Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Oil in Africa

The excavating of oil from Nigeria and other countries in Africa has become a new trend in the past few years. The oil from these countries is popular because it's seen as "sweet" crude that has low sulphur content. Due to these factors it is easier and cheaper to refine into gasoline and other products. And, finally, the transportation costs are lower than getting if from the Middle East.

Now, as we all know this new found source of fuel/oil has its ups and downs. The African people are the ones who see these ups and downs, not us. You may ask where all the money goes because lord knows there is a great deal of it. Sadly, large amounts of the income makes its way into the hands of the ruling richer classes rather than the lower more in need groups. When calculated out more than 50% of the population receives less than $2.00 a day. Now not all of the wealthier people and groups keep the money for themselves. There are some activists out there who have pushed to use oil money on improvement of education, health and infrastructure. There is even an African Infrastructure Foundation in place with the goals to:
"To operate and carry out activities as a Non-governmental Organization (NGO) in a most efficient manner towards providing first class services to the African community and African and international development organizations to sustain Africa's development infrastructure with the purpose of improving the quality of the environment and enhancing socio-economic development through the principles of sustainable development. We believe that when Africa's infrastructure are conceived, developed, managed and governed sustainably, there will be sustainability in the quality and health of the environment, enhanced socio-economic development and sustainable poverty reduction. "

Though there are organizations such as this placed to try and better Africa that doesn't mean we'll see immediate results or even any at all. Right now the main issue of disturbance is that of corruption within Africa and its oil trade. There is an estimated 45 percent of oil stolen or wasted in Nigeria's oil along. There are often criminal gangs or rebels who sabotage oil lines daily in the delta. Pipelines can be cut or tapped in many ways but the most common are ways are with hacksaws and funnels. This stealing my help out the individual but it is killing the nation. Oil is not only causing pollution and the death of sea life but also is taking the lives of the African people by way of murder. We must reexamine if we are doing this for the right reasons, not just for the convenience.





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3 comments:

Peter Larr said...

I forgot to show you how to embed videos last week! Remind me Pollard.

Peter Larr said...

I lied, I'll forget by tomorrow. Ok, on youtube on the right hand side of any video you are watching there is a box. In the box will be a description of the video, URL and Embedded. copy what is in the embedded box then paste it as if it were text in your blog. Miraculously the video will appear. Sometimes if you save it a lot, or don't write it in one sitting the embedded info will disappear but the video will still be there.

Allen Webb said...

Nice post. Interesting question in your picture, how much blood has gone into the oil, the diamonds, the rubber, the ivory....