Musings on Deadly Secrets

 In the aftermath of the 2011 trio of Japanese disasters--earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant meltdown,  the world watched from from outside the bubble of Japanese politics and power.  

The world watched the disaster unfold on video and in news stories.   People dug into their pockets and relief agencies rushed in and there was hope that this global generosity would help heal the shattered lives, places and memories.

Predictably, when the debris was cleared and the fishing boats were removed from the tops of buildings--when the dramatic gave way to the drudging process of real healing and growth and rebuilding--the world's focus shifted away.

We were living in Japan when the world's focus shifted away, so we were still very much aware of the misinformation being fed to the public by the politicians and power plant owners.   We were very much aware of the people trapped in "temporary" housing because everything they owned in their lives had been swept away.

We were very much aware when the reports of improper disposal of radioactive water and waste started bubbling up on back pages of newspapers, sometimes surfacing in broader stories written by environmental groups  both in and outside of Japan. The images of children being tested for thyroid cancer slipped past our eyelids, triggered some armchair sympathy, and then vanished.

But for the most part, the world's indignation  ebbed, wooed away by a bigger, more interesting issues or disasters or problems.  Or celebrity.


Isn't it odd how history repeats itself?

Because now in Flint, Michigan--the subject of newspaper stories and documentaries in the late 1980's when the city was devastated by the closing of all the General Motor's factories--has slipped back into the news.

It would seem that the water supply for Flint, Michigan has been been contaminated with high levels of lead--for the past two years after the city switched it's water supply to a source that did not have lead-preventing agents added.   No agents meant the lead from the old water pipes swarmed into the water and out the faucets of the 100,000 Flint residents.

And so, here we are again--people in Flint, Michigan being powerlessly poisoned much as the survivors of Japan's 2011 disasters are still being poisoned by radiation.    And, like Fukushima, we have the heroes and the celebrities stepping in--sending water, telling the stories, spreading the word.

Meanwhile the people in power in both places fumble ineffectively.

While I wish it wasn't so, eventually the public eye will drift from Flint, Michigan, like it did from Fukushima.  The people in both places will be left to either endure and suffer the symptoms and effects of their respective poisons, or to try to leave to start anew with no resources to help them on their way.

It is perhaps wired into our brains and into our natures to follow where our perceived leaders take us.
If our leaders behave in truthful, responsible, empathetic ways, then our better natures rise and we help each other--we rally and we fund raise and we welcome and we help.

However such leaders as these--of countries, of companies, of religions, of communities--are generally few and far between.   More often than not it seems that the lure of power and the siren call of money dictates the will of our leaders--and offers us ineffective, ambivalent and dispassionate role models.

And so we follow.

And people in places like Fukushima and Flint are left on their own.

Let's hope we as a species can rewire our brains--quickly--so we can be agents of positive change regardless of where our leaders lead.

Dear 2016

Hello 2016.

I am writing a message to you, as I did to your predecessor, 2015.

I have to admit that when I wrote to 2015, I was highly skeptical that it would manage to fix the looming messes in which it was instantly embroiled.  However, I gave 2015 the benefit of the doubt and in some ways it did live up to its potential.

In other ways, of course, it fell flat on its face in horrifyingly spectacular ways that hinted sharply of some sort of human armageddon.

I have known you, 2016, for about a week now, and I'm afraid that you are starting  off at even more of a disadvantage than 2015.  

Yet it would seem that you are at a crossroads 2016.  You have in front of you 2 choices--care or apathy.  

Care about the condition of this planet, or go along with the status quo and keep on truckin' until we all live (and die)  in a poisoned morass of filth and illness.

Care about equality and respect between peoples or stand by and watch as we slowly whittle ourselves into extinction.

Care about making the right choices--the choices on the sides of peace and communication and joy and enlightened thought and learning, or lay back and let the ignorance roll on in.

It is up to you.  Sadly, your path to making a final choice may be ultimately in your hands.  I am sorry that we have dropped this monumental responsibility into your lap.

It would seem that much of  humanity can't be trusted to have nice things.  Yet.

I'm going to keep that "yet" right there.

After all, 2016, I'm an idealist at heart.  And I'm not quite ready to give up on us.

I wish you the best of luck.  

Christina