tsunami – praag.org

‘Oz needs PM, not Shylock and drug dealer’s cousin’

Indonesians have mobilized in record numbers to collect cash for the Australian PM, who touched a raw nerve by bringing up Australia’s $1 bn in tsunami relief aid to Jakarta while making a clemency appeal for convicted drug traffickers.

Images of Australian Prime Minister Tonny Abbott with red tape crossed over his mouth can be seen all over Indonesia, particularly in Jakarata. Loads of silver coins are covering banners spread on the ground – all part of the “repay” protest campaign that has spread like a bushfire across the island nation.

As part of the international relief effort for the 2004 earthquake and tsunami off the west coast of Sumatra that killed more than 100,000 people, Australia was quick to offer $1 billion in aid relief.

Speaking this week, Abbott hinted that it is time for the Asian nation to repay its debt by freeing two members of the famous Bali Nine, currently on a death row. The Bali Nine was a name given to a group of nine Australians who were arrested in Bali in 2005 Bali for planning to smuggle 8.3 kg (18 lb) of heroin, valued at over $3 million, from Indonesia to Australia.

“Let’s not forget that a few years ago when Indonesia was struck by the Indian Ocean tsunami, Australia sent a billion dollars worth of assistance,” Abbot said. “I would say to the Indonesian people and the Indonesian government: we in Australia are always there to help you and we hope that you might reciprocate in this way at this time,” the PM stated, referring to death-row Australian nationals Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The plea sparked a fierce backlash, with Indonesians comparing Tony Abbott to Shakespeare’s Shylock, the moneylender in The Merchant of Venice who demanded a pound of flesh if his loans weren’t paid back.

Many ordinary Indonesians are enraged. During a protest on Sunday, thousands rallied to express their anger and continue to coin collection campaign.

The Pro-Indonesia Coalition, for example, organized a “Coin for Australia” movement during a car-free day at a roundabout near Hotel Indonesia.

“Let us not let our dignity being bought by Tony Abbot,” action coordinator Andi Sinulingga said at the event.

Rian, one of the event organizers, told the Sydney Morning Herald that it was a joy delivering the coins to the Australian embassy, saying that if every person donates one coin, which has a population of 250 million, Indonesia could pay back the “small amount of money donated by Australia.”

“So, don’t you ever mention something as tiny as $1 billion in relief for us,” Rian said. “We are a nation that refuses to be colonized, a nation that would like to tell other nations not to try to destroy this republic.”

“Australians need a prime minister, not a Shylock and drug dealer’s cousin,” read a banner during Sunday’s protest. A Twitter campaign using the hashtags #KoinuntukAustralia, #coinforAustralia and #coinforAbbott has also generated a lot of steam.

Indonesia plans to execute 11 convicts on death row, including the drug convicts from Australia, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, whose clemency pleas had been rejected by President Joko Widodo. Earlier this week, however, the vice president’s office said that the execution of two Australian smugglers had been delayed by up to one month.

Indonesia executed six drug offenders in January, including five foreigners, prompting Brazil and the Netherlands to recall their ambassadors.

Earthquake strikes Guam

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake was reported off the coast of Guam Wednesday, but no tsunami is expected due to the earthquake’s depth.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, the earthquake was located “too deep inside the earth” to generate tsunami concerns.

The quake struck at more than 160km deep, according to the US Geological Survey. The magnitude was originally put at 6.9.

The earthquake was reported about 40km northwest of Guam in the Pacific Ocean.

The island, a US naval base, is located about 2600km southeast of Japan, with its largest source of income being the United States Armed Forces.

In addition to on-shore military installations, Guam, along with the rest of the Mariana Islands, is being prepared to be the westernmost military training range for America.

It is currently viewed as a key military hub that will further allow US military power to be projected via sea and sky.

US will assume control of Japan’s nuclear cache

According to The New York Times, Japan will announce on Monday that it will turn over to Washington more than 700 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and a large quantity of highly enriched uranium, a decades-old research stockpile that is large enough to build dozens of nuclear weapons.

The nuclear fuel being turned over to the United States, which is of American and British origin, is a fraction of Japan’s overall stockpile. Japan has more than nine tons of plutonium stored in various locations and it is scheduled to open in the fall a new nuclear fuel plant that could produce many tons more every year.

American officials have been quietly pressing Japan to abandon the program, arguing that the material is insufficiently protected even though much of it is in a form that would be significantly more difficult to use in a weapon than the supplies being sent to the United States.

The explosions at Fukushima were chemical hydrogen explosions and were not nuclear explosions however. The exposed core reacts with the high pressure steam at about 2000°C to form zirconium and hydrogen. What we DO have is effectively three dirty bombs, ejecting radioactive isotopes in the form of dust particles into the atmosphere.

It takes a dosage of 4 Sieverts to kill 50% of the population, one Sievert would kill 5% of the population. Background level is 1-2 mS/y, smokers inhale an additional 5-10mS/y. 30 milliSieverts/year is regarded as the maximum occupational danger level (airline pilots, etc get about 5-9 mS/y). Some areas in Japan may get that level, Europe almost certainly will not.

Using Bequerels instead of Sieverts: Background level here for foodstuffs is about 40 Bequerels/kilogramm, warning levels for foods after Chernobyl were set at 800 B/Kg. Cancer patients sometimes have a scintigramm at 4 MEGA-Bequerels = 47 THOUSAND Bequerels/kilogramm without any negative effects.

Most of the fallout cloud should go out over the Pacific where it will be washed out of the sky by rain. Each component of the fallout has a different duration depending on which isotope it is. Each isotope has a so-called half-life. This means that half its radiation is gone after this half-life. Since 210 =1,000 and 220 = 1,000,000 it takes 10 respectively 20 half-lives for that isotope’s radiation to fall to 1 thousandth resp. one millionth of its initial value.

The dangerous elements which accumulate in the body are iodine, cesium and plutonium. The reactor Fukushima #3 is a MOX reactor.

Iodine 131 has a half-life of 8 days. It is a β and γ emitter. Iodine congregates in the thyroid gland. You can take non-radioactive I127 pills to saturate your thyroid preemptively, so that it doesn’t take up any I131.

Cesium137 has a half-life of about 33 years, β and γ emitter. The body treats cesium like potassium, so it is eventually excreted. but can cause many different types of cancer, particularly in the excretion filters, liver and kidneys.

Plutonium239 has a half-life of about 24,000 years, so it doesn’t go away. It is an α and γ emitter which congregates in the bone marrow where the α particles can do serious damage quickly.

Don’t eat any Kobe beef, imported Sushi or Pacific fish unless it has been officially checked for radiation first.

Source: VoR