In response to the yacht race thing, I feel that it's a silly thing to complain about. Yes, this is a major disaster and yes, it's an enormous injustice to those who have lost their lives or their livelihoods as a result of it and yes, BP as a company has a lot to answer for for the disasterous results of cutting a few corners but that's BP as a company.
Scapegoating the CEO of BP as a human is not an answer. Because as a human he isn't capable of clicking his fingers and fixing it. He's more than likely not an expert on the science behind everything, probably has people who are experts on the science behind everything hired to do the thinking for him and being away from his desk for one day (and phones exist. Being generous and assuming he wasn't on call for the time spent in the race itself that's only a few hours he would have been unavailable) isn't going to change a whole lot because he wouldn't have acheived a miracle solution while sat at his desk for that one day.
And rechecking that, the fact that it was in his spare time makes it even sillier.
Plus the fact that is was a yacht race that's called out about specifically makes it seem like a not-at-all-subtle 'look at those upper class twits ruining everything and not taking responsibility'. I wonder if there'd be nearly as much fuss if he'd gone to watch a sports game or to spend time with his family or something.
And scapegoating one person is sort of ignoring the problem. Yes it's probably a major major fuckup on BP's part but anyone just saying the only problem is the CEO of BP really just comes off as someone who doesn't care at all and is just pointing at the closest available target. The fact that the fuckups happenned at all means that they were allowed to happen and it's the system that's allowed them to happen that needs to be scrutinized, not one man's personal life.
