Gulf Spill - Time to Look at the Little Pictures

Think Progress has posted a series of pictures that provide some insight into the suffering of the Gulf wildlife since the BP spill, but as poignant as they are, they only offer a glimpse of this unprecedented environmental disaster and the chain of death and devastation that has been ignited in the Gulf that will effect the entire world in the end.  This disaster encompasses the entire chain of being from bacteria to humanity, and from algae to the atmosphere.  All of it the result of the greed of a few capitalists seeking to advance their gains at any cost.

While news agencies discuss clean-up efforts and the string of unsuccessful attempts to plug the leak, the plight oil coated wildlife and the local population who are suffering unemployment and the loss of their businesses is ignored.  While the BP, Transocean and Halliburton executives worry about bad public relations and their bonuses, the coastal inhabitants worry about defaulting on their mortgages, loosing their homes and their futures.  While BP has promised to help these people, the $5,000 payouts already made are likely exhausted by the average person and certainly by businesses.   Without immediate assistance, they face bankruptcies and foreclosures and from the experience of those who suffered from spills caused by Katrina, any further assistance will probably not come without years of litigation.

The prognosis for the local ecosystem is even more grim.  Oil from the Exxon-Valdez disaster is still making appearances in Alaska, and that spill was not as massive as this one.  This spill is likely to reach up the Eastern seaboard of the United States and large underwater plumes of oil have been seen working their way across the Atlantic, effecting anything their path.  And what of effects of those dispersants that were likely even more toxic than the oil they were meant to eliminate and was known to be killing algae, one of the fundamental and most important elements in the ecosystem?

More attention needs to be paid to the real costs of this disaster instead of the political and corporate spins provided by the elites that each own a part of the blame in this.  Maybe if we look to the devastation wrought by the greed of a few, there will be enough real outrage to make the companies involved live up to their ethical and moral obligations to compensate the victims and make some real effort to clean up the spill and repair the environmental damage.  Beyond this, it might help push some real reform in the system, like cutting the ties between big money and big government so that the corporate greed machine has less effect on public policies and outcomes, and creating a real system of the people.


In the meantime, have a look at the pictures on Think Progress, they are a good start in making people see a small part of the environmental cost.

Think Progress » The pictures BP doesn’t want you to see.

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Bank Taxes and Sinking Ships

IN THE NEWS TODAY and yesterday, there has been a great deal of debate over the best way to insulate society and its banks from a another financial meltdown.  Many in the European Union in conjunction with Obama and the International Monetary Fund are pushing a Global Bank Tax, which Canada opposes as "unfair" since the Canadian banks remained relatively unscathed in the last crisis thanks to the tightly regulated banking system.  Instead they are pushing a system of "contingent embedded capital" reserves to prop up the banks in next market collapse.  However, the details are not of any concern to me here, but have a look at the links below for more details. The important thing for me is the absurdity of the entire financial system.  To me, it seems like our governments are busy fixing the water damaged furniture on a sinking ship.

There are a number of things that I find disturbing about the whole debate, but mainly its the idea that our society seems willing to continue allowing a bunch of lawless sociopaths to gamble with their futures.  These market implosions occur far to regularly, though in varying degrees, and seem to be occurring more quickly as time progresses.  Each one causes innocent and hard working people to loose their jobs, their savings and their security which in the long run can lead to increasing crime, broken homes and broken people. 

As a democratic society, we entrust our governments with the sacred duty of protecting us against chaos, yet our entire system is propped up by a fundamentally chaotic institution that frequently implodes, devastating our communities and destroying lives.  Instead of imagining ways to protect the banks and investment houses from themselves, maybe we should be considering a new, less chaotic system.  One that does not reward psychopathy and one that will truly serve the interests of the people.  

We are at the mercy of a financial system that is so obviously broken, and has been since its inception.  Would you buy a house that is expected to spontaneously explode every few years?  For most us, the answer would be no, but this is exactly what we are doing in our financial current system.  Though not the first free market failure, the Great Depression should have been brutal enough to warn us that the system was fatally flawed, but instead, we have suffered from repeated recessions and serious downturns since.  Each time, there was a plethora of devastated families, communities and even nations.

So, instead of debating which method is best to protect the banks and investment houses from themselves, why don't we look at building a new stable system that does not implode at regular intervals.  Why don't we stop the leaks instead of glossing over the water damage?  

Related articles from the SilentRebellion

• What The #!%*? The global bank tax explained (nationalpost.com)
• FAQ on Canada's bank tax alternative (cbc.ca)
• Canadian Leaders Fighting Global Bank Tax (nytimes.com)
• Why PM fights for banks (theglobeandmail.com)

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• Risk Inverse: The Third World Is Now a Better Bet (time.com)