08 December 2014

A tragedy...

the root cause of which was ignorance.....great, dire, tragic ignorance of those who worked the plant.

Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain

A brilliantly made film, and a must-see one...

No rain - no crops - no pesticides needed - so, no sale - therefore, no renovation or repair, in fact, cost-cutting decisions were taken placing very little importance on safety.

Combine this with dire poverty, the Indian specialty of jugaad, corruption, an indifferent local government, callous politicians, delay, cynicism, the corporate mantra of maximizing profits at any cost, incomplete release of data, and you have situation ripe for explosion.

To my mind, the most compelling and damning charge is ignorance - the ignorance of the workers as to their actual work, safety precautions and their rights.

Agreed, Union Carbide did not apologize and their compensation was meager.

But, what did the Indian government do?

There are still families out there who are trying to come to terms with what happened and striving to get their lives going again...