Lessons from India for Guyana

Mar 05, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – Much energy and passion have been manifested in Guyana about coverage, and its proper levels, in the event of an oil spill.  There have been endless back and forth, ups and downs, and twists and turns, relative to insurance, proof of insurance, partial guarantee, subsidiary guarantee, and full parent company guarantee, plus proofs of those also.

I go down on record to say that something exists somewhere in some amount.  Regarding its sufficiency, the most I offer today is that it is not enough.

This is sight unseen, and notwithstanding how it is being packaged and sold by either the corporate Prince of Wales, His Majesty Alistair Routledge, or Guyana’s reigning political panjandrum, Infallible Bharrat Jagdeo.  Jagdeo the Oreo, as I believe.  But I do have some gems to share with my people of identical and other colours.  The dark jewels are all the way from India, and from the worst of circumstances.  These are the surrounding facts.

In abbreviated form, there was an industrial disaster in Bhopal India in March 1984.  The result was approximately 20,000 dead, and well over a half million Indians injured.  The disaster has never really ended because the human wreckage continues 40 years later.  C’mon! There are plenty of them, so it doesn’t matter, nobody should be counting.  I am.  The victims were awarded US$470 million in total compensation for the thousands dead, the countless crippled, and the multitudes savaged by Union Carbide’s dangerous recklessness.  The Indian Government was a part of that settlement, and many thought that the Indian judiciary could have been more independent, much stronger.

I repeat so that this grabs Guyanese and hold them: the Indian Government settled on US$470 million whittled down from US$3.3 billion, an 85% leadership discount.  The Indian Government was also instrumental in the release and immediate flight of Union Carbide’s CEO Warren Anderson back to the US.  For their pain and suffering, their loss and wretched lives left, each impacted Indian received around US$550.  Whoever said that the life of colored people, or their existence, is expensive is a damn liar, a diabolical criminal.  All should recall the bartering and buying and bringing out and bringing down of slaves.  Little has changed.

Using the US$470 million quietly worked out and finalized as recompense for 20,000 dead Indians, and 558,000 injured Indians, as a measuring rod and precedent probably explains something.  It is that initial US$600 million identified by Exxon as generous insurance for 750,000 (or a million) Guyanese should there be a disastrous oil spill.  The US$600 million kindness of a figure named by Exxon (with collaborating local political minds helping) may have risen because it is four decades later, and as a bow to inflation, and the present value of a dollar.  I will bypass the noise that led to the creature called the US$2 billion guarantee (currently nothing more than a surety bond for court purposes), in lieu of a full parent guarantee, and head from India and Guyana to good ole America.  The land of the free, the true, and the brave.  Another lesson is in store for my fellow Guyanese, particularly those patriots that love to fetch water for Exxon and Alistair, shine their shoes, and get some polish on their own nose proudly presented before other horrified Guyanese.

In 2001, Dow Chemical (Dow) bought Union Carbide.  Now here is the first beauty from that story.  Dow said that it has no responsibility for Union Carbide’s existing liabilities relative to India.  In a total breach and departure from longstanding norms, and international law about “successor liability” Dow washed its hands of the people of Bhopal, India.  According to the company’s line of reasoning, Dow did not inherit that, but what Dow did was spit upon that duty, and upon the people of Bhopal, and India.  Now get ready for this glaring contradiction, this racist inspiration.  Dow paid US$2.2 billion to settle old American asbestos matters inherited in its purchase of Union Carbide (my emphasis added).  Dow could have paid billions in America to Americans in Texas for Union Carbide’s asbestos liabilities, but not a cent for hurting, dying, Indians of Bhopal.  White is alright.  Brown don’t bother to stick around.

In fairness, I should mention that Union Carbide had claimed that it sold the Bhopal plant, and it was not on its books.  False!  The fact was that the Indian Government had shut down the plant.  Here is another delicious part of the Union Carbide-Dow Chemical obscenity.  Recall the US$550 comp for each injured Indian, Ms. Kathy Hun, the Public Relations Officer for Dow had this to say: “US$500 is plenty good for an Indian.”  That’s telling them sister!  Putting them in their second status places.  Instead of flaying my beloved fellow Guyanese at OP, OPM, OVP, I place before them, inclusive of Excellencies Ali, Phillips, Jagdeo, and the posse of each the ongoing Bhopal tragedy.  This is commentary: prostrate self as much as it pleases, but always remain a… (insert appropriate racial slur).

Derogate honest, conscientious Guyanese for the white man’s favor, and still stand as an abhorrence (make the best use of Dr. Jagdeo’s descriptive that begins with an ‘l’).  Sell self, sell country, sell citizens, and still the sellers remain a pall and a parasite in the eyes of the unreconstructed bigots and racists at Exxon.  Exxon is Guyana’s Union Carbide on standby and steroids.  Exxon is Guyana’s Dow Chemical in waiting.  I go my way, after leaving this parting gift for President Ali and President Jagdeo and President to be Norton: remember that original US$600 million coverage?  Go ahead and divide it by 750,000 Guyanese. The result is US$800 for loss of economic livelihood, promised potential.  Even if only 100,000 Guyanese are directly impacted, the math is still depravedly callous and pure animal.  Go ahead, my brothers: ask Exxon and Messrs. Woods and Routledge how they (and their actuaries and assessors and assayers) arrived at US$600 million originally for Guyanese for an oil spill.  Most of all, my dearly beloved brothers Ali and Jagdeo should stare at themselves and ask of themselves what has become of them.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• GHK Lall, Guyana, hard truths, Insurance, proof

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