Calling Time on Texas Tea and the Houston Hillbillies...........................................by Ben Brocherie
As I was scanning the newspapers the other day I came across an article about state of the environment, which is all a bit grim really, but one fact caught my eye especially. With numbers it is a bit hard to put them in context, because the numbers are so large; In hindsight after rereading this, you would seriously need an Encyclopaedia Britannica sized series of books to catalogue all the number of ills and moral crimes against people and the environment that Oil Companies and Governments, namely the US, UK and France have committed. This includes coups in Iran and Iraq during the twentieth century and an invasion in the 21st, giving all kinds of assistance to corrupt, despotic and nepotistic regimes to keep oil revenues flowing, so I'm just going to brush the issue lightly and try and keep to facts rather than rants; all monetary figures are in US dollars.
According to George Moniboit writing in the Guardian, ExxonMobil is the world's most profitable corporation. Its sales now amount to more than $1bn a day.
Put this in context the GDP or total income earned by New Zealand is $92bn.
In the time that New Zealand goes through a seasonal change, ExxonMobil has pumped New Zealand's GDP from the ground.
New Zealand's operating Budget Surplus for 2006 was $5bn.
ExxonMobil's operating profit in 2005 was $36.13bn,
an all-time record for annual income by any business.
The New Zealand government runs an Education system, Health system,
transport system, Army and welfare system.
ExxonMobil runs nothing (well maybe a pension plan).
New Zealand has 4 million people.
Exxon employs 100,000 people
The New Zealand government is accountable to the people of New Zealand.
ExxonMobil is accountable to no one.
Oil, War and Texas
The Texan Connection.
ExxonMobil global headquarters are just outside Dallas, Texas.
Its exploration arm is run out of Houston, Texas.
Haliburton, major provider of technical and construction services to the petroleum industry, are also based in Houston, Texas. Their former CEO Dick Cheney is currently vice president of the USA. President George W. Bush is also from Texas.
Throughout sanction years in Iraq during the 1990s, Hallibuton did
business with Baghdad through foreign subsidiaries. They also did business
with 'axis of evil' contenders Libya and Iran.
Remember old Khomeini, 'Time Man of the Year 1979'
Looked a bit like this geezer
Its all a bit Disney really.
In 2002, the USA, UK and the 'coalition of the willing'
without UN approval invaded Iraq on the pretext of finding 'weapons
of mass destruction'. They presented 'sexed up' dossiers
to placate the media buying public. When the smoke cleared from operation
'shock and awe' the reality was that there were no WMD's.
Haliburton were then awarded the reconstruction contracts in Iraq without tender. A complete list of Halliburton's good work can be found at this website HALLIBURTONWATCH.
In 2006, after 'liberating' the people of Iraq, they are still there and oil prices and therefore profits have skyrocketed since 2002, on the back of a destabilized Iraq.
When we complain about the price of petrol, whatever it may be, where ever in the world, are we taking into account the 50,000 Iraqi lives, 2,700 US soldiers killed, at least 20,000 American wounded and countless other casualties' of the Iraq war since 2002? Global warming, plastics which do not degrade, and lag far behind other recycling drives, the list goes on.
In fact the US Government has been encouraging people to buy SUV's with gigantic tax breaks
Its just the tip of the iceberg too, with oil revenues linked with genocide and human rights abuses in Darfur and Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
Give Texas back to the Mexicans. Al Gores film on the environment
More Skullduggery from your friendly corporation in a new movie 'Who Killed the electric Car?'
Coming soon to London.