kudamutenda: 5月 2011

2011年5月31日火曜日

Commentary on an editorial about Nuclear Energy.

The recently held G8 summit which was held in France could almost be termed a damage control event, as it was taken by unfolding events, not the traditional and always planned agenda issues like economic growth and security of member states. This year it was the internal unrests in Arab countries especially Libya and the Fukushima nuclear disaster that were the main focus items on the agenda for discussion.

I think the discussions on the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, as the editor plainly pointed, were very sticky with all the member countries being huge beneficiaries of Nuclear Energy, especially France, America and even Japan the country in question. It was also a very politically sensitive area to trade on countless protests in the member countries. So after of all the diplomatic gabling, the member states were only able to agree that they need to find safer and more sustainable energy forms, while working on improving safety in nuclear energy, so that they will not be a repeat of Fukushima again. Only

Germany

took the bold step by stating that they already have plans in the pipeline to be 100% free of nuclear energy by 2020. Already they have decommissioned 8 nuclear plants in the last 3months alone.

The truth is that nuclear energy will constitute a significant chunk of our energy pie, so long we do not have another form of energy to match in volume, economical cost, environmental cost and ,yes, safety. Unless we can answer all the questions on cost, environment and volume, nuclear energy will still be lighting our homes and factories in a millennium. I am sure the so called Nuclear Summit, announced by Naoto Kan will also propose the same thing that I have above.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/T110528002300.htm

2011年5月23日月曜日

The authority of Sccience and Technology in Japan, in relation with the Tohoku Earhquake.

I come from a country with a very complex and emotionally troubling colonial history which destroyed my ancestors` known and respected customs, traditions and practices into oblivion as they are today. These not just being manners and customs, but also the dating system, the counting method, medicinal practices, agricultural practices and a great many other aspects of life, encroaching into the technological sphere.

Resultantly most modern science we have today is not a development or extension of the reasoning and logic of my ancestors. Nor was it a voluntary adaptation as it was in Japan. But rather a forced idea. Given this background, though the average Zimbabwean would study, trust and embrace the contents and instructions of period table of elements, willingly take medicine prescribed by a doctor and every now and then read a few journals of science. They will always do this in agony, seeing them all as foreign ideas and practices, but because of their superiority, they have to swallow the ice and accept them.

Now in Japan, a country with a very long history of sending its brightest of scholars abroad to learn from other cultures and bring back new ideas and practices to help improve the way of life in Japan. Today`s modern day science is sort of intertwined in Japan`s history, culture and future as well. It is not seen as foreign but as part of Japanese identity. Given the numerous Japanese nationalities who have significantly contributed to medicine and science, it only makes it easy.

This is very evident in the way that Japanese academics have a very high status in society. You only have to say that ‘a university professor found that eating bananas only is very good to way to lose weight and stay healthy’, and all the bananas will be sold out the next day. That could also be the same reason that bureaucrats seem to enjoy a position of power and influence in the country, that is so because they are the representation of the educated.

I could see that when the earthquake come, almost all the Japanese took the news the government announced blindly folded, even as they couldn`t understand most of the stuff that was being said. The voice the technocrats that things will be alright, seemed to spread a mood comfort and assurance. Science, seems to have a high position of authority in Japan, more than it does in my country, where it is always stubbornly challenged and poked.

The constant interpretations and their subsequent announcements by the authorities, did to a great extent calm the majority of the people. Obviously, this was not everyone, but I am sure it was to a great extent, the majority of the people. If a disaster of the same magnitude, had hit some where else not Japan, I am sure that panic alone could have cost a lot more in human life than it did in Japan.

It is my strong belief that in Japan, Science is seen almost as an absolute authority, to be respected and rarely challenged, at least by the average citizen.

2011年5月17日火曜日

Report on Politics on Nature

Report on Politics on Nature

-Actor Network Theory and the Nuclear Industry in Japan

IN Bruno Latour`s very winding, complex and difficult book, The Politics of Nature, a new and somewhat odd way of looking at the relationship between Nature and the people who live in this nature is presented. In this view ecology is given two separate faces of view points, that of facts and the other of values. Bruno insists that only in this way can ecology be systematically weighed and measured in a qualitative manner, not “Short Circuited” for short term political gain as is the current scenario today. As an illustrative tool, he used Plato`s Caveman metaphor to explain the problems of not separating values from facts.

One new theory which he introduced is the Actor Network Theory (ANT) which he developed with other science and technology scholars (J Law and M Callon). IN this theory he argues that things (including humans) are all related together in both a materialistic and semiotic manner, making them a network, thus functioning network hence becomes a single actor in the big picture. For example at Sophia we have teachers, students, security stuff, facilities and books, all these things are linked in a materialistic and semiotic manner, making them a network. Together they become a one single actor, but every part of the system needs to his part of the work otherwise the whole system will collapse.

Every day I spend almost 30mins browsing the internet looking at developments concerning the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster. As I was reading about Actor Network Theory in Bruno Latour`s book on an article that that I had read last month came to my mind. The article was in Japan Times, and was reporting on the current common understanding that ‘lack or improper regulatory practices in the nuclear industry could be attributed to the unfolding disaster in Fukushima’.

The article argued that the too close and inter-related relationship of the regulated and the regulators in the Japanese nuclear industry led to somewhat gross negligence of duties on the part of the regulators, due to a clear and substantial conflict of interest. In the Actor Network Theory, the nuclear power industry as a network was malfunctioning and hence unable to regulate its safety practices. Just like would be the case if some students were also teachers and vice versa at any university.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nn20110505f1.html

2011年5月15日日曜日

The day of the earthquake.

When the big earthquake came I was in a very big transitional period. As a week earlier I had just finished writing and submitted my undergraduate school graduation thesis, and was also busy preparing for my graduation ceremony which was due to be held on the 20^th of that month. The previous day, I had just finished moving all my belongings from the dormitory I used to stay into my new apartment in Asagaya.

As such, I still had no internet connection as it takes more than two months, had all my books, clothes, cutlery, shoes, and basically everything I owned piled up in boxes all over the small apartment room. Coming from

Zimbabwe

, a country that is on a very stable platonic plate and with no history of earthquakes, all odds were against me.

On the 11^th of March I was supposed to attend a much anticipated farewell party which was being attended by more than 100 people, including alumni, university staff, my colleagues and juniors. The farewell party is the most looked up to event in the calendar. It is a far much bigger day than the actual graduation ceremony. It is the epitome of tradition and pride in a cheer leader’s life.

IN the midst of all this, all of a sudden, there was a small shack from the left to the right. I brushed it off as one of those we normally get in Tokyo every now and then. I stubbornly continued looking for my tie in the piles of boxes which were looking like a rubble dump. Then the shacking continued, this time with more rage, the shacks got bigger and bigger, I could actually see the surrounding tall building swivering from side to side, which was the first time for me. My treasured karate trophies fall from the top of the fridge where there were on display, and my prized porcelain vas of flowers full of water went crushing to the ground and there were broken glasses and water all over my new carpet. All of this commotion really took me out of my comfort zone and got me feeling a bit scared which is quite rare for me. I began panicking, and decided to get out of the house, my survival instincts commanding me to look for a plain area without any tall buildings. At the same time my mind was all over the place, thinking if I should lock the door, take warm clothes, get some money, pack some food, and still worrying about the dents on my trophies that had fallen.

When I got to the evacuation site, which was just a few hundred meters from my house, I was surprised to see so many people already there. One old man saying that he has never experienced such a large earthquake, at the time I just realized that I had been lucky to still be alive.

　　This could have all been my experience of the great earthquake that took more than 20000 lives, destroyed property worth hundreds of billion of dollars and caused one of the biggest nuclear disasters in Asia. Alas, I had no television set, no internet connection, no radio and my mobile phone network. Hence there was no means of medium of communication, except through word of mouth with my neighbors whom I hardly knew as I had just moved. 　So when the whole situation rescinded I continued with my preparations for the farewell party, with no idea of the tremendous amount of damage the Tohoku area had incurred

　　When I got to the train station, the trains were no longer running, they had all been suspended indefinitely. I asked the station staff what was the situation, and they told me the there was a chance the trains could start running immediately or not at all. They simply had no idea, until they got orders from their head office. So still in the dark, I decided to take a taxi cab to Shibuya so as not to be late for the party. Fortunately there was a radio in the taxi, as the hard news slowly poured in, that is when I started to get a glimpse of the calamity that had gripped

Japan

. Amazingly a distance that normally takes less than 20mins, took more than 2hrs, and I paid dearly for that. The streets were packed, and the whole scenery was in turmoil. People walking with theirs shoes in hand, traffic jams, babies crying, faces full of fatigue, endless lines, no street lights, and darkness in Shibuya, a deathly silence all over the normally vibrant night spots of Shibuya. And as can only be expected, the farewell party was cancelled、even though more than 90% of the attendees had found a way to get to the venue. Common sense prevailed and tradition was broken.

We dispersed, I was not prepared to part with another twenty thousand yen, so I set the whole night out in Shibuya, until trains started running in the next morning. All this time I had not received even one telephone call as the network was congested. Meanwhile the news of the disaster was now all over the world, and in somewhat over exaggerated scales. When the situation subsided and was able to call home my mum, sisters, and relatives were all in tears.

A day I will live to remember.