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American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

He really is that stupid.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I really should read my own blog.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Infrastructure week. at last.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / That Will Teach Them

That Will Teach Them

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What the hell:

More than 25 years after a plume of toxic gas from an American-owned chemical plant wafted over the slumbering city of Bhopal, killing thousands, eight former executives of the company’s Indian subsidiary were convicted of negligence on Monday. The men were sentenced two years in prison and fined 100,000 rupees, or $2,100.

They were the first criminal convictions stemming from the leak at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, a central Indian city. The leak killed 3,000 people almost instantly, and thousands more died later from the aftereffects of the toxic gas, an ingredient in pesticides the plant produced.

Two thousand dollars.

Reader Interactions

39Comments

  3. 3.

    Cacti

    2 years in prison for 3,000 deaths.

    That’s a sentence of almost 6 hours in prison per death.

  5. 5.

    Poopyman

    @ruemara:
    Brown people. We already know the answer to that question, right?

    ETA: That’s two thousand AND ONE HUNDRED dollars, Cole. Don’t minimize the suffering these poor felons (they are felons, aren’t they?) will have to undergo.

  7. 7.

    wmsheppa

    Shockingly, that’s more than they were expected to get. You forgot to include the bit where the former CEO of Union Carbide is an international fugitive wanted by India. Odds on us extraditing him?

  8. 8.

    El Cid

    Via the Times of India.

    Reacting to the development, representatives of the tragedy’s victims and their families who have been protesting outside the court, said they would approach the Madhya Pradesh High Court to allow the slapping of more stringent charges against all those accused in the case.
    __
    The Magistrate court in Bhopal on Monday convicted all eight Indians accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy case. A Rs 500,000 fine has been imposed on UCIL.
    __
    Toxic gas leak from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in 1984 killed thousands and left an unspecified number battered with diseases and deformity – the toll of victims is still rising.
    __
    Despite Monday’s conviction, there is little closure for victims. Legal experts have alleged that there was an attempt to cover up the case. It took the CBI three long years to file a chargesheet that many belived was weak. Then in 1996 the charges were watered down making all sections carry the maximum punishment of 2 years.
    __
    The charges were also all bailable and with the prime accused in the case – former Union Carbide (USA) chairman Warren Anderson still on the run and unlikely to present himself in Indian court, there is little hope that justice will be served.

  9. 9.

    ErinSiobhan

    It would be a beautiful thing to see the USA extradite Anderson to India. Not holding my breath in anticipation of this happening.

  10. 10.

    Martin

    Wait until Tony Hayward has to host a bunch of PSAs reminding people that they need to properly dispose of their used motor oil and BP is required to fund the new (extinct) pelican exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.

    I don’t doubt that Obama/Holder will get tougher sentences, but that’s what the Supreme Court will reduce it to. Scalia has always liked his seafood a bit oily, so he doesn’t see the problem here.

  11. 11.

    Joshua

    The sad part is, that’s way more punishment than anybody would get for the same disaster in the US. BP may have utterly destroyed the principal livelihood of the entire Gulf region for (at least) a generation, but not one of those fuckers responsible for running without safeties will see even a day of jail time, and they probably won’t even be expected to pay a dime out of their own pockets for this, either.

  12. 12.

    Splitting Image

    Well, at least it provides a benchmark for the Al-Qaeda honchos, if they ever do get caught. After all, the Trade Center bombing killed about the same number of people.

    I’m curious to see how much time they actually serve. A $2,000 fine for a company executive would seem to be more in line with a couple of weekends in a halfway house than a minimum two year sentence in a real jail.

  13. 13.

    Comrade Dread

    I think we could all take a lesson from the Chinese regarding how to treat corporate executives whose irresponsibility or corruption leads to multiple deaths.

  14. 14.

    El Cid

    @Splitting Image: Good point. Al Qa’ida would have been better off just establishing a bunch of industrial plants processing flammable or explosive or toxic or radioactive chemicals and ignored regulations and avoided penalties until they exploded, leaked, or whatever, contribute to a few key Congressmen and party funds, and there likely would have been some Congressional hearings (unsworn, of course, such things are rude for the powerful), and the Al Qa’ida leaders — maybe one of the infinite Al Qa’ida #3 roster — could have ‘accepted full responsibility’ and said they had no idea but would work as hard as possible to assist with aid efforts for the dozens of areas devastated.

  16. 16.

    Lolis

    The Yes Men documentary deals with the Bhopal disaster. It is a must see since they punk the people responsible for this.

  17. 17.

    Bill Section 147

    @El Cid: Careful with that talk. The US is looking for yet another #3 guy from Al Qa’ida and you are showing a particular genius with this comment.

    Poor folks in the gulf region. If only tony Tony had been an Arab instead of a Brit. Then we would be in a froth over the jihad unleashed instead of simply being annoyed that the head of BP is a pompous ass.

  18. 18.

    celticdragonchick

    Free markets solve everything! Huzzah for Union Carbide showing those dead, non Galt Indian moochers who the real winners are!

    In other news…

    In the catagory for obscene court delays, legal claims against the Japanese government concerning literally thousands of Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Phillipina, Dutch and Australian women held as sex slaves in WW II are still pending in Japanese courts and have been for decades.

    It is entirely possible that most if not all the claimants will die before their cases are adjuticated.

  19. 19.

    Citizen Alan

    Well, I’m sure we’ll probably by more successful in trying to hold BP accountable. I’m also pretty sure there’s still a rainbow and a few unicorns floating in my toilet left over from the crap I took last night.

  20. 20.

    LGRooney

    So, that’s $2,100 in 2010 which means about $1,030 in 1985 dollars. If we’re generous to Union Carbide and say that 8,000 people died in total, let’s see… the value of a life in Bhopal in 1985 is a touch more than $1.

  21. 21.

    El Cid

    @Bill Section 147: I gotta give Al Qa’ida credit for having a helluva bench. It would seem to be pretty tough to keep finding qualified candidates to be Al Qa’ida #3, as I guess it would be to find MC’s for Afghan wedding parties.

  22. 22.

    brendancalling

    I will say it again: when ordinary people begin to realize that no one is standing up for them, they begin to lash out.

    people like Hayward and Anderson should get the China treatment: POP POP POP to the dome on TV. Does that sound harsh, in a country that executes retarded people for less? Not to me it doesn’t.

    I remain utterly perplexed that some angry-and-armed Louisiana fishermen haven’t taken up sniper posts in the areas where BP executives make frequent appearances. It is baffling. maybe we should tell the teabaggers that BP is owned by illegal immigrants. That gets their dander up.

  23. 23.

    Gene108

    100,000 rupees isn’t chump change for the average Indian, just like $2,200 will put a serious dent in most American’s pocketbooks, but I’m guessing the guys convicted have the means to make the payments.

    What the Indian press has written.

    Link

    Link

  27. 27.

    Tim

    Sad to say that this is it he best we can expect to see out of the BP shitstorm.

    In 2035, Tony Hayward will be fined about $1000 (current money – it’ll be more like 6666 Ameros in 2035) for his negligence.

    And the John Cole-Tunch hybrid will be blogging about it sarcastically after posting recipes for tuna in a motor oil-balsamic glaze.

  28. 28.

    Pangloss

    $2000 bucks is about what you’d pay for one 1/4 page ad in a major newspaper.

  29. 29.

    horatius

    There was this one police constable who shepherded a lot of people out of harm’s way during the disaster, and possibly saved a few hundred lives. He recently died ( I believe sometime last year) of complications from exposure. The government gave him an award for bravery and a check for about 5000 rupees. That’s about 100$. He’s survived by his wife and two children I believe. I am trying to find that article, haven’t had any luck so far.

    Here are some links with pics. Don’t see them if you have had a baby recently.

    http://www.anindianmuslim.com/2009/12/horrors-of-bhopal-gas-tragedy-1984.html

    http://35mmhighlightreel.blogspot.com/2009/12/bhopal-gas-tragedy-or-shame.html

  32. 32.

    Fern

    The penalty does seem to be on the low side, but even so I’m thinking that two years in an Indian jail in not an insignificant penalty.

  33. 33.

    Tim

    @Fern: I have no idea about the condition of Indian jails. Being a part of the death of thousands, though, has to rate more than 2 years.

  34. 34.

    Delia

    I remember the cover of Newsweek back then. They had a photo of the tragedy and the headline CAN IT HAPPEN HERE?

    Shows where things matter and where they don’t. Of course things have changed. Now the blessings of the free market are allowing more insane catastrophes right here in the home of the brave.

  35. 35.

    Sgt. Jrod and his Howling Commandos

    @Tim: If Indian prisons are anything like American prisons, that 2 year sentence might well turn out to be a sentence to be tortured to death by the other prisoners. This, of course, assumes that they’ll be sent to a real prison that might be housing people who suffered as a result of the disaster, and not a special “medium security” prison for those who are too good for the real thing.

  36. 36.

    mclaren

    Two thousand dollars paid entirely in 20% off coupons or Union Carbide products.

    Justice!

    Stay upwind of it if you don’t want to vomit.

  37. 37.

    kuvasz

    An investigation conducted by the engineering consulting firm Arthur D. Little, which concluded that a single employee secretly and deliberately introduced a large amount of water into the MIC tank by removing a meter and connecting a water hose directly to the tank through the metering port. Carbide claims such a large amount of water could not have found its way into the tank by accident, and safety systems were not designed to deal with intentional sabotage. Documents cited in the Arthur D. Little Report as well as in the recent book The Black Box of Bhopal state that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with UCIL engineers tried to simulate the water-washing hypothesis as a route of the entry of water into the tank. This all-important test failed to support this as a route of water entry. UCC claims the plant staff falsified numerous records to distance themselves from the incident, and that the Indian Government impeded its investigation and declined to prosecute the employee responsible, presumably because that would weaken its allegations of negligence by Union Carbide.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster#Investigation_into_possible_sabotage

    My PhD advisor, an ex-employee of Arthur D. Little worked on the Bhopal Report. He believed only sabotage could have caused the disaster.

  38. 38.

    Zach

    It must be interesting to set criminal fines in a country like India with such disparate levels of personal wealth. I suspect that the state of the law in the India of 1985 was a little different than it is today, and that these guys had to be prosecuted under those standards. Union Carbide did pay out $500 million 1985 dollars, or a billion 2010 dollars in civil damages. Pretty much equivalent to damages paid out to 9/11 victims and scheduled to be paid out to workers suffering injuries related to the clean up.

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