dreamtime

Religion

The Aborigonal religion is based heavily on the Dreaming. The Dreaming is the Aboriginal creation story. Aborigines believe that at the beginning of time the world was a shapless mass of nothing, waitng to be transformed into what we see today. The mythic beings called the ancestors arrived, the ancestors took many shapes, although most commonly they were great serpants. The ancestors began to travel across the world shaping the landscape and creating new life as they went. Every major geographical feature in australia has an aboriginal story to explain it. The Dreaming gets very abstract, it turns almost into another dimension. Aborigines beleive that they are constantly living in the Dreaming and that every time they do something they leave an impression on the other reality that is the Dreaming

Ayers rock pictured below is an example of a landform shaped by the ancestors.

biocon got a job

PM criticised over climate change

Sir Jonathon criticised the PM's backing for a third Heathrow runway Gordon Brown's outgoing adviser on sustainable development has accused him of "hindering" work on climate change. Sir Jonathon Porritt told the Independent the PM did not find the environment any more important now than when he was chancellor. Sir Jonathon also said Business Secretary Lord Mandelson had to "change his ways" on environmental issues. Sir Jonathon was appointed Sustainable Development Commission chairman by Tony Blair's government in 2000. Sir Jonathon said Mr Brown's support for a third runway at Heathrow Airport was a "ludicrous decision, with no serious intellectual, economic rationale". He said the Prime Minister had "some incredibly fixed ideas about some of these things". 'Influential person' "He genuinely feels that a successful competitive economy of the future has to be growing its aviation business in order to make UK plc more productive, and so on," Sir Jonathon said. Sir Jonathon has also highlighted Lord Mandelson's influence in government, but added the environmental agenda had not been his "strong suit". The former UK director of Friends of the Earth, who will step down from his advisory role this weekend, said: "I think the reality is that there are two big things for the government. We've not got a genuine industrial economic strategy yet and it's absolutely fundamental Sir Jonathon Porritt, outgoing head of the Sustainable Development Commission "It has got to make the Low Carbon Transition Plan stick; it's got a lot riding on it and it's hugely significant so the government has got to settle down and get implementation." The other element was developing green industry and technological breakthroughs, he said. "It's starting to come right, but on the same day Ed Miliband [energy secretary] launched the transition plan, the largest wind manufacturer in the UK announced it was closing," he said. "We've not got a genuine industrial economic strategy yet and it's absolutely fundamental. "It's a priority for Lord Mandelson, who has become an immensely influential person in government. "This whole agenda has not been his strong suit and he needs to demonstrate he can change his ways as the world has changed around him." Sustainable living Over his nine years at the SDC, Sir Jonathon said times had changed. "It's taken an incredibly long time to persuade ministers that you can't exhort the whole of the rest of the country to start living more sustainably if you don't demonstrate it in your own back yard," he said. But, he conceded that the creation of the new Department of Energy and Climate Change last year showed the government has stepped up. Sir Jonathon plans to continue working with Forum for the Future, a sustainable development organisation, and will campaign on issues including the erosion of human rights in Britain

abo's malaise

Aborigines threaten to shut Uluru

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a popular tourist draw

Aboriginal leaders have threatened to ban tourists from one of Australia's top landmarks in protest at what they describe as racist government policies.

The warning over Uluru comes one year since police and soldiers were sent into indigenous settlements to try to tackle high rates of child sex abuse.
Bans on alcohol and pornography were introduced along with strict controls on how welfare payments were spent.
But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said he remained committed to the initiative.
Addressing an Australian Labor Party conference in Queensland, Mr Rudd said the government's priority was to improve the lives of indigenous people.
"Progress has been made in the last 12 months, but much remains to be done to meet our targets to close the gap on indigenous life opportunities," he said.
'Racist legislation'

The so-called "intervention" in the Northern Territory was introduced by former Prime Minster John Howard's conservative government.
Chronic disadvantage had led to Aboriginal life expectancy being 17 years below that of other Australians.

CHILD ABUSE REPORT Abuse is serious, widespread and often unreported Aboriginal people not the only victims or perpetrators of sexual abuse Contributing factors include poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, gambling, pornography Health and social services desperately need improving Full report [6500k] Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader Download the reader here

In response to a damning report about widespread child abuse, troops, police officers and medical teams were sent to more than 70 indigenous communities.
But 12 months after the intervention began, tribal leaders from Central Australia have threatened to ban tourists from climbing Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock.
Vince Forrester, an elder from the Mutitjulu people, who are the rock's traditional custodians, told a rally in Sydney that the government's actions had been a disaster.
He insisted that Aboriginal men had been portrayed as violent alcoholics who beat women and abuse children.
"We've got to take some affirmative action to stop this racist piece of legislation.
"We're going to throw a big rock on top of the tourist industry... we will close the climb and no one will climb Uluru ever again, no one," he told the meeting.
The BBC's Phil Mercer in Sydney says that critics of the policy say that young Aborigines are still vulnerable to sexual assault despite the intervention.

abo's malaise

No payout for 'stolen' Aborigines

Aborigine communities have comparatively low life expectancies

Thousands of Aborigines who were removed from their families as children will receive no compensation, the Australian government has said.

Campaigners for the so-called Stolen Generations had asked for a reparation fund of almost A$1bn ($870m; £443m) as part of a promised official apology.

But indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin says money will instead be put into health and education schemes.

Many Aboriginal children were handed to white families from 1915 to 1969.

They were brought up by white people in an attempt by the government to assimilate the white and Aboriginal populations.

Even though they've changed the saddle blankets we're still dealing with the same horse Sam Watson Aborigine activist

The country's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has promised to apologise formally to the victims of the assimilation policy.

And campaigners felt that the Stolen Generations should have received damages as part of the apology.

"People get paid crimes compensation for victims of crime," Lyn Austin, head of Stolen Generations in the state of Victoria, told local radio.

"You are looking at the gross violation and the act of genocide and all the inhumane things that have happened to our people."

Protests promised

But Ms Macklin instead pledged to invest in initiatives which she said would improve life expectancy for today's Aborigines.

"What we will be doing is putting the funding in to health and education services, and providing additional support for services needed for counselling, to enable people to find their relatives," she said.

"We think the best way to give force to the apology is to provide funding to close the gap in life expectancy between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

"So we won't be creating a compensation fund."

Aboriginal campaigners have promised to protest against the decision.

Brisbane-based activist Sam Watson said the new Labor government was following the same policies as their predecessors.

"Even though they've changed the saddle blankets we're still dealing with the same horse," he told Australian broadcaster ABC.

abo's malaise

Australia apology to Aborigines

Kevin Rudd's apology represents a break from previous policies Parliament statement

The Australian government has made a formal apology for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on the indigenous Aboriginal population.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised in parliament to all Aborigines for laws and policies that "inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss".

He singled out the "Stolen Generations" of thousands of children forcibly removed from their families.

The apology, beamed live around the country on TV, was met with cheers.

But some Aborigines say it should have been accompanied with compensation for their suffering.

'Indignity and degradation'

In a motion passed unanimously by Australian MPs on Wednesday morning, Mr Rudd acknowledged the "past mistreatment" of all of his country's Aboriginal population.

For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry Text of parliamentary motion Full text of apology Ceremony in pictures Apology accepted?

"We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians," the motion said.

Mr Rudd said he apologised "especially" to the Stolen Generations of young Aboriginal children who were taken from their parents in a policy of assimilation which lasted from the 19th Century to the late 1960s.

"For the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry."

Aborigines are the most disadvantaged sector of society

Australia has no Aboriginal members in parliament, but 100 leaders of the community and members of the Stolen Generations were present for the historic apology.

The leader of the Liberal opposition, Brendan Nelson, said he "strongly" welcomed the apology.

He decided to take a different position on the issue than his predecessor, former Prime Minister John Howard, who refused for over a decade to apologise to the Stolen Generations - a stance supported, polls suggest, by about 30% of Australians.

Mixed response

The government hopes the apology will repair the breach between white and black Australia and usher in a new era of recognition and reconciliation.

The parliamentary session was shown live on television as well as on public screens erected in cities across the country.

Mr Rudd received a standing ovation from MPs and onlookers in parliament, and cheers from the thousands of Australians watching outside.

Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money Noel Pearson Aboriginal leader

Michael Mansell, a spokesman for the rights group the National Aboriginal Alliance, said the word "sorry" was one that "Stolen Generation members will be very relieved is finally being used", reported Associated Press news agency.

But the refusal to accompany the apology with any compensation has angered many Aboriginal leaders, who have called it a "cut-price sorry".

"Blackfellas will get the words, the whitefellas keep the money," summed up Noel Pearson, a respected Aboriginal leader, in The Australian newspaper.

HAVE YOUR SAY

I think the apology is the right thing to do, but personally don't understand why it was debated for so long

Laura, USA

Send us your comments

Mr Rudd has also outlined a new agenda on Aboriginal issues, including a commitment to close the 17-year life expectancy gap between Aborigines and other Australians within a generation, was well as halving Aboriginal infant mortality rates within a decade.

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up 2% of the population and are the most disadvantaged group.

They have higher rates of infant mortality, drug abuse, alcoholism and unemployment than the rest of the population.

abo's malaise

Gap dividing Aborigines growing

By Nick Bryant BBC News, Sydney

Some indigenous Australians say the National Day is actually 'Invasion Day'

A national report on Aboriginal social and economic trends in Australia has shown their condition has deteriorated.

In particular it showed that the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous citizens has grown wider in areas like child abuse and domestic violence.

It revealed that Aboriginal children are six times as likely to be abused as non-indigenous children.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said it was a devastating report on an unacceptable situation.

The new government report contains a grim inventory of statistics, which indicate that the longstanding gap in living standards between black and white Australians is, if anything, getting wider.

One finding, that Aboriginal children are six times more likely than non-indigenous children to be abused, represents a significant increase.

The report also revealed that the indigenous homicide rate was seven times higher than the non-indigenous rate; and that Aboriginal people were 13 times more likely to end up in jail.

The report measured 50 key indicators of disadvantage, and found that there has been no improvement in 80% of them.

There have been no gains, for instance, in literacy or numeracy rates.

In an otherwise bleak assessment, one of the few areas of improvement was employment.

Mr Rudd started his term in office with an apology to Aborigines for past injustices and pledged that his government would aim to close the gap.

Speaking in the country's Northern Territory, the home to many Aborigines, Mr Rudd called this a devastating report which was unacceptable and required decisive action.

nigeria ogoni

Fresh start for Nigerian oil activists?

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Ogoniland, Nigeriahttp://www.richimag.co.uk/africa/

People have moved to within yards of oil wells

Cherie Kanaan's family live only yards away from an oil well in Ogoniland in the heart of Nigeria's troubled Niger Delta.

For the past 13 years, no oil has been pumped out of the ground here after Royal Dutch Shell stopped operations following environmental protests that led to the execution by the military of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa.

Now the whole of Ogoniland is expecting Shell to be replaced and the drilling to restart.

When that happens the massive machinery of drilling, and its associated fumes and noise will return.

Since moving to the village of Kdere nine years ago, Mrs Kanaan has had four children.

Realistically there is no way her family will be able to stay there if another oil company comes back.

"I am afraid for my children," she says.

Vindication

However, when the Nigerian government announced in June it would replace Shell in Ogoniland, most people were jubilant.

Some activists want the wells relocated not the people

It seemed to be a vindication of the 19-year struggle waged by the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), founded by Ken Saro-Wiwa - a man who had become a thorn in the side of government and the multi-national oil company.

His execution in 1995 drew international condemnation and launched the conflict between people and oil companies in the Niger Delta into the media.

Mosop has since then run a non-violent campaign that has been largely successful in promoting the idea that the Ogoni people should be given a cut of the oil profits.

But since the removal of Shell was announced, uncertainty has crept in over what the future holds.

The government has not made any further announcements and is keeping any plans it has for reforming the way oil companies are allowed to operate very close to its chest.

Shell, even though it has not operated in the area since 1993 and refuses to comment on the subject, is still entitled to extract oil there.

The company says it learned of the government's decision in the pages of the newspapers.

It is likely it will remain in the background, keeping the significant Ogoni reserves on its books - and therefore avoiding a knock in their share price - in return for allowing another operator, government advisers say.

Frog chorus

For the Ogonis, who are poor and struggle to make a living from their farms, it will have to be a matter of trust.

They must hope the government finds a better operator and local representatives cut a good deal that will be administered properly.

The people in Ogoniland are dependent on oil companies to clear up the mess

Lush grasses, ferns and mosses may have grown over the pipes, and the bush around the rusting wells may throb with the chorus of frogs, but people are still struggling with environmental damage.

They say the land is still poisoned by the oil and old oil wells are vulnerable to sabotage and leaks.

Last year, a well head exploded, killing two people. It burned for three months before it was put out. In June, a well head in Kpor town sprayed thick yellow-brown crude all over farmlands.

More drilling will mean more environmental damage and the relocation of whole villages from the wells as people have moved into the area.

Activists say the inhabitants will make sacrifices if they are able to negotiate a deal that gives some of the profits from the oil and gas under their feet.

Sofiri Peterside, a lecturer in sociology at Port Harcourt University, says if Ogonis feel they will benefit from the oil they will be willing to relocate themselves.

OGONI TIMELINE 1958 Oil struck in Ogoniland 1990 Ogonis form the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop) with Ken Saro-Wiwa as president 1993 300,000 Ogonis protest at their neglect by the government and Shell. 1993 Shell pull out of Ogoniland after an employee is beaten. 1994 A series of conflicts between local communities flares. The government sends the military to restore order. Mosop say the conflicts are being fuelled by the government as a 'divide and rule' tactic. 1994 Four community leaders are killed by a mob of youths. Mosop leaders Ken Saro-Wiwa and Ledum Mitee arrested. 1995 Mr Saro-Wiwa and eight others are tried and executed, the military government receives international condemnation. 2003-2008 International attention switches to armed conflict started by other communities in the Delta. 2007 Leaks from well heads continue. One burns for three months. 2008 Government announces Shell will be removed as an operator in Ogoniland. Nigeria's removal of Shell hailed

"This is going to involve sacrifice, it's a process of negotiation. We should be able to get concrete terms."

Ben Naanen of the Ogoni Contact Group, an umbrella organisation of Ogoni activists, says people have confidence in them to get a good deal.

"People in Ogoni won't allow what has happened in the past to be repeated once they become owners in the process, people will see themselves as part of the establishment."

But other activists see a difficult period ahead.

"It is a serious issue, one that will need to be talked about," says Mosop President Ledum Mitee.

"Rather than relocate people we think that the wells should be relocated. I'm not sure that it will be easy for people to accept that drilling will be in the same areas."

Ogoni activists are pushing for their demands to be included as part of any contract the government draws up with Shell's replacement.

Top of their list is that a share of the profits given directly to the Ogoni people to be managed by a trust fund.

At the very least, activists say, they want oil companies to factor them in as a "cost of production".

But it remains questionable if that kind of deal is realistic.

'Flames of hell'

Activists from all parts of the Delta are looking to see how the government handles this, as it will have implications for the whole region.

Isaac Osuoka, from Social Action in nearby Bayelsa State, is sceptical the government will be able to force any company to agree to the Ogonis' terms.

"I have heard the president say he wants to address these issues, but only in private statements."

Farmers say their land has been poisoned and nothing done about it

He says the government would have to do the same for all the other people in the Delta.

"But there's no sign the government is presenting a consistent policy, it's just confusion."

The only thing that is clear is that beneath Ogoniland remains significant reserves of both oil and gas.

And leaving them alone is not an option on the table.

The words of an Ogoni protest song in the 1990s went: "The flames of Shell are the flames of hell."

Ledor Muu, a mother of nine, in Kdere remembers back to that time.

"When Shell came they destroyed our farmlands and crops, didn't employ our people, they didn't help us at all," she says as she and other women walk towards their fields where they plant yams and fruit.

"Provided the next company do what Shell did not and empower the women, who do most of the work, we don't have a problem with them drilling for oil."

nigerian oil pirates

'Blood oil' dripping from Nigeria

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Abujahttp://www.richimag.co.uk/africa/

Oil company employees are suspected of selling their skills to oil bunkerers

Under cover of night dozens of barges queue up to dock at a jetty in a creek somewhere in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.

Their holds are filled with stolen oil running from valves illegally installed into a pipeline.

Full, they chug downstream to meet around 10 larger ships near the oil export terminal in Bonny, Rivers State, where they disgorge their cargo.

By 0500, in the darkness before dawn, the ships uncouple from the barges and move out in a convoy to sea to rendezvous with a tanker which will spirit away the stolen oil, making it disappear into another cargo, bound for sale on the world market.

It is likely the tanker arrived partly loaded with guns, cocaine to be trafficked into Europe and cash, which they will use to pay for the oil.

Bogus shipping documents make their load - possibly tens of thousands of tons of crude oil - disappear into legitimate markets in Eastern Europe or America.

This is an industry that makes £30m ($60m) a day, they'd kill you, me, anyone, in order to protect it Analyst close to former government of Olusegun Obasanjo

This, according to activists and former Nigerian government advisers, is the process by which Nigeria is losing billions of dollars every year to oil smuggling.

The illegal "bunkering", as it is known, makes a huge profit for Nigerian syndicates and rogue international traders.

It leaves in its wake chaos and misery for the people of the Niger Delta.

'Godfathers'

According to Nigeria's President Umaru Yar'Adua this is "blood oil", akin to the trade in "blood diamonds" that fuelled bloody civil wars in West African neighbours Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Gordon Brown promised to help Nigeria tackle the unrest in the Delta

He is calling on the international community to help Nigeria end the trade.

Britain has promised military training to improve the Nigerian military Joint Task Force's ability to police the Delta region.

But a source close to the former government of President Olusegun Obasanjo says the problem is not about quashing militants in boats.

Some of the people who run the cartels are among Nigeria's top political "godfathers", who wield massive political influence.

"If the president goes after them, they could destabilise the country, cause a coup, a civil war. They are that powerful, they could bring the state down," said the source, who did not want to be identified.

He says that attempts in the past to bring the trade under control were stopped for that reason.

"This is an industry that makes £30m ($60m) a day, they'd kill you, me, anyone, in order to protect it," he said.

The militant connection

In order to get away with the theft, the bunkering syndicates operate under the cloak of the conflict between militants and oil companies in the Niger Delta.

They need "security" - gangs of armed heavies to protect their cargos - and threaten anyone who tries to interfere.

Barges like this one are filled with crude and then take it to larger ships

They don't have to look far to find large groups of unemployed youths willing to do what they are told for a little money.

State governments in the Delta armed militias to carry out widespread rigging during the 2003 elections.

But the militiamen say they were abandoned, so they turned to oil theft to fund their activities.

Although they are referred to in the media as "militants" there are few coherent groups.

Most are gangs, led by commanders who are perpetually at war with each other.

These youths protect bunkering ships, force local community leaders to let bunkerers pass and bribe the Nigerian military.

The thieves may also need "the boys" to blow up pipelines, forcing the oil company to shut down the flow, allowing them to install a tap in the pipe.

"Hot-tapping", as it is known, requires considerable expertise, usually supplied by a former oil company employee.

These militants don't see the process of oil theft as stealing, observers say.

They believe they are taking what is legitimately theirs from the companies and the government.

They organise themselves in "bunkering turfs", but outbreaks of violence between them have been frequent and bloody.

'Legal theft'

But militant-assisted theft is not the only way oil is stolen.

According to a source close to the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the heavy military presence in the Delta has led oil bunkerers to find other ways to extract more oil.

ILLEGAL BUNKERING Oil theft costs Nigeria an estimated $5bn (£2.5bn) every year Estimates of how many barrels of oil are stolen range from 70,000 to 500,000 Official estimates are made by subtracting the amount of oil delivered from the amount expected from a well head Nigeria has proven reserves of over 31bn barrels Its production capacity is 3.2m barrels per day Its current production rate is 1.9m bpd Source: Legaloil.com

Simply put, they just load more onto a ship than they are allowed to.

With the connivance of officials from international oil companies, national oil parastatal officials and ships' captains, oil can be stolen through the legitimate process of lifting oil from the dock to the ship.

One oil company employee told the BBC that his company had discovered a vessel they were using had a secret compartment behind the bridge, where tens of thousands of barrels could be redirected at the flick of a switch while the hold was being filled.

Other ways include almost filling the ship with legitimate oil, then topping it up with oil that hasn't been paid for legitimately, according to government sources.

Or a whole ship can be filled with stolen crude using fake documents.

Estimates on how much oil is stolen in this manner vary, but according to the International Maritime Organisation last year it amounted to 80,000 barrels every day.

Part of the problem is that no one can be sure how much oil is being taken out of the ground.

Shipping documents can be forged.

Also ownership of a shipment can be transferred while the vessel is on the high seas, making cargo tracking incredibly difficult.

Possible solution?

The only way to shut down the oil cartels, observers say, is a tighter regulatory framework.

This would involve electronic bills of how much oil a ship has loaded, which would record if they had been tampered with.

The environmental effects of oil bunkering are disastrous

Oil can also be "fingerprinted".

The technology to distinguish between different types of oil exists already, says Patrick Dele Cole, a former adviser to Mr Obasanjo.

Oil companies do this routinely already, sources say. All that would be needed is a database of all the different types of Nigerian crude.

The UK has offered to train the military, and President Yar'Adua wants to form a "maritime academy" naval installation in the Delta.

But activists in the Delta say that increasing the military presence would be counterproductive.

It would increase resentment and militants' numbers - the level of violence would rise, they say.

And the Nigerian military is part of that violence, observers say.

Soldiers have indiscriminately burned whole towns and killed civilians, according to activists.

The high price of oil today is partly a result of Nigeria's complex and shadowy world of corruption and violence.

It is into this chaotic shadow world that the UK is about to commit itself.

nigerian chief remembers

The day oil was discovered in Nigeria

By Andrew Walker BBC News, Oloibiri, Nigeria http://www.richimag.co.uk/africa/

Chief Sunday Inengite can understand why people have taken up arms

Chief Sunday Inengite remembers the day the foreigners who had come to his village in Nigeria's Niger Delta struck oil.

"They made us be happy and clap like fools, dance as if we were trained monkeys," he says.

Years later, the 74-year-old now looks back on his youthful enthusiasm with sour regret.

Nigeria has become Africa's biggest oil producer, but the people of Oloibiri complain they have not seen much of the money made in the 52 years of oil production.

"It smacks of wickedness, hard-heartedness," he says.

Inquisitive

Mr Inengite was 19 years old when the foreign engineers came looking for oil in 1953.

An inquisitive young man, he made friends with the British, German and Dutch engineers during the years they were exploring the area around Oloibiri, now in Bayelsa State.

"I was trying to know why they were all here, going into the forests and into the swamps."

Colonial administrators and oil workers used houseboats to explore the Delta

The village elders thought they were looking for palm oil - a valuable edible oil that had been exported from West Africa since the first European traders arrived hundreds of years before.

"It wasn't until we saw what they called the oil - the black stuff - that we knew they were after something different," Mr Inengite said.

The explorers threw a party at their house-boat and invited everyone from the village to see samples of the oil they had been looking for.

"You can imagine the jubilation, after all they had been looking for oil in commercial quantities for years."

But now he says the environment has been damaged, affecting fish catches, and the small plots of land where people had grown crops are polluted by oil spills and gas flares.

"You see fish floating on the surface of the water, something we didn't know before."

"It may be difficult to make a catch that will be enough for your family for one day."

Government corruption

But the problem is not caused just by the oil companies.

The government gets tax and royalties on the oil the companies produce.

Nigeria's Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa is shown round an oil ship c 1960

The government is also a majority shareholder in Nigeria's oil industry and has made over $1.6trillion in revenue over the last 50 years, according to analysts at Standard Bank.

"I don't only blame the whites that came here, what about the government?" Mr Ingenite says.

"People in the government get nearly all the money from the economy."

When the BBC visited the first oil well a few kilometres down the road, we were approached by men working as commercial motorcycle taxis.

They all insisted oil companies, especially Royal Dutch Shell, should give them money as compensation for taking the oil.

But as we spoke, a local government official drove up in his brand new luxury four-wheel-drive car, an expensive gold watch dangling on his wrist.

Why don't people ask their leaders where their money is?

"They have hearts as black as coal, they are evil people - what would be the point?" said Julius Esam, 27.

'Oil museum'

A nearby mosquito infested swamp was being cleared to build a 300-bed hotel and conference centre with an oil "museum".

The contractor told the BBC the project was costing the state government 90billion naira ($592million, £298million.)

NIGERIA'S OIL Oil struck in June 1956 Government has made $1.6trillion since discovery Rivers state budget in 2006 was $1bn (£776milion at 2009 rates) Most Nigerians live on less than $2 a day

Dimeari Von Kemedi, in charge of scrutinising contracts made by the Bayelsa state government said he would stop the project.

"But it's very difficult to prevent every badly conceived or corrupt contract going through," he said.

The access to corrupt money allowed by political office in the Niger Delta is also responsible for the emergence of violent groups in the area.

Groups of "boys" were armed by government during the 2003 elections.

Their job was to ensure the ruling People's Democratic Party held onto power and therefore the oil money.

These groups later got involved in oil theft, stealing tens of thousands of barrels a day for powerful syndicates, kidnapping and extortion.

Although groups like the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend) use their contacts with journalists to promote a political agenda, most armed groups are criminal gangs who want their own share of the money being divided among the powerful.

Mr Ingenite says in his old age, he now understands what the militancy wants.

"We frowned at violence because we are very hospitable to those that come," he said.

"But it can't be so today, and if they act the way they do, you can't blame them, because their blood is hot, not like old men's that is cool."