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CALLING LEVI-STRAUSS
reyburn@peg.apc.org
04 Jul 95 17:16 GMT+1000
MURUROA ET ECOPOX, MON AMI
1. A NUCLEAR TEST OR A NUCLEAR WAR?
Does Mururoa understand French? When they say they are "Just
testing" can she, the atoll, tell the difference between a 'not
really real' test and an all-out nuclear war on the structure and
integrity of the atoll and associated life?
If this is just a test, what would constitute a real nuclear
assault?
Shouldn't we be calling to:
STOP FRENCH NUCLEAR WAR AGAINST PACIFIC LIFE
What a lovely phrase "Pacific life"
Yes!
"French nuclear war".
Ugh.
2. WHAT IS THE REAL EXPERIMENT AT MURUROA?
Little evidence has been made available by French
authorities on which to bae an assessment of destabilization
of the volcanics...The volcanics have undoubtedly been
severely altered. (Report of a New Zealand, Australian, and
Papua New Guinea Scientific Mission to Mururoa Atoll 1984?
pages 98-99)
Given the tunnel vision of the authorities in charge, the full
effects of their explosions are going to be far more extensive
than what they can conceive.
Picture, if you will, a recently uncapped volcano spewing a
deadly brew of radioactively hot gasses into the atmosphere of
the South Pacific. What effect would this have on life?
I mean, if you wanted to unplug a volcanic core, how would you
go about it? Would it be much different to the unintentional
pattern of massive explosions we have had to date?
And, given the speed at which event stake place in geological
time, when could the first signs of 'success' become obvious -
and what would they be?
Is the protection of the illusions of the importance of French
culture to the world really worth the risk?
3. COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNTING OF CLEAN-UP COSTS.
Picture, if you will, the canoe which arrives at the atoll after
the inevitable collapse of the present ill-founded experiment in
material civilisation.
What group of seekers would it contain? Where have they come
from? Lives seeking shelter? What precious life-seed might they
contain?
Perhaps their journey is an indirect result of the European
nuclear war which evaporated - in fratricidal white heat - once
and for all the category "French" and "France".
After some weeks at sea, in an ocean now returned to immense
proportions, a landfall.
But what sort of landfall? One resulting in sickness and
deformity?
Waste management at Mururoa in earlier times was poor; it
is now very good and the French authorities are making every
reasonable effort to clean up previously contaminated land
areas. (Report of a New Zealand, Australian and Papua New
Guinea Scientific Mission to Mururoa Atoll 1984? page 174).
What reason? Not life's but an accountant in the employ of a
State?. Reasonable effort? What constitutes the limits of this
reason? Financial considerations? The state of our feeble-sighted
scientific understanding which cannot provide us with a reliable
weather forecast?
In a British atmospheric test off the coast of Western Australia
the wind blew the 'wrong way' carrying the plume back onto the
land and into the lives of people, animals, plants...Trust us?
You have to be joking.
What sort of contamination resulted from these 'earlier days' of
French/European experimentation in the Pacific? How long lasting
is the contamination?
Should the French be not allowed to continue until it is
demonstrated that they have adequately restored the ecosystem to
a fit condition for life?
The Australian experience at Rum Jungle and other British test
sites demonstrates that European powers consistently seek to wipe
their hands of the on-going costs which result from playing with
nuclear materials.
The emerging pattern is one in which the proponents attempt to
transfer future costs to another player (the Australian taxpayer)
by corrupting the local authorities into accepting a once and for
all settlement. This may involve yet another dose of ecosystemic
cosmetics in an attempt to cover over a dead-seated and deadly
eco-pox on life.
And beyond the question of what constitutes 'reasonable effort',
there is an other question. Is it theoretically possible for them
to restore it to a state of well-being fit for the higher forms
of life which will predictably come ashore from time to time in
the future?
Or, given the character of the activity, is theoretical
ecosystemic well-being out of the question in places where
nuclear experimentation is carried out (locally and globally)?
If this is so, why should they be allowed to proceed until the
proponents have examined the full effect of their experiment
with life's forces.
4 THE SICKNESS OF NATIONALISM
What could be more symbolic of the destructive forces which
generate the 'modern' nation-state than the atomic bomb?
European life, in recent times, shifted into a cult of science
which placed a distorted emphasis on the value of experimentation
and a corresponding undervaluing of the costs of these
experiments.
Attention is encouraged to be focused on the products of this
form of magic (e.g. fridges and colour television) in a form of
mass hypnosis which robs us of our critical faculties.
But what right or process are these social practices introduced
into the lives of peoples far from the home of the Western Way?
Forced cloning of an alien culture - by means of violence and
colonialism - into the lives of other peoples.
This is associated with a carve up of life which produces an
indigenous elite. This Westernised elite can be left in place as
local managers when the colonial power withdraws. And the Elders
are often silenced by these youngsters who are 'sophisticated'
in the ways of the 'modern' world.
How much more attractive and balanced the original indigenous
cultures now appear. Who is the Elder Brother-Sister, now? Where
is that wisdom?
What form of madness is it that allows French speaking
authorities to wash their hands of their global responsibilities
to life by talking of Mururoa atoll as being "in France".
Answer - the form of madness is commonly known as 'nationalism'.
To embrace it is to feed the insanity, rather than to cure.
Mururoa is not in France, mon ami.
Einstein said that nationalism was the measles of mankind. An
infantile condition which demonstrates that we do not have the
maturity to play safely with the powerful forces of creation.
I suggest that - as a precondition for humans qualifying for the
position of playing god - the objective must be to cure life of
these infantile diseases.
Perhaps our French speaking Brothers and Sisters could provide
us with a demonstration of their abilities in this area. They
made a good start in 1789, but their attempts to reform life were
hijacked.
5. ELDERS AND ADULTS - BLOCKADE MURUROA
It is important to accept that the nuclear assault on Mururoa is
part of a human (not merely "French") attack on planetary
ecosystems and life globally.
Note the use of the expression "THE French nuclear whatever".
This accepts and objectifies nationalism - THE French people -
as something primarily separate from the rest of life. The bomb
is necessary to protect 'The French Nation-State".
Reforming life requires us to see Mururoa as a Western - and not
merely French - attack on Pacific life. The Western Way is one
of states and nationalism.
Accepting this way of carving up life projects responsibility
outside of our own lives. It paves the way for us to wash our
hands of our responsibilities - after, perhaps, a token and
symbolic protest.
The extent of protest from State governments will be (I predict)
one which will stop well short of calling into question the
underlying assumptions about the 'naturalness' of nation-states.
French authorities are probably secure in their belief that ships
of other nations will not form a blockade around Mururoa to
protect her from the insane 'experiments' by physically keeping
war-scientists off the atoll.
How telling it is that the ship presently sailing into the danger
zone - the Rainbow Warrior - is not a ship of a nation-state but
one funded by a process of door-knocking around the world to
raise small donations.
A ship of the world's peoples roused to action. The other nation-
states are just as likely to see her as the real threat and join
with fellow elites to blow her out of the water!
The pretence of nation-states that Mururoa is part of a sovereign
nation-state of France will most likely be accepted by other
nation-states.
Basically, other nation-states will send off messages designed
to placate their own citizens, and will shrug "What else can we
do" when those messages are ignored.
The elite playing the game well understand just how far they have
to go, and where they have to draw the line to protect their own
powerbase and interests.
I think the adult approach is one which accepts that the problem
posed by Mururoa requires us to accept that we all have some
responsibility.
Rethinking our mode of Being - to the rest of life - is central
to the challenge posed to us.
Supporting our French speaking other-selves regain sanity and a
fuller sense of reason will require the exercise of mature
intelligence of the world's adults - those not crippled by the
infantile disease of nationalism, that is.
I offer these thoughts in solidarity,
Bruce Reyburn
4 July 1995
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