Blood Oil

“Blood” diamonds, those clear carbonaceous crystals mined in countries where the sale of diamonds supports revolution, exploitation of the poor and racial / religious conflicts have become non-gratis in the circles of those wealthy enough to wear sparkling stones. And that’s a good thing, to quote Martha.

The traditional diamond merchants, such as DeBeers, are having a spot of trouble sorting out the ‘clean’ diamonds from the blood diamonds in a way that convinces the bauble buyers. So they are now interested in Canadian diamonds. Apparently we are poised to become one the worlds largest producers of diamonds, albeit, mostly of industrial diamonds although some big sparklers have been found. That too, is likely a good thing as long as the proceeds of the sales are not used to support a revolution.

Those Canadian sparklers that are big and clear enough to lure some young lady (or man) to the altar are purported to have the image of a polar bear or maple leaf or some other Canadian icon cut into the stone to assure the proud owner that the bauble is not a blood diamond. I guess the gnomes in Amsterdam who work for DeBeers cannot forge a red maple leaf on a blood diamond.

This brings me, finally, to Blood Oil. Are we concerned at all about oil tainted with ‘blood’? That would be the spoils of oil sales used to support revolution, exploitation, racial / religious conflict or terrorism. Recently a Canadian company was forced to withdraw its oil exploration and development in the southern Sudan because the revenues were supporting an oppressive regime. So it appears we do care.

Is there any connection with oil revenues and the Middle East regimes that support oppression and export terrorism? Was there any connection between Bin Laden’s wealth and oil? Saddam’s regime and oil? Is there any connection between our unwillingness to confront Syria and Saudi Arabia over human rights issues and our need for oil?

Is it not amazing how we can rationalize our need to ‘bring democracy’ to the Middle East and our need for oil? How we can fight terrorism that was funded and indeed, may have been fomented by our need for oil? Let us not try to put this at the feet of the Americans, for we are just as responsible as they are when it comes to importing foreign oil or making fortunes in the oil exploration / development and the oil futures market.

At least we tried to develop our own oil company in Canada that was free of foreign influence. The original idea behind Petro Canada was to have our own oil company but that soon went the way of all good things made in Canada. When it became clear that the shareholders of Petro-Can could be anyone, my product loyalty dissipated. I’m now into the Ethanol thing, hoping that at least the ethanol isn’t supporting dubious causes. But after watching the Democrat primaries, those subsidized corn growers in Iowa who supply raw product for ethanol do seem a little unstable.

It is easy to be high and mighty when it comes to selecting a sparkling stone. We are perhaps only slightly uneasy about buying clothing made in some far-off sweatshop. But there is hardly a murmur of protest over oil imports unless it is our whining about holiday weekend gasoline pricing.

Daily we line up at the pumps and fill our cars with blood oil without a thought of where that oil comes from. The disconnect is easy when we find it convenient. Did any of our dollars trickle down to some terrorist group supported by crude oil sales? Not mine. It’s bad enough to support Ralph Klein! And please don’t think that if you do not drive a car you are not involved – crude oil distillates are used everywhere – even down to those edible creamers you put in your morning coffee.

Have you ever spilled a drop of motor oil on a puddle of water and watched the kaleidoscope of colours spread in the sunshine? Did you know that if it were pure Canadian oil you would see a shimmering red maple leaf? Try it.

Blood oil? I guess it is a matter of perspective.