That night 2-3 December 1984

I havent put information from sessions I attended since lunch. I pick up the thread again by starting with the Bhopal session by Sathyu. Sathyu or Satinath Sarangi is a leader in the struggle for justice for the victims of Bhopal.

This presentation was supposed to be made by Rachna Dhingra another leader of the survivors organizations but an accident resulted in the cancellation of her trip.

He is showing

• the scenes from the night


• misinformation for treatment that the company gave on that night and the next few days


• the overwhelming number of victims/patients that arrived at the hospitals


• the company ran away from criminal cases, manslaughter charges etc. It sold off its shares in India and continues to be a business in the US and continues to sell its products to India


• the company knew as far back as 1982 that chemicals were seeping through to groundwater


• the company knew of the hazards


• the company knew of the malfunctioning or turned off safety systems and yet didnt inform the local population and governments


• the company conveniently blamed the entire accident on a worker and called it a sabotage while every piece of evidence points to the corporate irresponsibility of the company


• as of today since the disaster an additiona l 20000 people have died


• over 100,000 people are affected


• samples of breast milk of mothers in bhopal show extremely toxic chemicals


• Bhopal is not the only carnage Dow Chemical is responsible for there are many examples of its disastrous corporate crimes on the web


• Besides fighting for justice for the victims we also want to prevent this from happening again


• We want to prevent the thought that "people are expendable"


• The people affected were those who eke out a living and whose livelihood is now affected by the physical debiliations of the chemicals on their bodies


• People got $500 for injuries that will now ail them for the rest of their lives... respiratory, abdominal, eye, skin


• The water that is planned to be supplied is also in the line of flow of the contaminated water.


• Dow continues to receive support form Govt. of India to expand its business in India. They got Ratan Tata to write a letter to Montek Singh Ahluwalia saying Indian Govt. should withdraw an application asking for $100,000 for clean up of Bhopal from the High Court


• We worked out ways to work together despite internecine squabbles among various survivors organizations.


• Now there are 4 organizations and decision making is by conscensus.


• A large number of the activists and people fighting are women. Women are everywhere caring for their husbands, children, family members affected by the disaster and its after effects. They are also the most affected by the toxic chemicals.


• Women have done various creative actions like "Jhaadu maaro aandolan". When Dow CEO was visiting Houston, he was faced with activists holding jhaadu and he was completely taken aback.


• Women went to tie raakhi to the chief minister and he promised clean water. But when he didnt do it and the women tried to confront him, he accused them of dacoitry. "Bhai bana kasaayi..." was a song born out of this incident.


• He is showing pictures from the 2006 padyaatra


• He is showing pictures from the successes of the 2007 padyaatra


• Now he is showing pictures from the Sambhaavna clinic, how it was started.


• Sambhavna provides ayurvedic, allopathic and yogic treatments to exposure induced diseases. Sambhavna conducted many tests and experiments on victims and found that a combination of the three was very helpful, especially the addition of yogic and ayurvedic care.


• Funds are through individual donations, royalties from Dominique Lapiere's book "5 mins past midnight in Bhopal". This covers 10% of the expenses


• But expenses are growing and more than half of the volunteers are victims of the disaster themselves


• Future plans Sambhavna: International Center for Environmental Health (lay epidemiology, applied toxicology, healing exposure induced injuries)


• AID Joined the Bhopal Campaign in 2002


• Getting NOC for clean up from Indian Govt, Scrapping of Dow-IOC deal are some of the successes over the past few years


• Chiraag trust- for vegetable vendors and solar vendors


• Rashida Bi and Champa Devi won the Goldman Env. Prize ($125,000) and they gave all this money to the "Chingaari Trust" instead of using it for themselves. They among other things give a "Chingaari Grant against corporate crime" to a woman from the hinterland (non prominent activist) fighting corporate crime in India.


• Pictures from Oriya basti school, herbal garden, eye clinic


• Publication of research in JAMA from ICMR about effects on children but when govt prevented this from happening Sambhavna started to do this research and found effects of the disaster on children as the grow and even post puberty


• Shapiro resolution, amnesty support, "Yes men action"


• State govt acknowledges responsibility for medical care and rehabilitation

Evolving Story of AID and Challenges Ahead

Ravi:

Ravi recounted his memories about how he was involved in the starting of AID when he was a grad student. His concerns of what would happen if he left. Ravi lost hope as he thought AID wouldnt survive after he left so he focussed more on a science magazine. How other volunteers got interested, wanted to have a meeting and actually invited him to an AID Meeting. And pretty soon his science magazine became Dishaa. He recounted how experiments with the AID T-shirt designs led to the Gandhi image which they didnt really like at the beginning. At some point they started to look for a logo for AID and no matter how much they searched the couldnt figure out what image to use for AID as a logo. Finally as time was running out they remembered this image and used it. Pretty soon as they started to use this logo, people started to show up for AID T-Shirts with that logo and for the CSHs.

They had to identify the challenges and then work towards it as a team to get AID to be stable and growing. He talked about how colleges and universities are an important place to encourage students who are interested in supporting a cause and to voice their opinions. Its important to also write to them and thank them for their efforts so this can be fostered in all chapters.

Ravi invited volunteers Sundarshan and Deepthi from AID Bay Area on what they did during the visit of the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh. The kind of info that officials from India are giving is in complete odds with what they say in respect to some of the major issues in india like Bhopal and Narmada. It is important to ask questions, to challenge the false assertions made by these officials and to communicate this kind of information back to India. All the volunteer support from here is very very useful. Whether its organizing the backend i.e a database of all the organizations we'd need to collaborate with to increase support for Dr. Binayak Sen or sending faxes and calling on Bhopal really empowers the people on the ground who are in the forefront. These are the people being shouted at, manhandled and living the struggle every single day.

I remember from the AID regional conference in a session by Arvinda, the idea and emphasis on writing and expressing opinions. To newspapers and their editors, to politicians to other volunteers and to the general public.

Ravi concluded hby saying that the support to the jeevan saathis and saathis, to the village workers to the people who go back to India to work full time from the volunteers really matters.

Arvinda:

Ravi mentioned the richness of , aspect of richness comes from people who have nothing at all.

Jeevika products... is it just marketing of goods or is it something deeper? Dialog between those who live within their ecological foot print and those who live beyond it. How does this affect all aspects of development? Agri policy, health care, energy, environment. When the two worlds meet is there a reciprocity. Is there a mutual respect? Is there a reciprocity?

Livelihood security: Why NREGA is important... to have an address, to be stable. How can you file an RTI request or how can one participate in the democratic process when there is no stable address or income?

She spoke as a mother. She spoke about children. How they have such feeble voices and cannot be heard in the cacophony of our current society. How what is happening has such a big impact on their lives but they dont have a say in it. Growth of the mind and body. Why is it important to hear the childs voice. Giving them time and space to learn and grow. Getting out of the competitive framework. Getting out of the mode of telling them what to learn and how. Same with nutrition. Breast feeding, and laws for it in India. Feeding and how children are introduced to the world. How they start to take part in the world. Diapering. How these are changing and seemingly trendy but taking us away from the basic human understanding. Who decides? How do they get the information to decide? In the industrialized world there is a small growing minority now asking for things which for centuries in India have always been taken for granted. The diapers are so prevalent. You can get them in a little town where there is not even a train station. Where are they to be thrown? Same with feminine products. Why is it important to listen to children ... not just verbally. Right to Information starts from birth. You can actually see it in practice when you see some of the traditional parenting practices. What would we like to retain what we would like to reintroduce so we dont lose them and have to to depend on our children to rediscover, reinvent and reintroduce. How the three different kinds of besan can affect the environment.

I asked about what Arvinda meant about reciprocity and respect.

The way we teach children is so focussed on telling them what to do and what is the way to do things rather than letting them discover define and understand things. Right to information is also a right to consent. Even a 2 year old has a definite idea of what she wants to do.

..... ok I have to go for my MAD ADs session.....

Congratulations!

Sunita and Srinadh have been elected to their respective EB Posts by large large large margins.
We have two people from Dallas in AID EB!

Srinadh and Sunita, hurrah to you guys! Looking forward to your leadership!

Inspiration

The conference started off with an introduction from AID Tempe. Throughout the presentation I had goose bumps. It was an auto presentation with a sound track. The entire auditorium erupted with applause at so many places in the presentation. Many things so similar to AID Dallas. And many things that inspire me. Things we could try in Dallas. It was such a creative presentation. Frankly what we are doing right now in Dallas I think will prepare us to do a conference like this in the next year or two.

Dr. Bhagat was invited to make a few comments and he sang a song and brought out the point that AID is based on love. He talked about how the earth has taken millions of years to evolve and how we have really abused it. He sang a song about it. He mentioned the importance of water and how life is not possible without it and how its important to protect, grow and preserve it.

This session was followed by a session by Srinath Chidambaram about the state of AID. We (the entire auditorium) interacted on a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) of/for AID.

Its amazing how the issues we face in Dallas seem to be the exact same issues that other chapters AID wide face.

I am also in admiration of how well organized this conference seems to be. The welcome packet, the registration desk, the timing of the session seem to have been very well thought out. The volunteers had a staging area for everyone to show up and then directed them personally to their accomodations. Sanjay Kote and Karthik were constantly checking if I got to my host's place fine and had detailed, maps, instructions and directions.

There are so many people here from so many chapters. Over 100. Though I hear its lesser than previous years. But there are so many people who I have worked with and who are so inspiring in their work. Sathyu, Aravinda, Ravi, Aquene, Ryan.... I am just so glad I came to the conference! I am inspired!

In Flight

In seat 18 A staring out across the southern sky as the twilight disappears into the night. I am munching a sweet roll and waiting for the cabin staff to serve me a coffee. I am on my way to Phoenix Arizona. Phew!

I am glad the queue at the USAir terminal wasn’t long and no traffic backups despite the rain. And thanks Harshika for dropping me at the airport!

I just finished planning what I am going to write on the poster we are entering into the poster competition in the 2007 AID conference on behalf of AID Dallas. Coming to think of it we almost did not have one. I called Venktesh from AID Tempe at 4 PM to ask if he know how I could bring the poster boards and he said, “No! no poster boards just a roll up poster with Chapter Milestones 2006-2007.”

Ok… so I have 2 hours before leaving for the airport. What can I put on a poster? I’ll think later… let me get a poster sheet. Just remembered Harshika had said she wants to work on a poster. Maybe she can help? I got out went to office depot and was browsing through the posters … white, fluorescent green, fluorescent orange. There was one with clouds and a blue sky in the background. I started humming “I believe I can fly....”. Hmmm why not? We have done some pretty cool things in the last one year in AID Dallas. We’ve grown in our volunteer strength, have been increasing our fundraising activities and our participation in projects and local dallas events. What about “We believe we can fly… we believe we can touch the sky” as a title?

I ain’t creative so I guess I’d have to wait for Harshika to show up. I started to print out pictures for the poster. Harshika arrived at 5:30. Half hour to go. I showed her my idea and while I paced around nervously she got to work on the poster. Cutting the pictures, arranging them. She said, “We should have balloons with these sets of pictures in a balloon each”. I almost said no. Then I thought that’s a great idea! So I nodded my head, decided to not use my creativity and let her do the drawing and color pens. It was 6:15. I was anxious. We were running out of time! She drew the pencil outlines for me and said, “Can you write over them with the color pens in Phoenix Airport?” 6:30.

As I reached to grab the cut pictures and the poster from her I noticed her hands were shaking uncontrollably.
May 26, 2007 9:15 PM CDT