The Yes Men - Bhopal results

[EnglishChannel1]

Andy Bichlbaum is his real name.

[sternumagnum]

The impersonator is guilty of bringing attention to the issue - and, yes, for giving false hopes of justice for a few hours to Indian people. So? At the same time, hundreds of thousands of LIVES have been irreversibly damaged from the Bhopal disaster.Some people (actually, a lot of people) have their priorities all wrong.

[JohnSMartineau]

Corporations don't have ethics - they're not people - they are planet-trashing self-serving automata, and currently mankind's masters.

[justanotherfakeid]

: Artists use lies to tell the truth. Corporate Executives use them to cover the truth up.

[SuperAk1987]

This man is briliant

[aikidoka00]

Although I admire their activist attitude and completely agree with their phliosophy, I do question their methods. They use lies to expose truth. And well that sounds ok in theroy, the repercussions could be severe. Think of a cop who plants evidence on a suspect he knows to be guilty but can't legally get the evidence. Even though he arrested the bad guy, he leaves the door open for all kinds of... mistruth. I worry that with imposters and such straw man tactics comes misinformation.

[shashank2361]

Human lives were never important for Western Organizations, and the laws are bend in favour of them so, what else will happen. They can kill 10000 ds contaminate the land and water with chemicals to affect generations and walk away freely. No wonder why my country is becoming the favoured destination for these companies

[ragnarocks0]

DOW lost 20 million in 20 minutes when the Yes Man was interviewed, i bet now the company is thinking "Only if we had sincerely and full compensated those people" or Only if we had built that plant properly and safely" .

I can only hope that major companies would remember this incident and know that, even in from a business stand point, putting human safety first would be the correct thing to do.

[GoBears711]

What these guys are doing with all their hoaxes is really unethical in my opinion. They should find an honest way to raise awareness.

[meherune]

@GoBears711

How in the hell can you say the way they are doing things is unethical?

In comparison to the hurt and pain some of these big corporations bring to innocent people, and without proper compensation?

I think that what the YES MEN do is absolutely wonderful, they should be given the equivalent of a Nobel Prize because they force companies like DOW to rethink their unethical mannerisms, and put the necks of those responsible back on the public chopping block where they belong.

[CannabisPhilosopher]

@GoBears711

Unethical?

Lol, the companies they pretend to work for are the real unethical ones, if it needs lies to expose them and bring media attention to it.... Why not...

And you can call it lies, they call it "pretending to be a company and say what those companys are really supposed to be doing", which I really respect.

You have any idea how much more this can make people think instead regular protesting or similar things?!?

[CannabisPhilosopher]

@GoBears711

And it's not like we have that many options to 'fight evil', I think we all know just informing people of bad things isn't doing that much good, protesting doesn't do much good. Any other good options besides hijacking mainstream media with stories that are the opposite of what the companies actually do??

Think about how many people you can reach with it etc...

[CannabisPhilosopher]

@GoBears711

And it's not like they make up things that can damage a companys reputation, they do things that can damage their rep themselves, the yes men just expose it by using lies with the purpose of getting the real story out in the end, it's not like they are really trying to hide facts with lies or something similar.

[litlemadguitarist]

The motherfuckers at the news said "they gave the people false hope" but then when they went to Bhopal, they THANKED the yes men for framing them.

[MillyVanillification]

@litlemadguitarist What do you know about hope? Actually, nobody there has been harmed by "false hope". To the contrary, the people in Bhopal were happy that finally some attention was brought to their situation. But as always, the people doing the right things are being hunted down. Only the shit-eaters and fat capitalists owns morals and reason, isn't it?

[litlemadguitarist]

@MillyVanillification sorry I dont think you understood me I was bassically saying what you just said! Sorry next time I will make it more clear!

[deolal]

The biggest problem is Politics in India... I would say in 1984, when this incident happened, many people would hardly knew what their rights are. Union Carbide Management njoyed this, making deaths mere 3K and injuries just 100K, Now many educated, and raising voice against such a Crime by Union Carbide but still hardly any support from Govt or political parties who cries for vote only during elections and forget for next five years or when govt falls (whichever comes earlier), sad but true...

[kozidran]

The real prob. is a modern version of slavery: ppl in poor countries are used as a resource of cheap labor-IMF along with World Bank&FED will not allow it 2 change.

Since gold standard was abandoned,paper/electronic money has no real value and people became slaves even more. Gov&central banks provide more&more money (so cash loses its value) that pushes the pursuit of profits to its limits. Maintaining "the American dream" requires people to be "dumb"otherwise its costs cannot be externalised.

[deolal]

If Dow does something to clean the pending mess in Bhopal, helping the victims, will be a great work for humanity... The suffering of people just cant be unheard... Still cant believe that culprits are walking free killing over 20K people and affecting thousands more... Still people are suffering with diseases, children have birth defects and many other diseases... Dow spokesman refers to 500$ fooling whole world. he thinks that victims can buy whole world with 500$ but that's not the case.

[kozidran]

I'm wondering if anyone realised that 3 Dec 1984 caused more victims than 9/11. I haven't heard of any War on Corporate Savings Policy with Live Broadcast from India/Bangladesh/Brazil/Ecuado­r front lines every day. Consumptionism and profit maximizing perpetuate each other.

[Cheerioats]

@kozidran

Finally someone who said it outloud.

How much as 9/11 is showed and how much propaganda goes on there..... I never hear anyone talking about the thousands and thousands of victims in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is never anything in the news about it other than that America and the NATO are there to 'protect' the poor children and women who suffer under this terroristic regime of the Taliban and Alqaida.

[Cheerioats]

@kozidran

I am not saying that they aren't horrible but maybe one should ask themselves why the hell Taliban is getting more an dmore supporters. Maybe that would be cause people are losing their homes, their families are being killed off and their country is being occupied by foreign armies who want nothing else than to buil a pipeline through their country and exploit them like all the other countries in the east and in the third world ar ebeing exploited.

[kozidran]

I think it's naive to think that people cried because of the hoax. For 20 years they were seeking justice. Just when they thought they would receive compensation, they learned that nothing has changed. It is not the false hope but rather the reality that makes people suffer!

[NaropaMind]

Well, Dow chemical company was responsible no matter what caused the incident. It was kind of them to honor their duty.

[NateRiley3000]

I believe UC deserves most of the blame but the indians governments lack of standards for chemical plants is to blame as well First thngs first the director of the plant should go on trial.

[flawbertrobert]

while i like the yes men, I actually think it was kind of in bad taste to get the hopes of those affected up and then shattered again... i feel they could have done a more compassionate stand.

[TeeComedian]

Did you watch the movie the people of Bhopal were happy to have a moment of joy for all the years of pain.(Or so I concluded from the movie)

[flawbertrobert]

well I understand they were happy, but fighting this cause for twenty years and having the corporation accept responsibility and claim to send sufficient support, only to turn out to be false... that seems like it would be very frustrating and teasing to the protesters and those affected. False hope for that short time doesn't seem worth it to me to have that burden just placed right back on.

[sagebates]

Watch the documentary, the Indian people were not angry.

[flawbertrobert]

"and it all turned out to be untrue and indeed there were many people in tears today."

Yeah, they seemed upset. Andy not denying this but instead saying that there were tears of joy when the news first came leads me to believe that those affected were very much upset by this false claim.

[kozidran]

@flawbertrobert

You probably haven't seen their latest movie. The Y-M went to Bhopal to ask people what they felt. That prank made Bhopal tragedy noticeable "just" because DOW shares went down by 3%. It also posed questions on shareholders ethics-this hoax hits all of us I guess. I hope that it doesn't take too long to decide what is the real value.

[someday909]

I'm glad that news anchor brought up the problems with the yes men's approach so calmly/thoughtfully. He is right that the effects of this prank on the victims was quite harsh.

I can't think of American newscasters handling the yes men so nicely

[timpedersen]

I've never thought of how the victims would've responded to a fake claim of compensation, that would definitely suck. But whatever, at least the message is spreading. Real or not.

[liketanyanot]

The Bhopal activists were "bemused" by the action and in full support of it.The woman says "We have to force them to be accountable" Anyone who supports unethical multinational corporations (which is basically all of them) is not protecting their own highest, best interests. Why are you supportive of a news agency devoted to propaganda and supporting those companies that do not support your best, highest interests? Learn about the control multi-nat'l COs have on the media:total stranglehold.

[tejaspande]

Is this Newsnight?

[fudgebucket55]

yes men are awesome

[VITASMUPH]

Yes Men Forever!!!

[TK1Fiasco]

the Dow chemical company is the one with no ethics. "this devious creep" you are talking about pulled this stunt to expose that truth. Think about how bad it looks for Dow Chemical to have to go and say "this story is false, we are not going to do anything whatsoever to compensate our victims."

[NaropaMind]

These men are our champions. They are delivering the message that we all have in our hearts. Those who caused the earth harm (Dow) and need to be cut down to size need to be held accountable. They are doing a great job.

[ecko1988]

But it wasn't DOW that caused the incident, they were good enough to pay out when it wasn't there fault in the first place.

[theBritzed]

Don't change reality. They bought the company responsible and are therefore now themselves responsible as well.

Or are you in favor of having companies freed from responsibilities when they are sold? Is this a joke? THEY KILLED PEOPLE AND KEPT THE HUGE PROFITS WITHOUT ANY PENALTIES! wake up and smell reality...

[thetrickman]

God bless

[nicadumlao]

good job!

[medengineer]

nice