The “accident” at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal happened around midnight

As we have discussed in class, most big business criminals are in “cahoots” so to speak with their governments. This is not to say that there is a written agreement or even a spoken agreement, but rather an unwritten rule that applies to so much of the world. The Indian government was “reluctant to place heavy industrial safety and pollution-control burdens on industry for fear of losing job opportunities” (Kletz 61). We have discussed this in much detail with examples such as baby formula, gasoline additives, food standards and so on. We as an economically powerful nation take advantage of those countries at an economic disadvantage by pawning off unsafe products and working environments to the poor “suckers”. By at least giving the poor the chance to work we masquerade our efforts as noble, when in reality they are nothing of the sort. Our efforts and concerns are not to better the economy in these countries, or better the living conditions of their people, but rather to make products at dirt cheap cost, or sell unsafe products to the only people who are desperate and uninformed enough to buy them! The efforts of the governments in these countries are not to better the lives or protect its citizens, rather it is only to better their own pocketbooks by allowing shady business practices to come over from the United States. The Indian people were outraged with their own government as well as UCC.

“My grandson was one years old then. I put him on my chest to protect him as much as possible. But his face swelled to twice its size, his eyes were puffed tight. We were really scarred. My daughter-in-law was pregnant then. I could not tell her how deformed her son had become. We thought we were going to die. I kept praying 'Allah miah hame bacha lijiye, Allah miah hame bacha lijiye.' ("Dear God, please save us, dear Lord, please save us.")” (Zubeda).

“Many died in their beds, others staggered from their homes, blinded and choking, to die in the street. Many more died later after reaching hospitals and emergency aid centers. The early acute effects were vomiting and burning sensations in the eyes, nose and throat, and most deaths have been attributed to respiratory failure” (Greenpeace.org).

The victims and families of victims of the Bhopal tragedy had very intense feelings of wrongdoing on the part of both the Indian government and Union Carbide. In fact the people of Bhopal felt so betrayed they sued the government for allowing the plant to house dangerous chemicals and, on top of that, allowed for the practice of unsafe conditions at the plant (Shrivastava 40-41). The actions of most corporate and government criminals is simple, the first step is to delay action, then deny responsibility, and finally disregard further complaints. This is seen on the part of Union Carbide, and on the part of the Indian Government. The government saw that their people were extremely upset at them and decided to use their legislative powers to pass the “Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Act in March of 1985. This arrogated to itself sole power to represent the victims in the civil and criminal litigations against Union Carbide” (Parasuraman 338). This was a blatant example of deterring the blame for the accident! This turn of events led the victims to feel as though one of the contributors to their condition was now the only one able to defend their situation in the court. Meanwhile the people at Union Carbide were well on their way to playing the delay, deny, disregard game. The first team UCC sent to Bhopal after the tragedy was a team of lawyers. The lawyers obviously had to assess the chances of litigation, at the hands of the Indian people, due to UCC liability. Lawyers, not a medical staff, lawyers were first on the scene. That is a nice delay tactic. The second tactic seen was one of denial. In so many press releases, newspaper articles, magazines and so on, UCC continued to deny the fact that the MIC gas was harmful a

Some topics in this essay:
Union Carbide, Cuba Tao, Dear God, India Limited, Dow Chemicals, Bhopal India, Dow Chemical, Appleson UCC, Danbury Connecticut, Panama Deception, union carbide, indian government, mic gas, safety systems, indian people, parasuraman 337, flare tower, refrigeration system, corporate government, settlement reached, miah hame bacha, union carbide india, government corporate officials, tons mic gas, claimants” fortun 17,