A Walk in the Woods

Saturday, April 16, 2011

 
 The good news is that the amount of radiation in Tokyo right now is only about half as much as that in Moscow, according to a group of Russian nuclear experts who have come to Japan and measured the level of radiation in soil on the premises of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. With this scientific evidence, they are advising their government to lift the warning against travel to Japan.
 
 The bad news is that an opposition group within the Democratic Party of Japan are capitalizing on the disaster to pursue their bid to take over the much coveted post of Prime Minister. 

 Speaking of higher radiation levels, according to an article in a recent issue of a Japanese popular magazine, the amount of radiation measured in a water treatment plant in Tokyo around the year 1964 was about ten thousand times higher than it is right now, because it was in the midst of the Cold War, when nuclear experiments in the Pacific Ocean were common events; the radiation would have spread from the South Pacific Ocean all across the globe, with Japan taking a huge brunt because of its proximity. Except this fact was not made public at the time. 

 Changing the prime minister and the cabinet now will only further slow down the relief and recovery efforts that appear to be very slow even now. Don't they realize that now, of all times, is not the right time for a power struggle?