Fukushima workers' slave conditions, deaths, accidents...
Yesterday, Ex-SKF echoed the reasons why the mysterious Fukushima worker who appeared before the only public camera in the destroyed nuclear power plant, did that. As he has admitted, he did so to denounce the harsh conditions of workers in the destroyed plant, specially the lack of time for rest and the fact that the Yakuza (mafia) has been pressing hard or even just capturing like slaves people to be sent to work in Fukushima Dai Ichi. He also denounces the labyrinth of contractors and subcontractors, the blank contracts and in general the bad working conditions.
In addition it has been known today (EneNews, Ex-SKF, Fukushima Diary) that yet another worker at the destroyed facility has died (3rd one) and also that workers were dosed with plutonium in an accident in which a vial containing the dangerous material fell to the ground and broke (EneNews).
Update: some scary info on how the worker was exposed and died and how the authorities manipulate the radiation info with deadly effects at Fukushima Diary.
Update: some scary info on how the worker was exposed and died and how the authorities manipulate the radiation info with deadly effects at Fukushima Diary.
Pollen will transport radiation all around in Spring
In a related matter, a worker has asked people to abandon Japan before Spring because then all the radioactive material will be scattered within pollen from cedars and other trees in the area (Fukushima Diary, EneNews).
Official radiation limit to be raised x20
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| click to expand |
Instead of facing the facts, the Japanese government (they'd be better off without one, sincerely) keeps trying to hide them. For that reason they want to raise the official radiation limit from 1 mSv/year (determined by the World Health Organization) to 20 mS/year (the limit for nuclear workers in the USA).
Using the radiation map to the right (compiled by Prof. Hayakawa and concordant with official data), this means that the area of "illegal" radiation exposure (now all colored areas) would be reduced to the core zone above 2.5 micro-Sv/hr (middle orange to red areas). Even with this arbitrary and irresponsible 'correction' most of Fukushima Prefecture would still need to be evacuated (and is not).
For the record: just two X-rays in pregnancy double the chances of cancer for the fetus (EneNews). So you know when brainless nuclear apologists tell the X-ray nonsense: X-rays are somewhat dangerous and extreme precautions are normally taken with them.
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Other news from around the World:
USA: Occupy Wall Street (and all other streets)
Occupy Wall Street movement grows ··> videos at PO: largest march, spreading through USA, Occupy Houston, Occupy St. Louis, Occupy Tampa,
Washington's Blog mentions that half (50%, 1/2) of all households in the USA receives government assistance and yet one third (33%, 1/3) are just one paycheck away from total bankruptcy. So good for the American Dream. Food stamps have replaced soup kitchens (charity distribution of free food) making the problem of extreme poverty in the World's most powerful country and one of the wealthiest ones less painfully obvious but not less real.
George Washington also reports on how NY police beat again protesters today (incl. videos).
And it's not just hipsters and workers and other commoners who have taken the streets of the imperial heartland, we have seen how Hollywood celebrities (Sarandon, Moore) and Nobel Prize economists (Stiglitz) have joined them. One of these unexpected revolutionaries is Matt Stoller who tells us about his first hand experience in Zuccotti Park.
No evidence of terrorism against US citizen Anwar Al Awlaki, murdered by US troops in Yemen ··> Uruknet.
Honduras: the massacres continue
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| In spite of Capitalist terror, the Honduran People keeps fighting |
Yesterday two more people were shot down in Bajo Aguán: Pedro Alfredo Matamoros Bonilla y Heder Jael Sánchez Cruz, farmers organized in the MUCA. The victims survived the shooting but are in hospital.
They were shot from the San Isidro state, property of terrorist landowner Miguel Facussé Barjum.
Only in these last two weeks two people have been killed and other three have barely survived assassination attempts. Also one person suffered a kidnap attempt and a farmer community was violently evicted.
Palestine: Prisoners in hunger strike
A central element of the colonial-genocidal Apartheid regime under the name of Israel consists in imprisoning native Palestinians, either in their own villages, towns, neighborhoods or refugee camps or in the extreme Zionist prisons.
Some 9000 Palestinians are in this last situation, often without trial or even charges that matter at all. In response to the extremely harsh conditions, lack of trials or any guarantees, many have begun a hunger strike.
In turn the colonialist forces have increased the repression trying to break them.
I was at the anti-Wall Street protest in Olympia, WA today. It was small and upbeat. The general mood was anti-capitalist but not really focused on any one issue. The protests in Seattle was bigger and more committed. The protest in Portland, OR was quite large. I heard the number 4,000 on the radio. This is really just getting started, and it is hard to tell where it will end up.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that. I doubt this alone will generate any revolution of any sort but it is very important because the US People had been way too sheepish and sliced in individualities (more than most other peoples) and this is a true waking up (maybe it begun in Wisconsin some months ago). A much needed one.
ReplyDeleteHowever, for what I can see from the Spanish protests of this Spring, there's a serious risk of retraction precisely because of the lack of clear goals and organization. It can be seed for future more specific movements and it's not wasted time in any way in any case: taking conscience is a fundamental part of making things change.