BP isn't British

Olle Johansson. Sweden.

Freelance.

I know the title is a lie. BP is British. However, more importantly, BP is a corporation. At least most Americans I've talked to and the American news media I've seen have this perspective. Many Americans realize that corporations are no longer tied to an individual nation. Nissan may have headquarters in Japan, but a Nissan factory in Mississippi build cars with materials from all over the world and then ships some of these cars to Mexico. An Australian owns Fox News. Apple designs the iPod in America but builds it in China. The marriages and divorces between corporations like American Chrysler and German Daimler get so confusing that the average citizen can hardly keep up with whether or not DaimlerChrysler (or Chrysler LLC, or Daimler AG, or whatever it's called now) still owns Mitsubishi, Mercedes Benz, or EADS. Many Americans may not realize this Daimler AG has a stake in all of these companies. So is this company German, American, Japanese, French, or what? Do we determine nationality based upon where the headquarters' post office box happens to be even though this PO box can change practically overnight? Is it an "American" or "Chinese" product if it's designed in the US and built in China? The point is that these corporations are international and have no specific nationality, or at least not in most of the public's mind. The same applies to oil companies that operate in the US. Ergo, BP isn't British. BP is a corporation.

I wonder how many Americans even realize that BP is a British corporation or that Shell is a Dutch corporation or that Exxon is an American corporation. Though I won't name anyone specific in this post, I've talked to some Americans who did not realize BP is technically British, even after the oil spill. These people aren't stupid, either. Americans may not realize that BP is British because BP has spent so much money advertising itself as "Beyond Petroleum" and distanced itself from the British image in order to avoid any "Buy American" sentiment.

Yet when I talk to friends from Europe (and not just those from the UK), they closely link BP to Britain. Whenever they talk about the oil spill, some defend BP and say Americans were involved in the oil spill. This defense and sentiment perplexed me. People along the Gulf Coast don't care if a British corporation or an American corporation was responsible. We're pissed not because a non-American corporation screwed up. We're pissed because a corporation screwed up, and this corporation has developed a reputation in the US as being one of the sloppier oil companies (this reputation may not exist in other parts of the world). A 2005 BP refinery explosion in Texas killed 15 and injured over 150; a 2006 oil spill in Alaska happened because BP didn't properly maintain the pipeline. Other oil companies operating in the US don't have this kind of record (at least that's the word on the street). The jury is still out on the current disaster, but a New York Times article reported that in 2004 BP removed safety devices from the blowout-preventer (the last line of defense to prevent an oil spill) in order to save time and money; Transocean had BP write a letter explaining that BP was responsible for this change and understood the change increased the risks. Incidents like these do not make BP look good in the Gulf of Mexico disaster. When Americans hear about BP's record in the US, we don't care if BP is British or not. Americans do care whether or not BP is properly managed.

I just wanted to explain that Americans don't care where BP's headquarters are. We don't believe an American corporation would have been inherently better because it was American (at least that's not what I've heard in the US). The BBC and other British news outlets may play sound-bites that hype up the UK vs US narrative, but that's not what we hear or talk about in the US. If the anti-BP rhetoric in the US was actually anti-UK, then the symbols or references widely used in political cartoons or speeches would be anti-British. Instead, political cartoons use BP logos and not Union Jacks when talking about the oil disaster.

I admit that New Orleans almost used an advertisement campaign with the slogan, "This isn't the first time New Orleans survived the British," as a reference to the War of 1812 battle. I actually found this slogan humorous, but some Brits complained. New Orleans quickly pulled the advertisement after a very limited distribution, but the city is now running an ad mocking the American federal government instead. The point here is that Americans are willing to mock their own corporations or government and not just foreign corporations. After all, the Gulf Coast states are pissed at a lot of institutions, American and not.

Granted, if BP was French, then this conversation would be a tad bit different. ;-) Besides baseball, mocking the French is America's favorite pastime.

Perhaps my European friends can explain to me whether or not they know which corporations belong to which nations. Americans may know roughly which corporations are American or not, but we probably won't be able to say anything more specific. I wonder if Europeans take extra pride in those corporations from their nation. I don't believe Americans do the same unless that corporation employees a bunch of people in their area (for instance, I don't think Mississippians have much pride in Ford but might like Nissan more because Nissan has a plant in MS). These are interesting questions I need to look into.

Gary Varvel. Indiana.

The Indianapolis Star - News

Getty Images from CNN

A pelican coated in heavy oil wallows in

the surf Friday, June 4, on East Grande

Terre Island, LA.