Take this commentary as you please, maybe it has some relevence. Aaron. >From: "Michael Albert" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: ZNet Commentary / Dec 11 / Dan Georgakas / East Timor and Oil > >---------------------------- > > >East Timor, Phillips Petroleum, & Norman, Oklahoma >By Dan Georgakas > >During the height of the massacres in East Timor, Phillips Petroleum paid >the Indonesian government $2.9 million in royalties for oil that had been >taken out of East Timor. That scandal was not uncovered by any >"investigative" reporter in mass media, but by Todd Walker, a student at >the >U of Oklahoma (OU). The payments had been made in such a way that not even >the leaders of the East Timor independence forces knew about them before >the >information was provided to them directly by the Student Action Network of >Norman, Oklahoma! At this date, even after the payments have been given >wider exposure through Amy Goodman's Democracy Now program on Pacifica, it >is not clear if the funds constituted a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual >payment. The East Timorese are now pressing for more details on such >payments and hope to recover some of the past payments as well as making >certain new payments go to them and not Indonesia. > >The backstory to my report of this payment scandal is that this fall I have >been a Visiting Professor in Film at OU. Upon my arrival at the campus, I >was surprised to find ongoing activity on the problems in East Timor. There >was continuous agitation in the form of demonstrations, vigils, handouts, >fund raising for relief, fasts, guest speakers, and information tables. The >hard core of participants ran from twenty to forty, but their activities >reached the entire student body with a number of front-page stories in the >official college paper and ongoing analytical articles in Undercurrents, a >dissident student publication. > >Aside from exposing the atrocities of the Indonesian government, the >students have taken on Phillips Petroleum, an Oklahoma-based company that >likes to have a consumer friendly face. As fate would have it, OU President >David Boren, a former senator and governor, is a member of Phillips' Board >of Directors. The students have repeatedly pressed Boren to take leadership >in altering Phillips Petroleum's de facto support of the Indonesian >government. Their confrontation grew testy when Boren stated that Phillips >had never paid one penny to Indonesia, a response the Student Action >Network >soon proved off by nearly three million dollars. The group's current >position is that Phillips owes reparations to the new East Timor entity. To >further put pressure on Phillips, they are now working with local >environmental groups in a proposed march on Phillips' Bartlesville >headquarters. > >I had wondered if a foreign student from East Timor might have played a >role >in creating the group or perhaps some l960s-spawned "red diaper" babies, >but >such was not the case. A group of students of a generally leftist but >variegated mood of thought had simply come together at a time when the East >Timor issue began to emerge. The involvement of Phillips and Boren seems to >have been the key stimulus to action. In due course a connection was made >with the East Timor Action Network but the major source of ongoing >information is Pacifica's WBAI which is accessed in Norman through the >Internet. > >I was extremely curious about personal motivation. Kalyn Morris who carried >out a seven day fast that included five days of water-only had a strong >spiritual dimension to her protest. But she was extremely pragmatic in >responding to students with roots in Bartlesville, explaining that she was >not seeking to deprive their parents of work but to stop the physical and >economic exploitation of the East Timorese people. The wide range of >perspectives of the activists was brought home to me one night as I >conducted interviews in a cafe near the university. An OU freshman active >in >the committee expressed his intellectual outrage that in a class about the >Cuban missile crisis the teacher had thought it sufficient to look only at >writings from people who had been in the Kennedy administration. An artist >discussed his unease about the recent controversy involving the Brooklyn >Museum of Art. He was not at all upset by the use of excrement in some of >the work as it is a common element in African art, but he was not happy >with >the exploitation of dead animals. A third student spoke of his allegiance >to >the Communist Party and why he felt such an organization was necessary to >lead social change. Two young Native American women at a nearby table >teased >him about wanting to save the world, obviously not about to join the effort >but far from hostile. > >Such activists have no illusions about what they can expect from their >24,000 fellow students. They do not foresee a local mass movement. East >Timor is too far away for that. Nonetheless, the Student Action Network has >found widespread empathy for what they are doing and has put East Timor >into >the consciousness of the entire campus. They intend to keep the pressure on >their university president and on Phillips Petroleum. Todd Walker >summarizes >their belief that small scale as their actions may be they are making a >difference at both a local and a global level. Just their research on >Phillips has proven extremely useful to the East Timorese. Another student >expressed much of the spirit of the group when he said he hoped that one >day >when East Timor had become a prosperous and vibrant democracy that they >would know that in far-off Norman, Oklahoma someone had cared enough to >speak out in their behalf. >I am not certain any "lessons" can be learned from the Norman experience. I >think we leftists are a little hung up about that, often indulging wishful >thinking. I find it positive that the activists here are doing what they >are >doing because they feel the connections between the local corporate giant, >the university where they study, the mass media that misinforms, and a >faraway island in the Pacific. From such local seedlings may indeed emerge >the mass movement so desperately needed to make the new century an era of >hope. But to paraphrase Bertolt Brecht, the sense in Norman seems to be >that >it's enough that today we made it bit harder for the bad guys to prevail. > >---Dan Georgakas >Dan Georgakas is co-author of Detroit: I Do Mind Dying and teaches courses >in foreign affairs at New York University. > > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
