TWO CRISES CAUSED BY HUMANS: JAPAN AND LIBYA

  • by Johan Galtung
  • Inter Press Service

The warnings from the people who suffered nuclear genocide in Hiroshima and Nagasaki fell on deaf ears. Many of its 55 nuclear power plants were built close to beaches to use the nearby sea water for cooling -in the country that gave the giant flood-wave its name, tsunami. The scientists knew the risk of tsunamis yet did not shout DON'T DO IT!! to the nuclear enthusiasts committed criminal neglect, writes Johan Galtung, director of the TRANSCEND Peace University and author of "A Theory of Conflict" and "A Theory of Development".

In this article the author writes that there were warnings, but they were dampened by strong interests and the lure of profits. Hidden by power plants, nuclear weapons can be built. Japanese hawks, craving to restore Japan's might in this way, kept the conflict with North Korea hot. Were Westinghouse and General Electric, after being hit by the Three Mile Island disaster of 1979, invited by the Japanese government to reduce its trade surplus? In any case, scientists, who have prestige and power, kept shamefully silent.

Far from Japan, in Libya, the Israeli-English-French war on Egypt 1956 is being reenacted, without Israel, but with the US plus 7 UN Security Council members. The US again got Clausewitz's formula "by all necessary means" into the text. Minus 5 UNSC members who abstained from voting: Brazil, Russia, India, China (BRIC) and Germany. The dereliction of the African Union and the Arab League is deplorable. Libya is a major country in both. They could have offered mediation from the very beginning. If rejected, they could have authorised the entry -from land, sea or air- of peacekeeping, not "peace-enforcing", troops. Shamefully, they left the game to old suspects. Do better next time. There will be many occasions.

(*) Johan Galtung, director of the TRANSCEND Peace University, is author of "A Theory of Conflict" and "A Theory of Development".

//NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, IRELAND, POLAND, AND THE UNITED STATES//

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service