This week was the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster. And, 25 years later, the disaster continues.

On Dec. 2nd and 3rd, 1984, the criminal negligence killed some 20,000 people and left over 100,000 affected. And corporate America, responsible for this disaster, has done almost nothing to clean up the mess and take responsibility in the past 25 years.

From an article on BBC News this last week:

In Bhopal no-one uses the term "accident" to describe the calamity that took place here in the early hours of 3 December 1984.

For "accident" implies blamelessness. And in Bhopal the hunger for justice among those who suffered seems undiminished.

Those who survived remember the terrible randomness of it.

Eyewitnesses saw a dense cloud of poisonous gas settle on the slum areas that crowded the Union Carbide pesticide plant...

The Chingari Rehabilitation Centre is a small charitable organisation - a drop-in day centre for children born with severe disabilities, whose parents were exposed to the gas.

"These are the second generation affected," says Tarun Thomas, who runs Chingari.  read more »

Well, if this isn’t the ultimate irony, I don’t know what is. The Stop the Madrassa Group (SMG), the organization responsible for the attack on the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) before it even opened, is now calling for the closing of the school on the grounds that it has become “chaotic.”

The group issued a press release yesterday calling for an “immediate investigation into chaotic conditions at Arabic Public School.” The Group is correct in stating that there is chaos at the school. What it fails to explain is that this chaos is a direct result of their spreading vicious lies, resulting in the loss of the school’s founding principal and the continued failure to support the school by the DOE.  read more »

When you read about the Jena 6, it feels like you must be reading about something that happened more than 50 years ago before the Civil Rights Movement. It's hard to believe that it is happening in 2007.

There is some good news, but the battle is not over yet.

Background Info for those of you not yet familiar with the Jena 6

The Jena 6 incident started at Jena High School when some black students sat under a tree that had been traditionally reserved the white students. The next day, nooses painted with the school colors were hung from the tree. The students responsible for hanging the nooses were expelled but the School Superintendent later reversed their expulsions referring to the noose hangings as a “prank.”  read more »

A year ago today I wrote about the suicide of Sunil Kumar Verma. Sunil was born in Bhopal, India, in 1972. On Dec. 2nd and 3rd, 1984, the negligence of Union Carbide (now part of Dow Chemicals) killed Sunil's parents and five siblings, and left him with ongoing psychological problems. Those psychological problems dogged him for twenty two years, and a year ago today, Sunil hung himself. Meanwhile, those who were responsible for the death of his family have gotten off largely scott free. This one is for Sunil.

What negligence am I talking about? Well, some of our younger readers may not know about Bhopal, one of the most disgusting moments in American corporate colonialism. It was an event that killed some 20,000 people and left over 100,000 affected. And corporate America, responsible for this disaster, has done almost nothing to clean up the mess and take responsibility. Here is a description of what happened from the International Capaign for Justice in Bhopal:  read more »