Faux anniversary

It seemed wrong to mark the anniversary of a disaster that is still unfolding. Reports on Bhopal in the western media reflected this awkward...

It seemed wrong to mark the anniversary of a disaster that is still unfolding. Reports on Bhopal in the western media reflected this awkwardness. Little has changed at the site of the world8217;s worst industrial disaster, two decades later. The soil and water are still contaminated. Even the debris remains.

Many papers picked out the conclusions of the new study by Amnesty International which confirmed that the victims remain poorly compensated and survivors still await adequate medical care. And no one has yet been held to account. Amnesty charged Union Carbide Corporation and Dow Chemical Company which acquired it, as well as the Indian Government, with evading human rights responsibilities.

The teeming images of suffering belonged to today. The New York Times caught up with Batulan Bi, 62, who suffers from increasing breathlessness, panic attacks and joint pains. She lost her husband to the gas, was cheated of half her compensation money by lawyers and middlemen. The Guardian visited Deepika Thani who is approaching her 20th birthday. She weighs just 33 kg and stands a little more than 1.3 m tall. Egypt8217;s Al Ahram Weekly spotted Akash Vasudev, 12, who cannot survive without the plastic tube doctors inserted between his throat and lungs.

Time described a city with a poisoned soul. The disaster, it said, had denuded Bhopal8217;s spirit, and left it with a 8216;8216;compensation neurosis8217;8217;: it was paralysed by bitterness, alienation and worthlessness after an unending wait for help.

The obvious comparisons between September 11 in New York and December 2/3 in Bhopal were irresistible: Within months, America had handed out both the punishment and compensation. The paltry settlement in Bhopal was also unfavourably compared to compensation paid in cases of silicone breast implants or to tobacco cancer victims.

After the vote

The election is won but the argument rages on. Last week, The Guardian glared accusingly at the ascendant 8216;8216;Moral Values8217;8217; crowd across the Atlantic which, it alleged, wants to 8216;8216;kill off8217;8217; a film about Dr Alfred Kinsey. Actor Liam Neeson plays the entomologist who pioneered research into the sexual habits of Americans. His two bestselling books in 1948 and 1953 are said to have changed the way Americans understood sex.

From the other side, The Weekly Standard was angry that 8216;8216;the mood of frenzied caricature of American religious believers hasn8217;t entirely abated in the month since the election8217;8217;. It recalled a recent cartoon in The San Francisco Chronicle featuring a red-state person stabbing a blue-state person with a crucifix.

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The Nation looked into the future priorities of the progressive movement in an era of Republican dominance. It invited some of America8217;s leading activists and intellectuals to help out with ideas.

Just a few of the suggestions on offer: 8216;8216;We should8230;choose our battles now to speak in vivid, morally powerful terms to potential majorities of American working people8217;8217;. 8216;8216;Democrats think their IQs are being tested. But voters today are flunking them, in part, based on their low EQs. Emotional intelligence EQ is the intelligence of the heart8230;8217;8217; 8216;8216;We should take comfort from the fact that our values8230;are shared by the rest of the industrialised world. One of these days, the US will catch up8217;8217;. 8216;8216;What we need to do, instead, is to revive the prophetic tradition, especially its critique of religion8217;8217;.

Career of an idea

Despite Jinnah8217;s certitudes, the idea of Pakistan was 8216;8216;unclear8217;8217; to begin with, writes Pakistani academic and well-known anti-nuclear activist Pervez Hoodbhoy in his review of Stephen Cohen8217;s book The Idea of Pakistan in Foreign Affairs. 8216;8216;Lacking any clear basis for legitimacy or direction, the state quickly aligned with the powerful landed class: the army leadership and the economic elite joined forces to claim authority in a nation without definition or cohesion.8217;8217;

But it8217;s the future of the idea that is the subject of much interest, as strange things happen in Pakistan. Last week, Musharraf held out an olive branch to Benazir Bhutto even as his government consecrated into law his intent to stay on as both army chief and president.

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Hoodbhoy outlined ways to secure the idea of Pakistan against the spectre of a nation coming apart, 8216;8216;spewing nuclear technology and terrorists in all directions8217;8217;. Musharraf, he said, must be forced to take his call for 8216;8216;enlightened moderation8217;8217; seriously, a position that includes continued accommodation with India and softening of stance on Kashmir. But most of all, it8217;s the school. For Hoodbhoy, this is the battlefield of the future. Only curricular or educational reform can defeat the fanatic.