Totoro staring at us from Japan
Japan is a wonderful country, but it has suffered greatly previously. Looking back to some pictures that we took 3 years ago in Hiroshima, it strikes to me the similarities with the landscape alteration caused by the tsunami, made visible by several websites with comparison slides. Yes, in march 2008 we were in Japan, for a short holiday with a Basque fried who's married there in Tokyo and has a lovely Basque-Japanese kid, Kotaro.
I am sure Japan will overcome this crisis. Totoro will help, ;-)
This was the image Basque cartoonist Patxi Huarte (pen name Zaldieroa, meaning Crazyhorse, a true genius IMHO) made for Basque newspaper Berria yesterday. I'm going to use that cartoon to revamp my Spanish blog, re-re-named as Cementerio de los Ingleses and moved once again. The image by Zaldieroa captures the mood, but also gives hope, that's what I sense in the picture. I've seen images coming from Japan these days that have reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's poetic cinematography. At the end, poetry and resiliance will prevail.
I hope that the crisis also makes us think about nuclear safety. There are no nuclear plants in the Basque Country, but there is one just at the gates, Garoña. It's reactor is identical to n.1 in Fukushima Dai-ichi: same design (BWR type 3, 460 Mw), designer (General Electric), age (operating since 1971). It was due to be closed this year after 30 years working, but a very weak Spanish government delayed the closure, for the moment until 2013. Not anymore please, enough is enough.
The company behind Garoña, Nuclenor, has suffered a complete OWNED effect these days. Last year, they received a visit from Fukushima Dai-Ichi and they were soooo pleased boasting of the japanese twin sister reactor that the news story is still in the newsclipping section of their site.
Argazkiak.org | Nuclenor, Garoña eta Fukushima © cc-by-sa: sustatu
The Nuclenor people also made this year a ridiculous rap clip, with engineers chanting the wonders of their reactor and criticizing anti-nuclear stances. Well, they still have a last line of defence; no tsunamis around. In inner Ukraine they don't suffer tsunamis either, yet Chernobyl failed. Well, that was flawed design. No problem then, 'cause we already know how well GE people designed those reactors... oh wait! ffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu...