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Oil Crisis
jannah
10/10/00 at 11:07:34
[url]http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/margolis.html[/url]   September 24, 2000 Oil crisis: Call it the Curse of Saddam By ERIC MARGOLIS Contributing Foreign Editor As oil climbs toward US$40 per barrel, motorists and truckers across Europe are in open insurrection, demanding fuel taxes be slashed. If petroleum prices keep rising and shortages develop, Americans, and even usually passive Canadians, may also stage a modern version of a medieval peasants' revolt. No wonder politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are running scared. The Curse of Saddam has struck. Western consumers take for granted that cheap oil is theirs by divine right. For them, "normal oil prices" means a return to the good old days before 1970 when tame Mideast puppet rulers gave away oil at $2 per barrel in return for protection, and blondes. "How dare those Arabs raise the price of our oil!" is what many people angrily mutter - unaware, of course, that most of North America's imported oil comes from West Africa and Venezuela, not the Mideast. Angry western demands that oil producers lower prices are pure, unabashed economic imperialism. The Mideast, for example, imports over 50% of its food and 95% of its medicines from western nations - commodities even more precious and imperative than oil. Do we see our farmers lowering prices of grains or meats sold to the Mideast? Or Detroit, Silicon Valley or drug firms slashing export prices of goods they sell to oil producers? Of course not. We are simply demanding by right of might that exporting nations, many of whom rely on oil as their sole source of income, cut their prices so it costs us less to tank up our road hogs. The U.S. produces over six million barrels daily: why are there no calls for American producers to slash their wellhead prices? Amidst all the finger-pointing over who is to blame for high oil prices, and inevitable pre-electoral threats by the Clinton administration to bomb the usual Iraqis, it is simply amazing that no one has asked the most obvious question: does the 10-year embargo of Iraqi oil play a role in this mess? The answer is: of course. Before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, Iraq, which has the Mideast's second largest proven oil reserves after Saudi Arabia - 120 billion barrels - exported over three million barrels per day and was expanding its petro-infrastructure to export up to five million barrels a day by 2000. Today, under the decade-old UN sanctions, Iraq is allowed to export 2.3 million barrels daily. Iraq is supposed to get half the proceeds from that oil for food and medicine; the rest goes to the UN's bureaucracy and to Kuwait. Industry crumbling But Iraq's actual exports are considerably lower because the U.S. has steadily blocked or delayed Iraq's purchase of equipment and spare parts for its crumbling oil industry. Now, ironically, western governments fear Saddam may throw world oil markets into a new crisis by halting Iraq's modest oil exports. World petroleum consumption has hit 76 million barrels daily. Oil is so scarce right now that even a minor reduction could trigger an international panic that could spill over into financial markets. In short, the West's punishment of Iraq has come home to haunt us. Another nice irony: during the made-for-TV Gulf war, Americans thrilled as they watched armadas of macho armoured vehicles sweep across the desert. This ignited consumer lust for tough-looking, road-warrior vehicles. A friend, psychiatrist Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, conducted in-depth studies of post-war American auto consumer psyches for Chrysler and discovered that both men and women wanted "aggressive" looking vehicles. Booming economy The result: the enormous upsurge in huge, menacing RV's and now, paramilitary Humvees - both major gas guzzlers. With nearly half the vehicles on the road getting 12-13 mpg, and with booming economic times, is it any wonder gas prices are sky high? If Iraq's oil industry was quickly refurbished and allowed to export at full capacity, there would be no shortage, and prices would fall sharply. This column predicted way back in 1991 that oil shortages would ensure if Iraq was kept out of the market. And so they have. But Iraq's Arab oil "brothers," Iran and Russia, don't want Iraq to resume exporting because prices would drop. Kuwait knows Saddam thirsts for revenge. Israel exerts intense pressure on the Clinton administration through its American lobby to keep Iraq bottled up. Britain wants Iraq shackled to protect its lucrative Gulf markets. No American politician wants to risk being called "soft on Saddam" or letting him out of his cage. None of the above care much that 5,000 Iraqi children die each month from disease and malnutrition mainly caused by the cruel western embargo. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright says that's "a price worth paying." This column heartily disagrees. It would be far cheaper and more humane to lift the embargo, let Iraq export oil and bribe Saddam to be good, as Washington has done with nuclear-armed North Korea. Instead, consumers in Europe and North America are paying the cost, via high gas prices, of sustaining Iraq's long imprisonment and prolonging the suffering of its people.

Re: Oil Crisis
kareema
10/07/00 at 00:38:24
My teacher has an interesting theory(he opposed the Gulf War):oil prices were raised so that the Gulf State who participated in the War could pay off their war debts.In essence, the world is paying for the Gulf War.Anyone have any input on this?

Re: Oil Crisis
Saleema
10/07/00 at 01:15:44
salam, I haven't heard anything on that theory. But it sounds interesting and does make sense. I bet he's dman right!! Wassalam

Re: Oil Crisis
Kashif
10/10/00 at 04:30:25
assalaamu alaikum I don't think so. What the Western governments (especially the US) want is to KEEP other countries in their debt - it keeps them subdued. And its hardly as if the US govt. needs money right now does it? Kashif Wa Salaam
NS

Re: Oil Crisis
Saleema
10/10/00 at 13:28:26
Assalamoalykum, The debt the US owes to itself gets bigger everyday. SO, yes, US is in need of money. The National Debt was an issue that Gore and Bush were debating over. wassalam

Re: Oil Crisis
bhaloo
10/10/00 at 14:45:28
slm The US is a wartime based economy.  It needs to create wars to get itself out of debt.  Look what happened before WWI and WWII.  The US was in a severe depression, it took a war to get it out of the depression.  Same thing before the Gulf War, the US was in a depression of sorts, and they had all these weapons of mass destruction sitting there. George Bush fooled the masses.  The US created this war so they could get rid of their weapons, and got other countries to pick up the bill.  Look at how well the economy is doing since the war.  Clinton conveniently comes in and takes credit when it was Bush that was responsible for the success of the US economy (because of the war).
NS

Re: Oil Crisis
Kashif
10/10/00 at 17:10:33
assalaamu alaikum Alhumdulillah, some solidarity. Lets hope they match their words with action if push comes to shove. Kashif Wa Salaam ~~~~~~~~~ Oil up on Mideast tension Saudi warning to Israel jolts market; OECD oil stocks fall in August October 10, 2000: 6:26 a.m. ET LONDON (CNNfn) - Crude oil prices jumped Tuesday amid concern about potential disruption to Middle East oil supplies, after a warning by Saudi Arabia about the possible consequences of renewed Israeli military action against Lebanon and Syria raised tension in the region. Brent crude for November delivery rose 61 cents to $31.37 Tuesday morning on London's International Petroleum Exchange. Benchmark New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) November crude futures rose as high as $32.33 a barrel in Asia. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on Monday threatened "decisive action" unless Lebanon and its political mentor Syria reined in the Iranian-backed Hizbollah group, which on Saturday captured three Israeli soldiers. "Barak has to think before taking any step... and nobody should think that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the whole Arab and Islamic nation would just watch with their hands tied," Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah said the same day. The crown prince did not specify what action the world's largest crude oil producer would take. Tensions between Lebanon and Israel re-emerged amid a wave of violence between Palestinians and Israelis that has killed at least 89 people, mostly Palestinians, and which threatens to jeopardize the Middle East peace process. Also lending support to oil was an early spell of cold weather in the United States, where  temperatures on Monday were 15 to 20 degrees below normal in northeastern states, the key region of the U.S.A. for consumption of heating oil. Meantime, the International Energy Agency said oil stocks of the industrialized countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development fell by 400,000 barrels per day in August on increased demand for crude by-products. Inventories fell by 14 million barrels from a month earlier to 2.569 billion barrels. That was 151 million barrels below the level reported in August 1999 and a massive 247 million barrels short of the August 1998 tally. The IEA also said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries had pumped an additional 290,000 barrels per day during September to raise output to 28.98 million barrels a day. World oil production averaged 77.4 million barrels, a rise of 380,000 barrels a day from August

Re: Oil Crisis
Saleema
10/10/00 at 19:51:12
Assalamoalykum, 'Verily, the Help of Allah is near...' I am so happy to hear this. I don't care if I have to pay 22 dollars per gas as long as these big shot western poweres feel the growing oil pains. :)    :) Has anyon read 1984, by Geaorge Orwell? He is the one who also wrote another best seller called The Animal Farm. Anyway, in 1984 the government, creates a war or fakes a war for every day of the year. It says it is gaining on the "enemy" year after year but never seems to actually catch the enemy or actually beat it. It does that so that the economy can keep running as they want it to run. What does that sound like? The US and many other western powers. In the book the powers were western too. So anyway, the parallels are shocking between the world in the book and our present day world. In the real world, the 'enemy' are the "terrorists" and we all know who those are. In the book the 'enemy' were eastern people. If you haven't read the book, you should read it. It will pop your eyes open. Wassalam Wassalam

Re: Oil Crisis
Kashif
10/11/00 at 10:39:28
Saleema did u read an American edition or something? because i can't remember it in that light at all. I didn't think that Big Brother created & faked wars everyday. What I understood was that the minds of the masses were being changed to reflect the changing alliances that Big Brother was making with Oceania, etc. by re-writing the newspapers saying they'd always been great allies with country X (which had really been an enemy just yesterday), etc. And i absolutely do not see any parallel between real world terrorists and Orwellian Easterners. The one true parallel i think IS possible is that govts. are able to hear you and see you wherever you are. Do you remember that even thru the TV Big Brother's henchmen could watch what Winston was doing? Now take the fact that in real life you can access the internet thru the TV --> i.e. data sent FROM your television OUT to a server. What if they have a camera placed behind the screen in every activists house transmitting pictures back? They could find out vast amounts of information, not least the fact that i like to mix my Weetos with Cornflakes! Kashif Wa Salaam
NS

Re: Oil Crisis
Saleema
10/11/00 at 21:29:42
Assalamoalykum, The way it was explained to me was that, there was no real threat to them, that they created the war just to keep the economy going. That's how my teacher explained it, and that is what I read in various essays on it.   The prallel that i was pointing out is vague I guess. What i meant was that westerners seem to have this fear of easterners. In the novel its easterners vs the westerners. and in our world a lot of times its easterners vs the westerners. (non-Muslim easterners included.) As for the government spying on us through cameras, i have no doubt about that. They already have phone taps, and who knows, pretty soon in a decade or so, they will have hidden cameras pointed at everyone, and not just the activists. Scary... Wassalam that reminds me of something. Our detention hall was room 101 in high school. And in the book, the torture chambet was room 101....  :o wassalam

Why the fairy hides, when devil is making merry?
jaihoon
10/12/00 at 03:51:51
i understand that many here on the board are American settles with an asian background. But many of the tricks of politicians work, including that of Bush's (as someone noted here), due to the very fact that there are noo Muslim alternative in the senate. The jewish lobby tempts and threatens the US politicians. Why don't the US Muslims try for a unified political stand which will be much more creative thatn mere theoretical bashing up of US policies. NO big deal, but i have learnt a simple lesson from history (in the course of my e-documentary project) that a community that shies away from the political process of a country later gets to be labelled as traitors of such a country. (this holds true when u  compare N vs S in India). I strongly believe the US policy will be much different towards the East if Muslim representatives are present in the formulation of laws, especially forign policy. After all, as Allama Iqbal says, 'Why should the fairy go in hiding, When the devil is making merry". Happy politics :) Jaihoon

Re: Oil Crisis
Kashif
10/12/00 at 04:36:15
[quote] As for the government spying on us through cameras, i have no doubt about that. They already have phone taps, and who knows, pretty soon in a decade or so, they will have hidden cameras pointed at everyone, and not just the activists. Scary... [/quote] True. Did you know that the UK, has a population of only 60 million people and that there are 1.5 million Closed Circuit Television Cameras in operation here? Thats 1 to every 40 people! [quote] that reminds me of something. Our detention hall was room 101 in high school. And in the book, the torture chambet was room 101....   [/quote] ahhhhh!! You must have gone there often, and that explains why you always argue with people! I always knew there was some reason for that. lol. jk! Kashif Wa Salaam
NS

Re: Oil Crisis
Saleema
10/12/00 at 08:47:27
Assalamoalykum, Heheh... yes I did spend some good times in 101. I argue with people who like to argue back.  :) Or if I am very passionate about the subject, i will argue even if the other person is not an arguer. To be honest, I like arguing. Sometimes if I haven't had a good poilitical/philisophical debate in a long time, I argue with my mom. She just ignores me most of the time and other times she will just raise her eyebrow and give me THE LOOK, and I will run upstairs to my room. I guess I get it from my dad. But we agree on many things and so i can't argue with him. I think that is why I spent so much time on this board, besides the fact the it is moderated. wassalam
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