On a site which looks like it cost a small fortune to design and built (probably by one of the major PR firms in Japan), Goshi Hosono as the Minister of the Environment (he is still the minister in charge of the nuclear accident) posted a letter to the citizens of Japan, apologizing for his past sins and promising a better future.
The site came online yesterday (August 10) in Japan.
Net citizens are laughing, or fuming with anger (either for the silly content or for Hosono wasting their money).
Poor Mr. Hosono. Can't win no matter what, because he won't do the only thing he can win - to stop the wide-area disaster debris disposal.
The site looks like this. The letter is written in a traditional Japanese format - from right to left, top to bottom. (Click to enlarge.):
Here's what Mr. Hosono says (my best effort to retain the poetic prose of the original):
Letter to everyone [he says in an honorific form of Japanese, "みなさま"] - No.1
To Every Citizen of Japan.
Hello. This is Goshi Hosono, Minister of the Environment.
I believe that the Ministry of the Environment's
way of communicating with you and
providing information to you hasn't been optimal, and I am sorry.
Great East Japan Earthquake generated disaster debris, and
there are issues of decontamination, particularly in Fukushima Prefecture;
but we have to take back our environment where our children and grandchildren can live in safety,
and that's our mission at the Ministry of the Environment.
However, to make you feel safe,
information has to be transmitted and explained to you in an easy-to-understand manner,
and we have failed, that's the way I feel.
That has led to your distrust in the government, causing everyone who wants recovery
to doubt the government unnecessarily,
I reflect on it deeply.
I am very sorry.
We will change our way.
Problems occurring right now,
what we're thinking, and what we're actually doing,
by showing data,
we will explain to you so that you understand.
(further to the left, not in the image above)
As part of our effort, my personal thinking, and
what I would like to share with you,
in a few installments
I will tell you about them in a letter like this.
Thank you, and I look forward to communicating with you.
August 10th, 2012 (Heisei Year 24)
Goshi Hosono
Minister of the Environment
One thing Mr. Hosono, as a politician, doesn't know how and doesn't do well: to shut up, to keep quiet.
The bottom half of the web page has a form with which you can send your opinions and ideas. I added the labels for your reference. For the "location" field, the bottom of the drop down menu is "overseas" for those of you outside Japan. (Click to enlarge.)
Apparently many net citizens of Japan have been expressing their opinions using this page, and the server was down for a while. But now it's back online.
30-Day free trial by following the link.
Tokyo Time
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10 comments:
It's interesting to make a website for everyone, while making the main text in pictures, which is the least accessible way to design a website, especially when the alt information is ignored!
If they paid a fortune for this, call it a scam. This is plain amateur web design.
Anon, probably that's the whole point of the website - making the main text in pic, so that people cannot copy. It must have cost a lot, paying for the copy writer and editor.
My favourite parts are:
"to make you feel safe"
Meaning: There is no real, physical effect of radiation; it's all in your distorted mind.
...and:
"information has to be transmitted and explained to you in an easy-to-understand manner"
Meaning: You, the japanese people, do not need all the information that we, the government, have. We will give you only a few bits and pieces you can swallow because you are too stupid to understand a thing, anyway.
What amazes me is that he (and his boss and all others in the admin) thinks it's a matter of delivery, not the substance.
I still don't understand this "apology" business. Anyone can make an apology, seppuku has more meaning. We're talking about potentially fatal global radioactive contamination here. The stakes are high for us, they should be high for them. How else are they going to care about what they're doing to everyone?
Anyway, I came on here to mention the sinkhole incident in Louisiana. Apparently, multiple caverns filled with radioactive materials may have collapsed and the governor of Louisiana has declared it state of emergency. Enenews has several links about it.
Anon above, whatever you're reading is wrong. Caverns filled with radioactive materials?? The news just says they tested for naturally occurring radioactivity and the test was negative.
"we will make you feel safe so that you will understand," see the bullshit in that statement? .... total bastard, scum of the Earth these Japanese politicians..
Anon at 11:05 :
Seppuku is an honorable tradition.
Hosono has no honor.
@Anon 11:11 PM
Sorry. Misleading headlines, or perhaps I misread? Enenews.com seems to have articles claiming that there are radioactive materials detected, but it seems that they are all natural. I wasn't sure if that was the case. The collapse is supposedly because of humans digging stuff up, so it may still be a "man-made disaster" (unless I mixed two different incidents up).
Either way, I think it's probably only a matter of time before something similar happens with nuclear waste dumping grounds. Anything could happen in the very long period that it takes for the waste to theoretically become "safe".
@Anon 3:01 AM
You are absolutely correct. I feel silly for not realizing that.
Hosono,
for this pathetic web page alone, that can't be decently browsed from a smartphone, you should resign.
"Feel safe": for using this expression alone you should resign. The poor souls being herded to the gas chambers were told that they were going to take a shower, so that they would "feel safe".
Want to communicate with the citizens? Hold a national referendum on nuclear power.
Beppe
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