In this day and age of 24-hour news service, the attention span of the world is active only as long as the MSM elects to keep specific dramas ongoing on the tube. ‘News’ is ‘entertainment’ and the television ratings are all encompassing. Rating is money, and money, naturally, is the Lord of the marketplace. What ‘sells’, therefore, is what is splashed on the tube for the 6 O’clock news.
Reporting of the ongoing devastation in Japan, has been relegated to afterthought unless some dramatic development happens to come about that demands a ‘Stop Press’ shout from the Perry White’s of America. Presently the MSM of America are too busy spinning the budget ‘cuts’ demanded by those uncaring, people-hating Republicans trying to gut Planned Parenthood, or worse, de-fund the Cherry Blossom Festival up the Beltway.
Japan has raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.
Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 – the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency – after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.
The new ranking signifies a “major accident” that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA. But Japanese officials played down any health effects and stressed that the harm caused by Chernobyl still far outweighs that caused by the Fukushima plant.
All the brilliant engineering minds of Japan have been focused upon the problem of containing this nuclear fallout. Nothing has worked. On the way are two gigantic concrete pumps that will be used in an attempt to encase the reactor in a concrete shell as was done in Chernobyl. This has a good chance at being a success, however, why wait so long? Has the damage already been done?
The present plight of the people in the area’s hit by the tsunami is still the immediate drama, as if has been since the wave hit. It should be on the front page each succeeding day, but do we really care, or would we simply follow what is happening there out of some macabre sense of curiosity? No food, no water, no electricity, no shelter, no sanitation, dwindling medical, and a fear of touching anything, even breathe, lest the air be contaminated by fallout. While we can feel a deep compassion for the people trying to cope with this devastation, can we actually claim an empathy for something we have absolutely no understanding of, what we have never experienced?
We can only imagine the terror of those being swept away into the abyss by the awesome power of nature. We can only imagine the despair of those still looking for their loved ones with no hope of finding them. We can only imagine the stink of death prevailing throughout the coastal area where the devastation swept through. Bodies still lying where they were washed at the nuclear sites, but unable to be claimed due to radiation.
The videos that came out right after the wave leave a sick feeling to the stomach as one watches whole structures flipped and flattened as it they were simply a child’s playhouse toys tossed about at random. Some of us have experienced this force in the form of a tornado or force5 hurricane, but nothing like did the people of Japan.
Cholera is a very real danger there, along with many diseases we have not heard of in some time. Worse of all, is that silent killer drifting over the land and settling on sleeping children, their parents, those unprotected, and settling on the sea contaminating all it touches. Can we really empathize when we don’t have a clue? If we could stand there today, looking for the first time at such devastation, there we would truly sit down and weep.
The world goes on, the sun will rise tomorrow. We will focus on the Middle East, Korea, Europe, the Beltway, or wherever that flash drama rises next. We live to be entertained. Let us pray that we do not become the subject of the entertainment any time soon.
I try to keep an eye open for local fundraisers.
I went to one at a Japanese restaurant recently.
It earned over $40,000 in one evening!
Tonight Clancey’s Irish pub is doing one for the Red Cross/specifically for Japan.
We will be tipping back a few and listening to some great music.
Hey, its for a great cause.
Seriously, I am amazed that more isn’t being done through the media.
No telethons here locally so far.
You actually have to figure out how to get donations to the Japanese in need on your own!
How weird is that?
@Nan G:
I did a home remodel project last year that is nearly finished now, a total remodel practically, the Owner is American, has a Japanese wife and two beautiful children. They had planned to go to Japan for a month back in March to visit her family and then that disaster happened, thus were unable to go.
Radiation, contamination, and untold misery. It will be a long time before Japan gets back to ‘normal’. They have done it before, though, and will do it again, but things are astronomically higher cost now than they were in 1945.
Esd.: A nice but sad read; unfortunately, it is hard to reply to this material for several reasons. Don’t let that deter you from contributing this type of article in the future.
@Skookum:
Thanks, Skook. I know. I did not write it hoping to garner comments, but in the hopes that people would read it and think.
Esd
What is sad, is that when situations like this come along, similar to the tsunami that swept over Indonesia back in 2004, a true spirit of generosity and giving comes out, but the false ‘charity’, forced by our government upon us, limits the amount one can actually give.
The International Church of the Nazarene has active work in Japan and its emergency assistance arm, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, is doing a great job there. Learn how to give at this website: http://www.ncm.org/news/press/people_struggle_with_cold_lack_of_services_in_japan/
So a nation – a strategically important American ally — is facing an energy crisis that can’t be contained. The crisis is located on the NE/c of the island – farthest away from its imposing neighbor.
Some of the world’s best engineering minds cannot fix the problem; even after weeks of trying. So now, in desperation, they will attempt to cap the spi — uh, fallout.
On top of this, the island is dealing with a multitude of “natural” calamities that, together, are bringing one of the world’s most prosperous nations to its knees.
CHORUS:
The beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6kS6PcgH_s&playnext=1&list=PLFC1895F345EED89D
…the timing of which occurred after a major oil spill in the Gulf, caused by the apparent negligence of a petroleum producer based in the nation of another strong American ally;
…the timing of which occurred in the midst of the last, gasping breaths of a failed global-warming aka climate-change propaganda campaign…
CHORUS:
The beat goes on, the beat goes on
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain
La de da de de, la de da de da
Last night, Irish people, and not-so-Irish people gathered in a small pub.
Together we donated $35,600 for the Japan crisis.
Don’t tell me Americans are not a great and generous people!
Iron Maiden were due to play Japan the day after the tsunami hit. They’ve sold all the concert shirts that were produced for that leg of the tour with ALL the proceeds, not just the profit, going to the relief effort. Actions speak louder than words.
@ Chris:
That’s a tough question. Some would say, yes they are, and some would scoff with disdain and suggest there is no God. From my own personal standpoint, I would suggest, as Jesus noted, that these are just the ‘beginning of sorrows’, and when God’s judgments actually begin, we won’t have to ask the question, we will be fully aware of what is happening. How long these sorrows will continue then, is no foretelling, and a ‘judgment’, sic, is not a ‘sorrow’ until one and one’s loved ones are fully impacted by it. Here in the US, we have been rather insulated, by the most part, from the real disasters that have befallen the rest of the world….one wonders if it has been due to our being the largest Christian nation in the world and our long-time championing of Gods People…
I believe there is a direct relation in that, and I believe that as the leaders of this country side with our enemies more and more against the interests of Israel, then we will see those ‘sorrows’ begin to impact upon this country, as well as upon its citizens.
America is now on a prophetic countdown to the gravest days in our history. In a few weeks, a vote will be taken at the United Nations that will force America to choose between standing with Israel and standing with her enemies. Israeli leaders have asked for support at the United Nations and a week later as the nations of the world gather for the demonic Durban III conference to continue accusing Zionists of being racists. The first Durban Conference occurred in 2001. At that conference, the Palestinians distributed copies of the anti-Semitic “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion” to all delegates. It was the most evil, anti-Semitic UN assembly ever against Israel, but let’s see how goes the upcoming one.
Scripture tells us that those who see the scars in Christ’s hands and feet, when He returns, will weep because they rejected Him so long ago. I daresay that when we reject Gods People, as it appears our leaders are planning to do, then we will weep sooner.