The Culture of Subordination and the Deep Contradiction of OPEC

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) came into being principally to check at the temporary level and totally eliminate at a permanent stage the exploitation that exists in a North- South relationship. International relations had been full of exploitative tendencies by the North over the South such that even the designing of those rules and regulations that govern the global community were so designed in such a way that they favour the North over the South. One would have expected that in an international oil politics where in the South was highly favoured in reserves and production, the story would change in such a way that such oil producing nations would be seen to be in control indeed. This is more so with the coming of OPEC and especially with the fact that OPEC’s entry into international oiul politics was not in any way a coincidence as it was actually an intentional act meant to destroy the culture of subordination entrenched in the Southern developing nations. In essence, OPEC was expected to represent an extraordinarily big departure from what international relations had been to such an extent that continued dependence, reliance and subordination would gradually but consistently be done away with. OPEC therefore not only represented a southern collective bargaining organ but was seen, even in consideration of the basis of its entry into global oil politics that the culture of subordination that had consistently been linked with the South would considerably whittle down. It can therefore be said that OPEC has always been a very important organization in re designing whatever may be an existing lopsided relationship between the South and the North. It has therefore remained surprising, shocking and disappointing that despite the criticality of OPEC to the international community and its potential at designing a new role for the South in international politics and relations, the North-South relationship had neither changed in any dramatic form at the general international relations level and at the stage of international oil politics. This work therefore aims at finding out specifically why, despite notable potentials of an OPEC at reducing if not totally eliminating the culture of subordination, that culture has remained in virtually every relationship between the North and the South. The work employs an interpretative methodology at analyzing the data. This it does by critically appraising the basis under which OPEC came into being with a view to indicating the proper linkage and relationship that exists between OPEC’s move into international oil politics and destroying exploitative tendencies of the North over the South. Different literature such as journal articles, books, internet materials and newspapers were exhaustively made use of towards working at the methodology. Cases explored in the work include the pre OPEC years and what the oil companies represented before OPEC came into being, the immediate factor responsible for an OPEC in international oil politics, what culture of subordination implies in the North- South relationship, the case of the dependency theory and the continued sustenance of the culture of subordination in spite of OPEC.The work finds out that even though OPEC was meant to reduce and finally eliminate a culture of subordination, a focus and attention on oil as an income generating organization has considerably affected the effectiveness of OPEC in international oil politics in particular and international relations in general. It concludes that until OPEC is finally structured and designed beyond that of revenue generation, the culture of subordination may well but continue. Keywords: Subordination, OPEC, Contradiction, Oil, Oil Politics

OPEC as a Southern Bargaining Organization: The Case of International Oil Politics

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) was put in place principally to serve as a bargaining power of the South. The historical antecedence of OPEC indicates an Organization that was necessary because of the exploitation of the Northern developed countries through their oil companies. In essence, OPEC came to put a stop to what was considered as those tendencies by the Northern developed countries at ensuring that those years of colonialism and slavery which put the South at a disadvantage continued with oil. One interesting thing about international oil politics is that developing nations that were at a disadvantage in the structuring of international relations and in particular international economic system of the globe were appreciably at an advantage in oil politics. This is because reserves as well as production of oil benefit the Southern developing nations while the North with a large appetite in consumption is appreciably at a disadvantage. One would have expected therefore that in this particular area where the South was at an advantage it would automatically be in control, a situation that was unfortunately not so before OPEC came into being. In variably, OPEC would have ordinarily been expected to serve the interest of the South by coordinating Southern interests in oil and ensuring that the North is put in its normal place as far as issues relating to oil are concerned. This work therefore is aimed at relating OPEC’s formative years to its performance after coming into existence. It is meant to confirm and affirm whether or not OPEC has been able to meet up to its expectation of a Southern bargaining organization which it was meant to be at inception. The work employs an analytical methodology in which it relates those basic elements that necessitated an OPEC with those different areas in which it has performed with a view to determining whether or not the organization had lived up to expectation. The work finds out that certain internal crisis within OPEC have made it impossible for the organization to live up to expectation. It concludes that until OPEC moves away from viewing issues from Arab-non-Arab perspective it will not be able to serve its purpose effectively as a Southern bargaining organization. Keywords: OPEC, oil companies, dependency, exploitative tendency and bargaining power

Importance of Oil to the Global Community

Oil is a very critical and essential product to the international community to such an extent that it benefits the globe especially in terms of reserves and production at totally different levels While the reserves are beneficial to the Southern developing nations of the world the Northern developed countries are appreciably put at a serious disadvantage in areas that relate to reserves and production of oil It is however important to note that oil is such a very important product to both the North that is disadvantaged in reserves and production and equally to developing nations that have great reserves and are at advantage in production It can in fact be asserted that oil is by far much more needed in the developed countries than in developing ones This is clearly reflected and represented in the consumption levels of developed nations which are by far higher and greater than those in developing nations In fact to an appreciable extent the civilization of the western Northern developed technologically advanced countries are strongly attached to adequate and regular supply of oil Invariably therefore it has become imperative that those nations strategise at employing new sources of oil supply that will be internal and which will considerably reduce dependence on the outsid

Why Was Carthage Destroyed? A Re-Examination from an Economic Perspective

The story of Rome’s destruction of the once buoyant maritime city of Carthage in 146 B.C. has been explained by many scholars, generally, in terms of the fear and security threats posed by Carthaginian naval authority and great trade across the Mediterranean. This kind of generalization leaves little room for other intrinsic causes of the destruction and plays down the core policies that characterized Roman imperialism in North Africa during the Republican times.Adopting the political economy approach, this paper, therefore, re-examines from the economic perspective, the principles and dynamics which underlined the international relations of Rome in Africa during the stirring times of the second and third Punic wars with a view to identifying the strong economic motives that led to the eventual annihilation of Carthage. The paper shows that Carthaginian Africa was a region of great economic potential in the western Mediterranean. It reveals that Rome was a typically imperialistic state which employed various divide et impera stratagems to exploit the rich agricultural resources of the region. The paper concludes that the crippling of Carthage was premised not just on the fear or jealousy of Carthage but more importantly on the Roman desire to exploit the North African vast territories, wealth and agricultural resources

PUBLIC POLICIES AND CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE : AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NIGERIAN STATE

People's confidence in policies ofgovernment no doubt, serves as a cata lyst for national development in any society because of their support for such policies at implementation. Where crisis of confidence in polices of government emanate, it becomes a serious problem because without the support of the people, no matter how good intentioned policies and programmes of government may be, it cannot achieve its goals. and development is hindered in that society. This paper therefore analysed the causes of crisis of confidence in government polices in Nigeria. The Z- test population proportion (two samples) with a 95% confidence level was used for the analysis. The study showed that for development to take place in any society, so that the implementation of such policies that has the ability of enhancing the living standard of the people can materialise. Government therefore, must take into consideration the reactions of the people when formulating a policy. When this is done, it will enhance the support of the people for government policies

Wadsworth Hall Big Freezer 5s

Project Goal: Evaluation the usage of the freezer space and identify waste. Reorganize the items within the freezer to make the flow work faster. By addressing these issues, it would lead to less confusion as to where items belong and less time wasted by having to ask questions

Poor Acclimation to Experimental Field Drought in Subalpine Forest Tree Seedlings

The ability of tree species to acclimate and tolerate projected increases in drought frequency and intensity has fundamental implications for future forest dynamics with climate change. Inquiries to date on the drought tolerance capacities of tree species, however, have focused almost exclusively on mature trees with scant in situ work on seedlings, despite the central role that regeneration dynamics play in forest responses to changing conditions. We subjected naturally established seedlings of co-dominant subalpine conifer species (Abies lasiocarpa and Picea engelmannii) in the southern Rocky Mountains to 2 years of in situ summer precipitation exclusion, simulating summer drought conditions similar to a failure of the North American monsoon. We compared the morphological and physiological responses of seedlings growing in drought vs. ambient conditions to assess the relative changes in drought tolerance traits as a function of seedling size. Drought treatments had a marked impact on soil moisture: volumetric water content averaged ≈5–8 % in drought treatments and ≈8–12 % in ambient controls. We detected no significant shifts in morphology (e.g. root biomass, leaf:stem area ratio) in response to drought for either species, but net photosynthesis in drought treatments was 78 % lower for spruce and 37 % lower for fir. Greater stomatal control associated with increasing stem diameter conferred greater water use efficiencies in larger seedlings in both species but was not significantly different between drought and ambient conditions, suggesting an overall lack of responsivity to water stress and a prioritization of carbon gain over investment in drought mitigation traits. These results indicate a canonization of traits that, while useful for early seedling establishment, may portend substantial vulnerability of subalpine seedling populations to prolonged or recurrent droughts, especially for spruce