Asia

Our Humanist Association of Hong Kong Letter to the Editor appeared today in the South China Morning Post newspaper, April 18, 2011. Also appearing on Humanize Asia and Lantau Forum, eliciting comments from others. I replied to one critic that I quote the worst case scenario where nuclear fallout would poison the entire planet.

“Wake up all good hearted Indians. Respected Anna Hazare’s struggle and fasting is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Please support him wholeheartedly. My friends in Mumbai, please join me to start same here in Mumbai. If I get support of 1000 good hearted people(Without any political support and ambition), I will go on fasting in front of Mantralaya
Nilesh Joshi

Ai Weiwei was being monitored around the clock by the secret police when **Time Out Hong Kong** gained access to his Beijing studio to discuss the ‘Jasmine Revolution’. This must be the last interview before his disappearance. Although Mr Ai has had numerous run-ins with China’s state security apparatus he has never been formally detained or disappeared in this way before.

Below is a letter from Anne, an English teacher living in Japan for the last 10 years. Having survived the Earthquake she writes about the very human response to the tragedy that is afflicting the people in this part of Japan in stark contrast to the scenes of looting and violence that seem to accompany other natural disasters around the world.

Responding to the comment by Japanese nuclear safety agency spokesman Mr. Nishiyama that Greenpeace’s radiation data from Iidate village, 40km from the crisis-ridden Fukushima nuclear plant “could not be considered reliable” (1), and that most people have already voluntarily left the town of Iitate, Greenpeace radiation expert Jan van der Putte said:

In his early thirties, Kamakura-born Koichi Nakatani will never forget the day he stepped outside his isolated Hokkaido home and began as usual to breathe in the beautiful day when the thought struck him…. ‘oh, radiation is in the air, I shouldn’t really breathe deeply; oh my open sea and sky, will I ever be able to breathe deeply here again?’

The unceasing waves of protests and uprisings against Arab regimes have given rise to a tantalizing question: Why have the winds of change sweeping the Arab world not had any effect on the Chinese people and aroused them against their government?
There are many reasons for the absence of tumult in China. These reasons become clear if one takes an unbiased view of the country.

When they were just a few years old, they marched with Gandhi against the laws of an oppressing regime. This weekend a few of the veterans from the 1930 salt march took to the streets again. They were protesting against the democratic government for which they had once fought. The latest nationwide battle is against corruption.

Reverberations from Fukushima crisis are being felt around the world, as plans to build new nuclear power plants are being challenged. The safety of existing plants is being questioned. The cost of nuclear power is projected to rise, and the bottom has fallen out of the uranium market. Here’s a quick glimpse of what’s happening.

Documents reveal that the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan had not been properly inspected, safety procedures had been bypassed and economic considerations had been put first in spite of the risk posed by decisions such as prolonging the life of an obsolete model and accumulating more spent radioactive fuel rods than the plant was supposed to handle.