In this thread, we've discussed the lack of governmental oversight that allows corporations to fuck over the average West Virginian. Now, I present to you a novel that demonstrates this first-hand.
Witness at Hawks Nest is a novel by Dwight Harshbarger, just released this summer by Mid-Atlantic Highlands/Publishers Place Inc. (ISDN-13: 978-0-9840757-2-0, Library of Congress #2009929432).
The blurb on the back says:
Witness at Hawks Nest (is) a riveting story of friendship betrayed, love across the color barrier, and a whistleblower's stand against corporate deceit and murder
It misses the point, or rather misdirects it so the average reader will be curious and make the purchase.
Those things are in there, but the story of the whistleblower and those he deals with are a fictional framework that draws readers in and slowly reveals the full scope of the tragedy in what's been called America's Worst Industrial Disaster.
All the facts given about Union Carbide officials and the drilling of the Hawks Nest Tunnel are true. That is what makes this story so horrible as the secrets are revealed -- Everything the whistleblower discovers is historical fact, backed up by first-hand accounts, pictures, sworn statements, re-discovered graveyards, and statistical data.
This is the most compelling, most disturbing book I have read in my life. I bought it thinking '
hey, I might find my relatives mentioned', since my dad's family were police and firemen in the town of Ansted. What I got was far more than I'd bargained for, as the history I'd been taught about the Tunnel came to horrific, vibrant life.
This isn't the little white historical marker by the side of the overlook.
This is working 10hr days dry-drilling through pure silica with little ventilation and being told there was no need for masks even when they were working in a pea-soup fog of silica dust.
This is being given little black candy-flavored pills for the rasping cough and solid white phlem that starts coming out of your lungs, as the doctor tell you it's just "Tunnelitis" stealing your breath away.
This is dying as your lungs become caked solid with the dust and scar tissue from the damage of breathing pure silica 10hrs a day, six days a week.
This is being taken in the middle of the night to a funeral home across the backside of the mountain, to be buried anonymously in a grave marked by two pieces of broken wood tied together with bailing wire.
This is why West Virginia is so Fucked.
To further underscore this, the Forward and Epilogue speaks of another Union Carbide industrial disaster: the Bhopal Gas Leak.
The comparisons to 1930s and 1980s disasters show how little has changed when dealing with 'third world countries'. In both cases, Union Carbide made cash settlements to those harmed by the disasters. In Bhopal, the settlement was for $470million, but the average amount paid out to the families of those killed or disabled by the gas leak was $2200. To those who sued for compensation over the Hawks Nest Tunnel, a judge worked out a payment system for the $130,000 settlement: Half the money went to the Attorneys, with the other half 'split fairly' amongst the plaintiffs. $400 was awarded for a unwed black man, $600 for a married black man. Whites did better, of course, with $800 for a unwed and $1000 for a married man. Families of white men got an extra $600, black families got none.
As part of the Hawks Nest Tunnel settlements, all files and documentation was required to be turned over to Union Carbide, to prevent future suits from being filed. None of the Union Carbide officials involved at Hawks Nest were brought up on criminal charges, and in 1936 the US House of Representatives quietly let an investigation into Union Carbide's actions die.
In 1985 the Indian Government passed a law that made them the Legal Representatives of the Bhopal victims, and in 1991 formally charged retiring Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson with manslaughter. He was declared a fugitive from justice in 1992, having never shown for his hearing (Anderson was living the good life in the Hamptons instead). He has yet to be brought to India for trial.
