Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Irradiated Beef Shows Japanese Government Incompetence

It seems the biggest ruckus about Fukushima is the contaminated hay that has been fed to cattle all around Japan.


Reuters reports:


Turmoil caused by the recent detection of cesium contamination of beef shipped from Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is spreading to hurt producers of high-quality beef in other parts of the country. With cattle shipments and bidding suspended or canceled due to people's fears over the contaminated beef, livestock farms and related firms worry they may be forced out of business. Since radioactive cesium above the government-designated limit was detected in beef cattle from Fukushima at a Tokyo slaughterhouse on July 8, it has been discovered that cattle possibly fed with contaminated straw have been transported across the country, except for Okinawa Prefecture.

I don't really have much to say about this excepting that this is once again proof of incompetent Japanese government.

Many might claim that this is proof that the situation at Fukushima is out of control and the government must do something about it... In fact, I gather that's what the vast majority of people think.

Well, I would like to point out something that seems missing from the conversation and ask dear reader a question:

Folks, think about this: That these animals were fed tainted hay is not proof of a situation growing out of control at all. This is only proof of government incompetence. This hay was harvested and feed to animals as feed. This is a past event. Not a current or future one. That this hay wasn't destroyed is proof that the government is unable to act and think proactively and, in any case, it is, undoubtedly, proof and another example of government incompetence.

Now, here's my question: Everyone knows how this event happened and the chain of events that lead to it. Consider that along with the government being unable to anticipate obvious problems, then how in the world would anyone in their right mind want that same government to nationalize TEPCO and take over the crippled nuclear power plants?

Now, that would be madness and would most definitely precede many future problems. It astounds me that so many people express opinions of such a nature

Don't people seem to realize the huge contradiction in their own thinking?

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." - Mark Twain

3 comments:

  1. I'm probably a good example that of a partially informed reader of news, given I live in Tokyo but can only read English language media. Immediately (and for a few weeks) western media was doing what it does very best and hyped the hell out of the "nuclear doomsday" story and I along with my resident Tokyo friends had to defend our decision to stay in Tokyo/Japan against near hysterical implores to "come home".
    We stayed here and will do but this apparent mishandling of of a safe food situation will again cause foreign eyes to look at Japan and ask "Is it really safe to visit Japan or transit through Narita". A situation like this requires leaders to step up and take ownership for not the problem (not their's) but for te solution "I will fix this" - all missing so far

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  2. Politicians all over the world have to stop spending so much time trying to bring each other down and spend a *little more time* on doing what they were supposedly elected to do.

    We clearly have this problem in Japan made even more obvious by how much time these politicians are willing to spend trying to remove one party and replace it with another, but you might ask your relatives, Annonymous - if the US politicans aren't doing the same and whether it is safe to live in the US?

    And don't get me started on Europe.

    The whole world is a mess. The way humans are behaving, why does anything work at all?

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  3. Dear Anonymous:
    Just Google search "2010 food deaths" and you'll find 5,000 people die in the USA from tainted food every year and 40,000 die from eating junk food... The USDA doesn't test USA produced milk for radiation. Read here. See "Notes" at the bottom of this article:
    Fukushima Facts.

    ReplyDelete

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