Fukushima on the Loose: Radioactivity All Around

A couple of days ago, the guys at FKN NEWZ uploaded this video, published on Oct 19, 2012 by MsMilkytheclown1. In fact, quite some time ago, Thom Hartmann and also Greg Palast separately reported on the issues raised by the FKN NEWS crew, and I posted these items on my blog.[1]

But, there is more. The Russian propaganda machine that is RT came out with this report: ‘TEPCO, operator of the Fukushima nuclear facility, failed to confirm that radiation leaks at the plant had fully stopped. This came after a US report that irradiated fish are still being caught off the coast of Japan following the 2011 meltdown. The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) told journalists Friday [, 24 October] they could not confirm that radiation had stopped leaking from the nuclear power plant struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Still, they said that radiation levels in the seawater and seabed soil around the plant were declining. A recent article in the academic journal Science revealed that 40 percent of bottom-dwelling marine species in the area show cesium-134 and 137 levels that are still higher than normal. “The numbers aren’t going down. Oceans usually cause the concentrations to decrease if the spigot is turned off,” Ken Buesseler, study author and senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution told the Associated Press. “There has to be somewhere they’re picking up the cesium. Option one is the seafloor is the source of the continued contamination. The other source could be the reactors themselves,” Buesseler added. Radioactive cesium is a human-made radioactive isotope produced through nuclear fission of the element cesium. It has a half-life of 30 years, making it extremely toxic. TEPCO confirmed that the radioactive water used to cool the plant’s reactors leaked into the ocean several times, most recently in April. The plant is struggling to find space to store the tens of thousands of tons of highly contaminated water used to cool the broken reactors and prevent it from a meltdown. The company managed to collect the water used to cool the spent fuel rods and circulate it back into reactor cores, so the reactors are now being cooled with recycled water. However, groundwater is still seeping through cracks in basement where the reactor and turbine are stored, posing further dangers. With the groundwater seeping in, the volume of decontaminated water collected and stored at the Fukushima Daiichi plant could triple within three years, TEPCO told the AP. The accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant was triggered by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. An enormous tsunami crashed onto the land, resulting in the flash-flooding of four of the plant’s six reactors, shattering the cooling system. This led to a series of oxygen blasts, and a partial meltdown of the reactor core. The incident was the biggest nuclear disaster in 25 years since the tragedy at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Multiple cases of contamination of air and seawater by radioactive material have been reported. Over 140,000 people were forced to leave an evacuation area 40 kilometers in diameter around the plant. Most of those people are still living in shelters. Full management of the disaster, including dismantling the reactors, is expected to take around 40 years’.[2]

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[1] “Near Nuclear Disaster in Nebraska, U.S.” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (22 June 2011). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/near-nuclear-disaster-in-nebraska-u-s/; “Fukushima: A Tale of Disasters Expected” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (25 June 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/fukushima-a-tale-of-disasters-expected/.

[2] “Fukushima owner says plant may be leaking radiation into sea” RT (26 Oct 2012). https://rt.com/news/fukushima-leaking-radiation-sea-314/.

Meanwhile in the DPRK: Hyon Song-wol Sings

From Beijing, Sky TV’s Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lisa Holland reports that a “mystery over the identity of a woman seen by the side of the leader of the world’s most reclusive nation may have been solved. South Korean intelligence experts have been poring over images of the young woman pictured with Kim Jong-Un last week. According to the experts, she is Hyon Song-Wol – a pop star who first met Kim Jong-Un a decade ago after he returned from an elite private school in the Swiss city of Berne. But his father Kim Jong-Il, who died last December, reportedly ordered him to end the relationship”.[1]

But now that the Dear Leader has moved on, nothing can stop Kim Jong-Un from finding true love . . . and the object of his affection not only changes his complexion but used to be the vocalist of the Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble (보천보전자악단). And below is one of her greatest hits: The original song title translates into “A Girl In The Saddle Of A Steed (준마처녀),” but has now been rendered as “Excellent Horse-Like Lady” to great global acclaim.

“Our factory comrades say in jest,

Why they tell me I am a virgin on a stallion

After a full day’s work I still have energy left

My skills are truly like lightening they say

They say I am a virgin on a stallion

Yet again today I was the first to leave for work

Apparently my name was in the paper”

On its dedicated website, the DPRK leadership announces to the virtual world that the ‘Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is a genuine workers’ state in which all the people are completely liberated from exploitation and oppression. The workers, peasants, soldiers and intellectuals are the true masters of their destiny and are in a unique position to defend their interests’.[2]  On Sunday, 15 July, the Korean Central News Agency declared that ‘Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, visited Kyongsang Kindergarten. Smart children presented bunches of fragrant flowers to him, saying “Thank you dear respected General Kim Jong Un very much.” He gently patted them on their cheeks, asking how old they were. He entered the playground, kindly taking them in his arms. “It is nice to see the playground covered with rubber mat”, he said, watching with a broad smile children merrily using amusement facilities: some were competing with each other with their knees bent and others were riding on swing boats, plane-shaped slides, rocket-shaped plane on the lawn. He dropped in at the room dedicated to the history of the kindergarten. He praised the kindergarten for producing many music wonders, mentioning every artiste who learned music at the kindergarten. Watching the children lost in playing, he was greatly satisfied with the good arrangement of the general playground. Looking at Ri Kang Juk, head of the kindergarten, he said he revisited it because it is important to develop pre-school children’s intellectual faculties and he wanted to project her doing her job well. Kyongsang Kindergarten could be modernly spruced up thanks to the help from the related units but it was largely ascribable to her work style. He gave her the highest appreciation by giving an instruction to widely introduce her and generalize her work style. He visited the junior third class to watch the children drawing paintings with crayons and their skills, emphasizing the need to teach them well how to draw so they might acquire ability to observe things and phenomena from childhood. Watching a notice board “Who is more gentle” full of red stars, he noted that using the board is a good educational method suited to the feelings of the children who wish to do more good things than others. He also saw the children of the senior fifth class making a composition entitled “To boast my mother” and smart children dancing in the rhythmic room. Then he dropped in at the physical training room and had a photo taken with the children, taking them in his arms.  At the piano room he was pleased to see the children playing pianos skillfully, saying they were good at finding harmonic intervals. He kindly took the hand of Kim Hyang Suk, head of the department for piano education, who has brought up a lot of juvenile music prodigies, expressing his hope for steady success in her future work. Then he visited the underground wading pool and learned about the temperature of water. He enjoyed a performance given by the children of the kindergarten at the hall. That day he presented Kyongsang Kindergarten with gifts. He had a photo taken with the officials and teachers of the kindergarten. He was accompanied by Jang Song Thaek, member of the Political Bureau of the C.C., the WPK and vice-chairman of the NDC of the DPRK, Ri Jae Il, first vice-department director of the C.C., the WPK, and Pak Chun Hong, vice-department director of the C.C., the WPK’.[3]

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[1] “Kim Jong-Un Companion Believed To Be Pop Star” Sky News (11 July 2012). http://news.sky.com/story/958831/kim-jong-un-companion-believed-to-be-pop-star.

[2] “DPR Of Korea” Official Webpage of the DPR of Korea. http://www.korea-dpr.com/.

[3] “Kim Jong Un Visits Kyongsang Kindergarten” Korean Central News Agency (15 July 2012). http://www.kcna.kp/goHome.do?lang=eng.

Srebrenica, 12-20 July 1995

In July 1995, Serbian journalist Zoran Petrovic filmed the Srebrenica genocide unfolding, and then he attempted to cover up the evidence by cutting out and erasing important scenes.

Everyone remembers the harrowing footage of the Srebrenica massacre shot by Zoran Petrovic, the only cameraman to capture the events on film.

But this week’s fascinating documentary shows that the very worst of his pictures never reached our TV screens. Key scenes from Petrovic’s rushes were ‘lost’ or blacked over, presumably to prevent reprisals. We unearth the lost images, and the completed jigsaw is even more heinous than the already blood-spattered picture. Amazingly, Petrovic has never been interviewed by the War Crimes Tribunal about what he saw. For the first time, his incriminating material is available for scrutiny.

Under the watch of Dutchbat soldiers, queues of Muslim men and women are separated by one of General Mladic’s men. They are familiar images, broadcast by TV stations around the world in the wake of the Srebrenica massacre. The War Crimes Tribunal inThe Hagueused Zoran Petrovic’s tape to secure several prosecutions for the massacres in the early 1990s and to investigate the involvement of Dutch peacekeepers Dutchbat.

But the footage shot by Petrovic appears to be incomplete. There is only one 60 minute tape for two days of filming, and throughout the rushes there are black gaps, cutting right through scenes and camera movements. Petrovic insists he was told to black over those sections by officious checkpoint guards on the roadside: “Everyone wants to be a smart guy. I was told — ‘Don’t film these guys. You erase this’”.

But Jean René Ruez, the man charged with analysing film evidence for the War Crimes Tribunal is adamant Petrovic is lying: “The cuts were done later. Sure”. Journalist John Block agrees. He was granted access to the rushes when they were first aired onBelgrade’s Studio 3 that same day –July 14th 1995. He insists he saw two tapes. He remembers clearly seeing unadulterated shots of piles of bodies — the material now missing from Petrovic’s sole remaining tape. When the BBC called Studio 3 the next day, the incriminating tape was gone, and the other tape was blacked.

A copy of a copy of a copy of the original Studio 3 documentary proves they are right. Although the quality of the footage is poor, there are no gaps. “This is of exceptional importance to the prosecutor” smiles Ruez. “They let you see what the witnesses are talking about. The recordings will help to furnish proof at a future trial of Mladic.”

Among other things — such as the use of German shepherd dogs to hunt Bosnian Muslims and the indiscriminate shelling of refugees — the previously missing pictures show the physical evidence of the Srebrenica massacre. Dead bodies are piled up at the Gravica warehouse. Shooting is clearly audible in the background.

The massacre has long been known about, but until now there has been little hard evidence. Only two survivors from over 1000 refugees seeking shelter in the warehouse survived to give testimony — the only witnesses to talk of a massacre. Both were Bosnian Muslims. “The witnesses are from warring factions” explains Ruez, “so you have to be careful what they say. This confirms the testimonies”.

Chief prosecutor at the War Crimes Tribunal Mark Harmon agrees: “It’s very important footage. Pictures do not lie. This is a very graphic image confirming the massacres took place. It’s important to enlighten the public in Srpska if there is going to be any kind of reconciliation”.

So far, the Yugoslavia Tribunal has never spoken to cameraman Zoran Petrovic. He still denies he was part of any cover-up operation and even offers our journalist a “last warning” when pressed. But these shocking new images had certainly been covered up by someone and their disappearance has hampered moves towards justice and reconciliation. Their discovery is a key step in helping bring Yugoslavia closer to closure.

Director: Gert Corba

IKON[1]

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[1] “Serbian independent media? – Srebrenica Part 1 of 2” YouTube (13 December 2010). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxpxUsuTB0k&feature=related; see also, http://www.BosniaFacts.info/.

Octomom Update

Nadya Suleman the ‘octomom’ has a porn movie coming out, despite the fact that she swore she would never make an adult film for money (7 May 2012).

Toulouse Shooting: Sarko Wins!!!

France has just gone through a serious episode of domestic terrorism in the southern city of Toulouse, and Sarko could not be any happier now. From the scene of the crime, the Guardian’s Kim Willsher reports that the “24-year-old petty thief who killed three Jewish children and their teacher had accumulated a lethal arsenal and lived a life at odds with his unemployed status. How could this have happened under the nose of the intelligence services?”, adding that the atrocity “might never have happened, it emerged this weekend, if the Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah had murdered his original target last Monday [, 19 March]. Before being killed in a shootout at his apartment, Merah told police he did not set out to slaughter his victims at a school in the southern French city but had ‘improvised’ after missing a chance to kill a French soldier. The school murders, following Merah’s previous execution-style killing of three soldiers who served in Afghanistan, have traumatised France ahead of presidential elections”.[1] 

In The New York Times, Isabel Kershner observes that the “bodies of Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, a religious instructor at the school; his two sons, Arye, 6, and Gabriel, 3; and Miriam Monsonego, 8, the daughter of the school’s principal, were flown overnight from France [to Israel, to be buried there]. Rabbi Sandler was a French citizen; the three children had dual French-Israeli nationality. Before the burials, mourners packed into a sun-drenched courtyard, many of them men wearing the black clothes of ultra-Orthodoxy. French and Israeli dignitaries, including the French foreign minister, Alain Juppé, joined relatives of the victims there in eulogizing the innocents, their bodies wrapped in prayer shawls and a velvet cloth and laid out on stretchers before the small podium”.[2]

An apparently lone Muslim terrorist suspect killing ‘Jewish innocents’, is it any wonder that Merah invoked the name of the multi-headed beast so feared in the, that “catch-all ghost entity”, using Escobar’s descriptive phrase. Willsher explains that “Merah . . .claimed to be linked to an al-Qaida fringe group, [and had] had fooled investigators after being summoned to explain visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan in November [2011]. The 23-year-old claimed he had gone on holiday to find a bride and showed them tourist snaps he had loaded on to a pen drive to verify his story. Once released, Merah set about collecting an arsenal of weapons he later used in his killing spree, including three .45 Colt handguns, an Uzi and a pump-action shotgun”.[3]  Merah clearly wanted to appear like a real terrorist, rather than as a deranged killer on a rampage. Much more important from a political point of view, however, as explained by Willsher, is the fact that the “killings have also transformed the lead-up to April’s presidential election first round. Before Toulouse, Socialist candidate François Hollande was leading the majority of polls to become the next president of France. The predicted margin between Hollande and incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy was narrow for the first round on 22 April, but all surveys gave Hollande a clear majority in the second round a fortnight later”.[4]  But not anymore, after “Toulouse, Super Sarkozy, the ‘president protector’ – as one analyst described him – is back. Crime and security are Sarkozy’s speciality. Last week’s stand-off between police and Merah sparked memories of France’s longest ever siege when in 1993 a man took children hostage at a kindergarten in the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, where Sarkozy was mayor. He persuaded the assailant, who was later shot dead by police, to release several children, and most of France still remembers the photographs of Sarkozy leading them out of the school”.[5]

So, why did Mohamed Merah decide to go about his business at this precise moment in time???  Was he hoping to boost Sarko’s profile so that France would continue its aggressive policy against Islamic countries and Muslim (and other) immigrants???  Or, was it pure happenstance that the young man lost his marbles at this politically sensitive time in France??? A Tunisian-born man named Ali, also resident in Toulouse, posed the following rhetorical question, as documented by Willsher: “Will this change the election? It changes everything 100%. And it could not have come at a better time for Nicolas Sarkozy. The sad thing is that he was the one dividing the country by turning towards the far right before this happened”.[6]  Islamophobia and anti-semitism are no uneasy bedfellows, whereas Islamic anti-semitism all but strengthens prevailing Islamophobia. It seems that Satko must be laughing all the way to the ballot box now . . . Willsher points out that in “the immediate aftermath of the Toulouse shootings, Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to introduce new legislation making it illegal to look at websites encouraging terrorism and to travel abroad for terrorism training”.[7]  The news agency Reuters’ John Irish and Nicholas Vinocur report on 23 March that ‘France’s presidential election race resumes on Friday [following Thursday’s shooting], irrevocably altered by the killing of an al Qaeda-inspired gunman whose murders have shifted the political debate in favor of incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy’.[8]

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[1] Kim Willsher, “Toulouse shooting: failure to find first target led assassin to Jewish school” The Guardian (24 March 2012). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/24/toulouse-shootings-assassin-jewish-school?newsfeed=true.

[2] Isabel Kershner, “Toulouse Victims Buried in Israel” The New York Times (21 March 2012). http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/22/world/middleeast/toulouse-shooting-victims-buried-in-israel.html.

[3] Kim Willsher, “Toulouse shooting: failure to find first target led assassin to Jewish school”.

[4] Kim Willsher, “Toulouse shooting: failure to find first target led assassin to Jewish school”.

[5] Kim Willsher, “Toulouse shooting: failure to find first target led assassin to Jewish school”.

[6] Kim Willsher, “Toulouse shooting: failure to find first target led assassin to Jewish school”.

[7] Kim Willsher, “Toulouse shooting: failure to find first target led assassin to Jewish school”.

[8] John Irish and Nicholas Vinocur, “France to resume election race after gunman’s death” Reuters (23 March 2012). http://news.yahoo.com/france-resume-election-race-gunmans-death-103206273.html.

The Bro Code: How Contemporary Culture Creates Sexist Men

In The Bro Code, filmmaker Thomas Keith takes aim at the forces in male culture that condition boys and men to dehumanize and disrespect women. Keith breaks down a range of contemporary media forms that are saturated with sexism — movies and music videos that glamorize misogyny; pornography that trades in the brutalization of women; comedy routines that make fun of sexual assault; and a slate of men’s magazines and cable TV shows whose sole purpose is to revel in reactionary myths of American manhood. The message he uncovers in virtually every corner of our entertainment culture is clear: It’s not only normal — but cool — for boys and men to control and humiliate women. By showing how there’s nothing natural or inevitable about this mentality, and by setting it against the terrible reality of men’s violence against women in the real world, The Bro Code challenges young people to step up and fight back against the idea that being a real man means disrespecting women. Featuring interviews with Michael Kimmel, Robert Jensen, Shira Tarrant, J.W. Wiley, Douglas Rushkoff, Eric Anderson, and Neal King (4 Jan 2012).