Video Forum / Lecture
Iraq Was Made For Oil, By Oil, and May Be Undone By Oil, Says Oystein Noreng
"Iraq was made for oil, it was made by oil, and it may be undone by oil,"
says Oystein Noreng, FINA Chair for Petroleum Economics and Management at
the Norwegian School of Management. According to Noreng, the outcome of
cleavages in Iraq's economic, social, and religious positions could
determine whether the country becomes the key player in the oil market.
Columbia's Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy
sponsored the lecture.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/news/index.html#feature03
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PROFESSOR OYSTEIN NORENG
NORWEGIAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, OSLO
OIL AND ISLAM: MISUSE OF MONEY CAUSING SOCIAL AND POLITICAL TENSIONS
The purpose of this paper is to explore the possible links between the
region's oil experience over the past decades and the surge of politically
radical movements referring to Islam in the Middle East and North Africa.
The critical factors are the sudden rise and the subsequent decline of the
oil revenues. In the 1970s, and early 1980s, the Middle East and North
Africa appeared as exceptionally successful in
economic and social matters. Revenues soared and social conditions improved
rapidly. In the 1990s,.
with some exceptions, the region appears as a resounding economic and
social failure. Per capita income is falling and social conditions are
deteriorating quickly. There are too few jobs for the increasing young
population, so that unemployment is rising quickly. The Middle East and
North Africa make up the only one of the world's major regions unable to
feed its population, which is growing rapidly. Hence food supplies and
nutrition standards are under a stronger economic threat than elsewhere.
This has onerous political implications.
http://www.worlddialogue.org/pdf/speech9.pdf
Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org
