Poor, poor Nigeria

[Indianademocrat91]

Nigeria's agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it

The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades

On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.

Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days after that, a large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in Ogoniland. "We are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years old," said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.

This point was backed by Williams Mkpa, a community leader in Ibeno: "Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable."

With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.

Heres the rest of the article -> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
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I guess if we would have only GOP Barton's in Congress, this nightmare in Nigeria would be the Gulf Coast x 1000 :(

[redqueen]

1. Of course we ignore it.

Otherwise we can't continue to pretend we're not causing it.

[Catherina]

3. +1 n/t

[Indianademocrat91]

4. I also found it interesting that

55% of Nigeria's oil companies are nationalized and run by the corrupt politicians who allow this to go on..its just sickening

[Uzybone]

2. Drill THERE, Drill NOW

Most Americans (left and right) are fine with this.

[Indianademocrat91]

5. More on the corruption

This is the kind of stuff that happens when politicians are bought and sold by the oil companies. Lies, deceit, and death. One example of the mind-boggling mess in Nigeria --> http://www.chrishondros.com/work_int/nigeria/nigeria_01.htm

[HipChick]

6. Whenever has anyone cared about anything in Africa?

Unless it benefited them directly?..

[Subdivisions]

7. K&R. n/t

[HipChick]

8. K&R

[treestar]

9. Typical of US Americans not to care

And not to notice.

Where were Rachel and Keith when this happened?

[redqueen]

11. This has been going on for years.

Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. "We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots," said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. "This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months."

That was the Niger delta a few years ago, where, according to Nigerian academics, writers and environment groups, oil companies have acted with such impunity and recklessness that much of the region has been devastated by leaks.


(snip)

One report, compiled by WWF UK, the World Conservation Union and representatives from the Nigerian federal government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, calculated in 2006 that up to 1.5m tons of oil – 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska – has been spilled in the delta over the past half century. Last year Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9m barrels of oil was spilled and accused the oil companies of a human rights outrage.

[treestar]

12. Yet no DU proclamations that the Niger Delta is "dead."

And so on. Or that the oceans are dead (i've seen that one!)

Instead of lionizing pundits for trashing our President, they could be bringing our attention to this, even before the Gulf Spill! Interesting that they did not care until it happened near the U.S.

[Codeine]

17. Americans?

The entire world looks past this stuff. Why single out Americans as being uniquely callous or disinterested?

[girl gone mad]

23. Perhaps the fact that our relatively tiny population still consumes 25% ..

of all the oil produced globally.

Our economy, our way of life, our wars, our politician's futures, our multinational corporations and their international earnings power and financial influence all depend upon and/or service the cheap oil paradigm.

[FLPanhandle]

10. So the Nigerian people need to either force the government to stop this

Or if the government isn't willing, then replace the government one way or another.

[Posteritatis]

21. Because it's just that simple, right? (nt)

[scarletwoman]

13. So true. I've been thinking about Nigeria a lot these past two months.

Been reading about the incredible environmental damage, and the damage to the people living there, for years.

But Big Oil rules, especially when the biggest consumers don't have to deal with the dark side of their appetite for fossil fuels.

It's not just Nigeria, ask the indigenous people of the Amazon about the price THEY pay.

It would be a wonderful thing if the Gulf catastrophe inspired a massive wake-up in the so-called "Developed World" regarding the true price of our profligate consumption. But somehow, I doubt it.

We are a far too self-involved and insular culture to take a larger lesson from this. The overriding concern so far seems to be: how soon can we get back to "normal"?

sw

[Number23]

14. Are you being dismissive with your thread title?

If you're not, I apologize but your thread title seems needlessly condescending.

I did an OP about this in the African American group just yesterday. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=258x10346

[redqueen]

19. It's not a very informative title.

I would have used the article's title. Much much better.

[redqueen]

15. kick

[Overseas]

16. K&R! //nt

[ecstatic]

18. As long as it doesn't happen here, Americans seem to be fine with it

Preserve OUR coasts, but it's OK if other countries' coasts are ruined.

[redqueen]

20. I've only seen two threads about it.

And neither got all that much attention.

[Number23]

22. Appreciate your posts here. It's good to know that some care.

Even if the people affected are poor, black, and on the other side of the world.