Comparison of deaths...

[DrPizza]

2 threads over in OT got me thinking...

Terrorists kill a few thousand people, and we end up going to war over it.

But, an American chemical plant, due to negligence, kills 5 times as many people, and injures a hundred thousand more, yet, oh well, it's business as usual, and the victims were paid. (Roughly $2000 per family who lost a loved one.)

I'm just trying to put myself in those people's shoes for a moment (the survivors, duh), and wonder how they feel toward America as a result. Do they hate us more because of it?

wiki link

I'm also surprised how few people even know about this disaster.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
2 threads over in OT got me thinking...

Terrorists kill a few thousand people, and we end up going to war over it.

But, an American chemical plant, due to negligence, kills 5 times as many people, and injures a hundred thousand more, yet, oh well, it's business as usual, and the victims were paid. (Roughly $2000 per family who lost a loved one.)

I'm just trying to put myself in those people's shoes for a moment (the survivors, duh), and wonder how they feel toward America as a result. Do they hate us more because of it?

wiki link

I'm also surprised how few people even know about this disaster.

It happened in 1984, I am guessing half the people on here were not even born or will to young to remember.

Plus it was an ACCICDENT, not a planned attack to kill innocent people in order to advance some loony religious belief.

More people die in auto accidents per year than do to terrorism, you don't see us bombing GM headquarters.

Although some environmentalists might call the SUV a WMD

 

[Termagant]

And how many tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died in Iraq, in part due to the security situation which the US set up following the invasion?

Israel had two solders captured, and how many Lebanese civilians died in 30 days of bombing, while a dozen or so Israelis were killed by rockets?

In short, human lives of people in different places from different lands are not worth the same. Westerners and rich people are worth more than the poor of the world. The reason is because they have the means to make a huge deal about death, and their countries have the means and the WILL to make the death of an American, Israeli, etc., a big deal if they so choose. In the Third World the leaders may view their people as expendible, for economic, political, military reasons. Cynics may argue that in the West people are viewed as expendible by their leaders; well not as much as in the Third World. Alot of this willingness to expend lives also has cultural roots.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Originally posted by: DrPizza
2 threads over in OT got me thinking...

Terrorists kill a few thousand people, and we end up going to war over it.

But, an American chemical plant, due to negligence, kills 5 times as many people, and injures a hundred thousand more, yet, oh well, it's business as usual, and the victims were paid. (Roughly $2000 per family who lost a loved one.)

I'm just trying to put myself in those people's shoes for a moment (the survivors, duh), and wonder how they feel toward America as a result. Do they hate us more because of it?

wiki link

I'm also surprised how few people even know about this disaster.

It happened in 1984, I am guessing half the people on here were not even born or will to young to remember.

Plus it was an ACCICDENT, not a planned attack to kill innocent people in order to advance some loony religious belief.

More people die in auto accidents per year than do to terrorism, you don't see us bombing GM headquarters.

Although some environmentalists might call the SUV a WMD

Oh, I agree it was an ACCIDENT. But it would be wrong to compare it to an automobile accident, unless the person involved in that accident was taking on his cell phone while steering with his feet, and eating from McDonalds, all while trying to remove his jacket and change the radio station... while drunk. It was incredible negligence, and warnings were completely ignored... More than an accident, it was a matter of greed and far more concern for the bottom line than for human life.

 

[Lemon law]

Well---over on yahoo news---a new and perhaps contraversial study now puts the Iraqi death toll at 655,000 due to US action.

To put that in perspective---think of all the people who die in auto accidents in a given year---and this is about 13 years worth.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
2 threads over in OT got me thinking...

Terrorists kill a few thousand people, and we end up going to war over it.

But, an American chemical plant, due to negligence, kills 5 times as many people, and injures a hundred thousand more, yet, oh well, it's business as usual, and the victims were paid. (Roughly $2000 per family who lost a loved one.)

I'm just trying to put myself in those people's shoes for a moment (the survivors, duh), and wonder how they feel toward America as a result. Do they hate us more because of it?

wiki link

I'm also surprised how few people even know about this disaster.

I remember it well, and I saw a horrifying documentary about it about a year ago.

Ultimately, foreign lives are worth much less than our own, psychologically, and the lives of people in third-world countries are worth even less. That is not to suggest this is a good thing, but the further removed we are from people suffering, the less we care.

The Union Carbide disaster is one that would have led to criminal charges, had it happened in the US - it really was a case of recklessness IMO. Certainly one of the great modern tragedies. By all accounts Bhopal is/was a gorgeous city - the documentary I saw made it look beautiful.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: DonVito

Originally posted by: DrPizza
2 threads over in OT got me thinking...

Terrorists kill a few thousand people, and we end up going to war over it.

But, an American chemical plant, due to negligence, kills 5 times as many people, and injures a hundred thousand more, yet, oh well, it's business as usual, and the victims were paid. (Roughly $2000 per family who lost a loved one.)

I'm just trying to put myself in those people's shoes for a moment (the survivors, duh), and wonder how they feel toward America as a result. Do they hate us more because of it?

wiki link

I'm also surprised how few people even know about this disaster.

I remember it well, and I saw a horrifying documentary about it about a year ago.

Ultimately, foreign lives are worth much less than our own, psychologically, and the lives of people in third-world countries are worth even less. That is not to suggest this is a good thing, but the further removed we are from people suffering, the less we care.

The Union Carbide disaster is one that would have led to criminal charges, had it happened in the US - it really was a case of recklessness IMO. Certainly one of the great modern tragedies. By all accounts Bhopal is/was a gorgeous city - the documentary I saw made it look beautiful.

Were there not any criminal actions taken there? Sad to think the people who looked the other way just went back to their nice houses.

 

[dahunan]

Interesting discussion..

http://www.corpwatch.org/img/original/Bhopal.jpg
http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/000097.php

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Were there not any criminal actions taken there? Sad to think the people who looked the other way just went back to their nice houses.

My understanding is that the Indian authorities attempted to bring criminal charges, but Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemical) refused to appear to answer them. To this day, 22 years later, nobody has ever been convicted of a crime or been sentenced.

 

[ProfJohn]

Originally posted by: DonVito

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Were there not any criminal actions taken there? Sad to think the people who looked the other way just went back to their nice houses.

My understanding is that the Indian authorities attempted to bring criminal charges, but Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemical) refused to appear to answer them. To this day, 22 years later, nobody has ever been convicted of a crime or been sentenced.

And we complain about Enron and WorldCom... sheeeesh very sad.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Originally posted by: DonVito

Originally posted by: ProfJohn

Were there not any criminal actions taken there? Sad to think the people who looked the other way just went back to their nice houses.

My understanding is that the Indian authorities attempted to bring criminal charges, but Union Carbide (now owned by Dow Chemical) refused to appear to answer them. To this day, 22 years later, nobody has ever been convicted of a crime or been sentenced.

How weird. What kind of a court system would withhold judgement on the basis of a defendant's refusal to appear?

 

[senseamp]

American politicians cared more about Terry Schiavo than they do about the whole Darfur Genocide.
And I can guarantee you, they care a lot more about corporate profits that end up funding their reelections than they did about Terry Schiavo.
But also, ultimately it's Indian governments fault. They allowed the plant to be built where it was, they allowed lax maintainance, they didn't monitor air and evacuate people, and they didn't hold Union Carbide to account. Corporations like Union Carbide only do as much as the government lets them get away with. These governments want to have it both ways, they want to make regulatory consessions to attract business, but they don't want to live with the consequences of those lax regulations.

 

[fitzov]

Plus it was an ACCICDENT, not a planned attack to kill innocent people in order to advance some loony religious belief.

Methinks the "professor" doesn't know what 'negligence' means.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Originally posted by: Whoozyerdaddy

How weird. What kind of a court system would withhold judgement on the basis of a defendant's refusal to appear?

Uh, how about our own? Trials in absentia are exceptionally rare, and even the most serious criminals are almost never tried that way, since the Confrontation Clause provides them the right to face their accuser.