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Svetlana Alexievich: lessons of Chernobyl are not learned

Submitted by Редакция on 2 April, 2011 - 02:14

Living in France politemigratsii famous Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich tells the publication Liberation of blind faith in technology. In the April 1986 accident at Chernobyl shook the world. Svetlana Alexievich, author of "Chernobyl Prayer", which deals with events in the world after the crash, said the warning, which has made us the story went unnoticed. And shares his views with the Liberation.

Liberation: "Sometimes I get the impression that I am describing the future" - you write.That future has arrived?

Svetlana Alexievich: The painting "Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa all Japanese nuclear power plants explode. People continue to live, drink tea, but they are doomed. This invisible death has already entered into their flesh and blood. This film was a real prophecy. We are paying too high a price for the progress of civilization, which is based on the comfort and welfare. High technologies are in the service of human weakness. However, such a consumer society can not exist forever, and can only end in tragedy.All this is very interesting and almost mysterious: a day of tragedy in Japan, people all night standing in line for a new gadget, whose sales were going to start at Apple.

It was at this time and there was a terrible accident. She reminded us that the old value system no longer works. We are moving toward self-destruction. At this point, my eyes immediately stood up pictures of Chernobyl, deserted streets, power lines that lead to nowhere. There was only grass, trees, nature.

- You have asked a question about who were the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident, suicide or heroes.What do you think about this in light of Japanese culture?

- There I see a lot similar to what happened with us. The basis of Japanese culture also serves as the collective. Personality as such is virtually non-existent, and defines itself as part of the whole. World War II remained in the distant past, but during the trips to Japan I got the impression that, if necessary, each of them will be ready to forget about themselves and die.

As in Russian.I was in the Chernobyl zone during the construction of the sarcophagus. There is absolutely reasoned pragmatically: for these works will take so many lives, those - so much. Professional account.

- Did we learn the lessons of the Chernobyl disaster?

- I was on the Japanese island of Hokkaido and saw a nuclear power plant, "Tomari". At first I noticed her from the window of the room at the hotel. It was just a fantastic spectacle, a futuristic space object on the ocean. I met with the staff of the station, who asked me to talk about Chernobyl.While I spoke, their faces were polite smiles, they expressed their sympathy. "Of course, it was awful, but this was the fault of totalitarianism. We do this will never happen. Our station - exemplary and reliable, all thoroughly investigated, "- they said. Looking at this man-caused human pride, his sense of power over nature, I realized that the lessons of Chernobyl mankind has not learned.

- Why?

- It is said that the cause of all was the Russian negligence, the Soviet mentality, totalitarianism.Russian all skimmed, the object was poorly constructed: But here's the second atomic lesson when everything is happening in the technological development of States, the most reliable nuclear power plant: It is a tragedy not only for Japan but for all mankind. We approached the border, where apparently no longer can anyone blame blame. Neither the Soviet system, nor totalitarianism. People should be aware of their limited capabilities.

Nature is much more powerful and is beginning to take revenge on us in this unequal fight. "We are not, and you have life hangs in the East between the mess and barrack:" - they thought.Prior to the explosion at Chernobyl, Academician Anatoly Alexandrov said that Soviet power had been so reliable that they could build at least on Red Square. It is surprising that this arrogance of nuclear scientists managed to stay so long.

- At this time the world ask themselves the right questions?

- Nothing changes. Arriving in Minsk, I learned that two days ago signed an agreement with Russia to build nuclear power station in Astravets, which was abandoned by local residents after the earthquake of magnitude 7 in 1909.While the whole world does not separate from the TV screens, not to miss the latest information from Japan, the Minsk newspaper touted the treaty with Russia and a new station, which will be "the most reliable in the world."

Ironically, in Belarus, which is stronger than all suffered from the Chernobyl accident, is going to re-develop its nuclear industry. Moreover, the head of the federal agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko said Russia plans to build floating nuclear power plants and selling them to Indonesia or Vietnam.Imagine tens of drifting in the ocean of potential Hiroshimas:

- Chernobyl was a kind of mystery. Today the whole world is watching Fukushima in real time:

- How to write my Japanese friends, they have an impression that they say is not all. Authorities fear panic. The main problem - it's less cheating than confusion. Gorbachev simply could not understand what was happening. He gathered the best nuclear scientists and sent them to the Chernobyl accident.They walked there in normal clothes, without any protection. The first firefighters arrived, too, without protection, and died in the first days. In the USSR, you had to be ready to sacrifice their lives for their country. Without a totalitarian state Chernobyl disaster covered the whole of Europe would be. Would not have the huge human resources and armies of the liquidators.

The post-Soviet space, regardless of Belarus and Russia, Ukraine would be unable to cope. And people who are willing to work with their bare hands, no longer exists. Now the man appreciates his life.In addition, totalitarianism and had saved the whole world. During the Second World War the Soviet totalitarian regime was stronger than the German. Human life is worth nothing, and only because Hitler managed to win and eliminate the accident at Chernobyl. In Japan now feels like confusion. Even if the top minds from around the world will work together to solve problems Fukushima, they still run into obstacles that people and science at the moment are simply unable to overcome.

The man never wanted to take into account the modesty of its capabilities.He was released unbridled energy that can not fully control. Us to this day do not know what's really going on under the Chernobyl sarcophagus. In the air has got only 3% contained in the reactor material. 97% is still there. Henceforth, the political regime (Soviet totalitarianism or Japanese liberalism) does not really matter. The main thing now - is prevailing in the society, the relationship between man and high technology.

- This year the Chernobyl disaster 25 years.Stories no stranger to irony?

- The world has failed to grasp the first atomic lesson. The search for alternative energy sources remains the lot of a handful of people whom nobody takes seriously. Although this problem should do everything. Rationalism has reached a deadlock. Hence the self-destructive mood. In the film, Kurosawa nobody knows anything.

The truth is known only to a few nuclear scientists. One of them comes in such despair that grabs his briefcase and rushes into the ocean to commit suicide.He understands that in a portfolio are no plans for the future, and old manuscripts, destruction of the world. Tsunami in Japan has made progress in the cemetery.

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