The United States: Exposing the hypocrisy of a nation -Yuram Abdullah Weiler
Yuram Abdullah Weiler
09 January 2013
TehranTimes
On the Fourth of July in 1852 in the American city of Rochester, New York before a celebratory crowd that included then president of the United States Millard Fillmore, the abolitionist, former slave and gifted Black orator Fredrick Douglass, in what was perhaps the most caustic speech he ever delivered, spelled out in no uncertain terms what the American Independence day meant to slaves ensnared in the so-called empire of liberty.
“There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States,” declared Fredrick Douglass and this was in 1852! Over the next century and a half, the United States would add a plethora of abominations, unknown to Mr. Douglass, to its ever-expanding list of condemnable practices, including the following to name but a few: being the first nation to attack another with nuclear weapons; invading and occupying sovereign nations in defiance of international law; using depleted uranium weaponry; firebombing civilian population centers with napalm and other incendiary munitions; spraying carcinogenic chemical defoliants; engaging in assassination drone warfare; starving half a million children to death by economic sanctions; overthrowing democratically-elected governments by covert operations; detaining foreign citizens indefinitely in concentration camps; torturing detainees during interrogation and legally justifying the practice; leading the world in incarcerating prisoners and privatizing the prison industry; and spying without cause on peace activists, corporate protestors, Muslims, and other minority groups.
But one need not look any further than the racist American republic’s subjugation of its non-white population to understand the atrocities Mr. Douglass was condemning over 160 years ago. Popular patriotic mythology narrates the saga of the American Civil War (1861-1865) in terms of a group of rebellious racist southern states of the Confederacy clinging tenaciously to the morally repugnant institution of slavery against the collective will of the “progressive” northern states of the Union, however the truth is quite different. Consider, for example, the sacrosanct American national myth every schoolchild knows that the enlightened President Abraham Lincoln “freed the slaves” by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.
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Gov’t apologizes to Fukushima residents for sloppy decontamination work -JT
JAN. 10, 2013 – 01:20PM JST
TOKYO —
Senior Vice Environment Minister Shinji Inoue visited Fukushima on Wednesday and apologized to local residents, following disclosures of sloppy decontamination work.
Inoue said the government will clamp down on contractors cleaning up radioactive material around the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant.
The Environment Ministry hired the nation’s leading contractors to cleanse towns and villages near the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant, starting with four relatively uncontaminated areas.
But the Asahi Shimbun reported last week that dirty soil, leaves and water have been dumped directly into rivers. The paper cited workers as saying they were told to sweep only around radiation monitoring sites.
The head of the ministry’s special office in Fukushima admitted Monday that the authority had confirmed at least two cases in which dirty water was allowed to escape directly into the environment during decontamination work.
Water used to hose down buildings is supposed to be collected and sent for purification before it is released, while soil and leaves should be collected for storage.
Rare photo of A-bomb split cloud found in Hiroshima -JT
JAN. 10, 2013 – 01:20PM JST
Japan Today
TOKYO —
A rare photo showing the mushroom cloud from the Hiroshima atomic bombing in two distinct parts, one above the other, has been discovered in the city, a museum curator said Wednesday.
The black-and-white picture is believed to have been taken about half-an-hour after the bombing on Aug 6, 1945, around 10 kilometers east of the hypocentre.
“The existence of this shot was always known in history books, but this is the first time that the actual print has been discovered,” said a curator at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
“A shot showing the mushroom cloud split into two like this is very rare.”
The photo was found among articles related to the atomic bombing now owned by Honkawa Elementary School in Hiroshima city, she said.
The best-known pictures of the aftermath of the bombing were taken from the air by the US military.
An American B-29 bomber named Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb nicknamed “Little Boy”, turning the western Japanese city into a nuclear inferno and killing an estimated 140,000 in the final chapter of World War II.
Three days later another atomic bomb—“Fat Man”—was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, claiming the lives of another 70,000.
What made the atomic scientists tick?
Character before knowledge, Online Opinion, by Noel Wauchope 10 Jan 13, ” Brighter than a Thousand Suns”, A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists, by Robert Jungk, was first published in 1956. “Why are we interested only in what scientists do, and not in what they are? ” This opening question informs Jungk’s entire book. Jungk conversed with many of the scientists of the early days of atomic research, and through until 1954. With the earliest conversations, Jungk was struck by ”the arbitrary and unnatural separation of scientific research from the reality of the individual personality”. To Jungk, it was this division that ”allowed the creation of such monstrosities as the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb”.
To this day, many nuclear scientists think of their work as purely mathematical and technical. The human results of nuclear weapons are none of their business. Others, especially after Hiroshima, suffered “their great crisis of conscience”……..
From then on, it was a rush to test the bomb, and then use it, before the Japanese surrendered. Three atomic bombs were built. The first – tested: if the test was a failure – it would be reported as a “girl” – if successful a “boy”.
For the second and third bombs, 67 Scientists petitioned the government to warn the Japanese first – a petition that was prevented by General Groves from reaching the White House. Enrico Fermi commented “Don’t bother me with your conscientious scruples! After all, the thing is superb physics!”
The $2 billion Manhattan Project would be seen as a senseless waste of money, if Japan surrendered. Truman authorised the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Oppenheimer explained later that his Interim Committee’s recommendation was “a technical opinion”.
The reactions of the scientists were conflicted……
Robert Jungk’s account of the men, and some women, too, who developed atomic weapons , is set against the background of the big events of the time, with a sympathetic attitude to the pressures and problems that surrounded these people.
From 1951 to 1955 the general attitude of atomic scientists was one of enthusiasm for the hydrogen bomb (1000 times more powerful than the first atomic bomb). Jungk muses on this: “How is one to explain such macabre enthusiasm which had swept away all the earlier scruples and objections to the Super monster?” http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=14554
South Africa – a voice for nuclear weapons sanity
Exiting the nuclear club
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/09/exiting-the-nuclear-club/ The
world believes that Iran, despite its denials, is trying to join the
handful of nations around the world that possess nuclear weapons.
Over the past two decades, that list of countries has been growing,
with nations like Pakistan and India publicly acknowledging their
nuclear weapons.
There has been just one exception.
Just as Nelson Mandela was emerging from prison over 20 years ago to
lead South Africa out of the wilderness of racial hatred, his country
was in the midst of another change that could be a model for the rest
of the world.
By 1991, the Rainbow Nation had become the only country to dismantle
and destroy its own nuclear arsenal. That decision, along with the end
of apartheid, helped restore South Africa’s international legitimacy.
It also made the country a leading voice for nuclear sanity.
Today, South Africa’s weapons-grade uranium left over from the
apartheid era is being turned into medical isotopes that can detect
cancer and other diseases.
Swords into plowshares.
Alcoholism among nuclear submarine staff led to murder
Police alarm at ‘routine’ binge-drinking on nuclear submarine where
murdered shot officer, Telegraph, 9 Jan 13
Police investigating a naval rating who shot dead an officer onboard a
submarine found the 20 pints he consumed beforehand was not unsual and
“significant” numbers of the crew used to get “drunk out of their
minds”. Continue reading
Court puts Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the spot, about public participation
“Now the burden isn’t on the public to show why they need to be part of the exemption process,’’
“The burden is on the N.R.C. to show why they shouldn’t be.
Court Seeks More Public Input on Nuclear Safety, NYT, By MATTHEW L. WALD, 9 Jan 13 A federal appeals court has ruled that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must either allow more public participation in its decisions about fire safety at the Indian Point 3 nuclear reactor or to show why such input is impractical or inappropriate.
A lawsuit brought by Richard L. Brodsky a former 
New York State assemblyman and opponent of Indian Point, involves exemptions granted by the commission from compliance with some fire regulations. Like many reactors around the country, Indian Point installed a fire retardant called Hemyc around critical electric cables in the 1980s to meet a rule that the cables had to be safe from fire for one hour. But the material turned out to be nowhere near as fire-resistant as advertised. Continue reading
NASA explores stratosphere to learn effects of the warming planet Earth
NASA Chases Climate Change Clues Into The Stratosphere NASA, 9 Jan
13, WASHINGTON — Starting this month, NASA will send a remotely
piloted research aircraft as high as 65,000 feet over the tropical
Pacific Ocean to probe unexplored regions of the upper atmosphere for
answers to how a warming climate is changing Earth. Continue reading
The Western lifestyle is not our only choice, we can change
the visionary realm of the Aborigines represents one of the great experiments in human thought
Studies of the human genome leave no doubt that the genetic endowment of humanity is a single continuum. Race is a fiction. We are all cut from the same genetic cloth, all descendants of a relatively small number of individuals who walked out of Africa some 60,000 years ago and then, on a journey that lasted 40,000 years, some 2,500 generations carried the human spirit to every corner of the habitable world.
It follows, as Boas believed, that all cultures share essentially the same mental acuity, the same raw genius. …..
The Victorian notion of the savage and the civilised, with European industrial society sitting proudly at the apex of a pyramid of advancement that widens at the base to the so-called primitives of the world, has been thoroughly discredited – indeed, scientifically ridiculed for the racial and colonial notion that it was, as relevant to our lives today as the belief of 19th-century clergymen that the Earth was but 6,000 years old….. Continue reading
Wind power to put Uruguay ahead in global renewable enegy stakes
Uruguay set to become world leader in wind power
South American nation plans to produce 90 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015
BusinessGreen 07 Jan 2013
Uruguay has set its sights on becoming one of the world’s leading wind power producers as part of plans to produce 90 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2015.
Electricity generated from wind is expected to make up 30 per cent of the South American nation’s total mix, with hydropower contributing 45 per cent, and biomass 15 per cent, according to reports from SmartPlanet.
This would put Uruguay ahead of current renewable energy leader Denmark, which gets 26 per cent of its electrical generation from wind.
While Uruguay has a number of hydro power plants, these tend to shut down in dry periods, forcing the country to purchase electricity from Argentina at up to $400per megawatt hour (MWh). The government hopes installing wind farms could provide a more secure source of energy and drop electricity prices to around $64/MWh, well under the current price of $90/MWh…..
France short of money – but can find enough for nuclear weapons
France affirms nuclear arms despite military cuts Miami Herald, BY
JAMEY KEATEN 9 Jan 13,
ASSOCIATED PRESS
OLIVET, France –– France’s president says the country will maintain
its costly nuclear arsenal despite looming military budget cuts,
saying the weapons are essential for national defense.
President Francois Hollande said Wednesday that global security
threats have made nuclear weapons essential for France, which is the
only country in continental Europe to have them…….
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/09/3174407/france-affirms-nuclear-arms-despite.html#storylink=cpy
“Unusual event” – fire emergency at Texas nuclear plant
ABC 13: Fire erupts at U.S. nuclear plant in Texas, emergency declared http://enenews.com/abc-13-fire-erupts-at-u-s-nuclear-power-plant-in-texas-emergency-declared
January 9th, 2013
Title: Fire closes part of nuclear plant; no one injured
Source: Victoria Advocate
Author: Caty Hirst
Date: January 8, 2013
[…] “The good news is no one was injured,” said South Texas Project spokesman Buddy Eller. […]
The fire, in Unit 2 of STP Generating Station near Bay City, was declared an “unusual event,” the lowest level of emergency classification, according to a company news release. […]
The cause of the fire is under investigation […]
See also: Fire strikes South Texas Project nuclear power plant transformer -AP
Clean Energy: Must Act Now| Brainwash Update
Published on Jan 9, 2013
Abby Martin looks at the benefits of renewable and alternative energy sources by highlighting countries that have already taken the initiatives to switch from fossil fuels.
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