Dow, Bhopal and the $1bn push for damages

[dipsydoodle]

Source: The Independent Saturday 26 November 2011

At 12.05am on 3 December 1984, 27 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide factory in the middle of Bhopal. Hundreds of thousands of people and animals were exposed to the poisonous gas as a result of catastrophic safety failures.

Around 10,000 people died, and another 15,000 are believed to have died in the aftermath. More than half a million people were left with chemical-related injuries.

In 2001, Dow Chemical, which manufactured Agent Orange and napalm used by the US in Vietnam, bought Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), the majority shareholder and financial controller of Union Carbide India – which operated the Bhopal factory.

Dow says that the $490m settlement by UCC in 1991 to compensate gas victims was final. The Indian government is currently seeking between $600m (£388m) and $1.24bn from Dow and UCC in the Supreme Court. Dow's sponsorship deal with the International Olympic Committee is worth $1bn.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/dow-bhopal-and-the-1bn-push-for-damages-6268208.html

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Despite the history of the subject this is LBN - India is threatening to boycott the Olympics. The issue is Dow's sponsorship deal with the International Olympic Committee which is worth worth $1bn.

Associated item :

Robin Scott-Elliot: This could be a body blow to the reputation of the Games.

One of the most impressive features of six years of preparation for the Olympics has been how smoothly the £9.3bn project has run.

Aside from a rumpus over ticket sales that ended with an all-but-sold-out Games, there has been little for critics to latch on to. Now a relatively trifling sum in the context of such an immense budget (the wrap around the £500m publicly funded stadium will cost Dow £7m) threatens to strike a body blow to the London Games' reputation. India matters little in Olympic sporting terms – the country's sporting stars are consistent underachievers – but if their athletes choose a boycott (a word that brings Olympic organisers out in a cold sweat) the message will resonate beyond sport.

Lord Coe and Locog, the London organisers, may have felt their hands were tied to an extent by Dow's standing as a sponsor of the International Olympic Committee, but it has become a mess of their own making. Locog raised £700m in sponsorship in the middle of tough economic times towards running the Games – public money is spent only on the construction of the venues and infrastructure – and to fall down over a fraction of that is an error of judgement, especially as there is no need for a wrap around the stadium. It's a cosmetic addition that threatens to cause some lasting damage.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/robin-scottelliot-this-could-be-a-body-blow-to-the-reputation-of-the-games-6268209.html

[DissedByBush]

1. Revolting Cocks

Union Carbide Bhopal Version

Great early industrial song, appropriate.

[plumbob]

2. Union Carbide should have gotten the death penalty.

Oh, wait, corporations are only people when it suits their purposes.

Besides, they were just brown people murdered, anyway, right?