In the Gulf of Mexico, the non-plugging is getting plugged

There’s a story that’s not getting much coverage in our newspapers. It’s a story that’s 2.5 months old and one second new. It is, in other words, a continuing story, a continuously ‘breaking’ story. It is the story of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a story about human greed and arrogance followed by buck-passing, cover-up and ‘damage-control’ not to marine life, ecosystem etc but to company, brand and country, that’s British Petroleum and the United States of America Government.

Oil has been gushing into the Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 200,000 gallons a day (some estimates are higher). Even at this rate, we are talking about some 15,000,000 gallons of oil and counting. Experts have pointed out that significant changes in the food chain over some period of time is very real, that the possibility of marshes disappearing is very real in the 600,000 square mile sea that contains swirling currents, sun-baked salt marshes and cold canyons patrolled by sperm whales. Scientists say that bacteria, plankton and other bottom-feeding creatures will consume oil, they will be eaten by small fish, crab and shrimp which in turn will be eaten by bigger fish and other marine creatures. It’s a simple process. The forage is lost at the bottom end and this naturally impacts the entire food chain.

The leaking well, moreover, is located near the continental shelf of the Gulf where a string of coral reefs flourishes. The oil globs will kill it. This ‘damage’ is more ‘hidden’ compared to the damage to the coast, which is visible. What is ‘seeable’ is scary. Some 715 kilometres of shoreline have been fouled in four Southern US States. Efforts to stop the leak have run into lots of technical problems and it is unlikely that it would be capped any time soon.

And just today, we learn that British Petroleum and the USA Government are doing their utmost (despite statements to the contrary) to keep the truth from leaking out. BP is putting a cap on reporters and photographers. And the US Government is getting in on the act. After saying a month ago that the US Government will not restrict access unless there are security or safety issues, there’s been a radical policy shift: BACK OFF. That’s not new, though. And it is not surprising either.

The truth is that there is and has always been an unholy nexus between capital interests and Governments, whether it’s the USA or elsewhere, BP or any other corporate entity. At a 2005 workshop, a senior official in the US Government’s Minerals Management Service had raised concerns about ultra-deepwater drilling and stated that there were few or no regulations or standards. Within two years, a person by the name of Jim Grant is reported to have left his post as the Chief of Staff of MMS’ Gulf of Mexico region to take a job with BP, one of the companies his former agency regulated in its oversight of offshore drilling. It is well known that there’s a revolving door between the Interior Department’s MMS and the oil industry and that drilling regulators have been so comfy with the industry that they’ve been accepting gifts from oil and gas companies and even negotiating to work for them.

The problem was flagged by the Department’s Acting Inspector General, Mary Kendall, who said that an MMS Inspector, after starting job negotiations with one oil firm, conducted four inspections on that company’s platforms and found no problems. The inspector had not long afterwards resigned to work for the company. The truth is that we can substitute BP for most companies and the USA for most countries and find that this is how things happen. People point fingers at Governments, saying ‘corrupt’, ‘bribe-takers’ etc., but there is always a bribe-giver, and there are lots of revolving doors. That however is another story. What is important to note is the crisis, its dimension, its causes etc.

Animals and plant life are not unionized. They don’t have voices that can be captured in petition. They don’t come online, or have websites to state grievance and obtain public support. Is this why such actions are not put on par with crimes against ‘humanity’? Would it make a difference if we state that not all creatures getting covered in oil, being asphyxiated and having habitat destroyed are birds. Natural disasters have long arms. They impact human beings and other life forms in places at the opposite side of the globe. These are not ‘accidents’, they are accidents scripted to take place by negligence, complicity in negligence, scant regard for necessary regulation etc.

What would take outfits such as the International Crisis Group (ICG) to take the entire process as ‘conflict’; conflict between human being and nature (all the marine life and all relevant ecosystems) and conflict between human being and human being (BP and the US Government on one side and on the other, the millions of innocent people whose lives will invariably be impacted by these scripted accidents)? Would organizations such as the ICG ever decide to engage in high-level advocacy and field-based analysis (as purported) to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts such as this? Would the ICG advise Governments (the USA in this case), multi-lateral agencies such as the UN etc., to prevent such tragedies and minimize impact? Or is it that the ICG is not as independent and impartial as it claims to be?

We live in a world where killing thousands of people through aerial bombing is sanctioned but taking out terrorists in ground action a ‘crime against humanity’. We live in a world where arrogant human beings want to save the planet, but can’t save themselves. This is an earth that is made for some people to break and others to die. Yesterday (July 4, 2010) was the USA Independence Day. Today, I learn that when it comes to small things like an oil spill (‘small’...just a few billion gallons of oil polluting a few hundred thousand square miles and killing off just a few 100 billion marine creatures), the First Amendment of that countries constitution gets deleted and cannot therefore be referenced. Freedom of speech and expression, and of the press, has been curtailed, we are informed.

I wanted to wish the people of the USA a happy Fourth of July. Can’t. There’s a fish covered in oil stuck in my throat and a bird in my heart whose wings are too caked in oil to be flapped.

There is a leak. And a cover up. No, the leak is not being plugged. It’s the non-plugging that’s getting plugged. Something’s wrong, Mr. Obama. There is a sea turtle lying dead on the peace in Pass Christian, Mississipi. It’s on my mind. Is it on yours too?

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