All In It Together.

Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Beefheart

Yesterday I received an e-mail from pb @ Pat’s Pond that reminded me of the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

http://patspond.blogspot.com/

Pat said she hoped that the Gulf of Mexico will not be described soon as something that used to be beautiful.

I hope so too, hope that the oil leak can be contained and the oil can be cleaned up.

Hope that this can happen and it is not just a fantasy that I am having, want the damage done to be restored.

Want the scrimp business to be saved, want everyone to be able to enjoy the natural beauty of the area.

How I wish that companies would not keep over-exploiting natural resources as they are currently doing world wide without any care for peoples welfare and safety.

With no thought for future generations, only for their profits, all over the world companies are causing such disasters.

Had look at oil spills:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_spill

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001451.html

http://www.environmental-research.com/publications/pdf/spill_statistics/paper4.pdf

I read about the horrible situation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in The Guardian:

‘’The Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades.’’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

I read that:

‘’One of the many hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that criss cross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months.

Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. "We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots," said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. "This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.’’

The Guardian also says;

‘’That was the Niger delta a few years ago, where, according to Nigerian academics, writers and environment groups, oil companies have acted with such impunity and recklessness that much of the region has been devastated by leaks.’’

Then there is the mud volcano created by a PT. Lapindo Brantas drilling for gas in Indonesia, the mud volcano has been erupting since 2006.

‘’ The mud volcano was created by the blowout of a natural gas well drilled by PT Lapindo Brantas, although company officials contend that it was caused by a distant earthquake.

The reporter writes;

‘’Approximately 30,000 m³ (1 million cubic feet) of mud — equivalent to the contents of a dozen Olympic-size swimming pools — are expelled per day.[2] It is expected that the flow will continue for the next 30 years.’’

He also notes that:

‘’ It erupted in May 2006 and continues to spew out boiling mud, causing the displacement of around 30,000 people in East Java. ‘’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidoarjo_mud_flow

The Bhopal disaster was the worst industrial disaster ever; it occurred in India in 1984 and twenty six years later it is still causing deformities, suffering and death.

The Wikipedia says:

‘’It occurred on the night of December 2-3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. At that time, UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of the U.S. company Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), which is now a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Company. Around midnight on December 2–3, 1984, there was a leak of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other toxins from the plant, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people.’’

Wiki goes on to say:

‘’Some 26 years after the gas leak, 390 tons of toxic chemicals abandoned at the UCIL plant continue to leak and pollute the groundwater in the region and affect thousands of Bhopal residents who depend on it,’’

They also say:

‘’Over two decades since the tragedy, certain civil and criminal cases remain pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India, against Union Carbide with an Indian arrest warrant also pending against Warren Anderson, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the disaster.[9][10] Greenpeace asserts that as the Union Carbide CEO, Anderson knew about a 1982 safety audit of the Bhopal plant, which identified 30 major hazards and that they were not fixed in Bhopal but were fixed at the company's identical plant in the US. ‘’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

What amazes me about this disaster is that it is still causing widespread suffering, and death for the population and yet it seems to be unknown by many.

I wonder whether this’ invisibility’ is due to the fact that this occurred in India, feels like it is out of sight and therefore out of mind.

Something that I feel should not happen, especially not now, when it has become even clearer that we need to look after each other and the planet.

Seems to me we need to stop our over reliance on oil and find other sources of energy.

I really think that we need to be more aware of the effects of our exploitation of our planet.

‘’ Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand of it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.’’

Chief Seattle
1786-1866, American Indian Chief of the Suquamish.

Slept late again it is now 12.23 and is only now slowly getting going; we slept until 11 again which was good.

Not too much street noise apart from a couple containers being placed, funny thing is this year the development down the road is finally finished.

Felt like living on a building site, every morning all the blokes met up across from our bedroom and shared a cup of coffee and loud conversation.

Very social and nice for them but not at 6 am in very loud voices outside everyone's bedroom windows.

After the workers had coffee they picked up their power tools and started work.

All the time waste containers were being delivered by Lorries and would be tossed off with a huge thump.

The daily chorus would start in earnest then; it was murder when they were doing the foundations and later on mass drilling.

Luckily that has stopped but now there is the odd house plus the latest redevelopment right next to our building.

They are extensively renovating and redeveloping the bottom of the house, which means some bits are being taken back to the foundations.

Hope they are done soon as it could get quite noisy and dusty out the back, still in August all building sites close for the month and it’s peaceful.

Most cars on the street are gone too as there is a mass exodus of people going on holiday and life round here is very pleasant indeed.

Always daydream about digging the road up and planting the street with flowers and fruit and veg.

It is a lovely fantasy can just see this oasis of plants and fruit trees.

Now can only hear some heavy machinery next door, Richie tells me it is sand they are lifting in to the back of the house.

Writing yesterday about Marianne and Karin being volunteers made me remember a visit I had from my first prospective volunteer, a strange woman that came to see me one day.

Our last front room Richie had to paint while very ill with flu; I was even worse and had to stay in bed.

Really not the sort of activity for a sick person but the room had to be done as it was only a few weeks to my 50 birthday.

So Richie painted it all blue and bought a few Indian posters of Hindu Gods, which are very bright posters.

These were stuck up and with some mirrors and little glass candles holders dangling from the ceiling it became quite a dreamy room especially as Richie had painted clouds on the ceiling.

So this volunteer came round, she seemed a strange woman who seemed to view all around her with haughty disdain.

After a minute she told me that she could see that I was a very spiritual person.

I was astonished and denied this but she persisted and eventually said but I can see it in your room.

This puzzled me alot, she then said I can see it in your room pointing at the Indian posters.

Smiling I told her we hung them for their bright colour, no, no she insisted you are spiritual I know I can feel it.

Again I said really I am not these are here for the colour but she would not hear of it insisting that having the posters was proof that I was spiritual.

I had after all gone to India to get them she said, at which point I laughed and said that I had never been to India in my life.

She asked me where I had got the poster from if not India whereupon I laughed again saying on the Dapper Markt (market) here in Amsterdam.

This was not a popular answer with the lady, who was indeed a lady visiting the deserving poor.

She then declared me to be spiritual despite this and said she sensed it, and she knew what she was talking about.

Then she said that I was not to worry she would be able to release the spirituality within me, and she would gladly be able to do this for me.

I declined her offer.

Luckily my carer came round then and I introduced them, my carer the lovely Marjan asked
the volunteer what she knew about MS.

She responded by saying she knew all about MS and knew everyone died of it.

At this point I asked her to desist from this discussion right then and there and asked her politely to leave the room as I needed to use the toilet chair in the front room.

She remained sitting seeming not to understand me so I asked again and another twice finally I lost it and yelled please go into the kitchen.

But why she asked?

I roared because I need to use the toilet chair here and do not show my naked arse on the first date.

She left for the kitchen.

After I finished peeing I went into the kitchen to apologise for shouting and the good lady says ‘but why did I have to go to the kitchen?

At which point I had had it and asked her to leave.

She did so.

Later she called me just as I was about to apologise again she said ‘you know I still don’t understand why I had to go into the kitchen’

That is when I said I don’t think we are a match and would you believe it she started arguing that she would be good for me.

I repeated calmly that I did not feel we had hit it off, we were not a match.

Finally could only hang up as she kept arguing that her and me would really get on you wait and see ‘I know we will get on fine’

Felt a brute for cutting her off like that but had to look after myself.

Still look at one of the posters on the bedroom door and think about being seen as spiritual.

More philosophical than spiritual and often more political and even more often more social.