- Item #A303
- ISBN: 1891843303
- ISBN13: 978-1-891843-30-3
- Copyright 2004
- Price: $18.95
Bhopal: The Inside Story
Updated Second Edition
By T. R. Chouhan, Claude Alvares, Indira Jaising and Nityanand Jayaraman
Blurbs
Content Sample
- Note from the Publishers, Ward Morehouse, Apex Press and Claude Alvares, The Other India Press:
Chouhan's story, written by someone technically qualified and with insider knowledge, reveals all: the truly scandalous conditions of work at the Union Carbide plant; the scant corporate regard for safety; the continuous drive to cut corners even when such actions potentially endangered public health and life on a fairly large scale.
The stories related by other Carbide workers of corporate malfeasance in this volume, tough briefer, are no less depressing. Reading them leaves one with a feeling of consternation that such a well-known American multinational could conduct its business in such an appalling way.
Countries like India invite multinational corporations because it is widely believed that these bring in not only scarce resources but world-class technology. The Bhopal gas disaster blew that conventional belief to pieces, and all the proponents and propagandists of corporate planetary rule have never been able to restore that faith again despite fervent, large-scale, intensive greenwash.
- T.R. Chouhan: Since the plant was established in 1969, the conditions leading to the disaster were building up. Unsafe design of the plant was made more unsafe by cost-cutting measures as poor maintenance use of poorly trained personnel, and gross neglect of the most basic safety procedures. As a plant operator, I was one of the workers who expressed my concerns about the deteriorating conditions of the factory that became a ticking time bomb that could explode at any time.
I tell this story to challenge Carbide's "sabotage" theory, which slanders the good name of workers around the world. By placing blame on a "disgruntled worker," Carbide has identified as a"typical worker" - stupid, vindictive, prone to lying.....