Must see TV tonight - Bhopal
Discussion
BBC 1 tonight.
This is a terrible story that will make you sad and angry.
And its all true.
20 years ago there was a problem overnight in the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in India.
When the morning came, the city found that it was under a cloud of poisonous gas from the American-owned plant.
More than 7,000 people died within days. Their deaths were slow and painful. More than 200,000 people were seriously affected.
Even now, people die every day from illnesses related to the disaster, and thousands of children suffer.
Union Carbide have never admitted who caused the accident. The only compensation paid to victims families equated to just £320 for each person who died.
It is a shameful, awful story that will leave you stunned for words. And it is to America's shame that even now, 20 years later, people are still dying while the company that caused it is not being held accountable.
This disaster was more horrific than any 9/11.
And yet no-one has really ever paid for what happened, and continues to happen.
Watch it and be gobsmacked that such a thing is allowed to happen.
More info here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bhopal/default.stm
And here:
www.bhopal.net/
This is a terrible story that will make you sad and angry.
And its all true.
20 years ago there was a problem overnight in the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal in India.
When the morning came, the city found that it was under a cloud of poisonous gas from the American-owned plant.
More than 7,000 people died within days. Their deaths were slow and painful. More than 200,000 people were seriously affected.
Even now, people die every day from illnesses related to the disaster, and thousands of children suffer.
Union Carbide have never admitted who caused the accident. The only compensation paid to victims families equated to just £320 for each person who died.
It is a shameful, awful story that will leave you stunned for words. And it is to America's shame that even now, 20 years later, people are still dying while the company that caused it is not being held accountable.
This disaster was more horrific than any 9/11.
And yet no-one has really ever paid for what happened, and continues to happen.
Watch it and be gobsmacked that such a thing is allowed to happen.
More info here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bhopal/default.stm
And here:
www.bhopal.net/
I'm not being "anti-American" as such, but the thing that offends me is that the world is expected to be horrified about 9/11 and to do something about it, while America is not apparently horrified enough about an even worse destruction of life, at least not sufficiently horrified to do something about it....
Its a terrible double-standard in my book.
Surely the US gov should have locked up those responsible, and forced the company to pay compensation sufficient to ensure for the care and well being of the victims for as long as it takes. If it means that the company goes bust, then gov should intervene.
Just turning their back on them because they are poor, and the country has lacked political leverage, is simple racism in my book, and displays a total absence of humanity.
Its a terrible double-standard in my book.
Surely the US gov should have locked up those responsible, and forced the company to pay compensation sufficient to ensure for the care and well being of the victims for as long as it takes. If it means that the company goes bust, then gov should intervene.
Just turning their back on them because they are poor, and the country has lacked political leverage, is simple racism in my book, and displays a total absence of humanity.
968 said:
968 said:
It does, however, go to prove, that the media don't value a life, unless it is a western life. The faceless thousands of Bhopal who died and continue to suffer mean nothing to most, as "they are over there."
Yeah. That's why there's an hour long programme about them on BBC1 I suppose.
yeah about 20 years later
And its made by the BBC...
Don't think this is known at all back over in the US...
I'm not playing the race card.
Simply trying to understand why it is that the world in general gets upset when westerners die, but apparently just changes TV channels and turns a blind eye when Africans or Asians die.
Remember Rwanda, or the current war in the Sudan, or the fact that Band Aid is on AGAIN after 20 years. Literally millions of people died. But the world just forgot about it and moved on.
The average life expectancy of a man living in Zambia is 33 years old. If something happened in the Uk to make it the same way here, the whole world would take notice.
And, to get back to the programme, if 7000 people died in a day or two in an industrial accident ( which could have been avoided ) in Birmingham for example, I think it is fair to say that rather more fuss would be made than has been made about Bhopal...
Simply trying to understand why it is that the world in general gets upset when westerners die, but apparently just changes TV channels and turns a blind eye when Africans or Asians die.
Remember Rwanda, or the current war in the Sudan, or the fact that Band Aid is on AGAIN after 20 years. Literally millions of people died. But the world just forgot about it and moved on.
The average life expectancy of a man living in Zambia is 33 years old. If something happened in the Uk to make it the same way here, the whole world would take notice.
And, to get back to the programme, if 7000 people died in a day or two in an industrial accident ( which could have been avoided ) in Birmingham for example, I think it is fair to say that rather more fuss would be made than has been made about Bhopal...
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