Bhopal Anniversary - 25 years and counting...

A few weeks ago, Rick & I watched a documentary called "The Yes Men Fix the World." Great movie and I highly recommend it (though not with your kids). One of the issues they address is the Bhopal tragedy. There are several sides to the story, but what everyone seems to agree to is this: In 1984, 40,000kgs of a poisonous gas leaked out of its tank at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal India - killing roughly 4000 people within hours. And yet I hadn't heard of it until 2009 - shame on me.

Activists like the "Yes Men" and other groups claim up to 23,000 deaths and birth defects in children born from people exposed to the chemical. I've read about cancer rates as high as 49%, seen pictures of kids with 6 fingers on their hands - weird stuff. And heartbreaking. And it makes me mad.

I am mad that people are still suffering. I am mad that it has been 25 years and that even though the plant has closed down, the remnants are still there, and nothing seems to be getting done to clean up the mess. I think what upsets me the most is people pointing fingers and not taking action.

I have a strong dislike for anything described as "corporate," but I find it hard to believe that a company would just kill thousands of people and not do anything to make it right. So I went to Union Carbide's website to see if I could find anything - kudos to them for having a link on their homepage dedicated to Bhopal information. I honestly didn't expect that.
I have read everything they posted - the whole Union Carbide story, and am bothered by 3 things:

1. They blame the 1984 incident on employee sabotage, but have never released the person's name. I might believe this if it were for legal reasons, but it is not. According to their site, the Indian government is fully aware of the guilty party but only wants to prosecute the corporation itself, seemingly accusing the government of monetary greed. That's believable enough...but wouldn't releasing the name of the saboteur bring public pressure to the government to prosecute? Wouldn't it also be good for the "corporate" image to name the culprit and clear their name?

2. Union Carbide has quite a list of things they did to respond to this tragedy. Financially, the initial response was a $2 million dollar donation. I was a little disappointed in that. They say they made additional attempts to donate but the Indian government refused the funds. Wait, isn't this the money-hungry government that won't prosecute the individual so it can go after the corporation? That doesn't make sense to me. However, I was surprised to learn that after the government rejected corporate money, Union Carbide funneled money through Arizona State University to set up a vocational center in Bhopal. Nice move...until the government found out and not only closed the center down, but completely leveled the building. (Such quick action would be great at the former plant site!)

3. The site has still not been cleaned up. Come on guys - it's been 25 years! Union Carbide claims it never owned the site, and that it belonged to their Indian entity - Union Carbide merely "held just over half of the stock." I'm not a business expert, but sounds like ownership to me. Again, the government of India is to blame and has had full responsibility for the site cleanup since 1998. I guess we are supposed to be ok with the fact that Union Carbide didn't address this during the first 14 years after the gas leak. They also claim that activist groups have been prohibiting clean up of the site, but give no examples.

I also checked out the information on this from the Indian government (http://www.mp.gov.in/bgtrrdmp/profile.htm), and am not surprised to see that like Union Carbide, they also have biased information. The website describes that night as a "holocaust," among other things. What I don't see is direct accusations, like on Union Carbide's site.

Why can't someone just step up and clean up the mess? It wouldn't have to mean accepting responsibility for the whole event, but it would be a heroic move. And the right thing to do.

I started reading about this after we saw the movie, with the goal of being more globally minded. But now I just feel helpless - I can't travel to Bhopal to volunteer, and I don't have a giant financial gift. I guess being informed can be depressing sometimes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be.