(March 31, 2003
The late great American novelist Joseph Heller was a Jew. I was thoroughly entertained by his novel “GOD KNOWS” (Dell, 1984) which was sixteen weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list. Famous work that it is, I could not help observing the contempt in which he held the Arabs.
At page 53 Heller wrote:
“To people in California, God gives a magnificent coastline, a movie industry, and Beverly Hills. To us (the Jews) He gives sand. To Cannes He gives a plush film festival. We get the PLO. Our winters are rainy, our summers hot. To people who didn’t know how to wind a wristwatch He gives underground oceans of oil. To us He gives hernia, piles, and anti-Semitism.”
I noted that he did not insult the American (California) or the French (Cannes) for what God bestowed them. But, presumeably, he had to insult the Arabs. That smacks of jealousy. Those same men who knew not how to wind a wristwatch are now saying that King Nebucadnezar and prophet Abraham were from Baghdad, and that when Bush’s ancestors were bushmen and cavemen, Arabs were forging a civilization, evidence of which Blair and especially Bush are bombing today.
That same oil, under Arab territory, to which Heller referred, has provoked the unbridled greed of President Bush and his administration. Notwithstanding the reasons, fictitious and shifting, that they gave to justify going to war, save for a few not smart people, the world knew the reason was “oil”. The oilfields of Southern Iraq were the first objects to be secured by the invaders.
The Bush administration has already given a contract “to rebuild Iraq after the war” to Halliburton. A subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellog, Brown and Root has been awarded a contract to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure. Vice President Dick Cheney was Chairman and CEO of Halliburton until he became Vice-President in 2000!! All this is sufficient fuel for me to allege that Bush, Cheney and their war hawks are in Iraq for oil, and especially for their personal interests.
There are the usual charlatans even here in Dominica who hold themselves out as intellectual heavy weights. But they have done little research and even less thinking. We hear inane statements to the effect that when America controls Iraqi oil, Dominica will receive cheaper oil supplies. We hear expressions, at once loose and unfortunate, that some people don’t like America but they like American biscuit. This is the nature of their contribution to “intelligent discuss.”
Most often those people are afraid to talk at any forum where their views can be discussed, examined and tested.
People such as I tend to buy our biscuits, or do without if we cannot afford them. If the remark was not intended to be taken literally, then American biscuit symbolizes American aid.
But what aid!!? The United States give about one-tenth of 1% of its GDP in bilateral and multilateral aid and fall for behind countries such as Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Luxembourg, Kuwait, Switzerland, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Finland, Japan, Germany, Portugal, Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Italy, and many more. (Source: The Economist, Pocket World In Figures, 2003 Edition).
Dominica is not a leading recipient of U.S. aid. Israel is. Aid from the United States in recent years manifested itself in the destruction of the banana industry in Dominica.
Someone recently declared that in the event war results in higher oil prices, Trinidad should be in for a bonanza. Consultant Louis Bertrand (M. B.A. Cornell) was not so sure; unless, he said, Trinidad/Tobago inaugurated its own Marshall Plan type of development programme for its Caribbean neighbours, its trading partners in the neighbourhood will not be able to afford the oil. This seems more serious than the opium-type dream that the destroyers of our economy will give us cheap oil or free biscuit.
By the criterion of the famed dame of the Bible who gave her all, the Danes (1.04% of GDP) are the most philanthropic people on earth. In absolute terms, America gave US$9,955m by the last count. Japan gave much more, US$13,508m. In terms of GDP percentage Japan did 2.9 times and Denmark did 10.4 times better than the United States. Dropping big bombs on innocent people anywhere is not quite manna from heaven. What’s-his-name should not want to continue to pursue his biscuit argument.
Here are some figures regarding the United States:
But if it is fourth in sugar production it is also fourth in sugar consumption and consumes more than it produces. The USA is also the world’s largest consumer of coffee and cocoa.
Look at the statistics for some other items/commodities:
Production WorldPosition Consumption World Position
‘000
tonnes ‘000 tonnes
Copper 1,473 2 2,943 1
Lead 447 3 1,660 1
Zinc 829 5 1,315 1
Tin - - 51 2
Nickel - - 147 2
Aluminium 3,668 1 6,080 1
Rubber 2,394 2 3,382 1
Cotton 3,742 2 1,934 3
Major oil
seeds 84,530 1 58,526 1
* *
* * *
Gold (tonnes) 338 2 - -
Silver (tonnes) 2,017 4 - -
* *
* * *
Note that in several cases the USA consumes much more than they produce.
Now, consider ENERGY:
The United States is the world’s largest producer of energy, 2,377.5 million tones of coal equivalent (mtce). But it is also the largest consumer, 2,987.0 (mtce). It is also the largest importer of energy, 886.8 mtce. It is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, and tops the list for production and consumption of natural gas.
The USA produces 7,745,000 barrels of oil per day and is second only to Saudi Arabia with 9,145,000 barrels per day. But USA consumes 18,745,000 barrels per day and is the world’s largest consumer.
The statistics show that the United States is blessed with enormous resources and capacities. Someone should assist us in our analysis, why the leadership of a country so blessed should be so greedy. Ralph Nader’s contention that greed is the creed of corporate America now seems unassailable.
The Bush administration is well-entrenched in that corporate greed: it would take some doing to convince people that the contracts now given to Halliburton and its subsidiary, former employers of Vice-President Dick Cheney, is pure co-incidence. Or that it is accidental that the high-profile millionaire Richard Pearle who advised Bush to go to war, benefits and profits by the war through his company that trades in weapons for the war. Talk of corruption!!
Because the Bush administration is committing mass murder of innocent people for oil, let us look at their oil consumption again, in a little perspective:
USA 9,145
Japan 5,525
China 4,840
Russia 2,475
South Korea 2,200
India 2,070
Spain 1,455
Total for the six select countries = 18,565. Combined, they consumed less than the United States. Their combined population is over nine (9) times that of the U. S.
We will review those statistics and related data later. For now, look at energy consumption per head (in kg coal equivalent):
USA 10,900
Japan 5,224
China 907
Russia 5,629
South Korea 4,067
India 430
Spain 3,542
Average consumption per head for those six countries is 3,300 or 3.3 times smaller than that of the USA. The average American consumes more than twice the energy as does the average Japanese, more than 12 times the Chinese citizen, and more than 25 times the average man in India.
That is still not good enough; so the administration goes bombing for facilitation of oil consumption and profiteering.
But if you condemn murder of one innocent boy at Pointe Mitchel, how can you condone the murder of hundreds or thousands of innocent people for oil that America wants; not needs?