It's been a while . . . please forgive . . . too much to do. But this (and oh so much more) demanded writing.

From mid-April to the beginning of June 2009, there is/was a Bhopal Survivors' Tour – mostly in the US, with one stop in Toronto. This is my account of that visit.

A very brief history:
On the night of December 2/3, 1984, a gas leak, methyl isocyanate (MIC), occurred at the Union Carbide chemical plant (UCC) in Bhopal, India. The gas killed 3,000 people the first night and another 7,000-10,000 people in the next 2 days. Union Carbide refused to take responsibility, and Dow Chemical, which bought UCC in 2001, also denies responsibility. Ever since, the survivors, hobbled by cancer, severe reproductive and respiratory illnesses, have fought peacefully for justice (see links below for more).

Toronto, May 14-15, 2009:
After a suspenseful wait to learn if Bhopal leader and director of the Sambhavana Clinic, Sathyu (Satinath Sarangi), was going to get his visa for Canada, we heard that he got it – 30 hours before the event on Friday! We got him on a bus from Detroit, and met him in time for dinner.

The main event was Friday, May 15; The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB), Amnesty International (AI) Canada Business and Human Rights Group (Toronto), and the Toronto Quaker Meeting joined together to co-host. We also gratefully acknowledge those who endorsed the evening – Science for Peace (SfP), Greenpeace Canada, and Council of Canadians.

The event:
All was in place: video, tables with info and merchandise, and 10 photographs from the "We are not Flowers, We are Flames" exhibit by Ragu Rai. Lyn Adamson warmly welcomed us to Friends House, and introduced Diana, our ICJB emcee for the evening. I spoke about AI's ongoing campaign for justice in Bhopal, and Judy Deutsch, president of SfP, movingly expressed their relationship to the Bhopal disaster and why they wanted to support the event. After watching the part of Velcrow Ripper's film, Scared Sacred, about Bhopal, Velcrow introduced Sathyu (see my video – link below).

As Sathyu spoke, everyone was absorbed as he described the situation in Bhopal – what has happened legally, medically, sociologically and economically in the intervening 24 ½ years since the disaster. He painted a full picture of the relationship between UCC/Dow Chemical and the survivors, the Indian Government, and the arms industry. In a short time we understood the inherent inhumanity of companies whose main mission is profit, regardless of those who suffer or are killed as a result. That Bhopal is still considered the world's worst industrial disaster propels it to photo child status for all people left behind in the wake of power/greed.

The spirit of the Bhopal survivor community is extremely positive, and Sathyu told us about one action that exemplifies this. There is a vibrant youth group that made stickers saying (paraphrase) "if you want to know what your love life will bring, what your finances will be, what your future is, call . . . . ." and they gave a phone number. They put these stickers up in Mumbai commuter trains. Needless to say the phone number was that of Dow Chemical offices in India, and as a result of ten of thousands of calls, the company was obliged to change their phone number.

Dow has brought three law suits against the survivors, each one demanding increasingly more money. The last one seeks 1,000,000 rupees in damages (approximately $23,808 Canadian) resulting from a civil disobedience action where survivors peacefully took over one of Dow's offices. Recently, on the US tour, there is support from some in Congress to hold a congressional hearing to look into UCC/Dow's actions and inaction in the Bhopal case. This is very good news.

During the Q and A, Sathyu responded as people asked questions and described some of the Canadian situations, particularly the chemical ally in Sarnia, Ontario (see Toxic Trespass link below). To close the evening Sathyu recited a poem he wrote, and Ed Hanley (Autorickshaw) on tabla and Patrick Boyle on trumpet played for us – what a treat! The music was a classical Indian/jazz fusion; Sathyu enjoyed it immensely, and, everyone was captivated by its fullness, complexity/simplicity and beauty.

Afterward people signed petitions and post cards, and bought merchandise from AI and ICJB. Velcrow's new film, Fierce Light: Where Spirit Meets Action, had just opened and several people went off to see the 9:45 show.

It's rare that an event is so moving – so simple, so real, so full. Everything was there – the disaster of Bhopal caused by the lowest of human desires to the spirit of the Bhopalis expressed in Sathyu's perspective and the sublime music of Ed and Patrick. Because Bhopal is a microcosm of so many issues – medical, legal, corporate, human and environmental rights, ethics, women, children, violence/nonviolence, social and cultural, it brings together communities from a variety of disciplines.

What we can do:
We in Toronto can help by educating ourselves, passing the information on to others, joining AI's Business & Human Rights Team and Students for Bhopal, and of course, by donating to the campaign (see links below). A big thank you to everyone who attended – the donations were generous (we raised $600), and will help to keep the campaign for justice in Bhopal and "No More Bhopals!" going.

Links:
International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal: http://bhopal.net/
The Bhopal Medical Appeal/Sambhavana Clinic: http://bhopal.org
Amnesty International Toronto Organization: http://aito.ca
AI Business and Human Rights (Toronto) Group facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?success=1&id=670975706#/pages/Amnesty-International-Toronto-Business-Human-Rights-Group/86806657395?ref=ts
Students for Bhopal (Toronto): sfbtoronto@hotmail.com
Toronto Quaker Meeting: http://www.web.net/~tmm/
Science for Peace: http://scienceforpeace.sa.utoronto.ca/
Greenpeace Canada: http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/
Council of Canadians: http://www.canadians.org/
Fierce Light: Where Spirit Meets Action: http://www.fiercelight.org/
Toxic Trespass, the film about Sarnia: http://www.toxictrespass.com/
The Yes Men Fix the World: http://theyesmen.org/movies
Autorickshaw: www.autorickshaw.ca
Patrick Boyle in concert: http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20080704boyle
My video, a 'feel' of the event: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3DIQmrv2mE