Tweet
Indian athletes will meet on December 5 to decide whether or not to boycott the 2012 London Olympics. The issue is an Olympic sponsorship deal with Dow Chemical, “under fire in India for its ownership of Union Carbide, whose Indian subsidiary was responsible for the Bhopal industrial disaster, … estimated to have killed up to 25,000 people and injured over half a million.”
Dramatic AP copyright photo of Immediate victims, December 3, 1984
It is a 7 million pound sponsorship deal awarded to Dow, writes the UK’s Independent,
“allowing it to ‘wrap’ the stadium in company fabric – and giving the chemical giant a global media profile next summer – that has outraged some athletes and politicians in India.” …
The former Olympics minister Tessa Jowell … last night called on the former British Olympian [Coe] to cancel the deal with Dow before the controversy irreparably damages the standing of the 2012 Games. Ms Jowell told The Independent: “There is a point at which you have to say you cannot take the reputational risk.”
[She added:] “The unacceptability of Dow hinges on the continuing nature of the crisis for people who live in that area. It is better to have an unwrapped stadium than one wrapped in controversy.”
At present, though, Coe completely buys Dow’s PR:
Dow were not the owners, the operators or involved in the management of that plant at the time of either the disaster or the settlement in 1989 that has been upheld twice by the Indian Supreme Court. There are issues around this issue, but I am satisfied they are not issues that directly involve Dow.
Surely a smart guy like Sebastian Coe should know that you acquire liabilities as well as assets when you buy a company. When it was considering buying Union Carbide, Dow’s staff would’ve known or found out that numerous Bhopal disaster cases were ongoing in Indian and U.S. courts. For example, the contaminated groundwater issue has never been resolved in the Indian courts. In fact, the site of the disaster has never been cleaned up, another liability issue, and Union-Carbide-poisoned water even today kills and injures Bhopal’s people. After its diligent staff of course discovered all that potential liability, I bet Dow demanded a deep discount in the (never revealed) price it paid for Union Carbide.
To learn more, go to Students for Bhopal. For an informative and satirical take, see the 2004 ‘Dow takes responsibility’ prank at Dow Ethics. The pretend Dow (Yes Men) spokesperson actually made it onto BBC news [youtube video].
12 Comments
Can you say “Napalm?” Or “Agent Orange?” Along with a tasty buffet of assorted other poisonous gases that have bolstered Dow’s bottom line for decades.
Check out: http://knowmore.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Dow_Chemical_Company
Sebastian Coe is an enabler. Along with hundreds of thousands of us consumers who use Saran wrap, emitter of deadly PVC’s.
We should all be boycotting the Olympics if Dow wraps the stadium.
Dow has an obscenely ugly history, Bhopal is just the latest.
There was an excellent movie night for a film connected to this disaster; maybe Lisa can re-post it.
PTB will win this one. British govt will pressure Indian govt (can you spell colony), which will pressure athletes, who will cave. Latter will be so thrilled to participate that it won’t take much.
The Yes Men are heroes.
The Senate is going to vote on whether Congress will give this president—and every future president — the power to order the military to pick up and imprison without charge or trial civilians anywhere in the world. Even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) raised his concerns about the NDAA detention provisions during last night’s Republican debate. The power is so broad that even U.S. citizens could be swept up by the military and the military could be used far from any battlefield, even within the United States itself.
The worldwide indefinite detention without charge or trial provision is in S. 1867, the National Defense Authorization Act bill, which will be on the Senate floor on Monday. The bill was drafted in secret by Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) and passed in a closed-door committee meeting, without even a single hearing.
Wow. Not that the President doesn’t already have that power, just that now Congress will make it official, will make it ‘law’. Their law.
To change the subject,
“Indian athletes have won a total of 20 medals, mostly in field hockey. For a period of time, India’s men’s field hockey team was dominant in Olympic competition, winning eleven medals in twelve Olympiads between 1928 and 1980, including six successive gold medals from 1928–1956.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_at_the_Olympics
Not to be mean or snarky but India not participating would have little or no actual effect on the athletics part of the games. Which is remarkable given India is the second most populous nation on Earth.
It’s a cricket-obsessed nation, but still it _is_ amazing, and even their field hockey team has declined in quality.
OTOH if there were an academic Olympics Indians would kick ass, especially in a Junior Olympics.
Obviously Indian parents have their priorities all wrong!! ;-)
Jesus fucking Christ, kid, do you how to read? Union Carbide was the owner of that plant when the Bophal disaster happened, not Dow. Dow bought UC after the disaster.
I don’t like Dow Chemical one bit but for god’s sake don’t show yourself to be stupid and blame Bophal on Dow when they did not even own the fucking place.
Your kneejerk reaction is the epitome of the farces used against liberals for being knownothings.
You ought never to post eassys on this site if you’re that fucking stupid.
kuvsz, why are you such an asshole? He mande a simple statement, wrong or right it was just a sstaemwnt. I(f you’re going to be set off for a simple comment don’t read it. no need to act like a prick, or was this not n act?
I made a simple and true statement. If you had read the diary you would know that there is a still toxic Union Carbide plant emiting poison into the water supply of Bhopal. Dow’s handling of its Bhopal responsibilities, the continuing water contamination and compensation for victims of the gas tragedy, has been horrifically ugly. Another example: