Post by wanyee on Dec 29, 2014 18:50:14 GMT 3
Oil firm has no permission to start work, says official
See also:
Economic Globalization and the Primacy of Natural Resources
In Globalization and the Race for Resources, globalization is defined as a process that “emerges as the intensification and expansion of material processes of production and exchange require greater volumes of a greater variety of materials, which may only be available by extending extraction and transport across ever-broader portions of global space.”(1) Economic globalization depends on the Earth’s resources for its very existence, thus opening up the natural resource market to satisfy increased volumes of world trade, transport and communication and the increasing affluence it creates.(2) Almost everything in modern society is derived from or depends on the use of natural resources. Without them, we would have no skyscrapers, no planes, no ships, no cars, no bridges, no weapons, no electronics, no consumer products, no central heating, no air-conditioning and none of the provisions of running water and sewage disposal that we take for granted.(3)
A key factor in the emergence of dependent extractive economies in the global South was the globalization of production and trade in the late nineteenth century, in the aftermath of the industrial revolution in Western Europe.(4) Historically, extractive companies have played a major role, through partnerships with both colonial and post-colonial governments. Their main function has been to secure the flow of resources from the global South to the global North, while utilizing their leverage over weak governments eager for economic growth.(5) Today, guided by the Washington Consensus, the laws of developing countries have been “designed to attract foreign direct investment into the mining and petroleum sectors,” and has led “to the rewriting of what were considered antiquated mining codes in order to make them attractive to foreign investors and compatible with the dictates of…neo-liberal prescriptions.”(6) However, the main problem with foreign direct investment (FDI) is that there is poor integration of TNCs into the economies of host countries, as FDI is largely concentrated on resource extraction in small mining locales while contributing little to host economies.(7)
Furthermore, since economic/corporate globalization is solely based on the principle of economic growth, corporations must constantly produce and sell products, as well as continually prowl the marketplace in search of profits, in order to achieve continual growth.(8) One feature of resource extraction is that all reserves are inevitably depleted over time, as their output declines. Extractive companies must therefore continually discover or acquire new reserves in order to sustain a fairly stable output during the course of their operations.(9) As resource extraction intensifies, the total available supply of many key materials will also diminish, leading to a corresponding increase in prices and increased conflict over critical resources such as oil, uranium and certain rare earth metals.(10) This argument in turn informs the penchant to dismiss those who mount such resistance as “terrorists.”(11) Michael Watts argues that primitive accumulation and militarism have been coupled to the “war on terror,”(12) which has provided the context for labelling the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) “a terrorist organization with possible links to other international terrorist organizations targeting Western…interests.”(13) This has also been the case with Niger’s indigenous Tuareg and the fabrication of a Sahara-Sahelian front in the U.S-led “war on terror.”(14)
NOTES
1. Bunker, S.G, & Ciccantell, P.S. (2005). Globalization and the Race for Resources. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p.6
2. Blanco, E.M., & Razzaque, J. (2011). Globalisation and Natural Resources Law: Challenges, Key Issues and Perspectives. Cheltenham, U.K: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
3. Lanning, G., & Mueller, M. (1979). Africa Undermined: Mining Companies and the Underdevelopment of Africa. Harmondsworth, U.K: Penguin Books Ltd.
4. Omeje, K. (2008). Extractive Economies and Conflicts in the Global South: Re-Engaging Rentier Theory and Politics. In Omeje, K (ed) Extractive Economies and Conflicts in the Global South: Multi-Regional Perspectives on Rentier Politics. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company
5. Evans, G., Goodman, J., & Lansbury, N. (2002). Politicising Finance. In Evans, G., Goodman, J., & Lansbury, N (eds) Moving Mountains: Communities Confront Mining and Globalisation. London, U.K: Zed Books
6. Ibid
7. Tandon, Y. (2010). Jobs First. In Ransom, D., & Baird, V (eds) (2010) People First Economics. Oxford, U.K: New Internationalist Publication Ltd.
8. Gibbs, T., & Leech, G. (2009). The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Colombia and Beyond. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press
9. Ali, S.H. (2003). Mining, the Environment, and Indigenous Development Conflicts. Tucson, Az: The University of Arizona Press
10. Klare, M.T. (2002). Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC
11. Obi, C.I. (2010). Oil Extraction, Dispossession, Resistance, and Conflict in Nigeria’s Oil-Rich Niger Delta. Special Issue - Rethinking Extractive Industry: Regulation, Dispossession, and Emerging Claims. Canadian Journal of Development Studies (30)1-2, 219-236.
12. Watts, M. (2006). “Empire of oil: Capitalist Dispossession and the scramble for Africa.” Monthly Review, September
13. Pham, P. (2007). Next front? Evolving United States-African relations in the “War on Terror” and beyond. Comparative Strategy 26(1), 39-54. See also: Lubeck, P.M., Watts, M.J., & Lipschutz, R. (2007). Convergent Interests: U.S. Energy Security and the "Securing" of Nigerian Democracy. www.ciponline.org/research/entry/convergent-interests-us-energy-security-and-the-securing-of-nigerian-demo (Accessed on February 10, 2014)
14. Keenan, J. (2010). Africa unsecured? The role of the Global War On Terror (GWOT) in securing US imperial interests in Africa. Routledge, Critical Studies on Terrorism (3)1, 27-47. See also: Keenan, J. (2008). Uranium Goes Critical in Niger: Tuareg Rebellions Threaten Sahelian Conflagration. Review of African Political Economy (35)117, 449-466. In the same vein, according to the Kenyan government, Kenya's military incursion into neighbouring Somalia in 2011 under the pretext of fighting the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, was a geopolitical strategy [Nani-Kofi, E. (2013). Nairobi and the West's proxy war in Africa. www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/16662-nairobi-mall-killings-and-the-wests-proxy-war-in-africa. See also: Cartalucci, T. (2013). Kenyan Bloodbath: Reaping the "Benefits" of US AFRICOM Collaboration: NATO's North African terror tidal wave sweeps predictably into Kenya. www.globalresearch.ca/kenyan-bloodbath-reaping-the-benefits-of-us-africom-collaboration/5351037; Gettleman, J. (2011). Kenyan Motives in Somalia Predate Recent Abductions. www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world/africa/kenya-planned-somalia-incursion-far-in-advance.html; Cunningham, F. (2012). Kenyan False Flag Bomb Plot Aimed At Tightening Sanctions Noose On Iran: Islamic Republic Falls Foul In African Cradle of America's 'War on Terror.' www.globalresearch.ca/kenyan-false-flag-bomb-plot-aimed-at-tightening-sanctions-noose-on-iran/31795; Wilson, A. (2013). US Interventions in East Africa: From the Cold War to the 'war on terror.' www.opendemocracy.net/5050/amrit-wilson/us-interventions-in-east-africa-from-cold-war-to-war-on-terror; Shimatsu, Y. (2013). Was it a Psyop? Nairobi Mall Deceit Abets Israeli-Western Pipeline Wars to Oust Asian Rivals. www.globalresearch.ca/was-is-a-psyop-nairobi-mall-deceit-abets-israeli-western-pipeline-wars-to-oust-asian-rivals/5351985; Straziuso, J. (2013). NYPD Report on Kenya Attack Isn't US Gov't View. Associated Press, December 13, 2013. abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=NYPD%20Report%20on%20Kenya%20Attack%20Isn't%20US%20Gov't%20View. (Links accessed on February 10, 2014)
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See also:
Economic Globalization and the Primacy of Natural Resources
In Globalization and the Race for Resources, globalization is defined as a process that “emerges as the intensification and expansion of material processes of production and exchange require greater volumes of a greater variety of materials, which may only be available by extending extraction and transport across ever-broader portions of global space.”(1) Economic globalization depends on the Earth’s resources for its very existence, thus opening up the natural resource market to satisfy increased volumes of world trade, transport and communication and the increasing affluence it creates.(2) Almost everything in modern society is derived from or depends on the use of natural resources. Without them, we would have no skyscrapers, no planes, no ships, no cars, no bridges, no weapons, no electronics, no consumer products, no central heating, no air-conditioning and none of the provisions of running water and sewage disposal that we take for granted.(3)
A key factor in the emergence of dependent extractive economies in the global South was the globalization of production and trade in the late nineteenth century, in the aftermath of the industrial revolution in Western Europe.(4) Historically, extractive companies have played a major role, through partnerships with both colonial and post-colonial governments. Their main function has been to secure the flow of resources from the global South to the global North, while utilizing their leverage over weak governments eager for economic growth.(5) Today, guided by the Washington Consensus, the laws of developing countries have been “designed to attract foreign direct investment into the mining and petroleum sectors,” and has led “to the rewriting of what were considered antiquated mining codes in order to make them attractive to foreign investors and compatible with the dictates of…neo-liberal prescriptions.”(6) However, the main problem with foreign direct investment (FDI) is that there is poor integration of TNCs into the economies of host countries, as FDI is largely concentrated on resource extraction in small mining locales while contributing little to host economies.(7)
Furthermore, since economic/corporate globalization is solely based on the principle of economic growth, corporations must constantly produce and sell products, as well as continually prowl the marketplace in search of profits, in order to achieve continual growth.(8) One feature of resource extraction is that all reserves are inevitably depleted over time, as their output declines. Extractive companies must therefore continually discover or acquire new reserves in order to sustain a fairly stable output during the course of their operations.(9) As resource extraction intensifies, the total available supply of many key materials will also diminish, leading to a corresponding increase in prices and increased conflict over critical resources such as oil, uranium and certain rare earth metals.(10) This argument in turn informs the penchant to dismiss those who mount such resistance as “terrorists.”(11) Michael Watts argues that primitive accumulation and militarism have been coupled to the “war on terror,”(12) which has provided the context for labelling the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) “a terrorist organization with possible links to other international terrorist organizations targeting Western…interests.”(13) This has also been the case with Niger’s indigenous Tuareg and the fabrication of a Sahara-Sahelian front in the U.S-led “war on terror.”(14)
NOTES
1. Bunker, S.G, & Ciccantell, P.S. (2005). Globalization and the Race for Resources. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press. p.6
2. Blanco, E.M., & Razzaque, J. (2011). Globalisation and Natural Resources Law: Challenges, Key Issues and Perspectives. Cheltenham, U.K: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
3. Lanning, G., & Mueller, M. (1979). Africa Undermined: Mining Companies and the Underdevelopment of Africa. Harmondsworth, U.K: Penguin Books Ltd.
4. Omeje, K. (2008). Extractive Economies and Conflicts in the Global South: Re-Engaging Rentier Theory and Politics. In Omeje, K (ed) Extractive Economies and Conflicts in the Global South: Multi-Regional Perspectives on Rentier Politics. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company
5. Evans, G., Goodman, J., & Lansbury, N. (2002). Politicising Finance. In Evans, G., Goodman, J., & Lansbury, N (eds) Moving Mountains: Communities Confront Mining and Globalisation. London, U.K: Zed Books
6. Ibid
7. Tandon, Y. (2010). Jobs First. In Ransom, D., & Baird, V (eds) (2010) People First Economics. Oxford, U.K: New Internationalist Publication Ltd.
8. Gibbs, T., & Leech, G. (2009). The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Colombia and Beyond. Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press
9. Ali, S.H. (2003). Mining, the Environment, and Indigenous Development Conflicts. Tucson, Az: The University of Arizona Press
10. Klare, M.T. (2002). Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. New York, NY: Henry Holt and Company, LLC
11. Obi, C.I. (2010). Oil Extraction, Dispossession, Resistance, and Conflict in Nigeria’s Oil-Rich Niger Delta. Special Issue - Rethinking Extractive Industry: Regulation, Dispossession, and Emerging Claims. Canadian Journal of Development Studies (30)1-2, 219-236.
12. Watts, M. (2006). “Empire of oil: Capitalist Dispossession and the scramble for Africa.” Monthly Review, September
13. Pham, P. (2007). Next front? Evolving United States-African relations in the “War on Terror” and beyond. Comparative Strategy 26(1), 39-54. See also: Lubeck, P.M., Watts, M.J., & Lipschutz, R. (2007). Convergent Interests: U.S. Energy Security and the "Securing" of Nigerian Democracy. www.ciponline.org/research/entry/convergent-interests-us-energy-security-and-the-securing-of-nigerian-demo (Accessed on February 10, 2014)
14. Keenan, J. (2010). Africa unsecured? The role of the Global War On Terror (GWOT) in securing US imperial interests in Africa. Routledge, Critical Studies on Terrorism (3)1, 27-47. See also: Keenan, J. (2008). Uranium Goes Critical in Niger: Tuareg Rebellions Threaten Sahelian Conflagration. Review of African Political Economy (35)117, 449-466. In the same vein, according to the Kenyan government, Kenya's military incursion into neighbouring Somalia in 2011 under the pretext of fighting the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab, was a geopolitical strategy [Nani-Kofi, E. (2013). Nairobi and the West's proxy war in Africa. www.counterfire.org/articles/analysis/16662-nairobi-mall-killings-and-the-wests-proxy-war-in-africa. See also: Cartalucci, T. (2013). Kenyan Bloodbath: Reaping the "Benefits" of US AFRICOM Collaboration: NATO's North African terror tidal wave sweeps predictably into Kenya. www.globalresearch.ca/kenyan-bloodbath-reaping-the-benefits-of-us-africom-collaboration/5351037; Gettleman, J. (2011). Kenyan Motives in Somalia Predate Recent Abductions. www.nytimes.com/2011/10/27/world/africa/kenya-planned-somalia-incursion-far-in-advance.html; Cunningham, F. (2012). Kenyan False Flag Bomb Plot Aimed At Tightening Sanctions Noose On Iran: Islamic Republic Falls Foul In African Cradle of America's 'War on Terror.' www.globalresearch.ca/kenyan-false-flag-bomb-plot-aimed-at-tightening-sanctions-noose-on-iran/31795; Wilson, A. (2013). US Interventions in East Africa: From the Cold War to the 'war on terror.' www.opendemocracy.net/5050/amrit-wilson/us-interventions-in-east-africa-from-cold-war-to-war-on-terror; Shimatsu, Y. (2013). Was it a Psyop? Nairobi Mall Deceit Abets Israeli-Western Pipeline Wars to Oust Asian Rivals. www.globalresearch.ca/was-is-a-psyop-nairobi-mall-deceit-abets-israeli-western-pipeline-wars-to-oust-asian-rivals/5351985; Straziuso, J. (2013). NYPD Report on Kenya Attack Isn't US Gov't View. Associated Press, December 13, 2013. abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=NYPD%20Report%20on%20Kenya%20Attack%20Isn't%20US%20Gov't%20View. (Links accessed on February 10, 2014)
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