Bhopal: 25 Years of Struggle for Environmental Justice
7:00 - 9:00 pm • Friday, May 29th, 2009
911 Seattle Media Arts Center
402 9th Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
Suggested contribution: $5-$10 (Proceeds will be used to
cover costs. Any amount in excess of costs will be donated
to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.)
Meet activists from the longest standing campaign
against corporate crime and environmental injustice.
Using the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak tragedy in Bhopal,
India as the backdrop, the International Campaign for
Justice in Bhopal and numerous Seattle-based organizations
are partnering to discuss corporate crime, environmental
racism and toxic trespass. We look forward to your
participation!
Films:
Secrets and Lies
Directed by Stavros Stagos, Greece, 2007, 79 minutes (In
English, Hindi, & Urdu with English subtitles)
This historical documentary examines the 1984 chemical
disaster of Bhopal, which killed up to 20,000 people, and
how it continues to affect people today. It is by far the
most up-to-date film on the world’s worst industrial
disaster. Using U.S. multinationals Union Carbide and Dow
Chemical as cases, the documentary profiles how
transnational corporations hold themselves beyond the reach
of law, even as generation after generation continue to be
poisoned by their neglect.
Preceded by:
Hush Baby
Directed by Himali Kapil and Umang Bhattacharyya, India, 2007, 3.5 minutes (English & Hindi with English subtitles)
A powerfully evocative short film on the continuing damage
caused to Bhopal’s Generation Next, and the ongoing
contamination caused by groundwater contaminated by Union
Carbide’s toxic wastes.
Films will be followed by a Q&A session with:
Safreen ‘Rafat’ Khan, 16-year old
Safreen ‘Rafat’ Khan belongs to a family
of six members who live behind the Union Carbide factory.
Her mother was exposed to the gas in 1984. Safreen and her
family continue to live in the area and consume poisoned
water daily. Safreen and her sister Yasmin were the
youngest members of the team of 50 survivors who walked 500
miles from Bhopal to Delhi to meet the Prime Minister in
February last year. Safreen is a key organizer of the
newly formed campaign group -- Children Against
Dow-Carbide -- and believes that Carbide’s toxic
legacy must be ended before it takes its toll on yet
another unsuspecting generation.
Satinath ‘Sathyu’ Sarangi is a
metallurgical engineer turned activist who arrived in
Bhopal a day after the disaster and stayed on to become a
key figure in the struggle for justice in Bhopal. He is a
founding trustee of the Sambhavna Clinic, a non-profit
clinic dedicated to the holistic treatment of gas-affected
persons in Bhopal. As the founder of the Bhopal Group for
Information and Action, Sathyu has been involved with
relief, research and publication of studies on the health
impacts of the ongoing disaster on the residents of Bhopal.
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