So, 26 years later, 7 executives get 2 year sentences for “negligence”. Awesome.
For those of you unfamiliar with the incident:
In the early hours of Dec. 3, 1984, a pesticide factory owned by Union Carbide India Ltd. in the central Indian city of Bhopal released approximately 40 metric tons of deadly methyl isocyanate gas.
The poison spread on the wind, exposing an estimated half a million people, many of whom woke up coughing, blinded and vomiting. The Indian government said the disaster killed 3,500 people, while activists put the number as high as 25,000.
Me? Nah. Nickname comes from one time playing Quake with some friends at a LAN. I was doing really well, one of them said “you’re killing more people than Union Carbide” and it stuck.
I’d been aware of the disaster, it was a big news story when it happened. It became something that kept popping up in my awareness, and I’ve kept tabs on what’s going on with it.
In another article I read most of them will send up serving just 3-6 months (at most) and they received a whopping fine of… $2,500. Corrupton, corruption, corruption.
A dollar still goes a long way in India, but not like it used to. Income levels for white-collar jobs in India have been rising about 20% per year and will eventually reach parity with the median Western salary. This is one reason why India is no longer a low-cost center for tech jobs.
Hmmm… well a settlement was reached in '89 for 470 million… which might actually be a large enough figure (especially when adjusted for inflation, roughly 800 million, and the value of the dollar in India).
However, much of that money was swallowed in whats either administration costs or corruption and many of those affected did not recieve any money. My thoughts (not entirely informed on the matter), is the remaining blame game is best directed at the Indian government.
I said it may be fair. To actually determine if its fair, I’d have to do research and calculations, which I’m not going to do. Suffice it say that is a lot of money. The 470 million figure was part of an out of court settlement with the Indian government that removed further legal liability from UC. If the money was efficiently distributed and used by the Indian government, I think we’d have less of an issue today.
$800 million is $140 million more than last years profits, not income. Profit.
That’s a fine that says sack a few cleaners and maybe not upgrade the director’s lear jet this year, maybe outsource a call centre to india to make amends.
