Silence After the Chaos
Nobody wants to be held accountable
Typically when we think of disasters, natural disasters are one of the first things to come to mind, along with the feeling of inevitability. However, there are instances in which disasters are man made, and individuals need to be held accountable for the damage they have done. The Bhopal disaster specifically was one of the worst industrial disasters in history and was caused by maintenance failures. As a result the power plant ending up leaking and ultimately releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere that the communities in the surrounding area were forced to breathe. When it exploded, the communities that surrounded the power plant were absolutely devastated and from that point forward their lives were never the same again .Their quality of life dramatically decreased, many died and those who didn’t were sick. And yet nobody was held accountable.
“Animal’s People” by Indra Sinha illustrates the Bhopal disaster in great depth and is able to capture the effects that it had on the communities by telling the story through a character named Animal. It is through this character’s eyes that we, the audience, are able to see how the explosion has left this community in ruins. Along with being able to observe how people have managed to survive so many years of injustice, because even 20 years later, nobody was being held accountable or providing them with any sort of aid. If anything at the very least the people of Bhopal were forgotten about and completely disregarded for and were begun to be treated as if they were anything less than human. The Bhopal disaster was unfortunately not the last of its kinds and instead there have been other similar scenarios, such as the chernobyl accident in Ukraine which was also due to a flawed design and poorly trained personal. The nuclear power plant ended up exploding and releasing its radioactive reactor core into the atmosphere, and poisoning the air.
It can be noted time and time again that where there is a man made disaster, there is always issues with individuals taking accountability for what has occurred. No one is willing to take the blame and fix the mess that has been created. Rather than clean it up, and help the communities affected when they are at their most vulnerable, they repress them and keep their voices silenced. Just like the father from “Voices From Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster” stated, “I want to bear witness : my daughter died from Chernobyl. And they want us to forget about it.” This is what the Bhopal disaster and the Chernobyl accident seem to have in common. Once the damage is done, no one refuses to clean it up with results in thousands of people now living a very low quality life and going about their days struggling because they are sick. This is also what man made disasters in general seem to have in common, the lack of accountability and especially the lack of justice.
However, there are some differences. When justice is was not handed out, the people of Bhopal demanded it and fought for it for almost 2 decades. And everytime they would not receive justice they would make their own but taking care of their own people, and lifting each other up. Unfortunately sometimes justice and for an individual to step up and own the fact that they caused this much damage, isn’t always possible. Therefore the people of Bhopal kept hoping, yet at the same time took matters into their own hands and gave each other the justice they so rightfully deserved. The idea that justice can only be served or given out by those who are at fault is understandable, but in these circumstances of severe hopelessness and horror, sometimes the rules must bend. And communities get their justice as well as sense of closure through each other.
The communities that were affected by manmade disasters were once up and thriving, but through careless mistakes, from one instant to the next their lives were drastically changed forever. They suddenly are living like sick animals, breathing contaminated air and having to survive in the ruins of what once was what they called home. As time goes on the world seems to forget these places, these people and everything begins to lose its meaning until it all fades into nothingness. It is shocking, not to mention cruel, the fact that not even in our times of need are we able to help one another. Instead it is apparent that humans like to take advantage of moments where humans are at their weakest, in order to gain money, or even save money by getting away with things and not having to pay for any of the damages. Time and time again disaster continues to lead to repression.
