Nations Create Karma

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 Gods 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!