Another murderous corporation evading responsibility

While I am still outraged on how BP is getting away with the Louisiana oil catastrophe, a similar case seems to be happening in Hungary with the chemical sludge that hit a couple of days ago at the town of Kolontar, destroying several villages, killing four, critically injuring 11 and potentially damaging the downstream waters of the Danube river.

The sludge, which has an ochre color because of harmless iron oxide, is extremely hazardous because of two reasons: on one side it has an extremely alkaline pH of 13 (in a scale of 14, similar to pure bleach) which is totally caustic and is probably behind the deaths and injuries, on the other hand it contains many heavy metals which are extremely carcinogenic. It seems that when the sludge dries up, the danger will be increased because the dust will be able to reach the lungs. 

Most worrisome is anyhow that the corporation in charge (MAL, a Hungarian firm) is trying to get away as not responsible. They claim that they made all compulsory checks in the chemical residue reservoir and they have offered to pay a ridiculous compensation of 504 USD to each family affected. Obviously this is mere peanuts, when you have lost your home and probably also all your way of life (jobs, community, etc.), not to mention health issues. 

It is simply outraging and the logical reaction should be to intervene the company and possibly sell it out so it pays its debt with society. When such a catastrophe happens, it is only penally relevant if the company abode by the rules or not, it is still civilly responsible for all the damage caused. And the corporation is responsible with all its assets, regardless that managers or workers are also responsible for manslaughter or other crimes if it can be demonstrated they failed to stand up in their work to legal security standards. 

It is critically important to make corporations pay for catastrophes like these, specially because if they are not held fully responsible to the last penny, they will repeat. However in our decadent late Capitalist society it is becoming outrageously normal that companies get away after paying just a minor fine. It happened in Bhopal, it is happening in the Gulf of Mexico with the insulting complicity of the White House and the corporate media and it may happen at the heart of Europe again unless the Hungarian government takes a strong stand. 

Luckily it seems that the government is indeed pissed off and willing to take action. But from words to acts there is a long walk. We'll see. 

Ref.: Al Jazeera.