Protest against Dow Chemicals- citi center 3rd december

as the tittle suggest there was a protest held against Dow chemicals which currently occupies a office in the 6th floor of Citi Center, Mylapore. This being my first protest and stuff it's a personal statement for myself then comes the other factors. i felt like i actually had some power over what was happening around me.

Below is the petition:

To: The Management of Citi Center

Mylapore, Chennai

3 December, 2007

Sir/Madam:

Today is the 23^rd anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal disaster. People in Bhopal are still suffering from the long-term effects of the disaster. Union Carbide has abandoned several thousand tons of toxic wastes in Bhopal. These wastes have entered the groundwater. People drinking the groundwater are now experiencing a whole range of health effects and children born of parents exposed to the poisonous drinking water are being born with severe disabilities.

In 1992, Union Carbide was declared an absconder for having failed to honour summons to appear in a criminal case relating to the disaster. In 2001, Union Carbide was taken over by Dow despite warnings by Bhopal survivors and their supporters about Carbide’s lingering liabilities in Bhopal. Now, Dow and its subsidiary have refused to take any responsibility for the clean-up of the Bhopal site or for medical assistance for the people affected by the gas or contaminated water. About 80 percent of the people affected belong to minority and marginalized working class communities.

In 2007, Dow Chemical was fined $300,000 by the US agency Securities Exchange Commission for having paid more than Rs 80 lakhs in bribes to Indian officials to register three pesticides, including one that was banned in the US. Dursban, the banned pesticide, affects the brain development in young children.

Besides sheltering the absconder Union Carbide, Dow Chemical is itself a racist company that applies different values to the lives of Americans and Indian children.

We are ashamed of the Government of India’s stance of welcoming Dow to the country, and want to make it clear to the residents of Bhopal that the Government may be wrong, but the people of India believe in their struggle, and the children of Chennai will not sit idle when Dow tries to go about business as usual.

We are also appalled at the insensitivity and greed of the management of the Citi Center who are willing to provide space to criminals and those who poison children. Some of us are regular visitors to Citi Center. But we will boycott Citi Center and will encourage our friends and family to do the same.

We urge you to evict Dow Chemical and issue a press statement to that effect.

Sincerely,

(all of us signed)

and below is the press report :

Evict Dow from Citi Center: Kids tell mall owners

3 December, 2007. CHENNAI -- Marking the 23^rd anniversary of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, more than 150 Chennai children aged between 12 and 16 gathered at the central lobby of the Citi Center mall to demand for the eviction of Dow Chemical from the premises. Dow Chemical, the new owner of Union Carbide, has an office in the 6^th Floor of the upmarket mall in Mylapore. Union Carbide, which was declared an absconder by a criminal court in Bhopal in 1991, was taken over by Dow Chemical in 2001. Dow has refused to produce Union Carbide in court, even while providing an avenue for Carbide to continue profiting from sales in the Indian market without threat of arrest. With the help of industry leaders like Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani, Dow has managed to win the favour of the Prime Minister’s office which has promised to write off Dow’s liabilities in Bhopal if the company invests heavily in India.

“We are ashamed of the Government of India’s stance of welcoming Dow to the country, and want to make it clear to the residents of Bhopal that the people of India believe in their struggle, and the children of Chennai will not sit idle when Dow tries to go about business as usual,” said a spokesperson for the children who are organized as “Chennai for Bhopal.”

In February 2007, Dow Chemical was fined $300,000 by a US Government agency for having paid Rs. 80 lakhs in bribes to Indian officials to license a pesticide that was banned in the US because of its harmful effects on children’s brains. The company continues to market this pesticide which is called Dursban.

The children, many of whom are regular visitors to the Citi Center mall, said they will boycott the unethical mall and will encourage their other friends to do the same. “If the people in control of Citi Center have children, we believe they will take our actions in the right spirit and evict Dow from their premises,” the children said.

The children also distributed pamphlets that alerted other shops in Citi Center that their neighbour – Dow Chemical/Union Carbide – was a murderer charged with the murder of more than 8000 people in the Bhopal disaster.

On December 3, 1984, a poisonous gas leaked from Union Carbide’s underdesigned pesticide factory in Bhopal. At least 500,000 people were exposed to the poisonous gases that night. Union Carbide ran away to its home country, the United States of America, leaving behind thousands of tons of toxic wastes in and around its factory premises. The wastes have leached poisons into the groundwater. More than 25000 people consume the contaminated groundwater for want of a clean alternative. The incidence of birth defects and congenital deformities in the community is alarmingly high.

(the article is not all that great but it's better than nothing. i don't like them referring to us as children*****)

i guess that's all and i guess there'll be sequels to this article

***** personal opinion... no offense meant!!!

thank you
sangeetha