ateng_batigol

Aku tidak henti henti menyakiti….

Hidupku tidak lebih dari memusnahkan harapan dan impian org lain…hurm….Ya Allah…aku lemah….lemah mengawal diri dari dosa…dan lebih teruk aku tarik manusia lain ke jalan yang salah….membuat perkara yang hanya akan mengukir pedih yang lebih dalam…..dalam…dalam…..

Aku lemah Ya Allah…sungguh lemah….aku sedih memandangkan aku sekarang…sedih aku makin berjauhan dariMu…..keadaan dan situasi yang semakin menjauhkan aku dari kelompok manusia yang aku sayang……ampun kan daku Ya Tuhan….Ya Rahman…Ya Rahim…..

“The rich have a moral obligation to give away
their fortune”. This very quote was said by a
noble person named Andrew Carnegie. Interesting
enough he was the first one to publicly urge the
rich, the wealthy and the prosperous to have some
kind of a responsibility and commitment to help
the community. It was his book “The Gospel of
Wealth” that successfully started to promote his
idea of public awareness among the upper class of
the society. He is most remembered as an
industrialist, businessman, millionaire and
humanitarian who strongly believed that the
well-heeled had a duty to share his fortune. He is
also noted for his endless donation that had
successfully boosted the living quality of the
community as a whole especially in education and
promoting peace. One of his first contribution was
dedicated to his native town and then he funded
and created several more philanthropic and
education organizations in the United States and
Europe including the Andrew Carnegie Free Library
in Dunfermline, Scotland and Carnegie Corporation
of New York.

A glance of Carnegie history, he was born
originally from a poor Scottish family in 1835 and
thirteen years later he migrated to the United
States with his family and settled down in
Pennsylvania. He started working at this age as a
bobbin boy at a cotton mill earning $1.20 per week
and then continued to work with Western Union and
the Pennsylvania Railroad.  At the age of 30, he
resigned and started his own business that
eventually leads to organizing the famous Carnegie
Steel Company in Pittsburgh which has created a
firm foundation of the iron and steel industry in
the United States. Just about three years later,
his annual income had become $50 000, considered
to be among the highest during his time, he then
declared to himself by writing a note saying,
“Beyond this never earn, make no effort to
increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year
for benevolent purposes.”

His humble, modest, self-effacing, and
down-to-earth attitude together with his sharp
thinking skills that was also well equipped with
his efficient strategies and hard work, had put
himself to a level that was way beyond other
businessmen during his time and even now. He had
created his own league of “nobility” when he
successfully re-defined public commitment amongst
the wealthy with his generosity. Carnegie’s life
came to an end when he died in Lenox,
Massachusetts, on August 11, 1919. His may not be
here physically, but his words and contributions
will always remind us how great example he is to
the wealthy world.

-jazlan-

Reference:
1.Carnegie Corporation of New York, 20th April,
makeURL(”2006, http://www.carnegie.org/sub/about/biography.html”,”eHNsL2J1bGxldGluLnhzbA==”);2006, http://www.carnegie.org/sub/about/biography.html

Twenty one years ago, in the month of December, around half a million people were exposed to toxic chemicals during a sudden catastrophic release of about 30 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. The disaster took place at the Union Carbide pesticide plant and had caused an official death toll of more than 7,000 people within days [1]. A further 20,000 died in the following years and almost 100,000 people are still suffering chronic and severe illnesses due to the after effects for which treatment is largely ineffective and forever changing the public’s trust of the chemical [1]. Some of the health problems that they have been suffering from that moment until now are eyes disease, neurological damage, neuromuscular damage, mental problems, cancers, gynecological disorders, etc.

The Bhopal disaster shocked the world and raised some crucial and fundamental questions about corporate, engineering and government responsibility and the role of both the environmentalist and humanitarian activist for the catastrophic industrial accidents which have destroyed both the human lives and the environment. Awkwardly, twenty years is still too short for the responsible party to be held accountable for the leak and its appalling consequences. It is important to note that most of the survivors are still waiting for a just compensation, an adequate and reliable medical assistance and treatment, and a comprehensive economic and social remedy [2]. Even worse, due to the failure to clean up the plant site, the toxic waste is still polluting the environment and contaminating the water that is currently supplying the need for the surrounding communities.

In order to pursue this case study, historical perspective is beyond crucial to extend the articulation of this saddened disaster. During the late 1970s there was an increase in pesticide production use and in order to achieve self-sufficiency in agricultural production, they have decided to manufacture the pesticides in India as to avoid from relying on imports and also parallel to India’s goal of preserving foreign exchange and its policy of industrialization [1]. The Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) was established in 1934 when Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), one of the first US industrial companies, invested in India [5]. The Bhopal plant was built in 1973 and it was owned and operated by UCIL with a very noble mission; to produce pesticides for use in India as well as helping other countries to improve their agricultural productivity. The plant was also part of India’s Green Revolution that aimed to improve the yield of crops in India. This will undoubtedly contribute to meeting the food demand for the most populated region in the world.

As a third world and developing country, India was vulnerable in their infrastructure such as communication and education that were required to maintain the technology. However they were desperate to rectify the ever expanding starving problems in India. Therefore, they decided to compete globally and attract multinational companies for their investment and capital by offering low-cost labor, access to markets, and lower operating costs to set up and maintain their industry.

As expected, this had captured such an enormous amount of interest from multinational companies. Even so, safety and health violations will most probably be taken for granted and often be ignored as only a small amount of money are being spent and a very limited number of skilled labors being hired for an extremely risky gigantic industrial project. In other words, the Indian government did what was “best” for their people at that time as they had no better options that can help stabilize the situation of the over-demanding for food in India and yet it turned out calamitously. Generally, governments have the major responsibility for protecting the human rights of communities endangered by the activities of corporations, especially those employing perilous and risky tehcnology.

The past
twenty years has invoked an endless effort by
survivors’ organizations and activists to use the US and Indian court systems to see justice being put in its
place and gain adequate redress have so far been futile. Surprisingly, the
transnational corporations involved –UCC and Dow Chemicals which took over UCC
in 2001 – have managed to defy all the public pressures and overtly stated that
they have no responsibility for the leak and its consequences or for the
pollution from the plant [2]. In response, they claimed that they were sabotaged
by disgruntled employees who were unhappy with their wages.

In 1989, the Indian government agreed for a settlement, approved   by the
Indian Supreme Court, stated UCC paying US$470 million [2]. Nevertheless, this inadequate
sum has still not been distributed in full to the victims. About 30% of claims for injuries have
been rejected by the government, around 16,000 claims are outstanding, and
most of the successful applicants have received minimal amounts of compensation
[2]. At the time of writing in September 2004, around US$330 million of the US$470
million remained held by the Reserve Bank of India [2]. In the perspective of human rights, the right of
the Bhopal people has been violated for more than twenty years and
has yet to spark any positive step for a promised future. Who should take the
blame and be accountable for all their suffocation? In particular, what is
their ethical basis for their risky and irresponsible decision in the last two
decades? For obvious reason, the situation is more complex than what
meets the eye.

[1]
“Bhopal Disaster,” http://www.american.edu/TED/bhopal.htm
Accessed November 19 2005.

[2] “Cloud of Injustice: Bhopal Disaster 20 years on,
Amnesty International, http://web.amnesty.org/pages/ec-bhopal-eng
Accessed November 19 2005.

-jazlan-