In the beginning of April of this year, I felt a
great anger towards England. It seems I remembered
how many Persians felt towards that country for what
they did with Iranian oil and how they prevented
Iranians from benefiting from its income, etc. It was a
strange feeling. I had never before felt like that about
this matter. I had always thought this might have
been the Will of God, as He had predicted that
England and the US (the children of Joseph) would
prosper and their vine would go over their wall (they
would extend
their powers abroad). The feeling was so
strange that I shared it with some people close to
me.
A few weeks later, when I was reading/listening
to NPR (National
Public Radio), there was news about an
explosion on an offshore drilling station in the
Gulf of Mexico. The report said that it would not be a
major accident as the people in charge were saying they
would control it soon. The next day, the news reported that the
situation had become worse, and eventually it led to the
drilling station falling into the ocean and oil starting
to gush into the Gulf of Mexico. It eventually
became the worst marine oil spill in the history of
the petroleum industry, and the worst offshore oil spill in US history. They could
not stop it for months!
By the time this accident happened I had
forgotten about my anger towards England and what
they did to Iran, etc. Then I received an email from
Noor (Isaac, my son) forwarding an article he had
received about BP
(British Petroleum):
From: Isaac Emmanuel
...
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 1:58 AM
To: 'Joseph Emmanuel' ...
Subject: FW: ... History of
British Petroleum ...
Sal-Om,
Very interesting article about BP.
Isaac Emmanuel
From: ...
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 12:53 AM
To: ...
Subject: ... History of British
Petroleum ...
BP in the Gulf - The Persian Gulf
[http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175267/
tomgram:_stephen_kinzer,_bp's_first_%22spill%22/]
- By Stephen Kinzer
• Tue Jun. 29, 2010 12:26 PM PDT
This
story first appeared on the
TomDispatch website.
The history of the company we now call BP
has, over the last 100 years, traced the arc of
transnational capitalism. Its roots lie in
the early years of the twentieth century when a
wealthy bon vivant named William Knox D'Arcy
decided, with encouragement from the British
government, to begin looking for oil in Iran.
He struck a concession agreement with the
dissolute Iranian monarchy, using the proven
expedient of bribing the three Iranians
negotiating with him.
Under this contract, which he designed,
D'Arcy was to own whatever oil he found in Iran
and pay the government just 16% of any profits
he made - never allowing any Iranian to review
his accounting. After his first strike in
1908, he became sole owner of the entire ocean
of oil that lies beneath Iran's soil. No
one else was allowed to drill for, refine,
extract, or sell "Iranian" oil.
"Fortune brought us a prize from fairyland
beyond our wildest dreams," Winston Churchill,
who became First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911,
wrote later. "Mastery itself was the prize
of the venture."
Soon afterward, the British government bought
the D'Arcy concession, which it named the
Anglo-Persian Oil Company. It then built
the world's biggest refinery at the port of
Abadan on the Persian Gulf. From the 1920s
into the 1940s, Britain's standard of living was
supported by oil from Iran. British cars,
trucks, and buses ran on cheap Iranian oil.
Factories throughout Britain were fueled by oil
from Iran. The Royal Navy, which projected
British power all over the world, powered its
ships with Iranian oil. (Would have been
used throughout India as well.)
After World War II, the winds of nationalism
and anti-colonialism blew through the developing
world. In Iran, nationalism meant one
thing: we've got to take back our oil.
Driven by this passion, Parliament voted on
April 28, 1951, to choose its most passionate
champion of oil nationalization, Mohammad
Mossadegh, as prime minister. Days later,
it unanimously approved his bill nationalizing
the oil company. Mossadegh promised that,
henceforth, oil profits would be used to develop
Iran, not enrich Britain.
This oil company was the most lucrative
British enterprise anywhere on the planet.
To the British, nationalization seemed, at
first, like some kind of immense joke, a step so
absurdly contrary to the unwritten rules of the
world that it could hardly be real. Early
in this confrontation, the directors of the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and their partners in
Britain's government settled on their strategy:
no mediation, no compromise, no acceptance of
nationalization in any form.
The British took a series of steps meant to
push Mossadegh off his nationalist path.
They withdrew their technicians from Abadan,
blockaded the port, cut off exports of vital
goods to Iran, froze the country's hard-currency
accounts in British banks, and tried to win
anti-Iran resolutions from the U.N. and the
World Court. This campaign only
intensified Iranian determination.
Finally, the British turned to Washington and
asked for a favor: please overthrow this madman
for us so we can have our oil company back.
American President Dwight D. Eisenhower,
encouraged by his Secretary of State John Foster
Dulles, a lifelong defender of transnational
corporate power, agreed to send the Central
Intelligence Agency in to depose Mossadegh.
The operation took less than a month in the
summer of 1953. It was the first time the
CIA had ever overthrown a government.
At first, this seemed like a remarkably
successful covert operation. The West had
deposed a leader it didn't like, and replaced
him with someone who would perform as bidden -
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi - better known as
simply The Shah.
From the perspective of history, though, it
is clear that Operation Ajax, as the operation
was code-named, had devastating effects.
It not only brought down Mossadegh's government,
but ended democracy in Iran.
It returned the Shah to his Peacock Throne.
His increasing repression set off the explosion
of the late 1970s, which brought to power
Ayatollah Khomeini and the bitterly anti-Western
regime that has been in control ever since.
The oil company re-branded itself as British
Petroleum, BP Amoco, and then, in 2000, BP.
During its decades in Iran, it had operated as
it pleased, with little regard for the interests
of local people. This corporate tradition
has evidently remained strong.
Many Americans are outraged by the relentless
images of oil gushing into Gulf waters from the
Deepwater Horizon well, and by the corporate
recklessness that allowed this spill to happen.
Those who know Iranian history have been less
surprised.
Stephen Kinzer is a veteran foreign
correspondent and the author of Bitter
Fruit and Overthrow, among other
works. His newest book is
Reset: Iran, Turkey, and
America's Future.
I was surprised of the answer I gave Noor:
Sal-Om,
This should become historical evidence that you
eventually pay for your karma. BP is in huge
trouble and the US was the end receiver of the greatest
oil spill in history. Can it be the karma they
created by suppressing the rightful owner of the
oil they took from the people in Iran?
Then Noor wrote back and suggested I write a
snippet on the article. I replied:
Sal-Om Noor,
I always try to stay objective. I try not to
appear that I have any special interest in any
specific people and/or country. I have been
writing about Iran quite a lot recently and do not
want to appear that it is any different to me than
any other country. However, this case goes
well with the rest of what I have been saying that
God has a special Plan for the Middle East, etc. I
will think about it. Maybe it would be a good snippet.
It sure is true!
Then I started thinking: Maybe I am writing so
much about the Middle East and Iran because God
wants me to. He surely made me to be born in
that part of the world, and I surely remember this
historical incident very vividly and grew up with it
until I came to the US. It seems there is a
lot of relevance here and maybe I am the most
qualified to do this article :). So I decided
to write this.
I also mentioned in my first answer that, "This
should become historical evidence..." So here
it is recorded as historical evidence to man that
nations do create karma and have to pay for it in
the long run. Not only can a group create
collective karma, but also nations can create karma
by treating others unfairly. In fact, all
throughout history, it seems
that nations which become powerful start with high ideals and freedom for everyone.
As their ideas and treating others fairly push them
to greater heights and power, they gain absolute
power, and we know what happens to absolute power!
After a while, they reach such heights that
they start creating great karma. It is then that they fall and the
Grace is withdrawn.
There is a greater interest than national interest!
It is God’s Interest. He also has an Interest
in this creation and world. Being Fair and
helping all to return Home is in His Interest.
Anything which goes against this is against His
Interest!
This should become another lesson for humanity
that not only should individuals be fair to one
another, not only should different groups be fair to
one another, etc., but also nations should be
following this advice until there is One Earth,
One Humanity, One Savior, and One God. If this
is not accomplished, history will repeat itself,
and those who gain absolute power will be corrupted
absolutely! Because of this, the Grace will be
taken away, and the very powerful
will become powerless. We have seen this all
throughout history, and if we continue as we have
been, the
result will be the same!
It is interesting that after this truth was
solidified in my heart and it was clear that an
article had to be written about it, BP was able
to cap the well and stop the gushing of oil into the
Gulf of Mexico!
History (His Story) is a lesson for humanity!
