All is black in Baku

The Times (London)
October 19, 2004

By Martin Samuel

Just blew in from the Windy City. The Windy City ain’t mighty pretty
and it ain’t got what we got — because we’ve got what its got.

Message from Baku: Can we have our oil back, please? Or some of the
money from it, at least? Winter is coming and we are freezing to death
here. This isn’t called the City of Wind for nothing, you
know. Heating costs are through the roof; fuel is scarce.

P. J. O’Rourke wrote that communism was brought to its knees because
nobody wanted to wear Bulgarian shoes. What he didn’t tell the freshly
empowered was that ten years on, moccasins from Plovdiv would be the
least of their worries. The liberating army of petrochemical
executives in Azerbaijan are having a fine time: an almost completed
pipeline connecting the land-bound Caspian oil reserves with the
Turkish coast; a choice of five-star hotels; a Breitling on the wrist,
an SUV in the garage and a Britannia pub that shows the football at
the weekend. For the eight million permanent residents, however, their
country might as well be back in the USSR.

Azeri oil is being exploited efficiently after years of Soviet
incompetence; but its impact at the local level is minimal. Times are
high for hookers and taxi drivers, but more than half the population
exists below the poverty line in crumbling apartments as the best of
their filthy-rich country trickles into the pockets of the oil boys.

It used to be that when oil executives located a new source they would
pop the $64 million question to Foreign Office diplomats. “Seriously,
how long have we got?” These days, ballpark insurrection estimates are
no longer required. Azerbaijan was ruled by Heydar Aliyev, a former
KGB boss who passed power to his son, Ilham, having first rigged the
election. Some ballot boxes were stuffed; others disappeared, along
with most of the opposition and the free press. Aliyev Jr is just as
accommodating to the West, though, so it turns a blind eye to his
human rights infringements.

Possibly it will use the need to protect Caspian oil and prop up his
ghastly regime as a pretext for an assault on Iran. The hope is that
the riches of Azerbaijan will stave off Western dependency on Opec,
and the last thing the West wants is for the mad mullahs to stake a
claim. Meanwhile, in the region that built the world’s first oil well
in 1849, a fuel shortage is predicted. Too bad. Let them burn Jimmy
Choos, eh?

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress