Dear Friends,
I've consciously chosen not to think about the nuclear situation too much, for my own mental health...but perhaps this is a bad sign. Maybe I should be protesting in the streets to demand that Tepco immediately borrow the robots from France AND bury the reactors under a giant concrete dome immediately (Tepco will go bankrupt, but who cares! it deserves to go bankrupt). Hmm..it's a thought.
I'm actually going to Vancouver tomorrow for an ACLA (American Comp Lit Assoc) conference, planned long before. I'm still on page 3 of my paper/presentation...and it's hard for me to concentrate but I'll need to finish this somehow tonight. I will be back in Tokyo next Tuesday. When I'm back, I will think about taking it to the streets (I'm half-joking, half-serious...) and let's have a meal together.
Warmly,
Compri
http://410nonuke.tumblr.com/ I hope to see you there, if you're in town. It's not just you. It's all of us together.
ReplyDeleteHanna
Hey Hanna! Thanks for the link. One question, though - why are they doing this in Koenji? Shouldn't they be protesting in Hibiya, right in front of Tepco's HQ building? Or at least in front of the Diet? Maybe I'm overly skeptical, but aren't the organizers in Koenji trying to promote their business/shop at the same time? Anyway, hope to see you soon and catch up!
ReplyDeleteAaah! I didn't see you'd replied to my comment until just now. I'm sorry!
ReplyDeleteAll good questions. One more question: do we really need to be that scared of nuclear energy when no one has died from radiation in the Fukushima accident yet? I mean, in comparison to the death toll in Tohoku.
I don't know the shop in Koenji, and I don't know if I would go there, but the protest was like a large moving festival. It was more of a release valve for pent up emotional stress, I think, than a real political protest. Not that there wasn't a message, but it was fun.
I didn't notice your comment reply until today. Sorry! But when I posted a comment here earlier, it disappeared!
ReplyDeleteGreat questions, but shouldn't we also ask ourselves how much we want fear to destroy our mental health, perhaps the greatest health risk after Chernobyl according to UN reports. . . http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12785274
In that sense, I think the protest on Sunday was a success. People were actually smiling again. There were so many people there (who knows exactly how many), that it was definitely recognized in the media, but I think this protest had a lot to do with opening a release valve for a sense of powerlessness.
Get in touch, and we can go get coffee sometime.