If anything shows the continued marginalization of the United Nations it is the newly elected seat to Iran on the UN Commission on the Status of Women. If Islam's theocratic stranglehold on Iranian government is a prerequisite to being welcomed on the council, then I suggest we place Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, UAE, Sudan and Somalia on it too. I ask anyone who takes the time to review the Beijing Declaration to truly see if Iran has implemented the suggested actions from 15 years ago. If anything they have imposed more barriers to women. And yet, they get a seat on the very council purportedly to help women. Makes you rethink other UN councils...such as UN Council on Human Rights, where Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Cuba have seats.
More rough notes.
The failure of the blowout preventer on the Deepwater Horizon. Horrible, this is what deregulation and blindness does. Who's idea was it that it was OK to not place remote control oil shut off valves at the outlet of the pipe? That person should be drawn and quartered. I foresee this will far outweigh the damage caused by the Exxon Valdez, in 1989. EPA and OSHA should be held accountable as well as the Oil Company. Again it appears that pursuit of the almighty Euro/Dollar/Rial/Shekel/Dinar/Pound has caused yet another disaster.
Investigations will reveal that greed and cost cutting measures will ultimately be to blame for this disaster, not a drunken captain. While the latter is easier to understand, the former cannot be condoned. This is the tremendous cost of not doing a job right.
Contracting to the lowest bidder has bitten BP and Transocean before, but nothing of this magnitude. It will eventually dawn on the Executives that payout of billions of dollars will far outweigh any profit gained. They will be held liable for huge awards in law suits from governments local, and federal, fishermen, businesses that depend on the Gulf waters, and I suspect even individual residents directly impacted will also bring suit. BP, along with Transocean will then fold with bankruptcy and no justice will ever be served. Their myopic pursuit of profit has ruined the Gulf. This is more than just the cost of doing business. Consequences of this disaster will far outweigh the potential profit. Had they just done the right thing in the first place, i.e. spend the money to do it right the first time. All would have been averted. I think a retrofit is in order for remaining platforms.
The loss of fish, shrimp, oyster and clam spawning grounds, hunting, and tourism will truly provide the coup de grace to coastal Louisiana and Mississippi. Count the cost in job loss, business loss, environmental loss, animal life loss, and National loss. We mourn.
On the bright side; this may be the one thing that will get the Casino gambling leeches out of the states.
