The author traced the development of environmental advocates in Kanawha Valley, West Virginia, the town where Union Carbide runs its American factory, after one of its subsidiary in India in Bhopal, experienced the worst industrial accident in history that caused thousands of deaths and with people still suffering from the after effect till today.
The sensitive and complex power structure with Union Carbide as an important employer in providing jobs in the Kanawha Valley and at the same time with many of the local politicians having connection with the company put the residents of the area and the employees in a position with almost nil bargaining power when negotiating for a higher standard of safety and more disclosure of information on the chemicals stored and produced in Union Carbide’s plants. The Bhopal incident becomes a recurrent reference by the environmentalists to demand for a higher safety standard and brings the awareness to many residents in towns where dangerous chemicals are stored and handled.
The negligence of Union Carbide and the fact that it is oblivious to the health and safety of its employees, especially the African Americans who are in a lower social class, is a manifestation of the attitude of corporate America towards the poor and the powerless. The author mentioned that the US was the only country which voted against a UN resolution requesting the secretary in general to ban or restrict certain products reminded me of the US’s refusal to sign the Kyoto protocol a few years ago. When profit clashes with other values, it seems to me that profits usually come first.
In a world where profit-making and global capitalism is taken for granted, and the livelihood of the poor very often depends on the establishment of factories and enterprises, any battle against these establishment tend to be an up-hill work. Although values and cultural concepts could be relative, respect for life, caring for the environment, or some other common values for the world, should be demanded of the most powerful organizations in the world, which, as anthropologists, we are able to provide an alternative choices to many and bring the awareness needed for actions to come through.
I’d like to end my report with a quote from the recent release of the annual result from HSBC, which I believe, should form the core values of all business establishments around the world.
“Underlying all these events is a question about the culture and ethics of the industry. It is as if, too often, people had given up asking whether something was the right thing to do, and focused only whether it was legal and complied with the rules. The industry needs to recover a sense of what is right and suitable as a key impulse for doing business.” - HSBC 2009 Financial Results
文章定位：
