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| Expect More Fukushimas |
 The
gung-ho nuclear industry is in deep shock. Just as it and its
cheerleader, the International Atomic Energy Agency, were preparing
to mark next month´s 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl
accident with a series of self-congratulatory statements about
the dawning of a safe age of clean atomic power, a series of
catastrophic but entirely avoidable accidents take place in
not one but three reactors in one of the richest countries of
the world. Fukushima is not a rotting old power plant in a failed
state manned by half-trained kids, but supposedly one of the
safest stations in one of the most safety-conscious countries
with the best engineers and technologists in the world. Chernobyl
blew up not because the reactor... |
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| THE IKE PHASE |
| ON January 20, 1961, John Kennedy delivered
his rousing Inaugural Address. But this speech was preceded,
as William Galston of the Brookings Institution has reminded
us, by an equally important speech: Dwight Eisenhower´s
farewell address. Kennedy´s speech was an idealistic call
to action. Eisenhower´s speech was a calm warning against
hubris. Kennedy celebrated courage; Eisenhower celebrated prudence.
Kennedy asked the country to venture forth. Eisenhower asked
the country to maintain its basic sense of balance. While Kennedy
gloried in the current moment, Eisenhower warned the country
to "avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering,
for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of
tomorrow... |
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Match Libya rhetoric with action, UK tells world
AFP LONDON BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron urged world leaders on Wednesday to match their rhetoric over Libya with action, as London tries to press through a no-fly zone at the UN Security Council.
Cameron acknowledged the opposition to the plan and said a no-fly zone was not a simple solution, but he insisted that the world must act to stop Libyan leader Moamer Qadhafi brutally crushing the rebellion against him.
“Of course there are a wide range of views in the UN but I would urge those to take the right steps so that actually we show some leadership on this issue and make sure that we can get rid of this regime,” Cameron said.
Britain, France and Lebanon — on behalf of the Arab League — presented a resolution on Tuesday on a no-fly zone and other measures at the UN Security Council, but it faces stiff opposition, led by China and Russia.
“Every world leader has said that Qadhafi should go, that his regime is illegitimate,” Cameron told lawmakers at his weekly question and answer session in parliament.
“If at the end of this he is left in place that will send a terrible message not just to people in Libya but to others across the region who want to see greater democracy, greater openness in their societies.” The prime minister added: “I’m not arguing that a no fly zone is a simple solution to this problem — of course it isn’t.
“But I do think it’s part of one of the steps we need to take to isolate and to pressurise this regime and to say that we stand with people in Libya who want to have greater democracy and greater freedom just as we take for granted in this country.”
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