A Splash in Ecuador, Isolationism and Kofi, Too

Lots of fun reading out there today on the current events front. We have Daryl Hannah in Ecuador, Ron Silver's take on the joys of isolationism, and Kofi goes to Buckingham Palace.

Let's begin with Ms. Hannah. You remember her, don't you? She was the mermaid in "Splash" and now she is an official spokeswoman for The Earth. Most recently, Ms. Hannah has been in the news, making a splash so to speak, about using vegetable oil in her auto for fuel. OK, fine. But next time she may want her political advisor to be a bit more thorough on the research end of a publicity stunt type of trip. Seems Ms. Hannah went to Ecuador and "ventured into the Ecuadorean Amazon in June to have herself photographed dipping her hand into a lake of black sludge, she characterized the situation as 'potentially the biggest environmental case ever.' Only one problem: The supposed villain in the plot, Texaco--now merged with Chevron--ceased operations in Ecuador in 1990." That is from the story in today's WSJ.com..

Yes, Ecuador is a pit. The oil industry has not been kind to the area. The state owned PetroEcuado, according to Latin Business Chronicle is seen "as one of the most inefficient state oil companies in Latin America." So, why the lawsuit now? Because according to the Energy Minister, "for over 30 years, PetroEcuador has done absolutely nothing to remediate those pits under its responsibility." And, you might ask, why go after Chevron? The lawyer said Texaco "made all the decisions about technologies and methods" and did "Substandard work compared to what they were doing elsewhere." What he doesn't say is Chevron has the money. Who are they going to hold responsible? Their own State Owned industry?

The problem is that in these nasty third world countries, there is no consistent legislation, as there is in the U.S., to protect the environment. They simply want the natural gas and the oil out of the ground, or the water. Drilling companies have little control over policy, despite what this lawyer says. Ever seen the coast of Nigeria?

So, while the lawyer privately admits it isn't really "Big Oil" as the devil, it's the State Owned industry. The little mermaid missed the mark this time. Good photo, though. She was a willing shill for a fat settlement, they hope, for the country of Ecuador. It'll not help The Earth. It'll fatten some bank accounts, though.

Ron Silver, actor, has a fun piece on isolationism over at Pajamas Media today. You may know him most recently from "West Wing", he was Bruno Gianelli. I have huge respect for the man now, post 9/11, as he is one of the few in Hollywierd who woke up that day and gets it. The left and the defeatists continue to go on about the theory that if the U.S. would just leave other countries, the world would like us. Although I have never understood this line of thought, as the world has never liked us, truth be told, but Silver tweaks them pretty good. He offers 6 steps that the political parties can introduce at their conventions to make the world like us again:

1. "We can start by helping the Arabs retake Andalusia. Having conquered it once, it belongs to them forever. This goes for most of the Balkans as well as Austria up to the gates of Vienna."

2. "Let's remove our troops and fleet from the Pacific. China is a great country - props to being able to control Google, even Bill Gates can't do that - and what the hell are we doing in that part of the world anyway? I'm sure without our meddling in China, the Korean Peninsula and Japan and Taiwan in addition to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore as well as Indochina will finally be able to get over centuries of enmity. Let's face it - Tibetan culture couldn't have been so great if it's that easily annihilated while the International Community, excuse me, the family of nations, didn't notice in their stampede to joint ventures in the Shanghai rush."

3. "Disband NATO - the French never really liked it anyway... I know France is back and Sarko is good, but protecting Europeans all these years was not a good idea. They are far more sophisticated than we will ever be and they know how society can be organized and we all can live the good life. They don't need us to tell them how to deal with Persia and Putin."

4. "South America and Mexico and Canada are easy. Open our borders. Green cards are so '87. And whatever Hugo says, goes. He seems to have a grip on things."

5. "We should not act unilaterally in Africa. Africa is not our responsibility (it's Bono's). We should leave it to the international community, with its many indispensable nations, Russia, China, the EU and Principe and San Tome to take the lead. With the able assistance of the Great African Leaders of Sudan, Chad, Somalia and Zimbabwe, Kofi Annan who was head of peacekeeping for the U.N. during the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, and as Secretary General, presided over the massacres in Darfur can help his former colleagues work it out."

6. "We need to speak with Persia. If they want nukes and their neighbors want nukes, who are we to say it's a bad idea? Appoint Sen. Larry Craig our Ambassador. "

That's the short version of Silver's suggestions. Brilliant man, that one. I was completely amused early this morning and I appreciated that. Not bad at all for the former president of the Actor's Equity Association, (from 1991 to 2000). He's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations now.

And, speaking of Kofi Annan, from the Rosett Report, Claudia Rosett's excellent column tells the tale of his private ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Seems he was the recipient of an honorary knighthood. Yes, that's right. See suggestion #5 above, please. He was made an honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. Since Kofi isn't British, he's an African you know, he is not entitled to the title "Sir."

So, in honor of turning his back on his homeland and its people, allowing genocide in more than one country without proper intervention by the U.N., turning a blind eye and then profiting, along with his family members, in the Oil for Food scandal - the biggest single monetary, not to mention humanitarian, scandal of all time, hypocritically lecturing the world about 'good governance' and on and on, Kofi gets a British honorary title.

Way to go.