STOP ROKKASYO!


I’m sure you’re all aware of the problems surrounding the nuclear fuel
reprocessing plant in in Rokkasho-mura, Aomori prefecture. It’s been a big
issue among the people in that area for quite a few years now but for some
mysterious reason has never really been talked about in the media (actually, I
’m sure there’s a very clear reason why it’s been ignored but I won’t go
into that). Reprocessing plants exist to make it possible to re-use fuel
spent in creating nuclear energy. Amazingly, the amount of waste produced
during one day at Rokkasho is more than most facilities make in a whole year.
It’s terrifying. To learn more about how scary the situation is, I recommend
the following websites.


http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~genkoku/
A group of 10,000 people fighting against nuclear power. Contains a lot of
really good information.

http://jbbs.livedoor.jp/bbs/read.cgi/travel/2887/1106094133/l50
A bulletin board on Livedoor where a discussion is taking place between those
for and against nuclear power. In some ways it seems like there’s a lot of
negativity going on here, but at the same time you can really feel just how
passionate people get about this issue.

http://designcafe.jp/blog/archives/2006/05/post_59.html
This website is a portal to many others that look like they’re worth
reading. Definitely a great resource.


The wise and dedicated Ryuichi Sakamoto has started a movement to make this
important and pertinent issue better known to society at large. The website
is http://www.stop-rokkasho.org, a place where music and art come together to
create change. Sakamoto, activist-rapper Shing02 and electronic artist
Christian Fennesz have all created music and made it available there to
download for free. I feel as strongly as they do about this issue and have
joined their numbers. Toshinori Kondo and I contributed another version of
our Earth Day song, “Tears for Mother Earth,” which is also free to
download and listen to.

The song we created takes the sounds the two of us make and somehow
cosmically intertwines them, making you feel as you’re tuned into the
heartbeat of the planet. I’d love for everybody to listen and be touched by
it and all the music there, to learn, to raise their voices. People who care
about nothing but profit and gain are trampling all over the rights of the
people who live in Rokkasho, are ignoring the cries of Mother Nature. We have
to shout out to the world just how very wrong the whole thing is.

Our lives are all intrinsically based on electricity, so it’s hard to be
entirely against nuclear power. Still, when I think about the incident that
happened in Chernobyl twenty years ago and how many people are still
suffering, how many have to live with the pain of leukemia, I believe more
than ever that we must find a new green method of producing energy. I have
high hopes for wind power, solar power, hydraulic power, biomass power, etc.
I cannot wait until the day that cleaner methods, kind to living things and
the environment, have become the norm.

Large amounts of radioactive materials and toxic substances in the air or the
ocean have the power to hurt every living creature. And if there’s anything
more important than cherishing life and our planet, I’ve yet to figure out
what it is. My dearest hope is that all people will someday open their eyes
to that which truly beautiful and worthwhile.


Sugizo

Posted by SUGIZO : June 2, 2006 06:05 AM