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Iran has called on the Libyan nation to prevent foreign countries from taking control of their country.  Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said a review of what some domineering foreign countries have done in the past reveals the true intentions for attacking Libya.  He said those countries seemingly advocate human rights but are in fact […]

Dakar, Senegal (PANA) — Ongoing attacks on Libya by Western forces occurred in defiance of the ongoing efforts by the African Union (AU) to explore the diplomatic option to resolve the crisis in the North African nation. The Western coalition, including the US, UK and France, unleashed a barrage of missiles on Libya starting Saturday, […]

Note that the criminal government of Japan is still advising people outside the 20-km exclusion zone to just use umbrellas, wear raincoats, and wash themselves later if they are worried about the radioactive fallout in the rain. — Ed. Prime Minister Kan Cancels Visits to Disaster Areas “Due to Bad Weather” Asahi Shimbun, 21 March […]

Note that Algeria has backed the Gaddafi forces while Egypt has sided with the rebels in Libya, going so far as to arm them. — Ed. MOSCOW, March 20 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov leaves for the Middle East on Sunday under the conditions of the political crisis in the region and the […]

MOSCOW, March 19 (Itar-Tass) — Moscow has expressed regret over the start of an international operation in Libya, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said. “Moscow regrets the armed action undertaken in Libya by a number of countries with reference to a hastily adopted U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973,” he said on Saturday, March 19. “We […]

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement: Libya: Stop the Aggression The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the aerial bombardment by aircrafts and ship-based missiles on Libya by the Nato forces.  The military strikes by the Nato forces comprising France, Britain and the United States […]

  Iván Lira is a Venezuelan artist.  Cf. “Presidente Morales reiteró su rechazo a intervención militar en Libia” (RNV, 19 March 2011); “Presidente Chávez ratificó llamado al cese al fuego en Libia” (RNV, 19 March 2011); Fidel Castro Ruz, “Certificado de buena conducta” (CubaDebate, 19 March 2011). | Print  

Prabir Purkayastha: If you really look at what is happening, what we have is a historical split between the east and the west, which could be the outline of what could emerge at least in the near future, unless Gaddafi has the strength to push his troops right up to Benghazi.  Aijaz Ahmad The real […]

日本の海外イメージはハイテク日本。日本人も同じイメージの日本を抱いていた。外国でも日本でも、日本は特にロボット先進国だと見られていた。確かに日本の技術者は様々なロボットを開発してきた。産業用ロボットから介護ロボットまで、日本のロボット開発と使用の例は限りなく、日本産業の明るい未来の象徴であるかのように見られた時代もあった。 だからこそ、東京電力と日本政府の福島第一原発冷却難航を見た海外のメディアは首を傾げているのだ。「日本は何でロボットを使って核燃料棒を冷却しないのか？　そんなロボットは日本にはないのか？　どうしてなんだ？」そんな疑問が上がっている。 ブログやツイッターでは日本人も原発事故用ロボットの不在について同じような質問や意見を交わしている。ハイテク日本にもかかわらず、緊急作業にあたる労働者や冷却作業にあたる自衛官や緊急消防援助隊員や警視庁機動隊員等が致命的な被曝の危険をおかして働かなければ東日本を救えぬかもしれないというような状態になってしまったのは、一体何故なんだと考えはじめている人もいるようだ。 日本の技術レベルでは原発事故用ロボットはまだ作れないという訳ではないだろう。問題は科学や技術ではなく政治と経済ではないのか。韓国の科学者は原発修理用のロボットをもう開発しているが、一般的には韓国でも使用されていないそうだ。韓国原子力研究所のキム・スンホ氏は、「原発業者は制御不能のシビアアクシデントの可能性を想定したがらないから」 事故用ロボット使用を一般化できるような予算が出ないと言う。福島で今すぐ冷却等に使えるようなロボットが無いのは、短期的利益を社会の安全や労働者の健康より優先するという考え方のせいではないのか。危険だが稀なシビアアクシデントへの対応策の為に大金を投資するのは、企業や官僚の見地だけから見ると「効率的じゃない、費用対効果に見合わない、儲けにならない」。 そんな見地から設計されたから、今回のような「想定外」の大事故に直面すると、日本の原発は従事者を危険に晒すバケツとホースでの放水に頼るしかなくなっている。福島第一原発事故は金のために人間を使い捨てにすることを厭わない制度の象徴と見てもいいだろう。そんな制度は原発より恐ろしい。 古橋芳恵はMRZineの編集長。  | Print

Fidel Castro was right.  The West was planning an attack on a sovereign third world nation imminently: Libya.  Nothing like a good old war against brown and black people in Libya by the West to remind oneself of what Western civilisation is all about.  Many of us who have been politically active since the 1990s […]

Villagers of Kawauchi-mura, located between 20 km and 30 km from the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Power Plant and told by the national government to just stay indoors, defied the instruction and began to collectively organize their own “complete village evacuation,” heading for Koriyama City outside the 30 km-radius zone from the Fukushima 1 reactors.  According […]

At last, the prime minister of Japan faced up to the inconvenient truth.  Had he done so from Day 1, and based his evacuation plan on the possibility of this worst case scenario, it would have been possible to evacuate tens of millions more people, in orderly fashion, than we can now.  The criminal government […]

Carlos Latuff is a Brazilian cartoonist.  Cf. “Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, a Japanese environmental group, has documented previous safety problems and cover-ups by Tepco at the Fukushima reactor complex: cnic.jp/english/newsletter/nit92/nit92articles/nit92coverupdata.html” (Nuclear Information and Resource Service, “Fact Sheet on Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant,” 11 March 2011). | Print

The emergency response headquarters of Fukushima Prefecture announced, on 16 March 2011, that abnormal radioactive elements have been found in Fukushima City tap water: radioactive iodide, at the level of 177 becquerel per kilogram; cesium, 58 becquerel per kilogram.  They are still below the national safety standards for food and water intakes during a nuclear […]

Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato sent an urgent plea for help to Prime Minister Naoto Kan.  This is his plea: Because of the ongoing nuclear emergency, distributors have begun to refuse deliveries to even areas outside the exclusion zone and the zone where residents are advised to stay indoors.  For instance, tanker trucks have turned back […]

Even in the best case scenario available at this point, all workers at Fukushima 1 and 2 battling to save the lives of others must have already suffered great harm to their health, and the harm is about to become greater. — Ed. Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare has determined that the existing […]

“Economic and Financial Policy Minister Kaoru Yosano, at a post-cabinet-meeting press conference on the 15th of March, said this about Japan’s nuclear power policy: ‘There is no alternative energy source if we want to secure a lot of energy.  To support the Japanese economy, we have no choice but to use nuclear power.  The people […]

  As of 11:30 pm EDT Monday 3/14/11 Three of the six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear facility were operating at the time of the earthquake — Units 1, 2, and 3.  The reactors shut down when the earthquake hit, but even after they stopped producing power, the reactor cores were very hot and […]

You have seen the Japanese government’s response to the nuclear disaster unfolding in Japan.  Top officials have been slow to expand the exclusion zone around the Fukushima 1 and 2 Nuclear Power Plants.  They have been less than forthcoming in providing information about exactly in what state the reactors in trouble are.  By failing in […]

抜粋: 核反応が止まった後も崩壊熱つまり膨大な熱が出続けるので、長時間”冷やす”ことをしていないと炉心が溶けてしまう。・・・ 一部で、チェルノブイリ事故の後、”日本の原発は格納容器があるから安全だ”ということがいわれたが、それは間違いだ。シビアアクシデントでは、格納容器も破壊されてしまう。・・・　原子炉の事故では、気象などに左右され高濃度の放射能汚染地帯であるホットスポットが数百キロ先まで点在する。 全文: 「原発事故の恐怖」は『徹底検証：21世紀の全技術』（現代技術史研究会編, ISBN-13: 9784894347632, 藤原書店、2010）からの抄本。原子力資料情報室のウェブサイトからダウンロードできる。市民に緊急情報を伝えるためにMRZineに非営利で再版した。 | Print