A woman is engulfed in flames when fumes from petrol she decants between containers in her kitchen are ignited by the gas cooker. The woman, at home in York (53 degrees North, 1 degree West), suffers 40% burns.
Political panic infuses political rhetoric coming out of London (51 degrees North, 0 degrees West) in recent weeks in the face of a prospective strike by oil tanker drivers.
Negotiations between unions and employers are set in a conflagration of media hype and attempts to add fuel to the fire by government ministers, referencing jerry cans and queues at garage forecourts. Fear sells papers. Panic feeds profits and further entrenchments by the powerful. They also burn, (40% and more), of the civil order.
In Rossport, Erris (54 degrees North, 9 degrees West), Ireland's very own Niger Delta, the struggle by local people against oil company exploitation and central government collusion, with a toxic whiff of corruption and police brutality thrown in, plays out in a rural/urban, community/corporation, people/profit drama more frequently seen in countries in the South of the world.
An oil exploration platform in the North Sea burns off the precious black crude for days now. A flare goes out, leading to hopes that the dreadful conflagration will end.
Is it true that some Bedouin people say we would be better off if we left the black gold in the ground?
Panic buying in garages in England eases on foot of news that the oil tanker drivers' strike will not occur over Easter. A temporary relief, with a ratcheting of price and profits to follow?
And what are citizens to do with all the emotions this petrol business throws up? Big decisions. Even today, let us not be fooled.
That Petrol Emotion sing
What you've got to do in this day and age
You gotta agitate, educate, organise
Take the time to live, take the time to give
You gotta agitate, educate, organise.
Big Decision; song; That Petrol Emotion; 1987
You Tube..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3KL9IrcxJA
Video on Rossport/Erris: http://vimeo.com/39469375
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