Black Gold

In the first article taken from National Geographic, I thought the title was a great opener. Curse of the Black Gold: Hope and betrayal of the Niger Delta. The hope part I sort of chuckled at because there was and is no hope for Nigeria. There are some very memorable and meaningful quotes throughout the essay I think are worth mentioning. The first comes from the first page when they are giving a brief introduction:

"The World Bank categorizes Nigeria as a "fragile state," beset by risk of armed conflict, epidemic disease and failed governance." From the World Bank website I found this new updates on their summary of Nigeria:

The World Bank is helping to fight poverty and improve living standards for the people of Nigeria. As of August 2007, the World Bank had approved 123 IBRD loans and IDA credits to Nigeria for a total amount of about US$9.5 billion. The commitment value of the 23 ongoing projects is about US$2.67 billion. The 23 active projects are in all the major sectors.

http://go.worldbank.org/KY8ZJIMB60 a look!

Little did they know how true this is to become. The essay states later that the attacks on the oil companies were becoming more frequent and more violent. Michale Watts was quoted saying:

"Across Africa you have a huge number of alienated youths, politically footloose, who thought they could achieve something with their countries' moves to independence and democracy. Those hopes have been almost everywhere violently snuffed out. The youth are pissed off and willing to up the ante."

After this comment various other people were talking about the situation in Nigeria and comparing it to the Middle East, they said "if the situation threatens to turn into another Middle East, then the world will finally intervene."

I don't completely agree with this statement. First because what is happening in Africa is worse in my standards than what happened in the Middle East. Their history and destruction they have endured is not comparable to that of the Middle East. Secondly the world has already intervened enough! They have taken control of Africa, without anything being wrong in the first place. The reason Nigeria and Africa as a whole are in such shambles is because of the world being there!

The second paper, Untapped: The Scramble for Africa's Oil, goes more into detail about why the big oil boom in Africa. One of the most interesting aspects I found in this essay was the blunt and horrid truth of it all. For example:

"This means that even if a civil war or violent insurrection breaks out on shore, the oil companies can continue to pump out oil with little likelihood of sabotage, banditry, or nationalist fervor getting in the way."

The oil companies know where they sit and what their power is in Nigeria and all over Africa. It is sickening to read about them knowingly deplete Africa of its resources. The paper also dictates that African oil is cheaper, safer, and more accessible than its competitors, and there seems to be more of it every day. This part of the essay compares Africa's oil to that of Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries. The very first sentence puts this idea in concrete.

"United States now imports more of its oil from Africa than it does from Saudi Arabia."

I found this article while researching more about Nigerian Oil and I thought it put things in perspective very well :"Nigeria should be a massively rich country. It's the most populous country in Africa, and is the world's sixth leading oil producer. Over a quarter trillion dollars in oil has been lifted from Nigerian soils and waters in the last 40 years. But after years of military rule and rampant corruption, fueled by these oil monies, the country is mired in billions of dollars in debt and is wracked with poverty."