Post by Wayne Hall on Jul 26, 2005 6:27:01 GMT -5
Let fly your hopes on wings of peace
Dear friend,
I´m Nicky Davies, Disarmament Coordinator for Greenpeace International.
Next weekend, August 6th, is the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
www.greenpeace.or.jp/cyberaction/hiroshima60/en?nro=gpi
I´ll be in Hiroshima to honour the 210,000 people who died in the world´s first attack with nuclear weapons, and to call upon world leaders to abolish the 30,000 nuclear weapons that continue to threaten our world, our children, and our future.
I ask you to join us by writing a short message about your hopes and aspirations for a nuclear free and peaceful world. Messages will be printed on feather-shaped cards and put on dove-shaped balloons that will be flown in Hiroshima on August 5th at 8:15 a.m. (exactly 24 hours before the anniversary of the bombing).
Lasting peace is possible - but not before every nation agrees to remove one of our world´s most destructive and destabilizing forces - nuclear weapons and the materials that are used to make those weapons.
We are asking the world to set a timetable for disarmament. Japan can take the first step by halting its plans to make nuclear weapons-usable plutonium at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Rokkasho-Mura, Aomori.
My friend Atsuko Nogawa, Greenpeace Japan´s Nuclear Campaigner says that "In Japan, we can mark a significant step towards achieving a nuclear free world if we stop the Rokkasho reprocessing plant. Please send us your messages now".
You´re just a click away from joining us in Hiroshima. Please send your message now, and know that your hopes and your words will fly with those of others all over the world on Hiroshima day, in a global call for peace.
www.greenpeace.or.jp/cyberaction/hiroshima60/en?nro=gpi
Blogathon 2005! Blog for Peace!
Our friend John, a supporter who runs a personal weblog called Logical Voice, will be Blogging for Greenpeace in the 2005 Blogathon on August 6th and 7th. This annual event challenges bloggers around the world to post every half hour for 24 hours to raise money for charity.
John's blog will feature guest entries from Hiroshima, where our campaigner Rianne will be commemorating the bombing with a delegation of children.
If you'd like to sponsor John as he struggles to keep his eyes open and type sensibly for an entire day, you can make a pledge here:
tinyurl.com/a4bcn
Even if you can't make a pledge, drop in on John's blog to cheer him on next weekend!
If you'd like to find out more about the blogathon, or stay up late on August 6th to blog for peace yourself, you can find out more here:
www.blogathon.org/
The link we are asking folks to use for donations when the blogathon is over is this one:
www.greenpeace.com/donation/donate.php?appeal_id=195
Please drop us a note at supporter.services@int.greenpeace.org if you'll be blogging for Greenpeace. We'd love to hear from you.
Dear Nicky Davies,
All Soviet nuclear weapons, including Russian nuclear weapons, should have been abolished in 1991, when Yeltsin would have been quite willing to comply with any 'international community' initiative (that can be gathered from his parliamentary speeches of the time). Instead of abolishing Russian nuclear weapons along with the Soviet nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan (which were withdrawn and/or abolished: why the double standards and why did the Russian people not have the right to nuclear disarmament?), those who make decisions about these things (obviously not the Russian government) kept the Russian nuclear arsenal. Greenpeace did not protest about that.
The problem is not 'unilateral nuclear disarmament', for neither 'the international community' nor Greenpeace have raised real objections to the unilateral nuclear disarmament of places like Iraq, Iran or North Korea.
In the 1980s there was a 'non-aligned' anti-nuclear-weapons movement in Europe calling for a nuclear-weapons-free Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. Gorbachev's nuclear weapons disarmament initiatives were framed in terms of public-relations responses to that movement. Where is the reciprocity to his complying with the demands of that movement that said it wanted a 'nuclear free Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals'? Why is that 'non-aligned anti-nuclear movement' slogan no longer heard?
The United States government claims to perceive demands by other states that it abolish its nuclear arsenal as challenges to its national sovereignty. International demands for abolition of ALL nuclear weapons provide grist to the mill of those who would mobilise chauvinistic Americans against perceived outside demands that the USA disarm itself and leave itself 'defenceless'. The Soviet Union was once able to mobilise its population in the same way against outside demands that the country 'disarm' in ways that were not of the choosing of the government. 'The international community' ignored these Soviet 'needs'.
If 'the international community' were truly willing to ignore the needs of the American government in the same way, they would cease demanding abolition of American nuclear weapons, and leave this matter ENTIRELY to the American people. This was the direction the Soviets were trying to move with the 'perestroika' strategy of 'depriving the United States of its enemy'.
The Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty has failed. The United States cannot be made to abide by its provisions.
If 'the international community' wants to see nuclear disarmament, the way to go is via unilateral initiatives like those carried out in the past by Sweden and South Africa, or bilateral initiatives like those of Argentina and Brazil together. Let Europe and Russia make bilateral disarmament agreements, and Russia and China, and India and China and India and Pakistan. Rather than demanding of the USA that it abolish its nuclear arsenal, let 'the international community' demand that the US oblige Israel to abolish ITS nuclear arsenal.
The annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial demonstrations are part of a ceremonial whose effect is to perpetuate reverence for nuclear weapons instead of seeing them correctly as disgusting and militarily useless scrap iron, serving exclusively political purposes. Let the Japanese revolt against perpetuation of this intellectually stultifying ceremony, consigning Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Lethe along with the majority of the atrocities that have occurred throughout human history.
The anti-nuclear weapons strategy that your e-mail invites me to subscribe to does not attach enough importance to plausibility of success.
Enjoy your trip to Japan.
I support the demand to halt plans to make nuclear weapons-usable plutonium at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Rokkasho-Mura, Aomori.
W. Hall
Athens
Dear friend,
I´m Nicky Davies, Disarmament Coordinator for Greenpeace International.
Next weekend, August 6th, is the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
www.greenpeace.or.jp/cyberaction/hiroshima60/en?nro=gpi
I´ll be in Hiroshima to honour the 210,000 people who died in the world´s first attack with nuclear weapons, and to call upon world leaders to abolish the 30,000 nuclear weapons that continue to threaten our world, our children, and our future.
I ask you to join us by writing a short message about your hopes and aspirations for a nuclear free and peaceful world. Messages will be printed on feather-shaped cards and put on dove-shaped balloons that will be flown in Hiroshima on August 5th at 8:15 a.m. (exactly 24 hours before the anniversary of the bombing).
Lasting peace is possible - but not before every nation agrees to remove one of our world´s most destructive and destabilizing forces - nuclear weapons and the materials that are used to make those weapons.
We are asking the world to set a timetable for disarmament. Japan can take the first step by halting its plans to make nuclear weapons-usable plutonium at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Rokkasho-Mura, Aomori.
My friend Atsuko Nogawa, Greenpeace Japan´s Nuclear Campaigner says that "In Japan, we can mark a significant step towards achieving a nuclear free world if we stop the Rokkasho reprocessing plant. Please send us your messages now".
You´re just a click away from joining us in Hiroshima. Please send your message now, and know that your hopes and your words will fly with those of others all over the world on Hiroshima day, in a global call for peace.
www.greenpeace.or.jp/cyberaction/hiroshima60/en?nro=gpi
Blogathon 2005! Blog for Peace!
Our friend John, a supporter who runs a personal weblog called Logical Voice, will be Blogging for Greenpeace in the 2005 Blogathon on August 6th and 7th. This annual event challenges bloggers around the world to post every half hour for 24 hours to raise money for charity.
John's blog will feature guest entries from Hiroshima, where our campaigner Rianne will be commemorating the bombing with a delegation of children.
If you'd like to sponsor John as he struggles to keep his eyes open and type sensibly for an entire day, you can make a pledge here:
tinyurl.com/a4bcn
Even if you can't make a pledge, drop in on John's blog to cheer him on next weekend!
If you'd like to find out more about the blogathon, or stay up late on August 6th to blog for peace yourself, you can find out more here:
www.blogathon.org/
The link we are asking folks to use for donations when the blogathon is over is this one:
www.greenpeace.com/donation/donate.php?appeal_id=195
Please drop us a note at supporter.services@int.greenpeace.org if you'll be blogging for Greenpeace. We'd love to hear from you.
Dear Nicky Davies,
All Soviet nuclear weapons, including Russian nuclear weapons, should have been abolished in 1991, when Yeltsin would have been quite willing to comply with any 'international community' initiative (that can be gathered from his parliamentary speeches of the time). Instead of abolishing Russian nuclear weapons along with the Soviet nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan (which were withdrawn and/or abolished: why the double standards and why did the Russian people not have the right to nuclear disarmament?), those who make decisions about these things (obviously not the Russian government) kept the Russian nuclear arsenal. Greenpeace did not protest about that.
The problem is not 'unilateral nuclear disarmament', for neither 'the international community' nor Greenpeace have raised real objections to the unilateral nuclear disarmament of places like Iraq, Iran or North Korea.
In the 1980s there was a 'non-aligned' anti-nuclear-weapons movement in Europe calling for a nuclear-weapons-free Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. Gorbachev's nuclear weapons disarmament initiatives were framed in terms of public-relations responses to that movement. Where is the reciprocity to his complying with the demands of that movement that said it wanted a 'nuclear free Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals'? Why is that 'non-aligned anti-nuclear movement' slogan no longer heard?
The United States government claims to perceive demands by other states that it abolish its nuclear arsenal as challenges to its national sovereignty. International demands for abolition of ALL nuclear weapons provide grist to the mill of those who would mobilise chauvinistic Americans against perceived outside demands that the USA disarm itself and leave itself 'defenceless'. The Soviet Union was once able to mobilise its population in the same way against outside demands that the country 'disarm' in ways that were not of the choosing of the government. 'The international community' ignored these Soviet 'needs'.
If 'the international community' were truly willing to ignore the needs of the American government in the same way, they would cease demanding abolition of American nuclear weapons, and leave this matter ENTIRELY to the American people. This was the direction the Soviets were trying to move with the 'perestroika' strategy of 'depriving the United States of its enemy'.
The Nuclear Weapons Non-Proliferation Treaty has failed. The United States cannot be made to abide by its provisions.
If 'the international community' wants to see nuclear disarmament, the way to go is via unilateral initiatives like those carried out in the past by Sweden and South Africa, or bilateral initiatives like those of Argentina and Brazil together. Let Europe and Russia make bilateral disarmament agreements, and Russia and China, and India and China and India and Pakistan. Rather than demanding of the USA that it abolish its nuclear arsenal, let 'the international community' demand that the US oblige Israel to abolish ITS nuclear arsenal.
The annual Hiroshima and Nagasaki memorial demonstrations are part of a ceremonial whose effect is to perpetuate reverence for nuclear weapons instead of seeing them correctly as disgusting and militarily useless scrap iron, serving exclusively political purposes. Let the Japanese revolt against perpetuation of this intellectually stultifying ceremony, consigning Hiroshima and Nagasaki to Lethe along with the majority of the atrocities that have occurred throughout human history.
The anti-nuclear weapons strategy that your e-mail invites me to subscribe to does not attach enough importance to plausibility of success.
Enjoy your trip to Japan.
I support the demand to halt plans to make nuclear weapons-usable plutonium at the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Rokkasho-Mura, Aomori.
W. Hall
Athens