Research on Fukushima worth sharing

As I write, there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of children who have been robbed of their innocence and right to a full, healthy life. Neither they nor their parents have committed a crime, yet they are punished for simply being alive in the wrong place at the wrong time.

This is the raw truth, the stripped down reality of Fukushima.

We owe it to these children to inform ourselves to the best of our ability so that if our paths ever cross with theirs we are, at least, able to offer the compassion they, and those who love them, will need to face their futures.

Global Research is a Montreal based independent research and media organization which provides simple, scientific and informative material on many important issues affecting us today. GR has released an ebook, a compilation of data on Fukushima and its impact, not just on the Japanese, but on the world as a whole, wherever the trade winds blow and the oceans flow.

The ebook is called Fukushima: A Nuclear War without a War: The Unspoken Crisis of Worldwide Nuclear Radiation.

I strongly suggest that this be read and kept as reference.

The authors invite sharing.

Censorship trivia

Or, these things too shall pass.

The recent furor about Internet censorship and copyright have left many roaringly indignant, including me.

Then I began to think about the good old censorship times in Nationalist South Africa.

• The time when the censorship board banned Black Beauty because they thought the book was about an African prostitute - only to learn later that the story was about a horse.
• The time when pornography and dirty literature were forbidden in the country but freely available in neighboring states, creating a flood of South African tourists who boosted teetering African economies.
• The time when communist history was not taught in schools, but available for perusal in books on world history available in local bookshops.
• The time when banned materials could be accessed by anyone who signed a single-page access form at the national repository.
• The time when overseas holidays meant filling in the blanks left by the shortfall in education and censorship, not mindless drinking sprees on South American beaches.

There have been other times in history when books were dragged off shelves in libraries and private homes, and burned on the street. When cultural centers were ransacked. When life seemed hopeless and intellectualism dead.

After each Dark Age there is rebirth.

I have a picture of a Chinese proverb hanging over my desk in the office which reads, "Pen and sword in accord."

The intended meaning is to keep life in balance, but a global, more historical interpretation can also refer to the cycle of mind vs body. That which we could become vs that which we prefer to be.

We are a species in constant circular motion, destined always to defeat itself by beating the higher self into a bloody pulp - just to see what it looks like.

There is no safe level of radiation exposure

Cancer Risk To Young Children Near Fukushima Daiichi Underestimated from Fairewinds Energy Education on Vimeo.

Compassion

One's life has value as long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion. Simone de Beauvoir.

Heroes, criminals and victims of 2011

Heroes for 2011

My heroes for 2011 are Arnie and Maggie Gundersen of Fairewinds Associates who have gone over and beyond their professional mandate, and at personal cost to themselves, to ensure that information about Fukushima is placed in the public arena.

Criminals of 2011

Although there is no international law covering peace time genocide there should be. My candidates, if ever this law is put in place, are the Japanese government and TEPCO.

Victims of 2011

Absolutely, the children of Japan and then of the Northern Hemisphere.

A living, breathing child is the potential of the future, voiceless, unprotected and vulnerable.

Sadly, the most silent in this catastrophe are those who claim that they are right for lifers. If they truly were pro life then the outcry against the deliberate and conscienceless destruction of the innocent would have filled the vacuum of protest in the wake of Fukushima.

The children remain undefended.

Closing 2011 opening 2012

December 21, 2012, is predicted to be the end of life on Earth. It certainly seems that the majority, including the body politic and big business, believe this to be true because everyone is acting as if there is no tomorrow.

For myself, I doubt seriously that there is any universal design which will bring our species to a close. I do not believe that we will be lucky enough to be destroyed by a giant red planet lurking behind the sun, but 2012 will bring to an end many of the things we have taken for granted up until now.

We are likely to spiral into the abyss of 2012 carrying all the familiar baggage, and to enter 2013 lesser than we are now, bereft of health, wealth and happiness. If that qualifies for an end of world experience, then, yes, the scryers are right.

Einstein, I think, said that we will go out with a whimper not a bang, and I tend to go with this statement.

A bang would be something glorious, a thing of legend. As a species we don't deserve to be immortalized even in the untold story. With the way we treat each other we deserve to be chased into a corner whimpering and fearful, and left there to rot.

No species responsible for acts of gross stupidity like Fukushima, or for incomprehensible acts of aggression like war, animal abuse and bullying, deserves to be remembered.

Killing the future one child at a time

40 Years to decommission Fukushima

40 Years to decommission Fukushima means in your lifetime, that of your child's, and possibly your grandchild's, the oceans and land in both hemispheres will be void of healthy foods and drinking water.

40 years means that no country's medical scheme will be able to cover the debilitating illnesses which will be common place, and deformity will become the norm.

40 years means that the Occupy movement is redundant because long before 40 years is up we will be equal - we will all be part of a new mutant species incapable of being occupied or occupying.

40 years makes the scientific and political dream of a human colony on another planet science fiction, because no system, not even a hermetically sealed one, maintains itself indefinitely, and the seed like its protectors and donors will corrupt.

40 years means that conspiracy theorists and world enders are trumped at the finish line. A hidden red planet which sucks the life off Earth, or a meteor devastation, or a super volcano will be a blessing, a quick end to a burdened body and mind.

40 years is probably closer to the truth than the Japanese authorities have ever come, but the news is a non-event, as if we are already drugged to the reality around us. We are like sheep to slaughter, unseeing and uncaring that in 40 years we may momentarily wake and ask, "Why did we not react? Why did we not respond to save ourselves from this?"

The above post is based on http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20111215_04.html - NHK World release dated December 15, 2011.

Teach your daughters to sing in silence

In her vision the old woman saw armies ranked against her Mistress, marching in lines one beside, one behind the other. Her heart faltered, stopped and beat again.

Her Mistress bent over her saying:
Daughter, my star is setting.  I too have dreamed your dream and felt the sun upon my limbs at midday.  But even in my decline I am powerful.

Teach your daughters to sing in silence.  Teach them to look for me beneath the waves at sunset so that when my star rises they shall be ready.

I will join you on the sands and offer prayers of praise for your souls, the keepers of my name, the faithful who have returned to the great waters.

From The Sybil
This allegory comes from A Woman's Book Of Allegory and uses goddess mythology to alert women to the fact that the destructive present can be overcome by inner song. 
When I speak of goddess mythology I mean that literally, not the so-called goddess mythology invented by the cosmetic industry. The allegory is written for all women who feel silenced by the destructive energies of our time, and tells the story of the last oracle of a dying priestess.
I use the concept of singing in silence not as being mute, but as singing regardless of being heard or not, because all song is universal resonance. Nor do I differentiate between songs. That is the choice of the individual woman.
Sing of trees, if you must. Sing of seas. Sing of injustice or in naive ignorance. Just find a song and sing. This is the message of the allegory.

The difference between a skeptic and a cynic

The cycle of life: 1900 - 1950 - 2011
Public domain photo

A skeptic believes there is an argument to be won.

A cynic knows there isn't.

Crone power

While on a visit to the Museum of London I was drawn to the archaeological remains of a woman displayed in the same room as a crystal skull.

Other visitors were drawn to the crystal skull like iron shavings to a magnet.  When released from its gaze they wandered from the room, blind to all else, including the bones of the ancient crone.

The metaphor, to me at any rate, was palpable.

Once girl power dwindles women become increasingly invisible.

Old bones, with or without flesh, are trodden underfoot in the scramble to play with something new and shiny.

But there is a reason why women of a certain age around the world have been, and continue to be, burned alive as witches. Their accusers believe they have unholy powers - and they do.

Invisibility is the essence of crone power.

When a woman has nothing more to lose she has everything to fight for.

Oh, and the burning thing?

Doesn't work.

No need to reincarnate.

Each generation of humans recreates this nifty little invisible monster over and over again for itself.

***

Witch nailed down to stop her rising.

The difference between clinging to the past and preserving heritage

Disclaimer: This post is not written as an indictment against the many, many wonderful men on this planet.

Growing up we called them pale males, the vanguard of brut ignorance which ruled our daily lives by bullying, intimidating and, mostly, throwing very public tantrums.

For a brief, very brief, moment in time we seemed to shed these dinosaurs and be on track to prove that our species was better than its inheritance suggested.

But, like all horror movies, we missed the few lurking in the shadows and they have come back to haunt us with renewed energy.

I am older now, a wee bit wiser, and I know that things happen in cycles which are dominated by bad behavior interspersed with wispy spirals of rationality.

I know that we will survive this too, but so much poorer - not only materially but also intellectually.

Heritage is a reminder of what we can be both for the good and the bad. These reminders are embedded in books, documents, artifacts and traditions. When we lose these we lose the memory of how to rejoice in each other, and how to protect ourselves from each other. We lose our civility.

Pale males are hot-wired to cling to the past, but disrespect heritage.

Heritage is a reflection of what they never can be.

The past means something very different to them.

The past is always about what they've lost, or what they perceive is about to be lost to their way of life. And they are easily affronted - quick to use force.

In the end they lose the past anyway.

The tragedy is that in the process of losing what was never real they destroy everything else.

This is the difference between them and us.

This is the difference between clinging to the past and preserving heritage - preserving the future.

The overshadowed past

While walking in the Arboretum in Burlington, I came across this bench which symbolizes the condition of past memory for me - a life gift overshadowed by the present.

The days move on and people no longer care.

The bench also reminds me of something Confucius said: The neglect of Poetry brings stupidity, a neglect of Historical Documents delusion, a neglect of Music profligacy, a neglect of Changes violence, a neglect of Ritual vexatiousness, and a neglect of Spring and Autumn Annals disorder.