ED KASHI WEBLOG

Curse Reviewed in the September Atlantic

2008-08-18T13:20:00.001-04:00

We are honored that Curse of the Black Gold has been reviewed in the September issue of Atlantic in addition to being featured on their website.

You can see the spread in our gallery "press clippings" on the Curse of the Black Gold website.

To see the online content click here.

The Digital Journalist

2008-08-11T10:20:00.000-04:00

Curse of the Black Gold:
Photographs by Ed Kashi
August 2008
by Dirck Halstead

As anybody who has filled up his or her SUV recently, and watched the cost to do so rise to over $100, is painfully aware, a part of our daily ritual has become prohibitively expensive. All the warnings that went unheeded about our dependence on petroleum becoming unsustainable are now a fearful reality.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Digital Journalist featured Curse of the Black Gold with an article, a photo gallery and a video interview. Be sure to take a look at this thorough feature!

Moving Walls 14 Website Up

2008-08-09T03:02:00.001-04:00

Moving Walls 14, the Open Society Institute's current exhibition, includes my work on the Niger Delta. They have just put up the websites with myself and the other photographers in this exhibition. There is a lot to see and listen to, including a trailer of our Curse of the Black Gold multimedia piece and in interview with me.

Moving Walls

Ed Kashi & Wole Soyinka Discuss the Niger Delta on Al Jazeera

2008-07-23T11:27:00.001-04:00

Yesterday Ed appeared on the Riz Khan show on Al Jazeera's English language station. Also on the show was Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian nobel laureate. The topic was oil, the Niger Delta and the political situation in that troubled region.

Click here to watch Part One on YouTube
Click here to watch Part Two on YouTube

Sandwich Gen Interview with Lisa Belkin

2008-07-22T13:10:00.002-04:00

Ed Kashi's was recently interviewed on Life's Work with Lisa Belkin.

"One of the things that kills me in our society is that somehow we're not supposed to honor our elders. I think in this fast paced, youth oriented society we're in, we lose sight of the fact that, not only is it detrimental for them, but eventually we want to be in that place, and it sure would be nice to be respected when we reach that place in our lives."
- Ed Kashi, excerpt from the interview

Click here to listen!

State of the Art - American Photo

2008-07-18T09:24:00.000-04:00

July 17, 2008 by Jack Crager

Africa has always been a continent of such wild extremes — cultural and geographic, political and demographic — that it defies categorization, lives in its own realm, yet continues to impact the entire planet. These days the land is much in the news as turmoil in the Niger Delta exacerbates the global oil crisis; the U.S. prepares to nominate its first African-American major-party contender; and the world debates war-crimes charges against a sitting president, among other things. All of which serves as a backdrop to an ambitious series of photo exhibitions called Africas, at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, from now to September.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Ed Kashi on CNN Friday the 11th

2008-07-16T13:57:00.001-04:00

Take a look at this video of Ed Kashi on CNN from Friday, 11th of July 2008.

Ed Kashi and the Importance of Advocacy Journalism

2008-07-16T09:20:00.001-04:00

Check out this great article on PopPhoto.com

Ed Kashi and the Importance of Advocacy Journalism
A crusading photographer takes on the dirtiest subject of his career: oil.

By David Schonauer
July 14, 2008

"Photojournalist Ed Kashi says, "At the tender age of 50 I became what I always wanted to be." Kashi describes his trade as "advocacy journalism." His goal, he says, is to tell visual stories that not only inform viewers but also inspire them to find "activist solutions to social problems." Kashi, a longtime contributor to National Geographic magazine, has earned a reputation as a dogged journalist, covering the plight of the Kurdish people of Iraq and working in troubled areas such as Northern Ireland and the West Bank. But his career breakthrough occurred in 2003, with a project called Aging In America: The Years Ahead. The tender look at the issues of aging was at the forefront of a new approach to photojournalism -- an approach that combined still photography, video documentary, an award-winning book, and a resource-laden website to reach as wide an audience as possible.

Kashi's latest project, about the oil industry of the Niger Delta region of Africa, takes his notion of advocacy journalism to a new level of sophistication"

Click here to see the rest of the article.

Sandwich Generation Not Going Anywhere Soon

2008-07-02T09:37:00.003-04:00

We are honored to report that Jane Gross, New York Times health writer, included The Sandwich Generation in her new blog, NewOldAge. Her post, Coming Home for Herbie, has started a lively discussion about the complex and difficult choices people who care for family members must make. Ed and Julie are excited to see that their work is spurring these discussions.

George Eastman House Exhibition

2008-07-01T12:53:00.002-04:00

The George Eastman House Exhibition, featuring 37 photographs selected from the Curse of the Black Gold book, will be up until September 1st.

Be sure to go see it!

For more information about the Exhibition, go to: GEORGE EASTMAN HOUSE

One Reason Gas is Emptying Your Wallet: Nigeria

2008-06-29T10:02:00.001-04:00

Please read this interesting piece in today's NYT Week In Review section about Nigeria's impact on world oil prices. It gives important insights into what is also going on in the Niger Delta.

NYT Week in Review

I am also reprising the article in full here:

June 29, 2008
THE WORLD
One Reason Gas Is Emptying Your Wallet: Nigeria

By GRAHAM BOWLEY
When armed rebels from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta attacked an enormous oil facility 75 miles off the swampy West African coast on June 19, traveling hours by speedboat under cover of darkness and kidnapping an oil worker, their brazen assault underlined the perhaps underappreciated dependence of the United States — and the world — on oil from Nigeria.

Three days afterward, Nigerian officials said at a hastily arranged global energy summit in Jidda, Saudi Arabia, that recent attacks had cut Nigeria’s oil production to its lowest level in nearly two decades, giving oil markets the jitters and helping to send prices higher.

The attack also showed that Nigeria’s vast reserves of oil are being held hostage by a conflict that at best is little understood in the West. It is a three-way struggle, involving a government charged with negligence and corruption, oil companies blamed for terrible environmental damage that afflicts the region and an impoverished people.

Some of these people are acting on genuine grievances that they are not getting their fair share of the billions in oil wealth pouring into the country. But others are little more than violent thugs who see a lucrative opportunity among the rusting pipes and plants that dot the creeks and swamps of southern Nigeria not only to steal oil and smuggle it out of the country, but to kidnap foreign oil workers for ransom. The net effect has been that overall production has dropped sharply, largely because oil companies have found it too dangerous to operate in parts of the region.

Unlike the grand geopolitical struggles of Israel versus Iran or the burning oil towers of northern Iraq — some of the factors we usually imagine influencing world oil prices — Nigeria’s is a local tussle. But the events in Nigeria — Africa’s most-populous nation, and the world’s eighth-largest oil exporter, supplying nearly a tenth of America’s oil imports, according to the Department of Energy — have rippled across global energy markets nonetheless, and contributed to tighter supplies and higher prices at American gas pumps. (This is in addition to a long list of other variables, including sharply declining production in Mexico and slowing production in Russia, the North Sea and Venezuela, all in the face of steadily rising demand by fast-growing behemoths like China and India.)

“We always focus on the Persian Gulf but this is one of the key oil security issues in the world today,” said Daniel Yergin, one of the nation’s best-known energy experts and chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consulting firm. “It’s tied up with Nigerian politics, regional and national battles for power, and criminality.” When Mr. Yergin spoke to lawmakers at a hearing in Congress last week, he was asked what would most help stabilize world markets. “Helping bring peace to the Niger Delta would be a major contribution,” he responded.

How does Nigeria — and the world, facing a $140 barrel of oil — get out of this mess?

Shell led the way in exploiting Nigeria’s oil wealth in the 1950s. From those early years on, there were local protests and armed struggles associated with the oil industry. The latest bout of violence led by local militias took off in 2003, with increasing sophistication and effectiveness.

According to J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, the government led by Nigeria’s new president, Umaru Yar’Adua, must break with decades of neglect and pay attention to the troubles of the southern delta region by promoting development but also cracking down on the rebels and “demonstrating that these guys cannot operate with impunity.”

He’s not very optimistic, however. “When you look at the delta, the overwhelming picture is that the situation has very little promise of being fixed,” he said.

The government controls oil revenues and it gives only a fraction back to the desperately poor regions that produce the oil. Even then, according to Chris Albin-Lackey of Human Rights Watch in Nairobi, most of the money is “squandered on white elephant projects” — such as the ones he set out to visit in 2007, a school for the handicapped, a fishpond for small-scale aquaculture and a sports stadium, which he found had either been abandoned or never built. Meanwhile, cash-rich local politicians have played a part in creating the local militia groups because the militants have proved useful as local muscle to take over voting offices and grab ballot boxes to control the periodic elections.

As the damage has mounted and some companies have closed down operations, Nigeria’s oil production has slipped to 1.8 million barrels per day, which is far below its production capacity of about 2.8 million barrels. .

One million barrels of missing oil each day is costly for Nigeria and for the rest of the world when the market is so tight.

The events in Nigeria have an added impact because its oil is especially prized: it is low in sulfur — what is known in the industry as “sweet oil” —“which is really helpful in meeting the sulfur standards we have put in place” in the United States, said Adam Robinson, an oil analyst at Lehman Brothers in New York.

“Nigeria outages barrel for barrel have more of an impact than additional Saudi output,” he said. “Nigeria has been on the minds of traders ever since 2003 and this attack last week was a particular worry because it opened up a new front in the conflict.”

The oil companies have responded by building local amenities like roads, hospitals and schools to win local hearts and minds. The president’s new government came into office early last year saying it would dispatch representatives including the vice president to talk to the protesters in the south.

A special envoy from the United Nations, Ibrahim Gambari, a Nigerian, is convening a meeting later this summer to bring together the national and local governments, oil companies and local communities.

“I believe it can be solved,” he said, in an interview. “The criminals can be isolated and the legitimate demands addressed.”

But the problem, said John van Schaik, an oil analyst for Energy Intelligence, a publisher of industry newsletters, is that as long as oil prices remain high, the rebels recognize the power they have and are not likely to give it up. And the rebels are one reason prices are likely to remain high.

Check Out Sven's Blog on Daily Kos

2008-06-25T20:28:00.001-04:00

My friend Sven Eberlein has posted a mention of Curse of the Black Gold on his vibrant blog...check it out!

Citisven

Ed Kashi Interview with Lisa Mullins

2008-06-11T16:40:00.002-04:00

Ed Kashi did an interview with Lisa Mullins on Wednesday, June 11.

Please visit The World for further information.

Curse of the Black Gold Website Live!

2008-06-11T16:38:00.001-04:00

The new website for Curse of the Black Gold is now officially live!

Please visit Curse of the Black Gold and let us know what you think!

San Francisco Board of Supervisors vs. Chevron

2008-06-08T18:26:00.001-04:00

Please note that on June 10th at 5pm at San Francisco City Hall on Van Ness (off Civic Center BART), while the SF Board of Supervisors considers adopting a resolution condemning Chevron for global abuses, you can go there to make your voices heard.

Please come in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who daily live with the impacts of this company that is earning record multibillion dollar profits, while destroying the ability for local residents to live a simple subsistence lifestyle.

Here is the Resolution that the Board of Supervisors is considering...thank you.

REMEMBER, AMERICA TAKES NEARLY HALF OF NIGERIA'S OIL SO YOU ARE A CONSUMER OF NIGERIA'S OIL!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 3, 2008
CONTACTS: Simeon Tegel: 510-962-0195; Mitch Anderson: 415-342-4783

San Francisco Board of Supervisors to Vote on Resolution Condemning Chevron’s Abuses Worldwide

Resolution Criticizes Chevron’s Profiteering in Iraq, Nigeria Slayings and Ecuador Disaster

San Francisco -—-- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is to vote on a resolution condemning Chevron for its disturbing record of human rights abuses and environmental destruction around the world.

Citing transgressions including profiteering from the Iraq war, the dumping of 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater in an inhabited area of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and complicity in the slayings of peaceful protestors in Nigeria, the resolution was filed today by Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi and Aaron Peskin.

It “condemns Chevron Corporation for a systematic pattern of socially irresponsible activities and complicity in human rights violations that is at odds with the values of the citizens of San Francisco, and at odds with the standards of ethical conduct those citizens expect from corporations based in the Bay Area, in our own communities as well as abroad.”

The resolution is due to be voted on next Tuesday, June 10th. It is regarded as unusual for the Board of Supervisors to adopt resolutions criticizing specific companies. Based in San Ramon, Chevron is the second largest US oil major and one of Northern California’s largest corporations. The resolution reflects a groundswell of public opinion in the Bay Area against the apparently systemic nature of Chevron’s flouting of basic human rights and environmental norms and legislation in numerous countries where it operates.

In a joint written statement introducing the resolution, the four Supervisors said they “condemn Chevron for its consistent, systematic pattern of environmental destruction and complicity in human rights violations; and to demand that Chevron serve as a better ambassador for the Bay Area around the world, by conducting business in accordance with the values that our citizens hold dear.”

The proposed San Francisco resolution follows another resolution adopted by the City of Berkeley in January to boycott Chevron products. “We expect there to be a growing number of similar resolutions adopted by cities across the US, condemning Chevron and calling on the company to clean up its act,” said Amazon Watch campaigner Mitch Anderson.

He added: “The fact that this resolution is now being voted on in Chevron’s own backyard, shows how Chevron CEO David O’Reilly has brought the company to the brink of losing its social license to operate. We hope the San Francisco resolution sends a strong message to all senior executives in San Ramon that the company needs to move out of denial of its human rights and environmental violations and start acting like a responsible corporate citizen.”

Chevron’s human rights and environmental issues cited in the resolution include:

Burma: Chevron’s Yadana pipeline has provided revenues that have propped up the country’s repressive military dictatorship, while security forces guarding the pipeline have been accused of rape, murder and forced labor. The pipeline has also had significant direct and indirect environmental impacts on the Tenassirm region, one of the largest surviving tracts of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia, including illegal logging, fishing and poaching. Meanwhile, the pipeline has exacerbated the human rights abuses perpetrated by Burmese security forces against the region’s Mon, Karen and Tavoyans indigenous peoples. Naw Musi, a Karen woman who lives in exile, attended the shareholder’s meeting.

Ecuador: Chevron is accused of causing the most extensive oil-related contamination on the planet. Chevron had admitted to deliberately dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into Amazon waterways and abandoning almost 1,000 open-air toxic waste pits, leading to the decimation of indigenous groups. A court-appointed special master recently found 428 deaths from cancer in the region related to Chevron’s oil operations. In addition, community leaders heading the lawsuit have been subject to death threats, office break-ins, and assaults that have resulted in protective measures being ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Iraq: Chevron has been a leading player in the Iraqi oil sector since the US occupation of Iraq. It was one of the first companies to win contracts in Iraq after the US attack on the country despite the absence of a democratically-elected government in the war-torn country possessing a genuine popular mandate to negotiate regarding Iraq’s natural resources. If the Bush-approved Iraqi Oil Law, effectively a privatization of Iraq’s oil reserves, is approved, Chevron is also expected to be one of the principal beneficiaries.

Nigeria: Security forces flown in and closely supervised by Chevron Nigeria shot nonviolent environmental protestors in an infamous case that will be the focus of two trials in San Francisco later this year. Two people died, several others were injured and some survivors of the attack were then tortured in a Nigerian jail. One decade after the incident, and after years of legal wrangling in American courts, Chevron management has yet to compensate the families of those killed and injured or resolve the original issues raised by the community.

Philippines: In Pandacan, Philippines, oil depots partially owned by Chevron threaten the health and safety of over 84,000 residents. In February 2008, following a deadly tanker explosion, the Philippine Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision to uphold a city ordinance forcing closure and relocation of the oil depots, citing the need to protect residents from "catastrophic devastation." Despite community opposition to the depots, Chevron has yet to comply;

United States: In Richmond, in the East Bay, 35,000 families live in the shadow of a Chevron refinery that spewed out three million pounds of contaminants during the last three years. Existing pollution from Chevron already causes premature death, cancer, and other health ailments. Richmond asthma rates are 5 times the state level. Now Chevron wants to expand the refinery, allowing it to process both more and dirtier crude oil, despite overwhelming opposition from local residents. Most of the people who live in the area are minorities, leading to charges of environmental racism.

Bay Area groups supporting the resolution include: Amazon Watch, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Burmese American Democratic Alliance, Center for Environmental Health, Communities for a Better Environment, Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity, Forest Ethics, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Global Exchange, GreenAction for Health and Environmental Justice, International Accountability Project, International Rivers, Justice in Nigeria Now, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, and Rainforest Action Network.

PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris

2008-06-03T22:29:00.001-04:00

In a recent photographic contest based in Paris, a photo essay that is part of my work on the Niger Delta was recognized. Please have a look.

PX3 2008

Global Witness Website Link to Niger Delta Images

2008-06-03T19:47:00.003-04:00

One of the reasons for making images of issues that matter to me is to have them used and reused by people, organizations and institutions to further educate, advocate and illuminate. Rick Jacobsen at Global Witness contacted us recently to use some of my Niger Delta work for their site. It's a simple but worthy usage and hopefully it will help communicate to a wider audience on a subject I am passionate about.

Global Witness

OnEarth Magazine Runs Review of Curse of the Black Gold

2008-06-03T13:19:00.001-04:00

Here is the link to a short review of my new book, Curse of the Black Gold, just published by PowerHouse Books.

OnEarth Magazine Review

You Can't Picture This!

2008-05-28T17:06:00.001-04:00

Please check out this video about the potential limiting of our rights to make images in public. This was made in London.

You Can't Picture This

What Matters...An Upcoming Book by David Cohen

2008-05-24T21:03:00.004-04:00

A new book by David Cohen about the pressing issues of our time as seen and discussed by photojournalists and writers. My work on the Niger Delta is contained in this powerful and timely collection, along with photo essays by Sebastiao Salgado, James Nachtwey, Gerd Ludwig, Anthony Suau, Stephanie Sinclair, Lauren Greenfield and many others. In all there is a collection of 18 stories. Here are some links:

*To learn more about the book:

What Matters

*To buy the book:

Buy the book

* To see my chapter:

Niger Delta Chapter

Curse of the Black Gold book now out!

2008-05-20T10:15:00.003-04:00

Curse of the Black Gold is now IN STOCK and can be ordered via Amazon.

AMAZON.COM

In addition, in June, with the official launch of the Curse of the Black Gold website, we will be offering special editions of the book, both signed copies and copies that will include an original print.

Contact us for more details.

CBS in Los Angeles Airs Piece on Living With Herbie

2008-05-19T10:41:00.002-04:00

The following piece, edited from our new short film called Living With Herbie, appeared last week on the evening news on the Los Angeles affiliate of CBS television. Please check it out.

View Living With Herbie on CBS

A win at New York Photo Festival

2008-05-19T09:56:00.004-04:00

Ed and Julie's multimedia piece, Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta won a first place award at the first annual New York Photo Festival Awards.

Many thanks to MediaStorm's Brian Storm and Chad Stevens for production on the piece. And thank you to the judges, powerHouse and VII.

The New York Photo Festival was organized by powerHouse Books and VII agency.

Photo credits: © 2008 Meredith Kamuda

Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook to be shown in Arles

2008-05-07T13:41:00.004-04:00

Iraqi Kurdistan Flipbook will be shown at the Rencontres D'Arles Festival this year from July 11, 2008.

Visit the official website (in French):

Rencontres D'Arles

Accolades for Niger Delta images

2008-05-06T15:25:00.003-04:00

Ed's new book: "Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta" is due to arrive in bookstores in June. You can preorder your copy at Amazon now and receive a discount.

PREORDER at AMAZON

Images from the Niger Delta have already won awards, such as:

2nd place, photojournalism, feature story: PX3: Prix De La Photographie Paris, 2008
American Photography 24 Photo Annual 2008
Photo District News Photo Annual 2008
Communication Arts Photography Annual 2008
Special Award in the Days Japan Photojournalism Awards, 2008

Stay tuned to the blog for further news of the book's release and press as well as a brand new website that will be launching soon to promote the book!