JAPAN AND THE USUAL SUSPECTS


Sorry to be a party pooper guys, but WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT DOWN YOUR NUCLEAR PLANTS ALREADY??? For Fukushima, a cement burial a la Chernobyl or anything else is fine by me – just cut out the helicopter water spraying OK?? If that works, we can next try to empty the world’s oceans with a spoon? A level 7 nuclear danger is way too high for me and now the Far East isn’t looking too far to me now – in fact it’s getting too damn close for me. And my deepest sympathies to the victims too – a 9 Richter earthquake combined with a tsunami IS really too much.

Japan is of course in the ‘Pacific Ring of fire’, those places that have fault lines that make them susceptible to earthquakes. But this current tragedy was a lethal combination of an earthquake combined with a tsunami, giving Japan its worst disaster after World War II, when it set out to rule the world and was stopped by the US – Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

What I’ve always wondered is why Japan’s map is dotted with nuclear plants when it has a history of earthquakes and is in the ring of fire, for heaven’s sake!! Wrong time to bring it up, but I used to talk about it to no one who was interested!! I can see Madam Merkel giving a superior ‘look’ (Germany forbids nuclear plants in its territory) and Sarkozy furrowing his forehead (France is a huge fan of nuclear energy).

Just imagine, heaven forbid, something like Japan’s tragedy happening in India!! Minus Japan’s STRICT building rules and highly posh disaster management system in place, for every 1 dead now, we’d easily have 10 thousand (at the very least – I’m not even kidding). What is wrong with us Indians?? Post the devastating Tsunami that struck a few years back, after pouring pots of milk into the ocean (the stupidest thing to do – Which marine life guzzles milk? It would only asphyxiate all the living organisms in the waters – luckily there’s enough water in the ocean to dilute the stuff) every now and then, the locals in good old Indian – thrift style, have already started stealing the warning systems placed in the waters for a Tsunami alert. At last count there were 3 left!!!

And we complain about the Government!! But little wonder we complain about the Government - because as I often say, the Government is nothing but many ‘you and I’ s coming together and I guess I know myself best just as you do yourself!!

Happy Holi and happy complaining!!







20th March 2011