US bleeding due to Wikileaks!

Forget Osama Bin Laden. US latest obsession must be Julian Assange, the man behind Wikileaks, who with a handful of others is day by day putting online more records and information depicting the hollowness of the claims made by the powerful leaders of the world, with the major target being the US.

US is running for cover since a massive leak of more than 92,000 top secret documents titled- "Afghan War Log" containing day to day reporting of the soldiers and intelligence reports. But now US is trying to show a bold face, telling the world that they had nothing to hide and all the info contained in those leaked documents was already shared with the concerned countries including India. But what they are failing to explain is why billions are poured into Pakistan when they have sufficient proof that ISI is funding Taliban or why civilian causalities were reported as enemy deaths. The documents clearly show the failing US led NATO forces there and why the war was not merited from the beginning.

But the world attention is also on Julian Assange, a former computer hacker from Australia who decided that he wanted to do his best to make all secrets public. His special attention is on US, but their website has also revealed documents about the toxic materials being thrown in the oceans alongside African coasts, affecting elections in Kenya by exposing corruption among many other projects.

How Wikileaks operates

WikiLeaks, which runs on funding from donors, has been rather secretive about how it operates. But essentially the idea behind the site is this: People who have access to controversial or classified documents can send them to the site, either through the internet or through the mail. Then a group of volunteer editors for the site decides what information is authoritative, what information is important, and publishes it accordingly. In this way, the site differs from traditional "wikis," such as Wikipedia, which can be edited and changed by anyone at any time. Only approved information ends up on the WikiLeaks site, but anyone is free to submit documents he or she believes should be made public. WikiLeaks offers these whistle-blowers anonymity and, to a degree, legal protection.

Technical backbone

Since WikiLeaks is in the business of publishing information that governments and multinational corporations want kept secret, the site employs some technical tricks that aim to keep it from crashing or being hacked.

The site keeps servers on multiple continents, and its sensitive information passes through countries -- such as Sweden, Iceland and Belgium -- that have offered WikiLeaks a degree of legal protection.

"We use this state-of-the-art encryption to bounce stuff around the internet to hide trails -- pass it through legal jurisdictions like Sweden and Belgium to enact those legal protections," Julian Assange said. The fact that WikiLeaks' servers and volunteers are all over the globe makes it, in effect, the "world's first stateless news organization." This is key to the site's ability to protect itself.

"WikiLeaks is organized so that if the crackdown comes in one country, the servers can be switched on in another," he writes. "This is meant to put it beyond the reach of any government or legal system." Assange reportedly has spent his life developing the tech skills needed to set up such a system.  "As a teenager in Melbourne, Australia, he belonged to a hacker collective called the International Subversives."  He eventually pleaded guilty to multiple counts "of breaking into Australian government and commercial websites to test their security gaps, but was released on bond for good behavior."

Julian Assange is on a mission and world is waiting to see his next revelations. But what should be also noticed here is the continuous failure of successive US govts to achieve their slated targets- capturing Osama, eradicating Taliban from Afghanistan, finding nukes or chemical weapons from Iraq, or now getting hands on Julian Assange. It seems their bad luck is just not stopping. 

The Curious Case of Chinese Currency-Yuan..

These days, i have been catching up on a lot of news concerning China. I have been fascinated by the astute manner in which they come out with different strategies-be it politics, economics or foreign affairs.

There are many strategic instances which can be quoted, like how smartly China has slowly and steadily made Tibet as part of their territory. And very recently their have been talks between Zardari and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to build a railway line from China to Pakistan which would enable China to have a stronghold on the Indian border [with increased military base to attack if needed]

But, what i am going to discuss in detail is the changing phase of Chinese economy. Their currency, Yuan [Also known as Remnibibi] was in the spotlight recently. As we all know Chinese products are known for being cheap and quite a large chunk of the Chinese economy relies on exports. It had been pegged 6.83 to the USD since July 2008. Recently it was under heavy criticism from the US for not allowing Yuan to appreciate. China was accused of being a monopolist in the export industry [as they were literally stealing away the export business of other countries]. But things are slowly changing. I read a lot in the newspapers about how China is under pressure from other countries including India and US to allow Yuan to appreciate. Come to think of it, is China really "losing out" if Yuan appreciates? If you got your economics right- not so much, especially not the people of China. Read on, you will know why..

Ask yourself a question, essentially what are exports? They are -global demand for goods and services in the economy. Too much reliance on any component of demand is bad, in this case it is the exports. For instance, if there is a slump in global demand due to recessionary trends, Chinese exports will suffer and therefore the demand. Now if Yuan appreciates, the domestic demand would increase as the purchasing power of people in China would increase [taking the assumption that the Chinese are purchasing imports to satisfy their domestic consumption]. This would help the Chinese economy to reduce its dependence on exports. This would also mean more income in the hands of poor labourers which are paid abysmally low [which is how the Chinese are able to export products at such a cheap rate].

Now, it remains to be seen at what rate People's bank of China allow the Yuan to appreciate. China can play a clever game here, if the rate at which their currency appreciates is low, they can still maintain their world leader status as far as export market is concerned. Side by side, they would also steadily increase their domestic demand. This would further strengthen the Chinese economy. It's because of such clever strategies that i like to address China as- "our shrewd neighbour-China!!"

-Tejas Singh

BREAKING NEWS: There is No Indian Cricket Team, and there Never Was

Alas! But true. There is only one team, BCCI ki team, and not India ki team. BCCI has time and again proved that the only thing that matters to them is money, and not the national pride, or India, for that matter. You may have also noticed several times when their members have given preference to monetary contracts instead of options which may have been a pride for India.

First, there was the IPL. One may argue that it was the best option at that time but simply postponing the IPL after the Indian democratic elections could have been an option also. It would have been a nice thing to do, giving the largest democracy in the world respect for the democratic functions it performs, instead it became a matter of one person's ego and he was even praised for that. But that is understandable. Millions were at stake due to contractual obligations, and why does it matter to BCCI if the INDIAN Premier League actually happens in India or not, when the democracy of India was given second preference after the "billion dollar baby".

Second, India is not playing in the Asian Games. IOA president, Mr Suresh Kalmadi, has openly said that BCCI is not participating in the Asian games because there is no money in that. "It has become commercial...cricket has become very commercial. (In Olympic and Asian Games) There are only medals, no money. So, I don't think anybody from cricket world will be interested in taking part," he said. BCCI cited international commitments for not taking part in Asian games, where cricket is debuting in T20 format. "They (BCCI) had done it in Malaysia Commonwealth Games also. They sent a second string team there. So I was never keen and I did not put cricket into Commonwealth Games. I knew they won't make it, they will back out at the last minute. They said they would come to Asian Games, but they backed out. I knew this," he said.

Kalmadi was referring to the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur where India sent a second-string squad, while most of the frontline cricketers played against Pakistan in Canada. I need not add further.

Third, BCCI not agreeing to pre/postpone the India-Australia 2 tests to be played between Oct 2-14 in India, clearly clashing with CWG. Three ODIs are also to be played after the tests. CWG schedule was decided four years ago and BCCI was clearly informed about the time table of the event. But, hey, BCCI has control over 75% of the money in the world cricket. How can anybody tell them to adjust to the CWG, even when it is a matter of national pride for Indian citizens. Instead, we should thank them for giving us the option of either watching the world athletes fighting to get a medal for their country or the BCCI squad fighting it out on a cricket pitch, winning thousands as prize money, lakhs as salaries but zero medals. Mr. Kalmadi has clarified that a year ago, he had requested the then BCCI president Sharad Pawar not to schedule any cricket series on Indian soil during the Games. But, its highly unlikely that without any serious order or threat of disbanding them, BCCI will change their schedule to adjust India in it.

So, we were mistaken for a long time that the team for which we were cheering was an Indian team. But it was a team of a billion dollar enterprise called BCCI(Billionaires Control Cricket in India), run by billionaires to make more money. So never again say its India ki team, its BCCI ki team. R.I.P. Indian Cricket Team.

By- Rahul Bansal

Passing over the baton-all about the CWG 2010 baton..

CWG 2010

As we all know this time common wealth games are scheduled to be held in Delhi in month of October between 3rd and 14th October. So I thought of sharing with you some interesting facts about this year’s games baton.

The Queen's Baton relay began when the baton containing Queen Elizabeth II's message to the athletes, left Buckingham Palace on 29 October 2009. Our President Pratibha Patil herself joined the ceremony in London and received the baton from the Queen.

The baton, packed with high-tech cameras, sound-recorders and LED lights all made in India, contains a message to the athletes from the queen that will be opened and read out loud at the launch of the Games in New Delhi on Oct 3 at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium at the opening ceremony. And you know what is the most interesting part, even we can send a message to the baton.

The baton was designed by Michael Foley, a graduate of the National Institute of Design. It is a triangular section of aluminium twisted into a helix shape and then coated with coloured soils collected from all regions of India. The coloured soils are a first for the styling of a Queen's Baton. A jewel-encrusted box was used to house the Queen's message, which was laser-engraved onto a miniature 18 carat gold leaf – representative of the ancient Indian 'patras. The Queen's baton is ergonomically contoured for ease of use. It is 664 millimetres high, 34 millimetres wide at the base, and 86 millimetres wide at the top and weighs 1,900 grams.

The baton has already travelled 70 nations and has entered India on Friday through wagah- Attari border in Amritsar. The baton’s entry is marked by hope and message of Peace for all. This unique and soothing moment saw school children exchanging peace messageswritten on hundreds of handkerchiefs.

The baton will travel across 100 cities of India before reaching Delhi on September 30, 2010. And the Baton’s journey will end on 3rd October at the opening ceremony in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

So like me I know u all must also be waiting eagerly for common wealth games to start. And also for our lovely shera, the official mascot of 19th commonwealth games.So lets take a pledge to make this games a success and the best ever commonwealth games. After all its nation’s call and nation‘s honour is at stake.

-Shared By: Aman Maggu

For facts about CWG: see

http://kaleidoscopeonline.blogspot.com/2010/02/contributed-by-vishal-suri-commonwealth.html

Saina (not Sania) Nehwal- World's 2nd

In the times when Sania Mirza was getting all the attention of the media, Saina Nehwal was having trouble pressing the fact that her name is not Sania and its S-A-I-N-A, and she plays badminton and not tennis. Now the stars have turned opposite and while Mrs. Malik may be enjoying her days with her hubby-chubby, and flying out of the competitions in the initial stages, Saina is making India proud by winning third international tournament in a row and becoming the World 2nd best badminton player now.

Today, she won the Indonesian title by successfully defending it, beating Japan's Sayaka Sato by 21-19, 13-21, 21-11, in the encounter which lasted 45 minutes. Saina had won Singapore Opens before by thumping Tsu Ying Tai of China 21-18, 21-15 with in just 29 minutes. She had also grabbed the India Open Grand Prix title before the campaign in Singapore and Indonesian open 2010 is the third Super Series which she achieves.

So who's she? Saina Nehwal (born March 17, 1990) is an Indian badminton player. Currently ranked number 2 in the world by Badminton World Federation, Saina is the first Indian woman to reach the singles quarterfinals at the Olympics and the first Indian to win the World JuniorBadminton Championships. She has also won two Gold Medals.

Saina's rise follows back-to-back title triumphs at the India Open Grand Prix and the Singapore Open Super Series respectively. She is first Indian woman to win a super series tournament (equivalent to Grand slam in tennis) when she annexed the 2009 Indonesia Super Series.

Previously coached by S. M. Arif, a Dronacharya Award winner, Saina is the reigning Indian national junior champion and is currently coached by Indonesian badminton legend Atik Jauhari since August 2008, with the former All England champion and national coach Pullela Gopichand being her mentor.

After a long time, now she is getting the attention of Indian media and people, which she was deprived of in the past.

Nokia-Losing Ground?

Recently one of my friends wanted to purchase a low end phone, so I went with him to the one of the mobile stores in my locality. My friend, like many of us, has great faith in Nokia as a brand. So he straight away asked the shop keeper to show only Nokia models. You know what was the shopkeeper’s reply?-he said, “Arrey sir, No one buys Nokia now, have a look at Micromax, Karbonn & Samsung mobiles, they are value for money, with so many features at such a low price” At first I thought he might get some sort of commission by selling the cell phones of the above mentioned brands. But keeping the commission part aside, there was definitely some truth in his statement. A research published recently confirms this. According to the data collated in the research about the performance of Telecom firms in India-Nokia has lost a big chunk of market share from 2008-09 to this fiscal year [i.e. from 64%, its market share has slipped to 52.2%]. Nokia’s loss has been the gain of rival companies like Samsung and other local firms like Lava, Karbonn & Micromax. Other established players like Sony Ericsson and Motorola have also severely lost out on market share.

Other way of looking at the results of the research is that no telecom firm can boast of holding the majority of market share for such a long time. Also Nokia can be accredited for "introducing" mobiles in the Indian market back in the late 90’s and the early 2000’s. After all who can forget the 5110-brick model with the antenna sticking out! In those days 'a cell phone' and 'Nokia' were almost used synonymously. It brings alive those nostalgic memories...!

The major problem that Nokia is facing now is that it is facing severe competition from the low-end and high-end segment; it is squeezed like a sandwich in between. As far as the economical segment is concerned, local players give the customers value-for-money as many of them import cheap parts from China [In this way they can give more features at a lower price]. So many, local companies have emulated Blackberry and QWERTY keypad model types now, which was previously available only at a high price. In the high end segment, a lot of customers prefer iPhone and top Blackberry models to its Finnish counterpart.

The second problem is that Nokia has not been able to come with a revolutionary product in recent times which would suit the pocket and would provide superior customer satisfaction. It has been taking cues from the market and following the trend. Take for example, Blackberry’s QWERTY keypad phones were a hit, then Nokia thought of coming with its own version of the phone.

Now let’s see what the future has in store for Nokia, will the co. be able to bounce back, what do you think?

Animal Farm: Book Review

A true masterpiece written by George Orwell, Animal Farm was gifted to me by one of my friends who is herself an avid reader. She was surprised by the fact that I had not read the novel before, and told me it’s not just any other novel. When I finished reading this fable, I couldn’t agree more.

Animal Farm is one of those novels which can be interpreted as a just-another fable “OR” a satirical take on the failure of communism, [particularly pointing out to the collapse of the Soviet Union & highlighting Russian History] and totalitarian rule [which is the deeper meaning that the author is trying to convey].

It’s a short story which starts off with the animals in the farm being displeased about the way Mr. Jones, the owner of the farm treats them. Hence, they decide to start a revolution against Jones to drive him away from the farm, so that they can lead a better, happier life. They are able to achieve this and they start with “animal farm”, where initially all the animals-pigs, dogs, horses, donkey, amongst others are equal [they all address each other as comrades]. With time, things change and pigs take control of the farm, one of them; Napoleon is the seen as the father of animal kind. The other animals are brain-washed into believing that pigs and Napoleon as a leader are helping them lead a life they always dreamt of [free from human control]-and they are more satisfied & happier under the leadership of Napoleon, than in the time when Jones owned the farm. In this way, the pigs slowly turn from fellow comrades to sly dictators who killed anybody who opposed them.

Each character in the story is carefully crafted by Orwell as they symbolically represent people in real life that we can relate to. The obvious comparison that came to my mind was Napoleon (the pig leader) with Kim Jong-il, see http://kaleidoscopeonline.blogspot.com/2010/03/north-korea-dictatorship-game.html. But if we take Russian History in to account, the author is representing Joseph Stalin, the ruthless ruler. Snowball, another pig is shown as Leon Trotsky, who was thrown out of Russia and was accused of being a traitor several times before being shot mysteriously by the Russian Police. The other pigs represent the political class who are ruling the nations using clever tactics to disillusion the public by giving them phony hopes and promises. Old Major, the boar with good intentions, who gave a stirring speech to urge the animals to start a revolution at the starting of the story, represents Karl Marx, the father of communism. The horses, Boxer and Clover, represent the laborious working class who gullibly believes in whatever their leaders say. The dogs, guards of the pigs, characterize faithful and loyal party workers who keep the public in terror, so that their leaders can boss around and nobody disobeys them.

The ending of the story shows the pigs, walking on their hind legs and dressed up as humans. It portrays that how leaders become corrupt overtime. All power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely-That’s the main underlining message that comes across.

Forget Prakash Jha's Rajneeti, George Orwell's “Animal Farm” is the real-deal when it comes to politics. I strongly recommend you to grab your copy; it’s an absolute delight to read.

Gaza Strip: A territory fighting for existence

Have a look at the video and you will gasp in horror and disbelief. The plight of the children shown in the video is deeply moving & it can force you to pause and think...

The Gaza strip has been an issue of burning importance as far as world politics is concerned. It has been a strife-torn territory which has had a long history of conflict-ridden events, leading to unrest and loss of lives of innocent civilians, which has been condemned by NGO’s , human rights organizations and the UN.

Everything in Gaza seems to be in shambles, right from the economy to the living conditions and the socio-politico situation. Just to give a little bit of background about Gaza to those who don't know-It's one of the Palestinian territories [a coastal strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea] which shares it's borders with Egypt and Israel.It is under control of Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic organization which is labelled as a terrorist organization by U.S, E.U. and Israel amongst many other countries. Gaza largely comprises of refugees from the 1948 Arab Israeli War [in which Israel had to fight to separate itself from Palestine and rest of the Arab world]

Gaza has witnessed severe attacks due to the bitter enmity between Israel and Palestine with Hamas supporting the latter. According to Hamas, Israel is an occupier of the historic Islamic land which formed the Palestine. Since 2001, Palestine has fired 8600 rockets to Southern Israel, nearly 6000 of them since Israel had withdrawn from Gaza strip. In response to the attacks, Israel had launched a series of air strikes against targets in Gaza. This lead to widespread damage in Gaza, amongst the targets struck were UN warehouses, refugee camps, schools, police stations, hospitals etc. Hamas was accused by Egypt for using the border to secure long distance missiles to attack Israel.

Now, due to strained relations with both its neighbours, especially Israel and strict internal- external security checks, restrictions of trade etc the economy is not able to grow, GDP is low. During the time when the relations with Israel were not so bitter, Gazans used to go to Israel to earn a livelihood. Severity of ties with Israel has lead to large scale unemployment. Israel is now accused by the UN for strangling the Gazan economy. The only help or support from Israel now is humanitarian aid which is provided to Gazans. This was the reason why Gaza was so much in the news recently. A ship carrying humanitarian aid was shot at by the Israeli troops, Israel cited security reasons saying that it cannot let a ship go unverified, Israel wants to know what is being imported to Gaza so as to be sure that no weapons are being transported to Gaza for war purposes. This incident drew severe criticism from human rights activists, and the Arab world against Israel. Several Islamic nations like Turkey and Pakistan saw ordinary citizens staging demonstrations to show their anger and agitation against this incident.

For the people of Gaza, the shadow of death keeps lurking over their head, with rockets crashing here, there, and virtually everywhere...they are surely living on the edge. When they wake up every morning, i know they must be thanking God that they lived to see the light of another day.

-Tejas Singh

Things you were always Kurious to know but never really bothered to find out #1: How Are Cyclones Named?

Starting with this article, we are starting this new section in which we will answer some of the questions that you ponder about every now and then ....but were either too lazy to look up or could not get any definite answer, so here's presenting:

"Things you were always Kurious to know but never really bothered to find out"

#1-How Are Cyclones Named?

I began wondering about this question when one day while i was watching Times Now, and read the headline....Cyclone Phet might hit Gujarat, emergency warning given to the habitants...(although now it has diverted, thank god..!)

Phet, what an interesting name...!

The decision to give these short and often attention-grabbing names over the North Indian region was taken collectively by 8 countries, namely: Bangladesh, India, Maldieves, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Oman and Thailand in the year 2000.

For this purpose a meeting of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) & United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) was held which laid down the naming convention for cyclones.

Groups of countries in other parts of the world also devise a similar convention for naming cyclones.

Each country had given a list of 8 names, hence a comprehensive list of 64 names was prepared. It was also decided in the meeting that each country would take turns to name the cyclone.

According to our very own, Met Dept. , it makes easy for the media to report about the cyclone and increases public awareness and preparedness against the calamity...

Cyclone "Laila" which had struck Tamil Nadu was named by Pakistan....the cyclone that followed Laila was "Bandu"-the name given by Sri Lanka.

And by the way, Phet is a "Thai" word meaning diamond....so Thailand gave this one...

So now you know, that the Met Dept--doesn't just name the cyclone according to any random name that comes to their mind, or on his/her spouse's or children's name.....They actually have a method to do this :D

You are free to contribute to this section by sending across other interesting stuff to enrich your knowledge and others as well...And as always, Be Kurious...!

BP Oil Spill - Only Profit Maximisation can be the only reason

Likley path of the oil for four months following the spill. The colors represent the concentration of the oil. 0.20 (dark red) means the oil is 20% as concentrated as it is directly over the spill site.

On April 20, an oil rig operated by oil giant British Petroleum exploded, killing 11 workers. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, BP announced that there was no leak from the destroyed rig. The U.S. Coast Guard validated this claim. BP contended that, in any case, a possible leak would be small, easily contained and not likely to reach land.

But in subsequent days, evidence of a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico emerged, forcing BP and the U.S. government to acknowledge the catastrophe, while minimizing it as much as possible.
It is impossible to predict the level of environmental destruction and the devastation of workers’ lives along the Gulf Coast. In fact, even the amount of oil that has already been leaked—and the leak continues unabated—is difficult to establish, given that the main sources of estimates of the volume of the oil leak are BP and the U.S. government, hardly objective sources of information. So far, the leaking BP well has spewed out as much as 630,000 barrels, making it the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Who bears responsibility?
Far from being an unavoidable accident, the Gulf of Mexico disaster is the result of a reckless drive by BP and its competitors to maximize their profits at the expense of the environment and the people whose lives will be wrecked by its destruction. BP received permission by the U.S. government to conduct extremely hazardous oil drilling a mile deep into the ocean floor. What is more, to protect its bottom line, BP actively lobbied the U.S. government to avoid having to provide real contingency plans in case of an accident, such as the one that happened. It is this ceaseless pursuit of profit that has made it possible for BP to make $5.6 billion in profit in the first quarter of 2010 alone. BP’s profits for the year 2010 are expected to total a staggering $23 billion.
BP worked hard to thwart the possibility of the passage of a new rule to make deep-sea drilling safer. On Sept. 14, 2009, BP sent a letter to the U.S. government, stating: "While BP is supportive of companies having a system in place to reduce risks, accidents, injuries and spills, we are not supportive of the extensive prescriptive regulations as proposed in this rule." BP’s safety plans for the well site states that in case of an accident, "due to the distance to shore (48 miles) and the response capabilities that would be implemented, no significant adverse impacts are expected."

A history of criminal activity
Far from being a "good corporate citizen," BP is a corporation that has made its huge profits through a history of crimes around the globe. Originally named the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the company was founded in 1908, as the first company plundering the oil reserves of the Middle East. Anglo-Persian was renamed Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in 1935 and was subsequently renamed the British Petroleum Company in 1954.

-Drilling an oil well, c. 1910.(Anglo-Persian Oil Co.)

The British government owned a majority share of the company and what little revenue was handed to the Iranian government was paid back to British and other European creditors. In 1947, for example, AIOC reported after-tax profits of £40 million, while giving Iran a mere £7 million.
The company subjected Iranian workers to deplorable working conditions, paying Iranians considerably less than foreigners. But revolution in Iraq in 1953 made the oil less accessible to BP.


BP also had its hands in Iraq, as one of the key concession holders of that country’s oil. The nationalization of Iraq’s oil in 1972, which was the continuation of a process of the 1958 revolution in Iraq, was a blow to BP and other oil giants. The genocidal sanctions on Iraq, which cost more than a million lives, and eventually the invasion and occupation of Iraq, which continues to this day, have been carried out by imperialist powers to restore the immense profit-making opportunities of oil giants, including BP. BP has just gained virtual control of the Rumaila oil field in Iraq, possibly the second largest oil field in the world.

Struggle for justice
Capitalist corporations always cover up their crimes by blaming them on accidents, mishaps and individual errors. The capitalist government, at the service of these same corporations, does its best to conceal the magnitude of the devastation and shield the offending corporations from significant financial losses. Just after the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez disaster, this is abundantly clear. Despite the media coverage of the spill, Exxon Corp. never completely cleaned up the devastated areas. The disaster was largely blamed on one drunken captain, as opposed to Exxon’s consistent safety violations and its refusal to prepare and fund cleanup equipment to contain leaks caused by possible accidents.
It took nearly 20 years for the 30,000 native people of Alaska, whose lives have been devastated by the Exxon Valdez disaster, to get any compensation. And even then, the Supreme Court reduced the amount that Exxon had to pay by 90 percent, from $5 billion to only $500 million. "What more can a corporation do?" said Chief Justice John Roberts, justifying the decision.
The Obama administration has claimed that it will make BP pay for this disaster. But in the absence of a mass movement, BP will pay only minimally. The people, particularly those directly impacted by this disaster, cannot afford to wait for 20 years of litigation and then finally get paid a pittance for the life-altering consequences of this disaster. And, with a giant oil company on one side and poor and working people on the other, it is clear whose side the government will be on in any litigation.