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Osayande Omokaro from Friends of the Earth Nigeria said that European energy firms are eager to increase their investment in Africa in order to compete with China and to reduce their dependence on oil and gas from the Middle East and Russia.

"Europeans pride themselves as promoters of human rights, freedom and good governance," he added. "The Chinese do not really promote these values. The Europeans must live by what they practise at home, even if it means losing some ground to the Chinese. It is better to make sure you practise what you preach."

23 Aug 08

The Niger Delta: The curse of the black gold - Africa, World - The Independent

www.independent.co.uk/...-of-the-black-gold-882384.html - Preview

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The stability or otherwise of the Delta matters a great deal, even to those who have never heard of it. Within a decade, the United States expects to extract around a quarter of its oil from the Gulf of Guinea. They see it as a safer option than the Middle East, and it has played a large part in the thinking behind the establishment of the US's Africa Command – a plan for a series of permanent military bases on the continent.

THE NIGER DELTA: NO DEMOCRATIC DIVIDEND

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29 Jul 08

AFP: Peace plans falter for Nigeria oil region

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allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Niger Delta And Waste of the Northern Establishment (Page 1 of 2)

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29 Jun 08

In even the most exploitative African sites of repression and capital accumulation, sometimes corporations take a hit, and victims sometimes unite on continental lines instead of being divided-and-conquered.

www.pambazuka.org/...48819 - Preview

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In even the most exploitative African sites of repression and capital accumulation, sometimes corporations take a hit, and victims sometimes unite on continental lines instead of being divided-and-conquered.
In early June, the British-Dutch firm Shell Oil – one of Rodney’s targets - was instructed to depart from the Ogoniland region within the Niger Delta, where in 1995 Shell officials were responsible for the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa by Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha. After decades of abuse, women protesters, local NGOs and the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) gave Shell the shove. France’s Total appears next in line, in part because of additional pressure from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
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- Although it was six months ago that the European Union’s ultramanipulative trade negotiator, Peter Mandelson, cajoled 18 weak African leaderships -- including crisis-ridden Cote d’Ivoire, neoliberal Ghana and numerous frightened agro-exporting countries -- into the trap of signing interim “Economic Partnership Agreements” (EPAs), a backlash is now growing.
- “We can’t continue to deal with incompetent, weak, corrupt, supine governments,” explained Dot Keet of the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Cape Town. “But these are not factors of the same order of magnitude. The domination of African countries by neocolonialism and the subordinate stance by African governments are not the same. We must be clear where the main driving force comes from: outside Africa. We have to tackle the source.”
- Since 2002, the EPAs have supplanted the agenda of the gridlocked World Trade Organisation, just as bilateral trade deals with the US, China and Brazil are also now commonplace.
  
  A united Europe deals with individual African countries in an especially pernicious way, because aside from free trade in goods, Mandelson last October hinted at other invasive EPA conditions that will decimate national sovereignty: “Our objective remains to conclude comprehensive, full economic partnership agreements. These agreements have a WTO-compatible goods agreement at their core, but also cover other issues.”
  
  Those other “Singapore” issues (named after the site of a 1996 WTO summit) include investment protection (so future policies don’t hamper corporate profits), competition policy (to break local large firms up) and government procurement (to end programmes like South Africa’s affirmative action).
- As Walter Rodney observed, “It is typical of underdeveloped economies that they do not -- or are not allowed to -- concentrate on those sectors of the economy which in turn will generate growth and raise production to a new level altogether, and there are very few ties between one sector and another so that, say, agriculture and industry could react beneficially on each other.”
- African countries face unreliable provision of public utilities (electricity and water); poor public infrastructure (run down roads and railways); rapidly fluctuating exchange rates and high inflation; labour productivity problems arising from poor education, health and housing provision; vulnerable market institutions (such as immature financial systems); and poorly-functioning legal frameworks. The EU has no interest in reversing such fundamental structural economic challenges.
- From early on, African civil society movements – especially the African Trade Network - called on elites to halt the negotiations.
  
  But it has not been easy to develop a strong coalition, as Third World Network director Yao Graham concedes: “Unions have been too syndicalist, while our justice movements have been exhausted fighting structural adjustment. The local private sector has been absent. But in some regions, like West Africa, agricultural producers have been well organised and opposed to EPAs. Links to the Caribbean are weak. But we are working behind enemy lines with progressive allies in Europe, including within the Brussels parliament.”
- because Mandelson is squeezing so hard, he may be single-handedly breaking the links between elites. Led by Senegalese and Malian politicians, most of the African officials at the conference agreed with the left intelligentsia that dangers now arise of: - regional disintegration (due to EU bilateral negotiations and subregional blocs) and internecine race-to-the-bottom competition:

07 Jun 08

allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Niger Delta Crisis Will Soon End, Bankole Assures U.S. (Page 1 of 1)

efforts should also be made to monitor the huge fund already accruing to state governments in the region as this would have gone a long way in addressing some of the developmental issues fuelling the crisis if well utilized and accounted for, adding that the challenge is the lack of capacity of state legislatures to ask relevant questions on the funds they appropriate for the executives.

allafrica.com/...200806060342.html - Preview

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“I Was Shot by Soldiers Bought and Paid for by Chevron” @ Royal Dutch Shell plc .com

Chevron must admit it has used and paid Nigerian police and military to act as company thugs to harm and scare the local population. Chevron must give up violence as a way of doing business.

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Nigeria’s Ogoni hope Shell ouster brings prosperity @ Royal Dutch Shell plc .com

President Umaru Yar’Adua announced on Wednesday that the oil fields Shell abandoned would be given to another operator acceptable to Ogoni communities this year. Shell has said it has not been informed and declined to comment.

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02 Jun 08

URHOBO WAADO, Web site of Urhobo Historical Society: Contents Page

This web site seeks to create, through its networks, a community of Urhobos and their friends in cyberspace. Urhobo is a major Nigerian ethnic nationality in tropical Niger Delta. We invite interested visitors to this web site to become members of Urhobo Historical Society and to participate in its ventures. In so doing, they will contribute to the cultural and historical exploration of Nigeria's Niger Delta and one of its most fascinating and dynamic societies.

www.waado.org/Contents.html - Preview

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10 May 08

Sweet Crude: A New Documentary on the Niger Delta by Sandy Cioffi

On April 12, 2008, members of the Sweet Crude filmmaking crew were detained by the Nigerian military Joint Task Force (JTF) while traveling by boat in the Niger Delta.

Seattle-based Director Sandy Cioffi, Producer Tammi Sims, and photojournalists Sean Porter and Cliff Worsham, along with Nigerian-American Joel Bisina, were taken into custody and subsequently handed over to the Nigerian State Security Services.

They were held for seven days without being charged and without access to legal counsel. They were released Friday, April 18.

www.sweetcrudemovie.com - Preview

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