Why Are We Not As Concerned About Oil Leakages in Western Africa As We Are About the Gulf Mess?

January 19, 2022 Stan

Is it possible that we are just reaping what we have sown with the Oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico? We have treated others this way. Are we simply getting a dose of our own medicine?

These are questions being raised by someone who is genuinely concerned about the poor and what is going on presently in our world.

BP’s Deep Horizon oil rig blew up on 20 April which just happened to be Israel’s Independence Day. Was that co-incidence, or what some people call a God-incidence.

Why do I ask? We, I have just been informed that the previous day Fox News in the USA reported that Israel could no longer depend on United States support at the United Nations.

There is such a thing as God’s judgements on nations and they can strike economic political or the social realm as well as the realm of nature. The Bible and judgment and blessing and Israel and how we regard Israel have a curious inter-connection.

This oil leak in the Gulf is exceedingly seriously and having been twice to New Orleans and broadcasting weekly on WSHO Radio out of New Orleans, and knowing the area, I am concerned about the people, and their livelihoods and their future welfare.

But, are you aware of what has been going on environmentally in Nigeria. Being involved with ministries in Uganda and Kenya I am deeply concerned about circumstances in Africa too.

Being concerned about the poor involves keeping informed and speaking out where necessary.

I understand that Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill, and yet the United States and Europe ignore it.

The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades. I was not aware of the seriousness of this until the other day.

In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico.

On 1 May this year a ruptured pipeline spilled more than a million gallons into the Niger delta over seven days before the leak was stopped.

Local people demonstrated but say they were attacked by security guards.

Community leaders are now demanding a billion dollars in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered.

Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast, as thousands are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years old.

In the past two years, ten oil spills have happened and fishermen can no longer sustain their families.

It is reported that the Niger delta is the world capital of oil pollution. What is being done about this environmentally speaking and with regard to social and economic aspects?

Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations.

Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.

The oil companies just ignore it. I had heard about this some months ago, but really did not fully believe it.

The lawmakers do not care and people must live with pollution daily.

The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is changing.

When I see the efforts that are being made in the US I feel a great sense of sadness at the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe is very different.

I am as concerned about Nigeria and Uganda and Kenya, and about Africa in general, as I am about the catastrophe which has happened in the Gulf.

Sandy Shaw