Gulf of Mexico health disaster reaches mainstream media

Children risking their lives

After almost a year of disdaining the problem, the crime against humankind perpetrated by the coalition of oil industry and US central and (often) local governments against the environment and the inhabitants, the situation is so dramatic and getting worse that the media has no choice but to report on it.

First has been, of course, Qatari state TV Al Jazeera, which has earned its reputation for a reason:

Gulf oil sickness wrecking lives.

"I have critically high levels of chemicals in my body," 33-year-old Steven Aguinaga...

Actually, Steven just died two days ago and Al Jazeera has not realized, it seems.  But at least they are trying to report, while other media are hiding this institutional crime.

I do welcome this change because it's awfully similar to the Nazi holocaust, which was happening just in front of everybody and nobody reported on it until it was too late. Yes, there are differences in details of intentionality and, so far, the number of fatal casualties, but the resemblance is incredible. Other such chemical massacres or environmental disasters have got much greater attention even if the treatment to the victims has also been abusive.

Here we are in front of not just one of the worst oil spills ever but also a case of mismanagement by a collusion of BP and US government(s) in order to hide the dimension of the disaster, causing only more problems. 

Dispersants have aggravated the problem

As Al Jazeera reports, the dispersants used not only are themselves toxic, but have scattered the oil in tiny particles which have been deposited in the ocean floor, are still floating around or have got aerosolized arriving to residents in form of air pollution, even if they had no contact with water or coastal exposure zones themselves.

One of the most affected sub-populations are cleanup workers, who were regularly no provided with the appropriate equipment and even forbidden from bringing it themselves. In particular breathing masks were forbidden by BP. 

Other specially affected sectors are fishermen, who have been trying to catch anything, whatever in vain, and people enjoying vacations at the once wonderful beaches of the region, who were encouraged by the authorities (including Obama in person) to keep bathing as if nothing was going on. Some of the worst affected victims, like Aguinaga, are these, and they are often children. 

Before dying, Aguinaga declared to the press:

I feel stabbed in the back by my own country. I feel we are being dictated to by a foreign power. Maybe our president is not strong enough to stand up against them. I know money buys people, but they couldn't offer me enough money for the loss of my friend, and the stuff we’re going through.

The reference to "a foreign power" may mean the UK but a little known fact is that BP is mostly owned by US stockholders even if the see is still in London.

Like Chernobyl

As I said months ago: this is the American Chernobyl. For some odd reason (better propaganda tactics, I guess, also it has yet to clearly affect any second country), the matter has remained hidden from the media for longer. But the scope is similar if not even bigger, even if the damage is "only" chemical and not radioactive. 

But when the next hurricane comes, then it will become very apparent, as those monsters can suck all what is in the ocean and drop it well inland.