Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Clusterfucked Clean-Up Effort in Fukushima

This is an excellent piece in the German periodical Spiegel, about the clusterfuck that is the response to the nuclear disaster in Japan by TEPCO and the Japanese government.  The beginning of the article is especially striking, in which it's mentioned that a French nuclear company has made robots available.  These robots can be sent into highly radioactive areas that are simply too dangerous for humans to venture into.  However, the robots are still wrapped up and waiting for shipment at a French airport.  Why?  Because they're coming from a private company, whereas the Japanese government feel that the French government should have offered them instead.  These bureaucrats in Japan are causing many people to go into harm's way by interfering with acts of generosity and kindness like this.  Who cares where it comes from?  This is like Katrina, where Bush was turning down offers of aid from nations like Cuba, and all the while, our government was proving itself to be incompetent on a massive scale. 

This article contains many other interesting bits of information, most notably the abominable working conditions of the people tasked with saving Japan's collective asses.  They are sleeping on the floor, and are going without radiation suits and clean underwear.

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