The Dirty Olympics of Slumdogs and Millionaires

scathing....

The Dirty Olympics of Slumdogs and Millionaires

"For sure, a large chunk of India’s one billion plus population was watching when the great Amitabh Bachchan carried the Olympic flames....

Sadly, no one in India was watching the “special Olympics” that had been organized in Bhopal, at the same time that Bachchan was carrying the torch. The event was in protest of Dow’s inclusion in the Olympics, and people who have become disabled from the gas leak participated in this ‘special’ Olympic. Not a single Indian government officer even showed up at this event.

I sort of imagined that Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, since he almost has a Gandhi-like following in India, would do what the two African-American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos did at the 1968 Mexican Olympic, to protest the racial apartheid in their country and show solidarity with fellow Black-Americans...."

Dow didn't own the assets of the firm that had the accident until much later. I know because the name of the place I visited was different. But, if we need a perp we should just arrest someone & toss them in the clink. That is literally how the process of murdering someone takes place in rural western Maharashtra. The body is placed in the irrigation ditch (moral, don't mess with the sakhar dadas). Whoever's field the body eventually ends up in is arrested and hauled off for a long, long prison sentence. Everyone is happy except of course the hapless victim & their family. In Europe they just find a Jew or an immigrant and everyone (alive) is pleased as punch. In the south of the US they look for Blacks mostly and everyone poses smiling around the body twisting in the wind. Hopefully, there are no Israeelis organizing terror strikes on German schoolchildren today. I fear we are still barbarians in nature, all emotion and hate, no logic (sorry Mr. Spock)..

Off on the road early morn.

Let me fix that for you...

It's how corporate "responsibility" works. If they didn't want the stick they shouldn't have bought the company.



.

Absolutely!

And if we did not have politicians who have zero conscience, have no accountability, are worthless except their bank account, and carry pure shameless attitude, then union carbide would not have any assets left to sell.

Superbly put.

Let me just add ...and the guy who was in charge would be in an Indian prison instead of spirited out of the country.

Okay, basic B law for you. A corporate entity is a distinct entity. In the case of Bhopal it was a separate entity from Union Carbide! In a world of law instead of rabid politics and greed the Indian govt. should have seized the Indian corporate entity and ignored Union Carbide (in a perfect world the Indian government would not have ripped off the victims but...). So lets put law aside and just have justice of the mob, Gujarat style. I buy a house that a murder had taken place in 5 years before. Does that mean I should be arrested or lynched for the murder? Of course, the case can be bolstered by zeroing on the foreigner status or maybe a different religion. A little ethnocentric hate never hurts the mix.

Wait a minute some of us might be in a pickle given that while travelling in India, Orissa style.

Some people have to be victims in the interest of making earlier
victims whole. Well, that was Mumbai, New York, Spain, Argentina, and literally thousands more cases. The dead may not see it that way and we shouldn't either. Our ethics must control our hatreds and biases..


Dead tired from fighting traffic up the 101, adios amigos.

Yeah, yeah... I know my basic law. I also know an absurd analogy when I see one.

No!

A corporate entity is a separate entity from owners, in case of Bhopal, Union carbide held 51% shares, a majority stake, and thus making the parent company liable in all respect.

Now coming to management, it was a criminal negligence, and so legally India had all the right to involve everyone.

Of course, it is another matter that the chief minister at that time moved out of Bhopal so that he is not harmed by gas, and was, can you believe it, unavailable for a long duration because he locked himself in.

To top it all, he made it sure that the top official is escorted out of the country and not be arrested.

So you see, there was no mob justice...the mob is still waiting for one!

Wish we had a real lawyer here. If this was the case there would be no need for a subsidiary, no? Have had to do quite a few legal issues over the years and one thing I have learned is I get nowhere trying to bs the law or (colloquial alert!) being my own shade tree lawyer..

It doesn't matter. Change the name, sell the company, directors shift out and start SameScamNewName Ltd --- and some or all of those things may be legal. It doesn't make them right.

Finding a loophole in a law("corporate veil" has been put to test many a times)may be a smart thing but not always the right thing.

I am no lawyer, and may be wrong here, but am sure on one aspect of subsidiary as a different legal entity, parent company can be made liable in serious situations, legally, if pursued sincerely. Bhopal gas tragedy falls in that category.

In any case, this is not what it is all about, as Nick said...

too bad dzibead is no longer around...she's a lawyer, but more so for her always pithy comments. like me, she also did not suffer fools gladly.

Care to explain the context of this comment?

basically that you don't put up with the BS of idiots.

the expression is used in the positive sense in the New Testament of the Bible (II Corinthians 11:19)