Mary at The Leftcoaster discovered this fascinating factoid. Although we have been referring to the catastrophe in the Gulf as Deepwater Horizon accident it’s BP code name was the Macando Prospect named after the town featured in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. Well perhaps they should have read the book.

After wandering aimlessly in the jungle for many days, the founding of Macondo can be seen as the founding of Utopia. José Arcadio Buendía believes it to be surrounded by water, and from this ‘island’ he invents the world according to him, naming things at will. After its establishment, Macondo soon becomes a town frequented by unusual and extraordinary events. All the events revolve around the many generations of the Buendía family, who are either unable or unwilling to escape periodic, mostly self-inflicted misfortunes. Ultimately, Macondo is destroyed by a terrible hurricane, which symbolizes the cyclical turmoil inherent in Macondo.

As Mary says:

How ironic that the explosion at Macondo was created by a company which brought about the terrible situation because of a series of self-inflicted misfortunes.

Ron can also be found at Newshoggers.