BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg is clearly in a no-win situation. Nonetheless, Gulf residents are angry after the Swede referred to them as small people, as in "We care about the small people."

The AP quotes several furious residents, including Justin Taffinder: "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."

A BP spokesman resorted to the ESL excuse to explain the chairman's comments:

Asked about the BP chairman's remark, BP spokesman Toby Odone told The Associated Press in an e-mail that "it is clear that what he means is that he cares about local businesses and local people. This was a slip in translation."

Let's hope grinning Tony Hayward doesn't put his foot in his mouth tomorrow.