NEO,
You may be partially right, but talking to a few of the guys living in the new Bristow houses they're not impressed, especially with the area which they tell me was picked on the basis of its low cost because most people don't want to live there. I heard there are problems with the swimming pool, generator and still no internet. Also, it's only [I]almost[I] all the rooms with en-suite, not all. If and when all the problems are sorted out, it could easily just become another mink-lined prison like Elelenwo, where the majority of the inhabitants don't go out after dark. Bristow, under its new regime, is trying to cut back on most things, just like Aero under its new regime.
The houses on Areta are undoubtedly run down, second-rate slums, but at least it's close to a lot of other leisure facilities. That's just as well really because for the suckers living there and now denied a move to the new Intels camp near the Amadi flats, there's nothing except for the Aero bar, which is a shadow of its former self. A few pilots have asked for transfers, but they have a fat chance of getting anything as long as CHC is as short of pilots as it is. If they don't do something about improving facilities that's a situation unlikely to change. Soon they'll only be able to get pensioners who can't find work elsewhere will be willing to join
Maybe if CHC really is sold things will improve, but experience tells us that normally change is for the worse as bean-counters rule more of the world.
Even the third-rate Caverton now have internet in their lousyflats (equipped with everything, but only 20% of it works
).
Conclusion - if you want to work in Africa, look somewhere other than Nigeria (except, possibly the hell of the CHC operation in Heglig, previously destroyed by the Sudanese People's Liberation Army as a result of support given to the government by another Canadian company, Talisman Energy, in the suppression of the local residents by means of bombing, looting, raping and forced relocation
. Talisman allowed their airstrip to be used by Antonov bombers and helicopter gunships). Does this sound a bit like Shell's financial support for MOPOL and army operations in the Niger delta, and especially Ogoniland?
You are welcome
