"... for every gallon of gas you buy, there is human blood in it." Omoyele Sowore spoke at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon on November 15, 2006.Omoyele Sowore is a Nigerian Oil activist traveling through the United States educating people about tragic conditions in his country caused by our planetary addiction to petroleum.
He spoke of the pollution of the Niger delta in Africa, of torture, of rampant and escalating poverty in a country producing 2.5 million barrels of oil a day, 25% of which goes to the United States. Niger is the 6th largest producer of oil in the world. Omoyele tells the story of the ongoing destruction of the Niger Delta, not as a series of statistics, but as how it affected him growing up, affected his education and finally forced him to abandon his country in order to carry a message few people in the developed countries really want to hear or seriously consider. These remarks were not directed specifically to save his country, but more broadly, to include all people, all living things, all that exists upon our fragile earth. As Emerson said so wisely, "our virtues come in moments; our vices are habitual." The criminal destruction of our planet, our home is committed by millions of little acts, every day, every week, every month, every year, mostly unconsciously, by a relatively small portion of us who live upon it.
www.SaharaReporters.comwww.AFRICAST.tvGlobalexchange.org/war_peace_democracy/oil
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