Total Oil's real 1Q2008 Results

Total First Quarter 2008 results were out on Wednesday 7th May. The French oil and gas company's net profit jumped 18 percent on record energy prices to 5.6 billion US dollars.

The fruits of Total's real results however were evident in Burma's twin disasters. The natural cyclone disaster made even worse by the man-made junta disaster that Total has played a large part in keeping in power and has been an accomplice to the exploitation of Burma's resources. The junta allocated just 5 million dollars to cyclone relief whilst it has over 2 billion dollars from gas export earnings in 2007. It was more preoccupied with rigging its May 10th military constitution referendum and frustrating the entry of foreign aid experts. The Burma visa department even went on a 3 day holiday !

French Total Oil funds the selfish brutal junta with 500 million dollars a year, that does not go to the Burmese people but funds the generals and the military in a war against the Burmese people. Total Oil is the largest western supporter of the military junta. The junta keeps a ludicrous official rate of 6 Kyat : 1 US Dollar, whereas the real market rate is 1,000 Kyat: 1 US Dollar enabling massive corruption by the junta.