THE HANDSTAND


THE HANDSTAND	JUNE 2003
Why Are So Many African Governments Corrupt? Ask The Corporations. By Dena Montague ; Tue, 20 May 2003 18:15:17 -0400 Recently Halliburton Company was forced to admit it paid a $2.4 million dollar bribe to a Nigerian government official in exchange for tax breaks. Payments were made in 2001 and 2002 by Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Halliburton has been involved with several large-scale projects in Nigeria. In 1999 Kellogg Brown and Root began what was then one of the largest construction projects in Africa; a major expansion of Nigeria's liquefied natural gas plant in Rivers State. Halliburton has been active in the Niger Delta and has several collaborative projects with Nigeria's largest oil producer, Shell Petroleum Development Company, including development of the first major offshore oil and gas facility for Shell. Shell has a sordid history in the Niger Delta. Last month the company was ordered by Nigerian Court of Appeals to pay the Ogoni people approximately $2 million for environmental damage. Few Nigerians anticipate Shell will actually make payments to the Ogoni. What Shell has made are direct payments to notoriously corrupt and violent Nigerian security forces during the Ogoni uprising in the 1990's leading to the execution of environmental and human rights activist Ken Saro Wiwa. The company has also imported arms on behalf of the Nigerian police. Recently Shell was forced to shut down operations due to political unrest in Rivers State related to the oil industry. Rivers State where much of Halliburton's interests are concentrated has drawn attention not only for the political unrest in the State but also has been cited because of widespread electoral fraud organized by President Obasanjo's ruling PDP party. Oil companies in Nigeria see Obasanjo as a strong ally due to his oil friendly policies. A summary of findings by Nigerian Civil Society found that a free and fair voting environment across Nigeria was "the exception rather than the rule." In some areas voting malpractice was "part of a systematic plan to either disenfranchise the voters or distort the votes." The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported: The Justice Development and Peace Commission which deployed 30,000 observers across Nigeria "described as 'incredible' official results showing nearly 100 percent turnout in southern Rivers State with 2.1 million of 2.2 million registered voters casting their ballot for the ruling party on a day when observers reported a low turnout. And in the volatile oil-rich Niger Delta, ethnic Ijaw militants questioned electoral commission figures showing a 98 percent turnout near the oil town of Warri. Weeks of fighting between Ijaws and people from rival Itsekiri and a boycott organized by Ijaw militants ensured there was practically no voting in the area. An electoral official assigned to work in the area told UN Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) that top politicians in Obasanjo's PDP had taken home electoral materials and ballot boxes which they filled and returned." While most Nigerians acknowledge widespread fraud in recent Presidential and National Assembly elections, Official U.S. reaction to the Nigerian elections has been supportive of Obasanjo and his ruling PDP party. U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Howard Jeter claimed the elections in Nigeria, "had sent a signal to the rest of the world that the country was consolidating its democracy." Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton has helped develop projects in at least 20 African countries, including providing military support in Somalia and Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaire as well as assist in the development of deepwater exploratory offshore wells in Angola and Equatorial Guinea. At the same time the Halliburton bribery scandal broke another scandal was revealed by The Independent involving ExxonMobil and another oil rich African country - Equatorial Guinea. ExxonMobil is facing an investigation into an alleged payoff of up to $500 million transferred into a private US bank account apparently controlled by the president of Equatorial Guinea. Ken Silverstein has written an excellent piece on the politics of oil in Equatorial Guinea entitled "Oil and Politics in the 'Kuwait of Africa'" describing rampant corruption and poverty in the oil rich state while oil executives actively court the state for favorable oil deals. Dena Montague is a Senior Research Associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center of World Policy Institiute and can be contacted via e-mail at: montd033@newschool.edu RESOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION: "Oil and Politics in the 'Kuwait of Africa'" http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020422&s=silverstein HRW report - "The Price of Oil: Corporate Responsibility and Human Rights Violations in Nigeria's Oil Producing Communities" http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/nigeria/ Nigeria: Civil Society on Elections http://www.africaaction.org/docs03/nig0305.htm Africa News http://www.allafrica.com http://BlackElectorate.com 5/20/2003 ..IS THIS THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIENCE WHICH USED BE RECOGNISED BY THE ANCIENT IRISH AS THE ONLY FORM OF PUNISHMENT BECAUSE EACH INDIVIDUAL CARRIED HIS CONSCIENCE AS HIS CENTRAL CORE? Are you living true to your Heart's Song? "They're Playing Your Song" By Alan Cohen, author of "Living from the Heart." When a woman in a certain African tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they pray and meditate until they hear the song of the child. They recognize that every soul has its own vibration that expresses its unique flavor and purpose. When the women attune to the song, they sing it out loud. Then they return to the tribe and teach it to everyone else. When the child is born, the community gathers and sings the child's song to him or her. Later, when the child enters education, the village gathers and chants the child's song. When the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, the people again come together and sing. At the time of marriage, the person hears his or her song. Finally, when the soul is about to pass from this world, the family and friends gather at the person's bed, just as they did at their birth, and they sing the person to the next life. When I have shared this story in my lectures, a fair amount of people in the audience come to tears. There is something inside each of us that knows we have a song, and we wish those we love would recognize it and support us to sing it. In some of my seminars I ask people to verbalize to a partner the one phrase they wish their parents had said to them as a child. Then the partner lovingly whispers it in their ear. This exercise goes very deep, and many significant insights start to click. How we all long to be loved, acknowledged, and accepted for who we are! In the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits a crime or aberrant social act, the individual is called to the center of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them. The tribe recognizes that the correction for antisocial behavior is not punishment; it is love and the remembrance of identity. When you recognize your own song, you have no desire or need to do anything that would hurt another. A friend is someone who knows your song and sings it to you when you have forgotten it. Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused. If you do not give your song a voice, you will feel lost, alone, and confused. If you express it, you will come to life. We attract people on a similar wavelength so we can support each other to sing aloud. Sometimes we attract people who challenge us by telling us that we cannot or should not sing our song in public. Yet these peoplehelp us too, for they stimulate us to find greater courage to sing it. You may not have grown up in an African tribe that sings your song to you at crucial life transitions, but life is always reminding you when you are in tune with yourself and when you are not. When you feel good, what you are doing matches your song, and when you feel awful, it doesn't. In the end, we shall all recognize our song and sing it well. You may feel a little warbly at the moment, but so have all the great singers. Just keep singing and you'll find your way home. ..the conscience of Naudu trans. from Dubthach's ms. Justice to quench?, or to staunch? Behold, prostrate prisoner of the body Given the fate of death in reason Naudu, who killed by force Submerged on the edge of doom, But not yet....... for a reason Was his own hand the judge? Translated j.braddell in concern that Gaelic was a spoken language and root words only give the meanings of the poets, disguised by the monks who invented the written Gaelic.