The Big Issue of Divine Justice

“The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and loving towards all he has made.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth…
The Lord watches over those who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.”

Psalm 145.17-20

Outside Tara Street station, there is often a forlorn looking Dubliner in a green cap plugging the Big Issue magazine in quiet desperation. Every time he catches my eye, I resolve to buy a copy the next time I pass by. Just the other day, I was about to walk past him for the umpteenth time when I realised I’d put it off long enough. I paid him three euro for the latest issue.

As I waited for my DART, I turned to an article entitled “No Justice For The People of Bhopal”. The content was shocking.

In 1969 an American company (Union Carbide) built a massive carbide plant in the town of Bhopal, central India. It was an ideal location; Bhopal was situated near a large lake which provided a reliable source of water and only 2km away there was a residential neighbourhood as well as a squatter settlement containing thousands of people eager for work. Until 1979 the plant used to import methyl isocyanate (MIC), the dangerous chemical used in its pesticide production. However, in a bid to save money, the plant began to manufacture it on-site. It was this decision that lead to the destruction of a whole city and an eco-system that remains toxic to this day.

The article reads: “On the night of December 23rd 1984, the lives of the people of Bhopal would be irrovacably changed forever. At 11.30pm a dangerous chemical reaction occurred when water leaked into one of the MIC storage tanks (Tank #160). Workers noticed it when their eyes began to burn and tear and informed their supervisor, but in the spave of two hours almost 40 tons of MIC poured out of the tank and into the air, spreading about the city…Thousands were killed as they slept and hundreds of thoudands (the city had a population of 900,000) ran out into the streets vomiting, coughing with eyes streaming as their organs were decimated by the gas. The poor and the children died in huge numbers and hundreds were trampled to death in the mass rush away from the poisonous fumes.”

By morning, Bhopal was the site of a giant mass funeral as bodies piled up. 170,000 people were treated in hospitals and most of the livestock was dead. The trees withered and chronic food and fuel shortages followed the disaster. The long term affects of the gas leakage continue to afflict survivors with lingering diseases and disabilities. Many suffer from an array of serious health problems that have been misdiagnosed or ignored by local doctors. These include respiratory ailments like chronic bronchitis and emphysema, gastro-intestinal conditions such as chronic gastritis and hyperacidity, eye problems like cataracts, conjunctivitis, poor memory and motor skills, psychiatric problems and musculoskeletal problems.

Investigations and reports into the events leading up to the disaster have been repressed but it is clear that a combination of technical, organizational and human error caused the accident. The immediate cause was the leakage of water into Tank #160 but it was exacerbated by the failure of containment and safety measures and a complete lack of emergency procedures. Much of the carbide plant equipment was woefully out of order; temperature and pressure gauges were antiquated and unreliable, refrigeration units had been shut off, the gas scrubber and flare tower designer to neutralise and burn off any escaping MIC had also been off for some time. This ensured that the alarm on the tank – fitted to warn of any leakage – failed.

This litany of failings and the clear evidence of negligence on the part of Union Carbide should have ensured that the people of Bhopal revieved immediate and significant compensation. Sadly, this has not been the case. Beurocracy and corruption ensured that after a series of court cases, the people of Bhopal were awarded an outrageously paltry sum of money. Initially, a one time payment of RS1, 500 (26euro) was paid to families. Later, in 2007, after further court cases, certain individuals were paid RS25,000 (438euro). Out of the 1,029,517 who claimed for compensation, almost half were rejected. Furthermore, Union Carbide have never admitted any liability. In June of this year, local managers at Bhopal were finally sentenced to two years imprisonment for their part in the disaster, 25 years after the event. It is likely that these local Indian employees were scapegoats as no American members of Union Carbide, including the then chief executive Warren Anderson, have ever appeared in court.

The glaring injustice of such a situation is almost beyond belief. As I reflected on this article, I was reminded of the words of Miroslav Volf I had read in Keller’s The Reason for God (pp.74):

“If God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make a final end to violence – that God would not be worthy of worship…the only means of prohibiting all recourse to violence by ourselves is to insist that violence is legitimate only when it comes from God...My thesis that the practise of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance will be unpopular with many…in the West…[But] it takes the quiet of a surburban home for the birth of the thesis that human non-violence [results from the belief in] God’s refusal to judge. In a sun-scorched land, soaked in the blood of the innocent, it will invariably die…[with] the other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind.”

As I read about the disaster in Bhopal and the ensuing miscarriage of justice, everything in me wanted to do violence to a system of corruption and indifference and the individuals who assisted in perpectuating the untold suffering of thousands. The thought that there were those who deliberately aspired to pervert justice and deny the suffering people of Bhopal the compensation needed to pay their medical expenses sickened me. It sickened me even more to think that such a perversion of justice sprung from a desire to maintain the prosperity of an American multinational money-machine. The lives of thousands were ravaged to safeguard and protect the prosperity of the wealthy few. The case of Bhopal is one more sickening example of the injustice that plagues human society.

People will often say that those who believe in a God of judgement will never approach enemies with a desire to reconcile with them. Further, it is often said that those who believe in a God of judgement are irrevocably shaped into his image; they become angry, violent and puritanical. In fact, as Keller argues, the opposite is the case. It is the lack of belief in a God of vengeance that secretly nourishes violence. The human impulse to make perpetrators of violence and suffering pay for their crimes is almost an overwhelming one. It cannot possibly be overcome with platitudes like “Now don’t you see that violence won’t solve anything?” Many of the surviving men, women and children of Bhopal are seething with impotent rage and despair because of what they have suffered. They cry out for justice night and day. Can their passion for justive be honoured in a way that does not nurture their desire for blood vengeance? Can ours? According to Volf, the only resource for this is belief in the concept of divine justice. As Keller remarks, if I don’t believe in a God who will eventually put things right, I will take up the sword and I too will be sucked into the endless vortex of hatred, seething anger and retributive violence. Only if I am sure that there’s a God who will right all wrongs and settle all accounts perfectly do I have the power to refrain.

Volf, who himself has encountered the violence of the Balkans, argues that the doctrine of God’s final judgement is a necessary undergirding for the moral capacity to refrain from the hatred and bloodlust that grips us when we hear of cases like Bhopal. For the people of Bhopal too, in the grip of seething despair and loss, the prospect of a God who will right all wrongs is the only sure prospect of solace.

Signing off –

The Scribbling Apprentice