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Buddhist ethics, buying off ideas, buying scientists, Christian ethics, controlling universities, environmentally friendly, Ethics, Freedom of the Press, Fukushima, Fukushima and religion, Japan, lies, manipulating public opinion, nuclear and religion, nuclear disaster, nuclear ethics, nuclear industry, nuclear industry buying scientists, nuclear industry buying universities, Nuclear PR, nuclear propaganda, PR, propaganda, social ethics, TEPCO, Thou Shalt Not Kill, Thou Shalt Not Lie, Thou Shalt Not Steal, whatever happened to sin
“Lies and Truthfulness
First, one of the ethical principles of Buddhism and Christianity is truthfulness and the rejection of telling lies. The PR claims that electricity produced by nuclear power is cheap, environmentally friendly, and safe are blunt lies. It is only ‘cheap’ when ignoring the tax money used for construction of the power plants and the tremendous costs for the final disposal of nuclear waste. It is ‘safe’ only when the many accidents and the constant impact of radiation from the power plant under normal working conditions on the environment and human health are concealed. It is ‘environmentally friendly’ only when claiming that the CO2 emissions from conventional power plants are more dangerous than the radiation released by reactors during normal operation. Keeping quiet about one side of the coin (the ugly side) characterizes modern advertising. Telling only half of the truth means telling lies.
Moreover, the amount of money spent by the nuclear industry for PR to manipulate public opinion is enormous. In the case of Japan, since 2011 the electric power companies have paid huge amounts to the mass media, scientists at universities, and others. If TEPCO had instead used this money to compensate for damage caused by its nuclear disaster, the government would not now need to spend the taxpayers’ money for such purposes. Since power companies in Japan possess monopolies in the regions in which they are operating, one wonders why they need to advertise so heavily in the media and sponsor academics. The only conceivable reason is the attempt to manipulate public opinion. Apparently in response to this outpour of money, critical reporting in most Japanese media has been suppressed – with a few exceptions, such as by the newspaper Tokyo Shimbun – and critical journalists have been fired. Even worse: as early as April 2011 the government issued laws attempting to strictly control the information flow on the Internet under the pretext of preventing the ‘spread of rumors.’ Previously, such drastic measures had been taken only by totalitarian regimes disturbed by the absence of a public outcry by Japanese citizens and organizations…”
Excerpt from: “The TEPCO Nuclear Disaster and the Responsibilities of Religions“, by Martin Repp. Please read the entire article here: http://www.rk-world.org/dharmaworld/dw_2013octdec_the-tepco-nuclear-disaster-and-the-responsibilities-of-religions.aspx
Note that Martin Repp is German and lived and worked in Japan for 21 years. Thus, this article has interesting details about the situation not found elsewhere. More importantly it deals with the topic of social ethics. These ethics transcend religion and are needed for our very survival. It is probably the most important article that we have read or posted. Social ethics is the deepest underpinnings of our Mining Awareness blog site.
Martin Repp points out that we should speak of the TEPCO nuclear disaster and not the Fukushima nuclear incident.
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