Brown Amnesty International presents:

The World For A Barrel: Oil and Human Rights

MONDAY 12 NOVEMBER 2007
Screening of Between Midnight and the Rooster’s Crow
7PM Foxboro Auditorium, Kassar House, Corner of George and Thayer, 151 Thayer Street
In poor countries, foreign investment is always heralded as the manna from heaven that will guarantee development and prosperity. In Ecuador, an Andean country with striking social disparities, they are counting on oil, the black gold so highly valued by its largest consumers in the North. The Canadian oil giant EnCana, based in Alberta, has laid claim to the oilfields in the country’s eastern region. There are serious health problems among the peasants, along with environmental degradation, intimidation by armed guards, and repression of indigenous people by soldiers who use a company-owned airport However, the Ecuadorian government covers up any misdoings by the Canadian multinational, which conducts itself like a feudal sovereign answering only to itself. EnCana is also part of a pipeline construction project destroying everything in its path with forced relocations, pollution of pasture lands and oil leaks. Between Midnight and the Rooster’s Crow is a revealing case study of the troubling connections between multinational corporations, insatiable Western consumption patterns, and the resultant devastation wrought on the social, economic, and environmental conditions of foreign countries and populations.

TUESDAY 13 NOVEMBER 2007
A Talk by Omoyele Sowore: “Oil & Human Rights in Nigeria: A Voice from the Frontlines”
8PM Sidney E. Frank Hall for the Life Sciences Auditorium, 185 Meeting Street
Omoyele Sowore is a Nigerian who has spent the last 15 years working to promote human rights and democracy in Nigeria, and to stop the militarization and violence that multinational oil companies have brought to his country. His activism began in 1989, when he took part in student demonstrations protesting the conditions of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan of $120 million to be used for a Nigerian oil pipeline -- the IMF loan conditions were to reduce the number of universities in the country from 28 to just 5. In 1992 at University of Lagos, Sowore led 2,000 students in protest against Nigeria's notorious kleptocracy. Police opened fire, killing seven. Sowore was arrested, interrogated and beaten, and later found out his family too had been put under pressure, but he refused to back down. "We've had supposed democracy for 6 and a half years and people still can't eat," he says. "Who has benefited? There's no basic health care. We don't have running water. We don't have electricity, no basic education. Right now, Nigeria is a leaking basket. Shell and Chevron are among the biggest corporations in the world and they have benefited only a few people, the clique that runs the country. Change will not come to Nigeria on a platter of gold," he insists. "If you want justice, you have to fight for it."

THURSDAY 15 NOVEMBER 2007
Jamnesty! Rock Out for Human Rights: Concert in the Hourglass Café
8PM – 11:30PM Faunce Basement
Listen to performances by student bands including Mister Tamil, Northern Aggression, and the Butterdays, and learn about oil and human rights. Donation of $3 suggested and all proceeds will go to Amnesty International. 


All events are free and open to the public.

These events were sponsored by: Environmental Change Initiative, Center for Environmental Studies, Center for Latin American Studies, and the Undergraduate Finance Board.

For more information, please see http://students.brown.edu/AI/index.htm or email amnesty@brown.edu