What causes Third World countries to cut repeatedly the branch they are sitting on? Ecuador had a dynamic oil exporting sector till populist regimes expropiated all oil companies and are trying to blackmail them in a monstrous fake judicial process. Chevron has been condemned by a corrupt judge to pay 28 billion dollar damages. I dont think Chevron will pay a cent, but anyone can see that Ecuador has caused a tremendous damage to itself. No oil company is going to invest in Ecuador for the foreseeable future and their extractive operations, if any, will be based on leaving the country as soon as possible with the maximum of profits. Nothing valuable will be left in Ecuador.
I am reading the scientific basis of Ecuatorial claims and there are none. Take one paragraph:
La actividad petrolera afecta las bases de la subsistencia campesina e indígena. El 94% de la población encuestada ha sufrido pérdidas de animales. Cada familia reporta una pérdida media de 8 vacas, 5 cerdos, 2 caballos, 43 gallinas.It states that the oil extraction operations damaged local farmers: each family reports the loss of an average of 8 cows, 5 pigs, 2 horses. 43 hens. The author of the study does not even try to verify these claims that took place during the 20 years of Chevron in Ecuador. How the value of these dead cows and pigs adds up to 28 billion, that is not explained. Surprisingly, while Chevron was working in Ecuador, there were no claims against it for killing domestic animals or causing personal damages to the local population. The claims seem to have been taken from Avatar, a phantasy film.
12 comments:
And a partridge in a pear tree (from the 12 days of Christmas song).
I doubt the campesinos HAD 8 cows to lose and if they did, they sold them to buy cervesa.
K
By what magic an oil well kills retroactively 34 chickens?
43. exactly 43.
K
The great flaw in the movie Avatar is that it showed the natives resisting the evil exploiters, when in the real world the natives frequently do the exploiting themselves in return for firewater, heroin or cheap consumer goods. Of the three, the cheap consumer goods are probably the most culturally destructive since they cause the natives to feel inferior when comparing them to what they produce out of tree bark and twigs.
In the real world the natives would have chopped down their magical tree themselves in order to dig up the unobtanium and sell it to the local trader instead of launching a massive planetary revolt.
If you think I am wrong just ask the American Indians how they ended up on reservations.
AVATAR did a lot of damage to American corporations.
AVATAR did a lot of damage to American corporations.
So far we haven't had to deal with Israeli levels of demonization. And as Chevron getting expelled from Ecuador shows, countries that expel major US corporations usually end up hurting themselves.
I could be wrong though.
No, you are right. Ecuador (and AVATAR) does not realize that unexploited resources do no good to anyone. Moreover, who is willing to go to the Ecuatorian jungle with its dangers and invest billions? Those geologists are heroes.
"So far we haven't had to deal with Israeli levels of demonization."
So what do you call it when they shout "death to America" in Teheran or hang American contractors from a bridge in Iraq or fly airplanes into the WTC? How much worse does it have to be?
K
How much worse does it have to be?
As far as violence is concerned we don't have the Muslims sending thousands of rockets into populated areas. We do have a Black crime problem, but so far that has remained a separate matter from our fight with the Muslims.
As far as demonization goes we don't have the UN General Assembly unanimously passing resolutions condemning the US, at least not yet.
I wasn't trying to make the geologists out to be heroes, but in the real world third-world tribes have no qualms about violating Gaia, or geologists for the matter. In Africa a lot of the diamonds and other precious gems are mined by the natives on their own land in return for small amounts of cash. When we conquered the West the Indians hunted their own animals in return for whiskey.
Ecuadorian (and Nigerian) natives are great stealing oil from the pipelines but they lack the ingenuity to pump up the oil from the wells.
That happens in China too.
Excluding China, there are a lot of peoples around the world that can come up with really clever ways to steal, but don't have enough ingenuity to prosper honestly.
Post a Comment