Dr. Steven Picou, Professor of Sociology at University of South Alabama and Dr. Riki Ott, marine toxicologist and foremost authority of the Exxon Valdez disaster spoke to a group of people from Mobile and Baldwin Counties at Alabama Delta Resource Center. An interesting and almost unbelievable note is that Riki Ott and Steven Picou became close friends after the Exxon Valdez incident. Dr. Picou left Mobile and spent a lot of time in Alaska conducting research about the social impact the oil spill had on residents. Riki Ott said, “Steven was there to help my people, and now I’ve come to help his people.” Such is a bitter-sweet twist of fate. Dr. Picou opened the meeting by speaking about what we can expect from the social impact, and how the cleanup efforts will be more destructive than the oil spill itself. He referred to PTSD — Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He and Dr. Ott agreed that the BP disaster is the Exxon Valdez in fast forward mode, that everything is unfolding at a much faster rate. In Alaska, the first suicide took place 4 years after the spill. The Gulf Coast experienced its first suicide (the charter boat captain at Gulf Shores, AL) on Day 65. Dr. Picou diagrammed how the loss of social capital emerges into a corrosive community. We have already witnessed the loss of trust in BP, and then the loss of trust in the federal government, then it dribbled down to the state government. (The newspapers and media are quoting leaders on the local government level as having lost trust in the state government.) When the only trust in government the community retains is for government at the local level, Dr. Picou warned that, too, will soon fade (and it already is). This downward spiral will continue until citizens turn against other citizens, then family members against each other. (Already, in the last 4 weeks, the hard-hit fishing community of Bayou La Batre, AL has witnessed a 50% crime rate increase.) Not only in Bayou La Batre, but everywhere that is directly affected, we’re seeing what some are calling the “spillionaires” and what one member in the audience called the “BP Whores.” In other words, BP picks and chooses who will work for them. One unemployed fishermen gets to participate in the Vessels of Opportunity program (skimming, laying boom, etc.) while his/her neighbor’s boat sits idle, and the owner faces bankruptcy in less than a handful of months. (Note from Jen: I spoke with an occupational safety expert who worked Exxon Valdez. He told me that Exxon placed “moles” in the community there to find the families who were feuding with each other, and then stoked the flames by hiring from one family and not the other. BP is doing the same. They are pitting us against each other because as long as they can keep us fighting amongst ourselves, we cannot see clearly enough to unite and fight with them. DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO CONTINUE. SEE WHAT IS HAPPENING AND CHANGE IT!) “This is not a 100-meter dash we’re running. This is a marathon. And we haven’t even run the first lap, yet.” Riki Ott describes the oil as an amoeba — it’s constantly moving, yawning, stretching, growing. It’s an evolving monster and we are under siege by it. “The Exxon Valdez incident directly impacted the lives of 22,000 people. The BP Oil Spill will directly impact the lives of 30 million people.” Dr. Ott — “When BP says that we will make you whole again, what they are really saying is that we’ll see you in court.” Nineteen years after the Exxon Valdez, Exxon ended up paying 10 cents on the dollar for every claim filed. The law that is written holding oil companies responsible does not include: devaluation of property, or symptoms that are related to cold, cough or flu. This is the loop-hole that will get BP out of this. The toxins will attack our respiratory tracts, leaving long-term damage, yet because “cough” is excluded, BP will end up having to pay very few medical claims. Dr. Ott said that we are in a democracy crisis, that she thought it was bad during the Exxon Valdez, that Exxon was aggressive and the U.S. government was passive, but what she is seeing here is much worse. BP is much more aggressive than Exxon ever was in that it is calling all the shots in the clean-up effort and has seized control of the media and censorship, even down to seizing control of no-fly zones. She said that if the U.S. government was passive during the Exxon Valdez, they are, for all intents and purposes, non-existent during the Gulf crisis. She said that one EPA whistle-blower had once stated that the South was the region of the country to which EPA formulated one extreme end of the spectrum for its “tolerance” test, i.e. how much people would take before they began to scream in protest. She said that Southerners are known to be more docile, accepting and respectful of authority, that it’s the way we’re raised — a part of the “southern hospitality” package. With a twinkle in her eye, Dr. Ott said, “But just what if the South were to rise again!” She came to the Gulf Coast May 3. What she witnessed caused even her to relapse into post-traumatic stress syndrome. She had to get away, if only for a few days. Memorial Day weekend she decided to fly back home to Alaska for a few days. She got as far as Seattle airport, turned around and came back. She knows what it is like, and for the time being, she isn’t leaving us. (Friends, it was so hard to cut off any of this article, please go to the link for the entirety – there's not one bit you should miss.) added by: samantha420
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