Japan and 100th Aniiversary of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire
I wish to write in regards to Japan.
I lived there for a year, and have very strong feelings about the place. First of all, of course, I am very sad that they built more than 50 nuclear power plants there. It is a bunch of rocks in the middle of the Pacific, on a bunch of faults, with volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis! Everybody knows that! This is an example of the short-sightedness of human beings. I heard that there were some people indigenous to California who observed the aftermath of the great earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, and they were discussing how now the non-indigenous people would understand that that is not a good place to build houses, much less a whole city. They were very surprised when they learned that the non-indigenous people started to rebuild San Francisco after the earthquake!
Somebody made the decisions to build those power plants in Japan. Maybe it was based on providing comfortable living conditions which electricity provides. And maybe it was about generating electricity for industrial purposes (making stuff). But it should have been clear to the decision-makers that sooner or later a volcano/earthquake/tsunami would hit, and thousands if not millions of people would be in danger if not killed. Somebody must have decided that that was an ACCEPTABLE RISK. (Did you ever hear that song? I will sing it for you if you want).
Um, people here in Europe are seriously talking about getting exposed to radiation from the Fukushima power plant. People here are starting to seriously think about the hundreds of power plants in Europe. The biggest one is called Cattenom, and it is a couple miles from the border of Luxembourg. If that one blows, the tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is toast. I am very very sad about the suffering in Japan. However, many people are treating it like a wake-up call. I hear that they are starting to shut down nuclear power plants in Germany! Like 10 of them I think! If the horrible tragedy in Japan leads to the prevention of hundreds of similar tragedies, maybe those people are not suffering in vain.
I hope nuclear bombs will never be used on human beings ever again. But the USA did drop two of them on innocent civilians, also in Japan. That horrible tragedy must remain as a lesson to all people in the future.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the "Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire". Did you hear about that? It was exactly 100 years ago today, in New York City. They were producing clothing (again, making stuff), and a fire broke out, but there was no way for the workers (mostly or all women) to get out of the buildings, and 146 died, including two 14 year old girls. Actually the details are too horrible to consider, but the fact is that after that fire, a lot of new laws and regulations were made to protect workers, and it was like a turning point in the history of workers' rights. I hope the recent disaster in Japan is a similar turning point in the history of nuclear power and weapons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
I hope that you are healthy and happy.
Love
Dharm
I lived there for a year, and have very strong feelings about the place. First of all, of course, I am very sad that they built more than 50 nuclear power plants there. It is a bunch of rocks in the middle of the Pacific, on a bunch of faults, with volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis! Everybody knows that! This is an example of the short-sightedness of human beings. I heard that there were some people indigenous to California who observed the aftermath of the great earthquake of 1906 in San Francisco, and they were discussing how now the non-indigenous people would understand that that is not a good place to build houses, much less a whole city. They were very surprised when they learned that the non-indigenous people started to rebuild San Francisco after the earthquake!
Somebody made the decisions to build those power plants in Japan. Maybe it was based on providing comfortable living conditions which electricity provides. And maybe it was about generating electricity for industrial purposes (making stuff). But it should have been clear to the decision-makers that sooner or later a volcano/earthquake/tsunami would hit, and thousands if not millions of people would be in danger if not killed. Somebody must have decided that that was an ACCEPTABLE RISK. (Did you ever hear that song? I will sing it for you if you want).
Um, people here in Europe are seriously talking about getting exposed to radiation from the Fukushima power plant. People here are starting to seriously think about the hundreds of power plants in Europe. The biggest one is called Cattenom, and it is a couple miles from the border of Luxembourg. If that one blows, the tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is toast. I am very very sad about the suffering in Japan. However, many people are treating it like a wake-up call. I hear that they are starting to shut down nuclear power plants in Germany! Like 10 of them I think! If the horrible tragedy in Japan leads to the prevention of hundreds of similar tragedies, maybe those people are not suffering in vain.
I hope nuclear bombs will never be used on human beings ever again. But the USA did drop two of them on innocent civilians, also in Japan. That horrible tragedy must remain as a lesson to all people in the future.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the "Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire". Did you hear about that? It was exactly 100 years ago today, in New York City. They were producing clothing (again, making stuff), and a fire broke out, but there was no way for the workers (mostly or all women) to get out of the buildings, and 146 died, including two 14 year old girls. Actually the details are too horrible to consider, but the fact is that after that fire, a lot of new laws and regulations were made to protect workers, and it was like a turning point in the history of workers' rights. I hope the recent disaster in Japan is a similar turning point in the history of nuclear power and weapons.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
I hope that you are healthy and happy.
Love
Dharm