Well, Esso has come forward with a public apology presented in a full-page advert in today’s Morgunblaðið. Call me a cynic if you will (if you shall if you must…) but I’m slightly nauseated by the shameless manipulation of the thing. What we have is a large photograph showing a bunch of people who stand looking upwards into the lens. Below is the de facto apology, which under the heading New Perspectives reads that the board, management and staff of Esso regret its involvement in the price collaboration and apologize on behalf of the company.

But wait a second … why drag the floor staff into this? What the hell did they do?

WHAT THE PICTURE REALLY SAYS

“Here we have all the people who rely on you, the consumer, for their jobs and their livelihood. They are looking upwards at you from a subordinate position. They are the ones who will lose their jobs if you, the consumer, stop doing business with our company. You may think our company is a faceless, greedy, horrible monster who did bad bad things but it isn’t – this is the face of the company – honest, decent, normal people like yourself. Today is a new day with a New Perspective – so let’s forget about what happened in the past. OK?”

Now, if you ask me (ok so you didn’t ask, but …) the real apology should consist in a systematic reduction in mark-up until the nation has recouped the ISK 40 billion it lost on account of the collaboration. (Keep in mind that this is a nation of a mere 290,000 people. This works out to USD 1,400 per person).

AND NOW ON TO SOMETHING A LITTLE MORE CHEERFUL

An Air Atlanta cargo jet weighing 350 tons crashed in take-off in the UAE yesterday but nobody was hurt. A miracle?

The weather: rain or drizzle, slight breeze, temperatures 3-12 degrees Celsius. Sunrise was at 9.35; sunset set for 16.47.