---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shweta Narayan Date: Mon, Nov 2, 2009
Dear all: The Hindu Group of Newspapers has sought out Dow Chemical as sponsor for Chennai's signature event -- the November Music Festival that runs from 17 November to 22 November. Check out: http://www.hinduonnet.com/novemberfest/who.htm for program and other details. Take Action Against this sponsorship. The Hindu and the Frontline magazine have been consistent and sensitive in covering Bhopal over the last two decades. It is unfortunate that these publications have succumbed to the financial offer from Dow in this 25th anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal disaster. TAKE ACTION: Regardless of where you are from, please call, write, sms the organisers. Tell them you're a music lover and that you're distressed that a corporate criminal that is sheltering Union Carbide is sponsoring this wonderful event. Tell them not to let Dow Chemical gain legitimacy by associating with this event, and to not let Dow Chemical tarnish this event. Those of you who can do so, please write, email, call the musicians and urge them to not attend the event unless Dow's sponsorship is rejected. This is a small something we can all do to let Dow Chemical know that we Remember Bhopal, and that we'll not let Dow escape its liabilities by doling out money. CONTACT DETAILS OF THE HINDU EVENT ORGANISERS Tel: +91 44 28575809. Mobile (For sms): +91 9841962820 Email: [email protected] http://beta.thehindu.com/arts/article40750.ece Abida Parveen Pandit Channulal Mishra Sanjeev Abhyankar O.S. Arun James Ryan Quartet Korean band Gong Myoung Osibisa BACKGROUND: You may recall that Dow Chemical, the owner of Union Carbide, is on a desperate campaign to gain legitimacy by associating with reputed Indian institutions. In 2007-2008, students and faculty of IITs around the country rejected Dow's overtures and attempts at sponsoring events due to Dow's intransigence in resolving the long-festering human rights and environmental issues in Bhopal. IIT students opted against allowing Dow Chemical to recruit students on campus. IIT Delhi's mechanical department returned sponsorship money given by Dow after students, alumni and faculty caused a major uproar against taking money from a company known to have a callous disregard for Indian law and lives. On December 2-3, 1984, a massive gas leak from Union Carbide's ill-designed pesticide factory killed more than 8000 Bhopalis within days. At least 150,000 of the more than 500,000 people exposed to the gases are still suffering from chronic illnesses. The company has left behind several thousand tonnes of toxic wastes in and around the now-closed factory site. These wastes are leaching their toxins into the groundwater, and more than 25000 indigent people are consuming this poisoned water. In 1992, Union Carbide was proclaimed an absconder by the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal for failing to honour summons issued to appear in court to face charges of culpable homicide, among other offences. The company has shown its disregard for Indian law. In 2001, Dow Chemical took over Union Carbide. But it says that it only acquired Carbide's assets and not its liabilities. Dow claims to be a law-abiding and ethical company. But its behaviour in India and abroad says otherwise. 1. It has refused to produce its subsidiary Union Carbide in the Bhopal court to face trial. 2. Despite the fact that it is Union Carbide's wastes that lie in Bhopal, Dow Chemical has said it will do nothing to clean it up, or to provide people with clean water. It has said the taxpayers must assume the responsibility of clean up, and is strongarming the Indian Government to drop proceedings against it or face a slowdown of investments from America. 3. Union Carbide is a fugitive from Indian courts, and is barred from selling its products and services in India. Dow Chemical attempted to profit from illegally selling Union Carbide's technology to Indian Oil Company by lying to the company that the technology was Dow's own. In 2005, Indian Oil cancelled the deal with Dow Chemical after being alerted of this by Bhopal campaigners. 4. In 2007, Dow Chemical was fined $325,000 by the US financial regulator Securities Exchange Commission after it was caught for bribing Indian agriculture ministry officials to the tune of $200,000 (Rs. 80 lakhs). The bribe was paid to expedite the registration of a toxic pesticide called Dursban that was banned for domestic use in the US in 2000, after evidence surfaced linking exposure to this chemical with brain damage among children. For more information on Bhopal, visit: www.bhopal.org, www.bhopal.net, www.studentsforbhopal.org -- "That's the whole problem with science. You've got a bunch of empiricists trying to describe things of unimaginable wonder." - -- Bill Watterson, Calvin And Hobbes Sent from Chennai, TN, India -- "[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical' algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of precise information." - Donald Knuth --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
