A digest for conscious living
There has been extensive grassroots coverage of the oil spill. Actually now I must specify which oil spill I am referring to, since there are several across the country, simultaneously. It’s like fire season in California, but with oil spills. I suppose Americans are not finding the oil to their taste when it lands in their backyards. Here are some recent reports on the Gulf spill that I found to be interesting.
The first one comes from an individual who did a little investigating on Bloomberg to share with you who ‘owns’ BP. The findings seem mundane at first glance, but I did manage to learn something from them. The top shareholder for BP is a corporation named ‘State Street’, with a 43% stake in BP. Then you have companies like BofA and other institutional investors EVERYONE has heard of. I was impressed and intrigued to find the largest stake (by far) to be a relatively unknown company. The notion of State Street being a shell company came to mind. It is a very generic name, don’t you think?
I searched for the corporation online and landed on its website. Indeed it is a very generic looking site, however I was surprised to find that this corporation is global with almost 30,000 employees and $3 trillion in managed funds, and that hey are the largest mutual fund manager. I worked in finance and I had never heard of them. I guess it shows how much I know. At any rate, looking at the numbers, I would surmise that State Street has more than a ‘fund level’ stake in BP, which is what the next largest investors seem to have. In fact, I’d wager that some trust fund or other personal portfolio stake is being handled through them. The question is, for whom? Anyways, take a look at my screen shot of their website. The large slogan is not devoid of irony. It was replaced a few days later.
Social responsibility... I wonder how...
Our next item is a video from someone sampling water at different locations and making a recording of a call with the lab that tested the water. The test results are chilling, if they are accurate. It seems one of the samples was taken in a little harbor, and to be fair, it would be hard to tell how much of the contaminants came from the oil well, because the sample was taken in an area of relatively high pollution. That said, the toxicity levels were WAY beyond unsafe. I hope the people in the South will be ok.
The reporters made the claim they were handed a sample of the crude collected by an offshore cleaning crew. The sample was also sent in and so this whole test does have an air of credibility to it.
Finally, I liked this bit from David Icke. He thinks BP does not really care to clean up and is putting on a front. Well a week ago a friend from Mississippi visited and told me her cousin’s story. He is working at one of the call centers that BP is running. This is where concerned citizens call to report oil contamination. Well the people at the call center only pretend to create a case for the call, and nothing is being done about it. Lo and behold, I found this bit of confirmation on local news a few days later.
Raphael