At a meeting in Sweden recently of young people from around the world, a Nigerian woman shared the grief of her people. She said that, every year for the past 20 years, large quantities of oil, as much as that leaking into the Gulf of Mexico from the broken BP oil rig, have been spilling in her country from an MNC’s leaking pipelines and broken rigs. The waterways have become completely contaminated. The waters are so oily they even burn! Water for drinking and bathing is hard to come by. The health of the people has been badly affected. There are no more fish to catch. Agriculture is impossible. Livelihoods are destroyed. The US media is full of anger with BP for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. She sympathised with the people of Louisiana whose concerns are known to the whole world now, but she wondered if they even knew what had been happening in Nigeria all these years?
When a citizen does wrong, you know whose ass to kick. When a corporation causes harm, who exactly should take the rap? Moreover, unlike a person, as Nace points out, a corporation can do the Houdini — disappear and reappear in another body with a new name — and avoid being punished.
(This story appears in the 02 July, 2010 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
I think people when they begin blaming a corporation they lose sight that a company is there to make do a good business. People must also understand that more often than not , regulators will lose sight of the corporation for many reasons: glamour (ril), hype or even plain old bribe or a good will gesture. So corporations could easily lose sight due to the power that their money commands. This not being the case in point of BP currently which was just so unprepared to take on the mess. It was more in a shock and looking after the media as opposed to the issue at hand. UNION CARBIDE on the other hand dealt with the issue as any MNC would have done when dealing with a banana REPUBLIC. Take on the media via the govt and hush things up. If arms have to be twisted go to Uncle SAM and ask him to put a price on the situation and deal with things. TRAGEDY is this time KARMA has dealt the Americans a blow on their funny bone, it hurts, makes them look inept when cleaning there own backyard.
on Jun 26, 2010Responsible thought process. Excellent delivery. As a member of Planning Commission, can he not do something useful?
on Jun 26, 2010The article is good but too simplistic. We know the problems and may be have the solutions also - but due to vested interests have not implemented. Bhopal is a classic case- why now after 25 yrs are we talking about GoM, compensation, curative petition - all the legislators talking today have been with us for the last 25yrs. There is also a Govt & Corporation partnering to destroy for greed- there are many examples.
on Jun 25, 2010Thanks for the thought-provoking article, Mr. Maira. I'm picking up from the end of your article to propose that if Boards are the custodians of the public's trust, many a times this trust is lost in the lack of accountability pinned to individual board members. One case in point is that of the IPL. The Governing Body members collectively ignored many decisions taken by Mr. Modi and now it is difficult to hold them accountable because they were collective in their indifference. On the other hand, if for instance, we had one member of the Board representing Public Interests and was drawn based on his work for the Public, he might be better accountable for it. Currently, the Board entirely represents the shareholder's interests. But if through a regulation it was made mandatory to have 20% of your Board represented by people who would rally for the Public's interests, it might help perhaps.
on Jun 23, 2010The world has adopted the Western model of development and the tragedies mentioned in the article are inevitable. Either reject the model or do not cry foul. There is global warming due to this model which threatens the survival of the entire world. Western models of development are big business with big bucks to be made by politicians and public servants. Traditional agriculture model in India: animals were used. The animals used to urinate while tilling the soil. Urine has both urea and uric acid which makes the soil fertile and drives insects away. The british taught indians urine was a health hazard and sewage systems should be built and the sewage should put in the river. The british also taught indians well water was bad and encouraged drinking of polluted river water. Naturally people were sick and the medical industry was born. India has rich tradition of indigenous medicine and law but indian systems have low monetary value. In hinduism there is laxmi the goddess of wealth indian treat money like gods precious gift.
on Jun 22, 2010