Africa's oil spills are far from U.S. media glare

Africa

www.reuters.com

100,000 barrel per day of oil have leaked for a week from a pipeline that has since been mended.

"If this (the BP spill) were in the Niger Delta, no one would be batting an eyelid," said Holly Pattenden, African oil analyst at consultants Business Monitor International. "They have these kind of oil spills in Nigeria all the time."

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
beforeitsnews.com
50,868OilWells

[edit on 25-5-2010 by sureshot321]

[edit on 25-5-2010 by sureshot321]

This is very common in African countries, but they do not get our vast media attention because they do not have pda's and laptops in every pocket and home. We do not care about them. They should work to feed our lifestyle, why else would we outsource.

However, this will not end anytime soon. I, just like the rest of you, are heavily dependent on offshore drilling. If we opened ANWAR it would not decrease the amount of offshore drilling. The problem runs much deeper my friends.

There are 50,686 oil well/bore holes in the Gulf of Mexico, and that is only in U.S. territory.


www.reuters.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 25-5-2010 by sureshot321]

reply to post by sureshot321


Africa is kept poor by powerful economies, they keep warlords and despots in power to subjugate a very large population, and continent with vast resources...There is absolutely no need for poverty in Africa, many are happy to not allow it to become a global economic power....Its happening in India, and fortunately for there, they have a democratic (ish) government, whereas keep the africans squabbling and in famine, and you keep a tab on their exploitation

Thank you for the Reuters source
S and F

[edit on 25-5-2010 by zazzafrazz]

Originally posted by sureshot321
I, just like the rest of you, are heavily dependent on offshore drilling.

Why is this?

Someone have a gun to your head forcing you to use oil products?

There is nothing oil can do for us that cannot be done ( and isn't being done) with alternative energy.

You could free yourself of this slave oil addiction today.

I challenge you. Find ways to power your home without oil and gas. use transportation that doesn't rely on oil products.

The only thing keeping people in this oil slavery are themselves.

I don't use oil based products as long as I can find another cleaner way.. sometimes it's not cheaper.. but it's better. I know my money isn't going to greedy oil tycoons who will just use it to enslave others and try to keep them enslaved.

We can do it people. You just have to want to.

Sure the oil is spilling all over the Earth. Her skin is cracking (earthquakes) Her bowels are spewing forth ( volcanoes).

It's not that we don't care as the writer of that story seems to indicate. We do send aid when we can to these places. But, we have a responsibility to fix our problems at Home first.

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


I agree, I try very hard to limit my dependence on fossil fuels, and probably not as much as you. However, it is now used in just about everything: clothing, tupperware, books, etc... just the manufacturing of these products use oil.

I am just saying that things will not change until we are forced to change. Our capability of reason only exists in a vacuum (for the majority of humans).

reply to post by sureshot321


OR....they don't show it on purpose because if we really found out how much oil is spilled in our oceans we would be pretty upset.

Originally posted by JohnPhoenix


I don't use oil based products as long as I can find another cleaner way.. sometimes it's not cheaper.. but it's better. I know my money isn't going to greedy oil tycoons who will just use it to enslave others and try to keep them enslaved.

We can do it people. You just have to want to.

Short of shutting yourself off from the World and using permaculture principles there is nothing you can do to escape it.

How do those non oil-based products get distributed?

The tentacles of the oil industry are insidious and omnipresent.

It's a nice idea, and one I agree with in principle, but we must be realistic as well, unfortunately.

Originally posted by zazzafrazz

Africa is kept poor by powerful economies, they keep warlords and despots in power to subjugate a very large population

Because if the West doesn't back its government-dictator of choice, then e.g. China, Russia, India or even Pakistan will. Why? Because every economy likes cheap oil, metals, gold, diamonds ect.

Africa is basically a country perpetually "bankrupted" by the fact it was technologically behind the White man (a few centuries ago) ever since we first discovered, affordable ways, to buy them, from each other as slaves.

But its hardly the biggest reason either. Most of Africa is still a strongly tribal society. Problem is "that tribal societies" have NEVER been conductive towards Western Capitalism. We actually saw this first in Europe. The Romans are credited with bringing Europe much wealth, and of dramatically raising economic, living standards. What did they do? Why prevent tribal infighting by unifying them under one brutal dictatorship. However the Romans never actually destroyed British tribal culture (like all today's countries) they preferred to offer them "gifts"-bribes with one hand, and regime change with another.

However British tribes had pretty much gone by about 1050 which is exactly the same time that massive monastery-church building, along with their huge estates; began to "usher in" a productive, medieval economy.
And we see it today; throughout (literally) every country in the Middle East (except the Israeli colony). Iraq was a classic example of why not to apply Western thinking to a pre-mediaeval society. We all know most of Iraq's problems came from it tribal infighting (not helped, by two different versions of Islam).

Thing is Western Capitalism was never invented by any one race; or any one person. It's just a way of living, of trading, of doing other things, that's not much different to "two plus two=4" (even if it is almost infinitely more complicated than that!). What that means is it's more our ancestors hard work, and sacrifices, that have mean we've always had the "good luck" of a culture perpetually evolving to be conductive towards capitalism.

Meanwhile Africa has something so ancient (that although it may have once been shared by our ancestors) what they have today is still quite alien (unless you say study, e.g. cave man drawings!)
PS, I always try "try" to be "Politicaly Correct!!!

[edit on 090705 by Liberal1984]