Friday News Roundup - Hour 2
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-03-18/friday-news-roundup-hour-2
Japan tries to cool nuclear reactors as concerns about radiation increase. Libyan forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi make gains in retaking rebel territory. And Bahrain declares a state of emergency in a widening crackdown on protesters. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.
Guests
Abderrahim Foukara
Washington bureau chief of Al Jazeera Arabic.
Indira Lakshmanan
senior reporter, Bloomberg News.
Michael Hirsh
chief correspondent, National Journal magazine; author of "Capital Offense: How Washington's Wise Men Turned America's Future Over to Wall Street."
Comments
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Dear Diane,
I hope you will cover this well today. I am living in Japan now. I am super worried about this situation and I am wondering what I have to do. I am living pretty far away from Fukushima (about 800 miles). Still I am very concerned. On the other hand, I have been researching and I may have come to the conclusion that there was no change in long term health outcomes for adults because of Chernobyl. I am of course not talking about the workers at the plant. Also, the only long term change for children is a increase in thyroid cancer (about 6000 cases I think). I have not found the facts that show that radiation has been dangerous (again except in super high levels received by workers at the plant). I would like to know if this is true. How worried do I need to be? Or not?
Please take a look at the video from the IAEA here
http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/chernobyl/
and this interview with an Oxford physics professor here:
http://www.thetakeaway.org/2011/mar/17/radiation-explainer-what-does-why...
There may be other opinions on this but I believe these are substantial and worth at least considering seriously.
Diane --
Obama did not say that radiation from Japan would not reach USA.
He said that any radiation reaching USA would not be harmful.
Unfortunately, both statements are false. All nuclear experts agree that there is no safe level of radiation exposure, and that the risk from exposure is cumulative.
Even the very small increases in exposure that Americans will absorb from Japan will increase their risk of getting cancer.
Everyone in the northern hemisphere who was alive 25 years ago still has radiation from Chernobyl in their bodies, and within a few weeks, everyone alive in the n.h. today will have radiation from Fukushima in their bodies.
What Americans should be most worried about are the 22 GE Mark I reactors in USA with the same above ground spent fuel storage pools as at Fukushima. The NRC rejected a petition after 9/11 to strengthen or empty these dangerously uncovered pools. Will it now reconsider???
The situation in The Ivory Coast (Cote D'Ivoire) is far worst than in Lybia. Yesterday on march 17, 2011 a market was bombed by Gbagbo force in Abobo, 20-30 thirty people died among them many women and children. People have been burnt alive. Why is it the international community seems to forget this country that very important to the region.
People desperately need help, they have been displaced internally.
Please spread the word.
Albert -
Your statement has an unnecessarily alarmist tone to it. It may be true that "there is no safe level of radiation exposure" and that "even the very small increases in exposure that Americans will absorb from Japan will increase their risk of getting cancer," but no a key (and unacknowledged) factor in how worried we should be (or if we should worry at all) is *how much* the risk is increased by.
Are we now all 50% more likely to get cancer? Or .00001% more likely to get cancer? My guess, given that any amount of residual radiation that manages to cross that distance is likely to be miniscule compared to, say, the Xrays we get at the dentist and doctor on an almost regular basis, is that the risk increase trends more towards the .00001% side of that dynamic, if it is even large enough to be measurable.
I understand your concern about the US reactors, but the idea that we should all panic over radiation from Japan when we all probably get more radiation at the airport several times a year seems farcical.
Matthew: You're far too close to McGuire and Catawba to be so certain and self-assured. These plants are probably older than you are. Duke Energy is the kind of utility that brags about Charlotte being an "energy hub" while piling coal slag above our primary reservoir. I expect their nukes are run with the same hubris, and by this point are dangerously corroded with a full complement of stored "spent fuel" rods. Duke already gave my household out iodine capsules and our evacuation calendars. Have you received yours? I doubt you're the kind of guy who would let the dentist keep his head under the x-ray all day. Something invisible and undetectable without specialized meters is easy to lie about, until a decade or two pass.
I heard speakers yesterday talking about how at least the situation at the nuclear power plants in Japan was not human error. But having only 8 or so hours of battery backup to the generators, and then not immediately securing replacement batteries as soon as the situation became more apparent, to me is human error, especially in an area known for earthquakes and tsunamis.
I am disappointed with amount of missing information given by Tokoyo power and the Japanese government. I think there's some human element, like pride, at play in the Japanese nuclear situation. We are talking about a country that has the human-like robot asimo, and a time when we can airlift large generators to anywhere in the world in a day. It's been a week, how could it get this bad? Something has gone wrong in the decision making process. Can you ask your guests to comment on how a salvageable situation has gone wrong?
I have been recommending Al Jazeera English to my friends because of their excellent coverage of events in the Middle East. I was very disappointed to hear your guest report their reasons for not covering the assualt on reporter Lara Logan. Al Jazeera no longer has my respect as a legitamate news organization.
Although I find your interviews imbued with decency and intelligence, I have long thought that you have a DC inside the Belt, basically establishment set of guests, ie that you are too cozy with your regular journalist guests. Today I was startled by your complete lack of response to the prepared statement by Mr. Foukara about Al Jazeera's deciding not to report the assault on Lara Logan. You permitted Mr. Foukara to recite Al Jazeera's (ludicrous) company line, which he did nervously, undoubtedly knowing how untenable it was, and you said nothing and asked no followup.
The fact that you rely on him as a guest should make you more concerned with watching your own hesitation to ask tough questions or followups.
Thanks very much,
Elle, Dedham MA
A caller expressed misgivings about our helping people overthrow their government and whether or not it is legal to overthrow your government. The US was created by rebels overthrowing their legitimate government and was successful only with the help of other nations and foreign nationals. I see her comment as reflective of the lack of in depth treatment of American history as taught in our schools.
I agree with Linda Hallmark Beste.
And as a longtime Diane Rehm listener, let me point out that this discussion was about Al Jazeera English. Yet in February, when Diane first asked him, she was asking him why Al Jazeera Arabic ignored it.
There's also the issue of the names he used for Logan. "Sara Logan" and "Laura Logan," I don't believe the man did any research. If he'd pursued the question at all, someone would have stopped him and said, "Wait, Abderrahim, her name is Lara, L-A-R-A, like 'Clara,' not 'Laura.'"
As for the supposed reason for ignoring the news, a brief 30 second spot in the other hourly news items would not have changed the focus. I feel as though my intelligence was insulted and someone really thought they could pull one over me.
I also find it offensive that this attack on Lara Logan has been treated differently than other attacks on journalists. It goes to how much our society still tolerates sexual assault.
Abderrahim has now lost all credibility with me and I will not trust anything he says on future shows. His comments have also soured me on Al Jazeera English which I'd been streaming on YouTube for almost two months now.
I was appalled to hear not even 5 minutes of commentaries about the Portuguese situation. It sounded to me that none of the journalists there had a clue about what is going on in Portugal..."Just another European country, like Greece, who is not happy with the austerities the governments are proposing"... ???
Portuguese are revolted by the level of corruption there is in their government, no matter who, if the right or the left, is in charge. Being a small country where most of politicians are cousins, or in-laws, or long time friends, the class became a kind of mafia whose interests are mainly of financial level. They leave a political post to become a CEO in some company while getting a pension/retirement from the government... They are able to put together 3 or 4 "retirements", not only for themselves, but for their closest family members as well... While the median and low class have to tie up their belts for the sake of the nation... A complete non-sense.
Jose' Socrates, got upset by the protest of the people and, as a child, left. The people were not protesting against the government, but against the politicians corruption, no matter who they are, including Jose Socrates.
The President, who has a mother living on one of those "retirements", is no better.