I NEVER visit confessionals yet can no longer sleep soundly, no longer take my grandchildren in my arms and kiss them benignly like Pope Benedict did to Catholic cherubs during his recent visit here.
He evidently has a clear conscience. I do not and must own up to being in possession of British Petroleum shares, which have lost 30% of their value since the beginning of the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe. I could have sold them on the day the oil drilling rig exploded, causing the loss of 11 lives, and made a profit of 10% on the purchase price. But due to a sense of shareholder loyalty, not forgetting the generous dividend, I did not, and am now kicking myself.
I also own shares in an oil exploration company named Desire, which is searching for oil and gas in shallow waters a hundred miles or so off the Falkland Islands. Rockhopper, another exploration company, now known affectionately among shareholders as ‘Cockrocker’, in which, more fool me, I do not own shares, has recently discovered large reserves of oil thereabouts and their share price has skyrocketed, lifting the price of Desire shares considerably.
Ironically, I vote Green at general elections, although I know that Cyprus is all but. Evidently, my political leanings contradict my investment credo, which is to make a profit no matter the company; BP, Desire, Rio Tinto, Tate and Lyle, etc, can all be accused of destroying the planet in one way or another; oil companies undermine the eco system, Rio scrapes minerals mercilessly from its surface and Tate refines sugar cane grown on cleared rain-forest land.
Yet how much engine oil was burnt during the Pope’s serving of spiritual hot air here; a thousand barrels a day, what with all those official cars, police helicopters and escort vehicles and army security, never mind the world press pressing their way to Cyprus to report this non event? Was the trip intended to create closer ties between Our Church and Vatican property developers?
I suppose one’s point of view about the visit depends on one’s religious leanings and, since I never visit confessionals, mine are apparent. I, like most ordinary folk, always seek to profit from any investment; business, pension fund, company shareholding, not forgetting to ease my conscience with church and charitable donations.
Are Louisianans any different? What source of energy powers their fishermen’s boats? How do tourists arrive on Louisiana and Florida beaches if not by car, train or plane? Which fuel indirectly powers American heat and air conditioning units? Which nation, man for man, consumes fossil fuels at five times the rate of any other?
Barack Obama can barrack on about BP for as long as he likes, but barracking will not seal the leak, innovative technology might. What is the world’s most powerful nation doing about the leak other than claiming and complaining? Hypocrites all of them, looking for a fast buck as are ‘Cockrocker’ shareholders – makes me sick to think I missed ‘Cockrocker’…
The Bhopal tragedy is considered the world’s worst industrial disaster. Lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant (then a US Corporation and now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company) in December, 1984 settling over the surrounding areas. The number of dead is estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 and an Indian court has just sentenced seven senior employees to two years in prison for causing ‘death by negligence’ 25 years after the event.
The Exxon Valdez oil tanker destroyed Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, yet who really cared about either catastrophe back then apart from a few Eskimos and thousands of impoverished and seriously sick Indians?
With globalisation we are one people, one world, and should be supporting BP to seal the leak rather than deriding it for causing the spill in the first place.
BP claim that the disaster was caused by the explosion of the exploratory well sub-contracted to and drilled in the Mississippi Canyon, Block 252 by Transocean Ltd ( a company registered in Majuro, Marshall Islands, wherever that is), and if Louisianan claimants think the value of their homes, jobs, boats and beaches are going to skyrocket due to this catastrophe, I doubt it. How long will they have to wait before receiving a presumed golden handshake when one of the world’s major companies takes the issue to law? And as we all know, litigation exists to delay and minimize compensation, as it did in the case of Bhopal victims and their families, not hurry it along.
An article published on a shareholder website recently stated that Schlumberger, the world’s leading supplier of technology, integrated project management and information solutions to customers working in the oil and gas industry, had several technicians on board the Transocean Deepwater Horizon rig and inexplicably flew them off in a specially hired helicopter days before the explosion. It was rumoured that the technicians considered the rig unsafe.
Barack has temporarily banned offshore drilling in US waters while British oil exploration companies ride high after recent estimates of the quantity of oil reserves off the Falklands equates with that discovered in the North Sea half a century ago.
My friend Steven, who owns both Desire and ‘Cockrocker’ shares, the lucky sod, now sits at his computer all day watching them climb while oil still spews up from the seabed into the Gulf asphyxiating millions of innocent sea creatures, making tinned sardines, anchovies or tuna in oil seem suddenly unappetizing.
We have been to the Moon, in three years we will step on Mars, and when we do, let’s hope that by then deep sea drilling is failsafe; or better still, we no longer need that black, filthy substance to maintain a planet destroying high standard of living for me, Steven and fat Florida retirees. He who rides a tiger cannot always keep it in a tank.
