Nuclear Flash Points

This poem below is dedicated to the people of Japan. May this accident mark the last of the nuclear industry and the beginning of a common sense. As the real fall out is a reality check.

Dr Helen Caldicott, the anti-nuclear activist, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and is founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, founder Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament, co-founder STAR foundation (Standing for Truth), President Nuclear Policy Research Institute (current). She is a formidable person and an experienced voice in nuclear matters.

I drove 2,000km (round trip) on a hunch to meet her. She shook my hand and took me into the kitchen. She indicated to me that she saw the problem as men, particularly scientists attempting to play god with the nuclear gene. She asserted that they were projecting some form of creation myth that gave them power over life and death. At the time I was uncertain about this as in my own mind I was trying to be politically correct and not focus on men. However, after some reflection and some future interviews with peace makers I came to see the socialisation of males in the violence mythology problematic. Moreover, I think on some sub-conscious level she has a point. There is a fascination with this type of awesome power yet its destructive capacity leaves you in disbelief and you can’t change your mind once it is unleashed.

When I was teaching peace and nonviolence, I showed the children a nuclear explosion, the classroom always went quiet as they took this issue very seriously. These are Grade 5’s and 6’s. Even children can see how frightening these weapons are. In a loving world they would not exist.

I remember being in France on a train heading to Italy. I recall doing a double take as the train passed a nuclear reactor, on it was a naked new born baby. I was stunned to see a new life painted on a nuclear reactor when those exposed to radiation end up with deformaties. I would have changed the picture to depict the reality. Chenobyl is a case in point. I clowned with the kids who had cancer, it was very sad to see their hairless heads and eager smiles, just kids. They were sent to Australia to have recreation to experience some happiness as they were not here for long. Australia has a responsibility and involvement in these tragedies as it is involved in the supply of uranium. It is not like exporting wool, it supplies an industry that is a serious health hazard with half lives of billions of years that just leave you in stunned silence. When does money fade into the background when thinking of human life? At what point does money become irrelevant? I guess when we experience it directly, then it becomes personal. Then we see ourselves in others. It is only then we take action to abolish radioactive materials with 4 billion year half lives that we can ensure the health and security of current and future generations.

Here are some thoughts of Dr. Helen Caldicott on the Fukushima accident (refer http://www.helencaldicott.com/)

Soon after the Fukushima accident last month, I stated publicly that a nuclear event of this size and catastrophic potential could present a medical problem of very large dimensions.

Events have proven this observation to be true despite the nuclear industry’s campaign about the “minimal” health effects of so-called low-level radiation.

That billions of its dollars are at stake if the Fukushima event causes the “nuclear renaissance” to slow down appears to be evident from the industry’s attacks on its critics, even in the face of an unresolved and escalating disaster at the reactor complex at Fukushima.

Proponents of nuclear power – including George Monbiot, who has had a mysterious road-to-Damascus conversion to its supposedly benign effects – accuse me and others who call attention to the potential serious medical consequences of the accident of “cherry-picking” data and overstating the health effects of radiation from the radioactive fuel in the destroyed reactors and their cooling pools.

Yet by reassuring the public that things aren’t too bad, Monbiot and others at best misinform, and at worst misrepresent or distort, the scientific evidence of the harmful effects of radiation exposure – and they play a predictable shoot-the-messenger game in the process.

This poem I felt inspired to write.

MAN-UFACTURING CONSENT

Whistle blowing,
Blowing the whistle,
It is a warning,
To beware,
To take care,
For all is not what it seems,
In the manufacturing of our consent.

There is something in the wind,
It is nuclear active,
It is not alive,
It is the dust that spreads,
The fire,
It is fallout,
It pretends it is creation,
It rearranges the DNA,
Without permission.

The yellow cake,
Sunbaked and hard,
Is left lying in the sun,
An export market,
By the tonne.

It has a bitter taste,
That forms in my mouth,
In realisation,
That the truth is obscured,
To find it you have to mine,
Bury deeply your fears,
For the truth will carrying you on a river of tears,
As it returns to resurface,
In the pain of loss.

I hear your voice,
You spoke to me,
Told me your career trained you for death,
To kill without compassion,
To explode munitions was the fashion,
Sent a thrill,
A shock wave,
But are we waving goodbye,
To life as we know it.

I feel depleted,
Uranium is completed,
In the fuel cycle,
The waste is discarded,
Some is stored in concrete cells,
A prisoner to the market,
I hear the warning bells,
Another nuclear dump,
Rubbishing the world,
Separation of responsibility,
A crime against humanity,
Is being perpetrated,
By representatives,
Who have a stake,
In power,
It is cloak and dagger,
It is misperception,
It is trickery,
It is the matrix,
But in the end the short term has no quick fix.

Are you listening to nature?
It is your nature to listen?
Are you trusting yourself?
Do you follow your highest thought?
Do you believe what you are taught?
Or do you hear another tune?
Can you feel the message not the words,
Can you see the sky?
Not the birds,
Flying south for exploitation,
North to find a new sensation,
The consumption function,
Is the game we are all play,
It is time to have your say,
To empower,
To re-member,
To fane the ember,
To start a fire,
The passion to blaze new trails,
You cannot fail,
When you are alive,
It is time to shine.

You cannot know hot,
Without cold,
You cannot know hate,
Without love,
You cannot know success,
Without failure,
For to feel nothing,
Stagnates the river of life,
So embark on a new journey,
The darkness attracts the light,
For the torch of truth,
Is the gold sifted from joy and love,
The white dove appears unpopular,
But there is a popular uprising.

There is no compromising,
The kernel replaces the colonel,
Independence replaces the colonial,
Self sufficiency displaces co-dependency,
Humans are in their infancy,
Technology has reached a propensity,
To replace human beings.

So retrace the steps,
Shine the light within,
Be peace and truth,
Be joy and happiness,
Let your highest light be your beacon,
To draw others to you at this time,
For it is the responsibility of those who know,
To tell the blind horseman,
On the blind horse,
That he is heading for the abyss,
Yet beyond this scenario,
Is the bliss of dreams,
realised.