Oil prices!
They are through the roof right now. Trading at 126.98 at the close of the day. Everyone has an opinion on it, and it's mostly that pumping gas has become a wallet-raping menace and must be stopped. Everyone's got ideas. Like
Abstract
Conflict over the oil resource in Nigeria is not an issue that can be simplified into a single driving cause. The issue is complex and cuts across the topics of violence, environmental degradation, and democratic representation in the Niger Delta. These topics within the issue of conflict over oil encompass political, economic, and social histories where effects can be seen at the local, state national, and international levels. The conflict over oil is largely fueled by the financial interest of western Multinational Oil Corporations. With over 80% of the Nigerian federal revenue being supplied by oil exports to foreign countries, the US in the lead, it is not difficult to identify one of the driving factors of Nigeria's oil conflict. The Chevron Oil Company has established itself as a formidable force within Nigeria's oil fields, particularly in the Bayelsa State. Chevron and its partners have held a presence in Nigerian oil discovery and production since the Gulf Oil Company's first off-shore mining in Okan conducted in 1963. In Bayelsa State there have been frequent kidnapping and attacks carried out by youth, citizens and militias unhappy with the environmental degradation and distribution of the oil wealth. Chevron, among other oil corporations, has been accused of exploiting local rivalries and ethnic differences as well as assisting the government in carrying out raids on communities hostile to Chevron's presence. More recently Chevron has changed its position from one of suppressing local communities' concerns to increasing development assistance and community investment. The effectiveness of these new programs will help to determine the stability of Niger Delta region in the future as other Multinational Oil Corporations recognize the importance of engaging local communities instead of forcibly suppressing their growing concerns.
(disclaimer: lengthy research paper below)
Praying in a Vacuum: Oil for Sinning
If we are a “Christian nation”
Lifeblood in Persian Gulf soil
Should not the population
Be warned that Heaven runs on oil?
From the ground gargles up an answer
Of liquid gold and mud
It pumps and it courses
And through pipelines it does trudge
The steady marching rhythm
Of our misguided grudge
We’ve come uninvited
Well the big one hit the other day. A massive avalance tore through Alaska's capital city Juneau, or just outside of it I should say. The damage is done though. The avalance took out juneaus hydro electric plant, tearing some of the power lines(you know... the big ones?) out of the ground.
Why is our country so busy with the Iraq War, when their are so many people in Africa starving and dying of disease? We are so busy massacring the Iraqi people, and covering up our search for oil with the stupid WMD excuse, that we don't even notice that there are bigger fish to fry. We should be spending our time and money on disease research and feeding the poor.
I hear everyone complaining about the US and Iraq and taking over because we're just in it for the oil. Ok, so?
I don't know how much you know about the US's involvement in Afghanistan. Less than an hour ago I would have told you I had no knowledge of it whatsoever or interest in hearing about it. Like many other teenagers the current conflict began while I was too young to really care or read the news.
Just a little something I wrote for an SAT essay class.
