BP Small People Comment – Carl Henric Svanberg Controversy

Swedish BP Chairman Carl Henric Svanberg called the people affected by the gulf oil spill “small people.” Here is his comment after he and other BP executives had a meeting with Pres. Obama at the White House — “And we care about the small people. I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are greedy companies or don’t care. But that is not the case indeed. We care about the small people.”

Although it seems to me it is purely a matter of translation, some people are angry about the comment “We’re not small people. We’re human beings. They’re no greater than us. We don’t bow down to them. We don’t pray to them…”