I am in Bhopal. This morning I took an auto (like a tuk tuk) from my hotel in the heart of the old town, over to what was Union Carbide's chemical plant. I wanted to see just how close the plant had been located to a centre of population.
On 2nd December 1984 the plant leaked a substantial amount of MIC (Methyl Isocyanate) into the air. Some 20,000 people died within a few weeks of exposure to the gas, and tens of thousands more are still seriously ill.
Compensation paid by Union Carbide thus far bears little relation to the scale of the ongoing medical need, and Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide with the specific understanding that no further compensation would be payable. There has also been no criminal consequence for Union Carbide's US parent company.
It remains a symbol of corporate impunity.
There is next to no public discussion about the responsibility of banks for the tragic consequences of the financial crisis known to have occurred across the globe. Will the financial crisis be allowed to go down in history as the next Bhopal?
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