JAPAN AND THE NUCLEAR DEBATE

Today is exactly a week since the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster happened in the beautiful country of Japan. I have been very impressed by the way the Japanese people have conducted themselves in the face of such a holocaust with orderly lines to get what they need and already the teachers are giving classes to children from tents and doctors are working hard to assist their patients. Japan, has always been a country I have admired for their discipline and exquisite manners. They recovered from the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the world thought they would never be able to lift their heads up again, to become over the years the third economic power in the world. It says a lot about the character of these exemplary people who live in a small island, and if anyone is going to overcome and triumph in the face of disaster it is going to be the Japanese nation. Of course, it is bad enough to overcome a tsunami and an earthquake together, events which occurs in nature with an unimaginable devastation and quite another one, to such a man-made disaster as a nuclear plant which the so called experts say is "cheap" energy, I think not; this is not a cheap technology once it fails, and hundreds of lives as well as land will be lost once its deamed unliveable. Our land masses are limited and we cannot afford to have vast areas of land empty for millions of years because of this type of "accidents": what the so called "experts" were saying only a scant few days ago that 'Chernoble cannot happen here' is very quickly turning into the worst nuclear disaster in history, even surpassing Chernoble. General Electric designed these Japanese plants that are now failing, so therefore they have a duty as well as a responsibilty to try and remedy the damage as they have a case to answer in this other hollocaust that they have now created. The excuse of: 'it was just designed for a 6 on the richter scale doesn't wash, this is a technology that cannot be controlled like a pandora's box where no one can predict the horrible devastation where other innocent people will have to live and suffer the consequences. I now hope that the bright bulbs in government will finally wake up to the fact that there are other means to produce greener and safer energy like for example: the hydroelectric technology, which can be harnessed from the rivers or the sea, they should be doing that, since Britain, and Japan are island nations surrounded by water, this technology is more viable and safer to obtain for all our energy needs, not to mention solar energy and to a smaller degree windmills too. Perhaps something good will come out of this disaster and goverments will finally shelve the nuclear nightmare technologies for ever, in favour of other natural fountains of natural energy.

MERIDA, MEXICO

Merida its a peaceful and lovely colonial town, just a walking distance from the hotel where we were staying at, is the Montejo Avenue, lined with grand beautiful houses in different styles, either French or Spanish styles. Merida prospered quite well by growing henequen or Izamal as some call it, after the port of Izamal where they used to export the ropes and bags made out of henequen. Great fortunes were made out of this industry but unfortunatelly the industry floundered with the invention of plastic
However, plastic bags have been found to rot the grains and its not echologically green as it doesn't degrade back into nature, so the Mexicans are beginning to see an answer in this plant to reintroduce it for commerce as the left-over of the henequen has been discovered by the NASA scientists to be more resistant than plastic in intense temperatures as it doesn't melt like plastic does, on top of this, there is a nice liquour that can be extracted from this plant and even though henequen is related to the agave (the plant that produces tequila) the liquour is completely different in taste to tequila. There are plans in Merida to start re-growing henequen again.

Robert, you would perhaps be interested to know that chilli peppers (without the bit that makes them hot) has been found by the Japanese to increase a person's metabolism
and Japan is marketing this discovery in pills to help people reduce weight.