FACTupdate: Japan’s nuclear disaster
23-03-11
The four horsemen of the nuclear apocalypse: Government, Industry, Lobbyists and Apologists
Our nuclear future
Following the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, we have all become versed in nanoSieverts, microSieverts, milliSieverts and Sieverts; rads and Roentgens; nanoGrays, microGrays, milliGrays and Grays; milliRems and Rems, picoCuries, nanoCuries, microCCuries, milliCuries and Curies; Becquerels, kiloBequerels, megaBequerels, teraBequerels, gigaBequerels; microCoulombs, milliCoulombs and Coulombs; and clicks per second.
The reason for all these measures is that radiation exposure is cumulative–any measure of radiation is deadly to all living things, including us. Little Boy at Hiroshima is estimated to have produced eight yottaBequerels!
Many of these measures are named for the scientists who developed the measurement scale. Of course, none of these units are named for New Jersey’s ‘radium girls’, sharpening their brushes with their saliva to paint numbers on glow-in-the-dark watchfaces, painting radium paint on their nails and lips for fun while the factory bosses and chemists cowered behind lead shields. they went on to die particularly agonising deaths by bone marrow cancer. That was in 1926—the factory sites are still Superfund cleanup sites.
When a human dies of radiation poisoning, his body itself contaminates the soil and groundwater if burial is employed or the atmosphere if cremated.
The media and others have been accused of being ‘doomsayers’ and ‘scaremongers’ during this incident.
However, after nearly two weeks since the initial meltdown following Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, let’s look at the realities:
1) Radiation has been detected in Tokyo’s water supply.
2) Radioactive iodine and caesium have been detected in Japan’s seawater. Logically, one would expect iodine, a major component of all sea life, to be dangerous to humans eating ocean fish and sea vegetables.
3) There have been uncontrolled radioactive emissions until today. As the Fukushima reactors use MOX fuel rods which include plutonium, it is highly probable that plutonium, the most poisonous substance known to man, has been released into the atmosphere.
We have been told by experts that plutonium is almost impossible to detect in small quantities but no less deadly. Will this area, or even Tokyo itself, become uninhabitable?
If one factors in plutonium, we have to change the scale by which we view nuclear accidents. Fukushima could in fact become more deadly than Chernobyl.
There were proven coverups during the construction and operation of the Fukushima reactors. If such coverups exist in Japan, can anyone doubt that all nuclear power plants in 30 or so countries can also be suspect?
4) Japan is no closer to a solution to the Fukushima disaster.
Who controls the nuclear control agencies?”, Stephen Leahy, al-Jazeera, March 23, 2011:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/201132317958260690.html
To add some sense of scale, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the US was decommissioned in 1988 after contaminating 622 square kilkometres. Hanford’s cleanup is not expected to be completed until 2052 at a cost of $128 billion.
Japan’s banks are planning on lending $24 billion to TEPCO so the lights won’t go dark in Tokyo, plus loans of $37.5 billion from government, adding the very real possibility of an economic meltdown to equal the nuclear. In fact, experts are now predicting it may take 100 years for the reactors to cool at a cost estimate of a trillion dollars.
Did Japan even consider its vast geothermal potential before going nuclear? Did Japan not learn the costs of nukes?
“A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion [2,053] since 1945, Isao Hashimoto, YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY
Can anyone still believe that nuclear power is a proven, safe, clean, green, cheap source of electricity? Proven, yes—proven deadly.
I’ll say it again: If Thailand goes ahead with nuclear power, I’ll be the first one blocking the road and chaining myself to the gates.
CJ Hinke
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT)
All FACT readers wishing a deeper understanding of Japan’s nuclear disaster and its implications for Thailand should be following this lengthy thread at Thai Visa—”Meltdown Likely Under Way at Japan Nuclear Reactor”:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/450765-meltdown-likely-under-way-at-japan-nuclear-reactor/
[FACT comments: Let’s get something straight—Tantawut was not the NorPhorChorUSA’s webmaster which makes his conviction spurious in the extreme. We attended some of Tantawut’s trial last month and, from our own commonsense observation, we find his conviction beyond belief. In the trial sessions we attended, Tantawut’s defence clearly proved he was not the webmaster for the NorPhorChorUSA website—he had no administrator or password access to the site. Tantawut was only hired as the website’s designer and provided no content to the site. Police and govt witnesses proved no evidence to the contrary.
However, Tantawut’s real crime was living in Thailand, making him an easy target, unlike the NorPhorChor’s real webmasters who all lived overseas. After all, someone needed to be punished to send a clear message to Thai netizens not to cross the imaginary lèse majesté line. 98% of those charged with lèse majesté in Thailand are convicted simply because of blind justice. As he sought to prove his innocence, even after 10 months in gaol without bail, rather than cave in and plead guilty out of fear and shame, Tantawut received no dispensation from the courts. Shame on Thailand!]
Webmaster gets 13 yrs for lese majeste
Bangkok Post: March 15, 2011
[Nick Nostitz]
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/226791/man-gets-13-years-for-lese-majeste
The Criminal Court on Tuesday sentenced the webmaster of a United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD) website to a total of 13 years imprisonment for lese majeste and violating the Computer Crimes Act.
The court found Thanthawut Taweewarodomkul, who was in charge of the website <www.norporchorusa.com>, guilty of lese majeste for posting articles which were deemed insulting to the high institution between March 13 and 15 last year.
Thanthawut given a 10 year jail sentence for lese majeste and three years for violating the Computer Crimes Act.
Reds seek lèse majesté repeal-PPT
15-03-11
An appeal for justice
Political Prisoners in Thailand: March 12, 2011
http://thaipoliticalprisoners.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/an-appeal-for-justice/
PPT has received this open letter:
March 10, 2011
An Appeal for Justice:
An Open Letter to the People of Thailand and Their Representatives:
Ever since the military coup of September 19, 2006 that overthrew the legitimate government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra whose Thai Rak Thai Party was overwhelmingly elected into office.
Thailand now ruled by Dictatorial Power of Autocracy and Oligarchy.
The group of these ruling elite has been lying and distorting facts, claiming that Thailand is a democratic state. They were brutal. They used every tools in their disposals, including Military, Judicial, and ‘Independent Bodies’ whose mandate is to be fair and impartial, destroying the governments elected by the people.
They used the military and its apparatus to force MPs to switch side. And helped forming the current Thai government of Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva which literally can be said was born from the military womb.
Once the people learnt of the truth, they came out en-masse to protect their rights. Under the banner of United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship or UDD, they demanded the return of power to the people through electoral process, demanding ‘no political interference’ from hidden power or ‘Invisible Hands’, and Privy Council.
What they got in return were bullets in the heads in 2009 and 2010!
During 10 April to 19 May 2010, the ruling elite used military force (tanks and snipers) to disperse the demonstrators in Bangkok, resulted in 91 deaths, almost 2000 injuries, hundred missing.
Many local leaders of the UDD who survived the ‘Bangkok Massacre’ went home, some into hiding. There was news report of no less than 5 local leaders were assassinated. Over 200 remained in jails on terrorism charge for exercising their Constitution Rights of peaceful assembly.
Those in jails seldom allowed to have bails, If bails were granted, amount was so large that beyond the means of many families and friends to provide.
Now Thailand behaves as a 3rd rate nation.
People who agreed or supported the ideal of democracy or against the political interference of Thai politics from ‘Outsider’ by expressing their views in public were harass, intimidated and/or charged with Les Majeste (LM) under Criminal Law 112.
Any citizens of the world can see the oddness of this law. Everyone can file the LM charge. Once file, the authorities have to investigate and proceed with the charge. If the authority refuses to do so may misconstrue as an act of disrespect and/or constitutes as violation of the LM itself. So every LM accusations are taken seriously by the authorities. Often it is used to stifle dissents and now more than ever becomes a political tool.
Cases of LM skyrocketed. As of today, 5 more will be charged, and 39 more will be investigated. The penalty is unusually harsh. For each counts, the minimum penalty is 3 years, and maximum 15 years. This penalty is much harsher than during the time of absolute monarchy!
No wonder Thailand is now divided.
The small ruling elite, in light of this awareness, seek to ignore. The flame of injustice is still hotly burning. How long can people take?
As concerned Thais, we are afraid that Thailand will be next in line for chaos and violent just like Libya should Thailand remains status quo. Movement for Democracy is spreading.
To prevent this destructive path, we believe Thailand must change. A sense of justice and fair play must be restored.
To achieve that end, we would like to propose the followings for your consideration:
1. Campaign to reform Les Majeste Law. Help free Khun Surachai Danwattananusorn and many others charged with Les Majeste. Les Majeste Law shall not be used for any political purpose, gain, or to stifle dissents. We believe the first step is to abolish Section 112 of the Criminal Law. There are laws currently in the book such as Defamation is sufficient enough to protect the institution of Monarchy.
2. We believe in healing the wound. The first step must be to free all Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience. This would include those arrested for demonstrations during the Emergency Decree. Wound cannot be healed if victims still victimized.
3. Truth and Reconciliation Commission has to be more effective, and impartial. It is almost one year since the ‘Bangkok Massacre’ and the commission has not yet issue a single report. Reconciliation and Forgiveness are very important— but truth must come first. The perpetrators of murder have to be identified. Should amnesties be considered, it must be made aware that this does not change the fact that overthrowing the government in a coup or shooting unarmed civilians is wrong and against the law. We believe those responsible for the massacre during 10 April through 19 May 2010 should be brought to justice.
We understand that this undertaken is not easy, but necessary. We also understand that this idea is not new in Thailand. Many have done or making similar plea before us. We admire and applaud them and would like to follow their footsteps.
We wrote this letter to you, the People of Thailand as well as the representatives of the Thai People because we strongly believe that if Thailand is truly to be democratic and civilized, actions must come from you.
We the undersigned are committed to the course of justice. We want to see a better Thailand. We pledge to work together with friends around the world to help bring justice, peace, democracy, and prosperity to Thailand.
“If mind can conceive it, and your heart can believe it, we know you can achieve it”
Yours Truly,
Thai Red Australia, Red USA, แดงสังคมนิยม Sweden, Thai Red Japan, Red in Japan, แดงแนวร่วม Taiwan, แดงแนวร่วม Greek
Our planet’s most successful land animals, the dinosaurs, lived for around 160 million years. However, our ancestors, the first hominids appeared only two to three million years ago. Homo “sapiens”, ourselves, have only been around 50,000 years.
If we may consider religion a prime indicator of maturity (some might argue the opposite!), humans as we know them have only existed for around 5,000 years.
Let’s examine this timeline. Onkalo, meaning “hiding place”, is the world’s first “permanent” nuclear repository, expected to last 100,000 years. Onkalo is being dug half a kilometre into the Finnish bedrock over the next 20 years. Onkalo is the fascinating subject of the 2010 documentary film by Michael Madsen, Into Eternity.
Onkalo: The modern maw of hell
Review, The New York Times, February 1, 2011 http://movies.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/movies/02into.html
Trailer, YouTube, October 20, 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoyKe-HxmFk
100,000 years is 20 times the length of all human history. In 20 years’ time Finland’s nuclear waste from only four reactors will be sealed in Onkalo. What about the other 30 countries with nuclear reactors?
[Matt Groening]
So far, no safe, reliable method has been found for reprocessing / recycling / disposing of nuclear waste in its first 60 years. In fact, nuclear waste becomes even more problematic over time because safeguards must be in place to prevent its being used to build a nuclear weapon, from crude and dirty to sophisticated and ka-blooey.
Tsar Bomba, 50 megatons, 1400 times Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, 8 km fireball
Shooting nuclear waste into the giant nuclear reactor of the sun was considered until the distinct possibility was discussed of such a rocket exploding on the launch pad, in Earth’s atmosphere or even in orbit, which would unquestionably wipe all life off the planet.
Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace in 1971, is the world’s principal lobbyist and apologist for nuclear power.
I have know Patrick Moore personally for nearly 40 years. He comes from a family which clearcut-logged old-growth—1,600 year old trees—to systematically decimate the mountains surrounding Winter Harbour on the west coast of Vancouver Island in Canada’s province of British Columbia. When those trees were gone, the family company, the W.D. Moore Logging Company, joined the rape of Vancouver Island, where 89% of old-growth has now been clearcut.
932 people were arrested for defence of the forests in the largest single act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. I myself was arrested by RCMP helicopter defending Clayoquot Sound’s Sulphur Passage. I served 37 days in gaol for civil contempt of court for flouting an injunction against protest, much of it in solitary confinement in British Columbia’s infamous Oakalla Prison built in 1912.
“Sulphur Passage”, Bob Bossin, YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxGjtMk7CNY
Following his expulsion from Greenpeace in 1986, Moore became a salmon farmer until he realised there was more money to be made by using his environmentalist credentials to become a lobbyist and apologist for the salmon farming industry now threatening five native salmon species and creating extensive dead zones along the Pacific coast.
It was a natural progression for someone whose family logging wiped out the local salmon population by clogging every salmon stream on Vancouver Island with logging debris. Moore made even more money by becoming an apologist not only for the British Columbia logging industry but clearcut loggers in such far places as the Amazon and Indonesia and supporting such noble causes as China’s Three Gorges Dam, genetically-modified foods, refuting the carcinogenic effects of dioxins in plastics production, even famously celebrating global warming before the European Union and promoting nuclear power before the U.S. Congress.
“Eco-Traitor”, Wired Magazine, March 2004 http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.03/moore.html
However, there was far more money to be milked from the nuclear industry and Canada is famously an exporter of CANDU nuclear reactors. Most of us would shout “CAN-DON’T!” but not Pat Moore.
Waddya bet Moore tries to spin Japan’s nuclear meltdowns?
“Going Nuclear”, Washington Post, April 16, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/14/AR2006041401209.html
Patrick Moore is a Big Fat Liar http://www.fanweb.org/patrick-moore/
“Nuclear Experts Explain Worst-Case Scenario at Fukushima Power Plant”, Scientific American, March 12, 2011
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fukushima-core&page=2
I don’t think you need to know a microSievert from a milliamp to know in your gut when something’s just plain wrong!
Forget about the environment for a minute and the fact that the contaminated, radioactive seawater cooling—330,000 gallons every minute–will be released back into the ocean and live on in all those lovely fish we’ll be eating (remember mercury? remember Minamata disease? anybody out there give up fish?).
Forget the fact that Dr. John W. Gofman, former director of the US Atomic Energy Commission’s Biomedical Research Division at Livermore Laboratories has proven conclusively that no human exposure to radiation, including medical procedures, is safe.
The longest thread ever on Thai Visa—”Meltdown Likely Under Way at Japan Nuclear Reactor”– on Japan’s nuclear meltdown provides some perspective in more than 2000 posts:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/450765-meltdown-likely-under-way-at-japan-nuclear-reactor/
“Japan’s nuclear power operator has checkered past”, Reuters, March 12, 2011
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/12/us-japan-nuclear-operator-idUSTRE72B1B420110312 and
“Nuclear apocalypse in Japan”, Keith Harmon Snow, Conscious Being Alliance, March 17, 2011
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23764 and
“Fukushima Engineer Says He Helped Cover Up Flaw in Dai-Ichi Reactor No. 4”, Jason Klenfield, Bloomberg News, March 23, 2011
Let’s just talk about the money, the real reason behind nuclear power, however well-intentioned.
How much does a reactor cost? Five billion dollars maybe? Now let’s look at the number of kilowatt/hours generated and how much electric consumers paid for them. How many years does it take these plants to make a profit? Now, add the cost of ‘decommissioning’ and clean-up (clearly impossible). And all this nuclear waste will be sealed in place, sitting on exactly the same fault-line.
Decommissioning ‘containment’ for Chernobyl cost $140 million dollars in 1992 (the meltdown occurred in 1986) and $1.4 billion for its more recent replacement begun in 2004 (which will not be complete until 2013) which itself will need replacement in only ten more years…10,000 more times for the next 100,000 years. And these are costs for just one reactor.
Such fixed costs remain the same every single time a reactor is decommissioned. Tell me nuclear power makes any kind of sense.
Losses from Japan’s nuclear accident are estimated at $235 billion by the World Bank and $700-800 billion by Switzerland, the most expensive accident in history, and will probably rise. The US Hurricane Katrina (2009) only cost $45 billion. During Katrina, the Waterford nuclear plant lost all power, a near-miss nuclear accident which went all but unreported.
Bear in mind Japan is a first-world, highly-industrialised, high-technology nation with experts and infrastructure—imagine a similar disaster in Thailand. However, it may shock readers to learn that Japan is actually the world’s greatest debtor nation, at 200% of GDP, surpassing even Zimbabwe.
Five kilos of uranium are burned in a coal generating plant in a year. I was not able to find uranium consumption figures for the comparable oil- or natural gas-burners used in Thailand. How many tons of uranium and plutonium did the Japanese plants consume? How many tons of waste were left over?
On the International Nuclear and Radiological “Event” Scale of 7, Japan’s Tepco reactors scored 5-6 as rated by France’s Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire. Chernobyl (1986) was a seven (major accident), releasing 400 times the amount of radioactive fallout as the 20-kiloton bomb dropped on Hiroshima; Kyshtym (1957) a six (serious accident), Three Mile Island (1979) was a five (accident with wider consequences). In simple terms, Japan’s nuclear ‘event’ has become a genuine disaster. Japanese are now being exposed to 24,500 times the radiation as before the accident, three years’ worth natural radiation with a single hour.
Keiji Nakazawa wrote a ten-volume manga series called Barefoot Gen, translated into English, Thai and many other languages, about his boyhood after the bomb in Hiroshima.
[Keiji Nakazawa]
“Barefoot Gen”, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barefoot_Gen
Keiji Nakazawa, Amazon
These books should be required reading for every schoolchild in every country so we never make, at least, that mistake again.
There are 112 nuclear reactors in Asia, 37 more under construction, a further 84 planned and 80 additional serious proposals. Thailand has had a “small” research reactor since 1977 and was planning to build a larger one as of early 2010.
Thailand also has plans to build at least two nuclear power plants with four reactors unilaterally approved in 2007 by the military coup d’etat junta at a cost estimate of eight billion dollars, over THB 242,000,000,000, with four more proposed over a period of 15 years. Proposals for construction have been submitted by Areva (France, government-owned), and the publicly-traded General Electric (USA), Mitsubishi and Toshiba (Japan).
GE and Toshiba constructed the damaged reactors at Fukushima with further investment by Hitachi and Mitsubishi. CANDU (Canada) and a Russian developer have also expressed into building Thai reactors.
To quote from “Thailand’s Nuclear Power Program”: “Nuclear power plants should be located adjacent to beaches.” Did they really never hear of global warming and a significant rise in sea levels?
Ao Phai in Chonburi province on the Eastern seaboard is the first location under consideration. Along Thailand’s Southern Gulf coast—Ban Bangberd, Ban Lamthaen and Ban Lamyang in Prachuab Khiri Khan; Ban Thongching in Chumpon; and on the Southern Andaman coast, Ban Klongmuang in Phuket were being considered, along with sites in Ranong (Andaman) and Surat Thani (Gulf) as of 2007.
In 2010, the Central region’s Chai Nat, adjacent to the Chao Phraya River, and Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Gulf coast had been added to potential sites and resulted in considerable public protest. Trat (Eastern seaboard), Ubon Ratchathani (Northeast, Mekong River), Khon Kaen and Kalasin (Northeast) are also being considered as possible locations. In Kalasin, more than 2,000 demonstrated against nuclear power on March 16. Thais will not accept nuclear power quietly. I have heard it said that, well, Thailand doesn’t have earthquakes. But we certainly had a major tsunami recently from earthquakes elsewhere, precisely the same situation as in Japan.
Dozens of pink dolphin-shaped windsocks installed at Thong Ching Beach in Nakhon Si Thammarat, to protest against the plan to set up a nuclear power plant. [Bangkok Post]
Readers will find the paper, “EGAT’s Thaitanic: Why Thailand Should Not Go Nuclear” by Ken Albertson in 2009 highly instructive. The government-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has already spent THB 1,038,000,000 ($45 million) merely to conduct feasibility studies, primarily blatant public marketing to promote nuclear to Thai citizens. Even the World Bank recommended against nuclear power in Thailand. EGAT’s governor, Kraisi Kanasuta, has stated: “Building a nuclear power plant is unavoidable for Thailand.” It’s only ‘unavoidable’ because the fatcats are counting their money in advance.
In 2009 The former general manager of China’s largest nuclear-power company, the state-owned China National Nuclear Corp., was sentenced to life in prison. Kang Rixin accepted bribes worth nearly $1 million, embezzled $265 million and interfered with bids for nuclear power plant construction schemes, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
It takes at least 13 years of construction for a nuclear plant to come online. Greenpeace notes that nuclear plant construction always goes over budget, frequently by over 300 per cent. All uranium fuel must be imported, primarily from Australia, which fixes world prices. In order to encourage nuclear power construction, prices have been kept below the costs of production; this is obviously unsustainable.
Antinuclear protest in Ubon Ratchathani [Bangkok Post]
The world uses 67,000 tons of uranium per year, leaving about 70 years of supply at the current demand. At highs of $138 a pound, the annual costs are 9.25 billion dollars to supply around 1000 reactors worldwide. Nuclear industry analysts predict highs of $576 a pound; that equals 38.5 billion dollars a year. Lobbyists for corporate interests have no scruples about driving nuclear nations into crippling debt for building nukes.
John Rowe, CEO of Exelon, the largest nuclear operator in the US, states, ”At the present time, new reactors are not economical anyway. Natural gas-fired generation is now the economic way to produce low carbon electricity, and that will be true for about a decade.” Discovery and advanced extraction of deep shale gas reserves has led to prices plummeting independently of oil.
Some pundits consider nuclear energy to produce the cleanest, greenest electricity available. However, they have failed to realistically examine the costs of uranium exploration, extraction, milling, enrichment, fuel fabrication and shipping to international markets and balanced by both worker and planetary safety. When one takes these added factors into consideration, the carbon footprint for nuclear power balances equally with coal and oil generation; in fact, uranium may have an even greater carbon footprint.
“Carbon footprint of the Olympic Dam uranium mine expansion”, Barry Brook, Brave New Climate
http://bravenewclimate.com/2009/04/05/carbon-footprint-of-the-olympic-dam-uranium-mine-expansion/
Open-pit uranium mining in Australia [AFP]
If we continue to rely on nuclear power and build more reactors, we will not only see the end of nuclear fuel in our lifetimes but be faced with hundreds of dead, radioactive reactors and millions of tons of nuclear waste with no realistic means of containment. In other words, we’re digging a radioactive grave. Is this the burden we want to impose our future generations?
Thailand currently generates its electricity using natural gas imported from neighbouring Myanmar, and hydroelectric power. Current costs of electricity production are estimated to be two baht per kilowatt hour for nuclear, 5.5 for wind, 10.5 for solar, and 4.5 for biogas. A report by the Nautilus Institute has produced a chart demonstrating that nuclear power has only been considered in Thailand during the periods of the Thai military’s greatest ascendance.
Thailand has a well-documented history of bribery, corruption and kickbacks, from an estimated 90% of the cost of Bangkok’s new international airport to a million-dollar bribe for the Bangkok international Film Festival. Can we really think the Thai military’s recurrent interest in nuclear power has to do with anything other than personal enrichment?
[Nautilus Institute]
Thailand Goes Nuclear? Considerations and Costs http://www.palangthai.org/docs/ThailandGoesNuclearEng.ppt
My guess is that many readers are too young to remember a 1979 film called The China Syndrome. The China Syndrome predicated a nuclear meltdown to the centre of the Earth. Have we all become too brainwashed by greed to think such dangers are an acceptable risk for our own comfort?
If you still think nuclear power is safe, watch the 2006 documentary, The Battle for Chernobyl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiCXb1Nhd1o
His Majesty King Bhumibol has already expressed his concern over nuclear power in Thailand. It’s not sustainable and does not fit the model of sufficiency economics the King has promoted for over 50 years. “Nuclear energy—a proven technology”—right! Proven fatal.
In 1987, 1,600 people were arrested at the nuclear test site in the Nevada desert near Las Vegas. I was arrested with a group of Quakers on the day of planned underground testing. On March 12, over 120,000 Germans formed a human chain 120 kilometres long between nuclear power plants at Brunsbuettel and Kruemmeover, stretching across the northern city of Hamburg; in Stuttgart, 60,000 Germans formed a second human chain stretching 45 kilometres to protest government plans to expand nuclear power. They are demanding Germany shut down all nuke plants by 2021.
Making the nuclear danger even more clear and present, 30,000 active nuclear missiles still stud the Earth, 96% of them belonging to the United States and Russia, targeting each other.
Approval for nuclear energy in Thailand is the only issue for which I would consider nonviolent civil disobedience in my adopted country. All of us have a responsibility to Thailand’s future to stop nuclear before they start.
CJ Hinke
Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT)
A different version of this article appears at Asia Sentinel:
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3061&Itemid=594
Imagine, if you can, Thailand without censorship. A Thailand where everyone is free to express their opinions, whether true or misguided–in demonstrations, on streetcorners, with graffiti, in pubs and restaurants, on the Internet, in books, in magazines, on TV, in film, in newspapers, on YouTube.
Suppose some of these people want to change our system of government, to a republic, to socialism, to a socialist republic. A Thailand where workers are able to voice their grievances, their anger, their frustration. A Thailand where anyone can make a joke of the King, satire where there is no need to resort to the subterfuges of codewords, metaphors, simile, allusion.
Think about it. Would this change your mind?
The people who rule us through force are unquestionably the rich and the elite backed up by military might. These people are afraid of us, all of us. And so they try to manipulate public opinion by keeping all of us from speaking out. 15 years in prison, torture, disappearance, military murders of demonstrators, news media and emergency workers are powerful strategies to keep us silent.
Lest we forget, martial law by Emergency Decree has simply been replaced by martial law under the Internal Security Act. When the emergency was lifted December 22, there were at least 425,296 web pages blocked, according to govt media releases. Furthermore, the iLaw Foundation found in December that this number was going up by 690 additional webpages each and every day.
As none of these have been unblocked, all censorship is being conducted illegally. The Computer Crimes Act 2007 requires court orders to block the Internet but the Constitution to which all Thai laws are subject specifically guarantees us freedom of expression.
FACT has always fought for an end to all censorship. However, if govt is intent on remaining a censor state, some legal guarantees need to be enacted.
Firstly, the Constitution must be amended to delete any protections to free expression. Let’s be honest, at least! What administration will have the guts to try that one!
Secondly, the Thai public must be told how much money is being spent to censor by the at least nine govt agencies currently involved in censorship and where, exactly, that budget comes from.
If govt continues to censor, it must do so in a transparent and accountable manner, as follows.
1) The govt’s blocklists, court orders and number of blocked pages must be made public as must
2) the categories and reasons for blocking each URL.
3) Each blocked URL must contain the name and position of the competent govt official seeking the block.
4) Clear procedures must be put in place for requesting review to unblock a URL and
5) legal process must be established in Thai courts should such review fail to unblock a URL.
The initial review process must form a committee composed of govt officials, academic representatives, stakeholder NGOs such as FACT, media representatives and members of the public. All these factions must be weighted equally.
If censorship is made transparent and accountable, we don’t think Thai netizens will put up with it for long! The insult to the injury is, of course, that we taxpayers make censorship possible.
In order for Thai people to accept their censorship, govt uses knee-jerk issues that no one can defend: any commentary on the monarchy (not just insult), pornography, gambling, abortion. But these knee-jerk issues conceal an insidious political agenda–to keep the rich and powerful rich and powerful.
Imagine Thailand with a sense of humour about the monarchy, Royal gossip magazines. These have certainly done no harm to the respect for the British monarchy. Why must we assume it would be different here?
The lese majeste issue is not about King Bhumibol, it’s about the succession. The rich and powerful elite want to make certain they’re cozied up to the next King of Thailand. They can already smell the money.
When one looks at the recent public revolts in the Middle East and West Africa, they are occurring for very valid reasons. The public in Iran, Tunisia, Morocco, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Yemen are tired of govts of repression, corruption and censorship, many with the collusion of monarchs. These revolts, as in Thailand, have been overwhelmingly met by the use of extreme military force, as in Thailand, and, in some countries, threaten to spiral into genuine civil wars. In Libya, govt is even bombing its own people.
We have certainly noticed, even as Thailand plans elections, that voting doesn’t change anything anywhere. There needs to be a deep, powerful, grassroots change coming directly from citizens.
It’s time to let go of our fear. It’s our fear that gives govt its power. Let’s start this change with a breath of fresh air.
Let’s start by getting rid of censorship.
[FACT comments: See FACTorial: Imagine Thailand with no censorship following.]
Can internet be free again?
Bangkok Post: March 8, 2010
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/225380/can-internet-be-free-again
With an election campaign unofficially under way, the government should urgently review and loosen its harsh censorship of the internet. The massive, expensive programme has made Thailand one of the world’s most censored nations. This policy should be examined and vastly reduced in scope, or better still, binned entirely. The vast, constantly growing list of tens of thousands of banned websites needs review by an informed and independent group. Censorship has gone out of hand without oversight and accountability, and needs to be changed.
Start with the uncomfortable number: 65,000. That is how many websites had been blocked or shut down by the authorities as of last year. The public is not allowed to know the actual number, and it is debatable whether anyone really knows how much of the internet is officially interdicted and banned to Thais. The number of 65,000 was given rather triumphantly by the spokesman for the Centre for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation. He bragged that the CRES was issuing orders to the Information and Communications Technology Ministry to block websites and web pages at an average of 500 per day, and he let slip the 65,000 number.
The CRES (also openly) admitted that it blocked websites for no other reason than that they were apparently run by one of the many factions of the political opposition, the red shirts. This was legal under the martial law-like rule of the CRES. It is illegal under the constitution, where opposing the government is a virtue, not a sin.
During its existence, the CRES always refused to provide any information on individual websites blocked by Thai authorities. Because the CRES is gone, the government should begin a public review of banned websites, with an eye to opening as many as possible to internet access once again.
Many agencies are involved in censoring the internet. All have highly questionable authority under a constitution where the government is charged with protecting freedom of information, not stifling it. As far back as the Thaksin governments, the chief internet censor has been the minister of information and communications technology.
It has become a joke that the ICT Ministry stands for “Internet Censorship of Thailand Ministry”. Web censorship has become a routine. But it starts with a huge staff, working in the most opaque manner, which surfs the web looking for sites to censor. Lists are drawn up, handed to a judge who orders the sites closed or, if they are hosted in another country, blocked.
At no step in internet censorship is there oversight, accountability or responsibility. Former ICT minister Ranongruk Suwunchwee once described the process as a routine one, in which she never became involved. Both she and the current minister, Juti Krairiksh, have publicly promised to vet the ‘Net for illegal references or libel concerning the high institution.
Beyond that, no one ever has managed to breach the veil of secrecy of who selects sites to censor, or what are the criteria for censorship. For certain, no one has been able to appeal a decision to close or block an internet site.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is clearly on the verge of dissolving the Lower House for a national election. Voters need a full range of information sources, including internet sites of all political opinion.
The prime minister can do everyone a favour by ending the current secret censorship and opening a system of open review and legal appeal.
