Celebrities Design Uniqlo Shirts to Benefit the Japanese Red Cross

Karl Lagerfeld

Lady Gaga

Victoria Beckham

Nicole Kidman

Gwyneth Paltrow

Blake Lively

Alber Elbaz

The chairman and CEO of Japanese retail brand, Uniqlo, donated $12 million of his own money to help the earthquake victims in Japan. Apart from his generous personal donation, Uniqlo has also invited celebrities to design T-shirts that will benefit the Japanese Red Cross. Each shirt will retail for $19.90 will be available starting June 25. Which celebrity designed shirt do you like most?

Note: All images courtesy of fashionista.com.

Know Nukes

The last two nights, Rachel Maddow provided an essential primer on how nuclear reactors work, what happens when they don't, and the status of  the damaged reactors in Japan.  This is all so frightening and disturbing, but as Maddow said, it if far less upsetting to understand what is going on than not to understand it.

Here's the clip from Monday:

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And here's the clip from last night's show, which focused more on the dangers of the spent nuclear reactor rods:

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The Irrationality of Nuclear Power

Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Plant

The evolving devastation in Japan as well as the unfolding events in Libya demonstrate the irrationality of what has become a nuclear renaissance, and should give serious pause to the unmitigated spread of nuclear technology and headlong push in the U.S. to build more nuclear power plants.  This post was originally published in openDemocracy, a great website that publishes high quality news analysis, debates and blogs about international politics and culture.

Nuclear Follies

by Dan Plesch and Harald Heubaum, March 13, 2011

Last week, the world’s attention was suddenly torn from Libya to the developing nuclear crisis in Japan. But the events in Libya and Japan have one thing in common. Each case serves as a powerful reminder of the dangers of nuclear power and the short-sighted, irrational risk analyses of those pursuing the technology.

In Japan, critics have argued for decades that building nuclear reactors in an earthquake-prone zone, such as the one in Fukushima, is a disaster waiting to happen. Radioactive material has a half-life far longer than modern human history. A radioactive leak can have devastating effects on surrounding soils and water while windborne radiation can have a global impact. Even with the best safety measures in place, there is no guarantee against human error, backup systems not working properly or threats to a stable supply of electricity when a large number of reactors have to shut down for days, not to mention the potential loss of human life and well-being.

In the case of civil war-torn Libya, Western states normalised military-industrial relations while ignoring Gaddafi’s internal repression. France led the rush to supply Gaddafi with nuclear reactors, striking a deal with the Libyan leader in 2007 (to US approval). Defending the move, President Sarkozy claimed it would “encourage those who renounce terrorism, who renounce the possession of nuclear arms,” adding that he had also spoken to the Colonel on Libya’s “progress on the path of human rights.” This seems particularly hollow as France and the EU only too willingly had him imprison thousands of would be immigrants who failed to cross the Mediterranean moat, without any UN or Red Cross presence or attention to human rights at all. 

Bridge technology?

Nuclear power has often been called a bridge technology in the fight against global climate change and the pursuit of diversified energy portfolios. Once a nuclear power plant is up and running it does not generate CO2, although full life-cycle assessments expose nuclear’s carbon footprint as far exceeding that of most renewable energy sources. Still, reactors currently in existence may well be kept online for as long as renewables cannot fill the gap. However, current nuclear technology is fundamentally problematic for humanity, as the unresolved issue of nuclear waste, concerns over nuclear proliferation and the genuine security threat to nuclear infrastructure, be it through natural disasters, terrorist activity or civil war, reveal.

If the West pursues uranium-based nuclear energy further, building a new generation of reactors to replace and add to those already in existence it will be impossible to convince others to do without. The UK government signed off on plans for the construction of eight new nuclear power stations last October; President Obama recently embraced nuclear power in the US, approving $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for two new plants to be built in the state of Georgia; and Japan itself has announced timetables for nine new reactors to come online by 2020.

The biggest growth rates for nuclear, however, are to be found in emerging economies, with China, India and Russia currently constructing a large number of new reactors. In the Indian case, the United States played a key role by lifting its three-decade long nuclear trade moratorium. In doing so it damaged its own attempts at preventing the further spread of nuclear technology and set a dangerous precedent for other nuclear powers to follow. Not just France but also South Korea which recently reached deals with the United Arab Emirates and Jordan over exporting nuclear technology and building reactors.

So what impact should the Libyan example have on future risk assessments? As studies at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy have illustrated, nowhere in the industrialised world is there an official public appraisal of the impact of warfare on nuclear reactors. We should heed a warning at a SOAS conference in 2007 from Bahraini Ambassador to the UK Al-Khalifa that a Middle East full of nuclear powers would result in a ‘mushroom field.’ ‘Do you think we have the culture for nuclear?’, Al-Khalifa asked. ‘I do not think so.’

If an open, democratic and reasonable society is what we aspire to then the evidence suggests that while human rights certainly need a renaissance in much of the world, nuclear technology does ns not.

Dan Plesch is Director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS and author of the new ‘America, Hitler and the UN’ published by IB Tauris.  Harald Heubaum is Senior Teaching Fellow at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, SOAS and contributing editor at Current Intelligence Magazine.

Let Us Pray for Japan

These five photos show us the gravity of the damage in Japan. They look like scenes from a big budget Hollywood film but they are not. I felt very sad when I saw these photos on Facebook and I thought of sharing them with you. Let us all pray for Japan and also pray that nothing like this will ever happen to the Philippines.

Today, I am supposed to file the application for our Japanese visa for our upcoming trip to Osaka and Tokyo this coming Holy Week. I guess we have to postpone our trip to Japan indefinitely. This makes me even more sad because I miss going to Japan and it seems like it will take a while before my next visit.

Follow me on twitter: micsylim and like fashionpulis on Facebook. Send your stories to michaelsylim@gmail.com I will be waiting.

P.S. I accidentally deleted some of your comments for various posts. It would be great if you can repost them. Thank you.

A Little Perspective

Frightening and tragic news keeps coming from Japan, including the latest reports of potential nuclear catastrophe, with presumed partial meltdowns at two reactors.   

In addition to extending heartfelt sympathy to the people of Japan, I guess I mostly want to echo Juan Cole:  "Every once in a while, amidst our petty wars and squabbles with each other, Nature reminds us that the real threat to humankind comes from her, not from other human beings. Climate change is human-driven, but its danger is in unleashing uncontrollable natural forces of immense power. We are still defenseless against a meteor strike of the sort that helped polish off the dinosaurs. And, we lack good defenses against tsunamis. Unless we can put aside our divisions and work effectively together on these natural threats, humans remain in extreme danger as a species."

But, I also can't help being a little petty.  I feel it is necessary to point out, as Think Progress notes, that the budget cuts House Republicans passed (which were rejected by the Senate) would have cut funding to NOAA, the agency responsible for monitoring, providing early warnings for and responding to tsunamis, hurricanes and other natural disasters.  Not to be dissuaded, yesterday, the House Appropriations Chair introduced a new continuing resolution to fund the government for the next three weeks which included more than $100 million in cuts to NOAA, as well as substantial cuts to the U.S. Geological Survey, which monitors earthquakes, and the National Forest Service, which fights forest fires.