Censored in the U.S.?
|
Why is this brilliant book unavailable at Amazon.com? Is it being censored?
The Next Gulf, about the oil situation in Nigeria is one of the best and most powerful writings on the subject. It took me over and I simply had to finish it in one night, staying awake until 6am. It's a must read for anyone looking to understand Africa's myriad problems. Substitute diamonds, rubber, coffee and any number of other natural resources for oil and the picture gets even clearer.
PLEASE someone make a documentary based on this important book. Huge kudos to the authors!
|
|
|
Journalism at it's best
|
A lot of journalism presents either one side or the other. This is true as much of the Likes of Pilger and Chomsky as it is of the mass media. The authors of The Next Gulf are clearly against big business and the general western designs in the Niger Delta and the Gulf of Guinea but what they manage to do better than most is to present some viewpoints from Shell and the West whilst presenting compelling arguments why these viewpoints are either just window dressing or will simply not lead to the conclusions and benefits that their instigators are proposing.
This book is also outstanding in that it exposes the faults of all sides; from the indigenous slave traders that sold slaves to the Europeans to the current members indigenous groups calling from a greater allocation of Oil Wealth with no intention of filtering it to the people who are actually adversely affected by the extraction of oil. Yes the oil companies are a major problem but this book gives you a picture of complicity by oil companies, western governments, local governments, international financial institutions etc. It's not just a case of the evil Shell corporation or corrupt local governments. I now feel that I am armed with more than just impotent rage.
|
|
|
Strong stuff !!!!!
|
|
This book unravels the murky world of Nigerian oil, tracing an interesting trajectory from the first well at Oloibiri, through the rise of Nigeria's petro foreign policy, indigenisation, the rising US interest in the Gulf of Guinea and it's gradual militarisation,the ecological disaster in the Niger Delta, deeply embedded international corruption and of course the tragic death of Ken Saro Wiwa. It is short , gripping and full of good facts. Most interesting is the analogy drawn between the oil trade and the atlantic slave trade. Overall I found the Next Gulf a well written, well researched and very concerned book. It sounds the alarm bells for a region that may go the way of it's neighbours in Sierra Leone and Liberia.
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada