Friday, June 11, 2010

A pall hangs over NOLA.

A pall hangs over NOLA.

Yesterday somebody sent me this story of the dying oyster industry in Louisianna, and I forwarded it on to GalPal knowing that while her response would be an anguished cry she would also appreciate the fact she ate at Felix's just last week even more. Pictures of the oil soaked pelicans surface while we were down there last week and it was the sort of thing that made me physically ill. Nauseous. Amazed we could do such harm to such unsuspecting and undeserved targets of our malfeasance.

New Orleans is battered. Residents still speak of Katrina as if its landfall was a few months ago, not almost five years ago. And it seems that right as the city was finally regaining its bearings, BP done fucked shit up and has single-handedly threatened the entire oceanic ecosystem that fills the city's kitchens. New Orleans is not just a 24-hour party on Bourbon Street. It's a city built around food more than booze, and much of that food is provided by areas directly threatened or already effected by the oil spill. And the people of New Orleans know this and, it's not hard to miss, there is a seething fury running through the populace made all the worse with the realization that there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. This is potentially more devastating in the long term than Katrina was, and the people know it.

AN ASIDE: As ill as the pictures of oil soaked pelicans made me last week, it was nothing compared to the queasy fury I felt once I read that BP is trying to cover up the full extent of the damage their little fuck up is inflicting upon the animals in the area. I understand that a singleminded focus on profitability and the need to urgently spin this story there was may explain the blinders BP appears to be operating under, but really? Are they that truly clueless / evil?

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