MEET THE YES MEN!!!

Hello everyone and welcome to Colour-me-Amba's weekly blog-post.

Today's story is one I believe may astonish and perhaps amuse you. It's the satirical acts of two men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, girded with the mission to ‘Fix the world'. These men could be called activists, but they bring an entirely new dimension to activism. Having impersonated the World Trade Organisation, big multinational Corporations and US Federal government on Television and business conferences around the world, one can't help but marvel at their courage and swift but thoughtful representation of public hoax aimed at what they call ‘Identity Correction'. 

Dear readers, meet the YES MEN!

I first learnt about the Yes Men in 2011 and their jinx on Dow Chemical Corporation (an American Multinational chemical company) in relation to an industrial disaster which killed thousands of people in Bhopal, India, 29 years ago. This is a summary of what happened: 

On the night of December 2nd, 1984, a Union Carbide Plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tons of the deadly gas- Methyl isocyanate. With no operational safety system available to contain such a leak, the lethal gas spread quickly throughout the city of Bhopal, killing thousands exposed to it.

Today, over 25,000 people have died as a result of such exposure and more than 120,000 people suffer ailments such as blindness, extreme difficulty in breathing and gyneacological disorders caused by the accident and subsequent pollution at the plant site. Since this time, the site was never properly cleaned up and till date, its dangerous components continue to poison local ground water, causing cancer, brain-damage and birth defects for the present residents of Bhopal.

In 2001, Michigan-based chemical corporation, Dow Chemical, purchased Union Carbide, thereby acquiring its assets and liabilities. However, Dow steadfastly refuses to clean up the accident site, provide safe drinking water and compensate the victims as it denies responsibility for what happened there.

(Outside the ruins of the Alpha Napthol plant, a heap of brown 'rocks' lies exposed to the elements. The rocks are pure Carbaryl. If they caught fire, they would release MIC, the gas that leaked in 1984. Thy have been two major grass fires in the factory in recent years).

ENTER THE YES MEN! 

In 2004, which marked the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal tragedy, BBC World Television sought a Dow representative to discuss the company's position so far. Knowing Dow's history of gross negligence through the years, and their possibility of continuing same, the Yes Men stepped in to ‘help' Dow do the ‘right thing'. As they couldn't afford to go to London, they asked to be booked in the BBC studio in Paris, where Andy Bichlbaum lived. There, Andy would present himself as Mr. Jude Finisterra, Dow's official spokesperson.

On the day of the interview, these two guys wake up early and put on their thrift-store suits. Andy nervously memorizes his answers once more while Mike fumbles with cameras. Later, both arrive at the BBC's Paris studio as "Jude" sits in front of the green screen and waits. At 9am GMT, Dow's spokesperson, "Jude" appears live on the BBC World service in front of the Eiffel Tower. He is excited as he makes his announcement:

"Dow will accept full responsibility for the Bhopal disaster, and has a $12billion dollar plan to compensate the victims and remediate the site. The corporation would provide a sense of closure to the victims and push for the extradition of Warren Anderson, former Union Carbide CEO to India which he fled following his arrest 20 years ago on multiple homicide charges". 

As "Jude" finishes his announcement, the studio technician is happy with what she has heard. "what a nice thing to announce" she says. "I wouldn't work for Dow if I didn't believe in it" Andy replies candidly. 

It eventually took Dow two hours to notice what had happened (This being top story on news.google.com and Dow stock losing 2 billion dollars on the German exchange). With the BBC realizing "Jude Finisterra" was a fake, the story was promptly retracted. Again, the retraction topped google story for the rest of the day. 

As Andy and Mike discovered the retraction, they again helped Dow be clearer about their feelings by mailing out a more formal retraction: 

"Dow will NOT commit ANY funds to compensate and treat 120,000 Bhopal residents who require lifelong care…Dow will NOT remediate (clean up) the Bhopal plant site…Dow's sole and unique responsibility is to its shareholders and Dow CANNOT do anything that goes against its bottom line unless forced to by law." 

So, did Dow Corporation sue the Yes Men for misinformation and misrepresentation? NO THEY DIDN'T. They were wise enough to avoid direct confrontation to such a carefully planned hoax. 

Did such news present false certainty and later, abrupt disappointment to the people of Bhopal who had waited 20 years for Dow (Union Carbide) to come to their aid? Absolutely. 

For Andy and Mike, ' an hour of false hope was nothing compared to 20 years of unrealised ones'. They understood the risk they were taking, as they hoped that this could somehow force Dow's hand, but most importantly focus a great deal of media attention on the issue especially in the US where the Bhopal anniversary had almost gone completely unnoticed. And it did. The BBC called them back to the studio for another show. This time, to explain what had happened, as the news about Bhopal and Dow had spread speedily throughout the US. 

Andy and Mike were trying to present the possibility of another world, but Dow showed by its steadfast refusal to do anything, what 'corporate social responsibility' really meant. Today, the people of Bhopal continue to suffer ailments, disorders and deaths caused by an accident which occurred 29 years ago. 

A FEW OTHER INTERESTING PRANKS 

GILDA THE GOLDEN SKELETON

Only months after Andy's face had been on most UK tellies, he appeared at a London banking conference as Dow representative, "Erastus Hamm," this time to explain how Dow considers death acceptable so long as profits still roll in. A life-sized golden skeleton named Gilda helped explain to the bankers that just because something like Bhopal is a "skeleton in the closet," it isn't necessarily a bad one: it may be quite lucrative, i.e. "golden". Read about it here.

NEW YORK TIMES

The Yes Men (along with the Anti-Advertising Agency) also claimed partial responsibility for a prank on November 12, 2008, where approximately 80,000 copies of a fake edition of the July 4, 2009 edition of The New York Times were handed out on the streets of New York and Los Angeles. The fake edition shows their ideas for a better future with headlines such as "Iraq War Ends" and "Nation Sets Its Sights on Building Sane Economy".. The front page contained a spoofed motto, "All the News We Hope to Print" from the famous phrase "All the news that's fit to print". Read about it here.

POSING AS EXXON MOBIL EXECUTIVES

On June 14, 2007, the Yes Men acted during Canada's largest oil conference in Calgary, Alberta. In front of more than 300 oilmen, the National Petroleum Council, NPC was expected to deliver the long-awaited conclusions of a study commissioned by U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. When the Yes Men arrived at the conference they said that Lee Raymond (the promised speaker) was unable to make it due to a pressing situation with the president. The Yes Men then went on to give an outrageous keynote presentation in place of Lee Raymond. Read about it here. 

WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION PROPOSES SLAVERY FOR AFRICA

At a Wharton Business School conference on business in Africa, World Trade Organization representative Hanniford Schmidt announced the creation of a WTO initiative for "full private stewardry of labor" for the parts of Africa that have been hardest hit by the 500 years of Africa's free trade with the West. The audience included Prof. Charles Soludo (Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria), Dr. Laurie Ann Agama (Director for African Affairs at the Office of the US Trade Representative), and other notables. Read about it here.

NIGER DELTA HOAX

On March 28, 2010, a video was released on YouTube with the title "Shell: We are sorry". A man called Bradford Houppe, from the Ethical Affairs Committee at Royal Dutch Shell gave a four minute long apology to the people of the Niger Delta for ruining their land, water, and communities. This video was created in response to the numerous environmental problems and human rights violations that have occurred in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria since Shell began oil exploration in the region decades ago (watch video).





You could read more about the Yes Men on their webpage, yesmen.org. Their videos are also available on Youtube to amuse you.

I really do find their approach to be creative though full of mischief. But the main objective behind their acts appear to be rational. As they say, they are trying to show that another world is possible.

Do let me know your views on this. Is the Yes Men's approach on "correcting identities" a relevant one?

Do we need such pranks to make our national and corporate governments "sit" up?


Would such pranksters even succeed here?


Please leave your comments and reactions below.


SOURCES
www.theyesmen.org http://theyesmen.org/hijinks/bhopalpressrelease http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_Men www.bhopal.org http://www.dowethics.com/risk/launch.html
http://m.ibnlive.com/news/bhopal-gas-tragedy-plea-to-increase-convicts-sentence-declined/392984-3-236.html