EARTHJUSTICE, the Earth's lawyers, wins another for us! From +Earthjustice .....
The EPA just pulled registration for Dow’s Enlist Duo herbicide!
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BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
Showing posts with label dow chemical. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dow chemical. Show all posts
25 November 2015
HUGE VICTORY! EPA pulls registration for Dow's Enlist Duo herbicide, citing high toxicity levels 25NOV15
EARTHJUSTICE, the Earth's lawyers, wins another for us! From +Earthjustice .....
28 July 2012
DOW CHEMICAL, BOPHAL, INDIA AND THE 2012 LONDON OLYMPICS & PBS SYRIA VIDEO & Terror Games: Syria, Russia and the Olympics 26,27&28JUL12
THE Olympic Games are supposed to be all about fostering sportsmanship and world peace. The London Olympic Committee has tarnished this goal in two ways. First, in the name of profitability they have allowed dow to be a corporate sponsor, taking dow's money while the company leaves the people of Bophal, India still struggling to overcome the environmental disaster dow unleashed on that community on 2-3DEZ1984 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster ). If dow has the money to sponsor the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London they should have the money to continue the restoration and treatment of Bophal and it's families. Here are some pictures of dow's legacy in Bophal, keep them in mind when watching the opening ceremony and every time you see a commercial by dow during the Olympics.
The second action taken by the London Olympic Committee that exposed their hypocrisy of the ideals of the games was to allow the primary Russian arms dealer to the Syrian government of bashar al-assad, vladimir lisin, to attend the opening ceremony and the 2012 games. He is a merchant of mass murder, massacres, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and to allow him a presence at the games is nothing short of an endorsement of his actions. Below is an article from United Against Genocide objecting to victor lisin being allowed to attend the games, followed by coverage of the Syrian civil war from NPR.....
By Bama Athreya
This post originally appeared on OpEdNews.
Typically, the Olympic Games are an opportunity for the international community to come together by promoting peace and preserving human dignity through sport. But this year’s Games run the risk of being tarnished by a Russian Olympic official who has been enabling the Syrian regime.
Russia’s richest man, a steel tycoon named Vladimir Lisin, has been helping supply Russian-made arms to the Syrian government responsible for slaughtering thousands of its own people. According to news reports, just one day after the Houla massacre, one of Lisin’s ships reached Syria’s second largest port to offload an alleged shipment of weapons from St. Petersburg.
The Russian government has rewarded Lisin’s loyalty with a top position on their Olympic Committee. And as the families in Syria continue to live in terror amid falling bombs and sniper fire, Lisin is traveling to London to participate in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.
Over 19,000 people have been killed in Syria and the violence intensifies every day. A protracted civil war in Syria now seems inevitable, which will undoubtedly lead to the loss of many more civilian lives. In fact, the situation in Syria is now officially being called a civil war by the International Red Cross.
Yet, Russia continues to support Assad’s murderous regime — recently vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that would support negotiations — and people like Lisin are profiting from it.
The multi-billion dollar arms trade between Russia and Syria has been well exposed in recent months. In 2011, the Russian government provided over $1 billion in weapons to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and over recent weeks attempted to ship attack helicopters and munitions to the Syrian military.
The profits that Lisin has made are now tarnishing Russia’s gold at the Olympics. The oligarch is offering $1 million as reward to every Russian athlete who wins gold at the 2012 games. While the aim of prize money is to inspire gold medal success, it will leave those achievements with a bloody tarnish.
Keeping Lisin from attending the games will add to the much-needed international pressure against Russia and the arms dealers enabling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. We must insist that those who enable Syria’s continued attacks on its own men, women and children pay a price.
It should be made clear to the London Organizing Committee: There is no room at this year’s Games for individuals who enable mass atrocities for their own financial gain.
Together we will stop the deadly flow of arms into Syria by exposing unscrupulous weapons dealers like Vladimir Lisin.
http://blog.endgenocide.org/blog/2012/07/27/terror-games-syria-russia-and-the-olympics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=terror-games-syria-russia-and-the-olympics
GWEN IFILL: Syria acknowledged for the first
time that it has chemical and biological weapons. But as fierce fighting
there continued, the Syrian foreign minister said the weapons wouldn't
be used to crush the rebels. President Obama said Syrian leader Bashar
al-Assad would be held accountable if his regime did use chemical
weapons.
We have two reports about the war in Syria from Independent Television News, beginning with John Irvine on the shelling in the country's second largest city, Aleppo. He filed his story from Beirut, Lebanon.
JOHN IRVINE: A column of Syrian army tanks used to be an irresistible force, but not anymore. This is a rebel ambush in the streets of Aleppo. One tank, the rebels commandeer. At least two others are destroyed. A burning hulk becomes the backdrop for a triumphant group photograph.
As the war escalates, the Syrian armed forces are digging deeper into their arsenal. Fast jets are now being used for bombing runs. The regime has thrown almost everything it has against its own people, but it apparently draws the line at chemical weapons.
JIHAD MAKDISSI, Syrian Foreign Ministry: Any talks of WMD or any unconventional weapon that the Syrian Arab Republic possess would never, would never be used against civilian or against the Syrian people during this crisis.
JOHN IRVINE: What he said next amounted to a warning to the outside world not to get involved.
JIHAD MAKDISSI: These weapons are meant to be used only and strictly in the event of external aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic.
WILLIAM HAGUE, British foreign secretary: What is actually happening is, their own people are rising up against a brutal police state. It has nothing to do with any aggression from anywhere else in the world.
JOHN IRVINE: This conflict is 16 months old. But, still, both sides share an ability to live to fight another day.
GWEN IFILL: Damascus has been the scene of pitched battles between rebel and government troops since the bomb attack that killed four of Assad's closest security officials last week. There have been ongoing clashes in a neighborhood in the capital known as Midan.
Alex Thomson reports on the devastation there.
ALEX THOMSON: The banality of normality, Damascene traffic jams again a feature of life here. The gains claimed by the rebels in the capital appear exaggerated.
The regime's boast that they have pushed the fighters out of some districts altogether is ever more credible, but independent reporting is near impossible. We're heading for Midan, where fighting has been prolonged and intense in recent days. An army checkpoint seals off the edge of the district. You film covertly and fast and move on in a game of cat-and-mouse to try and get into the area.
And then, our guide, who would better stay anonymous, says, we're here. Look around. He hardly needs to. Government forces turned helicopter gunships, tanks, mortars, rockets, heavy machine guns on this district for three days.
The government says, in two days' time, families can begin moving back into Midan. But just take a look at what the family will find when they move back to this house. People say, yes, of course, the rebel fighters have been pushed out, but they will fight another day in another way. And there is no chance that President Assad will win this civil war.
A shopkeeper who fled the fighting comes back to find his business has disintegrated. In theory, the government will pay, but all around us, they're talking now off-camera of a massacre here. Finally, one man will tell us anonymously everything he knows.
MAN: Because this is the only family who stay in their district during that time. They want to leave in a peaceful way. And they couldn't right now.
ALEX THOMSON: Channel 4 News spoke to seven residents independently of each other, who all either named the Ismaili family as the victims or the figure of 16 being killed.
We were sent this video said to show the scene of the killings. The details of a family shot through the head can't be shown. You do see the poignant sight of an unfinished family meal. House after house trashed. Everyone here said soldiers or the shabiha militias went on an orgy of looting here. They know Syrians keep large amounts of cash at home.
This man said the militias stole 18,000 pounds from his place -- outside, the pathetic remains of rebel barricades, futile against organized ground and air assault, the tank tracks of a departed government army. Weirdly, the authorities have fastidiously painted over most of the anti-Assad graffiti which covered the walls around here and left their own: "The soldiers of God were here."
President Assad has won the battle for Damascus, and won it convincingly, but everyone knows winning the battle is not the same as winning the war.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/syria_07-23.html
Video from Al Jazeera
JUDY WOODRUFF: Syrian battle groups bore down
on the country's commercial capital today. They targeted rebels in
Aleppo, where some three million people were already under air and
artillery attack.
We begin with Alex Thomson of Independent Television News reporting from Damascus.
ALEX THOMSON: Damascus one week into the battle for the city and video broadcast by Syrian state television shows sustained firefights yesterday in the city's outskirts.
But it is Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, where the latest major assault is likely. Pounded again by the regime's forces from both the north and the south, helicopters move overhead as troops on the ground prepare for a major assault.
Activist groups in Syria claim that the government troops are being redeployed for a coming operation. Such claims are impossible to verify, but several sources now report two Syrian army convoys, the first heading from Hama Military Airport, apparently about 170 vehicles, including tanks, and these are massing at al-Zarba, south of the city.
Another column is heading to Aleppo from Idlib province. With the rebel counterattacks under way, here, what's claimed to be the wreckage of one small part of the Idlib convoy, and nearby a captured government tank.
The rebel attacks continue elsewhere. Here in Latakia,
it's claimed they attacked two army bases. In Homs, shelling by
government forces has scarcely ceased for more than three months, but
they still don't control the entire city. The capital quieter today,
though still some occasional shell fire on the outskirts.
But if the rebels cannot win in the major cities, they certainly appear to be gaining ground in the propaganda war by being willing to invite along cameras.
Yet, here in Damascus, all our requests to film with the Syrian army have been refused point-blank. Could we speak to a government minister? Impossible. What about a government spokesman even? No chance. The regime apparently thinks this will still do, inside, the endless pictures of the great leader and his dad, the same video of military antics played on TV over and over again everyday, and outside, the pristine flags, the murals, the devices of a regime strangely lost in personality politics of the Cold War.
Some small opposition parties are tolerated here, so long as they're powerless. Incredibly, it's actually easier to interview one of their leaders than it is to speak to anybody from the government.
Hassan Abdullah Azim is chief of the opposition Nasseri (ph) party and a lawyer in Damascus. He's been beaten and tortured by the regime in the past, but he's still not afraid to call it even now.
HASSAN ABDULLAH AZIM, opposition leader (through translator): President Assad should step down and hand over power to the people. We should move forward and organize new free elections for the people to choose the government they want.
ALEX THOMSON: For now, all that sounds like a distant dream.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/syria1_07-26.html
JUDY WOODRUFF: For a first-hand look into
events on the ground in Syria, I'm joined now by NPR's Kelly McEvers.
She has just completed a weeklong reporting trip to northwestern Syria,
near the Turkish border, where she visited a number of towns currently
under rebel control.
Kelly McEvers, welcome.
And how did you decide where you were going inside Syria? We have a map, I think, we are going to be able to show people.
KELLY MCEVERS, NPR: The rebels have basically carved out their own sort of unofficial buffer zone there in northern Syria. It's right next to the Turkish border.
For them, the benefit is that they're able to get their wounded out into Turkey a lot more easily than they could before, and that they can basically get weapons and money into Syria from that -- from the Turkish area. So, for us, it made a lot of sense to sort of -- to get a sense of who the rebels are to spend time in the region that they control, instead of trying to sort of cower and hide and go with them undercover from place to place, to be in this kind of swathe of towns and villages that they actually control.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Where they are relatively safe, free from government assault on a regular basis or...
KELLY MCEVERS: At this time.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes.
KELLY MCEVERS: If you were to try to look at the map and say where exactly do the rebels control, every day, it changes a little bit. It morphs and changes. On the edges of the area they control, the government might take a town back.
There was one town when we were there that switched hands between the government and the rebels four times. Why? Because the government realizes that this border area is important to the rebels. They realize that it is this buffer zone. And so they are trying to sort of regain control.
But, obviously, the government's army is stretched and sees that its priorities are elsewhere, namely Damascus and Aleppo.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tell us about the rebels you met. And you talked to a number of them. Who are they? What are they like?
KELLY MCEVERS: It's a really good question and it's one I think a lot of people want to answer right now.
They call themselves the Free Syrian Army, but that's about as far as sort of the unification goes. They don't necessarily answer to a single leader. They're a bunch of disparate groups spread out across the country, some say up to 1,000 of them. One unit might only be eight guys, mostly civilians.
I think the image is that these guys are mostly defected soldiers, people who leave the army and then join the rebels. A lot of those guys actually go to these refugee camps in Turkey, for fear of what would happen to their family after they defect. So a lot of the guys we have met are civilians, workers, farmers, people who decided to take up arms and sort of defend this uprising, this revolution against the president.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And relatively lightly armed, in contrast to what the government has.
KELLY MCEVERS: Exactly. They are so outgunned right now. They're basically operating with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs.
That's another key component to their sort of arsenal right now. That's how they deal with regime tanks.
But when you talk about a fully equipped army with tanks, artillery, mortars, helicopters, and now we have seen jets being employed in this fight by the regime's army, you can see that the rebels are definitely the underdogs here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Kelly McEvers, what about the civilians you talked to? And what are they saying about al this? Are they caught in the middle? Are they hoping it's all going to be over? Are they lining up with one side or another?
KELLY MCEVERS: I was in just this very small pocket of Syria, so it's important to say that I can only speak for the people that I was with at that particular time.
By and large, in these villages, they see the rebels as their only hope. They say, look, 16, 17 months ago, we went into the streets to protest against our president. We said we wanted to bring down the president. The regime shot at us, detained us, and tortured us. And no one came to our aid except these guys. These guys picked up guns. And maybe some of them are my cousins and uncles and brothers. They picked up guns. They came here to defend us and we welcome them.
This, they say despite the fact that the rebels' presence in their town sometimes brings the ire of the government. It might mean that civilian homes get shelled, that people die. They say, we don't care. We're willing to take that risk because these are the only people here to protect us. So the rebels definitely have hearts and minds in these towns.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The morale overall, though, was what? What did you find?
KELLY MCEVERS: Again, people were pretty willing to stay on message, especially when talking to a Western journalist. Again, we support these rebels, we support the cause. It's just any day now that we're going to take down the regime.
While I was inside Syria, there was this high-level attack inside Damascus that killed four high-ranking officials in the Syrian government. So, I think that was a real morale boost. And a few days after that, you saw a lot of units going to Aleppo. I was very close to Aleppo, Syria's largest city in the north.
And you saw a lot of rebel units going there, sort of going to take up the fight, and going all the way to Damascus as well. It looks like the government has regained control in Damascus and may soon do the same in Aleppo. So, that morale may turn around pretty quickly.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You had some interesting conversations with people, rebels and citizens, about why the United States isn't doing more. Explain a little about that.
KELLY MCEVERS: Yes, I think there's a lot of anger. I think people look at the case of Libya and they look at the case of other places where the U.S. or at least international community has done more to intervene on the diplomatic level, on the military level.
Look, I think Syrians are smart enough to know that they don't want an Iraq situation. I think most people would say, we don't want anyone to come in and invade and occupy our country. I think they're OK with that. And they're also smart enough to know that the Libya scenario probably doesn't make sense for NATO or the United States. A no-fly zone...
JUDY WOODRUFF: The no-fly zone.
KELLY MCEVERS: ... would be much more complicated in Syria. They get that.
But they say, look, how about some coordination? How about some help? How about some training? There's a lot of things that you could do. You could fly airplanes over our country and tell us, hey, there's some tanks moving this way and there's no tanks on this road, reconnaissance, intelligence, those sorts of things that frankly Western militaries are good at.
And they see that that's not happening. And they say that it's not much longer that they're going to be willing to accept this help. I think, at some point, they are going to refuse it at any cost and it might be too late for any intervention.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Kelly McEvers, NPR, an extraordinary trip. Thank you very much.
KELLY MCEVERS: You're welcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And online, you can find links to four of Kelly's reports for NPR this week from the Turkish-Syrian border.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/syria2_07-26.html
Terror Games: Syria, Russia and the Olympics
By Bama Athreya
Vladimir Lisin, Russian steel tycoon and vice president of the Russian Olympic Committee who has delivered arms to Syria.
Typically, the Olympic Games are an opportunity for the international community to come together by promoting peace and preserving human dignity through sport. But this year’s Games run the risk of being tarnished by a Russian Olympic official who has been enabling the Syrian regime.
Russia’s richest man, a steel tycoon named Vladimir Lisin, has been helping supply Russian-made arms to the Syrian government responsible for slaughtering thousands of its own people. According to news reports, just one day after the Houla massacre, one of Lisin’s ships reached Syria’s second largest port to offload an alleged shipment of weapons from St. Petersburg.
The Russian government has rewarded Lisin’s loyalty with a top position on their Olympic Committee. And as the families in Syria continue to live in terror amid falling bombs and sniper fire, Lisin is traveling to London to participate in the Olympic Opening Ceremonies.
Over 19,000 people have been killed in Syria and the violence intensifies every day. A protracted civil war in Syria now seems inevitable, which will undoubtedly lead to the loss of many more civilian lives. In fact, the situation in Syria is now officially being called a civil war by the International Red Cross.
Yet, Russia continues to support Assad’s murderous regime — recently vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that would support negotiations — and people like Lisin are profiting from it.
The multi-billion dollar arms trade between Russia and Syria has been well exposed in recent months. In 2011, the Russian government provided over $1 billion in weapons to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and over recent weeks attempted to ship attack helicopters and munitions to the Syrian military.
The profits that Lisin has made are now tarnishing Russia’s gold at the Olympics. The oligarch is offering $1 million as reward to every Russian athlete who wins gold at the 2012 games. While the aim of prize money is to inspire gold medal success, it will leave those achievements with a bloody tarnish.
Keeping Lisin from attending the games will add to the much-needed international pressure against Russia and the arms dealers enabling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. We must insist that those who enable Syria’s continued attacks on its own men, women and children pay a price.
It should be made clear to the London Organizing Committee: There is no room at this year’s Games for individuals who enable mass atrocities for their own financial gain.
Together we will stop the deadly flow of arms into Syria by exposing unscrupulous weapons dealers like Vladimir Lisin.
http://blog.endgenocide.org/blog/2012/07/27/terror-games-syria-russia-and-the-olympics/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=terror-games-syria-russia-and-the-olympics
REPORT AIR DATE: July 23, 2012
Forces Clash in Syria's Two Largest Cities
SUMMARY
President Bashar al-Assad's regime and the Free Syrian Army battled for control over Syria's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. Independent Television News' John Irvine and Alex Thomson report on the violence that continues between rebels and government troops.
We have two reports about the war in Syria from Independent Television News, beginning with John Irvine on the shelling in the country's second largest city, Aleppo. He filed his story from Beirut, Lebanon.
JOHN IRVINE: A column of Syrian army tanks used to be an irresistible force, but not anymore. This is a rebel ambush in the streets of Aleppo. One tank, the rebels commandeer. At least two others are destroyed. A burning hulk becomes the backdrop for a triumphant group photograph.
As the war escalates, the Syrian armed forces are digging deeper into their arsenal. Fast jets are now being used for bombing runs. The regime has thrown almost everything it has against its own people, but it apparently draws the line at chemical weapons.
JIHAD MAKDISSI, Syrian Foreign Ministry: Any talks of WMD or any unconventional weapon that the Syrian Arab Republic possess would never, would never be used against civilian or against the Syrian people during this crisis.
JOHN IRVINE: What he said next amounted to a warning to the outside world not to get involved.
JIHAD MAKDISSI: These weapons are meant to be used only and strictly in the event of external aggression against the Syrian Arab Republic.
WILLIAM HAGUE, British foreign secretary: What is actually happening is, their own people are rising up against a brutal police state. It has nothing to do with any aggression from anywhere else in the world.
JOHN IRVINE: This conflict is 16 months old. But, still, both sides share an ability to live to fight another day.
GWEN IFILL: Damascus has been the scene of pitched battles between rebel and government troops since the bomb attack that killed four of Assad's closest security officials last week. There have been ongoing clashes in a neighborhood in the capital known as Midan.
Alex Thomson reports on the devastation there.
ALEX THOMSON: The banality of normality, Damascene traffic jams again a feature of life here. The gains claimed by the rebels in the capital appear exaggerated.
The regime's boast that they have pushed the fighters out of some districts altogether is ever more credible, but independent reporting is near impossible. We're heading for Midan, where fighting has been prolonged and intense in recent days. An army checkpoint seals off the edge of the district. You film covertly and fast and move on in a game of cat-and-mouse to try and get into the area.
And then, our guide, who would better stay anonymous, says, we're here. Look around. He hardly needs to. Government forces turned helicopter gunships, tanks, mortars, rockets, heavy machine guns on this district for three days.
The government says, in two days' time, families can begin moving back into Midan. But just take a look at what the family will find when they move back to this house. People say, yes, of course, the rebel fighters have been pushed out, but they will fight another day in another way. And there is no chance that President Assad will win this civil war.
A shopkeeper who fled the fighting comes back to find his business has disintegrated. In theory, the government will pay, but all around us, they're talking now off-camera of a massacre here. Finally, one man will tell us anonymously everything he knows.
MAN: Because this is the only family who stay in their district during that time. They want to leave in a peaceful way. And they couldn't right now.
ALEX THOMSON: Channel 4 News spoke to seven residents independently of each other, who all either named the Ismaili family as the victims or the figure of 16 being killed.
We were sent this video said to show the scene of the killings. The details of a family shot through the head can't be shown. You do see the poignant sight of an unfinished family meal. House after house trashed. Everyone here said soldiers or the shabiha militias went on an orgy of looting here. They know Syrians keep large amounts of cash at home.
This man said the militias stole 18,000 pounds from his place -- outside, the pathetic remains of rebel barricades, futile against organized ground and air assault, the tank tracks of a departed government army. Weirdly, the authorities have fastidiously painted over most of the anti-Assad graffiti which covered the walls around here and left their own: "The soldiers of God were here."
President Assad has won the battle for Damascus, and won it convincingly, but everyone knows winning the battle is not the same as winning the war.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/syria_07-23.html
Video from Al Jazeera
REPORT AIR DATE: July 26, 2012
Syrian Rebels Brace for Government Advance; Aleppo Civilians Caught in Crossfire
SUMMARY
Syrian troops have positioned themselves on the edge of Aleppo, preparing to retake the city from rebel control. In response, rebels have reinforced their weapons stockpiles for the expected assault. Meanwhile, Aleppo's three million civilians are caught between the two forces. Independent Television News' Alex Thomson reports.
We begin with Alex Thomson of Independent Television News reporting from Damascus.
ALEX THOMSON: Damascus one week into the battle for the city and video broadcast by Syrian state television shows sustained firefights yesterday in the city's outskirts.
But it is Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, where the latest major assault is likely. Pounded again by the regime's forces from both the north and the south, helicopters move overhead as troops on the ground prepare for a major assault.
Activist groups in Syria claim that the government troops are being redeployed for a coming operation. Such claims are impossible to verify, but several sources now report two Syrian army convoys, the first heading from Hama Military Airport, apparently about 170 vehicles, including tanks, and these are massing at al-Zarba, south of the city.
Another column is heading to Aleppo from Idlib province. With the rebel counterattacks under way, here, what's claimed to be the wreckage of one small part of the Idlib convoy, and nearby a captured government tank.
But if the rebels cannot win in the major cities, they certainly appear to be gaining ground in the propaganda war by being willing to invite along cameras.
Yet, here in Damascus, all our requests to film with the Syrian army have been refused point-blank. Could we speak to a government minister? Impossible. What about a government spokesman even? No chance. The regime apparently thinks this will still do, inside, the endless pictures of the great leader and his dad, the same video of military antics played on TV over and over again everyday, and outside, the pristine flags, the murals, the devices of a regime strangely lost in personality politics of the Cold War.
Some small opposition parties are tolerated here, so long as they're powerless. Incredibly, it's actually easier to interview one of their leaders than it is to speak to anybody from the government.
Hassan Abdullah Azim is chief of the opposition Nasseri (ph) party and a lawyer in Damascus. He's been beaten and tortured by the regime in the past, but he's still not afraid to call it even now.
HASSAN ABDULLAH AZIM, opposition leader (through translator): President Assad should step down and hand over power to the people. We should move forward and organize new free elections for the people to choose the government they want.
ALEX THOMSON: For now, all that sounds like a distant dream.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/syria1_07-26.html
ANALYSIS AIR DATE: July 26, 2012
On Syrian-Turkish Border, 'Underdog' Rebels Have Carved Out a Buffer Zone
SUMMARY
Pockets of Syria have fallen under the control of rebel fighters, the anti-Assad opposition forces known as the Syrian Free Army. Judy Woodruff speaks to NPR's Kelly McEvers about her recent trip to five towns along the Turkish border in rural Syria.
Kelly McEvers, welcome.
And how did you decide where you were going inside Syria? We have a map, I think, we are going to be able to show people.
KELLY MCEVERS, NPR: The rebels have basically carved out their own sort of unofficial buffer zone there in northern Syria. It's right next to the Turkish border.
For them, the benefit is that they're able to get their wounded out into Turkey a lot more easily than they could before, and that they can basically get weapons and money into Syria from that -- from the Turkish area. So, for us, it made a lot of sense to sort of -- to get a sense of who the rebels are to spend time in the region that they control, instead of trying to sort of cower and hide and go with them undercover from place to place, to be in this kind of swathe of towns and villages that they actually control.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Where they are relatively safe, free from government assault on a regular basis or...
JUDY WOODRUFF: Yes.
KELLY MCEVERS: If you were to try to look at the map and say where exactly do the rebels control, every day, it changes a little bit. It morphs and changes. On the edges of the area they control, the government might take a town back.
There was one town when we were there that switched hands between the government and the rebels four times. Why? Because the government realizes that this border area is important to the rebels. They realize that it is this buffer zone. And so they are trying to sort of regain control.
But, obviously, the government's army is stretched and sees that its priorities are elsewhere, namely Damascus and Aleppo.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Tell us about the rebels you met. And you talked to a number of them. Who are they? What are they like?
KELLY MCEVERS: It's a really good question and it's one I think a lot of people want to answer right now.
They call themselves the Free Syrian Army, but that's about as far as sort of the unification goes. They don't necessarily answer to a single leader. They're a bunch of disparate groups spread out across the country, some say up to 1,000 of them. One unit might only be eight guys, mostly civilians.
I think the image is that these guys are mostly defected soldiers, people who leave the army and then join the rebels. A lot of those guys actually go to these refugee camps in Turkey, for fear of what would happen to their family after they defect. So a lot of the guys we have met are civilians, workers, farmers, people who decided to take up arms and sort of defend this uprising, this revolution against the president.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And relatively lightly armed, in contrast to what the government has.
KELLY MCEVERS: Exactly. They are so outgunned right now. They're basically operating with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades and homemade bombs.
That's another key component to their sort of arsenal right now. That's how they deal with regime tanks.
But when you talk about a fully equipped army with tanks, artillery, mortars, helicopters, and now we have seen jets being employed in this fight by the regime's army, you can see that the rebels are definitely the underdogs here.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Kelly McEvers, what about the civilians you talked to? And what are they saying about al this? Are they caught in the middle? Are they hoping it's all going to be over? Are they lining up with one side or another?
KELLY MCEVERS: I was in just this very small pocket of Syria, so it's important to say that I can only speak for the people that I was with at that particular time.
By and large, in these villages, they see the rebels as their only hope. They say, look, 16, 17 months ago, we went into the streets to protest against our president. We said we wanted to bring down the president. The regime shot at us, detained us, and tortured us. And no one came to our aid except these guys. These guys picked up guns. And maybe some of them are my cousins and uncles and brothers. They picked up guns. They came here to defend us and we welcome them.
This, they say despite the fact that the rebels' presence in their town sometimes brings the ire of the government. It might mean that civilian homes get shelled, that people die. They say, we don't care. We're willing to take that risk because these are the only people here to protect us. So the rebels definitely have hearts and minds in these towns.
JUDY WOODRUFF: The morale overall, though, was what? What did you find?
KELLY MCEVERS: Again, people were pretty willing to stay on message, especially when talking to a Western journalist. Again, we support these rebels, we support the cause. It's just any day now that we're going to take down the regime.
While I was inside Syria, there was this high-level attack inside Damascus that killed four high-ranking officials in the Syrian government. So, I think that was a real morale boost. And a few days after that, you saw a lot of units going to Aleppo. I was very close to Aleppo, Syria's largest city in the north.
And you saw a lot of rebel units going there, sort of going to take up the fight, and going all the way to Damascus as well. It looks like the government has regained control in Damascus and may soon do the same in Aleppo. So, that morale may turn around pretty quickly.
JUDY WOODRUFF: You had some interesting conversations with people, rebels and citizens, about why the United States isn't doing more. Explain a little about that.
KELLY MCEVERS: Yes, I think there's a lot of anger. I think people look at the case of Libya and they look at the case of other places where the U.S. or at least international community has done more to intervene on the diplomatic level, on the military level.
Look, I think Syrians are smart enough to know that they don't want an Iraq situation. I think most people would say, we don't want anyone to come in and invade and occupy our country. I think they're OK with that. And they're also smart enough to know that the Libya scenario probably doesn't make sense for NATO or the United States. A no-fly zone...
JUDY WOODRUFF: The no-fly zone.
KELLY MCEVERS: ... would be much more complicated in Syria. They get that.
But they say, look, how about some coordination? How about some help? How about some training? There's a lot of things that you could do. You could fly airplanes over our country and tell us, hey, there's some tanks moving this way and there's no tanks on this road, reconnaissance, intelligence, those sorts of things that frankly Western militaries are good at.
And they see that that's not happening. And they say that it's not much longer that they're going to be willing to accept this help. I think, at some point, they are going to refuse it at any cost and it might be too late for any intervention.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Kelly McEvers, NPR, an extraordinary trip. Thank you very much.
KELLY MCEVERS: You're welcome.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And online, you can find links to four of Kelly's reports for NPR this week from the Turkish-Syrian border.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec12/syria2_07-26.html
20 April 2012
dow & The London Olympics from the SUMOFUS 20APR12
THE London Olympic Committee has shamefully decided to allow dow / union carbide as a sponsor of the 2012 Summer games. Their decision places greed over social, environmental and corporate responsibility, so these games will be tarnished just as the 2008 games in the prc were. The IOC and the London Committee should be ashamed and reverse their decision on dow. This from the SumOfUs.
Here’s a message from Sanjay Verma, a Bhopal
resident-turned-activist whose life and family were irrevocably changed
due to the Bhopal disaster in India.
My name is Sanjay Verma and I grew up in Bhopal, India. I was six months old when an explosion at a chemical factory across from my neighbourhood leaked 40 tons of the potent neurotoxin methyl isocyanate. My sister saved my life by bundling me up and fleeing from our home into the panicked streets of Bhopal. My sister and 13 year-old brother survived, but my parents and five of my siblings died that night.
My sister and I lived in an orphanage for 7 years. Sunil, our eldest brother, took two jobs just to take care of us and keep us with him. Tragically, he suffered terrible mental health issues and, after several attempts at taking his life, he committed suicide in 2006. He was found hanged, wearing a T-shirt with the slogan- 'No More Bhopals'.
I have dedicated my life to fighting for justice for my community, and holding Dow responsible for the Bhopal disaster.
Thanks to you, 50,000 SumOfUs.org members have signed petitions to the London Olympics Organisers denouncing Dow's sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The London Olympic Organisers are feeling the pressure and have agreed to meet with victims and activists. However, they are still keeping Dow as a sponsor. Today, on the 10,000th day since the Bhopal disaster, I have travelled from India to the UK to tell Lord Coe in person that we cannot stand Dow’s Olympic sponsorship. Will you join me?
Will you send a message to Lord Sebastian Coe at London Olympics and tell him to drop Dow as a sponsor?
After all my family and community went through -- and for the many people who continue to suffer to this day -- I have devoted my life to seeing that Dow answers for the Bhopal disaster and that my home is cleaned up so that innocent people no longer have to suffer.
I need your help to make sure the London Olympic organisers hear our story, and know that we will not stand for Dow's Olympic sponsorship.
Will you send a message to the London Olympic Organisers to tell them my community’s story?
If enough of us tell the London Olympic Organisers that we won't stand for this partnership, we can help show the Olympics the true meaning of the Olympics -- global unity, not backroom deals and corporate sponsorships.
Thanks for helping ensure that those behind the Bhopal disaster pay for the damages wrought, and for helping bring justice to my community,
--Sanjay
**********
FAQ
What happened in Bhopal?
On December 2-3, 1984, as the people of the central Indian town of Bhopal slept, an explosion caused over 40 tons of a deadly toxic gas, methyl isocyanate (MIC), and other gases to escape from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant. The company executives could have warned the public, but instead they chose not to sound the emergency alarm bell in town.
The event occurred in the early hours of the morning of Dec 3rd 1984, at approximately 12:30 a.m. By 2am, most of the MIC had been dispersed over an area of 25 miles (40km), and the first deaths were reported to the police by 3am. By morning, there had been 1,000 reported deaths, some as far as 5 miles (8 km) from the plant. 90,000 patients were seen in local hospitals and clinics within the first 24 hours, and in total, about 200,000 people suffered acute effects of the leak.
The preventable Bhopal disaster has claimed over 20,000 lives, and it is not over yet because members of the community continue to suffer from chronic health problems, cancer and birth defects.
Now, despite loud protests by the Indian Olympic delegation, Dow has signed a controversial sponsorship deal with the Olympics expected to make Dow $1 billion. With Dow counting on that revenue, we have the best chance in years for them to finally assume responsibility and clean up the disaster. We are finally hitting the company where it hurts: its bottom line.
How has Dow responded?
Dow claims that it is not responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in any way. Despite that, they hired the same public relations firm that worked to tell people tobacco didn’t cause cancer, and that Foxconn hired to repair its public image around working conditions in Apple factories in China.
Union Carbide paid $470 million in compensation to existing victims in 1989, amounting to less than $500 per victim whether they were blinded by the gas, developed terminal cancer from exposure, or suffered debilitating birth defects. To date, neither Union Carbide nor Dow has paid to clean up the site, and they have refused to even decommission the factory after the accident.
Why is Dow responsible for the situation?
No one disputes the fact that Dow bought Union Carbide after the disaster occurred. But when Dow purchased Union Carbide, it took on liability for the Bhopal tragedy. It would be terribly convenient for Dow and other massive corporations if the slate was wiped clean when a company was purchased. But Dow didn’t just buy the profit sheet, the shares and the expertise from Union Carbide. They also bought their legacy, the environmental tragedy of Bhopal and the responsibility for it. Dow must ensure that the site is cleaned up and the victims finally get true justice and proper compensation. If a company could escape liability for its malpractices by arranging a merger or takeover, then companies would be able to abuse human rights and damage the environment with impunity.
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to
hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new,
sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook
Tell the London Olympics: Drop Dow, and stand with Sanjay and the people of Bhopal.
My name is Sanjay Verma and I grew up in Bhopal, India. I was six months old when an explosion at a chemical factory across from my neighbourhood leaked 40 tons of the potent neurotoxin methyl isocyanate. My sister saved my life by bundling me up and fleeing from our home into the panicked streets of Bhopal. My sister and 13 year-old brother survived, but my parents and five of my siblings died that night.
My sister and I lived in an orphanage for 7 years. Sunil, our eldest brother, took two jobs just to take care of us and keep us with him. Tragically, he suffered terrible mental health issues and, after several attempts at taking his life, he committed suicide in 2006. He was found hanged, wearing a T-shirt with the slogan- 'No More Bhopals'.
I have dedicated my life to fighting for justice for my community, and holding Dow responsible for the Bhopal disaster.
Thanks to you, 50,000 SumOfUs.org members have signed petitions to the London Olympics Organisers denouncing Dow's sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The London Olympic Organisers are feeling the pressure and have agreed to meet with victims and activists. However, they are still keeping Dow as a sponsor. Today, on the 10,000th day since the Bhopal disaster, I have travelled from India to the UK to tell Lord Coe in person that we cannot stand Dow’s Olympic sponsorship. Will you join me?
Will you send a message to Lord Sebastian Coe at London Olympics and tell him to drop Dow as a sponsor?
After all my family and community went through -- and for the many people who continue to suffer to this day -- I have devoted my life to seeing that Dow answers for the Bhopal disaster and that my home is cleaned up so that innocent people no longer have to suffer.
I need your help to make sure the London Olympic organisers hear our story, and know that we will not stand for Dow's Olympic sponsorship.
Will you send a message to the London Olympic Organisers to tell them my community’s story?
If enough of us tell the London Olympic Organisers that we won't stand for this partnership, we can help show the Olympics the true meaning of the Olympics -- global unity, not backroom deals and corporate sponsorships.
Thanks for helping ensure that those behind the Bhopal disaster pay for the damages wrought, and for helping bring justice to my community,
--Sanjay
**********
FAQ
What happened in Bhopal?
On December 2-3, 1984, as the people of the central Indian town of Bhopal slept, an explosion caused over 40 tons of a deadly toxic gas, methyl isocyanate (MIC), and other gases to escape from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant. The company executives could have warned the public, but instead they chose not to sound the emergency alarm bell in town.
The event occurred in the early hours of the morning of Dec 3rd 1984, at approximately 12:30 a.m. By 2am, most of the MIC had been dispersed over an area of 25 miles (40km), and the first deaths were reported to the police by 3am. By morning, there had been 1,000 reported deaths, some as far as 5 miles (8 km) from the plant. 90,000 patients were seen in local hospitals and clinics within the first 24 hours, and in total, about 200,000 people suffered acute effects of the leak.
The preventable Bhopal disaster has claimed over 20,000 lives, and it is not over yet because members of the community continue to suffer from chronic health problems, cancer and birth defects.
Now, despite loud protests by the Indian Olympic delegation, Dow has signed a controversial sponsorship deal with the Olympics expected to make Dow $1 billion. With Dow counting on that revenue, we have the best chance in years for them to finally assume responsibility and clean up the disaster. We are finally hitting the company where it hurts: its bottom line.
How has Dow responded?
Dow claims that it is not responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in any way. Despite that, they hired the same public relations firm that worked to tell people tobacco didn’t cause cancer, and that Foxconn hired to repair its public image around working conditions in Apple factories in China.
Union Carbide paid $470 million in compensation to existing victims in 1989, amounting to less than $500 per victim whether they were blinded by the gas, developed terminal cancer from exposure, or suffered debilitating birth defects. To date, neither Union Carbide nor Dow has paid to clean up the site, and they have refused to even decommission the factory after the accident.
Why is Dow responsible for the situation?
No one disputes the fact that Dow bought Union Carbide after the disaster occurred. But when Dow purchased Union Carbide, it took on liability for the Bhopal tragedy. It would be terribly convenient for Dow and other massive corporations if the slate was wiped clean when a company was purchased. But Dow didn’t just buy the profit sheet, the shares and the expertise from Union Carbide. They also bought their legacy, the environmental tragedy of Bhopal and the responsibility for it. Dow must ensure that the site is cleaned up and the victims finally get true justice and proper compensation. If a company could escape liability for its malpractices by arranging a merger or takeover, then companies would be able to abuse human rights and damage the environment with impunity.
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to
hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new,
sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook
13 April 2012
USDA decision could increase your exposure to this toxic pesticide 12APR12
EVERYONE living in an area where corn is grown should be concerned about this pesticide / herbicide and take the time to send an e mail to the USDA asking them to deny dow chemical's request to allow increased use of 2,4-D (part of the deadly Agent Orange herbicide cocktail). You know this company, dow/union carbide, they brought us the environmental disaster at Bhopal, India that has killed approximately 20000 people....click the link to the EPA before 27APR12.
 |
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 |
Unless we act quickly, a dangerous weed killer linked to cancer and birth defects could become much more widely used in U.S. agriculture. The pesticide is called 2,4-D and it doesn't just taint the crops it's sprayed on: once released, it travels through the air, seeps into the ground and contaminates our drinking water. We can prevent the rampant overuse of 2,4-D by asking Department of Agriculture officials to reject a profit-minded proposal to sell genetically engineered corn that won't die when sprayed with the poison. But we have just two weeks to convince them. Click here to send a letter urging the USDA to reject Dow's dangerous proposal. When it enters the human body, 2,4-D causes cell damage and hormonal disruption, which can result in reproductive harm and diseases like lymphoma. This pesticide is so hazardous that it has been banned in several other countries. NRDC asked the EPA to protect Americans, but the EPA is refusing to take any action. Without that support, the USDA's decision is even more critical. If the USDA grants Dow's request, it will mean more farmers around the country will spray much greater amounts of 2,4-D on their fields. If we can show the USDA that the public doesn't support this proposal, we can counter pressure from Dow and make the case for public health over corporate profits. Send a letter today urging the USDA to oppose Dow’s hazardous plan.  
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29 March 2012
LONDON OLYMPICS: PARTNER WITH A SPONSOR THE WHOLE WORLD CAN CELEBRATE 29MAR12
IT is sad the main focus of the International Olympic Committee is profits and not global unity and sportsmanship. I thought the IOC reached a new low when they decided to hold the last Summer Olympics in the prc because the policies of that countries government do not promote global unity, but now the IOC is showing just how much corporate profits control their decisions. dow chemical / union carbide is guilty of environmental crimes against humanity in Bhopal, India and should not be permitted to profit from an event promoting global unity, fairness and sportsmanship while continuing to neglect their responsibilities to the people of Bhopal and continuing to poison people and the environment, especially in the Third World. Please sign the petition to the London 2012 Olympic Organizing Committee asking they to ban dow chemical as a sponsor of the 2012 Olympic Games.
On December 2-3, 1984, as the people of the central Indian town of Bhopal slept, over 40 tons of a deadly toxic gas -- methyl isocyanate -- leaked from the pesticide plant owned by Dow Chemical subsidiary Union Carbide India Limited. Company executives could have warned the public, but instead chose not to sound the emergency alarm bell in town, sending confused parents and children fleeing directly into the poison cloud.
The Bhopal disaster -- the worst industrial disaster in history -- has so far claimed over 20,000 lives. And the death toll is still rising, 27 years later, because Dow Chemical -- the company responsible -- has never cleaned it up. To this day, chronic health problems, cancer, and birth defects plague over 150,000 people in this impoverished community.
Now, despite loud protests by the Indian Olympic delegation, Dow has signed a controversial sponsorship deal with the Olympics expected to make Dow $1 billion. With Dow counting on that revenue, we have the best chance in years for it to finally assume responsibility and clean up the disaster. We are finally hitting the company where it hurts: its bottom line.
Sign our urgent petition to the London Organizing Committee to drop Dow Chemical as an Olympic sponsor.
In many ways, Dow is the poster child for corporate wrong-doing. Its executives are putting their profits ahead of ethical and legal responsibilities to the suffering Bhopal community. If this disaster happened in the United States or another developed country, Dow couldn’t just have abandoned thousands to die and suffer crippling diseases -- but because the victims are poor and Indian, Dow has been able to ignore their plight.
This week, London 2012 organisers are gathering with the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, and the chair of the IOC coordination commission, Denis Oswald. On Friday, along with our friends at Change.org, we will deliver over 34,000 petitions to the London Olympic organizers. This is a critical opportunity to speak out for the victims of Bhopal on the world's biggest stage.
Tell to London Organizing Committee to drop Dow Chemical as an Olympic sponsor before their critical public meeting on Friday.
With Dow aiming to make millions off the Olympics, we have a rare opportunity to put real pressure on the company to do the right thing -- clean up the mess in Bhopal that’s still killing people, and fully compensate the disaster’s victims -- and punish it if it won’t.
Dow’s behavior towards the people of Bhopal is one of the most monstrous examples of corporate irresponsibility. If we allow Dow to profit from the Olympics of all events, the worst corporations in the world will see that they can get away with anything. But if we act together, SumOfUs members can send a powerful message to those same corporations that consumers around the world will stand by their victims until they see justice.
Thanks,
--Emma, Kaytee and the rest of us at SumOfUs
****
Background Information
What happened in Bhopal?
On December 2-3, 1984, as the people of the central Indian town of Bhopal slept, an explosion caused over 40 tons of a deadly toxic gas, methyl isocyanate (MIC), and other gases from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant. The company executives could have warned the public, but instead they chose not to sound the emergency alarm bell in town.
The event occurred in the early hours of the morning of Dec 3rd 1984, at approximately 12:30 a.m. By 2am, most of the MIC had been dispersed over an area of 25 miles, and the first deaths were reported to the police by 3am. By morning, there had been 1,000 reported deaths, some as far as 5 miles from the plant. 90,000 patients were seen in local hospitals and clinics within the first 24 hours, and in total, about 200,000 people suffered acute effects of the leak.
The preventable Bhopal disaster has claimed over 20,000 lives, and it is not over yet because members of the community continue to suffer from chronic health problems, cancer and birth defects.
How has Dow responded?
Dow claims that it is not responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in any way. Despite that, they hired the same public relations firm that worked to tell people tobacco didn’t cause cancer, and helped polish the Argentine junta's image to the world as it was disappearing thousands.
Union Carbide paid $470 million in compensation to existing victims in 1989, amounting to less than $500 per victim (and sometimes as little as $150 per victim) whether they were blinded by the gas, developed terminal cancer from exposure, or suffered debilitating birth defects. To date, neither Union Carbide nor Dow has paid to clean up the site, and they have refused to even decommission the factory after the accident.
Why is Dow responsible for the situation?
No one disputes the fact that Dow bought Union Carbide after the disaster occurred. But when Dow purchased Union Carbide, it took on liability for the Bhopal tragedy.
It would be terribly convenient for Dow and other massive corporations if the slate was wiped clean when a company was purchased. But Dow didn’t just buy the profit sheet, the shares and the expertise from Union Carbide. They also bought their legacy, the environmental tragedy of Bhopal and the responsibility for it.
Dow must ensure that the site is cleaned up and the victims finally get true justice and proper compensation. If a company could escape liability for its malpractices by arranging a merger or takeover, then companies would be able to abuse human rights and damage the environment with impunity.
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to
hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new,
sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.
London Olympics: Drop Dow as an official sponsor until it cleans up the Bhopal disaster site
On December 2-3, 1984, as the people of the central Indian town of Bhopal slept, over 40 tons of a deadly toxic gas -- methyl isocyanate -- leaked from the pesticide plant owned by Dow Chemical subsidiary Union Carbide India Limited. Company executives could have warned the public, but instead chose not to sound the emergency alarm bell in town, sending confused parents and children fleeing directly into the poison cloud.
The Bhopal disaster -- the worst industrial disaster in history -- has so far claimed over 20,000 lives. And the death toll is still rising, 27 years later, because Dow Chemical -- the company responsible -- has never cleaned it up. To this day, chronic health problems, cancer, and birth defects plague over 150,000 people in this impoverished community.
Now, despite loud protests by the Indian Olympic delegation, Dow has signed a controversial sponsorship deal with the Olympics expected to make Dow $1 billion. With Dow counting on that revenue, we have the best chance in years for it to finally assume responsibility and clean up the disaster. We are finally hitting the company where it hurts: its bottom line.
Sign our urgent petition to the London Organizing Committee to drop Dow Chemical as an Olympic sponsor.
In many ways, Dow is the poster child for corporate wrong-doing. Its executives are putting their profits ahead of ethical and legal responsibilities to the suffering Bhopal community. If this disaster happened in the United States or another developed country, Dow couldn’t just have abandoned thousands to die and suffer crippling diseases -- but because the victims are poor and Indian, Dow has been able to ignore their plight.
This week, London 2012 organisers are gathering with the International Olympic Committee president, Jacques Rogge, and the chair of the IOC coordination commission, Denis Oswald. On Friday, along with our friends at Change.org, we will deliver over 34,000 petitions to the London Olympic organizers. This is a critical opportunity to speak out for the victims of Bhopal on the world's biggest stage.
Tell to London Organizing Committee to drop Dow Chemical as an Olympic sponsor before their critical public meeting on Friday.
With Dow aiming to make millions off the Olympics, we have a rare opportunity to put real pressure on the company to do the right thing -- clean up the mess in Bhopal that’s still killing people, and fully compensate the disaster’s victims -- and punish it if it won’t.
Dow’s behavior towards the people of Bhopal is one of the most monstrous examples of corporate irresponsibility. If we allow Dow to profit from the Olympics of all events, the worst corporations in the world will see that they can get away with anything. But if we act together, SumOfUs members can send a powerful message to those same corporations that consumers around the world will stand by their victims until they see justice.
Thanks,
--Emma, Kaytee and the rest of us at SumOfUs
****
Background Information
What happened in Bhopal?
On December 2-3, 1984, as the people of the central Indian town of Bhopal slept, an explosion caused over 40 tons of a deadly toxic gas, methyl isocyanate (MIC), and other gases from the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant. The company executives could have warned the public, but instead they chose not to sound the emergency alarm bell in town.
The event occurred in the early hours of the morning of Dec 3rd 1984, at approximately 12:30 a.m. By 2am, most of the MIC had been dispersed over an area of 25 miles, and the first deaths were reported to the police by 3am. By morning, there had been 1,000 reported deaths, some as far as 5 miles from the plant. 90,000 patients were seen in local hospitals and clinics within the first 24 hours, and in total, about 200,000 people suffered acute effects of the leak.
The preventable Bhopal disaster has claimed over 20,000 lives, and it is not over yet because members of the community continue to suffer from chronic health problems, cancer and birth defects.
How has Dow responded?
Dow claims that it is not responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in any way. Despite that, they hired the same public relations firm that worked to tell people tobacco didn’t cause cancer, and helped polish the Argentine junta's image to the world as it was disappearing thousands.
Union Carbide paid $470 million in compensation to existing victims in 1989, amounting to less than $500 per victim (and sometimes as little as $150 per victim) whether they were blinded by the gas, developed terminal cancer from exposure, or suffered debilitating birth defects. To date, neither Union Carbide nor Dow has paid to clean up the site, and they have refused to even decommission the factory after the accident.
Why is Dow responsible for the situation?
No one disputes the fact that Dow bought Union Carbide after the disaster occurred. But when Dow purchased Union Carbide, it took on liability for the Bhopal tragedy.
It would be terribly convenient for Dow and other massive corporations if the slate was wiped clean when a company was purchased. But Dow didn’t just buy the profit sheet, the shares and the expertise from Union Carbide. They also bought their legacy, the environmental tragedy of Bhopal and the responsibility for it.
Dow must ensure that the site is cleaned up and the victims finally get true justice and proper compensation. If a company could escape liability for its malpractices by arranging a merger or takeover, then companies would be able to abuse human rights and damage the environment with impunity.
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to
hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new,
sustainable path for our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.
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