Let's keep truckin'

So I will be honest. This blog was originally started as an assignment for my International Communications class. However after looking at my analytics I see that this blog has attracted quite a bit of people from around the world. Therefore even though I have already received my grade for the class, why stop there? I could really be going somewhere with this thing! I hope to get even more knowledgeable on the issue, and please offer me your input on any news as far as the Niger Delta goes. Thank you!

I will also be quite busy this summer, as I will be working an intense and time consuming job in Tennessee. I doubt there will be more than one time a week I will even have time to think about what to write next. Therefore, I am down for some helpers. If anyone likes to blog about anything or is very knowledgeable on what is going on in the Niger Delta, please let me know. I would love to partner up with some people, because all my information so far has either just been me blabbing or reporting stories I found on the internet.

If interested, reply to this blog or email me at RJohnston@flagler.edu. Thank you!

"Sweet Crude"

The documentary "Sweet Crude" by Sandy Cioffi informs the viewer about the issues of oil in the Niger Delta. For those who are a more of a visual learner, this might be much more fun for you to watch instead of reading my boring writings. Well, maybe not, but you should check it out nonetheless! Here is a description of it from the website.

In a small corner of the most populous country in Africa, billions of dollars of crude oil flow under the feet of a desperate people. Immense wealth and abject poverty stand in stark contrast. The environment is decimated. The issues are complex, the answers elusive.

The documentary film Sweet Crude tells the story of Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The region is seething and the global stakes are high. But in this moment, there’s an opportunity to find solutions. What if the world paid attention before it was too late?

For more info, check out www.sweetcrudemovie.com

Yar'Adua's meetings with world leaders.

These are two interviews that shows Umaru Yar'Adua's meeting with the Prime Minister of England Gordon a year ago and his meeting with U.S. past U.S. president George Bush when he was first elected the new leader of Nigeria in 2007. THis will give you a view on some of his intentions he spoke of for Nigeria.

President Yar'Adua offers amnesty to militants.

"On the Niger Delta, we are working on the holistic of the development and implementation of the Niger Delta Master Plan," president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua announced on Thursday at a National Executive Committee meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abuja. "Also, we are working on terms for the granting of amnesty for all those who are ready to lay down their arms in the Niger Delta, and this amnesty will include not only laying down their arms but also reintegrating them and rehabilitating them into the Nigerian society."

The National Security Council will meet next week to work out the modalities for the amnesty.
Yar'Adua it seems is in pursuit of finding some common ground with the Niger Delta militants. He said the country must be prepared for "hard times" in order to endure this crisis, in which he say is "very much real." He claims there are no hope this financial meltdown could come to an end by 2009, but if the nation lays down their arms and are reintegrated into Nigerian society Nigeria could very well have one of the best economies in the world by 2020.

This of course is not what The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) want to hear. They want things to change now. I vaguely relate this to Herbert Hoover's comments when he was the U.S. president during the Great Depression in the early 1930s, when he stated it was best to "wait the crisis out." Whether or not his statement was true, people who were currently out of jobs and couldn't make ends meat to provide for their children did not want to believe that. They wanted to believe something was going to be done right away. Whether or not Yar'Adua comments are inevitably true the citizens of Nigeria don't want to hear that they will have to wait until 2010 to have a sustainable economy. They want action now.

http://www.234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5397620-146/Yar%27Adua_announces_amnesty_for_Niger_Delta.csp

Oil's dirty business.

It is a little slow-paced, but this video will give you an up close informative view of the intentions of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the results of oil spills to the community.

Nigerian rebels with a deadly cause

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (“MEND”) is a militant indigenous people’s movement dedicated to armed struggle against what they regard as the explotation and oppression of the people of the Niger Delta and the degradation of the natural environment by foreign multinational corporations invovled in the extraction of oil in the Niger Delta and the Federal Governement of Nigeria. MEND has been linked to attacks on foreign-owneed petroleum companies in Nigeria as part of the Conflict in the Niger Delta.

A wave of attacks on oil installations and kidnapping of foreign oil workers has reduced ouptut by 25% and now it has expanded its theatre of operations by placing a car bomb in a miltary barracks in the regional capital, Port Harcourt. Shell has withdrawn 330 employees from the region, and shut down four pumping stations. Four Shell employees are currently being held hostage.
These rebels are responsible for causing most of the problems for the oil companies in Nigeria. They feel like they are serving a good cause that will benifit their country in the end. They are not just crazy guys who pick up guns and shoot away, they are trained militants. Kids are being trained to fire guns and rebel against their government before they even break puburty. Upon further research I read that it started off with friendly meetings, but as time passed and no beneficial changes were made the rebels resorted down to malicious forms of violence.

Methods to MEND attacks include:

• Swarm-based maneuver. The guerrillas are using speed boats in the Niger Delta's swamps to quickly attack targets in succession. Multiple, highly maneuverable units have kept the government and Shell's defensive systems off-balance defending the sprawling network.
  
• Radically improved firepower and combat training. This new capability has allowed the guerrillas to overpower a combination of Shell's western-trained private military guards and elite Nigerian units in several engagements. Note: one of Shell's private military operators was captured as a hostage.
  
• Effective use of system disruption. Targets have been accurately selected to completely shut down production and delay/halt repairs. This is a systematic operation. Additionally, the guerrillas are making effective use of Shell's hostages to coerce both the government and the company

More than half of the citizens living in the oil rich Niger Delta are still living below the poverty line, and the government continues to use oil revenues for annynomous causes. I do not know how guerrilla warfare will spark any sort of change in the government officials' hearts. Their rebellious actions are only decreasing oil production, resulting in less petroleum exports and revenue incomes for the country. What do you think? Do you feel there are alternatives ways the citizens of the Niger Delta could speak out against their governement?

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

http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2006/01/nigerian_evolut.html

Little Bee

Yesterday I bought the book "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah at Borders book store. In the novel the author describes his true past as a child soldier in Sierra Leone and his rehabilitation process. I heard him speak two weeks ago at the Community College in Jacksonville and I have been wanting to read his book ever since. A Borders employee showed me where the book was, and upon telling him my obsession with Africa history referred me to the book "Little Bee" by Chris Cleave. Suprisingly, he told me the book is about two Nigerian women who lived ordinary lives until oil was discovered, and how they coped with problems to come. I plan to read after I finish "A Long Way Gone" (which has kept me reading so far). I tried to look up a synopsis of "Little Bee" on the internet but there are no in-depth description because the author does not want too much of the story to be revealed without reading it. Here is the description on the back of the book:

WE DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU TOO MUCH ABOUT THIS BOOK.

It is a truly special story and we don't want to spoil it.

Nevertheless, you need to know something, so we will just say this:

It is extremely funny, but the African beach scene is horrific.

The story starts there, but the book doesn't.

And it's what happens afterward that is most important.

Once you have read it, you'll want to tell everyone about it. When you do, please don't tell them what happens either. The magic is in how it unfolds.