The People Inside The Oil Can

I read a riveting article today on cnn.com about the people who survived the oil rig explosion back in April. It was a long piece--about twelve pages when reading on a handy dandy Blackberry smartphone. Yet the story was well worth the read.

I am sure I will get some flack from readers who have no sympathy for the people who choose to risk their lives to suck Mother Earth dry of her finite vital resources. I am not a fan either, for sure. BP is on my shit list just like they are on everyone else's (except the people they make money for, of course). I heard a theory a few years back that still gives me shivers when I think about it--that perhaps oil is sort of like the Earth's blood, so to speak, and it is found deep inside the "veins" of the planet and is necessary to keep stasis. What we do is like draining the Earth of its blood and sickening it, much like a person drained of blood would be. We need blood flowing through us to sustain our life--why wouldn't the Earth also need this flow to keep living? It is an interesting idea I think of when I hear about our dependency on oil and how we keep poking around deeper and deeper for it. Eventually, we could bleed Earth dry. So anyway, in short, I am not making some big statement about oil, per se.

I just had to express my emotional reaction to the article. I found it quite moving and sad to read the story of how the actual explosion occurred and the lives that were lost as a result. The writers really tried to re-create the drama of the moment and the very real terror these men felt as they realized the gravity of the situation. These guys could have been anyone's friend or loved one, just working the job that was available to them in their particular location or for their area of expertise. Maybe their family has always worked in the oil industry. Maybe they had to take the job because it paid well and their family could be more comfortable. We all take jobs for many reasons, and I am sure they all had good ones. But there they were, on that fateful day, some losing their lives as a result of the disaster.

What really struck me about the story is not only the painful loss of some good men working hard for their families, but also the fact that the oil well had apparently been sketchy from the start and everyone knew it. It had given them a lot of trouble since day one of drilling. Yet they were instructed to plug along, and since they were already behind from other issues that arose, plug along faster and cheaper, if possible. Which sounds normal, purely from a business standpoint. Yet this business is not like Google or Target. This business is dangerous and should be treated appropriately. You cannot rush something so delicate. The nature of the oil business calls for caution and protection of all involved. It seems this would have been written into the business plan from the start, preventing a corporate big-wig from feeling that he has the right to demand a faster process. But that is what appears to have happened, if you believe the initial stories coming out.

Anyway I guess I just wanted to share some thoughts about this unfortunate event. I won't post the gut-wrenching pictures of animals covered in oil that I see all over the internet, or spend hours writing angrily about BP and corporate responsibility. I wanted simply to share a quality piece of dramatized journalism, reflect on a few ideas, and hopefully bring a different perspective to anyone who was curious about the explosion.