Hey friends. I realize that I posted something less than 24 hours ago, but that last little diddy only touched on 3 of my 4 favorite topics: food, fashion and sports. The fourth? Well you must not read my blog very often if you don't know what it is.
POLITIC ME.
So I heard a radio DJ mention an upcoming topic on his show as I was pulling into my garage after my afternoon commute. His prompt was "are you boycotting BP because of the oil spill?" At first I was like HELL YEA I AM because it's cool to hate BP and not want to have anything to do with them right now, right? But then I realized that, beyond the fact that I have driven out of the way to find a BP many times in the past five years because I love neon green and yellow, boycotting BP really doesn't make much sense. Sure, we want this company to flounder because, as I detailed two posts ago, BP is predominantly responsible for what is now known as the worst natural disaster in North American history. However, before you start pumping your Lincoln's into Shell and Chevron, let me just point out a few things that may change your approach to hating BP.
1. BP is undergoing some wicked crazy scrutiny right now by everyone from the U.S. government to people who stalk sea turtles during egg-laying season. There is a lot of pressure on the company to not only look at their past and admit their mistakes, but also to prevent anything similar to the current oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico from ever happening again. Considering the number of states, species and industries that the oil spill is affecting, there is no chance that BP will be coddled or overlooked by the government or the people of North America any time soon. Now, after the last time you got in trouble with your mommy, you were probably really careful around her for a while after. Sure, you went about your business of being annoying and childish, but you really paid attention to the thing or things that had gotten you in trouble. So, perhaps BP will start overlooking their internal company policies, maybe they won't have the most up-to-date computers in every office. What they will have however is an unstoppable drive to be the cleanest, safest and most honest oil group in the world. So who would you rather have drilling on your coast line? An oil company that has yet to make a mistake, something that is natural to anything that is man-made? Or an oil company that has made the ultimate mistake, is facing the hefty consequences, and will forever be scarred by the memory of the current disaster in the gulf? I vote the latter.
2. As you know from reading the news or seeing the commercials on television, BP has already launched their claims process for those who have been affected by the oil spill. Eventually BP will have shoveled billions of dollars back into the economy of the states that are on the Gulf and will make up for the havoc it has wreaked on hundreds of local, national and international industries. Now, the last thing that we want to see happen is BP run out of money and no longer be able to pay people the amount of money that they deserve for the problems the oil slick has caused. Sure, the oil execs and countless other individuals who work for BP could shell out some money as soon as it looks like the company is running low, but that would only thicken the red tape and delay the process further because no one will want to give their own money to the oil spill 'victims' - that could be mistaken for taking blame. So where should the money come from? Us. Keep buying gas from BP. Keep pumping money into its treasury. Because you know that the United States government would not let it seep into the pockets of BP executives in unwarranted quantities and the people in the Gulf need you to help BP make amends. I know it's a twisted way of looking at it, but if BP doesn't get money from its consumers, then...well... money doesn't grow in the core of the earth.
3. Speaking of giving your money to BP, do you really want to see this company that provides hundreds of thousands of jobs to people all over the world each year fail? Is it really fair to condemn a company that made a horrible mistake to complete destruction? Sure, what happened is abominable and whomever is responsible for the oversight and bureaucracy that led to the problems with Deepwater Horizon should be exiled from the oil industry. However, BP is more than just one faulty oil rig. It is an international economic turnstile. It is a key resource for every human being, from a soccer mom who drives a mini van to a steel factory worker in Michigan (if there are any left). Reducing demand for something that has already been drilled from the earth and refined into a usable material would be even more wasteful than the oil spill has already been. So help BP help itself. We really are in this whole thing together. Even if it's more fun to point fingers at the men in the expensive suits.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Weekend Thoughts
As yet another weekend in Hotlanta comes to an end, a few thoughts from my heat stroked brain to round-up June and set the tone for July.
1. Baseball games are underrated. I agree with those of you who cannot bear to sit through a televised MLB game or the college world series simply because it just DRAGS. However, try your hand at actually attending a game - even a local minor league game! The combination of easy-to-understand competition and frequent short lulls makes for a great summer outing. Your attention span does not need to be lengthy, there is plenty of food and beer to make you happy and, if the game is at night, it's the best way to make the most of the summer heat without sweating your face off.
2. Speaking of sweating your face off... watching the World Cup in an extremely large group of people is the way to go. Yes, even if the game you intend to watch is at 2 pm on a sunny day in the South... even if you get to the venue where you intend to watch the game 4 hours before the game even starts... and even if said venue is actually an open tent with 100+ too many people surrounding you. Sure, it hurt to watch the U.S. team embark on their journey back toward oblivion for the next four years. However, spending time with complete strangers who are equally, if not significantly more enthusiastic about soccer and/or America than I am made the loss that much more bearable. Plus, Germany trounced England today... consider my wounds licked.
3. Speaking of licking... Atlanta has some of the best food I have ever tasted. Be it goat cheese and mushroom agnalotta from JCT Kitchen or eggs, a biscuit and grits from The Flying Biscuit, my weekend's cuisine was absolutely worth the extra $ and calorie in-take.
4. Speaking of calorie in-take... yeaaa number four has nothing to do with calories. Well it could actually, if you're feeling intellectually ambitious. All I can say is, "well-played Tory Burch. Well played."
These 'Nelson studded open-toe wedge sandals' are perfect in every way. They're Tory Burch, so you know they're well-made. However, they aren't emblazoned with Tory's ensignia to the point of being obnoxious. From afar or to the uneducated passer-by, those studs look like stylish gold discs. Yet, you still get the street-cred from your fashion savvy frenemies when they take note of the fact that your delicious new wedges (which also come in black... talk about practical) are DEE-SIGN-UH.
5. Four just seemed like a weird number to end on. Have a great week!
1. Baseball games are underrated. I agree with those of you who cannot bear to sit through a televised MLB game or the college world series simply because it just DRAGS. However, try your hand at actually attending a game - even a local minor league game! The combination of easy-to-understand competition and frequent short lulls makes for a great summer outing. Your attention span does not need to be lengthy, there is plenty of food and beer to make you happy and, if the game is at night, it's the best way to make the most of the summer heat without sweating your face off.
2. Speaking of sweating your face off... watching the World Cup in an extremely large group of people is the way to go. Yes, even if the game you intend to watch is at 2 pm on a sunny day in the South... even if you get to the venue where you intend to watch the game 4 hours before the game even starts... and even if said venue is actually an open tent with 100+ too many people surrounding you. Sure, it hurt to watch the U.S. team embark on their journey back toward oblivion for the next four years. However, spending time with complete strangers who are equally, if not significantly more enthusiastic about soccer and/or America than I am made the loss that much more bearable. Plus, Germany trounced England today... consider my wounds licked.
3. Speaking of licking... Atlanta has some of the best food I have ever tasted. Be it goat cheese and mushroom agnalotta from JCT Kitchen or eggs, a biscuit and grits from The Flying Biscuit, my weekend's cuisine was absolutely worth the extra $ and calorie in-take.
4. Speaking of calorie in-take... yeaaa number four has nothing to do with calories. Well it could actually, if you're feeling intellectually ambitious. All I can say is, "well-played Tory Burch. Well played."
These 'Nelson studded open-toe wedge sandals' are perfect in every way. They're Tory Burch, so you know they're well-made. However, they aren't emblazoned with Tory's ensignia to the point of being obnoxious. From afar or to the uneducated passer-by, those studs look like stylish gold discs. Yet, you still get the street-cred from your fashion savvy frenemies when they take note of the fact that your delicious new wedges (which also come in black... talk about practical) are DEE-SIGN-UH.5. Four just seemed like a weird number to end on. Have a great week!
Thursday, June 17, 2010
OIL. From my heart to yours...
So once again, I am compelled to unleash my wrath on an unsuspecting aspect of society. Except this time it probably is suspecting and is definitely more important than Miley Cyrus. SryMilez.
OIL. Three letters that hold the key to wealth. Three letters that inspire trade. Three letters that essentially molded the future of the world when it was discovered that it could be developed into a fuel cheaper than whale oil in the late 19th century.
Oil has catalyzed industries. It has been romanticized in movies and has fed trust funds throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. It has started wars. It has ended them. And now, at quite possibly the worst time in contemporary history that it could possibly happen given the state of international affairs, global trust, environmental health and the world's economy (though there is never actually a good time for such a travesty to occur), the greed, the corner-cutting and the oversight of a multi-billion dollar industry is symbolically bleeding into the one character in human history that has remained constant.
Since man awoke from the garden of life, be it by a Creator's provocation or by a natural evolution of species, our truest friend, the one that has stuck by us, challenged us, scared us, never truly failed us, has been this world itself. Like any good friend this world has allowed us to capitalize on her resources. We have used her many components to network our way through the barriers that had minimalized the possibilities of past centuries. We have discovered elements, we have developed technology, we have learned how to manipulate the environment to further ourselves into new realms of possibility. We have taken much of what our friend has given us without even a second glance. Why? Because she is our friend! Of course she wants to share her mountains so we can break into them and sell their fruits for dreams. Of course she wants us to poke and prod her forests and valleys and streams until we understand her every motion, her every intention. And of course she wants us to drill into the depth of her heart and withdraw the liquid of modern life, the substance that fuels innovation, development and even the most mundane of our daily affairs.
A good friend would not stop you from doing those things. She may warn you that it hurts or is unfair in the subtlest, most discrete ways. She may even reach out and grab you by the neck and beg, beg that you leave her alone. Yet, she would never stop you. So who will stop us? Do we heed her warnings? Do we realize that, like Thomas Friedman warns us, that even a 1% chance that the constant berating and tugging and polluting of our environment could destroy our dear friend, the world, is enough of a chance to act on? Do we watch the blackened tears seer through her cresting waves and dye the feathers of her innocent children and realize that it's a sign? That it's a cry for help? Or do we allow history to continue to repeat itself like any other ignored catastrophe that has failed to be eradicated throughout history like prejudice, tyranny or genocide?
There is no difference between this oil spill and inequality or injustice or mass murder. In fact, this oil spill, or any oil spill, IS inequality, IS injustice and IS mass murder. We have failed to place our world on a pedestal like we do profit, the American dream and technology. We have failed to protect our world through omission; we have ignored her right to be healthy by forgoing extra procedures or reinforcements that could at least distance her from the wretched ambition that plagues her surfaces. We have blindly murdered her lively and her senseless, from the tiniest particles of water that come together to fill our oceans to the largest of creatures that have beached themselves because they just cannot bear the taste of crude anymore. From the young people in classrooms who fail to read about the negative effects of coastal drilling in the newspaper or their textbooks to the lawmakers who refuse journalists access to the death-laden crime scene of their affair with the oil industry... From myself, someone who was completely unaware of how oil rigs in our bodies of water could destroy so much in so little time, to the highest suit in any company that signs off on a new rig without all procedures being followed, all possibilities for security, cleanliness and leak prevention being explored... We are all at fault.
Now as I stand down from my soap box I will have you know that I am the number one advocate of severing our dependence on the Middle East for oil. They have no business having even the smallest bit of control over something that is so integral to daily Western life. Yet, as I witness that black sheet of ruin seep eastward toward the Florida coastline where it will surely be sucked into the Everglades and dragged over to the other side of Florida to the beaches upon which I flourished as a child, I cannot sit silent. I am a victim of my own ignorance, but at least I have realized this while I am still young and motivated enough to take a stand.
OIL. Three letters that hold the key to wealth. Three letters that inspire trade. Three letters that essentially molded the future of the world when it was discovered that it could be developed into a fuel cheaper than whale oil in the late 19th century.
Oil has catalyzed industries. It has been romanticized in movies and has fed trust funds throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. It has started wars. It has ended them. And now, at quite possibly the worst time in contemporary history that it could possibly happen given the state of international affairs, global trust, environmental health and the world's economy (though there is never actually a good time for such a travesty to occur), the greed, the corner-cutting and the oversight of a multi-billion dollar industry is symbolically bleeding into the one character in human history that has remained constant.
Since man awoke from the garden of life, be it by a Creator's provocation or by a natural evolution of species, our truest friend, the one that has stuck by us, challenged us, scared us, never truly failed us, has been this world itself. Like any good friend this world has allowed us to capitalize on her resources. We have used her many components to network our way through the barriers that had minimalized the possibilities of past centuries. We have discovered elements, we have developed technology, we have learned how to manipulate the environment to further ourselves into new realms of possibility. We have taken much of what our friend has given us without even a second glance. Why? Because she is our friend! Of course she wants to share her mountains so we can break into them and sell their fruits for dreams. Of course she wants us to poke and prod her forests and valleys and streams until we understand her every motion, her every intention. And of course she wants us to drill into the depth of her heart and withdraw the liquid of modern life, the substance that fuels innovation, development and even the most mundane of our daily affairs.
A good friend would not stop you from doing those things. She may warn you that it hurts or is unfair in the subtlest, most discrete ways. She may even reach out and grab you by the neck and beg, beg that you leave her alone. Yet, she would never stop you. So who will stop us? Do we heed her warnings? Do we realize that, like Thomas Friedman warns us, that even a 1% chance that the constant berating and tugging and polluting of our environment could destroy our dear friend, the world, is enough of a chance to act on? Do we watch the blackened tears seer through her cresting waves and dye the feathers of her innocent children and realize that it's a sign? That it's a cry for help? Or do we allow history to continue to repeat itself like any other ignored catastrophe that has failed to be eradicated throughout history like prejudice, tyranny or genocide?
There is no difference between this oil spill and inequality or injustice or mass murder. In fact, this oil spill, or any oil spill, IS inequality, IS injustice and IS mass murder. We have failed to place our world on a pedestal like we do profit, the American dream and technology. We have failed to protect our world through omission; we have ignored her right to be healthy by forgoing extra procedures or reinforcements that could at least distance her from the wretched ambition that plagues her surfaces. We have blindly murdered her lively and her senseless, from the tiniest particles of water that come together to fill our oceans to the largest of creatures that have beached themselves because they just cannot bear the taste of crude anymore. From the young people in classrooms who fail to read about the negative effects of coastal drilling in the newspaper or their textbooks to the lawmakers who refuse journalists access to the death-laden crime scene of their affair with the oil industry... From myself, someone who was completely unaware of how oil rigs in our bodies of water could destroy so much in so little time, to the highest suit in any company that signs off on a new rig without all procedures being followed, all possibilities for security, cleanliness and leak prevention being explored... We are all at fault.
Now as I stand down from my soap box I will have you know that I am the number one advocate of severing our dependence on the Middle East for oil. They have no business having even the smallest bit of control over something that is so integral to daily Western life. Yet, as I witness that black sheet of ruin seep eastward toward the Florida coastline where it will surely be sucked into the Everglades and dragged over to the other side of Florida to the beaches upon which I flourished as a child, I cannot sit silent. I am a victim of my own ignorance, but at least I have realized this while I am still young and motivated enough to take a stand.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
