Louisiana Americans burning British flags

[MrsGorilla]

Like I said though, the mere idea that Americans, or at least the majority of us, are blaming the British is just ridiculous. I don't even hear much outcry blaming BP. I think most of us are more concerned about getting it fixed and the cleanup efforts that are required and what we can do to help.

My husband has an aunt and uncle that live down in the peninsula, around the Clearwater/Largo area. I was wondering if it would make its way down there eventually or not?

 

[Vassago]

My husband has an aunt and uncle that live down in the peninsula, around the Clearwater/Largo area. I was wondering if it would make its way down there eventually or not?

The scientists are talking about it moving around the entire coast of Florida and up the Atlantic coast.

http://www.news4jax.com/news/23781731/detail.html

 

[Thales750]

Of all of the interesting and tragic news available about the destruction of North Americas most important fisheries (50% of the US annual yield), Col choose this one to relate to us.

And once again Col you have your facts a little messed up.

Not one person that I have heard about has made this about the ugly British, and only someone with an extremely small mind would use a tragedy like this to cast disparagement on a group of people.

Yes the government has entertained the possibility of upping the liability, but there has not been a cap on the environmental cleanup cost. The 75 m is for ancillary cost incurred by fishermen and local communities.


Just because you live little on a puny little island where driving places is less necessary, that doesn’t mean the entire planet should live as you do.

We all need oil, we are all going to pay a price for this environmental disaster, but the people who profit the most should pay the most, whether it was PB, Shell, Exxon Mobile, or any other company.

The big issue here is how to stay alert in the future, it has been 31 years since there was a blowout in the Gulf of Mexico, many people fell asleep at the wheel, many in government and many more in the oil industry.

 

[Alc]

Of all of the interesting and tragic news available about the destruction of North Americas most important fisheries (50% of the US annual yield), Col choose this one to relate to us.

And once again Col you have your facts a little messed up.

Not one person that I have heard about has made this about the ugly British, and only someone with an extremely small mind would use a tragedy like this to cast disparagement on a group of people.

Yes the government has entertained the possibility of upping the liability, but there has not been a cap on the environmental cleanup cost. The 75 m is for ancillary cost incurred by fishermen and local communities.



Just because you live little on a puny little island .....

I believe you may have had the moral high ground up until this point.

 

[ColinEssex]

And once again Col you have your facts a little messed up

All I did was to post a copy from a writer who writes for a large selling newspaper. How can I mess that up? I don't follow your logic if you have any.

It's interesting that nobody from the USA dares to comment on the 15,000 people killed by Union Carbide and the lack of compensation paid to the destroyed Indian populace of Bhopal.

Maybe it didn't make the US media at the time so nobody knows about it.

Col

 

[ColinEssex]

Just as a rider to the main story - there are British people burning US flags outside Liverpool football club, I understand in protest at the crap American owners of the club.
Mind you, they are Northern and have little else to do other than draw their dole money.
Actually, I'm surprised you can buy a US flag in Liverpool, unless they are specially imported for the barbecue.

So all's fair in love and war I suppose.


Col

 

[Vassago]

All I did was to post a copy from a writer who writes for a large selling newspaper. How can I mess that up? I don't follow your logic if you have any.

It's interesting that nobody from the USA dares to comment on the 15,000 people killed by Union Carbide and the lack of compensation paid to the destroyed Indian populace of Bhopal.

Maybe it didn't make the US media at the time so nobody knows about it.

Col

You're talking about something that happened while I was a toddler. I wasn't exactly interested in the news at the time, so can't really comment on how media was portrayed. I do know that it's not just the people from the USA who didn't comment about it in this thread. No one did, except you Col.

 

[Vassago]

Just as a rider to the main story - there are British people burning US flags outside Liverpool football club, I understand in protest at the crap American owners of the club.
Mind you, they are Northern and have little else to do other than draw their dole money.
Actually, I'm surprised you can buy a US flag in Liverpool, unless they are specially imported for the barbecue.

So all's fair in love and war I suppose.


Col

It's also interesting that you won't respond to the statements that there seem to be no articles that support British flags being burned as a result of the oil spill. Not even the one you quoted in your original message states this.

I guess this was based on nothing?

 

[MrsGorilla]

It's interesting that nobody from the USA dares to comment on the 15,000 people killed by Union Carbide and the lack of compensation paid to the destroyed Indian populace of Bhopal.

I thought this thread was about Louisiana Americans burning British flags, and how Americans were (supposedly) blaming the British people for this.

What are you expecting people to say about the Union Carbide incident? Yes, it was wrong and terrible, and they should take responsibility too. OK?

 

[Thales750]

I believe you may have had the moral high ground up until this point.

Sorry Alc, I got a little carried away. I grew up fishing out in the Gulf.
Sort of like seeing your old neighborhood burn.

I just thought it was in bad taste to use something of this magnitude to bust on Americans. A little like laughing at someone's mother while she is on her death bed.

 

[Galaxiom]

"Whatever" about the flag burning but the content about the US attitude to oil is spot on.

They are the oil gluttons of the planet.
They did waive the environmental safeguards in the Gulf.
They did make war in Iraq for the access to oil.

But the Brits have nothing to be proud of. They were the prime movers behind the distasterous rise of anti-western sentiment in the Middle East. They built their wealth on stolen oil. They exploited Iran for half a century. They tried to launch a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran and implored the US to do it for them when they were expelled after their own attempt failed.

The Brits lied to the Arabs about fighting to win their freedom from the Ottoman Empire while making a deal with the French to split the region between them as spoils of war. Winston Churchill was one of the greatest arseholes of history but is remembered as a hero.

 

[Brianwarnock]

"Whatever" about the flag burning but the content about the US attitude to oil is spot on.

They are the oil gluttons of the planet.
They did waive the environmental safeguards in the Gulf.
They did make war in Iraq for the access to oil.

But the Brits have nothing to be proud of. They were the prime movers behind the distasterous rise of anti-western sentiment in the Middle East. They built their wealth on stolen oil. They exploited Iran for half a century. They tried to launch a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran and implored the US to do it for them when they were expelled after their own attempt failed.

The Brits lied to the Arabs about fighting to win their freedom from the Ottoman Empire while making a deal with the French to split the region between them as spoils of war. Winston Churchill was one of the greatest arseholes of history but is remembered as a hero.

So is this thread going to turn into nation slanging thread?

Brian

 

[JamesMcS]

So is this thread going to turn into nation slanging thread?

It was from post #1 I guess.... This is another one of those theology discussion type threads isn't it??

 

[Galaxiom]

No, not nation slanging but simple statements of the facts. Moreover, if you recall, attitudes to nation slanging is what the original post was about.

I don't understand why some get so defensive about their nation. Personally I don't have a problem with facts. If more people actually acknowledged reality instead of chronic jingoistic attitudes the world would be a better place.

Apparently the great Aussie traditon of self deprecation is not widely understood on the rest of the planet. Must be our convict origins I guess. Or perhaps because we are descended from people of many nations.

One of my identites happens to be an Aussie. It is not my primary identity and it never will be. I just happen to be born here because my ancestors sailed here from England, Scotland, Poland and Denmark.

I can happily tell you our nation has a reprehensible record with our indigenous people. We have the embarrassment of participating in GW Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq. Like many others we have trashed our environment. Lots of Australians are bigoted yobos.

We are the largest CO2 emmitters per capita in the world. However I will say in our defence that the fact is we are huge producers of steel which makes a lot of CO2, much is exported to China and Japan. This is because our continent is the oldest and most eroded on the planet so the iron ore here is bloody near steel already so we can make it cheaper than anywhere else. (Just ask the Yanks. They decided we must be dumping it on the market because we make it cheaper than they can.)

Wake up and stop thinking your country and your culture is something special to be defended. Your resistence to criticism of these institutions is holding back your development as a human being. You can never progress if you cannot see the crap done in the name of your people.

 

[Brianwarnock]

No, not nation slanging but simple statements of the facts. Moreover, if you recall, attitudes to nation slanging is what the original post was about.



Wake up and stop thinking your country and your culture is something special to be defended. Your resistence to criticism of these institutions is holding back your development as a human being. You can never progress if you cannot see the crap done in the name of your people.

I guess I didn't jump to conclusions from post 1 and think " hey lets all slag each other off", as for being defensive about my country where is that?

I could have taken issue with Col on his Northern jibe (I live on Merseyside which contains Liverpool and is considered in the North by Essex boys), but we have our share of nut cases just like everybody else.

Brian

 

[Fifty2One]

A huge chunk of Britains pension plan is invested in BP and defaulting on dividends would probably tank their economy. No wonder old people collecting handouts from the government are overly concerned about the situation.

Remember it is all about money - MONEY - not national pride or enviornment but MONEY! Even when they talk about the disaster to all of the animals who have occupied the land from before the time of people it is about the COST of fixing or preventing further damage.

 

[ColinEssex]

But the Brits have nothing to be proud of. They were the prime movers behind the distasterous rise of anti-western sentiment in the Middle East. They built their wealth on stolen oil. They exploited Iran for half a century. They tried to launch a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran and implored the US to do it for them when they were expelled after their own attempt failed.

Don't forget we made alot of our wealth on slavery. That was good, otherwise we couldn't have run the empire.

Lots of seaport cities are built on the backs of slave trade - Bristol and Liverpool for just two.

We also exploited India, treated them like dirt, as well as many other colonies. It's what makes Great Britain what it is today - for what Americans call a "puny" little island.

Aahhh - good old days.

Col

 

[Brianwarnock]

I don't think most rednecks knew that the B in BP stood for British until it was pointed out to them.

Actually it doesn't, it doesn't stand for anything, the name was changed to just BP some 10 years ago to reflect the International nature of the company. I read just recently that 40% of shareholders live in the US.
Only American presidents and Daily Mirror readers thing it is a wholly owned British company.

Brian

 

[Vassago]

I've always admitted that the war in Iraq was Bush's attempt at oil to feed the shareholders of his own oil companies. I believe Bush will go down as the worst President this country has ever seen. The people that died in his senseless war died for nothing because a war on "terror" (what I believe should be the war OF terror) is never-ending. You can't have a war on something that isn't substantial and when the players don't play by the rules of war. There will always be "terrorists" and Bush was the worst one. He used Americans fear after 9/11 to start this war.

I also admit that we use more oil than the rest of the planet, but that's more due to a lack of other transportation methods than anything else. There's still a lot of land in America that is all woods and farms, you have to have a car to get anywhere in my city. If I lived in Japan, it would be different, especially Tokyo.

 

[Fifty2One]

It has been called British Petroleum Company since mid-1950s but has used BP as a trade mark since way before that as referring to "Best Possible"

Actually it doesn't, it doesn't stand for anything, the name was changed to just BP some 10 years ago to reflect the International nature of the company. I read just recently that 40% of shareholders live in the US.
Only American presidents and Daily Mirror readers thing it is a wholly owned British company.

Brian