The Human Rights Forum (HRF) calls for criminal prosecution of management of LG Polymers as well as officials of regulatory bodies for the criminal negligence that led to leak of toxic gas on May 7. The case registered against the LG Polymers must be pursued diligently and to the fullest extent rather than diluted as has always been the practice in the past.
HRF takes strong exception to the Chief Minister describing the LG Polymers as a ‘good company’ and a reputed multinational that adheres to norms! This is a company that is responsible for the death of 11 people, causing serious ill-health to hundreds of citizens, led to evacuation of thousands and unleashed horror on the city in the midst of a distressing lockdown. There is no basis for the ‘good’ reputation of this company. In April 2019, the South Korean government revealed that the company had fudged air pollution data to convey that it was compliant with air emission norms while in reality it had emitted the carcinogenic vinyl chloride chemical more than 15 times in excess of standards.
We do not even know, as yet, what the long-term health impacts on those in the RR Venkatapuram area who have inhaled the poison, is going to be. This is a company that was functioning, over many years, in open violation of basic environmental norms, a fact that it had even admitted in an affidavit in May last year to the State-level Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA).
What has happened in Visakhapatnam on Thursday is a corporate crime. Any attempt to underplay, minimise or normalise this is disgraceful. Have we forgotten the monumental injustice of Bhopal over 35 years ago?
Since several decades, we have been witness to industries in and around the city flouting norms and not following safety guidelines. Regulatory bodies like the AP Pollution Control Board (APPCB) and Factory Inspectorate are willfully compromised and criminally pliant knowing fully well the dangers involved. Liability must also be fixed on town planning authorities for tolerating the operation and expansion of a large Red Category hazardous industry in close proximity to a densely populated residential area. Also, local communities have repeatedly petitioned the authorities to bring to light the environmental problems associated with the plant.
Dozens of people have died because of this wanton recklessness but till date there has been no accountability or criminal prosecution. Time and again, these crimes have been whitewashed, blatant lies and cover-ups resorted to, scapegoats found, compensation amounts doled out and matters closed. Consequently, there has been no deterrence and Visakhapatnam continues to be perched on an industrial tinderbox.
It is by now evident that LG Polymers is in contempt of The Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical Rules, 1989. Styrene is classified as a ‘hazardous and toxic chemical’ and even during a lockdown, such toxins require careful management and there are well laid out protocols for the same. Clearly, the management has been careless in the handling and storing of this highly reactive chemical and has given basic guidelines the go-by. It is also obvious that proper maintenance was not undertaken before operations were resumed. Serious questions remain as to why the plant was even accorded permission to resume operations after lockdown relaxations.
This incident has also shown up the pitiful state of on-site and off-site emergency plans and disaster control measures. Even at distances of over 15 km from the factory, the air had a pungent odour and residents came down with minor headaches on the forenoon of Thursday. Following rumours that there was yet another styrene vapour leak from the factory late Thursday night, hundreds of residents from the Gopalapatnam, Muralinagar, Madhavadhara and other nearby areas fled, some of them as far as Maddilapalem and the Beach Road. There was no help whatsoever forthcoming from the administration. In fact, residents of the city are even now groping in the dark with no proper official communication about the status of the situation.
Principles of absolute liability require that the company should pay for all expenses and compensation related to the incident, and any relief to the affected persons provided at taxpayers’ expense must be recovered from the polluter – i.e. LG Polymers. The APPCB must make public the data from the air quality monitors set up by the company, and must also reveal what evidence has been gathered in terms of air, water and soil samples, and urine/blood samples of exposed people.
Given that this is the first case worldwide of such a massive release of styrene, and the first recorded case of human fatality as a result of inhalation exposure to styrene, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) must be tasked with conducting a long-term health study of the exposed population to ascertain the evolution of morbidities over time. Styrene has been categorised as a ‘Probable Human Carcinogen’ by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
It is learnt that the 15 workers present at the site at the time of the vapour leak were all casual workers. It is a known fact that in the name of labour reforms, labour rights, job security and onsite safety are being routinely compromised by the casualisation of the workforce. We demand that the Inspector of Factories independently register an FIR on the aspect of industrial safety lapses, and the labour department must proceed against the company for violation of labour laws. HRF feels that this should also be an opportunity to verify the workforces at all Red and Orange category industries to ensure that only permanent and trained staff are deployed for tasks of a routine and skilled nature.
HRF believes that the constitution of the committee set up by the State government to probe the issue is problematic and does not inspire confidence. We want a genuinely independent team of experts, including nominees of civil society, to inquire into and get to the bottom of this crime. The factory site must be immediately sealed and all records seized so as to obviate any tampering by management.
K Sudha (HRF AP State general secretary)
VS Krishna (HRF AP&TS Coordination Committee member)
“Accumulate, accumulate! That is Moses and the prophets.”
— Karl Marx
I’ve been negligent in failing to acknowledge my gratitude to op-ed writers at the New York Times for their frequent doses of insidious misinformation which demand disassembling and refutation. They didn’t disappoint on May 5, 2020. In the lead op-ed, “Will We Get Used to the Dying?” Editor-at-Large Charlie Warzal expresses his gut-wrenching feeling that Americans are already beginning to adapt to Covid-19’s deadly consequences. After informing readers that the Federal government has ordered an extra 100,000 body bags and that a reliable computer model projects 3,000 deaths per day in early June, Warzal suggests that most Americans are likely to “simply carry on with their lives” and finds parallels with the indifference now shown toward mass shootings across the country.
Warzal goes on to offer a detailed and accurate laundry list of Trump’s sins of commission and omission on Covid-19. He blames American citizens for their childlike notions of personal freedom “where any suggestion of collective duty and responsibility for others becomes the chains of tyranny…where the idea of freedom is also an excuse to serve one’s self before others and as a shield to hide from responsibilities.” He concludes — rightly I think — that “this kind of freedom has a price that will be calculated and then set by a select few. The rest of us merely pay it.” Setting aside the fact that Mr. Warzal opines from his laptop in Missoula, Montana and in all likelihood will not be one of those “paying the ultimate price, what else can we learn from this article?
What we see here is an honest explication of horrific symptoms but a troubling, almost “blame the victim” explanation in lieu of addressing the actual cause of the problem. First, the narrow notions of “freedom” that Warzal skewers didn’t arise out of thin air but have been carefully cultivated. This rapacious system logic overtook the nation in the post-Reconstruction era of the Gilded Age and has remarinated the world of business and finance since the time of Thatcher and Reagan. Today the muting of empathic impulses is almost complete as the “common interest” is subjugated to the cultural construction of selves based entirely on market values. Even morals have been deregulated.
The “freedom” Warzal cites but fails to connect to the larger system is only the freedom to pursue economic self-interest as a hyper-competitive, perpetual consumer. As Noam Chomsky has asserted, ‘[T]he very idea that we’re in it together, that we care about one each other, that we have a responsibility to one another, that’s sort of frightening to those people who want a society which is dominated by power, authority, wealth, in which people are passive and obedient.” Or, as the famed primate scientist Frans de Waal succinctly puts it, “You need to indoctrinate empathy out of people to arrive at extreme capitalist positions.” The United States is not unique in this regard but the extreme difference in degree almost makes it a difference in kind.
Second, what we see in Warzal’s piece is the ideological demarcation line which can never be crossed by journalists who aspire to reaching the profession’s elite echelons. In this case, he leaves the impression that Trump and a “select few” others made the decisions about opening up the country but in fact it’s an entire class of people. who, paradoxically, also don’t have a choice of sending a certain percentage of workers to needless death. Wall Street and the politicians who serve it are compelled to take this action under the ineluctable logic of ceaseless capitalist growth and profit-making — or watch their system totally collapse. This is the dirty truth that can never rise to the level conscious thought much less ever be uttered.
Third, in perusing the online Comments section (1,085 and now closed) we find an entirely predictable response that’s confined to debating gun control and trashing Trump. The latter attribute our problems to Trump’s ego and personal ambition. A tiny fraction condemns Americans for the selfishness but if there’s a single comment that raised any deeper questions, I missed it.
Now, lest I be misunderstood, I’m not suggesting the Times’ editorial board gathers around a virtual table like a coven of diabolical conspirators and conjures up creative narratives to deceive the paper’s readers. Quite the contrary is the case. They are enablers for a class of individuals who behave according to system which has an inherent dynamic: expand or perish. As such, these cultural coordinators for the powerful, take on beliefs that are deeply entrenched and congruent with their perception of journalistic integrity and the responsibilities accompanying it.
Advancing views of elite interests is a prerequisite to attaining and retaining these positions. And there’s an enormously satisfying symmetry between their beliefs and their self interest. Their role of frontline, ideological gate keepers affords them substantial economic rewards, privileged lifestyles and immense status among their peers. And just to be clear, these folks are sharing their genuine convictions. Psychologists tell us that people experience cognitive dissonance from lying repeatedly so they come to believe what they’re writing and saying. They don’t lose sleep over it and it’s safe to describe their behavior as psychopathic.
Gary Olson is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA. His most recent book is EMPATHY IMPERILED: Capitalism, Culture and the Brain (New York: Springer Publishing, 2012). Contact: olsong@moravian.edu.
As Southern Transitional Council has declared self rule in the southeast part of the country, a north – south regional divide once again has come to the forefront. Now, it seems likely that there will be new conflicts emerging, not only within warring sections in the country, but also involving Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iran, signaling a proxy war.
The division between the two supposed allies is another facet of the Yemen’s complicated civil war: on one side there are the separatists, strong in and around Aden, and on the other are forces loyal to former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. Both have fought together in the Saudi-led coalition’s war against Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels, particularly in northern Yemen.
The move was condemned by United Nation recognised government of President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. Saudi Arabia has called the move as an ‘escalatory action’. It has urged the STC to return to the terms of the Riyadh agreement signed in November 2019. That deal had called for both factions to remove heavy military artillery from Yemeni cities under their command, and form a unity government that included equal representation. But, that deal was not implemented as the war continued, and massive floods struck Aden.
However, several local and security authorities in the provinces of Hadramout, Abyan, Shabwa, al-Mahra and the remote island of Socotra dismissed the move as a ‘clear and definite coup’. Some of these provinces made their own statements condemning it.
Also, as of now, the war against the Houthis is held up because of recent ceasefire announcement by Saudi Arabia. But, another conflict that is between Hadi government (backed by Saudi Arabia) and Southern separatists (backed by UAE) is certain to gain an impetus in coming time. Infact, in August 2019, both of these factions clashed when STC took control of Aden.
Currently, Yemen is split between political, tribal and regional lines: it has been five years since the north and south remain divided. So, the self-rule declaration is only a step further for all practical purposes. It will give the STC the administrative privileges for areas they control.
In history, northern and southern Yemen became united in 1990. While northern Yemen traced backed its origins to Shiite Imamate of Zaydi dynasty, under patronage of Imam Yahya, southern Yemen was ruled briefly by Ottomans and Abbasids. In 19th century, the British colonised the southern Yemen peninsula, so that they could service ships enroute to India.
The unification, particularly for southerners, has left them with unaddressed grievances, in the new central government, and distribution of resources. These grievances largely embodied briefly in 1994 secessionist civil war, when southern separatists were beaten, and in the rise of Hirak movement, calling for independence, in 2007.
In the south, time and again, there have been complaints over food shortages and a sharp depreciation of the currency, and a lack of funds to pay public sector employees, thereby igniting public sentiment.
In the conflict, It has been noted that the STC backers often fly the flag of former Communist south Yemen, and have pushed to break apart the country into two, like it was between 1967 to 1990.
A divided Yemen, where there is an on and off war, between the northern and southern Yemen, will be become a safe haven for militant Salafi groups like Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). This will be catastrophic, as Yemen has an important geostrategic position, along one of the world’s important trade routes.
The new declaration has also threatened efforts to revive talks between Yemeni government and Houthi rebels. It will only promote instability: now, much more political mantle will be required to revive political negotiations between government and Houthi rebels. It has made even more complicated situation for the UN special envoy for the region. Infact, Martin Griffins, the UN envoy, calls the move as ‘concerning’.
The separatists have accused Saudi Arabia of corruption and mismanagement. It also believes Hadi government to be dishonest, and accuse them of not being loyal to their duties, thereby refusing to pay salaries to public sector employees. In the past, the Saudis intervened in the civil war, in March 2015, against the Houthis, who have been in control of Saana, since 2014, and control most big cities and towns. For five years, Riyadh has been lending its air power in an attempt to reinstate Hadi government to power across the country. Although, due to friction within its own ranks in the forces, in handling the war in Yemen, it is believed that Saudis might end the war, if Houthis compromise. There have been some back channel talks with the rebels, but Houthis largely have seen it as a ploy.
The UAE, which has withdrawn its forces from Yemen over past twelve months, still retains control over commercial ports across the south. By supporting southern Yemeni separatists, the UAE also ensures that the Saudi-backed Islah party, the transnational Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Yemen, won’t grow too powerful. The UAE, infact, opposes Brotherhood allies and partners throughout the Middle East.
While Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates both loathe Iran’s anticipated long presence on their borders, the sub strategy employed by the United Arab Emirates is to recreate a Southern Yemen State.
According to a report in the Guardian: ‘the foreign minister of the UN-recognised Yemen government, Mohammed al-Hadrami, condemned the STC’s move as a resumption of its armed insurgency … and an announcement of its rejection and complete withdrawal from the Riyadh agreement.’
In Brussels, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano told press reporters that the EU has taken note of the developments in southern Yemen, which he said undermine the Riyadh agreement, a key to de-escalation.
As many as hundred thousand people have been killed in the past five years. Another million or so have been either displaced or pushed to the brink of famine and starvation. Neighbouring Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have lot to answer. And the so-called alliance of forty Muslim countries: they have not been able to end the political stalemate, and the ravaging war.
Mats Svensson is a former Swedish diplomat, an author and a photographer. His books include “Crimes, Victims and Witnesses – Apartheid in Palestine.” His latest volume, “Apartheid is a Crime – Portraits of Israeli Occupation,” was just released by Cunepress in Seattle.
Svensson joined me and my co-host Romana Rubeo on “Palestine Chronicle TV”, on May 6, to discuss his fascinating experiences in Palestine and the balancing act of being a diplomat and a conscientious human being who cares deeply about the principles of justice and equality.
“I went to Palestine in 2004; before that, I had been working for many years in Bangladesh, in Congo, (and) in South Africa. They convinced me to go to Palestine. I prepared myself. I read a lot,” he began.
“I spent the first ten days moving around, talking to journalists, to politicians, to UN people. I remember going to Qalqilya (in the northern occupied Palestinian West Bank), where I saw the Wall for the first time. I talked to people that had lost everything because they had the land on the wrong side of the Wall. Then I went to Hebron and I went to Gaza. And something happened inside of me during this time. I was in a shock. I understood that I was not prepared at all. Something had manipulated me but I did not know what it was, at the time.”
Svensson reflected on his experiences in South Africa which fought a long and arduous struggle against apartheid and racism. He told us, “When I was in South Africa, I had a feeling that there was something missing, because I went there after 1994, in 2000. It is as if what I was looking for in South Africa was happening in Palestine now.”
“The representative of South Africa in Ramallah laughed when I told her that and she said: ‘100% of South Africans who spend at least one month here, we all say that apartheid in South Africa was just a picnic compared to Palestine.’ I said: ‘I don’t believe it, you can’t mean that’. But she answered: ‘You don’t have to believe me, you might believe Desmond Tutu, who keeps repeating it every week; you might believe Mandela.’”
“That was my beginning.”
Indeed, that was just the beginning. The time that Svensson spent in Palestine was more than enough to convince him that what is taking place in Palestine is even worse than apartheid, and that “silent diplomacy” will never work as a tool of pressure on Israel to end its subjugation of Palestinians.
Watch our exciting interview with Mats Svensson and make sure that you obtain his latest book “Apartheid is a Crime” at this link.
Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net
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