The politics of the current gulf oil spill come down to knowledge and
action. Who knew what, when, and what have they been doing about
it? Most of the media focus is on national politics – is this oil spill
Obama's hurricane Katrina? But we should be paying more attention to
local stories of knowledge and action that are also very political and
important for our economy.
On Saturday, I spent the day in Venice, Louisiana: ground zero for
the oil spill cleanup efforts, and where the president gave a speech the next
day. I was there with colleagues who are creating the official state of
Louisiana archive of hurricane Katrina. We wanted to film local people's
thoughts on the Katrina-oil spill connection for the archive.
At Bootheville-Venice High School, parked cars were overflowing into the
street. British Petroleum was running a training session for volunteers
and temporary employees who might help with the cleanup of the spill. Over
a hundred people were there: BP employees, fisherman, other community members
and plenty of representatives of local, national and international media
outlets.
We spoke with shrimp fisherman and fish distributors. They were
irate and near desperation. Their businesses were nearly or completely
destroyed five years earlier by Katrina. Now the encroaching oil
threatens to kill many generations of shrimp, and with them the fishermen's
livelihoods and important parts of their culture. Given that Louisiana
supplies a third of our nation's seafood, our national economy could be broadly
affected.
The fisherman did not want a handout from BP or the government.
Since they couldn't fish, they wanted to be employed to help in the cleanup
effort.
And they have the knowledge to help. They know the Mississippi delta
wetlands better than almost anyone. They know how the ecosystem
functions: they know the plants, the fish and the birds. They even know
about cleaning up oil spills and some had done it previously.
On the other hand, experts from BP and the government who came to Louisiana
don't know local geography as well (maps and GPS don't always help because of
coastal erosion). They didn't know the nature of currents and waves and
put oil barriers out too far from the coast. Rough seas either destroyed
the barriers or caused oil to overtop the barriers and continue to flow toward
the coastal wetlands.
BP acknowledges that the fishermen, with their knowledge and suggestions,
are an important resource. BP is even willing to hire the fisherman.
But the fishermen we spoke with were choosing not to work. Wages
were unsustainably low. The fishermen didn't want an hourly wage.
They wanted to be paid a flat fee for every barrel of oil that they skimmed
from the surface of the water. Most importantly, employment with BP meant
waiving any future right for fishermen to sue BP and meant giving up the
intellectual property related to any new knowledge or techniques invented by
the fishermen while cleaning up oil.
At the end of the day, this is another story about knowledge and action
that is deeply political. This isn't about Republicans or
Democrats. Politics are about trying to obtain the power to be involved
in making decisions. And this is often connected to who has what kind of
knowledge (be it local, expert or technical). Despite their local
knowledge and ideas, the fishermen were feeling powerless. And, after
Katrina, this was an all too familiar feeling for the fishermen. We shouldn't
be asking if this is Obama's Katrina. We should be asking if it is
another Katrina for the communities along the gulf.
