The cost of life: Who decides?

There are there moments that abruptly put disturbing facts on my face and shock me for a moment. But then I think ‘As if I didn’t know that something like this happens, happens all the time’. It happened this morning when I read an article from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/world/africa/17nigeria.html?hp

What strikes me as would to most of the people reading this is the reaction from all the people involved to the incidents in the two different parts of the world. Not just the general knowledge of the disasters but reactions from politicians, citizens from the region and the country at large, oil companies, world press, you and I.

For the sake of argument if we assume that a price for life can be put (Which is a one way ticket no doubt) then it would appear that this cost is higher in the US vis-à-vis Nigeria. The cost of damage for the US spill appears to be in the magnitude of $ 20 B if not more and the cost of damage in the continuous Nigerian spill is anybody’s guess.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/us/17liability.html?ref=africa

So the billion dollar question is – Who fixed the price?

The answer is somewhat easier to derive for the US as a price has been fixed. One can argue that a combination of the wrath of the affected people, pressure from the opposition parties and the Whitehouse initiative got a dollar number on the table. And I would also argue that it started with the affected people and media. In contrast, the affected people in Nigeria have not found a forceful voice to express their anger. Their government has literally no opposition and even its legitimacy is questioned internationally. Nigeria is #130 on the transparency international’s corruption perceptions index which serves as a barometer of how responsive you can expect the government to be in protecting the interests of the affected people.

The point being: There will always be the like of the oil companies (BP, SHELL, EXXON ..) or corporate giants who try to make an extra dollar at the cost of life – both human and other species. However, these companies don’t decide on the cost - It is up the affected people to put up the cost number and if the cost number can be high enough it will be a strong deterrent for the corporate giants to take life so lightly.