Found this picture on the 'net. Thought I might share...
Click to see full size.
Artist's explanation:
Tsunami project: cfsl.net/tsunami
If this art is chosen, this will be sell in auctions (August 30, 2011, Arludik gallery, Paris) -> 100 % will be reversed to GIVE2ASIA.
Explanations on symbolic details:
+Blood on her breast symbolizes Japan
+A flower of hope is growing on her kimono
+I was inspired by Tsunami wave by the artist Hokusai, well known piece
+the golden sky behind the grey skies in the upper part of the picture, symbolizes hope.
With all the coverage of the problems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, you ought to remember that the tsunami had the greatest impact, and still does. Over 12,000 dead and 15,000 missing from the earth quake and tsunami.* Fukushima: 0 dead and 0 missing. Possibly the greatest tragedy about Fukushima is that it's diverting attention away from the real tragedy.
*source: BBC
8 comments:
Actually the bodies of 2 plant workers were just recovered, a few days ago. They stayed at the plant to frantically stabilize it as best they could, knowing the wave was on its way.
And the "Fukishima 50",in reality a few hundred workers, will die shortly due to radiation exposure.
The two workers appear to have died from injuries related to tsunami, not from radiation. "An autopsy revealed that they likely died from the force of impact from the tsunami." Therefore, I would include them in the 12,000+ tsunami total.
Keep in mind that even at Chernobyl, only about 30 people died directly as a result of exposure, and they didn't take anything near the safety precautions that the Japanese are taking.
Here on the other side of the world in English media the focus is on the nuclear plant. I wonder what coverage in Japan is like. I'm thinking given that its only been a few years since the last tsunami damage that maybe we know what to expect. Nevertheless the photos of land-stricken boats and wreckage and reports of "tides of bodies" is phenomenal.
The reactor meltdown has far greater and long-lasting implications. Numbers, statistics, as a result of radiation, is sketchy and hard to believe. You get both ends, the "30 people died at Chernobyl" and some other figure in the thousands. Radiation is not something that can definitively be measured. A death twenty years later because of cancer, is impossible to prove for certain it was due to radiation.
The generational effects of radiation are what nobody seems to think about. Deformed, twisted offspring in the Chernobyl area are very real.
Ech...I've read so much uninformed, ignorant articles on the subject that I automatically avoid any Japan-related stories now. Disinformation and silly pro-nuclear rants amidst such a large-scale loss of life is pathetic.
Small correction: There was no "meltdown" at Fukushima, as the nuclear fuel never melted and escaped the primary containment vessel.
There were 28 deaths from radiation poisoning at Chernobyl. This is well documented. Like you say, it's much harder to measure indirect deaths from cancer, etc. Sounds like it could be a few thousand or so. Read this report from the IAEA if you're interested.
Civilian deaths from Fukushima likely to be much less, due to quicker evacuation and relatively low levels of radiation outside of the 20-30 mile radius.
The thing about deformed offspring is overblown though:
"There has been a modest but steady increase in reported congenital malformations
in both ‘contaminated’ and ‘uncontaminated’ areas of Belarus since 1986; see Fig. 4.
This does not appear to be radiation-related and may be the result of increased
registration. "
Sorry .. don't mean to sound know-it-allish. It's a subject I have some interest in.
Something about this painting isn't quite right. Might be the inadvertent connection with Japanese style porn.
I'll have to download me some Japanese style porn and investigate.
And I agree with everything you've presented, just that these:
http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/chernobyl
Are what make it hard to say "hmm, only 28 deaths? Pocket change!" Even if there are no visible effects of radiation, that person may very well pass defective DNA onto future generations. They could even be defective genes that do not present themselves in the subsequent generation.
In other words, the Chernobyl gene pool literally was nuked. Who knows what that means and only god would be able to provide us any meaningful statistics.
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