Dow Chemicals apart from its role in respect of the take over of the assets
of Union Carbide in Bhopal is a war criminal . Kindly lead the activities of
this Company in respect of Agent Orange among other chemicals used to devastate
countries in furtherance of the war agenda .
Niloufer Bhagwat
----- Original Message -----
From: Kamayani
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Sent: Saturday, March 03, 2012 10:55 PM
Subject: [humanrights-movement:5627] We will carry the torch of Bhopal to
London's Olympic Games
Why is Dow Chemical being allowed to sponsor this year's Olympics, when there
are so many unanswered questions?
Indra Sinha
guardian.co.uk, Friday 2 March 2012 22.30 GMT
"What on earth possessed Locog to drag a foreign corporation with a
controversial history into Britain's 'greenest ever' games?" Illustration: Jim
Sillavan for the Guardian
This week has been surreal. On Monday, at 7.30am, the phone rang. It was
Farah and Tim, friends from Brighton who help run our tiny Bhopal Medical
Appeal. They said Mike Bonanno of activist network the Yes Men had just phoned
to say we must drop everything and go straight to the Frontline Club in London.
WikiLeaks was about to release a number of secret intelligence reports in which
we were all named. A private intelligence agency has been spying on us for
handlers at Dow Chemical.
How bizarre. I'd forgotten I was an activist. What of the others? What could
Dow be hoping to find? Much named in the reports is Colin Toogood, a qualified
architect turned DJ who has been doing wonderful work with damaged children in
Bhopal.
Then there are "the Edwards", as Dow's anti-activist squad calls them. Tim,
back in 1999, cycled from Brighton to Bhopal to raise money for our free
clinic. In the city's gas-affected slums he met a pretty Bhopal girl
translating for a foreign film crew. She liked him, and instantly and
inevitably they fell in love. She turned out to be a princess, the
great-granddaughter of the last begum (queen) of Bhopal.
If this sounds like the fantasy of a desperate Hollywood screenwriter,
imagine pitching the story of Bhopal to a studio producer. Nobody would believe
it.
For almost 30 years, some of the poorest people on earth, sick, living on the
edge of starvation, without funds, friends or political influence, have found
themselves struggling for their lives against one of the world's richest
corporations, backed by the governments, military and economic elites of two of
the world's most powerful nations.
The corporation has it all – wealth, power, political influence, top American
and Indian lawyers, PR companies, the ear of presidents, prime ministers and
legislators, the power to twist arms, bend policy to its will, and manipulate
the courts and laws of two countries to evade justice in either.
The "nothing people", literally, have nothing. Their efforts to obtain
medical help and justice have been opposed and obstructed in every possible
way. It's David against an army of Goliaths.
The Bhopal survivors, thrown back on their own resources, made the pleasant
discovery that the slums were full of talent. Out of this poorest of
communities came a flowering of science, art and political intelligence. They
taught themselves medicine, environmental science, law and politics. They
learned the art of forensic investigation, and some of their detective work has
the dramatic edge of a Le Carré thriller.
Neglected by every authority that had a duty of care, they have practised
kindness and compassion, opened two free award-winning clinics, and brought
healing to thousands.
Union Carbide, whose gases killed their families and whose abandoned
chemicals contaminated their drinking water, has never been brought to justice.
Carbide has now merged into Dow, but Dow disclaims responsibility for Carbide's
undischarged Bhopal liabilities – including criminal charges relating to 25,000
deaths.
What have we "activists" been doing? Trying to tell this story to the world,
and to ask good-hearted people, who believe in justice and fair play, to help.
Last year saw the arrival among the ranks of Dow's rich and powerful allies
of the International Olympic Committee, and the London 2012 organisers Locog,
headed by a British milord, the erstwhile Seb Coe. What on earth possessed Coe
and Locog to drag a foreign corporation with a controversial history into
Britain's "greenest ever" games?
In vain it seems, India's government, the Indian Olympics Association, Indian
athletes, as well as Bhopal survivors, have protested at the inclusion of Dow,
deeply mired in the Bhopal disaster.
When Locog uncritically repeats Dow's PR statements, varying them by hardly a
word, when those same statements are being challenged in court by the Indian
government, they are in effect finding for Dow before the court has even sat.
The media in the UK and elsewhere could do a lot more to investigate the
things that Dow says. In particular, here are the questions everyone should
ask: who controls Union Carbide; why does Carbide not answer the criminal
charges; whose chemicals are causing the current poisoning?
Finally, for the benefit of Dow and Coe, here is my own deepest understanding
of what Bhopal is about, and the reason why I will never abandon the people of
Bhopal.
A great catastrophe, followed by years of illness, poverty and injustice, can
overwhelm and crush the human spirit, or can enable ordinary people to discover
that they are extraordinary. Such people find that they have the grit to
survive, the defiance to face their persecutors, and the courage to fight back.
Out of shared struggle, even in the midst of terrible sickness, comes strength,
the joy of friendship, the realisation that they are not weak, powerless or
contemptible, but possessed of great power – the power to bring about political
change, to do real good in their community and in the world.
No one knows how this story will end, but it won't be over until we enter and
become part of it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/02/torch-bhopal-london-olympics-dow-chemical?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9038
--
Adv Kamayani Bali Mahabal
+919820749204
skype-lawyercumactivist
Hey folks, coined this term ” Kracktivism “, check out my blog
http://kractivist.wordpress.com/Kracktivism
Blog for girl child- http://fassmumbai.wordpress.com/
https://twitter.com/#!/Kracktivist
https://www.facebook.com/kamayani
I carry a torch in one hand
And a bucket of water in the other:
With these things I am going to set fire to Heaven
And put out the flames of Hell
So that voyagers to God can rip the veils
And see the real goal.......
Rabia (Rabi'a Al-'Adawiyya)
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