Approaching 30 years: the Bhopal disaster

[Recursion]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster

I'll do a more full post on this in a couple of weeks on the actual anniversary, but I just wanted to say that we're approaching the 30-year anniversary of the Union Carbide plant's fatal disaster that killed more than 10,000 people in central India in late 1984.

Some of us here in India are working on a remembrance ceremony; I'll let you know how that goes (Madhya Pradesh, the state Bhopal is in, is actually being less helpful here than Union Carbide, depressingly enough).

In the meantime, allow me to suggest Americans view the Martin Sheen / Kal Penn / Mischa Barton movie Bhopal, A Prayer For Rain, which if my timing is right should have just opened last week in the US. Penn was unbelievable; Sheen was very powerful (almost too powerful; he makes you see the CEO's side too clearly...). Barton was the weak link, but with a cast like that, that's not a severe criticism. Yadav Rajpal, a veteran Bollywood star, was the highest billed local actor, and he was absolutely heartbreaking.

This was one of the most disastrous American industrial accidents in history, and we should be more aware of it.

[hollysmom]

1. I remember it, like so many causes that just faded away to most people.

[bananas]

2. Anderson just died Sept 29

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Anderson_(American_businessman)

Warren M. Anderson (November 29, 1921 –
September 29, 2014) also known as
'Butcher of Bhopal' was an American
businessman who served as Chairman and
CEO of the Union Carbide Corporation at
the time of the Bhopal disaster in 1984. [1]
[2]

<snip>

He died at a
nursing home in Vero Beach, Florida on
September 29, 2014. His death was not
announced by his family for one month, but
was confirmed from public records, the New
York Times reported. [5]

<snip>

[Recursion]

3. Was it that recently?

Somehow I thought it was longer ago. Anyways... Doesn't help Madhya Pradesh one way or the other...