The Crisis Deepens

The world is sinking into the mire. We still do not know what the final outcome is going to be with the nuclear crisis in Japan. And it is a crisis. The Japanese and world-wide nuclear lobby have been less than forthcoming about what is going on and just how bad things are. But as each day goes by the news gets worse. There was another explosion this morning and the team in Fukushima have called for police water cannon to come to help spray water onto the stricken plant. This surely is beyond desperation and, at the same time, the management have taken workers away from the reactors because radiation levels are too high. Meanwhile smoke and steam drift away from the site carry who knows what contaminants and nuclear fall-out. The Americans have now suggested that this disaster is one step [at least] worse than Three Mile Island, which was rated 5 on the nuclear disaster scale - Chernobyl was 7. This suggests that in spite of what the Japanese authorities have said, the situation is becoming very serious. If this does become as bad as Chernobyl, it will surely be the final nail in the coffin of nuclear power generation for a very long time. I have made my own views clear already. It has been suggested in recent days that the big advantage of nuclear power is that it is so clean. Rubbish! It has an effluent problem that makes every other other fuel option look like child's play. And no other option could ever produce a catastrophy like this.

But the world has other problem as well, like Libya, Bahrain, national debts - Ireland, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece - and an economic crisis affecting the whole world. Markets everywhere have collapsed and it matters not what our money is invested in, the whole lot has come tumbling down. And if the Japanese reactors go to meltdown, things will get much worse.

The value of my own savings, like everyone, everywhere, have fallen by 10% or so in the last week or so. Already we had paltry interestrates and governments are printing money like counterfieters on steroids. And I am pessimistic about the situation in the short term. I feel particularly aggrieved because so much is outside my control but yet it was very predictable. And just to add to the woes, the bankers who were responsible for so much continue to play with financial con-tricks that will generate buckets of money - providing that they so not also go to meltdown. And they carry on paying themselves vast sums that render them immune to any financial hardships.

And what about Libya. While we involved ourselves in Iraq and Afghanistan - where we should not - we do not involve ourselves in Libya, where we should be doing all possible to help the rebels who are fighting to rid the world of Gaddafi. Where is President Obama? Has he gone off on holiday? What is he proposing to do about anything? We have to support the rebels in Libya and the sooner we do so, the more likely it is that we will get the right result quickly. For once France seem ready to do something but we do have some "surrender monkeys" in Europe and Russia and China will oppose even a no fly zone. Quite why, I do not understand.

I suppose we should hope for the best but plan for the worst. Even then, I do not know what to do. And it's no use waiting for politicians to tell me.

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