for the attacks or threatening new ones -- and often roiling global oil prices in the process.
Meanwhile, Hugo Chavez is announcing the takeover in Venezuela of the same sort of rapacious development, and oil industries that made bargains that let them drain off that nation's oil are losing their holdings.
Chavez's nationalization announcement came in his first speech of the year, a fiery address in which he used a vulgar word roughly meaning "idiot" to refer to Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza.
Chavez lashed out at Insulza for questioning his government's decision not to renew the license of an opposition-aligned TV station.
"Dr. Insulza is quite an idiot, a true idiot," Chavez said. "The insipid Dr. Insulza should resign from the secretariat of the Organization of American States for daring to play that role."
Shades of Cuba
Cuba nationalized major industries shortly after Castro came to power in 1959, and Bolivia's Evo Morales moved to nationalize key sectors after taking office last year. The two countries are Chavez's closest allies in Latin America, where many leftists have come to power in recent years.
Of course, we are up to our ears in the war we've brought to Iraq, where their gasoline products are hard to come by because of the mess we've made of the industry there.
There really seems to be a corrupting quality about the oil wealth the industrialized nations have monopolized from the third world. What Chavez is calling socialism I am sure the stockholders of the affected businesses view as theft. It is the return on behavior that takes resources without giving an adequate return, and we are developing into a world where this is no longer tolerated.
The list of people with big influence over the $2 trillion-a-year global oil market has long been an exclusive one, topped by Saudi princes and American presidents. This year, someone calling himself Jomo Gbomo emailed his way into the club. Since January, the obscure Nigerian rebel group that he claims to speak for has battled Nigeria's military, blown up oil facilities and kidnapped foreign oil workers. All the while, Mr. Gbomo (pronounced BO-mo) has fired off emails to the international media taking responsibility for the attacks or threatening new ones -- and often roiling global oil prices in the process.
Meanwhile, Hugo Chavez is announcing the takeover in Venezuela of the same sort of rapacious development, and oil industries that made bargains that let them drain off that nation's oil are losing their holdings.
Chavez's nationalization announcement came in his first speech of the year, a fiery address in which he used a vulgar word roughly meaning "idiot" to refer to Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza.
Chavez lashed out at Insulza for questioning his government's decision not to renew the license of an opposition-aligned TV station.
"Dr. Insulza is quite an idiot, a true idiot," Chavez said. "The insipid Dr. Insulza should resign from the secretariat of the Organization of American States for daring to play that role."
Shades of Cuba
Cuba nationalized major industries shortly after Castro came to power in 1959, and Bolivia's Evo Morales moved to nationalize key sectors after taking office last year. The two countries are Chavez's closest allies in Latin America, where many leftists have come to power in recent years.
Of course, we are up to our ears in the war we've brought to Iraq, where their gasoline products are hard to come by because of the mess we've made of the industry there.
There really seems to be a corrupting quality about the oil wealth the industrialized nations have monopolized from the third world. What Chavez is calling socialism I am sure the stockholders of the affected businesses view as theft. It is the return on behavior that takes resources without giving an adequate return, and we are developing into a world where this is no longer tolerated.
Labels: Foreign Policy, oil companies
posted by Ruth at 2:21 AM
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