For Admin: Can I change username?

[Moz]

The Jeep

at least you travelled with your work ,an Im sure you had good leave breaks/holidays in Africa ?


splinter
very true regarding getting out alive the local militia just released two captured brit oil workers ,after receiving a hefty ransom ,

 

[splinter]

The Jeep

at least you travelled with your work ,an Im sure you had good leave breaks/holidays in Africa ?


splinter
very true regarding getting out alive the local militia just released two captured brit oil workers ,after receiving a hefty ransom ,

Thankfully they now go for ransoms,a few years ago and they would have just killed them

 

[The Jeep]

Nigeria was never too bad for actually killing hostages: Algeria much worse, but OK now, just depends on the particular political climate at the time. You could be very unlucky, though. Luckily I wasn't!

The thing with the oily life abroad is, sure, you get lots of times sitting on your arse (can I say arse here?) in some exotic location, sipping cool drinks by a hotel swimming pool....going out every night having a wild time (wilder than anything I've ever had back home)...getting paid for doing sweet FA...damn, why did I ever leave?? Oh, yes, I decided I wanted to get back to my own bed every night and earn an honest crust, rather than working for the evil oil machine (though I still drive a car and play my part in the supply & demand chain).

Truthfully, I had some fun, made some bucks, mis-spent said bucks, but am glad to be out of it. I decided that, rather than waste 20 years of knowledge of tools, pipes, pressures, equipment installation, etc, I'd find 'domestic equivalents' for what I used to do, so hence plumbing and now electrical

 

[Agile]

You can get internal Nigeria news if you read their web newspapers like the Standard and Vanguard.

But I think the 25 policemen killed by the delta locals did just make it to the outside. As did the 90 killed when a petrol tanker crashed into three buses stopped by the police who were collecting bribes as their salary was late ( by three months ).

The 3000 killed three years ago in the north in fighting with the Moslems did not get much publicity even when a British Churchman went there. If that had got out it would have stopped inward investment.

Anyone want to buy a house in Festaq?

When I worked in the Middle East and there was a coup they gave us a months extra pay and a 20% pay rise!

Tony

 

[splinter]

Nigeria was never too bad for actually killing hostages: Algeria much worse, but OK now, just depends on the particular political climate at the time. You could be very unlucky, though. Luckily I wasn't!

The thing with the oily life abroad is, sure, you get lots of times sitting on your a**e (can I say a**e here?) in some exotic location, sipping cool drinks by a hotel swimming pool....going out every night having a wild time (wilder than anything I've ever had back home)...getting paid for doing sweet FA...damn, why did I ever leave?? Oh, yes, I decided I wanted to get back to my own bed every night and earn an honest crust, rather than working for the evil oil machine (though I still drive a car and play my part in the supply & demand chain).

Truthfully, I had some fun, made some bucks, mis-spent said bucks, but am glad to be out of it. I decided that, rather than waste 20 years of knowledge of tools, pipes, pressures, equipment installation, etc, I'd find 'domestic equivalents' for what I used to do, so hence plumbing and now electrical

Sitting in a secure compound with armed guards in the Niger Delta, is not quite that exotic.What about the dozens of westerners killed in Nigeria over the last ten years, Umm makes me think this one

 

[The Jeep]

I was working for an oil service co who were working for the American fatcats who're stripping the place of its resources while the corrupt government takes billions each year and God knows where that goes: not on the roads, anyway! Nor on the poor folks. All that mineral wealth, greedy westeners, corrupt officials and squabbling tribes - all part of the sad missed opportunity that is Africa. Abuja's interesting though: a brand new city in the middle of nowhere. That's where a lot of the cash has gone, I reckon, but why?

Anyway, I survived (and those armed guards would run at the slightest sign of any hostility), made some good friends, got made an honoury chief (!), and banked a few bucks. Good luck to the people there: they need a revolution but are a long way from ever having one.