Post mortem on the Gulf oil disaster

Quote

"I would love to just spend a lot of my time venting and yelling at people. But that's not the job I was hired to do. My job is to solve this problem," President Obama on the Gulf oil spill.

News
On Wednesday BP published its report on what went wrong on the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on 20^th April.  No one action or inaction was behind the accident, states the report, instead "multiple companies, work teams and circumstances were involved over time".  However, the words blame, regret, apology, mistake and pollution are completely absent from the report.

Not surprisingly, the language of the report and initial responses from the two other companies involved tries to spread the responsibility as widely as possible, since any clear admission of liability would lead to far greater lawsuits for damages and compensation.

The tragedy of this disaster is not only the 11 lives lost, the fishing and tourism businesses which have suffered, and the long term damage to the environment.  The culture of blame and litigation has ended up preventing the people who know that they took a wrong decision from apologising unreservedly to those who have suffered as a result – which could at least have brought healing to the relationship and eased the burden of guilt. 

Instead, although the leaking well has finally been capped, and victims of the disaster will get compensation, the flow of resentment and bitterness that is still leaking into the hearts of many people remains unchecked.

Read on...

Donald Shriver’s book “An Ethic for Enemies – Forgiveness in Politics” seeks to explore beyond the language of justice in international relations to how forgiveness between nations might enter the realm of politics.  To get a taste of this challenging book, you can read the introduction here www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=48 

Walk the talk

Although forgiveness is usually between two individuals, relationships between individuals and groups can also be broken (e.g. between a Louisiana fisherman and BP as a company.)  The next time you are aware of any resentment in your heart against a group – perhaps a social class, members of a different race or nation, or the adherents of another religion, consider what lies at its root and how you might find a way towards forgiveness. 

The last word

From the Bible, Mark 11 verse 25: “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”