Meddlesome brown people are trying to take our oil (again)
(Image from cartoonstock.com)
The proposed constitution enshrines Kurdish claims to territories and the oil and gas beneath them. But these claims are disputed by both the federal government in Baghdad and ethnic groups on the ground, and were supposed to be resolved in talks begun quietly last month between the Iraqi and Kurdish governments, sponsored by the United Nations and backed by the United States. Instead, the Kurdish parliament pushed ahead and passed the constitution, partly as a message that it would resist pressure from the American and Iraqi governments to make concessions.
via Kurds Defy Baghdad, Laying Claim to Land and Oil – NYTimes.com.
Apparently, indigenous Kurds didn’t get the memo that Iraq’s oil is now the property of the United States and its corporate allies. Oil companies have been bidding to develop Iraqi oil for the first time since Iraq nationalized its oil industry in 1972, and in late June, 32 companies took part in the auction, including the American Exxon Mobil and the British Royal Dutch Shell.
The multibillion dollar deal between Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) and the Iraqi government to jointly develop domestic gas infrastructure in Iraq’s south is progressing and the oil ministry is submitting a feasibility study to the cabinet before concluding a final deal, Iraq’s deputy oil minister said during an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
“We are planning to submit a comprehensive feasibility study on the project to the cabinet by the end of this month,” Ahmad al-Shammaa told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview. According to the agreement Iraq’s South Gas Co. will control 51% while Shell will hold the remaining 49% of the venture. And yet, those dense Kurdish people haven’t gotten the hint. They want in on the action. As tends to happen whenever indigenous people thrust themselves into the middle of an intensely guarded wagon circle, the corporate coterie ain’t happy.
The concern over the sudden drafting of an entirely new constitution for the Kurdish semiautonomous region may be valid considering there has been little public debate, and Kurdish leaders may also be driven by greed and not some altruistic desire to see the democratic will of the indigenous people fulfilled (much like the US-led invasion of Iraq.) However, the outrage pouring from US officials is so deliciously ironic that it’s a small miracle Iraqis didn’t collectively fall over laughing when the first corporate mouthpiece stood up and declared, “Why, that’s our oil! Hands off, sirs!”
Maybe this is all part of some brilliant Kurdish practical joke to give the Americans and British a taste of their own medicine. Somewhere, a group of giggling Kurds are crouched behind a boulder. Occasionally, they peek around to see a fuming Exxon Mobil representative, who shouts about those “goddamn, meddling brown people!” as he kicks at the dirt where the Kurds have buried a garden hose disguised as an oil siphon.
We can only dream.
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This is what very few people spoke about following the initial U.S. invasion of Iraq. How would we get the three major ethnic groups in Iraq to agree on what to do with their oil resources? Leadership neglected to recognize the fact that each of those groups would want all of it for themselves. Also, they must have forgotten to mention that the U.S. and all other members of the UN would want their cut as well (errr….knew it all along).
So ridiculous that our nation invaded this region cloaked in democracy, yet the policies that we enact there are anything but democratic. Our nation’s founders would be rolling over in their graves right now. Wouldn’t it just be easier to let the laws of supply and demand dictate the price of that oil for us? I know that we, the consumers, would be much better off if the price of gasoline was solely determined by those basic economic principles.
Don’t get me wrong, a very bad regime was removed from power in Iraq. We can only hope that what remains will soon provide a better quality of life for regular citizens of Iraq.
Yes, the concept of “importing democracy” was always a strange one, and an insincere one, at that.
In response to another comment. See in context »Forgot to mention that I don’t think it has anything to do with them being “brown people”. It only has to do with one color, GREEN!!
This is true. The title was just me being a smart ass. Corporations are surprisingly egalitarian when deciding whose lives they’re going to destroy.
In response to another comment. See in context »While it’s true that at this point in history, racism isn’t such a big factor in determining the business interests of our corporations and governments, the historical fact of racism has undeniably helped to shape our world and put people of one color in power a lot more than people of other hues.
In other words, they’re not targeting brown people, but it’s no accident that they happen to be brown, either. (Although the fact that the world’s biggest oil supplies happen to be in the Middle East isn’t anybody’s fault, of course. Personally, I blame the dinosaurs.) George Carlin used to bring up the whole “bombing brown people” thing and I think he was trying to remind us of our record in this regard.