Questions for Galeano 156-65, When Two Worlds Collide, and “Standard Oil Co.”
Galeano – “The Black Curse of Petroleum”
1.
Explain the metaphor that Galeano uses to
describe petroleum within the context of his entire book.
2.
How does Galeano describe the comparison between
petroleum production in the United States and production in Latin America?
3.
What is the paradox of petroleum pricing that
Galeano describes in Mexico and Colombia?
4.
How have multinational petroleum corporations
reacted to the attempts to control petroleum production by Uruguay and Brazil?
5.
What was the petroleum interest in the Chaco War
and how did it affect local populations?
6.
What sorts of strategies has the United States
used to help petroleum production stay as much as possible under the control of
multinational corporations and not that of Latin American states?
When Two Worlds
Collide
“The rights of the people to the natural resources pertaining
to their land shall be specifically safeguarded.”
1.
In light of the Galeano reading on petroleum, comment
upon President Alan García’s invitation to foreign investors to invest in Peru’s
natural resources.
2.
What is the significance of the image of the suckling
pigs at the beginning of the documentary?
3.
Explain the concept of “savage development” that
Alberto Pizango describes. What are some of its components?
4.
Who stood to benefit and who stood to lose from
the free trade agreement between Peru and the United States?
5.
Describe the difference between the arguments used
by Alberto Pizango and that used by Alan García and other government representatives
surrounding the indigenous protest and strike in Peru over the government’s
laws governing natural resources.
6.
What does former congressman Belaunde describe
as the great fraud of Alan García’s government?
7.
Describe Alan García’s reaction to the
indigenous protesters’ capture and killing of police officers at Station no. 6.
8.
Describe several aspects of the aftermath of the
violent clash between protesters and police.
“Standard Oil Co.”
1.
Comment on some of the imagery presented in the
poem and how it reflects ideas presented in Galeano and relates to the story
told in When Two Worlds Collide.
