Industrial Disease

A little more than two years ago, on April 20, 2010 the Oil Rig BP Horizon blew, killing 11  workers and injuring 17 others. Five million barrels of oil were released, approximately 50,000 per day. Initial BP estimates were 5,000 per day. I happened to stumble across this great Dire Straits song today and it got me thinking.  With all praise and apologies to Mark Knopfler… (MH)

Now warning lights are flashing down at Quality Control

Somebody threw a spanner, they threw him in the hole
There's rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town
Somebody blew the whistle and the walls came down (Knopfler)

In Houston, TX yesterday, BP engineer Kurt Mix was arrested on charges that he obstructed justice by deleting text messages associated with work he was doing in trying to cap the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.  The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April 2010 killed eleven (11) people, injured dozens more and spilled hundreds of millions of gallons into the blue waters of the Gulf. 

Mix was told by BP that he was to preserve all of his emails, notes, and text messages as part of his work on a solution… Mix is accused of deleting two (2) text message strings, one stated that the flow rate on the evening of May 26, 2010 was over 15,000 barrels per day.  At the time, the company “BP” was saying that the estimate of the rate was 5,000 barrels per day.  The reason that the U.S. is so interested in the flow rate is because the fine that will eventually be levied on BP is dependent on the number of barrels of oil spilled.  (Forbes.com)

There's a meeting in the boardroom, they're trying to trace the smell

There's a leakin' in the washroom, there's a sneakin' personnel
Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze
Goodness me, could this be industrial disease ?'(Knopfler)

What did BP know?

Mix and other engineers had determined that the top kill wouldn't work if oil was flowing out of the broken well at a rate of more than 15,000 barrels a day, according to the indictment. At the time, BP was publicly stating that the well was flowing at a rate of just 5,000 barrels a day, a third of what Mix's message indicates. A second string of texts that Mix allegedly deleted also involved discussions of flow rates, these with a BP contractor. In other words, if the government's claims are correct, Mix's text messages show that BP insiders knew the company's public statements about the size of the spill were inaccurate. (Houston Chronicle)

Caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post

Refusing to be pacified, it's him they blame the most
Watchdog's got rabies, the foreman got the fleas
Everyone's concerned about industrial disease (Knopfler)

A former employee of BP America is suing the oil company for wrongful termination, alleging that he was canned for refusing to alter data about the progress of the clean-up of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In a suit filed in U.S. District Court in Louisiana, August Walter asks for damages over his termination from BP… According to the suit, Walter’s job involved creating plans for the clean-up, known as Shoreline Treatment Recommendations (STR), which were prepared and approved with the oversight of the U.S. Coast Guard Federal On-Scene Coordinator (FOSC) “to be in compliance with federal and state environmental rules and regulations.” BP would then be responsible for implementing the plans. (Talking Points Memo)

There's panic on the switchboard, tongue is in knots

Some come out in sympathy, some come out in spots
Some blame the management, some the employees
Everybody knows it's the industrial disease (Knopfler)

Scientists have found zooplankton with toxic compounds from contact with Deepwater Horizon oil; "black scum" on a deep-sea coral colony 7 miles from the ill-fated, BP well; deformed killifish, a forage species in Louisiana's marshes; and an abnormally high number of dead or seriously ill bottlenose dolphins in the northern Gulf. The scientific findings are isolated and not fully understood, but there is consensus that the long-term health of the Gulf will not be fully known for years. (Houston Chroncle)

Yeah, now the work force is disgusted down tools and walks

Innocence is injured, experience just talks
Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees
That these are classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze (Knopfler)

"Did anyone else know about this? Was this gentleman (the indicted BP engineer Mix), shall we say encouraged or pushed to do this? Did he do it under orders? Did he do it under duress?" said Anthony Michael Sabino, a professor at St. John's University School of Law in New York and an expert in white-collar crimes. "When you're a prosecutor you start with the little fish and you hope the little fish helps you catch a medium-sized fish; then you go after the big fish until you get the biggest fish of all," Sabino added. "It's going up the food chain ... If you jump the gun, and you don't have the pieces in place, you ruin the case." (Houston Chronicle)

On ITV and BBC they talk about the curse

Philosophy is useless, theology is worse
History boils over, there's an Economics freeze
Sociologists invent words that mean industrial disease (Knopfler)

Houston has a serious air quality problem. Since 1999, the Texas city has exchanged titles with Los Angeles as having the most polluted air in the United States defined by the number of days each city violates federal smog standards defined by the number of days each city violates federal smog standards. (Nasa.Gov)

Doctor Parkinson declared, "I'm not surprised to see you here

You've got smokers cough from smoking
Brewer's droop from drinking beer
I don't know how you came to get the Bette Davis wheeze
But worst of all young man you've got industrial disease"
He wrote me a prescription he said, "You are depressed
I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
Come back and see me later, next patient please
Send in another victim of industrial disease”
And I go down to speaker's corner, I'm a thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong
There's a protest singer, he's singing a protest song, he says (Knopfler)

Ever since the fleet-footed runners and chariot races of ancient Greece, ethics have been at the root of the Olympic games. There's an Olympic oath, creed, and hymn. And then there's the torch, which has come to represent purity or goodwill, depending on who you ask. 

So, in the spirit of Olympic integrity, London—which will host the summer Olympics this July—has promised to prepare for its games with an eye towards environmentalism, making London 2012 "the greenest Games ever." Just one problem: Three of the Olympics' official sponsors—BP, Dow Chemical, and Rio Tinto—are all currently embroiled in lawsuits over alleged commission of large-scale environmental harms. (Mother Jones)

They wanna have a war to keep their factories

They wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese
They wanna have a war to stop industrial disease

They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind

They wanna sap your energy, incarcerate your mind
Give you Rule Brittania, gassy beer, page three
Two weeks in Espania and Sunday striptease

Will The Media Let Congress Forget About The Gulf Oil Disaster?

Following a lengthy investigation, the national Oil Spill Commission concluded in January 2011 that "the root causes" of the BP disaster were "systematic and, absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur." This week the same panel of experts found that Congress "has yet to enact any legislation responding to the explosion and spill." Rather than implement the panel's recommendations, the House has actually "passed several bills" with provisions that "run contrary to what the Commission concluded was essential for safe, prudent, responsible development of offshore oil resources," said the commissioners. (Media Matters)
 
Meanwhile the first Jesus says, "I'll cure it soon
Abolish Monday mornings and Friday afternoons"
The other one's out on hunger strike, he's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease? (Knopfler)