Nigeria - Far From Gulf, a Spill Scourge 5 Decades Old - Nigerians Astonished At Gulf Attention

[RamboLiberal]

BODO, Nigeria — Big oil spills are no longer news in this vast, tropical land. The Niger Delta, where the wealth underground is out of all proportion with the poverty on the surface, has endured the equivalent of the Exxon Valdez spill every year for 50 years by some estimates. The oil pours out nearly every week, and some swamps are long since lifeless.

Perhaps no place on earth has been as battered by oil, experts say, leaving residents here astonished at the nonstop attention paid to the gusher half a world away in the Gulf of Mexico. It was only a few weeks ago, they say, that a burst pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell in the mangroves was finally shut after flowing for two months: now nothing living moves in a black-and-brown world once teeming with shrimp and crab.

Not far away, there is still black crude on Gio Creek from an April spill, and just across the state line in Akwa Ibom the fishermen curse their oil-blackened nets, doubly useless in a barren sea buffeted by a spill from an offshore Exxon Mobil pipe in May that lasted for weeks.

The oil spews from rusted and aging pipes, unchecked by what analysts say is ineffectual or collusive regulation, and abetted by deficient maintenance and sabotage. In the face of this black tide is an infrequent protest — soldiers guarding an Exxon Mobil site beat women who were demonstrating last month, according to witnesses — but mostly resentful resignation.

Small children swim in the polluted estuary here, fishermen take their skiffs out ever farther — “There’s nothing we can catch here,” said Pius Doron, perched anxiously over his boat — and market women trudge through oily streams. “There is Shell oil on my body,” said Hannah Baage, emerging from Gio Creek with a machete to cut the cassava stalks balanced on her head.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html?hp

And when the Gulf Spill is finally capped I predict there will still be no outrage.

[Jennicut]

1. Because it is a poor area and no one powerful speaks up for them.

And it is damn telling of humanity in general.

[BeFree]

9. Yep

Those are really 'small people' in Nigeria.

Over here, in the colonies, are bigger small people who f'n kicked the Big People in their ass once upon a time and changed their history.

That's why we, here, get a bit of justice.

And Nigeria? Nothing. The BPers don't care for those smaller people.

[redqueen]

2. K&R

[City Lights]

3. K&R. nt

[ensho]

4. kick

nt

[me b zola]

5. Western people have been abusing the African continent for centuries

Every time I hear a gopper say that if we don't kiss the ass of big oil they will back their bags and operate in Africa, I think of the devastation that they are allowed to create there and think that this is how they would operate here if we would let them. Truth is the oil companies are meeting resistance from some Africans and they would rather operate here where we don't fight back.

[jwirr]

6. I doubt there is anything we can do to help them except get oil

independent. The only answer to this whole oil mess is alternatives and lifestyle changes. Until we are ready to start taking responsibility for our way of life all the indignation in the world will not help.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, RamboLiberal.

[NNN0LHI]

8. A US company once gassed to death 15,000 people in India and there wasn't this kind of outrage

I bet the relatives of those people are saying pelicans? Turtles? Shrimp? Beaches?

People are still dying there from it to this day.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8577794

Don

[redqueen]

11. For those who don't know

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster


Oops... didn't see your edit. I'll just leave it anyway.

[malaise]

10. I posted an article on this from the Guardian

last week and it sank like oil corporations' credibility.

[Catherina]

12. They have every right to be astonished and disgusted

I'm outraged too. And sickened.

We're hypocrites of the worst sort. We bury our heads and wash our hands until the stench of our crimes hits our own shores. Then it's a world catastrophe. Meanwhile we've turned Iraq into a toxic dump, polluted Eastern European and Latin American countries with depleted uranium and carcinogenic defoliants but we're not outraged. Not only are we not outraged but scum vermin has the nerve to be excited that there are huge mineral deposits in Afghanistan for us to appropriate if we can only get those pesky Afghans *civilized* enough to fork their resources over to us in exchange for plastic *progress*.

Entitlement nation.

You're right. There will still be no outrage.