The Bhopal Disaster occurred during the evening/early morning of December 2-3, 1984 as a result of a chemical mishap in Union Carbide's central Bhopal plant. 3,000 died immediately, but the numbers are now believed to be seven times that great. In 1989, Union Carbide paid the Indian government $470 million as a settlement, but has failed to reach the victims or begin to cover the costs the Bhopal community has incurred as a result of this disaster.
Union Carbide has since been acquired by Dow Chemical, yet Dow has refused to inherit any of their liability. The exact chemicals released have also never been disclosed.
The magnitude of the disaster has also extended to the environment, and Bhopal continues to suffer in the legacy of this corporate catastrophe. Activism surrounding the Bhopal Tragedy is strong and in 2004 two of the most prominent activists, Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla (both survivors of the disaster), won the biggest environmental award given in the United States, the Goldman Prize.
Through awareness, activists hope to spur corporate accountability and restitution. Below are some examples of poetry inspired by the Bhopal disaster.
By Terry Allan
Har nari ki yahi ladai It is the struggle of all women
Jhadoo maro Dow ko Beat Dow with a broom
Phool nahi Chingari hain hum We are flames not flowers
Jhadoo maro Dow ko Beat Dow with a broom
Ither se maro, Uther se maro Beat from this side, beat from that side
Jhadoo maro Dow ko
Hum bhi marey tum bhi maro I beat and you also beat
Jhadoo maro Dow ko
Josh se maro, Host se maro Beat with pasión, beat fully conscious
Jhadoo maro Dow ko
Mil ke maro Takat se maro Beat together, beat with power
Jhadoo maro Dow ko
We are women of Bhopal, we are flames not flowers
We will not wilt before your corporate power
With brooms in hand we're gonna sweep you away
'Cause we'll fight for justice till our dyin' day
You're Union carbide, you cannot hide
Behind your deadly clouds of cyanide
You gassed our city with your poison factory
Cutting costs on safety making MIC
Using double standards, untried technology
And you said it's good for the economy
You ruined our lives, killed our sons and our mothers
And before we could mourn our dead sisters and brothers
You'd already denied responsibility
For the worst disaster in history.
You made a bargain, with our government
To drop the charges and take the settlement
The compensation, you said you thought was fair
"500 dollars goes pretty far over there"
Your champagne glasses you raised in the air
'Cause it only cost you 43 cents per share
Your paltry settlement sent the prices of your stock up
But we won't give up until your ass is in the lock-up
The blood we cough up
Because you screwed up
You're gonna fess up
And clean the mess up
Nineteen years later we're still suffering and dying
And you're still claiming trade secrets and lying
20,000 dead and counting is much more than a statistic
We remember every loved one's smile, our heartbreak's realistic
More than a hundred thousand still living in pain
How can you sit there and tell us that our cries are in vain
The toxic waste dumps around your factory
Are adding insult, to injury
The poisoned water that we have to drink
Ask any daughter, she knows how much it stinks.
You thought the merger with Dow Chemical
Would absolve you of liability
But for your crimes against humanity
We're gonna bring Dow Chemical to its knees.
Dow has a history, several claims to fame
It was their Napalm set Vietnam aflame.
Agent Orange causes birth defects
And using Dursban has nasty side-effects
Dioxin squirts from every mother's breast
Worldwide from north to south, east to west.
But you corporate men in your ties of silk
Can't know the horror of mothers feeding toxic breast milk
To our beautiful babies, our newborn innocents
This ain't no way to start their life experience.
You invade our bodies knowingly
Thanks to Dow, we're living poisoned daily.
If the truth be told we would rather die
Than have to live like you where every breath is a lie
Your corporate culture, for what it's worth
Has done more to ruin our planet earth
By turning humans into hollow shells
Addicted consumers in their homogenous hells.
But in your quest for profit we refuse to take part
Against all odds we'll live our lives with joy and heart
We believe in the power of the human spirit
We raise our voices together so everyone can hear it.
We are women of the world, we are flames, not flowers
We will not wilt before your corporate power
Hand in hand and heart to heart, side by side
We will fight for justice 'til the day we die.
"torture me"
By a Bhopal survivor
aim a blowtorch at my eyes pour acid down my throat strip the tissue from my lungs. drown me in my own blood. choke my baby to death in front of me. make me watch her struggles as she dies. cripple my children. let pain be their daily and their only playmate. spare me nothing. wreck my health so I can no longer feed my family. watch us starve. say it's nothing to do with you. don’t ever say sorry. poison our water. cause monsters to be born among us. make us curse God. stunt our living children’s growth. for twenty years ignore our cries. teach me that my rage is as useless as my tears. prove to me beyond all doubt that there is no justice in the world. you are a wealthy american corporation and I am a gas victim of bhopal.
"In the Sweep of Human Rights"
By Larry Dohrs
(dedicated to Champa Devi Shukla & Rashida Bee)
She sweeps like Shiva’s
universal dance against ignorance
cleaning up the toxic details
without fear of reprisals,
she sweeps the excuses
out from beneath the corporate
imported subsidy rug
where Mr. Executive Empire
piles up his indictment
to face criminal charges in India
Along with her neighbors -
the survivor widows of Bhopal
she sweeps up social responsibility
for the pesticide melt down,
cry’s out for clean up
of drinking water,
infected water with chemicals
decayed from cyanide exposure
(just like in gas chambers)
She shares the Goldman
Environmental Award (2004)
with her compatriot, together
they sweep out the evidence
gathered in stringent investigations,
sweep out the darkest grief
holding together the ten thousand-fold losses,
sweep away the social distance
concealing chronic pesticide wounds
Let us sweep
all together at their side
gather detailed answers for accountability,
sweep justice up
with this community of down-winders,
pick up full restitution
life long health care,
the simple human rights
required like bread
like a searing freedom song
for the endangered
(and the endearing)
women of Bhopal
Larry is a West Coast poet with recent work appearing in "Citizen 32" and in NthPositionDot-Com's "Poems for Madrid." Larry values a poetry of witness and contributing to a literature of justice. He is working on a book of poems called "Mural Poems." He has been a volunteer editor with Poets Against War, reads often with several poetry series, and assists Amnesty International Puget Sound with literary, and human rights events. He can be contacted at: wordheath at yahoo dot com.
For more Bhopal inspired poems and to access the poems you see posted above click here.
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