Comrade Franz Lee
Your words continue being sharp shotsRoy S. Carson, Vheadline.com:
Friday, 20 May 2011
Friday, 13 May 2011
Franz J. T. Lee: The Gaddafi Paradigm: Our dim chance of survival against World Fascism
The Gaddafi Paradigm: Our dim chance of survival against World Fascism
By Franz J. T. Lee
For global workers movements to become radical is firmly and decisively, with clear emancipatory principles, to grasp any historical problem at its roots. For example, it is to tackle the current global fascism at its very radix, that is, at its transgenetic roots, and to eradicate it together with all the economic, political, social, military and alienating conditions which have brought it about. Because capitalism exists, it is tangible, man made and planetary. Hence, organized workers creative power, that is, its 'superation' (transcendence) could annihilate it globally, not only in Libya or Venezuela, but everywhere.
Independent of different appearance forms, the very existence of past varieties of national fascism, or 'national socialism' ... in individual States like Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and elsewhere ... and of present global fascism, which is being spearheaded nationally and internationally by the 'Empire', by the USA, its allies and military wing, NATO, is the scientific verification that a dramatic class struggle is raging on a planetary level. In the past two centuries, as a dialectical rule, violent, repressive regimes, including fascism, were preceded by huge workers class struggles which were suppressed brutally. Although these proletarian battles failed, they did change the correlation of the contending class forces; the uprisings of the workers, supported by some middle class sectors, scared the hell out of the bourgeoisie, everywhere its political reaction was the launching of fascist terrorism by State order.
The question is: why did scores of promising global proletarian revolts and revolutions fail or stagnate and were eventually nipped in the bud by capitalist, imperialist fascism?
The answer is very simple: Most of them were heroic, do merit our honor and solidarity, but they were not radical enough, were not radically anti-capitalist, in a few words, they were not modern Marxist emancipatory movements. They did not (perhaps could not) transcend the closed capitalist world order. Surely, much has been said and criticized with reference to this tragic state of affairs which has now become a gigantic global problem of possible human existence on planet Earth. Currently Venezuela and Libya, soon Syria and Pakistan, will have to try to get out of this fascist maelstrom, whirlpool of international fascist terror.
As a brief commentary, we will just highlight some of the errors committed by the Libyan leadership vis-a-vis world fascism in Africa. However, much is also valid for other 'failed societies' which form 'the axis of evil' and which merit 'full spectrum dominance' and 'military humanism'.
At the moment, it is the unfortunate turn of Palestine, Libya and Bahrain, but other countries like Syria, Zimbabwe or Pakistan will soon follow. South Africa, whose some 50 million inhabitants have experienced decades of fascism, of apartheid, is now a trustworthy ally ally of United States imperialism in Africa. However, it should learn from the Libyan catastrophe.
Now, concerning global fascism, what did Colonel Gaddafi and his government under-estimate?
President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya is learning the hard way to understand what is capitalism, socialism, globalization, fascism and emancipation.
* One should not betray one's revolutionary daydreams of youth by declaring them as 'juvenile sins'. Currently Colonel Gaddafi is the longest-governing leader in the Arab and African worlds; he rules Libya since the age of 27, when he and his comrades got rid of the repressive King Idris I in a bloodless coup. One thing is clear now: Gaddafi lives and dies an important lesson: the Gaddafi Paradidm: no matter what may be the case, as an emancipator, one always has to give his very life in defense of his people, of his comrades-in-arms.
In the sixties of the 20th century, on the waves of the African anti-colonial revolutions, Gaddafi launched his Green Revolution. This occurred during the epoch of African national liberation, of the development from African nationalism, to Pan-Africanism, to African Socialism.
* In spite of the heroic efforts of Kwame Nkrumah, the then president of Ghana, in the praxical, theoretical and military fields, the above three forces got stuck in ideological lip service, in so-called anti-imperialism, which was severed from true anti-capitalism, as dialectical negation, as scientific, philosophic socialism, as emancipatory Marxism. The Organization of African Unity lost the idea that unity must be based on principles and degenerated into the current toothless African Union.
* Like in the rest of Africa, in all her revolutions, also in Libya anti-imperialism, in realityy, pro-capitalism was and still is devouring the social emancipatory fruits of bloody class struggles. In fact, cum grano salis, today all African States, except the five, including Libya, which refused to accept the Africom of NATO, are on the track of globalization, of the Second Conquest, the final Scramble for Africa, of global fascism.
* Among the grievous errors of the government of Libya are the following: if you are swimming on an ocean of oil and fresh water, you must know that no matter how you try to escape in the end the Orwellian bloody NATO army boots will come for you: hence prepare yourself with the coming gigantic class struggle;
*President Gaddafi, alone never ever you have the slightest chance of victory if you collaborate with corporate imperialism. Also, Colonel, in principle, we cannot sign Hitler - Stalin Pacts of 1939, secret ´gentlemen agreements' with your powerful class enemy, we should not run across Europe to hunt for fair weather friendships, to organize 'peace talks' and senseless 'dialogues'. Those 'friends' are just waiting for the right moment to nail you and your family on the cross of 'terrorism', of drug-dealing, trafficking of human organs and massacring your people.
* The capitalist world order only allow change from within, it is a jail, a closed system. Within we could carry out rainbow revolutions, white, red and green ones. Revolution, the invincible arm of the power elites, is the guarantee that anti-capitalism can never realize itself, we have to come up with better ideas than ideology or revolution.
* Comrade Ghaddafi, to err is human, thus, in the name of the invaluable contributions that you have made for the sake of African emancipation, please remember that one does not kill the poisonous African black mamba serpent with its own venom, there are very effective ways to accomplish such a democratic mission. Also, if you are not one second, one millimeter ahead of your class enemies, then your chance of survival is infinitesimal.
Summing up, we live in the age of global fascism. All over, we could see, could sense and experience its mortal pangs and fangs. Big Brother states: You are free to criticize me, but never try to do it. Freedom is Slavery. Peace is War. Lies are Truths. All over Friend-Enemy relations, anti-Marxism, anti-Communism. Scape-Goats, workers fiendish regimes, lawlessness, elimination of habeas corpus, the rule of law, etc. pave the highway towards the total, totalitarian, authoritarian Corporeal and Mental Holocaust, to Barbarism.
Capitalism has a Janus-head; under 'normal' peaceful conditions, with relative economic stability, a low level of workers' struggles, in times of boom and bonanza, it is called Democracy. On the other hand, in times of severe economic crises, great depression, political upheaval, social unrest and violent class struggle, capitalism becomes savage, shows its true fascist snarl, its war mongrel face. Its functions are the destruction of the labor movement, of workers trade unions, of the 'left organizations, of Marxists. Furthermore, as a mass movement fascism controls the workers ideologically , conditioning them with aggressive political propaganda, slogans, racism and 'friend-enemy' and 'scape-goat' relations. It also introduces the 'Fuehrer' principle, the messianic great leader, the idea of a 'chosen people', a belief in a Herrenvolk, a master race and other machinations of mass psychology.The main functions of fascism are the defense and preservation of the bourgeois, capitalist, economic relations, of private property of the means of production. It is a huge campaign to save the dominant global system at all costs. Fascism tries to save the imperialist system from total collapse. Only when we know the above could we begin to eradicate fascism for ever, but time and space are running out -- our dim chances of survival are diminishing at the speed of scalar waves.
****
By Franz J. T. Lee
For global workers movements to become radical is firmly and decisively, with clear emancipatory principles, to grasp any historical problem at its roots. For example, it is to tackle the current global fascism at its very radix, that is, at its transgenetic roots, and to eradicate it together with all the economic, political, social, military and alienating conditions which have brought it about. Because capitalism exists, it is tangible, man made and planetary. Hence, organized workers creative power, that is, its 'superation' (transcendence) could annihilate it globally, not only in Libya or Venezuela, but everywhere.
Independent of different appearance forms, the very existence of past varieties of national fascism, or 'national socialism' ... in individual States like Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and elsewhere ... and of present global fascism, which is being spearheaded nationally and internationally by the 'Empire', by the USA, its allies and military wing, NATO, is the scientific verification that a dramatic class struggle is raging on a planetary level. In the past two centuries, as a dialectical rule, violent, repressive regimes, including fascism, were preceded by huge workers class struggles which were suppressed brutally. Although these proletarian battles failed, they did change the correlation of the contending class forces; the uprisings of the workers, supported by some middle class sectors, scared the hell out of the bourgeoisie, everywhere its political reaction was the launching of fascist terrorism by State order.
The question is: why did scores of promising global proletarian revolts and revolutions fail or stagnate and were eventually nipped in the bud by capitalist, imperialist fascism?
The answer is very simple: Most of them were heroic, do merit our honor and solidarity, but they were not radical enough, were not radically anti-capitalist, in a few words, they were not modern Marxist emancipatory movements. They did not (perhaps could not) transcend the closed capitalist world order. Surely, much has been said and criticized with reference to this tragic state of affairs which has now become a gigantic global problem of possible human existence on planet Earth. Currently Venezuela and Libya, soon Syria and Pakistan, will have to try to get out of this fascist maelstrom, whirlpool of international fascist terror.
As a brief commentary, we will just highlight some of the errors committed by the Libyan leadership vis-a-vis world fascism in Africa. However, much is also valid for other 'failed societies' which form 'the axis of evil' and which merit 'full spectrum dominance' and 'military humanism'.
At the moment, it is the unfortunate turn of Palestine, Libya and Bahrain, but other countries like Syria, Zimbabwe or Pakistan will soon follow. South Africa, whose some 50 million inhabitants have experienced decades of fascism, of apartheid, is now a trustworthy ally ally of United States imperialism in Africa. However, it should learn from the Libyan catastrophe.
Now, concerning global fascism, what did Colonel Gaddafi and his government under-estimate?
President Muammar Gaddafi of Libya is learning the hard way to understand what is capitalism, socialism, globalization, fascism and emancipation.
* One should not betray one's revolutionary daydreams of youth by declaring them as 'juvenile sins'. Currently Colonel Gaddafi is the longest-governing leader in the Arab and African worlds; he rules Libya since the age of 27, when he and his comrades got rid of the repressive King Idris I in a bloodless coup. One thing is clear now: Gaddafi lives and dies an important lesson: the Gaddafi Paradidm: no matter what may be the case, as an emancipator, one always has to give his very life in defense of his people, of his comrades-in-arms.
In the sixties of the 20th century, on the waves of the African anti-colonial revolutions, Gaddafi launched his Green Revolution. This occurred during the epoch of African national liberation, of the development from African nationalism, to Pan-Africanism, to African Socialism.
* In spite of the heroic efforts of Kwame Nkrumah, the then president of Ghana, in the praxical, theoretical and military fields, the above three forces got stuck in ideological lip service, in so-called anti-imperialism, which was severed from true anti-capitalism, as dialectical negation, as scientific, philosophic socialism, as emancipatory Marxism. The Organization of African Unity lost the idea that unity must be based on principles and degenerated into the current toothless African Union.
* Like in the rest of Africa, in all her revolutions, also in Libya anti-imperialism, in realityy, pro-capitalism was and still is devouring the social emancipatory fruits of bloody class struggles. In fact, cum grano salis, today all African States, except the five, including Libya, which refused to accept the Africom of NATO, are on the track of globalization, of the Second Conquest, the final Scramble for Africa, of global fascism.
* Among the grievous errors of the government of Libya are the following: if you are swimming on an ocean of oil and fresh water, you must know that no matter how you try to escape in the end the Orwellian bloody NATO army boots will come for you: hence prepare yourself with the coming gigantic class struggle;
*President Gaddafi, alone never ever you have the slightest chance of victory if you collaborate with corporate imperialism. Also, Colonel, in principle, we cannot sign Hitler - Stalin Pacts of 1939, secret ´gentlemen agreements' with your powerful class enemy, we should not run across Europe to hunt for fair weather friendships, to organize 'peace talks' and senseless 'dialogues'. Those 'friends' are just waiting for the right moment to nail you and your family on the cross of 'terrorism', of drug-dealing, trafficking of human organs and massacring your people.
* The capitalist world order only allow change from within, it is a jail, a closed system. Within we could carry out rainbow revolutions, white, red and green ones. Revolution, the invincible arm of the power elites, is the guarantee that anti-capitalism can never realize itself, we have to come up with better ideas than ideology or revolution.
* Comrade Ghaddafi, to err is human, thus, in the name of the invaluable contributions that you have made for the sake of African emancipation, please remember that one does not kill the poisonous African black mamba serpent with its own venom, there are very effective ways to accomplish such a democratic mission. Also, if you are not one second, one millimeter ahead of your class enemies, then your chance of survival is infinitesimal.
Summing up, we live in the age of global fascism. All over, we could see, could sense and experience its mortal pangs and fangs. Big Brother states: You are free to criticize me, but never try to do it. Freedom is Slavery. Peace is War. Lies are Truths. All over Friend-Enemy relations, anti-Marxism, anti-Communism. Scape-Goats, workers fiendish regimes, lawlessness, elimination of habeas corpus, the rule of law, etc. pave the highway towards the total, totalitarian, authoritarian Corporeal and Mental Holocaust, to Barbarism.
Capitalism has a Janus-head; under 'normal' peaceful conditions, with relative economic stability, a low level of workers' struggles, in times of boom and bonanza, it is called Democracy. On the other hand, in times of severe economic crises, great depression, political upheaval, social unrest and violent class struggle, capitalism becomes savage, shows its true fascist snarl, its war mongrel face. Its functions are the destruction of the labor movement, of workers trade unions, of the 'left organizations, of Marxists. Furthermore, as a mass movement fascism controls the workers ideologically , conditioning them with aggressive political propaganda, slogans, racism and 'friend-enemy' and 'scape-goat' relations. It also introduces the 'Fuehrer' principle, the messianic great leader, the idea of a 'chosen people', a belief in a Herrenvolk, a master race and other machinations of mass psychology.The main functions of fascism are the defense and preservation of the bourgeois, capitalist, economic relations, of private property of the means of production. It is a huge campaign to save the dominant global system at all costs. Fascism tries to save the imperialist system from total collapse. Only when we know the above could we begin to eradicate fascism for ever, but time and space are running out -- our dim chances of survival are diminishing at the speed of scalar waves.
****
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
On the Danger of a Killer Earthquake in the Japanese ArchipelagThe Nuclear Disaster That Could Destroy Japan ... and the World
On the Danger of a Killer Earthquake in the Japanese ArchipelagThe Nuclear Disaster That Could Destroy Japan ... and the World
By HIROSE TAKASHI
Translated by Doug Lummis
The nuclear power plants in Japan are ageing rapidly; like cyborgs, they are barely kept in operation by a continuous replacement of parts. And now that Japan has entered a period of earthquake activity and a major accident could happen at any time, the people live in constant state of anxiety.
Seismologists and geologists agree that, after some fifty years of seismic inactivity, with the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake), the country has entered a period of seismic activity. In 2004, the Chuetsu Earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture, doing damage to the village of Yamakoshi. Three years later, in 2007, the Chuetsu Offshore Earthquake severely damaged the nuclear reactors at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa. In 2008, there was an earthquake in Iwate and Miyagi Prefectures, causing a whole mountain to disappear completely. Then in 2009 the Hamaoka nuclear plant was put in a state of emergency by the Suruga Bay Earthquake. And now, in 2011, we have the 3/11 earthquake offshore from the northeast coast. But the period of seismic activity is expected to continue for decades. From the perspective of seismology, a space of 10 or 15 years is but a moment in time.
Because the Pacific Plate, the largest of the plates that envelop the earth, is in motion, I had predicted that there would be major earthquakes all over the world.
And as I had feared, after the Suruga Bay Earthquake of August 2009 came as a triple shock, it was followed in September and October by earthquakes off Samoa, Sumatra, and Vanuatu, of magnitudes between 7.6 and 8.2. That means three to eleven times the force of the Southern Hyogo Prefecture Earthquake.
All of these quakes occurred around the Pacific Plate as the center, and each was located at the boundary of either that plate or a plate under its influence. Then in the following year, 2010, in January there came the Haiti Earthquake, at the boundary of the Caribbean Plate, pushed by the Pacific and Coco Plates, then in February the huge 8.8 magnitude earthquake offshore from Chile. I was praying that this world scale series of earthquakes would come to an end, but the movement of the Pacific Plate shows no sign of stopping, and led in 2011 to the 3/11 Earthquake in northeastern Japan and the subsequent meltdown at the Fukushima
There are large seismic faults, capable of producing earthquakes at the 7 or 8 magnitude level, near each of Japan’s nuclear plants, including the reprocessing plant at Rokkasho. It is hard to believe that there is any nuclear plant that would not be damaged by a magnitude 8 earthquake.
A representative case is the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant itself, where it has become clear that the fault under the sea nearby also extends inland. The Rokkasho plant, where the nuclear waste (death ash) from all the nuclear plants in Japan is collected, is located on land under which the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate meet. That is, the plate that is the greatest danger to the Rokkasho plant, is now in motion deep beneath Japan.
The Rokkasho plant was originally built with the very low earthquake resistance factor of 375 gals. (Translator’s note: The gal, or galileo, is a unit used to measure peak ground acceleration during earthquakes. Unlike the scales measuring an earthquake’s general intensity, it measures actual ground motion in particular locations.) Today its resistance factor has been raised to only 450 gals, despite the fact that recently in Japan earthquakes registering over 2000 gals have been occurring one after another. Worse, the Shimokita Peninsula is an extremely fragile geologic formation that was at the bottom of the sea as recently as the sea rise of the Jomon period (the Flandrian Transgression) 5000 years ago; if an earthquake occurred there it could be completely destroyed.
The Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant is where expended nuclear fuel from all of Japan’s nuclear power plants is collected, and then reprocessed so as to separate out the plutonium, the uranium, and the remaining highly radioactive liquid waste. In short, it is the most dangerous factory in the world.
At the Rokkasho plant, 240 cubic meters of radioactive liquid waste are now stored. A failure to take care of this properly could lead to a nuclear catastrophe surpassing the meltdown of a reactor. This liquid waste continuously generates heat, and must be constantly cooled. But if an earthquake were to damage the cooling pipes or cut off the electricity, the liquid would begin to boil. According to an analysis prepared by the German nuclear industry, an explosion of this facility could expose persons within a 100 kilometer radius from the plant to radiation 10 to 100 times the lethal level, which presumably means instant death.
On April 7, just one month after the 3/11 earthquake in northeastern Japan, there was a large aftershock. At the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant the electricity was shut off. The pool containing nuclear fuel and the radioactive liquid waste were (barely) cooled down by the emergency generators, meaning that Japan was brought to the brink of destruction. But the Japanese media, as usual, paid this almost no notice.
The Hamaoka Nuclear Plant is located at Shizuoka City, on Suruga Bay. Despite predictions of a magnitude 8 earthquake on Suruga Bay, it has continued in operation. If you look at the illustration showing the configuration of the plates beneath the Pacific Ocean, you will see that there is a point at which the Philippine Sea Plate, the huge Pacific Plate, the North American Plate, and the Eurasian Plate all meet; directly over that point is the Japanese Archipelago. And the very center of the area where these four plates press together is Shizuoka.
Large scale earthquakes in the eastern and southern seas have occurred regularly at intervals of between 100 and 250 years. Today in 2011, 157 years have passed since the Great Ansei Earthquake of 1854, so we are in a period when the next big one could come at any time. And the predicted center of this expected major earthquake is – though this is hard to believe – exactly under the location of the Hamaoka Nuclear Plant. And sonar readings at the site indicate that from thirty years back the Eurasian plate has been bending, which means that it is in a condition where it can be expected eventually to spring back.
Hirose Takashi has written a whole shelf full of books, mostly on the nuclear power industry and the military-industrial complex. Probably his best known book is Nuclear Power Plants for Tokyo in which he took the logic of the nuke promoters to its logical conclusion: if you are so sure that they're safe, why not build them in the center of the city, instead of hundreds of miles away where you lose hhome alf the electricity in the wires?
Douglas Lummis is a political scientist living in Okinawa and the author of Radical Democracy. Lummis can be reached at ideaspeddler@gmail.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/takashi04252011.htmlhome
The African 'Star Wars'* - *It is the Pentagon's Africom versus China's web of investments - the ultimate prize: Africa's natural resources.* By: Pepe Escobar
The African 'Star Wars'* - *It is the Pentagon's Africom versus China's web of investments - the ultimate prize: Africa's natural resources.*
By: Pepe Escobar
As Africa increasingly turns to China for economic investment and guidance,
Africom seeks to reverse China's geostrategic foothold on Africa
>From energy wars to water wars, the 21st century will be determined by a
fierce battle for the world's remaining natural resources. The chessboard is
global. The stakes are tremendous. Most battles will be invisible. All will be
crucial.
In resource-rich Africa, a complex subplot of the New Great Game in Eurasia is
already in effect. It's all about three major intertwined developments:
1) The coming of age of the African Union (AU) in the early 2000s.
2) China's investment offencive in Africa throughout the 2000s.
3) The onset of the Pentagon's African Command (Africom) in 2007.
Beijing clearly sees that the Anglo-French-American bombing of Libya – apart
from its myriad geopolitical implications – has risked billions of dollars in
Chinese investments, not to mention forcing the (smooth) evacuation of more than
35,000 Chinese working across the country.
And crucially, depending on the outcome – as in renegotiated energy contracts by
a pliable, pro-Western government – it may also seriously jeopardise Chinese oil
imports (3 per cent of total Chinese imports in 2010).
No wonder the China Military, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) newspaper, as
well as sectors in academia, are now openly arguing that China needs to drop
Deng Xiaoping's "low-profile" policy and bet on a sprawling armed forces to
defend its strategic interests worldwide (these assets already total over $1.2
trillion).
Now compare it with a close examination of Africom's strategy, which reveals as
the proverbial hidden agenda the energy angle and a determined push to isolate
China from northern Africa.
One report titled "China's New Security Strategy in Africa" actually betrays the
Pentagon's fear of the PLA eventually sending troops to Africa to protect
Chinese interests.
It won't happen in Libya. It's not about to happen in Sudan. But further on down
the road, all bets are off.
Meddle is our middle name
The Pentagon has in fact been meddling in Africa's affairs for more than half a
century. According to a 2010 US Congressional Research Service study, this
happened no less than 46 times before the current Libya civil war.
Among other exploits, the Pentagon invested in a botched large-scale invasion of
Somalia and backed the infamous, genocide-related Rwanda regime.
The Bill Clinton administration raised hell in Liberia, Gabon, Congo and Sierra
Leone, bombed Sudan, and sent "advisers" to Ethiopia to back dodgy clients
grabbing a piece of Somalia (by the way, Somalia has been at war for 20 years).
The September 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS), conceived by the Bush
administration, is explicit; Africa is a "strategic priority in fighting terrorism".
Yet, the never-say-die "war on terror" is a sideshow in the Pentagon's vast
militarisation agenda, which favours client regimes, setting up military bases,
and training of mercenaries – "cooperative partnerships" in Pentagon newspeak.
Africom has some sort of military "partnership" – bilateral agreements – with
most of Africa's 53 countries, not to mention fuzzy multilateral schemes such as
West African Standby Force and Africa Partnership Station.
American warships have dropped by virtually every African nation except for
those bordering the Mediterranean.
The exceptions: Ivory Coast, Sudan, Eritrea and Libya. Ivory Coast is now in the
bag. So is South Sudan. Libya may be next. The only ones left to be incorporated
to Africom will be Eritrea and Zimbabwe.
Africom's reputation has not been exactly sterling – as the Tunisian and
Egyptian chapters of the great 2011 Arab Revolt caught it totally by surprise.
These "partners", after all, were essential for surveillance of the southern
Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
Libya for its part presented juicy possibilities: an easily demonised dictator;
a pliable post-Gaddafi puppet regime; a crucial military base for Africom; loads
of excellent cheap oil; and the possibility of throwing China out of Libya.
Under the Obama administration, Africom thus started its first African war. In
the words of its commander, General Carter Ham, "we completed a complex,
short-notice, operational mission in Libya and… transferred that mission to NATO."
And that leads us to the next step. Africom will share all its African "assets"
with NATO. Africom and NATO are in fact one – the Pentagon is a many-headed
hydra after all.
Beijing for its part sees right through it; the Mediterranean as a NATO lake
(neocolonialism is back especially, via France and Britain); Africa militarised
by Africom; and Chinese interests at high risk.
The lure of ChinAfrica
One of the last crucial stages of globalisation - what we may call "ChinAfrica"
– established itself almost in silence and invisibility, at least for Western eyes.
In the past decade, Africa became China's new Far West. The epic tale of masses
of Chinese workers and entrepreneurs discovering big empty virgin spaces, and
wild mixed emotions from exoticism to rejection, racism to outright adventure,
grips anyone's imagination.
Individual Chinese have pierced the collective unconscious of Africa, they have
made Africans dream – while China the great power proved it could conjure
miracles far away from its shores.
For Africa, this "opposites attract" syndrome was a great boost after the 1960s
decolonisation – and the horrid mess that followed it.
China repaved roads and railroads, built dams in Congo, Sudan and Ethiopia,
equipped the whole of Africa with fibre optics, opened hospitals and orphanages,
and – just before Tahrir Square – was about to aid Egypt to relaunch its
civilian nuclear programme.
The white man in Africa has been, most of the time, arrogant and condescending.
The Chinese, humble, courageous, efficient and discreet.
China will soon become Africa's largest trading partner – ahead of France and
the UK – and its top source of foreign investment. It's telling that the best
the West could come up with to counteract this geopolitical earthquake was to go
the militarised way.
The external Chinese model of trade, aid and investment – not to mention the
internal Chinese model of large-scale, state-led investments in infrastructure –
made Africa forget about the West while boosting the strategic importance of
Africa in the global economy.
Why would an African government rely on the ideology-based "adjustments" of IMF
and the World Bank when China attaches no political conditions and respects
sovereignty – for Beijing, the most important principle of international law? On
top of it, China carries no colonial historical baggage in Africa.
Essentially, large swathes of Africa have rejected the West's trademark shock
therapy, and embraced China.
Western elites, predictably, were not amused. Beijing now clearly sees that in
the wider context of the New Great Game in Eurasia, the Pentagon has now
positioned itself to conduct a remixed Cold War with China all across Africa –
using every trick in the book from obscure "partnerships" to engineered chaos.
The leadership in Beijing is silently observing the waters. For the moment, the
Little Helmsman Deng's "crossing the river while feeling the stones" holds.
The Pentagon better wise up. The best Beijing may offer is to help Africa to
fulfil its destiny. In the eyes of Africans themselves, that certainly beats any
Tomahawk.
Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times (www.atimes.com). His
latest book is Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009). He may be reached at
pepeasia@yahoo.com
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily
reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/2011422131911465794.html
--
http://english-juttaschmitt.blogspot.com
http://juttaschmitt.blogspot.com
HOME
As radioactive fallout skyrockets, NaturalNews advises readers to consider precautionary doses of iodine, bentonite clay and zeolites
As radioactive fallout skyrockets, NaturalNews advises readers to consider precautionary doses of iodine, bentonite clay and zeolites
Monday, April 25, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
(NaturalNews) Based on the accumulation of information from multiple sources, it
is now clear that the true scope of the Fukushima disaster has been greatly
downplayed by both the Japanese and U.S. governments. NaturalNews is now urging
its readers to begin taking regular, safe doses of three things: Natural iodine
sources (seaweed or otherwise), bentonite clay (for internal use) and zeolites
(any brand).
Naturally, be sure to check with a qualified nutritionist or natural medicine
practitioner when taking supplements. Those on thyroid medications, in
particular, should seek professional advice before consuming supplementary
iodine from any source.
Bentonite clay is, of course, completely safe for internal use (yes, you can eat
it) when used as directed. It is a cleansing substance that can bind with
various radioactive isotopes and carry them out of your body. Zeolites are also
extremely good at attracting both heavy metals and some radioactive isotopes
which are also carried out of your body.
Radiation emissions are far higher than official reports
The reason for this action notice is due to the increasing realization that
radiation emissions from Fukushima are far higher than what we are being told.
Although I have analyzed reports from multiple sources on this, perhaps the best
citizen blogger explaining this right now is found at
http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/2011/04/...
This blogger is Japanese, and he reads the local Japanese news sources to get a
lot of information about Fukushima before the translators screw it up (or
distort it).
His latest post reveals that Fukushima is releasing 154 terabequerels of
radiation per day. This is an order of magnitude higher than what the official
Japanese sources were saying just a few weeks ago.
Another great blogger on Fukushima is Lucas Whitefield Hixson, who published an
analysis of the photos that seems to indicate Reactor No. 3 already suffered a
massive core containment breach from the very first explosion:
http://lucaswhitefieldhixson.com/hi...
If true, this would mean that TEPCO has been lying to us from day one about the
true extend of the reactor core containment vessel breach.
Why world governments won't tell you the truth
I have good reason to believe we may very well be witnessing an event that has
already vastly exceeded the Chernobyl disaster in its total release of radiation
into the environment. Yet the admission of that fact is so politically unviable
that no government dare admit utter the words. Instead, it is much more
politically expedient to simply imagine there is no radiation (it's invisible,
after all), and hope no one notices the huge increases in cancer rates in the
coming years.
Such is the cowardice is modern-day political leaders. To avoid causing a panic,
they would rather people keep eating radioactive fish and drinking radioactive
milk. Somewhere in Washington, a group of nuclear experts must be sitting around
a table with the President, asking, "So when are we going to tell them about all
this?" The answer is, of course, "Never."
After all, any increase in cancer can always be blamed on sunbathing, or tanning
salons, or whatever convenient target the medical community is currently trying
to discredit. (Heck, they could probably find a way to say that vitamin D causes
cancer!)
This Fukushima fallout could even be a whole new profit center for the cancer
industry which has long been in the business of irradiation women's breasts with
mammography machines anyway. Cancer industry corporations must be drooling over
the profit prospects that will emerge from the global radiation exposure under
way right now.
Most people will take no precautions
The upshot of all this is that the masses may be suffering from very risky doses
of radioactive fallout right now, with no precautions whatsoever being taken to
protect themselves. After all, President Obama stood in front of his podium and
told the American people there was nothing to worry about. He said no one needed
to prepare, and this was followed up with yet more official urgings to avoiding
taking potassium iodide. (http://www.naturalnews.com/031735_O...)
The game is apparently on. What game is that? The game of culling the human
population by eliminating from the human gene pool those individuals who are too
brain dead to think for themselves. Cancer + infertility, after all, is a fairly
effective way to remove someone's genetic code from the future of the
population, and what better than a massive, global radiation dump to sort out
the brainwashed masses from those who actually take their genetic future seriously?
That's one theory behind all this, at least. Some say it's only a theory and
nothing more. But when you look at what's really happening today with the mass
intentional contamination and destruction of our planet -- the spread of GMOs,
the fluoride poisoning of the water supply, the pesticide-induced honey bee
population collapse, and so on -- you can't help but wonder if someone really is
trying to kill off a very large segment of the human population. Fukushima
either deliberately or coincidentally seems to play right into that agenda.
Or maybe that's all just paranoid conspiracy thinking, and the real explanation
behind all this is just global government incompetence combined with
pathological national leaders who have no compassion whatsoever for the lives
and health of their own citizens. Either explanation is sufficiently bizarre
enough to make intelligent people at least start asking questions... and
hopefully to start taking some precautions against radiation fallout (hence the
iodine, clay and zeolites). Bentonite clay, after all, doesn't cost much. Losing
the genetic integrity of your sperm production, on the other hand, is a real
show-stopper.
Then again, maybe all of this is just a bunch of hooey. If you believe the
"scientific" community, the government figures are always accurate. There's no
cover-up. The situation is completely under control. The radiation levels are
miniscule. There was no meltdown. Go on about your business and stop worrying.
Just eat your imported fish, go get your CT scans at the hospital and take your
antidepressants. Buy your slave-labor brand-name sports gear at the local mall,
and be sure to slather yourself in perfumes, petroleum-based skin lotions and
sunscreen (to protect yourself from cancer, of course).
And then, a few years down the road, if you find your DNA has mutated beyond
your ability to reproduce in the future, don't worry: You can always trade a
year's salary for some hormone injections at the local infertility clinic,
right? Infertility clinics, by the way, are really great at increasing the
survival rate of fetuses with birth defects which would otherwise normally be
aborted by the mother's own body (http://www.naturalnews.com/020905_i...).
*How Fukushima could create a real Spider Man!
*
So even if the next generation of children in America are born mostly to
irradiated, genetically-mutated parents, thanks to the "miracle" of modern
infertility science we can probably manage to keep a fair number of them alive
long enough for them to become the new generation of post-Fukushima X-Men with
special mutant powers that can save our world from evil villains. Fukushima
might also irradiate some spiders that could bite a few geeky teenage boys and
magically transform them into acrobatic "spider men" who magically attain
advanced hand-to-hand combat skills without ever having practiced them. What
could be bad about that?
In fact, the entire Marvel universe of comic book characters might yet
materialize out of the smoke and (radioactive) dust of Fukushima. So, you see,
Fukushima is actually the solution to all our problems, not the source of any
problems.
And if you think none of this could really happen because I'm quoting characters
from comic books, just remember this: The Japanese government is reading you
lines from a fairy tale and hoping you buy into it just the same.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032179_Fukushima_zeolites.html#ixzz1Kb3laRUJ
http://www.naturalnews.com/032179_Fukushima_zeolites.html
--
http://english-juttaschmitt.blogspot.com
http://juttaschmitt.blogspot.com
home
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Anti-nuclear advocate Helen Caldicott talks about the Fukushima nuclear
(Video) Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate Helen Caldicott talks about the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe Comentario: Hola Alba, estimada amiga, gracias por intentar una respuesta en Aporrea. No importa que no te la hayan publicado. Lamentablemente, en algún momento hasta personas tan ciegas y dogmáticas como Brito van a tener que aterrizar en la realidad. Las pocas informaciones no censuradas que nos llegan sobre Japón son verdaderamente horribles. Si manejas un poquito de inglés, vaya a nuestro blog: http://franzjtlee.blogspot.com y lea la última entrada (la que aparece arriba en la página y vea también el video. Ahí habla una veterana activista contra la energía nuclear, Helen Caldicott, y nos da una idea de la espantosa magnitud de lo que pasa en Fukushima y sus nefastas consequencias para la vida en todo el planeta. Un abrazo y saludos cordiales, Franz J. T. Lee y Jutta Schmitt
(Video) Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate Helen Caldicott talks about the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe and what we can expect. It ain’t pretty.
LINK:
http://www.franzlee.org.ve/pandemonium01573.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/helen-caldicott-talks-about-the-horror-of-fukushima.html
Helen Caldicott
Biography
The single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to remedy
the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr Helen Caldicott, has devoted the last
38 years to an international campaign to educate the public about the medical
hazards of the nuclear age and the necessary changes in human behavior to stop
environmental destruction.
Born in Melbourne, Australia in 1938, Dr Caldicott received her medical degree
from the University of Adelaide Medical School
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Japan leader urges no panic in nuclear crisis
Japan leader urges no panic in nuclear crisis
AP
* New homes for Japan's quake survivors Play Video Earthquakes Video:New homes for Japan's quake survivors Reuters
* Japan marks the one-month anniversary of quake Play Video Earthquakes Video:Japan marks the one-month anniversary of quake AFP
* Business as usual despite new Fukushima earthquake Play Video Earthquakes Video:Business as usual despite new Fukushima earthquake AFP
– Tue Apr 12, 6:17 am ET
TOKYO – Japan's prime minister is urging the public not to panic after the government boosted the severity level of the crisis at a tsunami-damaged nuclear plant to the highest rating — on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged people in a televised address to focus on recovering from the country's disasters.
Kan said: "Right now, the situation of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant has been stabilizing step by step. The amount of radiation leaks is on the decline," he said. "But we are not at the stage yet where we can let our guards down."
Japanese regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 — the highest level on an international scale — after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake_kan;_ylt=AuN64yd1WPCbcG_L26L8SK.s0NUE;_
****
Sunday, 10 April 2011
Japan and the Globe: Okaerinasai - Welcome back, life?
Japan and the Globe: Okaerinasai - Welcome back, life?
By: Franz J. T. Lee
Fearing a human stampede, panic and desperation, as excuse not to tell the truth to the masses may be very noble, however, not to inform millions of global wage workers about the real state of affairs of corporate imperialism, about planned, man made massacres and disasters ... this is really criminal.
In fact, across the centuries, the ruling 'creme de la creme' never told the 'wretched of the earth', the 'miserables' and 'outcasts' the truth as dominated classes. As historical process, these 'speaking tools' know very little about their mortal quo vadis, about their future, that is, their progressive pauperization and eventual extermination in a mode of destruction, based on master-slave relationships.
Must first a disaster happen which could wipe Japan off the metropolitan map before we go onto the streets to protest against capitalism and its atomic energy Moloch?
The ruling class, the world elite, the herrenvolk, the master race, has a lot of things to hide from the public, hence, its Achilles Heel is the Truth. There is nothing that Capital fears more than the Truth. This is why we have to seek the famous needle in the haystack in order to get to know what exactly occurred in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, and what is occurring now in Fukushima. We will discover that those who don´t see the imminent danger, as a result of' 'total denial', are precisely those who are living right 'on the edge' of radioactive existence. They need some distance, literally and urgently; they are sitting at the foot of the warning lighthouse, they cannot see the perilous radioactive tsunamis coming nearer by the second.
This has nothing to do with the 'gospel truth', 'revelations', Illuminati conspiracy or 'black magic', on the contrary, the dangerous truths stare humanity in the face, in broad daylight.
It concerns all of us, the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere, the global sphere. Who sows a radioactive wind, will reap a cancerous, deadly storm.
* There exist hundreds of old, vulnerable, leaking atomic reactors on Mother Earth, and many more are planned to be constructed.
Until today, we still are reaping the effects of:
* nuclear bombs ignited high above the Earth and which caused an extension of the Van Allen Belts,
* those which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
* atomic tests conducted by the United States, the Soviet Union, France, South Africa, China, in the atmosphere, deserts and oceans,
* the radioactivity set free and radioactive wastelands caused by mining uranium
* the radioactive contamination of land, groundwater, air by the employment of depleted uranium weapons
All of all these cumulative factors together poison and cripple life, spell doom.
There is no way to clean up this radioactive mess imposed on us by corporate profit seekers of military and 'civil' kind. It's a silent, invisible killer which is going to outlast us.
According to the law of probability the very existence of the above mentioned factors already verifies that ruling class man is suicidal, is hell bent on extinguishing life on planet Earth. The reckless producing of radioactive contamination by the major metropolitan powers is one of the most heinous crimes against nature and society, against precious life. We need not search for life on other planets when we destroy life all over on our planet, from Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Irak, Gaza and Libya, to Chernobyl and Fukushima. Also, we do not develop 'Life Sciences', but rather 'Death Technology', including atomic plants.
However, in Japan, as happens in a flourishing capitalist economy, the managers used to greet each other with a proud: How is business? This is the real global context of the Fukushima disaster. Business as usual, never mind the consequences. Those who are suffering the results of this corporate dictate are, as always, the working classes, and it is the workers who sacrificed their very lives in Chernobyl and now Fukushima to save what still could be saved, and to show us what is still human, humane and humanist. However, many do not know, will never know for what they have been toiling, 'living', and why they are slowly dying of cancer. This disaster is a sad tragedy for all humanity, for all life on the planet.
But let's remember that the danger of demise has threatened life on our planet before.
In planetary prehistory we have had some huge, natural cataclysms or 'extinction events' over the last millions of years; one of which destroyed almost 95% of the planet's species. We do not know whether 'the fittest' survived, whether only the 'white children of God' were saved or whether only the 'black, sinful children of Ham' escaped the tsunamis, but what we should know is that the next huge cataclysm will be man-made.
So, what are we waiting for to stop it from happening?
Will we further promote the radioactive poisoning of our planet? Will we further promote the rupturing of our ocean's seabeds by deepwater drilling? Will we further let corporations keep pushing the envelope as is being done from this summer on when BP resumes drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? Will we further allow them to massively dump poison into our oceans once they have messed up big? Shall we wait until the corporations have ruined our land, air, skies, oceans, life? Who talks about the Gulf of Mexico today? Who talks about the Niger Delta today?
Is it not time to stop the planetary pollution of the sea, land and air; the destruction of the ozone layer, the destruction of what remains of our health by dangerous vaccinations, the spraying of chemicals into the air we breathe; the threat to life from the existence of stockpiles of arms of mass destruction, depleted uranium weapons, white phosphorous bombs, and not to mention the geophysical weapons? Only then, we could say: Okaerinasai - welcome back - life!
For more information, we publish interesting posts on the Edge Forum of the Asia Times.
By: Franz J. T. Lee
Fearing a human stampede, panic and desperation, as excuse not to tell the truth to the masses may be very noble, however, not to inform millions of global wage workers about the real state of affairs of corporate imperialism, about planned, man made massacres and disasters ... this is really criminal.
In fact, across the centuries, the ruling 'creme de la creme' never told the 'wretched of the earth', the 'miserables' and 'outcasts' the truth as dominated classes. As historical process, these 'speaking tools' know very little about their mortal quo vadis, about their future, that is, their progressive pauperization and eventual extermination in a mode of destruction, based on master-slave relationships.
Must first a disaster happen which could wipe Japan off the metropolitan map before we go onto the streets to protest against capitalism and its atomic energy Moloch?
The ruling class, the world elite, the herrenvolk, the master race, has a lot of things to hide from the public, hence, its Achilles Heel is the Truth. There is nothing that Capital fears more than the Truth. This is why we have to seek the famous needle in the haystack in order to get to know what exactly occurred in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, and what is occurring now in Fukushima. We will discover that those who don´t see the imminent danger, as a result of' 'total denial', are precisely those who are living right 'on the edge' of radioactive existence. They need some distance, literally and urgently; they are sitting at the foot of the warning lighthouse, they cannot see the perilous radioactive tsunamis coming nearer by the second.
This has nothing to do with the 'gospel truth', 'revelations', Illuminati conspiracy or 'black magic', on the contrary, the dangerous truths stare humanity in the face, in broad daylight.
It concerns all of us, the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere, the global sphere. Who sows a radioactive wind, will reap a cancerous, deadly storm.
* There exist hundreds of old, vulnerable, leaking atomic reactors on Mother Earth, and many more are planned to be constructed.
Until today, we still are reaping the effects of:
* nuclear bombs ignited high above the Earth and which caused an extension of the Van Allen Belts,
* those which fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
* atomic tests conducted by the United States, the Soviet Union, France, South Africa, China, in the atmosphere, deserts and oceans,
* the radioactivity set free and radioactive wastelands caused by mining uranium
* the radioactive contamination of land, groundwater, air by the employment of depleted uranium weapons
All of all these cumulative factors together poison and cripple life, spell doom.
There is no way to clean up this radioactive mess imposed on us by corporate profit seekers of military and 'civil' kind. It's a silent, invisible killer which is going to outlast us.
According to the law of probability the very existence of the above mentioned factors already verifies that ruling class man is suicidal, is hell bent on extinguishing life on planet Earth. The reckless producing of radioactive contamination by the major metropolitan powers is one of the most heinous crimes against nature and society, against precious life. We need not search for life on other planets when we destroy life all over on our planet, from Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Irak, Gaza and Libya, to Chernobyl and Fukushima. Also, we do not develop 'Life Sciences', but rather 'Death Technology', including atomic plants.
However, in Japan, as happens in a flourishing capitalist economy, the managers used to greet each other with a proud: How is business? This is the real global context of the Fukushima disaster. Business as usual, never mind the consequences. Those who are suffering the results of this corporate dictate are, as always, the working classes, and it is the workers who sacrificed their very lives in Chernobyl and now Fukushima to save what still could be saved, and to show us what is still human, humane and humanist. However, many do not know, will never know for what they have been toiling, 'living', and why they are slowly dying of cancer. This disaster is a sad tragedy for all humanity, for all life on the planet.
But let's remember that the danger of demise has threatened life on our planet before.
In planetary prehistory we have had some huge, natural cataclysms or 'extinction events' over the last millions of years; one of which destroyed almost 95% of the planet's species. We do not know whether 'the fittest' survived, whether only the 'white children of God' were saved or whether only the 'black, sinful children of Ham' escaped the tsunamis, but what we should know is that the next huge cataclysm will be man-made.
So, what are we waiting for to stop it from happening?
Will we further promote the radioactive poisoning of our planet? Will we further promote the rupturing of our ocean's seabeds by deepwater drilling? Will we further let corporations keep pushing the envelope as is being done from this summer on when BP resumes drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? Will we further allow them to massively dump poison into our oceans once they have messed up big? Shall we wait until the corporations have ruined our land, air, skies, oceans, life? Who talks about the Gulf of Mexico today? Who talks about the Niger Delta today?
Is it not time to stop the planetary pollution of the sea, land and air; the destruction of the ozone layer, the destruction of what remains of our health by dangerous vaccinations, the spraying of chemicals into the air we breathe; the threat to life from the existence of stockpiles of arms of mass destruction, depleted uranium weapons, white phosphorous bombs, and not to mention the geophysical weapons? Only then, we could say: Okaerinasai - welcome back - life!
For more information, we publish interesting posts on the Edge Forum of the Asia Times.
*********
Asia Times / The Edge : The Nuclear Debacle in Japan
http://www.atimes.net/The-Edge/Japan/179657-THE-NUCLEAR-DEBACLE-IN-JAPAN-2011/Page-2.html
#179700
SAYONARA TOKYO - R.Sauder + SAYONARA JAPAN - F.Lee 1 Day, 21 Hours ago Karma: -18
Excerpt from SAYONARA JAPAN:
Hence, what are the main elements of the Fukushima cataclysm?
* This ghastly disaster of Tokyo will last for months, before it could somehow be 'controlled'; the radio activity on the islands generated by the 'dirty bomb' plutonium will outlive humanity; it is known that the half-life of plutonium 239 is 24 000 years.
What is sure is that every single day the radiation levels are soaring towards maximum heights. More and more radioactivity will be falling out on 35 million people in the Tokyo region, which is only 160 miles away from Fukushima:
"The inevitable consequence of that will be a dramatic withering of the cultural, social, commercial and economic life of the huge Tokyo megalopolis. As more and more people abandon Tokyo it will become a radioactive shadow of its former self. Of course the economic implications of that for global finance and commerce are immense, Tokyo is one of the three major centers of high finance in the world, along with London and New York, so its abandonment therefore has ineluctable repercussions that will rock the modern, global civilization to its core." (2)
Do we know that already 25 foreign governments have shut down their embassies in Tokyo? That others have moved to Osaka to try and escape atomic radiation? Do we still remember that the U.S. Navy had offered on March 17th to evacuate 87,000 personnel?
Yes, the situation is very serious indeed.
A few days later, on "March 19th the U.S. Military has begun a voluntary evacuation of up to 200,000 military personnel and their dependents from Japan. " (3)
International bankers are fleeing, are leaving the radioactive country.
The truth is simply that "the evacuation of Fukushima, of Tokyo, of Japan has already begun. The next step would be to evacuate the whole planet.
Sayonara, Japan! As Marx stated:
in to this world, 'capital comes dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt.' Now it is leaving Japan soaked in radiating blood and dirt!...'
Alea jacta est ... Is the game over? Will and could we wake up now and annihilate capitalism? And there we go ... more earthquakes, more tsunamis to come ...
Footnotes:
(1) www.threeworldwars.com/nwo-timeline1.htm )
(2) See: Event Horizon Chronicle -
Sayonara, Tokyo. eventhorizonchronicle.blogspot.com/2011/03/sayonara-tokyo.html.
(3) (Ibid.)
ORIGINAL SOURCE:
franzjtlee.blogspot.com/2011/04/sayonara...alist-game-over.html
posted by Armando Rozário ¹²³ Cabo Frio, Brazil - April 08, 2011;
P.S. Congratulations Richard.....Bravo Franz....two excellent reports!
#179702
Tepco’s Reactors May Take 30 Years, $12 Billion to Scrap
Damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant may take three decades to decommission and cost operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. more than 1 trillion yen ($12 billion), engineers and analysts said.
Four of the plant’s six reactors became useless when sea water was used to cool them after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami knocked out generators running its cooling systems.
The reactors need to be decommissioned, Tepco Chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata said today. He couldn’t give a timeframe. All the reactors, including Units 5 and 6, will be shut down, and the government hasn’t ruled out sealing the plant in concrete, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters today in Tokyo.
The damaged reactors need to be demolished after they have cooled and radioactive materials are removed and stored, said Tomoko Murakami, a nuclear researcher at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan. The process will take longer than the 12 years needed to decommission the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania following a partial meltdown, said Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear engineering professor at Kyoto University.
“Lack of public support may force the decommissioning of all six reactors,” said Daniel Aldrich, a political science professor at Purdue University in Indiana. Tepco “will try to salvage two if it can find public support, which may be unlikely.”
The damaged reactors will take more than a few weeks to stabilize, Katsumata, who took charge of Tepco’s response after President Masataka Shimizu was hospitalized, told reporters.
Kan’s Criticism
Prime Minister Naoto Kan yesterday blamed inadequate tsunami defenses at the plant for the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986, saying that the safety standards set by Tepco were too low. Efforts to cool fuel rods at the four reactors have been hindered by detection of radiation levels that can prove fatal for a person exposed for several hours.
The utility is focusing on bringing the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant under control and can’t comment on the power station’s future, Naoyuki Matsumoto, a spokesman for Tepco, said by telephone yesterday.
Japan is studying various ways to cool water at the plant’s reactors and fuel-rod ponds, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said. It will take “considerable time” until the temperature drops and is stable, he said.
Covering the plant with fabric and removing contaminated water to a tanker are among options under consideration for reducing the threat from radiation, Edano said.
‘Considering Possibilities’
“Specialists are considering various possibilities and means to contain the nuclear power plant situation and minimize radiation effects in surrounding areas and harm to health,” he said. “We haven’t reached a conclusion about what means are possible or effective.”
Japanese authorities rated the Fukushima accident a 5 on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 7-step scale for nuclear incidents, under which each extra point represents a 10- fold increase in seriousness.
At Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island in 1979, one reactor partially melted in the worst U.S. accident, earning a 5 rating. Its $973 million repair and cleanup took almost 12 years to complete, according to a report on the World Nuclear Association’s website. More than 1,000 workers were involved in designing and conducting the cleanup operation, the report said.
Chernobyl Sarcophagus
Ukraine is unable to fund alone the cost of a new sarcophagus to cover the burned out reactor at Chernobyl, due to be in place by 2014. The 110 meter-high arched containment structure has a 1.55 billion euro ($2.2 billion) total price tag and the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has so far raised about 65 percent of that.
The Fukushima reactors may take about three decades to decommission, based on Japan’s sole attempt to dismantle a commercial reactor, said Murakami of the Institute of Energy Economics.
Japan Atomic Power Co. began decommissioning a 166-megawatt reactor at Tokai in Ibaraki Prefecture near Tokyo in 1998 after the unit had completed 32 years of operations, according to documents posted on the company’s website. The project will be completed by March 2021, or after 23 years of work, and cost 88.5 billion yen, the documents show.
Japan Atomic took three years through June 2001 to stabilize and remove nuclear fuels from the reactor core.
“It looks indisputable that Tepco will go ahead and dismantle the four reactors, and costs may exceed 1 trillion yen,” said Murakami, who worked at Japan Atomic for 13 years and was involved in the decommissioning of the Tokai plant. “Removing damaged fuels from the reactors may take more than two years, and any delays would further increase the cost.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-30/tokyo-electric-s-damaged-reactors-may-take-30-years-12-billion-to-scrap.html
-------------------
P.S. IT IS A REAL NIGHTMARE....FUKUSHIMA IS KAPUT !
re-posted by Armando Rozário ¹²³ Cabo frio, Brazil - April 08, 2011.
Japanese officials estimate about 57 million litres of highly radioactive water have accumulated and hundreds of thousands of litres are added daily as the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, continues to feed coolant into the leaky structures
TOKYO: For nearly four weeks, Japanese emergency crews have been spraying water on the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors in a desperate attempt to avert the calamity of a full meltdown.
The improvised solution to one nuclear nightmare is spawning another: what to do with the millions of litres of water that has become highly radioactive as it washes through the plant.
The water being used to try to cool the reactors and the dangerous spent fuel rods is leaking through fissures inside the plant, seeping through tunnels and passageways to the lowest levels, where it is accumulating into a sea of lethal waste. No one is sure how to get rid of it safely.
''There is nothing like this, on this scale, that we have ever attempted to do before,'' says Robert Alvarez, a former United States assistant secretary of Energy.
Japanese officials estimate about 57 million litres of highly radioactive water have accumulated and hundreds of thousands of litres are added daily as the operator, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, continues to feed coolant into the leaky structures.
Ultimately, the water will have to be stored and processed and the highly radioactive substances solidified, a job that experts say almost must be handled in a specially designed industrial complex. Cleaning the water could take many years, if not decades to complete. The cost could run into tens of billions of dollars.
The immediate problem facing the Japanese is how to store all that water until the reactors and the spent fuel pools are brought under control. The plant's main storage tanks are nearly full. To make space earlier this week, the company released 11.5 megalitres of the least contaminated water into the ocean, expecting that its radioactive elements will be diluted. But international law forbids Japan from dumping contaminated water into the ocean if there are viable technical solutions available later.
So the plant operator is considering bringing in barges and tanks, including a so-called megafloat that can hold about 9.5 megalitres. Yet even using barges and tanks to handle the water temporarily creates a future problem of how to dispose of the contaminated vessels. US and Japanese experts say the key to solving the disposal problem involves reducing the volume of water by concentrating the radioactive elements so they can be solidified into a safer, dry form. But waste experts disagree on exactly how to do that.
The difficulty of concentrating and then solidifying the contaminants depends on how much radioactivity is in the water, the type of isotopes in the water and whether the work can be done on site. Edward Morse, a professor of nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, said the water needs to be diverted soon into a concrete-lined holding pond, where natural evaporation can help reduce its volume.
Even there, it could take up to 10 years before the radioactivity would decay enough for the material to be handled, he said. Building a storage pond ''buys you time''.
Other experts disagree, saying exposing the material to open air could allow iodine and other volatile substances to drift off the site, adding to the remote contamination that is already spreading dozens of kilometres from the plant.
Nuclear power plants normally have systems in place to treat tritium on site. But the condition and capacity of that at Fukushima are not known.Professor Morse and Youichi Enokida, a nuclear chemist from Nagoya University, contend that if the water can be concentrated, it can then be rendered into a dry form or even turned into glass, as is planned at other contaminated sites around the world. This process, called vitrification, is expensive and requires a small scale industrial facility to accomplish.
The alternative - processing the waste elsewhere in Japan - is likely to be controversial. ''The fishermen will protest, this is inevitable,'' Professor Enokida said.
Professor Morse said there would be at least six months of emergency stabilisation, about two years of temporary remediation and up to 30 years of full-scale clean-up. Furthermore, the high levels of ground contamination at the site are raising concerns about the viability of individuals to work at the site in coming decades.
A workforce in the hundreds or even thousands would take years or decades to clean up, experts said.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/containing-a-calamity-creates-another-nuclear-nightmare-20110408-1d7qn.html
Saturday, 9 April 2011
Fukushima Atomic Disaster
Franz J. T. Lee: Important Information about the Fukushima Atomic Disaster
Fukushima Meltdown Confirmed by Stephen Lendman
*On April 6, Reuters reported that "the core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear
reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel," Rep. Edward Markey told
a House hearing on the disaster, saying:*
*"I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the core
has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor
pressure vessel."*
*
*
Recklessly promoting nuclear proliferation, America's NRC is notorious for
coverup and denial of its harmful effects. As a result, their rare admission
virtually confirms a full core meltdown in one or more reactors, meaning vast
amounts of radiation are being uncontrollably released into the atmosphere,
water and soil, spreading over a vast area. It's the ultimate nightmare scenario
now unfolding, but don't expect major media reports or government officials to
explain.
Nonetheless, on April 6, New York Times writers Matthew Wald and Andrew Pollack
headlined, "Core of Stricken Reactor Probably Leaked, US Says," stating:
America's NRC "said Wednesday that some of the core of a stricken Japanese
reactor had probably leaked from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of
the containment structure, implying that the damage was even worse than
previously thought."
Far worse, in fact, because molten core material then burns uncontrollably
through the concrete foundation, meaning all bets are off.
On April 5, Times writers James Glanz and William Broad headlined, "US Sees
Array of New Threats at Japan's Nuclear Plant," saying:
/American engineers warned "that the troubled nuclear plant....is facing a wide
array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases
are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep
the plant stable, according to a confidential" NRC assessment./
Identified threats include:
-- Possible further explosions because of hydrogen and oxygen from seawater used
to cool the reactors that may have done more harm than good. According to former
GE reactor designer Margaret Harding:
/"If I were in the Japanese's shoes, I'd be very reluctant to have tons and tons
of water sitting in a containment whose structural integrity hasn't been checked
since the earthquake/," and very likely is seriously damaged.
-- Because of concern about severe reactor core damage, NRC recommended boron be
added to cooling water as a moderator to absorb neutrons.
-- Exposed/unprotected spent fuel rods in Units 1, 2, 3 and 4 pose extreme
dangers. Moreover, explosions blew nuclear material "up to one mile from the
units" into the atmosphere, indicating much greater damage than previously
disclosed.
As a result, David Lochbaum from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) believes:
/"This paints a very different picture, and suggests that things are a lot
worse. They could still have more damage in a big way if some of these things
don't work out for them....They've got a lot of nasty things to (handle), and
one missed step could make the situation much, much worse."/
Other experts believe criticality was reached, posing far greater dangers than
revealed.
Yet government and Tokyo Electric (TEPCO) officials still claim "no immediate
risk of a hydrogen explosion occurring" or serious harm to human health. In
fact, danger levels now are extreme. More on that below.
Even the NRC admitted that salt water "severely restricted" and likely blocked
circulation pathways. Moreover, inside the core, "there is likely no water level
(so it's) difficult to determine how much cooling is getting to the fuel."
Perhaps none, and three or more reactors are affected, one or more in meltdown.
*Independent Expert Opinions*
On April 4, geoscientist/international radiation expert Leuren Moret told
interviewer Alfred Lambremont Webre that Obama and Canadian Prime Minister
Stephen Harper are concealing the effects of tectonic nuclear war on North
America from Fukushima's fallout. In fact, Norwegian Institute for Air Research
(NILU) radiation maps confirm contamination on America's West Coast, Midwest,
and Western Canada, in some areas as high as Japan's.
Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sampled near San Francisco was found to be
over 18,000 times above federal drinking water standards. Idaho, Minnesota,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts rainwater samples showed Iodine-131 up to
181 times above normal, expected to rise. It's also showing up in milk.
As a result, mobile measures in parts of America and Canada were suspended until
further notice to conceal the disaster's gravity.
Moret cited two distinguished nuclear scientists who've publicly said northern
Japan (one-third of the country) is uninhabitable and should be evacuated.
Marion Fulk is one, a Manhattan Project scientist who helped develop the
hydrogen bomb. He also was America's atmospheric fallout expert when
above-ground tests were conducted.
Dr. Chris Busby is the other, an ionizing radiation expert. On March 30, he told
Russia Today television that Fukushima contamination will cause at least 417,000
new cancers.
Moret called Fukushima a false flag operation to weaken an economic rival, harm
its economy, agriculture and fisheries, and compromise its detente with China.
Compared to Chernobyl, Fukushima's releasing multiple times more radiation,
perhaps amounts too enormous to imagine with potentially catastrophic global
effects.
In response, Japan, America and Canada are in denial. Permissible radiation
exposure levels have been raised. Legitimate reporting was halted. US and
Canadian atmospheric testing was suspended. State authorities told California
physicians not to give iodine to concerned patients. Measuring radiation in milk
was also stopped.
Contamination is spreading from the Arctic to the Equator. Long-lived
radioactive isotopes will cause environmental and human health havoc for
generations. Moret said life forms developed over billions of years are being
destroyed in a century.
On March 29, Chris Busby's Rense.com article headlined, "Deconstructing Nuclear
Experts," saying:
/"What these people have in common is ignorance. (Most) who appear (in the major
media) and pontificate have not actually done any research on the issue of
radiation and health. Or if they have, they....missed all the key studies and
references. (Others are) real baddies"/ who say Fukushima is nothing to worry
about, nothing like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island (TMI).
In fact, Fukushima already way exceeds both and will get increasingly worse
ahead as radiation releases continue and spread. Busby quoted Joseph Conrad
saying, "after all the shouting is over, the grim silence of facts remain."
/"I believe that (the array of) phony experts,"/ said Busby, "/are criminally
irresponsible, since their advice will lead to millions of deaths....I hope they
are sent to jail where they can have plenty of time to read the scientific
proofs (showing) their advice was based on the mathematical analysis of thin air./"
He cited the late *Professor John Gofman, a senior US Atomic Energy Commission
expert who resigned, saying:*
*/"The nuclear industry is waging a war against humanity."/*
*/
/*
So far, in fact, it's winning. It's entered an endgame that will decide whether
or not humanity will survive. "Not from sudden nuclear war," said Busby. "But
from the ongoing and incremental nuclear war which began with the releases to
the biosphere in the 60s of all the atmospheric test fallout, and which
continued inexorably since (to this day), accompanied by parallel increases in
cancer rates and fertility loss to the human race."
Busby calls it "*/the greatest public health scandal in human history..../*" Who
can disagree.
*A Final Comment*
*
*
In a personal email, environmental researcher Dr. Ilya Perlingieri explained the
dangers of Japan dumping thousands of tons of radioactive water in the Pacific,
saying:
/"We are all in grave danger! This was insanity! This radioactive water will
come here (to America). There is no question about that. The currents will bring
it to the west coast and contaminate the entire area: beaches and all sealife
between the coast and Japan. What evaporates naturally will then come on the air
currents around the rest of the US and then the rest of the planet!"/
/"This is epic, and it was not an accident."/
/
/
/Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net and to ensure
an investigation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is conducted.
Mainstream news is, however, continuing to lead the public against its best
interest by failing to advise of the looming radiation public health crisis
stemming from Fukushima.
Perhaps more efficiently than any other,* Professor Jeffery Grupp
*
has analyzed the mass confusion related to the recent reports about radiation
fallout in the United States, including information echoed by astute reporters
such as Stephen Lendman, one among many trying to responsibly piece together the
truth about Fukushima. (See: /Fukishima breakdown: Something fishy about the
reporting, / Brasscheck TV)
Lendmen wrote this week
about the NRC, the Fukushima meltdown, and mainstream news blackout on the
latest global nuclear catastrophe spreading from Japan:
"Recklessly promoting nuclear proliferation, America's NRC is notorious for
coverup and denial of its harmful effects. As a result, their rare admission
virtually confirms a full core meltdown in one or more reactors, meaning
vast amounts of radiation are being uncontrollably released into the
atmosphere, water and soil, spreading over a vast area. It's the ultimate
nightmare scenario now unfolding, but don't expect major media reports or
government officials to explain." (See: /Fukushima Meltdown Confirmed/
,
Stephen Lendman, International News, April 8, 2011)
It appears that the only bonafide Fukushima explanations are from the likes of
Lendman, Greg Palast and, of course, the leader in the field, Dr. Helen
Caldicott who is conveying that Fukushima is more devastating than Chernobyl.
“Only one reactor blew at Chernobyl and it was only 3 months old, with new cores
holding relatively little radiation; these ones have been operating for 40 years
and would hold about 30 times more radiation than Chernobyl’s,” Dr. Caldicott
recently explained in an interview with /The Independent,/ Australia
/ >.
Dr. Caldicott cited the New York Academy of Sciences report that stated over 1
million people died as a direct result of the 1986 Chernobyl melt-down, mostly
from cancer. This is contrary to reports by nuclear energy proponents that lead
the public to believe "stress" caused more Chernobyl deaths than its leaked
radiation.
"She said authorities had attempted to 'hush up' the full scale of the Chernobyl
disaster," according to the /Independent/ that cited the official 2005 figure
from the International Atomic Energy Agency being just 4,000 fatalities.
*Fukushima War*
The Fukushima Nuclear War is better understood by viewing THE BATTLE OF
CHERNOBYL film that is embedded on this page at the left of this article. This
documentary dramatically chronicles the harrowing efforts that started on the
26th of April 1986 to stop the northern Ukraine nuclear power station chain
reaction and prevent a second explosion, to "liquidate" the radioactivity, and
to seal the ruined reactor under a mammoth "sarcophagus."
The BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL film provides the viewer visuals of some of the
operation segments being attempted at Japan's Fukushima reactors that are
destined to measure far worse than Chernobyl according to Dr. Helen Caldicott
/ >,
the most influential environmental activist over the past 35 years. This film
that analyzes the Chernobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine explosion
is receiving renewed interest since Japan's nuclear power catastrophe that is
said by some researchers to dwarf Chernobyl.
Dr. Helen Cladicott has called the Fukushima nuclear power plant situation in
Japan an “absolute disaster” that could be* many, many times worse than Chernobyl.*
In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear plant was the most significant reactor failure in
the history of nuclear power, a Maximum Credible Accident (MCA). The plant, only
20 km away from the town center, was made of four reactor units each generating
an output of 1,000 megawatts. One of the reactors exploded due to operational
errors and inadequate safety measures. The meltdown was directly linked to
routine testing on the reactor unit’s turbine generators.
In the documentary, the nerve-racking events are recounted through newly
available films, videos and photos taken in and around the plant, computer
animation, and interviews with participants and eyewitnesses, many of whom were
exposed to radiation, including government and military leaders, scientists,
workers, journalists, doctors, and Pripyat refugees.
According to the THE BATTLE OF CHERNOBYL documentary filmmakers:
More than 200 people died or were seriously injured by radiation exposure
immediately after the explosion. 161,000 people had to be evacuated from a
30 kilometer radius of the reactor and 25,000 square km of land were
contaminated. As time went on millions of people suffered radiation related
health problems such as leukemia and thyroid cancer and around 4,000 people
have died as a result of the long-term effects of the accident.
Nobody was prepared for such a crisis. For the next seven months, 500,000
men will wage hand-to-hand combat with an invisible enemy – a ruthless
battle that has gone unsung, which claimed thousands of unnamed and now
almost forgotten heroes. Yet, it is thanks to these men that the worst was
avoided; a second explosion, ten times more powerful than Hiroshima which
would have wiped out more than half of Europe.
This was kept secret for twenty years by the Soviets and the West alike.
Advertisement
*Fukushima syndrome to begin*
Consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe continue today. Thousands of disabled
survivors suffering from the "Chernobyl syndrome" of radiation-related
illnesses, and the urgent need to replace the hastily-constructed and now
crumbling sarcophagus over the still-contaminated reactor.
Despite soothing words from nuclear energy industry promoters in the ongoing
Fukushima nuclear catastrophe, "each update has signalled fresh disaster and
even more drastic warnings" writes David Donovan.
Over the past week, Radioactive Iodine-131 in rainwater sampled near San
Francisco was over 18,000 times above federal drinking water standards; Idaho,
Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts rainwater samples showed
Iodine-131 up to 181 times above normal; and Iodine-131 has also been found in
milk in the U.S.
Asked whether the Fukushima Japan disaster could be, say, 30 times worse than
Chernobyl, Dr Caldicott said it could be even most catastrophic than that.
Lendman wrote that in a personal email, environmental researcher Dr. Ilya
Perlingieri explained the dangers of Japan dumping thousands of tons of
radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean:
"We are all in grave danger! This was insanity! This radioactive water will
come here (to America). There is no question about that. The currents will
bring it to the west coast and contaminate the entire area: beaches and all
sealife between the coast and Japan. What evaporates naturally will then
come on the air currents around the rest of the US and then the rest of the
planet!"
*Solutions*
Sustaining nuclear energy is a human rights violation. The entire nuclear fuel
chain involves releasing radioactivity, contaminating the environment, and
damaging human health.
"Most often, communities of color, indigenous peoples or those of low-income are
targeted to bear the brunt of these impacts, particularly the damaging health
and environmental effects of uranium mining," states Beyond Nuclear.
The nuclear power industry inevitably violates human rights and the solutions
involve halting these violations.
While anti-nuclear campaigner Dr Helen Caldicott says Fukushima could spell the
end of the nuclear industry worldwide, further public action is required to
counter the stranglehold of nuclear lobbyists and the industry insiders who
financially benefit from it.
Dr. Caldicott recently stated that the human rights violation involved in a
nuclear disaster has been been needed to stop the nuclear madness.
“I have said before, unfortunately, the only thing that is capable of stopping
this wicked industry is a major catastrophe, and it now looks like this may be it.”
Rather than spending trillions of dollars on unproved wars and bailing out banks
that made unwise gambles, money could be spent on clean renewable energy that
would solve the energy problem, create jobs, increase tax revenue, and end the
need for wars for oil. These were all been presented in the multi-award-winning
movie, /*FUEL PhysOrg.com
reports that
the new research shows it is possible and affordable for the world to achieve
100 percent renewable energy by 2030 - if there is the political will to strive
for this goal.
Achieving 100 percent renewable energy would mean building approximately four
million 5 MW wind turbines, 1.7 billion 3 kW roof-mounted solar photovoltaic
systems, and 90,000 300 MW solar power plants.
The public is urged to petition to "End Nuclear Industry Subsidies." Only days
before the Japanese earthquake, nuclear power company Duke Energy extended a $10
million loan to Obama’s re-election convention committee. Duke Energy operates
three nuclear plants and is negotiating with federal officials on subsidies to
build a fourth.
President Obama needs to reject the $10 million loan from Duke Energy according
to renewable energy and human rights defenders. They are urging the public to
sign the petition for Obama to call for an immediate review of the safety
measures at each of the more than 100 nuclear reactors in the United States at:
http://tinyurl.com/69qecbu.
"The nuclear emergency in Japan is an unfortunate reminder that nuclear
power is inherently dangerous. Instead of sinking billions of dollars more
into this fatally flawed technology, we must deploy safe and clean energy
alternatives."
While NRC continues looking the other way on reactor safety concerns and
routinely renews licenses for aging reactors, the White House is pushing for
even more money for toxic loan guarantees for new reactors.
Beyond Nuclear reports this week:
"The latest news is that the Obama administration wants to triple the
already $18.5 billion appropriated for new reactors. That's a cool $54.5
billion, a tab that will end up being paid by us, American taxpayers. We
can't let this happen. Please help prevent this needless and obscene giveaway."
Act now to stop President Obama from using American taxpayer money to foster
nuclear energy. / > (See:
www.beyondnuclear.org/actnow/
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