Here's what one American independent media outlet is saying today about the disaster:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14771

Sadly, aside from that, it's basically dropped off the mainstream media radar screen over here, replaced by Trent Lott, Iraq, and all the rest.

Galicains complain about how Aznar hasn't showed up at the oil spill or helped.He comes and tries to help and then the Galicians complain and tell him to resign what exactly do they want??????????????????People are such whiners now a days and now Barcelona is whining like little magots what the heck I knew it... I knew this would happen like I said this would turn into anothere Galician Catalan and what ever the heck other ethnic group in Spain to complain about the problem to the Spanish goverment instead of the true criminals.

God, I can't even bear to read these articles. Today I was talking with my best friend who lives near Praia America in Nigran. She says sometimes at night she just wakes up crying for her beloved ocean. She was talking with some sailors from her town a few days ago who had taken their boats out and cleaned the oil up by hand with no protective gear at all. She said to them, "How can you do that? Aren't you afraid of getting cancer?" They told her, "We'd rather die of cancer 20 years from now than starvation tomorrow."

I just cannot believe the way the Spanish government has treated this disaster. Aznar has not visited any of the beaches and made his first appearance in Galicia THIS WEEK for only an hour or so with Fraga!! My friend told me the UK had offered a ship to the Spanish government to help clean up and they DENIED it... Then they offered it again, but to mayor of Vigo and he couldn't believe that Madrid had turned them down. This just pisses me off so much... I see my friends in Vigo cleaning their beaches.... my friends in Madrid went to San Vicente de la Barquera to clean up... Even I'm going to spend two of the three days I have in Galicia cleaning up the beaches. Almost everyone I know over there has spent their free time helping out yet the government doesn't even accept the much needed help of other countries. It makes me so sick that the people are giving everything they can to help out and get nothing back from the people who are supposed to represent them to the rest of the world.

Melinda

This tragedy is sad and I do feel sorry for the Galicians but lets face it the Spanish goverment are not super heroes ok they are not god I have real tough time believing that they dont want to help Galicia in every way possible they are just trying their best and did what they thought was best now come on. Im tired if people slandering the Spanish Goverment. How comes no anger has been directed at the owners of the Prestige or its afiliates NOOOOO got to be the Spanish Gov. because they are fascist they are the Franco lovers they love opresing people every thing they do is to make YOUR life worse!!!.....

I'm sorry, but I have yet to meet one Galician who feels the Spanish government has done everything they can to help them. They tried to cover everything up and make it look like they had it under control instead of accepting help. It didn't work and it got worse and now it has destroyed Asturias, Cantabria and El Pais Vasco.

I said NOTHING about Franco so please don't put words in my mouth. I don't think Aznar is a facist. I don't agree with all his politics, but I do not think he's a follower of Franco that oppresses the Spanish people. I won't say anything about Fraga, but if you know anything about his history, you would know that saying he's a follower of Franco is not a complete lie.

It is a well known fact in Spain that Galicia is not receiving the support it needs. There are protests almost every day about it. I keep very up to date with the news in Galicia - I read their papers daily. My closest friends are from Pontevedra and every day we discuss what's going on with the oil spill. I know what I am talking about when I say the government has not helped them. If you read Spanish, I will direct you to a link where you can read the entire history of articles on this crash. You will see almost all the estimates and predictions right after it happened came from Portugal, not Spain. You will not see any comments from Fraga until about a week after it happened. You will see Aznar has not visited a Galician, Asturian or Cantabrian beach to survey the damage. You will see that this disaster did not receive the help it needed at its most crucial point. My Galician friends feel it's because they're viewed as the hillbillies of Spain and if it had happened in Barcelona the government would have been there in a second. Who knows? Fact stands that the response was unacceptable and still isn't up to par.

I do not put the actual CRASH on the Spanish government. Yes, they contributed to it but it is NOT their fault completely. Nor is it completely the fault of the company that owned the ship. It is a huge international mess and of course everyone is upset about that as well. The disaster of how the innitial crash was handled is the fault of the Spanish government. And even they admitted they did a horrible job in handling it in a press conference last week so I'm not pulling this out of nowhere.

Galicia is very dear to me and is only slightly higher than Cantabria as my favorite place in Spain. They haven't received what they need and now their ecological system is destroyed and endangered species are extinct because the government didn't respond in the correct way. There is no getting around it or backing them. Once again, they are not completely at fault for the crash, but honestly... Even if it is a EU country, Spain should have responded in a SECOND to the crash rather than dragging it out so long and trying to shift the blame on other people while oil leaked out and destroyed more and more of the northern coast.

Melinda

I have been following this tradgedy closely in the Spanish press and with every passing day both my deep sadness and my anger grow. The whole world stands with Spain in her hour of need, but unfortunately many opportunist within Spain have chosen to seek political gains during this time of crisis. BNG and countless other political groups have undertaken an attack campaign; however, this difficult matter demands a unified effort.

The fuel continues to seep from the Prestige onto the pristine northern coastline of Spain, yet, the toxins emanating from the self-serving political gasbags are making the situation worse.
Americans witnessed a horrific tradgedy last year, but in contrast to the political dissension seen in Spain right now, American politicians came together. My spirits are lifted by the numerous volunters who are fighting to save Spain's natural splendour. Why can't the polticians role up their sleeves and join these Spanish patriots?

The recriminations can be dealt with after the cleanup. Spain and her government are not to blame for the disaster, the ship's owner and the agency that declared it seaworthy deserve the fingerpointing. Whether are not the decision to tow the vesel to deeper water was the best one, is an argument without end. How can anyone disparage the efforts of the Spanish government for not wanting to risk a disaster even closer to the coast line? Nobody can say with absolute certainty that the Prestige would have reached port without loosing her fuel. This kind of analysis can be dealt with after the cleanup.

It is a time for unified action in defence of Spain! May the politicans who have delayed this unity loose their jobs!

Concerned in California,

Shawn

Great post Shawn, I agree 100%.

I couldn't agree more with you Shawn...

I agree with Shawn. One note that we may all want to consider. Just a few months earlier, Spain signed off on a safety certificate for a tanker that is identical to the Prestige. In fact, that very same tanker was forced into International waters by the Spanish government when it was following the same path as the Prestige, after it went down.

This is not intended as a knock against Spain, but a knock against the petroleum handlers, who have used their money to gain political clout in most of the world. If nations don't agree wtih them, they just shut off the oil supply. That's blackmail in my book, and totally unacceptable.

The cost of this one disaster will far exceed the total cost that would be derived, if all of the single hull tankers in the world were put to scrap. Of course, to the shipping companies, that doesn't matter, because Spain is footing the bill for all of it, and they insure their single hull tankers for more money than they are worth. This leads to serious problems. When companies can get more for a vessel lost at sea, and the cargo, than it's worth, we're just asking for trouble.

Maybe it's time for the world community to institute laws that would require the shippers to pay for all damages caused by their ships? Possibly tie up their entire fleet, and assets, until it is done.

Just a thought. This thing is so callous, and unwarranted that it needs serious attention. According to marine biologists, fifteen of these disasters in one year could reduce the harvestable seafood by over 20% throughout the world. That's unbelieavable. International law has to change.

Wolf

What I sayed was just the overall impersan I get from the media coming out of Spain I didn't want to cram your mouth full of words.