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The ghosts of Bhopal and Vietnam still haunt the London Olympics

Last November Society Matters published a post on Dow Chemicals sponsorship of the 2012 Olympic Stadium. Dick Skellington updates.

cartoon shows the Olympic rings as chemical symbol for C1, Agent Orange
Dow Chemical is the company that bought the infamous Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), responsible for one of the worst environmental disasters of modern times when up to 10,000 people died at the corporation's Bhopal plant in India during December 1984. Fifteen thousand more victims are estimated to have perished since. 

Now the Olympics is underway, with criticism for the Olympic organisers over-plugging fast food giants McDonalds, Cadbury's and Coca Cola sponsorship, Dow's involvement has been kept largely in the background, except in India where protests have continued. Now a new controversy had arisen, this time over Dow's involvement in the manufacture of Agent Orange, which was dropped on Vietnam by the US in the 60s and early 70s.

Dow and UCC are still defendants in ongoing litigation in India over cleaning up the Bhopal factory site.

The Indian government has filed a fresh demand for $1.1 billion in compensation from Dow, but Dow continues to deny responsibility for the legacy of the disaster. On the eve of the opening ceremony Dow remained bullish about their involvement.

We thought it worth drawing attention again to Society Matters' contribution to the Bhopal debate. Read the original post in full here. 

But Bhopal is not the only ghost haunting these Olympics. Just before the games opened Vietnam made an official complaint to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) about Dow's sponsorship. Dow was responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange, the code name for herbicides and defoliants used by the US military as part of its warfare programme in Vietnam. The Vietnamese sport minister Hoang Anh Tuan conveyed his 'profound concern' over Dow's involvement with the London Olympics.

Following the normalisation of relations between the US and Vietnam in 1995, the US Government promised funding for clean-up operations, but these operations have been confined to 'hotspots', former airforce bases in the war- avaged country where Agent Orange was stored,  rather than across the millions of acres affected where populations lived.  Agent Orange was dropped on Vietnam for 12 years. 

According to available studies the Agent Orange campaign destroyed 10 million hectares of agricultural land and some 20,000 sq km of upland and mangrove forests. Agent Orange contains dioxin, one of the most toxic substances known, and scientists estimate that as little as a few parts per billion can be damaging. Estimates of people affected by AO range from 2.1 million to over four million, and the Vietnamese government blames it for cancers and birth defects in some 500,000 second and third generation children. The Vietnam Red Cross has reported that as many as three million Vietnamese have been affected by AO, including at least 150,000 children born with birth defects.

Nguyen Van Rinh,  a retired general and head of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange, explained: “I believe that many Vietnamese are angry with the decision of the Olympics 2012 organizers. And this is completely justified."

A group of over 100 Vietnamese plaintiffs had taken their case to the U.S. Supreme Court, suing both Dow and Monsanto for AO damage. The case, which began in 2004, was thrown out in early March 2009 with the court ruling that there was no established link between dioxin use and birth defects in Vietnam. Under U.S. law, Dow and Monsanto cannot be held responsible since they were acting under government orders.

Reacting to Vietnam’s letter of protest to the IOC, Dow explained that the US War Production Act absolves the company given that it was compelled by the US government to produce the defoliant.

Replying to the Vietnamese protest Lord Coe described Agent Orange as "a highly emotional issue" whose development and use "was made by the US government. He referred to a "constructive dialogue" between the US and Vietnamese governments "to resolve issues". They are "best placed to manage the reconciliation of these two countries." Nothing there about the sponsorship. Indeed the response to the Vietnam complaint is similar to that from Bhopal. These are past sins, committed by previous Dow regimes: the current Dow sponsorship should not be jeopardised. 

See also John Pilger's article on his own website just before the games opened.
Dick Skellington 1 August 2012


The views expressed in this post, as in all posts on Society Matters, are the views of the author, not The Open University.

C1 is the dominant chemical symbol for Agent Orange.  Cartoon by Catherine Pain 

 

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Cartoon of Dick Skellington

About Society Matters

Provocative, relevant, current: for the last decade Society Matters magazine has been informing, engaging and annoying social sciences students in equal measure.  Now, its move online has given us the chance to bring its lively mix of analysis and opinion to a wider audience.

Society Matters online started in October 2010 and has, so far, covered a wide range of issues and topics ranging from inequality and the big society to arms sales and foreign policy. All can be seen by scrolling down from the top of the Society Matters front page.

We have also illustrated many of these posts with the work of our two illustrators (see below). Serious analyses have been interspersed with posts on a less weighty issues which show both human folly and innovation.

Society Matters continues to be edited by its original creator, Dick Skellington. Dick, pictured above, was previously a programme manager in the social sciences faculty, walks the talk through an active involvement in the affairs of his home town of Stony Stratford, Bucks, and finds light relief through writing poetry and the occasional stage appearance in local productions.

Since many years at the coalface of journalism have taught us all that sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words Dick is aided and abetted by resident illustrators, Gary Edwards and Catherine Pain – both former OU students.

Catherine has drawn and painted all her life, and when she is not pillorying public figures for Society Matters paints animal portraits, works in stained glass and produces alphabet teaching posters for children. Her work is in several galleries in and around her current home in Cambridgeshire and her publications include an illustrated cookbook sold on behalf of the National Trust, a colouring book for small children, Alphabet for Colouring, and The Lost Children, a story for older children. Her website is at catherinepain.co.uk

Gary has written two best-selling books about his travels all over the world watching Leeds United FC, Paint it White  and Leeds United - The Second Coat. His third title No Glossing Over  will be published by Mainstream in September 2011. He has not missed a Leeds game anywhere in the world since February 1968 and married his wife Lesley at Elland Road.

Specialising in wall murals, Gary also holds diplomas from the London Art College, The Morris College of Journalism, has a Diploma in Freelance Cartooning and Illustration and is a contributing cartoonist for Speakeasy, an English-speaking magazine in Paris. During the 1970's and 1980's he collected  hearses and is a long time member of the Official Flat Earth Society as well as the Clay Pigeon Preservation Society.

Please note: The opinions expressed in Society Matters posts are those of the individual authors, and do not represent the views of The Open University.