[van-announce] [ Apr. 1st & 3rd ] BHOPAL: Public Talks by Satinath Sarangi (community organizer from Bhopal, India)]

[Harsha]

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PLEASE NOTE THE CHANGES TO THE EVENT AT LANGARA COLLEGE (APRIL 1ST) The
event starts at 1 pm and the room number is (B201)



Two Community Forums....

BHOPAL: INJUSTICE, STRUGGLE and HOPE
with Special Guest Speaker Satinath Sarangi from Bhopal, India.

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Sunday, April 1, 1-5 p.m.
Langara College, Faculty Lounge (Room B201)
100 W. 49th Ave., Vancouver
A SANSAD public meeting

    and

Tuesday, April 3, Noon-2 p.m.
Kwantlen University College
12666 72Ave. Surrey
Room D128 (main floor, D Bldg)

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For 22 years, the innocent victims of the worst industrial accident event
recorded have struggled for justice. Satinath Sarangi (brief bio-data
appended below) will bring us this story of injustice, struggle and hope.

Shortly after midnight, in the early hours of December 3, 1984, over 40
tonnes of deadly gases (methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide, mono methyl
amine, carbon monoxide and up to 20 other chemicals) leaked from a
pesticide factory owned and operated by the US-based Union Carbide
Corporation. None of the six safety systems designed to contain such a
leak were operational, allowing the gases to spread rapidly throughout the
city without warning. Half a million people were exposed; over 5,000 died
within two days. The death has not stopped; till today, 20,000 people have
lost their lives to the poisonous gasses and more than 120 000 remain
seriously affected. Drinking water has been contaminated and the factory
site abandoned by its current owner Dow Chemical.

"Bhopal isn't only about thousands dead, charred lungs, poisoned kidneys
and deformed foetuses. It's also about corporate crime, multinational
skullduggery, injustice, dirty deals, medical malpractice, corruption,
callousness and contempt for the poor. Nothing else explains why the
victims' average compensation was just $500 - for a lifetime of misery...
Yet the victims haven't given up. Their struggle for justice and dignity
is one of the most valiant anywhere. They have unbelievable energy and
hope... the fight has not ended. It won't, so long as our collective
conscience stirs."      ---  Outlook India 7 Oct 2002

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For further information contact:

Langara College, Prof. Indira Prahst - 604-323-5717
Kwantlen University College, Prof. Balbir Gurm - 604-599-2267
SANSAD, Dr. Hari Sharma - 604-420-2972


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In Vancouver, Satinath Sarangi is also scheduled to speak at the following
events:

Satruday, March 31, 2:30 p.m.
Maritime Labour Centre
1880 Triumph Street, Vancouver.
@ the Conference on Jobs and Justice
Organized by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives


Monday, April 2, Noon hour
at the Liu Institute for Global Issues, UBC
(6476 NW Marine Drive)
sponsored by students and the UBC Centre for International Health


Tuesday April 3, 7:30 p.m.
SFU Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
organized by the Vancouver and District Labour Council


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His visit to Vancouver is co-sponsored with SANSAD by:

Centre for International Health - University of British Columbia, Liu
Institute for Global Issues - University of British Columbia,
International Affairs Committee - Vancouver and District Labour Council,
Sociology & Anthropology Department - Langara College, Sociology &
Anthropology Department - Simon Fraser University, Institute for the
Humanities - Simon Fraser University, School for Internaional Studies -
Simon Fraser University, Faculty Association - Kwantlen University
College, Amnesty International Canada - Pacific Regional Office, Simon
Fraser Public Interest Research Group (SFPIRG)

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Biographical note on Satinath Sarangi:

Satinath Sarangi, popularly known as Sathyu, received his Masters in
Technology degree (Metallurgical Engineering) from the Institute of
Technology, Varanasi in 1980. He was an outstanding student and received
many awards and medals from Banaras Hindu University. While working on his
doctoral research, the Union Carbide accident occurred in Bhopal in 1984;
he dropped everything and rushed to help the people of Bhopal. He has
lived there ever since!

He worked tirelessly in the relief work and founded the Zahareeli Gas Kand
Sangharsh Morcha [Poisonous Gas Episode Struggle Front]. In 1986 he helped
set up the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) in order to
collect and disseminate information on the disaster, provide support to
different survivor organizations, initiate national and international
campaigns. BGIA has documented the quality of medical care available to
the survivors in government hospitals and problems in the distribution of
compensation; they organized a tour of USA, England, Ireland and The
Netherlands by survivors to draw attention to the unjust settlement
between Union Carbide and the Government of India and for a more just
compensation package for the survivors. Sathyu helped organize the Bhopal
session of Permanent Peoples Tribunal on Industrial and Environmental
Hazards and Human Rights in Bhopal, and the International Medical
Commission on Bhopal in 1992.

BGIA along with survivor organizations has called for improvement of
medical care, disposal of toxic waste and stoppage of demolition of the
factory by the management. BGIA has provided legal assistance to survivor
claimants who have been wrongfully denied compensation or have been paid
inadequate sums. Recognizing that medical care for the survivors of the
Union Carbide accident was very poor, he was instrumental in the setting
up of the Sambhavna (Possibilities) Trust and the Sambhavna Medical Clinic
in 1995. The clinic is run through donations made nationally and
internationally. From its modest beginnings the clinic has grown into a
modern facility with two general physicians, a gynaecologist and three
consultants in psychiatry, ophthalmic care and pathology. Sambhavna has a
modern laboratory with facilities for biochemical, cytological and
microbilogical investigations.

The clinic also offers Ayurveda, the indigenous system of health care that
uses herbal medicines. Two Ayurveda physicians and two Panchakarma
therapists provide treatment through herbal medicines and through
procedures of detoxification such as medicated oil massage, steam bath,
medicinal oil stream and medicinal enema. More than 100 species of
medicinal plants are grown in the one acre garden next to the clinic
building. As well, more than forty different kinds of Ayurvedic powders,
oils, decoctions and pills are manufactured at the medicine making unit at
the clinic.

Sambhavna Trust was awarded the Japanese,Tajiri Muneaki prize in July
1999, the "Inner Flame Award "by the Governor of Madhya Pradesh for
outstanding humanitarian work in 2001 and the MEAD 2001 Award by the
Margaret Mead Centennial Committee of the Institute for Intercultural
Studies. Sambhavna has made significant contributions to the scientific
knowledge on the long-term health consequences of the disaster and medical
interventions to ameliorate these consequences. Several of the research
studies conducted at Sambhavna Clinic have been published in national and
international journals including the Journal of the American Medical
Association (JAMA). Sathyu has collaborated with Canadian researchers (Dr.
Daya Ram Varma and Shree Mulay) on a CIHR-funded research project on the
long-term consequences of exposure the industrial pollutants in utero.
Sathyu's visit to Canada is the culmination of this research.