Its really surprising to me when I see how mean one can be to others. While India has been pretty open and free in giving out its top techie brains and even offering sophisticated technology and services to the developed nations all around the globe, what has is got in return?
While these so called developed nations talk about good standards of living and health do they just talk about their own country or for the world in general?
It was really surprising for me when I came across this article. Clemenceau - a French war ship that has been decommissioned long since is making its way to India so that it can be ripped apart in the scrapyeads in Gujrat at Alang. The interesting part is that the ship still has considerable amount of toxic waste in it (about 150 tonnes of asbestos). The ship has been a pain in the neck for the French authorities ever since it was decommissioned as several countries have rejected the vessel from being scrapped in their country due to the heavy toxic content.
The scrapyards in India have however overwhelmingly welcomed the ship's final journey to India. The conditions of the workers or probably the daily labourers in these scrapyards is really bad and many have lost their lives or badly injured during the scrapping work. OFten these ships are loaded with toxic wastes or explosive materials that should normally be removed from the ship before it is being sent to the scrapyard. Several workers have been badly injured while cutting pipelines loaded with explosive materials or due to heavy pieces of metal that fell on them during the process. This link provids more information about the French warship and also on the conditions of the workers in these scrapyards.
Though there is hardly any regulatory board in India or its going to be of no use even if one existed, what is surprising to me is that such toxic loads are being sent to 3rd world countries by developed nations which ofcourse have very good regulatory commissions.
While India has been giving out good stuff out to the world, these developing nations have been trying to exploit our country and been trying to use it as a dumping ground on the name of offering business to India. Infact until a few years back the developed nations were using India as a dumping ground for the computer monitors and I think it is still continuing. Why then talk about better life for people on one hand and then do the exact opposite on the other.
Its high time we have a dedicated regulatory board for controlling pollution and toxic waste in the work environment and protect the workers health, offer him or her a safe work environment. There is no point in trying to blame these countries while there is some fault on our part too.
This post just contains very little information and far more bewildering facts are provided in the link above.I request all the readers to have a look at the above links and go through them in detail. Also read this joint report by Greenpeace and FIDH titled End of Life Ships - the Human Costs of Breaking Ships.
Its high time we stop eating the Crap.
While these so called developed nations talk about good standards of living and health do they just talk about their own country or for the world in general?
It was really surprising for me when I came across this article. Clemenceau - a French war ship that has been decommissioned long since is making its way to India so that it can be ripped apart in the scrapyeads in Gujrat at Alang. The interesting part is that the ship still has considerable amount of toxic waste in it (about 150 tonnes of asbestos). The ship has been a pain in the neck for the French authorities ever since it was decommissioned as several countries have rejected the vessel from being scrapped in their country due to the heavy toxic content.
The scrapyards in India have however overwhelmingly welcomed the ship's final journey to India. The conditions of the workers or probably the daily labourers in these scrapyards is really bad and many have lost their lives or badly injured during the scrapping work. OFten these ships are loaded with toxic wastes or explosive materials that should normally be removed from the ship before it is being sent to the scrapyard. Several workers have been badly injured while cutting pipelines loaded with explosive materials or due to heavy pieces of metal that fell on them during the process. This link provids more information about the French warship and also on the conditions of the workers in these scrapyards.Though there is hardly any regulatory board in India or its going to be of no use even if one existed, what is surprising to me is that such toxic loads are being sent to 3rd world countries by developed nations which ofcourse have very good regulatory commissions.
While India has been giving out good stuff out to the world, these developing nations have been trying to exploit our country and been trying to use it as a dumping ground on the name of offering business to India. Infact until a few years back the developed nations were using India as a dumping ground for the computer monitors and I think it is still continuing. Why then talk about better life for people on one hand and then do the exact opposite on the other.
Its high time we have a dedicated regulatory board for controlling pollution and toxic waste in the work environment and protect the workers health, offer him or her a safe work environment. There is no point in trying to blame these countries while there is some fault on our part too.
This post just contains very little information and far more bewildering facts are provided in the link above.I request all the readers to have a look at the above links and go through them in detail. Also read this joint report by Greenpeace and FIDH titled End of Life Ships - the Human Costs of Breaking Ships.
Its high time we stop eating the Crap.
17 comments:
I think Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection should be modified, from : "Survival of the fittest" to "Survival of the richest"
The question is are we in the postion to say NO?
In my opinion if not in all cases we can say a NO in several cases, including this on. The fact is that the person owning the scrapyar might earn a lot but then the worker he employs to do the job is affected.. and he is exploited badly due to the absence of an control on safe work practices.. a term which I have realised off late, has a huge importance and impact in the US atleast in any kind of production / field related job. U would realise the poor working conditions to which these people are exposed to if you have seen the pictures on the links in the post.
More than the survival of the richest, I'd say this is the survival of the smartest. India is being considered as the dumpstore, but again, are our people erudite enough to know what is good and what is bad? As long as our folks aren't educated on health and hygiene and they are ready to take any crap for the sake of money, I dont think this would stop. Economy in India grows only in the richer sect and keeps falling among the poorer.
hi,
i read abt this in the papers, clearly india has become a dumping ground for the world. i hope the govt bans the ship entering, though they say that we indians have been using white asbestos,contrary to the blue one used in foreign, which the govt says is less harmful. anyway we should not allow it.
Well def smarter people will survive, u cant survive if u are dumb...he, he, he...
jokes apart...
if you are really poor, you would do anything, i repeat, anything, to earn money. and the guys who own the scrape yard take advantage of this. they know that the ppl are so many and so poor that he can exploit them to his advantage.
let us vishy, what can we as educated citizens of India do in order to bring about a change in this system. writing a blog is def a good way to start, but after a week or 2 all of us are going to forget about this and carry on with our lives. will writing a letter to the president or PM help? or trying to educated the poor help? if we want to educate the poor will they actaully be ready to get educated...
there seem to be loads of questions...does anyone have answers?
In my opinion its not possible for all of us to do something directly towards this such as writing a petition.. Not many would really go out of their way to do it.. but then we can atlest try to act as a responsible citizen by supporting people who do this..
in my opinion "If we make a difference in the life of atleast one person then we have done something in life." So probably each one of us should resolve to make better the life of atlest one person(not related to us).
Solutions to the problems lie within ourselves... we have to look into ourselves... just negating the system from outside will do no good... we should be the change we wan't to see in the society...
every human being exploits every other at every level, I am also doing it... Don't we exploit the maid in our house, giving her min pay and extracting max work... how abt exploiting the laborers? how abt the poor vegetable vendors... we bargain with them till the last penny... don't they deserved a decent profit?... have we never given bribe or payed extra bucks to obtain the resource which was actually meant for the poor? ... how abt wasting so so much food in the functions we organize... is that justified when people are dying of hunger? how abt killing animals for fancy leather items such as shoes, handbags and belts?
i don't think i am much different from the dirty corporates and politicians... how much i exploit my surroundings is proportional to the kind of lifestyle i live... being a middle class guy, i now do it in a "relatively" smaller scale, but had i been a corporate, it wld have done it in a larger scale...
... i believe that humans have immense potential to change themseleves... but the only way is to first question our own screwed up existence... if we look at problems externally, we can't make progress...
Vishwa,
Indha environmental engineering pasangaloda romba suthaadha especially Balaji :-)
Ashish, I've missed you and your wonderful perspective on everything! Come back!!! As is obvious, I agree with every word you've said.. 200%!
Ashish,
well definitely every person is selfish in his or her own way.. and have their own priorities.. in my opinion... be selfish as or do what you want as long as your actions do not affect others...
well as for the post. it was just to make my fellow bloggers aware of it.. I hope there are many .. and at this point of time.. this is all I can do.. make people aware of somethings that I can.. do get really involved.. I will do it at somepoint.. DEFINITELY..
and FYI: there are lots of organisations atleast in India that I am aware of ..whom u can call if you have left overs at functions.. they come immediately and take it to distribute to Old age homes etc... all you have to do is call them up.. infact if there is food left over for say 25 ppl.. then sometimes ppl order the cooks to make 25 more and send it to some Organisations so that there is enuf for everyone there..
It all boils down to our laziness..
Rajesh:
Balaji kittenthu tappichu vantha.. my current roomie.. Ashish. another Civil / Environmental engg.. enna panrathu.. vidhi yaara vittathu..
Ms V.
good to see you back..
Vishy,
civil/enviro pathi thappa pesina apparam nadakarthe vere..
Ms. V: i will be back soon... just hang in there!... :)
vishy: i am not pinpointing at you in particular... i am talking about the perspective in which we see things... we keep blaming the big corporates and politicians... but have we ever thought that we are not much different from them?
let me tell you why these big corporates don't give a damn about the protests that we do against them... bcos they know that we are a parasites to the kind of lifestyle they create... we are addicted consumers of their products... they know that we will protest and shout in front of their companies but after going back we feed on their products...
they know that we are as much of hypocrites as they are... i am not telling anybody to change their lifestyle today, but the point is nothing much is going to happen until we do that....
ok, Ashish, u keep talking about changing a lot of things, including the way we live....but how exactly do u propose we stop ppl from exploiting others. Vishy, u and I probably might stop exploiting our servants at home after reading this blog and the comment u have written, but how do we make the millions of others stop doing the same....
writing is def a powerful weapon, but how do u make ppl change for the good or for the better. how do u make the bigges listen to what u have to say?
"since is making its way to India so that it can be ripped apart in the scrapyeads in Assam at Alang"
Dude- as far as i know Assam does not have a coastline and Alang is in Gujarat
Karthik
yes sir I noticed that typo.. just forgot to change it.. I hav updated it now..
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