Agent Orange - A funky looking nickname that masquerades as the name of an agent in the Matrix is in reality a deadly chemical that has caused tremendous pain to generations of Vietnamese. Read 'The Vietnam syndrome' on vanityfair, see some accompanying pcitures here and read about agent orange on wikipedia.
Warning: The pictures are not for the weak of heart.
Dow chemicals is the maker of agent orange and has a long history of such atrocious accomplishments that include the Bhopal disaster in our own backyard (the plant responsible was that of Union carbide but Union Carbide has now been bought by Dow). The nice heart warming thing is that it is the same Dow chemicals that Ratan Tata & Buddhadeb are trying to bring to India. Kudos to Indias political and industrial leaders.
Warning: The pictures are not for the weak of heart.
Dow chemicals is the maker of agent orange and has a long history of such atrocious accomplishments that include the Bhopal disaster in our own backyard (the plant responsible was that of Union carbide but Union Carbide has now been bought by Dow). The nice heart warming thing is that it is the same Dow chemicals that Ratan Tata & Buddhadeb are trying to bring to India. Kudos to Indias political and industrial leaders.
4 comments:
Partha,
This is another collection like Earthlings. To know that something like this has happened in Bhopal, India, our country, this is only making me cry.
Enna pudungittu irukanga political leaders, and the capilalist in our country.
Manasatichiyae kidayatha ivangalukku.. appadi enna Panam pananum nnu verri. Enna la thanga mudiyila seeing this ..
-Saravanan
This and related things are way too complex to write short pieces about.. Lets talk about that soon..
Ok.. The Cynic is back..
Check this out
http://www.dow.com/products_services/industry/ag.htm
Dow chemicals seems to have a whole list of products that help increase productivity... OK... I can hear u say.. "Only if ppl where not greedy, we will not need to increase productivity..."
But wat abt increasing productivity to serve the hunger of millions of Indians..
I also read this in their website.. Looks like they too are helping nature survive..
DID YOU KNOW...
leaf Since 1994, Dow has reduced its chemical emissions by 50 percent, while increasing production by 37 percent.Learn More
Hi Sundar, good to see you here. Keep visiting and commenting :). Cynics and critics are always welcome.
To substantiate Dow's claims you need to provide evidence from independent studies and/or of other prominent thinkers. Providing examples from Dow's home page is not particularly enlightening. Obviously, they are not going to say, 'yes we killed 20K in Bhopal.'
Starvation
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Starvation and malnutrition are not a result of lack of food. It is a result of lack of access to food by the poor and oppressed. This is the opinion of many leading organizations and thinkers like Amartya Sen. So, increasing production is not needed. Opening up the gates of the rice/wheat silos to the poor is what is needed.
What companies like Dow chemicals and Monsanto do is use trade laws and practices and make the farmers dependent on them. For e.g., the usual technique of farmers is to save seeds from one harvest for the next cycle of sowing. Monsanto prevents this with its patents (This is just one example). It joins hands with Dow so that their crops will survive only if you use pesticides from Dow. This causes the cost of production to raise resulting in farmer suicides (an example would be the one in Vidarbha). This also increases the cost of food and is directly responsible for malnutrition.
Health harm of pesticides
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There have been many instances of farmers and their kids developing cancer and genetic defects due to the use of pesticides. Never does DOW or any other company own up responsibility for such acts. Also, the final consumers of the food are also affected. The net is littered with such studies. Google it and you will face a mountain of info on this.
Dow and India
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Assume I come to your house today and stay there for sometime. Say after sometime I murder a lot of people in your house and run away without even expressing remorse. Now, if I come back after a few years and say I have changed my ways, will you let me in? Its the same case with Dow and India. They ran away without a trace. Paid a paltry sum to the govt of India and refused to extradite Warren Anderson (CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the accident). This despite the high court of MP declaring him as a fugitive. From after a few months after the accident, they have always claimed that it was a sabotage which obviously is not the case as just one year before the accident a safety audit came up with more than 50 issues with the plant.
This is what happens with these mega corporates. They will do anything for money. They need to be controlled by govt. This happens to some extent here in North America and hardly in India. You obviously know that. So, inviting these guys to India is equivalent to letting a poisonous snake grow in ur house.
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