Bhopal -- heard the author of Five Past Midnight in Bhopal

interviewed last night on the radio.



It was an old interview, I think, but it was fascinating.

He said a couple things that were shocking.

Almost everyone in the factory lived because they knew the explosion was coming, and there was a $50 windsock at the factory which showed which way the wind was blowing. Union Carbide wouldn't put wind socks up in the surrounding neighborhoods because they didn't want to create a climate of fear (ie, they didn't want to lose cheap labor living nearby???)

The pesticide factory was losing money, so they turned off the gas refrigeration unit at night to save $100 in electricity. A worker sounded the alarm, like, 5 times when he saw the temperature rising. The management said they wouldn't turn the electricity on.

When the explosion occurred, the people in the factory knew to run upwind. People in the slums ran in every direction. Some ran with the clound of gas. People who ran died, because they inhaled more gas. Some people who stayed in their hovels survived because they didn't run (but they suffered horrible injuries).

One of the saddest and most stunning parts of the story was that astrologers had predicted that the day before the accident was going to be the greatest day in the history of Bhopal, so everyone was on the streets celebrating, people were getting married. The explosion occurred at 5 past midnight.

The astrologers were close. It was the last good day in the history of Bhopal.

Amazon Link to Book

In a move that has provoked outrage from human-rights groups here, US Attorney General John Ashcroft has asked a federal appeals court in effect to nullify a 214-year-old law that has provided foreign victims of serious abuses access to US courts for redress.

Ashcroft's Justice Department has filed a "friend of the court" (amicus curiae) on behalf of California-based oil giant Unocal in a civil case brought by Myanmese villagers who claimed that the company was responsible for serious abuses committed by army troops who provided security for a company project.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EE17Ae03.html

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On July 29, 2002, the US Department of State told a US District Court that an international human rights suit against the Exxon Mobil Corporation could undermine the war on terrorism.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/wtc/analysis/2002/1000exxon.htm

He was maybe twelve years old, maybe older - it's hard to tell sometimes over there - malnutrition has a way of stunting growth. He was "begging". Most of the time people don't flat out beg, they try to sell you something at a ridiculously inflated price. This kid's scam was "collecting American Quarters", which was a new one on us, and intriguing enough to not brush him off. His English was exceptionally good; when questioned on that score he said he wanted to learn to speak really well 'cause it might help him get a job dealing with westerners. He lamented the fact that he had nothing to do because his relatives didn't have enough money to send him to school.

I asked him if he liked Nepal. He said it was ok, but he liked his home better, which was India. When asked why he would leave India for Kathmandu, he said, " I am from Bhopal. Have you heard of Bhopal?"

I had heard of Bhopal, and knew full well what had happened there. He told his story - no one in his immediate family had been killed, although he had lost uncles and aunts and cousins. His father's lungs had been damaged to the point where he could no longer support his family, hence his father had farmed the children out to relatives, which is how he'd ended up in Kathmandu.

And I experienced one of those moments of... I don't know how to explain it. Crashing reality? It is all too easy, as Americans, to
become inured to disasters that happen in far away places . They're just words on a page, or images flickering on your tv set, horrible enough, but safely distanced.

Let me tell you something - intellectual knowledge is one thing, but when the result of your nation's calumny is standing in front of you, it suddenly becomes far more real. You truly understand the devastation that has been writ on these people's lives.

And, to a certain extent, how your lifestyle is truly being paid for. Believe me, it's not a good feeling.