BP – FALLOUT 2.0
We are all aware that fallout from the BP offshore disaster, which might best be described as “fubar”, has been devastating on many levels around our Planet.
We are all aware that fallout from the BP offshore disaster, which might best be described as “fubar,” has been devastating on many levels around our Planet.
The most tragic, heartwrenching, and immediate results, of course, are centered amid the 11 workers on the doomed rig who lost their lives. Typically, people don’t leave home for work and expect not to return.
Words cannot express my deep sympathy for these men; I won’t even try to imagine the pain and suffering that their families and friends must be enduring.
To their survivors, as well as the 17 workers who were injured and their families, please know that you’re in the minds and hearts of people all over the world.
Next to be severely impacted are those hard-working shrimpers and other seafood gatherers of the Gulf region.
These folks have a job I know I could never do, working insanely long hours (days and weeks non-stop, in many instances) at one of the most physically challenging occupations, for pay that hardly seems worth the effort unless the catch is sizable – with the hazard of death always just beyond the horizon.
It is distressing to think that their livelihood, perhaps their entire way of life, may be shattered for generations, possibly never to return.
Then, the commerce from tourism, a huge source of income for all the states which share the Gulf region, will be largely non-existent this year, and for untold seasons to come.
Moving on to the corporate level, BP itself is in deep trouble, its image as well as fiscal viability having sunk lower than whale shit.
However, nobody has taken the time to look at the “trickle down” effect this calamity has had across Main Street, USA and beyond.
Independent dealers who have contracts with BP, small operators of convenience marts, our neighbors, are getting shoved into oblivion by a ridiculous knee-jerk reaction to something over which they have absolutely no control.
Drive by any BP station and note the absence of activity. It has become quite apparent that people have forsaken their regular coffee and donut stop in an effort to boycott the big corporate bad guys.
In the process, they’re ruining small business owners whom just two months ago were considered friends.
I can fully understand it if someone doesn’t wish to use products that carry BP brand name, specifically gasoline and diesel fuel.
However, in bypassing the convenience store that just happens to be contractually associated with BP, by getting your cigarettes and soda at the Shell (or whatever) mini-mart down the street, you’re effectively putting the person you’ve always done business with out of business.
I know of one guy who showed up one morning and found the locks to his store had been glued shut. How freakin’ stupid is that?
It didn’t cost BP anything to get his locks replaced; it cost the station owner.
On top of that, his business has been off by some 80% since the oil rig explosion. That figure is store receipts as well as gasoline sales.
The loss of revenue doesn’t stop at the individual shop. A boycott of the stores that operate under the BP logo trickles down to those people who derive their income from supplying these marts.
These same salespeople may not supply the Shell mini-mart two blocks away, so they will not necessarily recoup the loss elsewhere.
Thus, they and their families have to adjust for a reduction in income.
And, the companies they work for will also feel the pinch.
You don’t wish to buy BP gasoline, fine. The dealers don’t set the retail price, and generally only make a couple of cents per gallon, anyway, so in itself filling up elsewhere won’t be the end of the world for them.
But, it would be to everyone’s advantage to make the extra stop – change your gasoline brand, but make a concerted effort to get your totable stuff from the guy where you’ve always shopped.
Of course, only the wholly unsophisticated wouldn’t realize that no matter where one buys gas or diesel, it’s entirely possible the source refinery was owned by BP…
Was it irony, coincidence, or intentional that just this past Sunday the Sundance Channel reran “Who Killed The Electric Car?” (2006), the four-star documentary that examined the success of GM’s EV1, and its subsequent destruction by the corporate giant?
Happy motoring, my fellow American!
Shalom.
(Jerry Tenuto is an erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator. A veteran with seven years of service in the U.S. Army, he holds a BS and MA in Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly “Out Of The Blue” feature in The Lone Star Iconoclast. Visit his blog Blue State View at illinoiscentral.blogspot.com)
