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Reporting in progress - expect updates the politics of irresponsibility Before we start on the next piece of attempted irresponsibility, you are informed that, as a result of the callous and short-sighted actions of the Spanish government, heavy fuel oil from the Prestige has now reached as far as beaches in Belgium [1], about 850 miles/1460 km away. At last, the European Parliament does the right thing:
And why are the EPP and the PP against the European Parliament investigating the reasons for the Prestige debacle?
Does anyone need a clearer exposition than this of the venal, self-serving and, above all, irresponsible attitude and behaviour of the current Spanish government and its servants? And this gall comes hard on the heels of the charges of incompetence made at the European Parliament, set out in the Minutes for the current Plenary session (See particularly items J, L, M, N, O, Q, R and no.s 7 and 32 – 35 in U.) Further, the European Fishing Councillor, another Spaniard – Enrique Lopez Veiga – said that:
and just in case the Spanish, Portuguese, French and, now, Belgian coastal inhabitants and fishermen had not realised:
At the beginning of September (2003) [1], Spanish, Portuguese and French officials met at Madrid to collate their national data regarding the pollution from the Prestige. The figures that emerged are:
End notes to article:
the web address for the article above
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28.09.2003 the politics of irresponsibility (July 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (June 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (May 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (April 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (March 2003) |
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Experiments on the Prestige It has been announced that experiments for testing the intended extraction method will start this week, continuing up to 31 October. The actual extraction of the oil remaining in the sunken halves of the Prestige will not start until next Spring. The Spanish “Plan Repsol” is to remove the oil by attaching
valves to the wreckage through which the oil will escape and be captured
in giant ‘bags’.
Details of the proposed extraction method:
Miguel López Sieiro, Fishing Minister in the Galician Parliament, says that the first tests to make 70-cm holes will be done on a part of the hull not containing oil. If that is successful, the next hole will be where there is oil, and a valve will be fixed to the hole.
Note that up until now the wreck has been reported to be at 3,500 metres. Now, with outside agencies involved, the wreck is reported at 3,800 metres. the web address for the article above
is Again from Miguel López Sieiro:
Given the Spanish governmental propensity to launder facts, as is shown in the table below, it is essential to be wary of all figures that they provide.
the politics of irresponsibility
(August 2003) the web address for the article above
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20.09.2003 the politics of irresponsibility (August 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (July 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (June 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (May 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (April 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (March 2003) |
Surprise, surprise—the report censuring the Spanish government is rubbish…says the Spanish government According to a ministerial spokesman, the undersecretary of the Department of Promotion, Adolfo Menéndez, this negative report is an “unintelligible , pseudo-scientific, political pamphlet” [news item in Spanish from El Mundo]. The 350-page report was drawn up with the collaboration of more than 40 professionals from different sectors related to the disaster and the maritime world, and coordinated by a public management expert and a specialist in crisis situations management. The Spanish government itself has refused to make any sort of report on the Prestige catastrophe and its consequences, while its satellite Galician administration continues its investigation behind closed doors [news item in Spanish from El Mundo]. However, we are allowed to know that the central government representative and the former harbourmaster of La Coruña have been exonerated. Both were implicated early on in the mismanagement of the Prestige debacle. In his attempts to undermine the “political pamphlet” report by belittling its authors, Adolfo Menéndez attempted to divert attention by recalling [article in Spanish from elcorreogallego.com] how just one of the forty coauthors of the current report had ordered a damaged Iranian tanker away from the Canary Islands in 1989. This incident had, in fact, just about nothing in common with the Prestige mess (see table below). The Khark-5, damaged in Morrocan waters, was drifting south-west and both Morocco and Spain refused to allow the vessel close to their shores, with the Spanish refusal coming long before the tanker came anywhere near their territory (the Canary Islands). All efforts were made by the involved parties to repair and rescue the Khark-5, not sink it, with the remaining oil on board being transferred away.
Yet again, the Spanish government is trying desperately to make a smokescreen of irrelevancies to camouflage its irresponsibility. the web address for the article above
is Suing in the USA—another mistake by the Spanish government? The Spanish government imagined that they were clever [news item in Spanish from El Mundo] to follow the example of France and to sue their chosen victim in the United States. The French had successfully sued Standard Oil over the Amoco Cadiz wreck. But the French had not made a series of foolish and irresponsible decisions and actions, “turning a disaster into a catastrophe” [Areces] , as the Spanish government has done over the Prestige. By suing the classification company ABS in the USA, the Spanish government have left themselves open to litigation by ABS and other third parties, and the performance of the Spanish government and its officials will be examined by the Court of New York. Further, the classification company is not the right organisation to be sued regarding the maintenance and management of the Prestige. It is as if, when a hijacked car is crashed into a bus halted at a bus-stop, the car’s MOT inspector is prosecuted for the resulting deaths and damages.
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16.09.2003 the politics of irresponsibility (August 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (July 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (June 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (May 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (April 2003) the politics of irresponsibility (March 2003) |
Spanish government responsibility is recognised in Spain A report [news item in Spanish from El Mundo], commissioned by the provincial government of Asturias, clearly censures the irresponsible actions and inaction of the Spanish government. It has been presented to the Spanish central parliament by an opposition (PSOE) deputy, together with the president of the Principality of Asturias. The report’s primary conclusion is that the ecological and economic impact caused by this disaster could have been avoided if:
Vicente Alvarez Areces, president of the Principality of Asturias, underlined that the report shows that the Government “reacted late, evaluated badly and managed worse the catastrophe”, and that “the page cannot be turned” on the subject because the consequences are going to last for years. And those consequences continue as oil washes up again and again in Spain and in France, where Cherbourg is the latest northern town to be invaded by the bitter ‘fruits’ of Spanish irresponsibility. Since 16th November 2002, the Spanish Government [news item in Spanish from the Spanish Merchant Marine Association] has
All done to divert attention from the clear responsibility of the Spanish government and their agents. the web address for this article is |
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Spain bleeds the EU with its continuing irresponsibility over the Prestige
Note that it is not just the Galicians, or even the Spanish, who are victims of Spanish government irresponsiblitiy. Analysis shows that the tarry deposits arriving last weekend on beaches in the Pas-de-Calais (north-east France) are from the Prestige. Spain’s lies start to be reported by the world’s press
the web address for this article is |
07.09.2003 | |
the far east’s demands for energy
Link from Lavigne. the web address for this article is |
25.08.2003 | |
bush,
oil and iraq
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25.08.2003 |
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