Submitted by Terence Blackett
If we are to believe the media’s analysis on the state of British politics based entirely upon the General Election results of Thursday night into Friday – one would assume that the gridlock often seen in Capitol Hill, Washington DC was now dawning on the shores of Britain for the first time in a generation causing an already beleaguered market to go into a Greek-style tailspin.
But this is what the Athenian model of democracy has resulted in. Much can be said about Greek culture (the cradle of democracy and civilization) but moreover as we witness the bedlam, anarchy and economic seismology in Greece at the moment – we can take little comfort in the modern machinations of political intrigue.
On another equally troubling note, BP (British Petroleum) is in the news AGAIN. We must conclude that these oil companies are criminal enterprises propped up by evil governments for the sake of wanton profit and excess. Look at SHELL* and its antics! Has Southern Farmers in Barbados been adequately compensated in a 15 year-old saga which has robbed many of their livelihoods? What about the Ogoni people of Niger Delta? What about these folks in my neck of the woods?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZKjejkt4XM
The question facing BP is – who profits from this recent oil spill? Was it an act of premeditation or just carelessness and bad luck based on a lack of safety measures which should have been implemented by this giant oil company?
More on those and other questions later.
What about current European fiscal issues which threaten the EURO? Have we reached financial DEBT* Armageddon? Who’s next in this melee? Can Portugal and Spain be too big to fail? What about austerity measures in these debt-laden economies and what does this mean for borrowing in the wider international community? Who’s next – cap in hand?
What about China? Is there a housing bubble that is about to burst leaking toxic waste which will make BP’s Louisiana’s oil spill look like my dog having a piss on my back wall? To some experts, the signs are worrisome.
It is being reported that Andy Xie, formerly chief Asia economist for Morgan Stanley, who sees China’s real estate market 100% overvalued and likens it to the Japanese property market of the 1980’s to 1990’s. Jim Chanos believes the Middle kingdom’s economy is “on a treadmill to hell”.
So what would a Wall Street style Chinese bust look like and who will be caught up in the friendly fire? Is the Great Depression of the 1930’s just a stalled phenomenon which is being delayed because if Greece is anything to go by – global anarchy could spell the end of modern civilization as we know it? Read Oxford social historian Arnold Toynbee!
And what about the recent banning of “FINANCIAL VULTURE FUNDS” in the UK? Does this also bode well for small island states like Barbados and other high debtor nations in the Caribbean, Latin America & Africa?
According to Greg Palast – “Vulture funds” are international re-po men who buy up old debt of the world’s poorest nations for pennies on the dollar, then sue for ten to a hundred times what they paid for these old loans. The new UK law, passed unanimously, would bar financiers from using UK courts to collect more than the sums authorized by the International Monetary Fund. In effect, this stops American predators – such as financiers Eric Hermann, Michael Straus, and Michael Francis “Goldfinger” Sheehan, from siphoning tens of millions of dollars of aid money the US and UK treasuries had earmarked for Liberia, Zambia, Congo and other desperately poor countries.”
Back to the BP issue on the environmental doorsteps of many hardworking Americans – a spill that could affect the pristine white beaches of Alabama and as far south as Florida.
Was BP cutting fiscal corners again? Last year, CEO Hayward boasted that, despite increased oil production in exotic deep waters, he had cut BP’s costs by an extra one billion dollars a year. (Bloody hell, how did he do that?)
Now we know how he did it.
Why is it that the US Navy is hauling in 12 miles of rubber boom and fielding seven skimmers, instead of BP? Is OBAMA* serious? Hey guys – my tax dollars as well!
Why have we heard nothing from the bereaved families whose loved ones were cooked in the waters in the Gulf? (Forgive the tone of my language as you will find these mental images upsetting).
As Greg suggest – “Americans want government off our backs – that is, until a folding crib crushes the skull of our baby; Toyota accelerators speed us to our death; banks blow our savings on gambling sprees; and crude oil smothers the Mississippi.”
“Platform workers have informed that the BP well was apparently deeper than the 18,000 feet depth reported. BP failed to communicate that additional depth to Halliburton (owned by SHIASTERS* Bush & Cheny) crews who therefore poured in too small a cement cap for the additional pressure caused by the extra depth. So it blew.”
Why didn’t Halliburton check? I guess too busy squeezing oil out of the sands of Iraq*.
“Gross negligence on everyone’s part,” says Becnel. Negligence driven by penny-pinching bottom-line squeezing. BP says its workers are lying. Someone’s lying here: the men on the platform – or the company that has practiced prevarication from Alaska to Louisiana?
You decide!
God knows what will be the ecological fallout of this environmental disaster? How will it affect fisheries industries up and down the coastline in the Gulf of Mexico and even further beyond? What will the cost of petrol at the pump be this summer? As Peak Oil wanes – where are we in the battle for renewables – and can we win this war given that the oil cartels literally have us over a barrel like a bunch of crabs?
Furthermore, what is the “Inconvenient Truths” (sorry AL GORE) regarding the high levels of toxicity from crude oil and its by-products? Take a look:-
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU4F_fVjUq8
Finally, back on the political home front in Britain – we have a “HUNG” Parliament (where is Cromwell when you need him); the politics of entrenched miasma saw the BNP and Nick Griffin sent packing; a flawed political system which robs the electorate of the value of proportional representation and so for the first time since the early 70’s, the power-hungry, power-grabbing Etonian, Oxford-Cambridge elite will have to share the spoils of “war” in a coalition of strange bedfellows. This should make good political viewing and stand-up comedy!
At the same time, the market volatility mirrors the Molotov cocktails being thrown on the streets of Athens, Greece – what a joke at the expense of those who will see salaries slashed & burned; wages frozen; higher taxes with more expensive goods & services in our shops and on our High Streets!
Who will be next in this saga?
You good folks in Barbados need to put up your radar antenna and see how the world is changing and how the howling winds of change will ultimately blown down hard on your shores.
If your leaders won’t listen, then Greece is a good example of democracy when the lights go out… All it takes is for one disgruntled fool to start a cane fire…
Ah gone!!!
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