Bhopal, BP and the conscience of capitalism
At a meeting in Sweden recently of young people from around the world, a Nigerian woman shared the grief of her people. She said that, every year for the past 20 years, large quantities of oil, as much as that leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from the broken BP oil rig, have been spilling in her country from an MNC’s leaking pipelines and broken rigs. The waterways have become completely contaminated. The waters are so oily they even burn! Water for drinking and bathing is hard to come by. The health of the people has been badly affected. There are no more fish to catch. Agriculture is impossible. Livelihoods are destroyed. The US media is full of anger with BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. She sympathised with the people of Louisiana whose concerns are known to the whole world now, but she wondered if they even knew what had been happening in Nigeria all these years?
The Indian media is filled with anger with Union Carbide and the tragedy of Bhopal. When a rare brown pelican was smothered in oil in Louisiana, the US President said he was looking for someone’s ass to kick in BP. The people of Bhopal, where thousands of human beings were killed, ask the Indian government why no one’s ass has been kicked. These tragedies have raised emotionally charged issues of justice: Of who should be punished; and of double standards -- one for the rich and another for poor countries. Beneath these issues are important questions about the responsibilities and liabilities of business corporations, especially multinationals, and about the roles of governments in regulating their behaviour and protecting public interests. These are also questions in the recent debates about who was responsible for the global financial crisis whose fallout has affected many common people. To these questions let us turn.
Thomas Friedman, author of the paean to globalisation, The World is Flat, had written an earlier book,The Lexus and the Olive Tree, that explained how the world is not yet flat. The Lexus car was his metaphor for globalisation: A universally desired product of technology, produced by a multinational corporation. The Olive Tree represented the deep roots in traditions and identities which resist the forces of globalisation. His conclusion was that the Lexus would prevail. It may some day, but it will be a struggle. Because the last few years have shown the strength of the Olive Tree’s roots in the demands of communities and nations for their rights to land, resources, dignity and respect.
With information and money sloshing across the world, accelerated by new communication technologies, institutions and ideas of globalisation are spreading across national boundaries. Meanwhile, governments -- especially elected governments -- must respond to the demands for justice and protection from people within their boundaries. Such are the demands for tribal rights and affirmative action, and even demands for new states. Read more....
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