Keeping the BP Disaster in Perspective

I was watching the news recently, listening to several stations continue to report on the BP oil-spill-disaster, showing countless pictures of oil covered critters, and diagrams with plums of oil filling up most of the gulf. Reporters over and over indicated that this event was the worst industrial disaster the world had ever seen. Reactions from many have been to consider boycotting BP filling stations, and donating money/time to the efforts to cleanup the animals, and the coast affected by the tragedy. Enraged by the greed of BP Execs and many engineers who “overlooked” certain warning signs focusing on a bottom line profit, many are calling for the BP execs to be tried in court, and held responsible for their actions. But is this really the worst case of greed and negligence the world has ever seen? Are these BP teams who are seeking profit really guilty of the worst case of disaster capitalism the world has seen?

In December of 1984 a Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemical) pesticide plant exploded in Bhopal killing over 5,000 people, and leaving over 120,000 others with a need for lifelong care. After the disaster, Union Carbide settled with the Indian government for $470 million….$350 million of which was the insurance sum…meaning that most of the victims got less than $1000 dollars each. When Dow purchased Union Carbide in 2001, there was finally hope that victims from the Bhopal incident when Dow announced that it would promptly “compensate victims of Union Carbide’s past negligence”. Dow promptly paid over $2 billion to… 14 asbestos plaintiffs in Texas, doing nothing for the victims who were continuing to suffer in Bhopal. Worse still, some 25 years AFTER the incident, some 390 tons of toxic chemicals abandoned at the UC plant CONTINUE to leak into the groundwater of the region affecting thousands of residents that depend on it. Not only was the area not cleaned up, and not only were the victims not taken care of, but the incident has continued to affect generations beyond the explosion due to the lack of concern for taking care of the area.

The BP incident in the gulf is terrible. The beauty and wildlife of that region have been destroyed, and may likely be affected for several generations to come…but looking at the numbers from the explosion itself, of the 126 oil workers who were on board the BP oil rig… 11 people went missing, and an additional 8 were critically injured. So well say that 19 people were DIRECTLY affected from the explosion of the rig… that is .000152% of the number of people who were affected by what happened in Bhopal.

A valid argument would say that as of now, we cant tell definitely how many people may be impacted by eating fish from the contaminated area, or drinking water from that area in the gulf. Very true. It’s also very difficult to compare the disasters based on the value of human life alone, when so many animals, and so much of the ocean has been destroyed by this disaster. But this is also not the first time we have seen greed take precedence over the value of the environment, and especially over the value of human lives. I don’t write all of this to say, “Get over the BP thing” or to try to say it isn’t that bad. I hate that animals are getting sick, I hate that the once beautiful coastline is being destroyed, and I hate that oil continues to leak into the ocean. I am saying that I believe we need some perspective on what is going on here, and we need to recognize that we have the opportunity to do something about it. Daily we have the opportunity to cast our vote for corporate accountability, greed, and/or negligence. With every dollar you spend, you are casting your vote…buying from a company that has ethical standards, and supporting what they do. BP is obviously not the first company to ever cut corners to lower costs and increase profits at the cost of the environment and human lives. Many of the products we purchase every day are made in less than savory environments for people working for well under what we would consider a fair days wage.

Should BP be held accountable for what went on? Definitely, but hopefully this will also serve as a wakeup call that above huge profits, the preservation of human lives, and the care for the environment deserve a value on a company’s spreadsheet. So vote. Do your homework; try buying a product that might be slightly more expensive if you recognize that the company’s values are in line with your own. Don’t let BP off the hook, we can’t let this be another Bhopal…Encourage social and environmental responsibility with the way you spend your $$.

Trade Secret: Kiwi Leather Lotion

As anyone who knows me well can tell you, it turns out that since sometime in middle school, I have always had a lot of shoes. After graduating college, this habit unfortunately got worse rather than better. My closet is full, as well as a large shelving unit in my room. At some time though, I realized that I cant wear basketball shoes every day of my life, and because of this work thing that gets in the way of me playing basketball, I do have to own some dress shoes. My initial approach was to spend very little on dress shoes, as to have more money to burn on basketball shoes; a poor decision. Cheap shoes fall apart quickly, look very cheap, and are very rarely actually comfortable.

In an effort to be a grown-up, I decided to actually invest in some nice leather shoes that I expect to last me longer than 3 months. Part of the ownership of this type of shoe, is caring for it. The product that I have recently found to help me do that is Kiwi’s Leather Lotion. (No my blog isnt turning into a commercial, I just was motivated to write about this after using it.) Kiwi’s Leather Lotion can be applied to any color leather shoes (I probably wouldnt put it on white) and is used to give the leather that healthy glow, allowing it to last longer, and continue to repel water. I purchased the leather lotion only after thinking I had completely ruined my shoes by wearing them in a recent New York City downpoor. Covered in dirty water, street salt, and who knows what, they didnt exactly look that great. After cleaning them off, and applying some of the Kiwi leather lotion however, I was able to revive the shoes to their original condition….and frankly the leather looks better now than it did upon original purchase.

I would probably suggest using the leather lotion in combination with mink oil or another type of water repellent that can be used on shoes. That said, I would shoot for “lotion-ing” them once a month with typical wear patterns. The lotion helps to reduce leather cracking and dryness, and also helps to prevent creasing in the shoes from normal wear. I purchased my bottle at Target for $4.99 I believe; definitely worth checking out.

Smart Money Purchasing: Bing

The holiday season is over for awhile. Christmas leads into New Years, which leads quickly to MLK Day, Valentines Day, and the girlfriend’s birthday…. needless to say, an expensive stretch of 3 months for me. That said, all signs point to me being completely broke right now, ditching any savings goals I had for the New Year, and just trying to stay afloat. I’m on track with my savings, and I spent less this year than years before, while still giving my family more gifts. How? Bing.com.

Bing’s cashback program saved me roughly $300 over the past few months…and I can’t help but feel like I need to share exactly how I did it. To start, head over to www.bing.com/cashback and create a new account. If you have a windows Live ID you may use that…but I suggest just creating a new account so you know you are signed up…link that account with your email address, and it will send you a confirmation message to let you know you are “in”. Afterwards, whenever you plan on making a large purchase, or any purchase for that matter, do a search on Bing.com before you buy anywhere else. At the top of the search results for bing, you will see several “ad suggestions”, some with a gold coin next to them that says “bing cashback”. Those links indicate that the associated site is a partner of bing.com, and offers customers a specific cashback percentage by coming through the bing.com link. When you click the link, Bing will bring up a window asking you to sign in to your Bing account (confirming it’s actually you) and then pass you along to the site that is selling whatever you are trying to buy. Complete your purchase, and within a matter of a few days (sometimes within a few hours depending on the retailer) you will receive a message that you have received cashback from Bing.

Now the percentage that you receive from a retailer can vary greatly day to day, and retailer to retailer. For instance, remember Black Friday? When people sleep outside of stores, nearly kill one another, and buy “hot” items at “hot” prices? This year, I decided to forgo sleeping in a tent outside of a Wal-Mart with hopes of buying an HDTV, but just ending up with a copy of High School Musical 3. This year, I slept in, and got on bing.com later in the afternoon. I did all of my Christmas shopping in one day, from the comfort of my computer chair. Dell had 20% cashback through Bing. 20%!!! That’s on top of any other promotions that Dell was offering. For instance, I bought an Xbox 360 Elite from Dell who was also running a $50 off promotion. The original price was $299.99 minus the $50 promotion from dell takes the price to $269.99 after tax. Bing cashback was 20%, so that saved me an additional $54…and the item had free shipping. So for $215.99 after tax/shipping/etc I purchased an Xbox 360 elite that was selling on black Friday sales for $260 at the cheapest (and that was after an in-store gift card at Target). In addition to just doing a search on Bing for cashback items, if you go to www.bing.com/cashback, you can search through cashback retailers specifically, and compare prices for the cheapest price on any given item. Another example use is for drugstore purchases. Two websites that often have a high bing cashback percentage is drugstore.com and visiondirect.com. Its purchases that you need to make anyway, might as well save some money. Recently I purchased a years worth of contact lenses through Vision direct. With bing cashback at 25%, $90 contributed from my insurance, and a mail in rebate for the contact lenses, I am actually being PAID to wear Acuvue contacts right now. I came out something like $25 ahead when purchasing my contacts because I was able to use bing.com in combination with a mail in rebate.

But how do I get my cash? Now as far as actually getting the cashback, when you log in to your cashback account via bing.com/cashback, you will be able to see the current status of all of your cashback transactions. The way this works, its Microsoft holds the money for 60 days (just to make sure you don’t cancel your order, try to do returns, etc.). After 60 days, the money is added to your cashback account, and then can be deposited into a PayPal account, checking/savings account, or can be sent out as a check. Bing will automatically send your reminders when your cashback has “accrued” and you can then decide what you want to do with the money.

I strongly suggest at least checking out the Bing cashback system. Sometimes, yes, you may find cheaper prices elsewhere, but for a majority of my recent purchases, I was able to use bing.com to find the best price AND get cashback for my gift/personal purchases.

(Note: This blog nor myself personally or financially, is tied to Microsoft, Bing, or any subsidiary. This information is provided from the basis of my own experience, and I have no financial interest or incentive to promote this product)

Lust: More Than Meets the Eye

I have a confession. Haha Scary to have a blog entry about Lust and then start out with a confession huh? No, my confession isn’t in the realm of odd sexual fetishes, it’s bigger than that. Many of my friends and family already know this, but here goes: I am a closet hip-hop fiend. That’s right, the nerdy white guy who writes these posts, works in IT, and teaches IT professionals on a weekly basis, is as raw as the streets. No, I don’t drink Colt 45, own a weapon, or even smoke weed, but I do like hip-hop music. I listen to a lot of Jay-Z in fact. I would say that he is one of the most influential artists in the hip-hop culture, and someone that many artists measure themselves up to. That being said, I was recently listening to a Jay-Z mixtape that featured a song called “History” which I said to be on his yet-to-be-released Blueprint 3 album. (yes, I’m soo hood i’m normally listening to stuff months before it hits any radio station) EDIT: Turns out History never made it to BP3…a good track none the less. Anyway, the song is produced by Kanye West, and is said to be written in response/support of Barack Obama’s run for presidency. One verse in the song really stuck with me; “I just threw on my hoodie and headed to the street, That’s where I met success, we’d live together shortly, Now success is like lust, she’s good to the touch, She’s good for the moment but she’s never enough.” Wow. Rarely do you see verses this deep in any kind of music; let alone a genre that typically promotes violence, drugs, and promiscuity.

When lust is mentioned with regards to the bible, most people immediately think of the story in the Old Testament where David is watching Bathsheba take a bath on the roof, and then eventually “lays with her” (haha I don’t know why I think that phrasing is so funny). The book of second Samuel talks about another lust that is even more interesting though; Amnon’s lust for Tamar. In chapter 13, it says that Amnon, son of David, became “so obsessed to the point of illness on account of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her.” Amnon’s friends/advisors start noticing his declining mood, ask him what’s going on, and he tells them of his obsession for this sister Tamar. After talking with them, they come up with a plan for Amnon to pretend to be ill, and request to David that Tamar come and tend to him while he is sick. Once Tamar comes to visit Amnon, he sends his servent’s out of the room, and he rapes here (2 Samuel 13:9-14). Now, yes, I agree this is disgusting that a woman gets raped, and even worse that it is his sister. What they didn’t cover this story in Sunday School? Anyway, what’s really odd about this story is the information the author offers next. 2 Samuel 13:15 “Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, ‘Get up and get out!’” How Amnon feels after doing that seems like the last thing we would hear about. We could understand her repulsion, but his? “He hated her more than he had loved her”? What makes Amnon go from this intense obsession for his sister, to hatred; from one extreme to another? Lust.

The word for lust in the Greek language is the word epithumia. It’s actually made up of two Greek words: epi for “in”, and thumos which refers to “the mind”. Lust = “In the mind”. This is important as we begin to define lust. Lust begins with that “if I just….” question in our minds, and lust always promises what it can’t deliver. The things that we lust after aren’t necessarily the issue; it’s the weight that we give them. “If I just lost x lbs”, “If I just had THAT shirt”, “If I just had THAT wife”, “If I were THAT popular”…The idea creeps into our head as if we are missing something, and we spend our time, energy, efforts to fill that hole, fix that gap, capture what is in our sights. On top of that, consider the head-space we give those things we lust over… thinking about them, planning, schema, trying to hope no one notices our missing part. Lust = “In the mind”. Here is where I think Jay-Z’s line is brilliant. “Now success is like lust, she’s good to the touch, She’s good for the moment but she’s never enough”. How true is that? Lust promises something it can’t deliver. Lust may leave us satisfied for the moment, but lust will always leave us craving more, always leave us with something else to chase. Success, fame, money, possessions, the lust never ends. Proof of this is everywhere. Every person who has bought that “fix it all gadget” only to realize shortly after that it didn’t exactly make everything better. We see examples of this in people’s lives. Hip Hop artist Kid CuDi recently announced his retirement after only one album. Why? Fame wasn’t what it promised. The hype of “making it” was bigger than “making it” turned out to be. Something was still missing.

We have so much to enjoy in life, yet spend our time fixated on what we think we are missing. This is why gratitude is so important to the life God has for us. Until we can center ourselves on what we do have, on what God has given us, on the life God has allowed us to live, we’ll constantly be looking for another life. That’s why we see the word remember come up so often in the Bible. God telling his people “remember who you are, what you have seen, what I have done for you”. If we stop remembering, we might forget, and that’s when the trouble comes in. So what if we stopped chasing, stopped comparing, and stopped looking for the quick fix? May you remember where God has taken you, what God has done for you, and be thankful for the life he has given you, not looking at others to compare, but looking to a Heavenly Father who can be the only one to truly satisfy you.