After reading Oil On Water and the short story, Spider the Artist, one main theme has arisen from both: far-away political decisions can affect/kill others. More specifically, far-away decisions involving oil extraction can wreak huge tolls on not only the environment, but the local community members as well. At the end of Spider the Artist, author Nnendi Okorafor ends with the line “You should pray that these zombies don’t build themselves some fins and travel across the ocean.” This is ironic because her and I both know that these so called “zombies” have already done such. In the book Oil On Water, the harsh, sometimes lethal effects of oil drilling is portrayed through intense imagery and descriptive writing. We learn how the people of the Nigerian Delta have suffered for years because of corporate greed and irresponsibility. While one would like to think that we, the Westerners, would stop such evil doings once we discovered how we are ruining the lives of local people, we have actually done the opposite.
A report has just been released claiming that SDX Energy, a United Kingdom oil and gas company, is planning on opening up new drill sites and pipelines in both Morocco and Egypt. http://www.ogj.com/articles/2018/02/sdx-energy-pursues-egypt-morocco-development-in-2018.html Once this plans go through, the lives of thousands of Egyptians and Moroccans will be affected for the worse. Similar to Rufus and Zaq, these people are going to experience and see things that no human should have to suffer, let alone because of an outside intruder. If these rich capitalists don’t get their heads out of their own little bubbles and begin to start treating other cultures and the environment with care and respect, we won’t be fighting over oil for long, we’ll be fighting for our lives.
