BP stands for Big Problem

When I was a small boy, I used to hear about USA that it’s a most developed nation and they have all cutting edge technologies and all that stuff. Most of the stories were simply unbelievable that time. One of my firm beliefs was that all Americans have robots at their homes to do all the work and they just sit on couch and order the robot to do all the jobs. How fascinating that was! (on other note: I realized later that Americans do have robots to follow their orders but they are not at their home but pretty far from the land back in China, India and other Asian countries… ). I swear to God I have not seen any robot in any American house as I have imagined by watching those silly sci-fi movies back in my childhood.

Now when my brain is getting news feeds from various sources and my obnoxious mind force me to think on some of them I feel surprised sometimes; in fact many times. The BP mega oil spill is the most recent ones grabbing my attention. BP a very big name in petroleum world and USA probably biggest name in our living world couldn’t do much to stop the spill even on 45^th day of the mishap, isn’t that unbelievable? More unbelievable is the fact that government didn’t took any step within first 7 days of the spill was simply slobbering over it. This has thrown hefty dust on what I had perceived in past about America. I know they are trying their level best but come on this is now a biggest oil spill in history of America and being so developed and advanced no one has answer to the crisis? Absurd what else? British Petroleum who was minting money through the oil business didn’t care much to cover up measures in such crisis situations? Where were safety measures? What went wrong so much that this oil spill has become Obama’s Katrina? I will not be surprised if he is getting nightmares seeing him floating in his white house swimming pool along with wife and kids and suddenly sees oil all around.

BP is now spending millions to mop the oil from coasts with rugs and few more millions to think the next steps after disastrous failure of their previous two attempts of Mud filling and cut and cap operations. BP is now playing it safe by not giving the estimates as to when are they expecting to block the hole. They are coming with apologizing campaigns and TV ads to general public for which they have spent around $50 million. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is crazy over the idea of building sand barricades along the coasts to prevent oil reaching on shores. This reminded me of the sand castles children build on beaches and are washed away by tides or dusted away by gusty winds. Doesn’t the same apply here? After all these sand berms are just sand walls. Scientist agree that this is not the best way to fight with oil spill but the state is going forward with public notion as people feel that’s the only way they can fight with this crisis. What about expenses on this task which is not so promising towards the goal? Yes I have a number for this too. BP is spending $360 million on building these sand walls on LA and Louisiana coasts. Hmm.. that’s way much spending on children’s sands castle.

People are angry on Obama that he is not so angry on BP for this mistake and Obama has only one sentence to say whenever he gets chance to speak in public: ‘I am furious on BP. This happened because someone has not analyzed the consequences and was not ready for it. BP is accountable for all this mess and the clean up’. Politicians are asking BP CEOs to go back to Britain and pollute there. Such is the public anger for BP that software companies working for BP asked the consultants not to wear T shirts with BP logos and go out in public. No one is talking about financial loss to BP due to this oil spill because the natural loss, water pollution and the severity of damage to aqua life is many folds compare to financial loss. People are staying away from Florida which is one of the hottest summer vacation destinations and guess what oil has not reached to Florida beaches as of now. People are cancelling their hotel reservations and staying away from beaches. Why? Just fear. It’s a doom time for hotel industry there in their boom season. BP has taken responsibility of the spill but what about the impacts and consequences which are indirectly due to this mishap? Fishing and hence sea food restaurants have suffered a major blow as most of the fishing areas are declared closed by government.

Lets see where does this oil spill takes us in coming days.