10/11/2010
Hungary's Echological Disaster: Director arrested
Bernadett Szabo/Reuters A resident of Devecser, Hungary begins cleanup after red sludge flooded the town.
BUDAPEST — Zoltan Bakonyi , the managing director of MAL Zrt, the Hungarian Aluminum Production and Trade Company whose reservoir unleashed a lethal torrent on three villages last week was arrested on Monday October 11.
He will be charged with criminal negligence leading to a public catastrophe. If he is convicted, he will face a sentence of up to 10 years, according to a government spokeswoman.
A week ago, nearly 200 million gallons of toxic red mud — a byproduct of the conversion of bauxite to alumina, for aluminum — poured out of a reservoir, killed eight people and injured hundreds more.
Updating Parliament on the government’s response, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said "A new emergency law will be enacted to bring MAL Zrt under state control. A state commissioner will be appointed to manage the company and its assets. The government will also focus on saving jobs and identifying other risky industrial sites"
Some observers accused the government of using the catastrophe as a pretext to renationalize private industry and rule by decree. MAL Zrt was owned by the state during Communist times, before it was taken over by private investors after Communism fell in 1989.
Gyorgyi Tottos, spokeswoman for Hungary's Catastrophe Protection Unit, said “I have just returned from the site and there are three gaps in the wall that are a half-meter wide and 20 meters long, which suggests that the wall will fall over time. But we are building a concrete barrier and an emergency dam. We hope that the effects of the wall collapsing will be less dramatic than last time.”
Peter Szijjarto, the prime minister’s spokesman, told the broadcaster TV2 "The dam will be finished by Tuesday. We have 4,000 people and 300 machines working at the scene so we are doing our utmost to prevent another tragedy.”
The government held a special meeting on Sunday to analyze the consequences of the disaster.
Analysts said Mr. Orban’s center-right government, elected earlier this year, was gaining popularity because the devastating rupture had inspired national unity and served to distract the country from its economic worries. They said Mr. Orban moved quickly to take control of the situation and is fashioning himself as a Hungarian protector.
John Lennon's biography
John Winston Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, during a German air-raid over Liverpool. His father, Alf Lennon, was a seaman, who deserted his wife Julia and their infant child. Twenty years later when Alf Lennon tried to reenter his famous son's life, Lennon did not welcome him.
Unable to raise Lennon alone, Julia asked her sister and brother-in-law, Mimi and George Smith, to care for her son. Tragically, an off-duty police officer knocked down and killed Lennon's mother in 1958.
Inspired by the rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry in the mid 1950s, Lennon started learning the guitar. His mother had introduced the banjo to him, and he initially played the guitar like a banjo.
In 1957 he formed the band that became the Beatles, and in the 1960s he achieved enormous success performing with the group and writing songs with Paul McCartney.
Lennon married Cynthia Powell in August of 1962, and they had a son, John Charles Julian, the following year.
Divorced from his first wife in November of 1968 on the grounds of adultery with Ono, Lennon married Ono, a Japanese environmental artist with whom he collaborated in both music and the visual arts.
In October of 1968, Lennon was arrested with Ono, for the possession of hashish, and Lennon pled guilty and received a fine
Ono and Lennon released "Unfinished Music Number One: Two Virgins" in November of 1968, featuring the couple naked on the cover.
The couple spent their honeymoon protesting against the war in Vietnam. In the same year, and as a form of protest, Lennon returned to the British government the Member of the Order of the British Empire Medal, which Queen Elizabeth had awarded the Beatles in 1965.
Meanwhile, the Beatles recorded their final album, "Abbey Road" in 1969 as the group began to disintegrate. Many fans blamed Ono for breakup, only strengthening Lennon's commitment to her.
Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in September of 1971. However, Lennon continued to be a high profile figure after the immigration service declared him ineligible for residency and served him with a deportation notice because of his 1968 drug conviction. The New York Supreme Court eventually reversed the order in 1975.
In New York, Lennon recorded "Imagine."
Sean Ono Taro Lennon was born in 1975 on father John's birthday.
In 1976 Lennon announced that he was going to be a househusband, and he did not record anything until 1980.
After the hiatus, Lennon worked with Ono to produce "Double Fantasy," which many critics considered among Lennon's best work.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan, murdered Lennon outside the Dakota in Manhattan. Lennon's death returned his music to worldwide prominence
Unable to raise Lennon alone, Julia asked her sister and brother-in-law, Mimi and George Smith, to care for her son. Tragically, an off-duty police officer knocked down and killed Lennon's mother in 1958.
Inspired by the rock 'n' roll of Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry in the mid 1950s, Lennon started learning the guitar. His mother had introduced the banjo to him, and he initially played the guitar like a banjo.
In 1957 he formed the band that became the Beatles, and in the 1960s he achieved enormous success performing with the group and writing songs with Paul McCartney.
Lennon married Cynthia Powell in August of 1962, and they had a son, John Charles Julian, the following year.
Divorced from his first wife in November of 1968 on the grounds of adultery with Ono, Lennon married Ono, a Japanese environmental artist with whom he collaborated in both music and the visual arts.
In October of 1968, Lennon was arrested with Ono, for the possession of hashish, and Lennon pled guilty and received a fine
Ono and Lennon released "Unfinished Music Number One: Two Virgins" in November of 1968, featuring the couple naked on the cover.
The couple spent their honeymoon protesting against the war in Vietnam. In the same year, and as a form of protest, Lennon returned to the British government the Member of the Order of the British Empire Medal, which Queen Elizabeth had awarded the Beatles in 1965.
Meanwhile, the Beatles recorded their final album, "Abbey Road" in 1969 as the group began to disintegrate. Many fans blamed Ono for breakup, only strengthening Lennon's commitment to her.
Lennon and Ono moved to the United States in September of 1971. However, Lennon continued to be a high profile figure after the immigration service declared him ineligible for residency and served him with a deportation notice because of his 1968 drug conviction. The New York Supreme Court eventually reversed the order in 1975.
In New York, Lennon recorded "Imagine."
Sean Ono Taro Lennon was born in 1975 on father John's birthday.
In 1976 Lennon announced that he was going to be a househusband, and he did not record anything until 1980.
After the hiatus, Lennon worked with Ono to produce "Double Fantasy," which many critics considered among Lennon's best work.
On December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman, a deranged fan, murdered Lennon outside the Dakota in Manhattan. Lennon's death returned his music to worldwide prominence
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