Welcome Pelicans of the World

I would like to extend an invitation to all the pelicans of the world to come and live in my neighbourhood, and especially those who are living in the Mexican Gulf area. Let me say that once you have been cleaned up and sorted out, you should hop on the first air current that sweeps over the southern half of Africa and head on out to Durban.

For as long as I have been alive I have loved pelicans. Odd, I realise, but I always remember when I was little that saying "a wonderful bird is a pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can". Each day I drive along the harborside road and each day I see the pelicans floating serenely in the harbor.

And then each day I watch with horror as environmentalists and concerned citizens rescue these magnificent birds and the many other birds, fish and animals who have fallen victim to the unparalled disaster caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  Caked in layers of oil, they have to be scrubbed and rinsed at least three times before they are close to resembling "normal", and even the inside of their mouths have to be washed out.  Their plight has even prompted an advert for cleaning products. 

I wonder to myself how it was that this disaster was ever allowed to escalate to the sheer size it has become. It seems to the layperson like me that BP rested on their laurels and did not really attempt to do anything until around week 5. Did they expect that the well would simply run dry?

One would expect too that a company this size and with this much experience in the oil and drilling business would have anticipated that something such as this could happen and that they would have a necessary emergency contigency plan in place to prevent such a disaster. After all, you would think that an oil spillage such as this might cause a scramble to save every gallon of oil possible, especially with resources apparently nearing an end as is often claimed these days. Only after nearly two months did they think to themselves "oh, perhaps we should try and do something, funnel the oil, at least try and barrel some of it". But no, these apparently intelligent people who run one of the largest corporations seemed to merely put their hands behind their heads and say "what the hey", in a "well, there's plenty more where that came from" way.

I would like to say that I came close to shedding a tear the other night then when I saw on the news that BP was claiming that the oil spill had already cost them nearly $827 million. Oh yeah? Poor you!  Poor, poor BP. I am quite sure that you will find the necessary means to recoup those losses, by simply putting prices up when need be.

What about the lives that you have cost? What about all the death and destruction you have caused. You can NEVER ever recover that. Those marshes and wetllands you have destroyed.  Every living organism that has died because of your complacency and carelessness. You can never ever total the cost of that. And you are sobbing over a few hundred million. People's livelihoods have been destroyed, but you will go and drill in another place for oil and you will mess up the environment there.

Oh well, BP, I hope everyone does boycott you. I hope they drive right on by the gas station. I hope they boycott the products that are in any way connected with your company. And I hope at the end of the day your company is sued, and sued, and sued some more, so that your greedy corporation end up dead, like the everything in the path of your oil spill.  It is a no longer merely an accident or a shame, it is a scourge, a curse, an environmental terrorist attack. 

So in the meantime (and in case anyone thinks I may be being discriminatory in favour of pelicans), to all the bugs, noonies, fish, birds and marine life which have made it out of this oil slick alive, please feel free to come to our neck of the world. It's clean, it's lovely and we would appreciate having you here!