New World Notes - The "Seven Sisters" and the Oil of the Middle East (Second of two parts)

This week on New World Notes: radio program #386, July 28, 2015, from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. (and on Wednesday from 8:30 to 9:00 p.m.), host Kenneth Dowst looks at petro-politics.

The "Seven Sisters" was Big Oil. It was the cartel of huge private oil corporations that ended up owning almost all the oil in the Middle East. They stole and kept this treasure by hook and by crook, in violation of many laws, with help from corrupt monarchs abroad and muscle from the U.S. government, armed forces, and CIA.

Last week and this: we adapt to radio a new video documentary on the very subject.

Part 1 took us from the founding of the cartel in 1928 (by Standard Oil, Shell, and BP) to the creation of OPEC in 1960.

This week, Part 2 takes us from the founding of OPEC in 1960 to the Iraq Wars and the present.

Is there a moral to the story? Here's a possibility: No matter what happens, Big Oil comes out ahead--at the public's expense.

New World Notes previously broadcast this program in May-June, 2013.

New World Notes is produced under the auspices (Latin for "benign neglect") of WWUH-FM, a community service of the University of Hartford.

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Series overview: Political and social commentary in a variety of genres. Exploring the gap between what we want--and what they're trying to make us settle for.

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