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                Western Oil Cartels and the Burmese Junta

By Kanbawza Win, March 28, 2001
Mizzima News Group (www.mizzima.com)

Oil consumption is often seen as an innocent or even a wholesome
activity. Smoking, littering and illegal drug use all receives more
negative public censure than filling up the car tank. Reasons for the
apparent innocence of oil are understandable, even admirable, as oil is
usually associated with progress and comfort despite traffic jams,
breakdowns or risky incidents.  More often than not driving is commonly
viewed as a pleasurable or even a luxurious activity for the third world
countries.

However, very few people know of the most tragic consequences in
connection with dictatorship. Oil wealth is the biggest single factor
sustaining these tyrannies throughout the world. Oil profits give aid to
repression and are also of the principal causes of war. To be candid oil
is critical to the support of dictatorships since it provides the most
abundant form of wealth for a repressive government- income that does
not have to be obtained through taxation. On the other hand, the
collection of taxes generally requires a high degree of consent from
citizens when big money is needed for the repressive apparatus of
despotism.

A common feature in the dictatorship countries of the world such as
China, Sudan, Libya, Syria. Saudi Arabia, the sultanate of Brunei,
Afghanistan, North Korea, Singapore and Burma is the absence of labour
unions. Forced labour becomes the prime factor for sustaining of the
regime in Burma and no wonder that they were kicked out from the ILO.

It is assumed by the international community that the Burmese Junta used
a significant proportion of any foreign income to military expenditure
rather than for economic development. Several big oil companies
including TOTAL of France, UNOCAL of America, and Premier oil of Britain
knowingly invested in Burma. These big companies could not quench their
ever-growing thirst for profit, and could easily bypass any ideals their
government claim. Perhaps this is the most lamentable aspect of Western
democracies.

For an average Burmese, these white firangs usually referred as
?Myetnaphyu Inkaleik? (rsufemjzLt*Fvdyf), literally interpreted, ?the
pale-face English,? often bring back bitter memories of the British
colonial days now come back in a more subtle form of economic
colonialism. Detailed research made by Southeast Asian Information
Network (SAIN) and Earth Rights International (ERI) has revealed that
the oil companies are ignoring the democratically-elected officials and
local people's repeated calls for a moratorium on international
investment in Burma. It has further exposed the ways in which money from
this oil is financing the Generals? efforts to tighten their grip on the
country. It has recorded human rights violations committed by troops
stationed in the oil pipeline area. Such abuses as extra-judicial
killings, torture, rape and extortion in these areas has increased.
Another category in relation to the gas pipe line involves labour,
portering and forced relocation.

The pipeline project is being implemented in a system, which lacks any
semblance of law, and the local people, who have suffered physical and
environmental damage, have no legal avenue for relief. These
combinations of abuses linked to the oil, and a lack of remedies for
those who have been wronged, has created a project, which is harmful and
not helpful to the people of Burma.

The potential annual income for the Junta from the Yadana project alone
is as much as $400 million US. a year and is the regime's single largest
source of foreign currency. Money from such joint ventures flows into
the military's budget, financing arms purchases for the army and for
those assisting the Junta to stay in power. UNOCAL, TOTAL, PREMIER OIL
and a host of other foreign companies working in Burma can easily
convince their shareholders that their investments are bringing
long-term benefits to the people of  Burma, if they do not have to deal
with the realities of the horror that hundreds of thousands of people in
Burma experience under the Junta. Like the proverbial ostrich with its
head in the sand, there is nothing to fear your hand is in the sand.
However, the suffering of the people of Burma will not go away simply
because companies want to believe all is well, nor because they are
turning a healthy profit.  The truth is, human rights abuses in Burma
are on the increase because of these oil companies.

Routinely, civilians are seized by the military and are forced to work,
often without pay or food, on roads and other infrastructure related to
the oil project. Soldiers patrolling the pipeline areas also force local
Burmese to walk with them and carry their heavy loads.
For the civilian population residing in the oil project, life has become
intolerable.  To augment the plans to build the gas pipeline from the
Andaman Sea through ethnic lands in the Ye-Tavoy township,  a new
railway line had to be constructed. Obviously, thousands of people a day
were being forced to labour on the construction of this railway. In
other words, forced labour was associated with foreign investment of the
gas companies.

Forcible relocation of the villages had to be done to secure the
pipeline and to  remove the resistance forces. By the time military
offensives against the ethnic forces had been completed, thousands of
refugees had fled to the Thai border areas.  This is  only a small part
of the effect of the oil project on the Burmese people.. Once
satisfied,  the western oil cartels knew that their longevity is now
guarantee.

Under the Burmese Junta, foreign investors are allowed to operate free
of environmental regulations hence, they can exert absolute control over
their own decision-making. In addition, their lack of transparency
ensures that these trans-national oil companies will not be held
accountable for any environmental damage that they may cause. On the
other hand the people at the grassroots level, who arguably have the
most immediate stake in protecting the environment, are systematically
excluded from the decision- making and policy processes. Their absence
not only denies policy-makers the feedback they need to undertake
accurate cost/benefit analyses, but assures that any environmental costs
from the resulting policy will be borne by those least able to afford
it.

Both the offshore and the onshore oil projects have affected the local
habitat, marine and wildlife, as well as human populations, in the gas
producing area. The waste produced during the exploration stages
affected  a lot of the environment. The most damaging of these processes
is the drilling of mud, which can be made up of many toxic substances,
including arsenic, barium, lead, corrosive irons, and radio active
materials such as radium 226. This toxic mud is disposed of by simply
dumping it in the water, where it descends to the sea bed and robs the
water and bottom sediment of oxygen. Obviously, bottom life stops
breathing, depleting marine life and plants growing in these waters.

Another form of waste generated in large quantities by natural gas
exploration is toxic brine. This toxic substance made up of
hydrocarbons, and is left behind when oil, natural gas, and water have
been extracted from underground reservoirs. The effect of dumping such
toxic matter on wetlands, and on fish and wildlife areas, has proven to
be ecologically disastrous is a legacy left behind by the oil industry
in many countries. Gas emissions from offshore drilling rigs is another
environmental hazard. One rig produces enough gas for 7,000 cars driving
50 miles a day, resulting in a large amount of toxic products polluting
the atmosphere.

Burma is a signatory to the Convention Against Forced Labour and as such
is obliged under international law to abide by its provisions. An
interview with a forced labour at Heinze Island, located on the route
that TOTAL worked in said:

"I saw some foreigners from Tavoy joint venture office (Kanbauk) on the
island. They came with the army officials and  walked around the island.
I have seen them before when I was in Tavoy. They had an office there
with some other Burmese interpreters for about two years. I saw them
come by boat. I saw helicopters flying over the island. The foreigners
stayed sometimes overnight to measure with their instruments."

The story of this man  reveals that company staff clearly knew that
forced labour was going on in their projects. Forced labour is not only
confined to adults, but also involves children. A fourteen year old
girl, who managed to escape from forced labour, narrated:

"I had to clear the bushes and the men had to level the ground. Two
English guys watched us and after work was over, these English gave us K
200 per day."

Whenever an oil company undertakes a project, forced labour is a must.
Roads, bridges, and railways are often built to construct and maintain
the projects. While such development projects benefit the local
communities in most parts of the world, this is not true in Burma as the
Junta and their cronies benefit while the people experience only forced
labour, increased taxes and suffering.

It is well established that the Burmese cannot move without porters,
each soldier typically requires two civilians to carry his assigned load
of equipment. Hundreds of thousands of villagers in the ethnic minority
areas of Burma have been forcibly conscripted to carry arms, ammunition,
and other supplies into civil war zones, especially into the area of
oil. In addition, the junta  employs abusive recruitment and detention
methods, involving severe and sometimes fatal maltreatment of the
porters. Porters have died from exhaustion and neglect, and others have
been beaten to death or extra-judicially executed for disobeying orders,
or for trying to escape. The only way rural villagers can avoid brutal
portering duties is to pay large "porter fees" to local military
commanders. These fees are extracted from villagers in the pipeline
region between one and three times each month. If the village is unable
to pay, then the villagers are beaten and subjected to other physical
abuse and punishment.

Oil companies have been saying privately  "We will not allow these human
rights groups to disrupt our projects." Information gathered through
interviews by SAIN and ER with villagers from the gas producing region
indicate that  when the villages are unable to provide the demanded
number of porters, or to raise the required porter fees, the soldiers
punish the village heads.

Beyond the physical abuse and intimidation the Burmese army routinely
intimidates and threatens villagers until they turn over their
livestock, crops, and other personal property.
Villagers explain that they are left with little time to farm their
lands and earn a living after they have finished their duties for the
Burmese army. It is a foregone conclusion that the villagers are forced
to make volunteer financial contributions to the railway projects Those
who are unable to make the contribution in full are then forced to
contribute their labour to the work of clearing bush, building dirt
embankments, and laying rails.

There is a growing consensus at the international level that sound
environmental policies can only be created in a system which responds to
feedback from all those who have a stake in the environment. In many
countries, there are even mechanisms by which individuals and groups can
advocate for change and participate in the education of the communities
surrounding environmental issues. In Burma, under the regime, this is
impossible and just the reverse is true.

The Western oil industries have attempted to block their shareholders in
the US, Britain and France from obtaining comprehensive information
about their projects in Burma. Paradoxically,  oil companies working in
Burma have succeeded in  persuading the US. Securities and Exchange
Commission to remove resolutions on human rights and environmental
issues aimed at their projects in Burma from their proxy statements.   A
classic example is that UNOCAL has strongly rejected a call by a group
of shareholders for a comprehensive report on the company's activities
in Burma. American companies that have invested in Burma have not had
any  concern about environmental issues such as  watershed destruction
and deforestation as they know very well that  they will be able to
operate  only if the Junta lasts, and their goal is to maximize the
profit as soon as possible

These accounts demonstrate a widespread, persistent pattern of human
rights violations against the people of Burma. Merely entering into a
partnership arrangement with such a regime constitutes complicity in
these abuses. The level of corporate culpability is much higher in the
case of the oil consortium, and these abuses are actually carried out
by  security personnel for the benefit of the project. The French, the
British and the Americans, who always declare their love for freedom,
have acted otherwise.

The western oil cartels are just one example of an increasingly common
trend that sees governments working in the interest of global
corporations, against their own people. This trend is not new Chinese,
Latin American, Indonesian and former Soviet governments have all
evicted people wholesale and practiced something akin to genocide to
make way for massive projects such as dams, and to encourage logging and
heavy industries. These extractive industries such as oil and mining and
timber are becoming the new epicenter of human right violations, land
grab, political de-stabilization, environmental devastation and,
increasingly, outright conflict are becoming common. As countries bid to
offer the lowest levels of environmental, labour and consumer
regulation, abuses are rising. Obviously the first casualty is
democracy. The second casualty is the tribal peoples whose land was
given to the company both to explore and exploit and naturally these
native peoples become homeless in their own homelands. This sort of
hit-and-run development leaves communities with little option in ways of
developing themselves. These companies claim that they bring jobs and
social benefits but in reality  the work they offer is unskilled, and
the benefits go only to the military and to the people who work with
them. The people always suffer.

The American company of UNOCAL, the British Premier Oil and TOTAL of
France represent the classic examples of the push for economic
liberalization that has  resulted  in  disastrous  consequences
globally,  but   particularly for  developing nations. The agreement
made between corporate powers has resulted in maximum exploitation of
the people. Central to this restructuring of power is the establishment
of markets catering to the elite while marginalizing massive numbers of
people and resulting in widespread poverty, hunger, child and slave
labour. Along with the spreading power of multinational corporations
comes the modern and devastating trend of developing, bio rich nations
being forced to adopt intellectual property rights over life and
biological resources. This threatens and undermines traditional systems
of knowledge, medicine and food security. Indigenous people not only are
having their last remaining refuges invaded and commoditized, but also
are subsequently reduced to slave labour, or are destroyed in their
attempts to preserve their lands and lifestyles. The export of various
technologies into developing nations alters their consumption patterns,
social fabric and traditions of individuals and communities. Technology
is not neutral. It serves the interests of its manufacturers and has
brought with it an increasing global homogenization of culture. But the
most important aspect is that it lack a humanitarian concern and has led
to the increased militarization of less-privileged nations and the
proportional increase in the  military sectors of the industrial
countries.

Burma is just a classic example of the havoc played by these oil
cartels. The greatest threat in this new millennium is not what Samuel
Huntington described in his ?Clash of Civilizations? of how the Islamic
countries combined with the Chinese and Indians whose religious teaching
stress on humility and love will clash with the West but of the
dictatorships  that have no respect for mankind and environment kept
alive by these oil cartels.

(The author is a visiting Professor at the Faculty of International
Development Studies, University of Winnipeg Cum Research Fellow at the
University of Manitoba at the Institute of Humanities, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada)




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<center><b><font color="#0000FF"><font size=+3>Western Oil Cartels and
the Burmese Junta</font></font></b></center>

<p><font size=+1><font color="#CC0000">By </font><font color="#400040">Kanbawza
Win</font><font color="#CC0000">, March 28, 2001</font></font>
<br><font color="#CC0000"><font size=+1>Mizzima News Group (<a href="http://www.mizzima.com";>www.mizzima.com</a>)</font></font>
<p><font size=+1>Oil consumption is often seen as an innocent or even a
wholesome activity. Smoking, littering and illegal drug use all receives
more negative public censure than filling up the car tank. Reasons for
the apparent innocence of oil are understandable, even admirable, as oil
is usually associated with progress and comfort despite traffic jams, breakdowns
or risky incidents.&nbsp; More often than not driving is commonly viewed
as a pleasurable or even a luxurious activity for the third world countries.</font>
<p><font size=+1>However, very few people know of the most tragic consequences
in connection with dictatorship. Oil wealth is the biggest single factor
sustaining these tyrannies throughout the world. Oil profits give aid to
repression and are also of the principal causes of war. To be candid oil
is critical to the support of dictatorships since it provides the most
abundant form of wealth for a repressive government- income that does not
have to be obtained through taxation. On the other hand, the collection
of taxes generally requires a high degree of consent from citizens when
big money is needed for the repressive apparatus of despotism.</font>
<p><font size=+1>A common feature in the dictatorship countries of the
world such as China, Sudan, Libya, Syria. Saudi Arabia, the sultanate of
Brunei, Afghanistan, North Korea, Singapore and Burma is the absence of
labour unions. Forced labour becomes the prime factor for sustaining of
the regime in Burma and no wonder that they were kicked out from the ILO.</font>
<p><font size=+1>It is assumed by the international community that the
Burmese Junta used a significant proportion of any foreign income to military
expenditure rather than for economic development. Several big oil companies
including <b>TOTAL</b> of France, <b>UNOCAL</b> of America, and <b>Premier
oil</b> of Britain knowingly invested in Burma. These big companies could
not quench their ever-growing thirst for profit, and could easily bypass
any ideals their government claim. Perhaps this is the most lamentable
aspect of Western democracies.</font>
<p><font size=+1>For an average Burmese, these white <i>firangs</i> usually
referred as <i>?Myetnaphyu Inkaleik? </i></font><font face="Wwin_Burmese"><font size=+2>(rsufemjzLt*Fvdyf)</font></font><font size=+1>,
literally interpreted, ?the pale-face English,? often bring back bitter
memories of the British colonial days now come back in a more subtle form
of economic colonialism. Detailed research made by Southeast Asian Information
Network (SAIN) and Earth Rights International (ERI) has revealed that the
oil companies are ignoring the democratically-elected officials and local
people's repeated calls for a moratorium on international investment in
Burma. It has further exposed the ways in which money from this oil is
financing the Generals? efforts to tighten their grip on the country. It
has recorded human rights violations committed by troops stationed in the
oil pipeline area. Such abuses as extra-judicial killings, torture, rape
and extortion in these areas has increased. Another category in relation
to the gas pipe line involves labour, portering and forced relocation.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The pipeline project is being implemented in a system,
which lacks any semblance of law, and the local people, who have suffered
physical and environmental damage, have no legal avenue for relief. These
combinations of abuses linked to the oil, and a lack of remedies for those
who have been wronged, has created a project, which is harmful and not
helpful to the people of Burma.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The potential annual income for the Junta from the <i>Yadana</i>
project alone is as much as $400 million US. a year and is the regime's
single largest source of foreign currency. Money from such joint ventures
flows into the military's budget, financing arms purchases for the army
and for those assisting the Junta to stay in power. <b>UNOCAL, TOTAL, PREMIER
OIL </b>and a host of other foreign companies working in Burma can easily
convince their shareholders that their investments are bringing long-term
benefits to the people of&nbsp; Burma, if they do not have to deal with
the realities of the horror that hundreds of thousands of people in Burma
experience under the Junta. Like the proverbial ostrich with its head in
the sand, there is nothing to fear your hand is in the sand. However, the
suffering of the people of Burma will not go away simply because companies
want to believe all is well, nor because they are turning a healthy profit.&nbsp;
The truth is, human rights abuses in Burma are on the increase because
of these oil companies.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Routinely, civilians are seized by the military and are
forced to work, often without pay or food, on roads and other infrastructure
related to the oil project. Soldiers patrolling the pipeline areas also
force local Burmese to walk with them and carry their heavy loads.</font>
<br><font size=+1>For the civilian population residing in the oil project,
life has become intolerable.&nbsp; To augment the plans to build the gas
pipeline from the Andaman Sea through ethnic lands in the Ye-Tavoy township,&nbsp;
a new railway line had to be constructed. Obviously, thousands of people
a day were being forced to labour on the construction of this railway.
In other words, forced labour was associated with foreign investment of
the gas companies.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Forcible relocation of the villages had to be done to
secure the pipeline and to&nbsp; remove the resistance forces. By the time
military offensives against the ethnic forces had been completed, thousands
of refugees had fled to the Thai border areas.&nbsp; This is&nbsp; only
a small part of the effect of the oil project on the Burmese people.. Once
satisfied,&nbsp; the western oil cartels knew that their longevity is now
guarantee.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Under the Burmese Junta, foreign investors are allowed
to operate free of environmental regulations hence, they can exert absolute
control over their own decision-making. In addition, their lack of transparency
ensures that these trans-national oil companies will not be held accountable
for any environmental damage that they may cause. On the other hand the
people at the grassroots level, who arguably have the most immediate stake
in protecting the environment, are systematically excluded from the decision-
making and policy processes. Their absence not only denies policy-makers
the feedback they need to undertake accurate cost/benefit analyses, but
assures that any environmental costs from the resulting policy will be
borne by those least able to afford it.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Both the offshore and the onshore oil projects have affected
the local habitat, marine and wildlife, as well as human populations, in
the gas producing area. The waste produced during the exploration stages
affected&nbsp; a lot of the environment. The most damaging of these processes
is the drilling of mud, which can be made up of many toxic substances,
including arsenic, barium, lead, corrosive irons, and radio active materials
such as radium 226. This toxic mud is disposed of by simply dumping it
in the water, where it descends to the sea bed and robs the water and bottom
sediment of oxygen. Obviously, bottom life stops breathing, depleting marine
life and plants growing in these waters.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Another form of waste generated in large quantities by
natural gas exploration is toxic brine. This toxic substance made up of
hydrocarbons, and is left behind when oil, natural gas, and water have
been extracted from underground reservoirs. The effect of dumping such
toxic matter on wetlands, and on fish and wildlife areas, has proven to
be ecologically disastrous is a legacy left behind by the oil industry
in many countries. Gas emissions from offshore drilling rigs is another
environmental hazard. One rig produces enough gas for 7,000 cars driving
50 miles a day, resulting in a large amount of toxic products polluting
the atmosphere.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Burma is a signatory to the Convention Against Forced
Labour and as such is obliged under international law to abide by its provisions.
An interview with a forced labour at Heinze Island, located on the route
that TOTAL worked in said:</font>
<p><i><font size=+1>"I saw some foreigners from Tavoy joint venture office
(Kanbauk) on the&nbsp; island. They came with the army officials and&nbsp;
walked around the island. I have seen them before when I was in Tavoy.
They had an office there with some other Burmese interpreters for about
two years. I saw them come by boat. I saw helicopters flying over the island.
The foreigners stayed sometimes overnight to measure with their instruments."</font></i>
<p><font size=+1>The story of this man&nbsp; reveals that company staff
clearly knew that forced labour was going on in their projects. Forced
labour is not only confined to adults, but also involves children. A fourteen
year old girl, who managed to escape from forced labour, narrated:</font>
<p><i><font size=+1>"I had to clear the bushes and the men had to level
the ground. Two English guys watched us and after work was over, these
English gave us K 200 per day."</font></i>
<p><font size=+1>Whenever an oil company undertakes a project, forced labour
is a must. Roads, bridges, and railways are often built to construct and
maintain the projects. While such development projects benefit the local
communities in most parts of the world, this is not true in Burma as the
Junta and their cronies benefit while the people experience only forced
labour, increased taxes and suffering.</font>
<p><font size=+1>It is well established that the Burmese cannot move without
porters, each soldier typically requires two civilians to carry his assigned
load of equipment. Hundreds of thousands of villagers in the ethnic minority
areas of Burma have been forcibly conscripted to carry arms, ammunition,
and other supplies into civil war zones, especially into the area of oil.
In addition, the junta&nbsp; employs abusive recruitment and detention
methods, involving severe and sometimes fatal maltreatment of the porters.
Porters have died from exhaustion and neglect, and others have been beaten
to death or extra-judicially executed for disobeying orders, or for trying
to escape. The only way rural villagers can avoid brutal portering duties
is to pay large "porter fees" to local military commanders. These fees
are extracted from villagers in the pipeline region between one and three
times each month. If the village is unable to pay, then the villagers are
beaten and subjected to other physical abuse and punishment.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Oil companies have been saying privately&nbsp; <i>"We
will not allow these human rights groups to disrupt our projects."</i>
Information gathered through interviews by SAIN and ER with villagers from
the gas producing region indicate that&nbsp; when the villages are unable
to provide the demanded number of porters, or to raise the required porter
fees, the soldiers punish the village heads.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Beyond the physical abuse and intimidation the Burmese
army routinely intimidates and threatens villagers until they turn over
their livestock, crops, and other personal property.</font>
<br><font size=+1>Villagers explain that they are left with little time
to farm their lands and earn a living after they have finished their duties
for the Burmese army. It is a foregone conclusion that the villagers are
forced to make volunteer financial contributions to the railway projects
Those who are unable to make the contribution in full are then forced to
contribute their labour to the work of clearing bush, building dirt embankments,
and laying rails.</font>
<p><font size=+1>There is a growing consensus at the international level
that sound environmental policies can only be created in a system which
responds to feedback from all those who have a stake in the environment.
In many countries, there are even mechanisms by which individuals and groups
can advocate for change and participate in the education of the communities
surrounding environmental issues. In Burma, under the regime, this is impossible
and just the reverse is true.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The Western oil industries have attempted to block their
shareholders in the US, Britain and France from obtaining comprehensive
information about their projects in Burma. Paradoxically,&nbsp; oil companies
working in Burma have succeeded in&nbsp; persuading the US. Securities
and Exchange Commission to remove resolutions on human rights and environmental
issues aimed at their projects in Burma from their proxy statements.&nbsp;&nbsp;
A classic example is that <b>UNOCAL</b> has strongly rejected a call by
a group of shareholders for a comprehensive report on the company's activities
in Burma. American companies that have invested in Burma have not had any&nbsp;
concern about environmental issues such as&nbsp; watershed destruction
and deforestation as they know very well that&nbsp; they will be able to
operate&nbsp; only if the Junta lasts, and their goal is to maximize the
profit as soon as possible</font>
<p><font size=+1>These accounts demonstrate a widespread, persistent pattern
of human rights violations against the people of Burma. Merely entering
into a partnership arrangement with such a regime constitutes complicity
in these abuses. The level of corporate culpability is much higher in the
case of the oil consortium, and these abuses are actually carried out by&nbsp;
security personnel for the benefit of the project. The French, the British
and the Americans, who always declare their love for freedom, have acted
otherwise.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The western oil cartels are just one example of an increasingly
common trend that sees governments working in the interest of global corporations,
against their own people. This trend is not new Chinese, Latin American,
Indonesian and former Soviet governments have all evicted people wholesale
and practiced something akin to genocide to make way for massive projects
such as dams, and to encourage logging and heavy industries. These extractive
industries such as oil and mining and timber are becoming the new epicenter
of human right violations, land grab, political de-stabilization, environmental
devastation and, increasingly, outright conflict are becoming common. As
countries bid to offer the lowest levels of environmental, labour and consumer
regulation, abuses are rising. Obviously the first casualty is democracy.
The second casualty is the tribal peoples whose land was given to the company
both to explore and exploit and naturally these native peoples become homeless
in their own homelands. This sort of hit-and-run development leaves communities
with little option in ways of developing themselves. These companies claim
that they bring jobs and social benefits but in reality&nbsp; the work
they offer is unskilled, and the benefits go only to the military and to
the people who work with them. The people always suffer.</font>
<p><font size=+1>The American company of UNOCAL, the British Premier Oil
and TOTAL of France represent the classic examples of the push for economic
liberalization that has&nbsp; resulted&nbsp; in&nbsp; disastrous&nbsp;
consequences&nbsp; globally,&nbsp; but&nbsp;&nbsp; particularly for&nbsp;
developing nations. The agreement made between corporate powers has resulted
in maximum exploitation of the people. Central to this restructuring of
power is the establishment of markets catering to the elite while marginalizing
massive numbers of people and resulting in widespread poverty, hunger,
child and slave labour. Along with the spreading power of multinational
corporations comes the modern and devastating trend of developing, bio
rich nations being forced to adopt intellectual property rights over life
and biological resources. This threatens and undermines traditional systems
of knowledge, medicine and food security. Indigenous people not only are
having their last remaining refuges invaded and commoditized, but also&nbsp;
are subsequently reduced to slave labour, or are destroyed in their attempts
to preserve their lands and lifestyles. The export of various technologies
into developing nations alters their consumption patterns, social fabric
and traditions of individuals and communities. Technology is not neutral.
It serves the interests of its manufacturers and has brought with it an
increasing global homogenization of culture. But the most important aspect
is that it lack a humanitarian concern and has led to the increased militarization
of less-privileged nations and the proportional increase in the&nbsp; military
sectors of the industrial countries.</font>
<p><font size=+1>Burma is just a classic example of the havoc played by
these oil cartels. The greatest threat in this new millennium is not what
Samuel Huntington described in his <b><i>?Clash of Civilizations?</i></b>
of how the Islamic countries combined with the Chinese and Indians whose
religious teaching stress on humility and love will clash with the West
but of the dictatorships&nbsp; that have no respect for mankind and environment
kept alive by these oil cartels.</font>
<p><i><font size=+1>(The author is a visiting Professor at the Faculty
of International Development Studies, University of Winnipeg Cum Research
Fellow at the University of Manitoba at the Institute of Humanities, Winnipeg,
Manitoba, Canada)</font></i>
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