Friday, August 20, 2010

Where There's Oil - There's Turmoil

Where there’s oil – There’s turmoil
(First published in The Island/30th July 2010)

We are almost certainly on the threshold of a new era of economic development and international diplomacy ushered in by the imminent discovery of oil. Drilling is due to start in the Mannar Basin next January. This opens before us exciting prospects of economic prosperity as well as daunting challenges posed by players in the arena of global political and diplomatic relations.

When prospecting for petroleum in Sri Lanka began nearly forty years ago at the initiative of the government, we were silently jubilant at the promise of a comfortable petrodollar-rich future for the country, which enhanced the general euphoria experienced in the wake of the adoption of the republican constitution in 1972. However, the Russian engineers who conducted the search at Pesalai in Mannar failed to find any oil. The grandiose project was abandoned, and the matter forgotten after a few laughs at jokes about certain fake samples of oil claimed to have been extracted from the area aimed at convincing an increasingly sceptical public. Ironically, though unconnected with the search for oil, separatist terrorism erupted from the north and east which we had originally hoped would be a source of unprecedented prosperity; terrorist violence devastated the country for thirty long years. We have just emerged from that dark phase of our history to be happily greeted by the news that Sri Lanka possesses substantial oil reserves. This naturally revives our hope of a bright future; a decisive reversal of our fortunes appears to be in the offing.

The initial attempts four decades ago at finding oil drew a blank probably because of the inadequacy of the prospecting technology adopted at that time. The situation today is different. We now enjoy the advantages of highly advanced modern technology in the matter. The many geological surveys and seismic tests carried out with the help of foreign organizations have revealed the existence of exploitable deposits of petroleum and gas in parts of the northern, eastern and southern regions of the island, both onshore and offshore. The major portion of the oil resources is reported to be concentrated in the area above an imaginary line joining Chilaw and Trincomalee, i.e. the north.

The coincidence of the elimination of separatist violence and the discovery of oil augurs well for the country. But the way ahead is not without risks. It is strewn with international landmines of political manipulation and interventionist pressure, which demands an extremely high level of political acumen and courage, and a selfless commitment to consensus building, on the part of our national leaders for Sri Lanka to remain whole. This is something that even a cursory glance at the oil-dominated twentieth-century global power (im)balance among nations will be sufficient to convince us of.

All countries depend on cheap oil for their economic development, and demand unrestricted access to it. This makes oil a “strategic asset” in the hands of powerful countries that are involved in the general scramble for a share of it.

The United States of America (USA), the European Union (EU) and China are the biggest consumers of oil (25.9%, 19.1%, and 6% of the world’s oil respectively). Their contributions to the global oil supply are as follows: USA – 10.7%, EU – 4.3%, and China – 4.4%. They may be identified as the main players in the global oil rush. Their partners in this “oil game” are the generally less industrialized oil producing nations.

From the very beginning Britain and America have been engaged in political and colonial manoeuvring for the sake of cheap oil. The quest for oil in the Middle East started when Iran struck oil in its Masjed Soleiman oil field in 1908. Iran was a part of the British Empire then. While Britain had no oil of its own Iran and the Middle East had an abundance of it. The British wasted no time in contriving strategies to help themselves to the vast oil resources found there. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) was founded in 1909 to exploit the oil resources of Iran. The British devised a clever arrangement called “concessions”. This was based on the complementary relationship between the two countries: Iran owned the oil, but had no technical know-how that would enable them to extract, refine, store, and sell it; neither did Iran have a market for the oil; on the other hand, Britain had no oil, but needed it very much; Britain also possessed the technological expertise necessary for extracting and refining the oil. Foreign companies vied with each other for concessions across the Middle East. Under the concessions arrangement the owner of the oil fields or the “host” country (eg. Iran) was paid a “concession” on the output. The bigger the output the bigger the concession. In other words the more oil the foreign companies extracted and sold, the more money the owner countries got.

Decades later (in 1951) Iran under democratically elected Prime Minister Dr Muhammad Mossadeq nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in order to retain the oil profits within the country. The US and Britain were strongly opposed to the move. They responded by causing the ouster of Dr Mossadeq through a coup, and installed in power Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1953. The nationalized British oil interests were returned to British control; similarly the American oil concessions were retained by eight private oil companies which were given 40% of the Iranian oil industry.

Saudi Arabia ( created in 1935 and named after Ibn Saud its ruler) possesses 25% of the world’s oil reserves. It is the only “oil superpower” in the world. In 1945 President Roosevelt met Ibn Saud on US cruiser Quincy in the Suez canal to sign an agreement in terms of which the US pledged to support Saudi Arabia militarily in return for access to its oil through their Arab-American Oil Company (ARAMCO). The USA exploited this relationship to develop its economy and build its military strength over the next half a century. When the Americans waged war on Iraq at the beginning of the 1990’s they used Saudi Arabia as their base. That special relationship still remains intact.

Iraq has the second largest proven oil reserves in the world next to Saudi Arabia. The western involvement in the country’s affairs led to a devastating war against it on rather dubious grounds (as it is being revealed now), and UN embargoes, etc with genocidal consequences on the innocent Iraqi citizens, primarily because of the American thirst for cheap oil. Organizations such as the Global Policy Forum (GPF) maintain that Iraq’s oil is “the central feature of the political landscape”. According to the GPF, under US influence the 2005 constitution of Iraq has been made to “contain language that generates a major role for foreign companies”.

Venezuela is said to have 77.2 billion barrels of proven oil resources – the largest in the western hemisphere. It nationalized its oil industry in 1975-76. The incumbent president Hugo Chavez rejects the privatising policies of his predecessors. His attempts to renegotiate a sixty year old royalty payments agreement with Philips Petroleum and Exxonmobil (both large oil companies) did not endear him to the Americans. Under these agreements the corporations had to pay taxes as low as 01% of the tens of billions of dollars in revenues.

Of course, western hegemony in the oil world has not been unchallenged. Venezuela pioneered the idea of establishing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1949, approaching Iran, Gabon, Libya, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. But the OPEC was set up in 1960 when the US imposed import quotas on Venezuelan and Persian Gulf oil to support the Canadian and Mexican oil industries. Antagonized by American bias towards Israel the OPEC exercised its power by imposing an oil embargo against the US and Western Europe in 1973.

China, taken as an individual country, is the second largest consumer of oil. At present it imports 30% of its oil. This figure is forecast to double by 2020, which will see China in much more desperate need of oil.

The Chinese obtain 10% of their oil from Sudan. The economically poor Sudan is riven by civil conflict between the Christian and animist south and the Islamist north. The Sudanese government is accused of evicting the civilians of the southern Darfur region from land they have occupied for generations, and even of massacring them in its determination to clear the area for oil extraction. When the UN wants to condemn Sudan over these allegations, China provides it diplomatic protection. China makes massive investments in Sudan in addition to delivering oil revenues and supplying arms to be used in its more than twenty year old civil war. Washington has blacklisted Sudan as a state supporter of terrorism, and US companies are not permitted to do business there, which provides a wonderful opportunity for the Chinese.

With the economic and military strength gained from its oil dealings with China, Sudan has been able to stand up to the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA are threatening to expel the Chinese from Sudan if they come to power for the support the latter are giving to the Sudanese government. Obviously, peace for the Sudanese is not in the best interests of the Chinese.

(Of course, this reference to China should not be misconstrued as implicitly critical of that country in relation to Sri Lanka. Oil or no oil, their proven friendship will last; it was certain other powers that wanted to fish in troubled waters.)

The above paragraphs outline just a few instances of the global turmoil due to intense competition among nations for the acquisition of oil. To date Sri Lanka has only been a relatively insignificant customer in the global oil market. Soon, however, we’ll be among the producing nations. The new position will be economically advantageous to us, no doubt. But it will also expose us to international political and diplomatic manoeuvring. Probably potential signs of such manipulation are already apparent. These are too plain for me to state explicitly.

It’s time we put all forms of internal conflicts behind us, and looked forward to this new promising future. There’s only one future for all of us; if we are divided among ourselves and try to pursue separate goals, there will be no future for any of us.

(I owe some of the ideas and information to Paul Middleton’s “A BRIEF GUIDE TO THE END OF OIL”, 2007)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Parents can help children to learn English

Parents can help children to learn English
(First published in The Island/Friday 6th August 2010)
Living in a welfare state we enjoy, among other things, free healthcare and free education. However, there is much that we as citizens are obliged to do to complement or supplement these services. Unless we thus collaborate with the state the whole community will be negatively affected. The current dengue epidemic has created a situation that illustrates the importance of public awareness and the active cooperation of everyone concerned in minimizing the incidence of the disease. For the success of national education programmes too similar collaboration between the state and the citizenry is of vital importance. The domestic mentoring that parents can provide for their children in the matter of learning “English as a life skill” as outlined below may be regarded as one form of such collaboration between the state and the citizens.

Arguably, the most important as well as the most urgent national educational enterprise that has been launched in recent times is the English as a life skill programme. English as a second language is indispensable for us Sri Lankans to have a good modern education, and to be successfully competitive in the job market. This latest English teaching initiative rightly emphasises the need among our students to use the English language as a normal medium of communication in day-to-day interaction for those broad purposes (for enhancing education and employment prospects).

Now, someone’s knowledge of a language is usually represented as their ability to speak it. For example, we may ask a person, “Do you speak English?”, but not “Do you write/read English?” when we want to find out whether that person knows English. This is because ordinarily we assume that speech is the most basic form of language. Accordingly, the current programme highlights the spoken aspect of the English language training that is being provided.

But you can’t just speak English or any other language for that matter unless you have something to speak about; even when you have something that you could speak about you may not speak about it unless you feel an urge/ a desire/ a need to do so; again your urgent desire to speak about a particular subject may not make you speak about it in English if that language is not your mother tongue or first language. So speaking in English involves a strong enough motive to speak about a worthwhile matter in English, and in no other language. Providing such a motive is crucial for students to respond positively to any course of English language instruction. (Our failure to do this, due to a variety of causes/circumstances, goes a long way towards explaining why so many earlier initiatives didn’t succeed.)

Howatt (1984) identifies two “versions” of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT): a strong version and a weak version. The “strong” version is explained as “using English to learn it, instead of learning English to use it”, whereas the “weak” version is interpreted as “learning English to use it”. The first involves activities that require the use of English for authentic communication among the learners, with no focus on explicit language teaching; the learners are thought to acquire their English solely through meaningful communication. When the weaker version is applied (and this has been normal practice in CLT classrooms over the last decade or so) such communicative activities are integrated into a broader programme of language instruction. In terms of CLT (strong or weak), a major responsibility that devolves on teachers is to generate opportunities for learners to use English for meaningful communication and interaction. Along with this, it is now generally accepted by second language acquisition theorists that reading and writing activities, along with listening, speaking, and thinking promote language learning, something we discovered independently through personal experience and put to good use, too, when we were young children.

Although parents (the majority of whom are not English teachers themselves) should be spared such befuddling theory, it suggests something that parents can conveniently do to help their children learn English: What they can do is to create an environment at home which encourages their children to engage in activities that involve communicating in English. This can be achieved in a number of ways, some of which I describe below. Parents could implement some or all of the following suggestions, and even add other similar activities that they themselves may devise in their individual circumstances. Amidst other demands on their time both parents and children will encounter some difficulty in initiating the kind of domestic interaction that is necessary for such a process to be successful; but it will have its compensations in terms of quality time for parents with their children, reduced tuition costs, and education for themselves. From a language learning point of view, parental involvement in helping their children in the privacy of the home can create a very good context for meaningful interaction through English; the home provides a better affective atmosphere than any classroom outside. (The word ‘affective’ means ‘arising from or influencing emotion’; in a classroom context, the students’ affective needs are those connected with positive feelings such as a sense of security, freedom from anxiety, fear, etc, a feeling of being accepted, loved, and so on; these affective needs should be met before successful learning can take place.)

Parents need not be always talking with their children in English, thereby denying themselves and the children the natural intimacy and informality which is only possible when they interact in the mother tongue. Instead, they can set aside some time everyday or as often as possible, say before supper, for an “English hour”. During this time, they must switch off the television, and devote all their time and attention for English. Everybody must talk in English about whatever topic they are required to in the situation; parents can help children revise their school lessons including those about other subjects (but only in English during the English hour) or get older siblings to help the younger ones with lessons. English should remain the focus of the activities.

The day’s news can provide a topic for discussion. Children may be asked to take turns in answering the questions that a journalist filing a report on any newsworthy event usually answers: who, what, when, where, why, and how. For example, in the case of a motor accident, Who was the driver? Who was injured? Who reported it to the police? Where did this happen? When?, etc. It is also a good idea to encourage learners to find vocabulary that is necessary to talk about special events such as the opening of parliament, an earthquake, floods, religious events, and so on.

Even parents without any English knowledge can get their children to interact among themselves through English with the help of older children who have at least some knowledge of the language.

Once a week, they can extend the duration of the “English Hour”, turning it into a kind of social get-together. Since the number of participants is an important factor for its potential for success, it would be a good idea to invite other children who are relatives or neighbours to take part. Let the children organize the event. They can have a variety of items such as short speeches, songs, dances, stories, playlets, etc all in English. Neighbours can take turns in hosting such an event. If for practical reasons, such camaraderie is not available, let it be in the privacy of one’s own family.

By getting the children to read a lot of English, parents can help them develop their vocabulary, and improve their speaking and writing skills. Parents should buy them story books, magazines, papers, etc that are appropriate for their age. Local newspapers, especially their Sunday editions, carry children’s supplements with a wealth of reading materials including English medium lesson materials. It is good to introduce children to these irrespective of the medium of instruction that they have chosen. As far as possible English learning activities should be integrated into the study of other subjects.

Before the proliferation of avenues of education and entertainment accompanying advances in communication technologies like telephony, television, and computer, reading was a major source of knowledge as well as a popular pastime. Today the easy availability of computer-based education and entertainment seems to have driven reading as we knew it to a secondary position, particularly among the young. Literacy itself is acquiring a new meaning. It has begun to mean a more composite, multimodal capacity than represented by its conventional definition. Text is being replaced by image, as it were.

Of course, the use of the computer and the Internet in the country, particularly in the rural areas, may not be as widespread as we’d wish. At least those who have the facility must be encouraged to make the best use of it. The Internet is an inexhaustible source of English language teaching/learning and general education materials. Many websites offer free downloadable materials for language practice, and testing; there are many free dictionaries. Using the Internet, students can engage in activities involving all the four basic language skills; they can expose themselves to different varieties of International English. In any family, parents with some knowledge of English, or children studying in higher forms can browse through the Net, and make these resources available for the younger children. They can use these with some guidance.

Parents should encourage children to use the Internet to research topics in other subjects even though they may be studying these in Sinhalese or Tamil. This will enable them not only to learn more English, but also to improve their general scholastic performance. One important advantage that students can enjoy by using the Internet is that they can look for the newest information in any field that they have chosen.