Monday, July 12, 2010

Erin Brokovich

This past weekend I went out with my girls. While returning, the movie Erin Brokovich striked my mind and I decided to search the movie online around 9:30pm. It took me about an hour to find it and when I finally started watching, it kept on buffering… ugh! Anyhow, with much struggle I was able to watch half of the movie that night. When I dozed off, I kept on presuming what will happen next? Infact, I kept my laptop on hibernate mode, so that movie could buffer throughout the night. The next morning, I couldn’t wait to get back to Erin’s story. However, fate was not on my side. So, I restarted the entire page, and set it aside on buffer, again… eventually the movie started running. At the end, my expression was WOW... what a Lady!!! The film reminded me of Bhopal Gas Tragedy in India. Now, I have a crystal clear picture of what those people went through. Extremely sad and lamentable…

Erin Brokovich didn’t have a pleasant life but undoubtedly carried the looks and figure of a Diva. She didn’t have a concrete job, got married twice, divorced twice and bore 3 children from the two failed marriages. Erin did win the Miss Pacific Coast title in 1981; however, she showed minimal interest in the beauty business. Therefore, she moved on. But, fate had something else planned for her. Erin got involved in a car accident which brutally injured her. She hired Masery & Vititoe to fight for her case and later on worked for them as a small clerk. Because she had the body of a bomb-shell, she wore the sexiest clothes out there and showcased her assets in full swing. In return she got ‘hate-looks’ from all the other ladies in the firm. While working there, Erin came across Pacific Gas and Electric case. She got herself tightly wrapped around the mess and started to go on an investigation. PG&E had been poisoning the residents of a small town named Hinkley, California. It was because of Erin’s unwavering tenacity that PG & E had been exposed for leaking toxic Chromium 6 into the ground water. This poison affected the health of the population of Hinkley. The case was settled for $333 million which is considered the largest settlement ever paid in US history. Once again, Thanks to Ms. E!

However, how can a company ‘knowingly’ open a plant which will be poisonous for the local residents? Is it ethical? Of course, not! But since when did we humans start blabbing about ethics? In this day and age, a single individual or a firm or a politician, only looks for their profit; finessing the fact that it might crush others. I believe, very few Erin’s are left in this world who comply such selfless good deeds.

Even though the Hinkley residents were granted $333 million; they still cannot bring back the same health or peace. Damage is done! The money only acts as a medicine but the paroxysm will never go away. However, I still respect the idea of allotting compensation. In India, Bhopal Gas Tragedy victims received a small gob from the entire lump-sum. Just for the record, such things did not end with the Hinkley case. It was just the beginning. Erin got herself suppressed in just one slice of pizza. The entire pizza was still left to be taken care of. Ms. Brokovich is working with dozens of other cases which deal with water contamination. California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, all have high-rates of complaints against water contamination.

Kudos to a very prestigious and prominent Erin Brokovich!!!

1 comment:

  1. DC must be one of the states with contaminated water. It just taste so different if I ever get tap water at work. yuck!

    ReplyDelete

Expectations!

Have we ever tried to understand that only an expectation leads us to disappointment? Why is it so difficult to not expect anything from thi...