anti nuclear demonstrations in Hong Kong June 11 2011 Tony Henderson

anti nuclear demonstrations in Hong Kong June 11 2011
Tony Henderson

About thirty Hong Kong citizen groups combined forces Saturday afternoon 11 June 2011 to gather to protest against the use of nuclear energy to generate power by the power company China Light and Power. The groups agreed that it was an absolute ban that was needed - other than for medical and research. Of particular concern was the power plant at nearby Daya Bay.

Environment and Ecology
anti nuclear demonstrations in Hong Kong June 11 2011
6/13/11

Pressenza
Pressenza International Press Agency Hong Kong, SAR,
6/12/11
Participating in the demonstration were the traditional parties who have long time protested over rights abuses in general. Among the 'old faces' were the likes of father Mellor, Christian activist.

Anarchist rocker Lenny Kwok was there to add his guitar vibes and disgruntled voice; Mok the protest theatre activist; Man see wai and co under the nonukes banner, also the Legco anarchist extraordinaire Leung Kwok-hung or 'Long Hair'.

Mostly though it was all the young faces that showed the potential for the future and in case anyone is interested, yes, jasmin buds did somehow arrive in one's hand!

The 6.11 No Nukes Declaration by “Hong Kong People Against Nukes” — A Coalition of 36 Citizens’ Groups reads as follows:

**We stand in solidarity with all fellow citizens of this Planet to say NO, clearly, loudly and determinately, to the use of nuclear power, because this so-called energy is destroying us and the ecosystems. What is visibly destroyed by the invisible radiation hardly scratches the surface of the destruction if the damages it inflicts on genes of humans, vegetation, and animals are taken into account. The destructive forces of abnormal genetic mutation, raging on when our sojourns on this Planet have long ended, will continue to bring about countless untold sufferings to many generations to come.

The urgency to stop proliferation of nuclear weapons applies with the same intensity and immediacy to nuclear power plants. It is high time that we should wake up to the reality that if the dominance of the Military-Industrial Complex continues, the risks and evils attending to the (gradual or explosive) destruction by radiation is only tips of the iceberg of the other related evils of the same origins; such as wars, oppression, genocides, dispossession and irresponsible scientific researches, to name just a few.

The reckless exploration and exploitation of nuclear power since the 1940s has brought dramatic increase in pre-mature deaths and a multitude of diseases such as cancers, heart diseases, lung diseases, blood diseases, congenital physical and mental disabilities, among other kinds of suffering.

Three month ago, the nuclear power plants at Fukushima were stricken by tsunami. Among the 6 nuclear reactors in the Daiichi plant, three experienced core meltdown, and another one has been undergoing the same process since. Facing the imminent catastrophe of unimaginable and unmanageable proportion, there is only deafening silence from the self-styled political leadership and scientists worldwide as to what we can meaningfully do to prevent the destructive radioactive isotopes from spreading – in the air, soil, oceans and the food chain. The empty rhetoric is hardly reassuring except to those accustomed to self-delusion.

The disaster that struck the Fukushima nuclear power plants was not an “act of god” as the protagonists of nuclear power would like to portray. There is no safe way to harness nuclear power. The sweet talk of “civilian use of atomic power” cannot hide the fact that radioactive fission products are essentially weapons against life. Deceptions, cover-ups, and manipulations of safety standards to protect so-called national security and interests are built-in practice of the nuclear industry.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), ostensibly a coordinate and supervisory body to ensure responsible use of nuclear power (assume that is feasible), is in fact the puppet created by the relevant corporations to give the otherwise criminal undertakings a façade of legitimacy and respectability. Since 1959 the IAEA had reached agreements with 6 United Nations bodies* to suppress research and research findings that may cast the development of nuclear power in negative light. The relentless propaganda of “safe” nuclear power plant roams the social space and dominates the discourses of the matter. Consequently, things run wild to the extent that nuclear power plants are allowed to be built in patently unsuitable locations like seismically active zones such as in Japan, Taiwan and more recently Yangjiang in Guangdong.

The Fukushima disaster is the last tolling of the bell to which we have to wake up. Homes of millions should not be put at risk of becoming exclusion zones one of these days, or be like the many sacred lands of aboriginal peoples which have been irreversibly polluted by nuclear waste stored there “permanently”. Or, no one would like to bear witness to the disappearance of all species in the sea which one’s forebears have harvested, like the fisherfolks at Daya Bay. And all the while people become more and more sickly, and babies die prematurely.

The Chinese government through its state-owned enterprises plans to construct 240 nuclear reactors by 2030. There are 6 reactors in Daya Bay and the nearby Ling Ao nuclear power plants and construction is underway in Tai Shan and Yang Jiang. The number of reactors in Guangdong province will be 32 upon completion of these projects. The population density in the vicinity of these plants is the highest among nuclear power plant sites in the world. We demand that these power plants be stopped from operation or construction to prevent disasters exceeding the scale of Fukushima’s from happening. We also call for the Hong Kong-listed company, China Light & Power Co. Ltd., to stop the unethical corporate conduct of investing in Daya Bay and Yang Jiang nuclear power plants.

Instead, people must strive for an energy policy that reflects social needs and responsibilities, and which is not dictated top-down. Such policy would focus on conservation, appropriate technology and scale that echo indigenous wisdom of communities, anti-consumerism, sustainability and a lifestyle that recognizes and respects nature.

Peoples of European countries and North America have woken up from the dark age of nuclear power. While they press their governments to permanently absolve from the deadly technology, the business target of the Military-Industrial Complex automtically shifts to countries in Asia and the Third World. Peoples of these places must be fully prepared to fend off re-colonialism by these overseas corporations and their national counterparts, avoiding the genocidal consequences that are brought about.

We must stand against the Great Leap Forward of nuclear power to be launched in China and particularly in Guangdong. Without a total abolition of the monster technology and its institutions, there is no future for our children, and all life forms will fall under the curse of death. Until the last nuclear facility stops operating, our fight will go on.**