JAYFORCE

Now, this is long enough a film to be called an epic saga… but it’s real life. And it keeps happening to us. “Big Men” takes us into the high-powered world of African oil deals – money, power, but the respect… that’s limited. The lens the filmmakers use – the telling of a couple of stories about countries at different levels in the oil game at the time: Ghana and Nigeria. The main story is an insider’s inside view of Dallas-based oil company Kosmos Energy and its partners developing the first commercial oil field in Ghana’s history (between 2007 and 2011). In parallel, the documentary covers an angle of the oil story in Nigeria’s Niger Delta: a militant gang trying to profit off oil in many and any ways…holding that they must do it because the prosperity promised the region’s people hasn’t come after all these years. Very telling of Ghana’s future in the industry.

It’s a shame. Same damn story. Outsiders find a rare resource in Africa. They seek to exploit it for profit. They know the venture will be dangerous and risky to the native people and to themselves. But that’s okay in capitalist pursuits; shared risk, shared rewards, right? But then the money comes, and there is just never enough to do the right thing, is there? And you know, even that might be okay, if everyone wins and loses sometime… but that is NEVER the case. Corrupt government and politicians ALWAYS win; partnering with the oil companies who always win. The people who scrape by, legally or illegally, win small if ever. And the every day person ALWAYS loses. And it’s always Africa. And it is always apparent right from the start.

Watch.

In the Ghana story. Man. They were burning $2 Billion of oil … a day … and they are just ‘testing’ the field? Wowwww… Extracting oil from Ghana was not only being done in a less-than-equitable way; it was WASTEFUL and was putting toxins in the air to no one’s benefit. Well, at least to start; as Kosmos Energy and its stakeholders looked to make many more billions once pumping begins in earnest. Guaranteed it doesn’t get better for the people from that point.

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