Lords of Oil hold us all in economic slavery

By BEN NELMS

I was surveying the September/October edition of the Council on Foreign Relations journal “Foreign Affairs” last week when I noticed the announcement for a forum taking place in the middle of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and just prior to Hurricane Rita.

I probably would not have paid as close attention to the forum had gasoline not blown past $3 per gallon after Katrina, another of a seemingly endless number of events and reasons for the price of gasoline and oil-based products to jump in price.

Held at London’s Hotel Inter-Continental Sept. 20-21, “Oil and Money 2005: The Capacity Challenge” was a who’s who of global oil production and finance. Billed as a “major international energy forum” and with no agenda items cited, a sampling of the speakers was interesting.

Some of those included Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem, Chevon CEO David O’Reilly, Royal/Dutch Shell Executive Director Linda Cook, Deutsche Bank Global Energy Strategist Adam Sieminski, Morgan Stanley Global Energy Group co-head J. Robert Maguire, Kuwait Petroleum Corp. General Counsel Nawaf S. Al-Sabah, Saudi Aramco former Executive Vice President Albert Bressand and Franco Bernabe, Vice Chairman and Head of the Global Oil and Gas Sector for Rothschild Europe.

Let’s see, who might have sponsored the forum? Well, there was anti-trust, litigation and intellectual property consultant CRA, chemical manufacturer Reliance Industries Ltd., American investment bank Morgan Stanley, international law firm LeBoeuf Lamb, European oil company Petroplus, Venezuela’s Banco Mercantil, global oil-field and information company Schlumberger, Dutch investment bank Abn-Amro and Big Blue, IBM.

This is all great and I do hope they had a happy and productive forum. Thing is, while they met we were paying escalating prices at the pumps and oil companies were making record profits, again.

It’s not just here. It’s a global thing, you know. It seems that no matter what it is, from outright catastrophes to the least little scare when one refinery catches fire suffering only minor damage, each and every event is used to drive up the price of gasoline. Ever notice it?

From the producers that pull oil out of the ground to the multi-national refiners posing as American oil companies, they say jump, we say how high?

In a world addicted to oil, they are the dealers, we are the users. This planet is strung out on a commodity that by no small accident became indispensable.

The oil-producing nations continue to charge higher prices, the oil companies continue to build no new refineries yet charge higher prices and the governments of this planet continue to sit by to watch the unfolding result of economic terrorism without lifting a finger.

These days, terrorists are prosecuted. Oh yeah, holding someone economically hostage does not a terrorist make! And in America, if you want to make it political, take it somewhere else.

The Democrats are no better than the Republicans. As Mark Twain once said, there is not a dime’s worth of difference between the two. Money became god in America long before your great grandparents were born. And today, oil has become the messiah, the savior, of civilization.

But it’s a two-edged sword. Oil and its by-products push economies forward while, simultaneously, the Lords of Oil hold whole societies hostage.

These days the oil companies push green-like logos and commercials intended to propagandize mindless populations into thinking they are our friends. They are far from it.

They are happy with their billions in profit. Their stockholders are happy with their dividends. Yet the general population, 297 million in the U.S. and more than 6.4 billion worldwide, are not happy with oil and gas prices that continue to drive upward.

And as for governments, small to moderate initiatives ostensibly meant to spur innovation and invention by oil companies and oil industry-funded research university departments never quite seem to butter the biscuit of consumers whose disposable income continues to wither on the vine, I mean, at the gas pump.

And any idea that suggests an alternative to our oil-dominated way of life is demonized and dismissed as conspiratorial, or worse. The example of Nikola Tesla is a prime example.

So what’s it going to take? Gas at $5 per gallon, maybe $10 a gallon, maybe $15 a gallon, to spark an economic revolt in this or some other society? How far will this economic slavery be allowed to go?

In this form of slavery, the chains are made of money; they show no preference over the color of skin or the level of income.

In the brave old world of economic terrorism, the interlocking board directorates are the gatekeepers of Earth’s current economic destiny. Oil companies, oil countries, international banks and the consultants in their orbit rule like monarchs while we are forced to march to the beat of the tune they call. Government is impotent in forcing a change.

This is nothing new. It has been going on for more than 100 years. Then as now, We the People exist by their leave under a new type of slavery. Then as now, We the People pay the price. — Reach Ben Nelms at bnelms@TheCitizen.com.