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union carbide
New Bhopal Film Spotlights Corporate Justice Dodger
'This was not an unavoidable accident,' says Martin Sheen
Nov 07, 2014
A new film puts the spotlight on the disaster dubbed the Hiroshima of the chemical industry.
In December 1984, a cloud of toxic gas leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killing nearly 20,000 people and injuring tens of thousands more. It has been called a "calamity without end," as the disaster left a haunting legacy of polluted soil and water, and children who continue to be born with severe birth defects.
On Friday, just weeks ahead of the 30th anniversary of the disaster, the film Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, which takes a fictionalized look at the events that led up to the infamous events, opens. The film stars acclaimed actor Martin Sheen as Warren Anderson, then-CEO of Union Carbide.
Sheen has partnered with Amnesty International to call for Union Carbide--now a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow Chemical--to be held responsible.
Amnesty International told (pdf) the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year: "The Bhopal disaster is a case study for so far unsuccessful attempts to obtain effective remedies for a gross corporate abuse of human rights."
In a video for the human rights group, Sheen stresses how Bhopal victims have spent decades searching for justice.
"Bhopal is not just a human rights tragedy from the last century," Sheen says in the video. "It is a human rights travesty today."
"This was not an unavoidable accident," he says. "There is evidence that the companies responsible for the factory site failed to take adequate precautions both before and after the leak."
"Those who survived have faced long-term health problems, but receive little medical help. For 30 years the survivors of Bhopal have campaigned for justice, for fair compensation, health care and for Union Carbide, now owned by Dow Chemicals, to be held to account," he continues.
As human rights advocates Bill Quigley and Alex Tuscano have summed up: "Union Carbide put profit for the corporation above the lives and health of millions of people."
Anderson, though arrested day after the disaster, left on bail and returned to the United States. He died in September. Advocates for Bhopal victims say he died unpunished for his crimes.
Dow, which has denied responsibility for victims of the disaster, faces a November 12 court date in Bhopal.
"The time has come for Dow to appear in an Indian court and account for the failure of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Union Carbide, to respond to the criminal charges against it," Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International's Director for Global Issues, said in a statement.
A trailer for the film, which also stars Mischa Barton and Kal Penn, is below:
BHOPAL A PRAYER FOR RAIN | Official Trailer | Kal Penn, Mischa Barton, Martin SheenThe official trailer of the much anticipated movie 'Bhopal A Prayer For Rain' starring for the first time Mischa Barton, Kal Penn and ...
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Bhopal Victims Hold Protest Olympics to Shame Dow Chemical
Bhopal Special Olympics held to counter Dow's greenwashing attempts at London games, say organizers
Jul 26, 2012
"This is what Dow has done. There is no better way to show their crimes," said Rachna Dhingra, a spokesperson for five survivors' groups behind the "Bhopal Special Olympics."
The Bhopal Special Olympics were held Thursday to protest and shame Dow Chemical, one of the corporate-sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics which get underway Friday.
"Dow Chemical as a sponsor violates the very spirit of the Olympics."They are being held in a stadium behind the abandoned Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India, the site of the world's worst industrial accident. In 1984, deadly methyl isocyanate gas poured from the Union Carbide plant -- poisoning the nearby air and claiming thousands of lives instantly, thousands more as time went on, and a generation of children born with severe birth defects. Union Carbide was later taken over by Dow Chemical. Survivors say the company owes them compensation and must clean up the toxic waste still lingering nearly 30 years later.
Five survivor organizations organized the counter Olympics to oppose Dow Chemical's attempts to "greenwash its crimes through the sponsorship of the Olympic Games," representatives of the five organizations said.
"We are doing this mostly due to Dow's attempt to greenwash its crimes," Dhingra told Agence-France Presse.
"We all find it ironic that a corporation that has disabled people in Bhopal is sponsoring the Olympic Games," added Dhingra.
Satinath Sarangi, a protest organizer, said, "Dow Chemical as a sponsor violates the very spirit of the Olympics."
In contrast to the opening ceremony at the London Olympics, The Hindu reports that at the Bhopal Special Olympics "The opening ceremony will draw attention to the many famines caused during the British rule in India, the mass hangings following the 'first battle for Indian independence in 1857,' the massacre at Jalianwala Bagh in 1919 and last but not the least, to the support extended by the British Prime Minister to the Dow Chemical Company."
Protesters highlighting Dow Chemical's attempts at greenwashing may find an easy target in Dow's Olympic mascot, "Hopeiary," a walking hedge-like figure. The company explains: "Explore London with Hopeiary, the planet's Olympic representative. Because even the planet has an Olympic Dream--a greener, more sustainable Olympic Games."
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