The Cancer of Americanism

Imagine what you'd do in the same situation. Such are we called to do when witness to the spread of this cancer that will sweep the world and conquer it long before the armies arrive--if they ever do. For a pacified population high on the crack of concumerist frenzy is a more potent form of control than occupation.

According to the NY Times: Blood Flows With Oil in Poor Nigerian Villages. According to the report:

On Sunday morning, the village children shimmy out of their best clothes after church and head to a muddy puddle to collect water. Their mothers use the murky liquid to cook whatever soup they can muster from the meager catch of the day.

Yet for months a pitched battle has been fought between communities that claim authority over this village and the right to control what lies beneath its watery ground: a potentially vast field of crude oil that has caught the attention of a major energy company.

The conflict has left dozens dead and wounded, sent hundreds fleeing their homes and roiled this once quiet part of the Niger Delta. It has also laid bare the desperate struggle of impoverished communities to reap crumbs from the lavish banquet the oil boom has laid in this oil-rich yet grindingly poor corner of the globe.