posted on February 15, 2004 12:41:42 AM new
I used to work at the Motion Picture Academy; one of my friends still does, and I still invited to the nominations screenings every year. This afternoon I went to see the Documentary Short Subjects. One of these short films was entitled "Cernobyl Heart," and it is simply devastating. If it is ever shown on TV, or released to video, I highly recommend watching it.
The film highlights the work of an Irish organization that works to help children in Belarus (where 70% of the fallout fell) affected by the Chernobyl disaster. The radiation the region was exposed to was 90 times greater than that released by the Hiroshima bomb.
The term "Chernobyl heart" is used to describe an increasingly common defect in which all the chambers of the heart have a hole. But the film shows that that is not the only outcome of Chernobyl:
* 2,400% increase in incidence of thyroid cancer throughout Belarus.
* 10,000% increase in thyroid cancer in the Gomel region.
* 250% increase in congenital birth deformities.
* 100% increase in the incidence of cancer and leukemia.
* 1,000% increase in suicide in the contaminated zones.
Every town in the area has an abandoned children hospital where thousands of kids that are profoundly damaged are left. The film showed incredibly advanced cases of hydrocephaly (easy to fix here, but beyond the budget there & on the increase), massive tumors, distorted limbs, facial deformities, profound retardation, microcephaly, etc. etc. etc. etc. One little girl shown had no brain inside her tiny skull--it was hanging out of the back of her neck, encased in skin.
As I watched the film, I wondered how the rest of the world is being effected by the fallout. Belarus got most of it, but I recall that the winds were spreading it pretty well across Europe.
Here is a link for anyone wanting tolearn more about the Chernobyl Project:
posted on February 15, 2004 01:51:52 AM new
WOW!! Really hard to absorb those stats. I thought 9-11 was bad and vividly remember all the fear many had, at that time, about our own nuclear power plants being vulnerable. I can't imagine what a tragedy like this would be like. I hope our nation never has to find out either.
Without searching, I'm sure our nation gave humanitarian aid to these poor people....but considering the costs of this horror...I'm sure it was like a drop in the ocean.
posted on February 15, 2004 04:57:31 AM new
Bunnicula, that film sounds like a real horror. I dont think I could watch without being mentally mangled about it for a long time.
The horrible tragedy of Chernobyl should be a study in the problems, local, national and international that might occur as consequences of such a catastrophe here...either terrorist related or not. But instead, we have invested all of our resources to battle a small contry in the mid-east with the latest justification that we got rid of a bad man.
posted on February 15, 2004 09:57:55 AM new
You know what scares me about the whole thing? Russia was/is a "second world" nation barely above "third world" status.
Now it today's world, we hear the chants of "who are WE to deny THEM, the bomb, the reactor, etc, etc.", in reference to countries 1 step above savagery.
We should actively pursue our allies and control proliferation by any means. If Russia wants to sell the Iranians a reactor, maybe we should let the Russians starve for a few years.
posted on February 15, 2004 10:21:56 AM new
Putin is learning a few tricks from Bush...
President Vladimir Putin, who met Mr Ivanov on Thursday, added that the Russian military still possessed a formidable nuclear arsenal.
In an apparent reference to the US-led invasion of Iraq, Mr Ivanov said that the use of force without UN approval could encourage countries to acquire a nuclear potential.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has said his country does not rule out a pre-emptive military strike anywhere in the world if the national interest demands it.
He said that Russia faced foreign interference in its internal affairs and instability in neighbouring states as well as classic threats such as the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism and the drugs trade
