And while we reflect on that, let's also reflect on Bhopal, where more people died immediately and 10-fold more have died prematurely or who suffered without the mercy of death or those who were born maimed - all by the criminal negligence of Union Carbide of India.
(To their credit, Union Carbide has a portion of its web site devoted to the Bhopal disaster: Bhopal Information Center.)
On December 3, 1984, 40 tons of methyl isocyanate burst into the air, the result of water improperly added to a chemical mixture at the plant. Depending on how you define 'immediately,' between 4,000 and 15,000 died immediately.
And it gets worse. The BBC recently tested drinking water near the now-vacant plant and found the water contained 1,000 the safe limit of carbon tetrachloride.
Last night's broadcast of BBC America news included an interview with a woman whose 22-year-old son has been severely developmentally disabled because of her exposure to the chemicals.
"The gas ruined his life," says his mother. "Sometimes I wish God had never given Jagdeesh to us. It would have been better if he had never been born."
Meanwhile, guess where the American news media are. Of Drudge, ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox, only NBC had a front page story about the anniversary.
The people who were killed or maimed 25 years ago were poor and far away. Besides, it was an accident.
1 comment:
I listen to the BBC more than any other news source, and the Bhopal tragedy was on the World Service program One Planet today.
I'd also like to note that I noticed that, last week, the Boston Globe website featured the woman who thought she saw Jesus in her clothes iron ABOVE the mother of a five-year-old who took off and was gone for over 24 hours. Something tells me that Jesus prefers that a young mother be found...rather than stories about chicks who have burnt irons.
Post a Comment