Oxfam America Blog

Pounding fufu (boiled cassava, a staple food) in a small village in central Ghana. Most of the people in this area grow cocoa and make a decent living, but in other parts of the country a large percentage of the population live on less than $1 a day. Photo by Chris Hufstader/Oxfam America.

Barack Obama made his first trip to Africa as President of the United States, and his speech last week in Accra was the talk of Africa and much of the world. When we looked at it here in the office, a colleague said to me, “It’s almost as if Obama works for Oxfam.” He worked through a number of Africa’s challenges and many of his recommendations were aligned with those Oxfam makes on the same issues.

But the speech was also interesting for another reason: It’s always hard for someone from the US to confront Africans about problems on their continent. Read the rest of this entry »

Godfried Ofori, a member of the Concerned Citizens Association of Prestea, Ghana, looks out over an open pit at the Bogoso/Prestea gold mine. Photo: Jane Hahn / Oxfam America

Riding in the back of a taxi the other night, I heard a BBC news story that sounded strangely familiar. After a lawsuit that dragged on for 13 years, the oil giant Royal Dutch Shell agreed to pay a $15.5 million settlement to Nigerian families as compensation for its alleged complicity in past human rights abuses, including the 1994 execution of local leaders who spoke out for the rights of people affected by the oil industry.

The company denied any wrongdoing, but said it welcomed the settlement as part of “a process of reconciliation.” Meanwhile, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs hailed the outcome as a message that “corporations, like individuals, must abide by internationally-recognized human rights standards.” (The case made it all the way to the US courts, based on an old law that allows international human rights cases to be tried here.)

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Community meeting in a small village in Ghana, where explosions in a nearby mine pit routinely shake people

Going out to visit farmers in villages displaced by mines is usually a sobering experience. I’ve done this in Ghana, Mali, Peru, and Honduras. A few farmers get a job at the mine, but they seem to be lucky. Most of the time the farmers tell me tragic stories:

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Worn out shoes

The other day I took a good look at my shoes: they are wearing out because I am walking more and driving less. The price of gas keeps my 17-year-old car parked at the side of the road for two or three days at a time. I like to see how long I can go without driving it so I can exercise more, save money on gas, and cut down on the inevitable wear and tear (and repair bills) on my old car.

The price of gas is down a little this week following all the financial turmoil. But some of the reasons the prices have been so high recently have not changed:  Some oil-producing areas are politically unstable, and there is a lot of corruption and violence. Many oil-rich countries are also paradoxically quite poor, and are descending further into violence and poverty despite the best efforts by some to use petrodollars responsibly. Cambodia and Ghana, two countries that recently discovered oil, are now considering what this means for their future. They have a lot to think about.

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