Victims
As of March 2001, 2,265 victims have been officially certified (1,784 of whom have died) and over 10,000 people have received financial compensation from Chisso, although they are not recognised as official victims. The issue of quantifying the impact of Minamata disease is complicated, as a full epidemiological study has never been conducted and patients were ever recognised only if they voluntarily applied to a Certification Council in order to seek financial compensation. Many victims of Minamata disease faced discrimination and ostracism from the local community if they came out into the open about their symptoms. Some people feared the disease to be contagious and many local people were fiercely loyal to Chisso, depending on the company for their livelihoods. In this atmosphere sufferers were reluctant to come forward and seek certification. Despite these factors, over 17,000 people have applied to the Council for certification. Also, in recognising an applicant as a Minamata disease sufferer, the Certification Council qualified that patient to receive financial compensation from Chisso. As such, the Council has always been under immense pressure to reject claimants and minimise the financial burden placed on Chisso. Rather than being a Council of medical recognition, the decisions of the Council were always affected by the economic and political factors surrounding Minamata and the Chisso corporation. Furthermore, compensation of the victims led to continued strife in the community, including unfounded accusations that some of the people who sought compensation did not actually suffer from the disease.
Read more about this topic: Minamata Disease
Famous quotes containing the word victims:
“Men are not philosophers, but are rather very foolish children, who, by reason of their partiality, see everything in the most absurd manner, and are the victims at all times of the nearest object. There is even no philosopher who is a philosopher at all times. Our experience, our perception is conditioned by the need to acquire in parts and in succession, that is, with every truth a certain falsehood.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Whether in the field of health, education or welfare, I have put my emphasis on preventive rather than curative programs and tried to influence our elaborate, costly and ill- co-ordinated welfare organizations in that direction. Unfortunately the momentum of social work is still directed toward compensating the victims of our society for its injustices rather than eliminating those injustices.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“We fetch fire and water, run about all day among the shops and markets, and get our clothes and shoes made and mended, and are the victims of these details, and once in a fortnight we arrive perhaps at a rational moment.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)