The piece I was working on finally got into the Japan Times today.
The most interesting thing about the process was the back and forth with the editor, mostly over fact-checking and providing links to my claims. He told me he had to be very careful because of the subject matter.
Of course that is fair enough, and appropriate for an important topic. I felt like pointing out, however, that if anti-nuclear pieces were half as rigorously vetted I wouldn't have felt the need to write anything at all.
Here is my article.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Know More and Fear Less
Know more and fear less is extremely good advice when it comes to nuclear power, as I have found again and again over the last 16 months.
In Japan however, the motto seems to be Know Less and Fear More.
Nothing illustrates this better than the brouhaha over the last week regarding the 'public hearings' around the country designed to give people a chance to vent about nuclear power. Crowds hostile to nuclear power have been incensed that people more open-minded have been allowed to speak. At the Nagoya hearing on Monday one of the speakers (who are chosen by lottery) turned out to be an employee of Chiba Electric Power Company. When he expressed the opinion that the dangers of radiation have been exaggerated and reminded the audience that nobody died in the Fukushima accident, the enraged mob stormed the stage and tore him limb from limb with their bare hands.
Okay that last part wasn't true, but what did happen is that organizers of the meeting received 480 complaints about the speaker's remarks, with widespread criticism of the fact a power company worker had even been given permission to speak.
480 complaints. That's 480 people who were so upset at being told the truth that they wrote a letter to express their disapproval. Disaster minister Goshi Hosono was forced to step in and promise that the anti-nuclear sentiment of the crowd would never be threatened by an alternate viewpoint again, saying 'If a power company employee is chosen as speaker, he or she will be replaced by someone else."
Way to go on the stifling of dissent, guys! These hearing are fast becoming kangaroo courts, where large numbers of ill-informed people express their unfocused rage at things they don't and are unwilling to understand, and where an intense groupthink phenomenon will quite possibly result in the worst possible outcome for Japan as a whole.
I prefer to find out about the science myself. I must be weird or something.
In Japan however, the motto seems to be Know Less and Fear More.
Nothing illustrates this better than the brouhaha over the last week regarding the 'public hearings' around the country designed to give people a chance to vent about nuclear power. Crowds hostile to nuclear power have been incensed that people more open-minded have been allowed to speak. At the Nagoya hearing on Monday one of the speakers (who are chosen by lottery) turned out to be an employee of Chiba Electric Power Company. When he expressed the opinion that the dangers of radiation have been exaggerated and reminded the audience that nobody died in the Fukushima accident, the enraged mob stormed the stage and tore him limb from limb with their bare hands.
Okay that last part wasn't true, but what did happen is that organizers of the meeting received 480 complaints about the speaker's remarks, with widespread criticism of the fact a power company worker had even been given permission to speak.
480 complaints. That's 480 people who were so upset at being told the truth that they wrote a letter to express their disapproval. Disaster minister Goshi Hosono was forced to step in and promise that the anti-nuclear sentiment of the crowd would never be threatened by an alternate viewpoint again, saying 'If a power company employee is chosen as speaker, he or she will be replaced by someone else."
Way to go on the stifling of dissent, guys! These hearing are fast becoming kangaroo courts, where large numbers of ill-informed people express their unfocused rage at things they don't and are unwilling to understand, and where an intense groupthink phenomenon will quite possibly result in the worst possible outcome for Japan as a whole.
I prefer to find out about the science myself. I must be weird or something.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Japanese protestors flirt with fantasy
Today Japan's electrical power companies held shareholder meetings across the country. TEPCO, the company responsible for the Tokyo region and also the owners of the troubled Fukushima Daiichi plant, held their meeting in a huge hall in Tokyo. Amongst other things, management passed a proposal to accept a massive injection of funds from the government, to the tune of 1 trillion yen ($12.5 billion) from the government, effectively nationalizing the company. During the meeting some shareholders heckled the speakers, and outside the TEPCO meeting environmentalist and civic action groups demanded an end to nuclear power in Japan.
One protestor said, "I don't want TEPCO to take taxpayer money and raise electricity rates in order to avoid responsibility for the Fukushima accident', a statement which betrays an extraordinary ignorance of reality - specifically a 100 billion dollar reality, which is the estimated cost of the accident, including dealing with the accident itself, cleanup, contamination, evacuation, compensation and decommissioning. TEPCO has been charged with paying for much of this. Which makes one wonder where the protestor thinks the money will come from, if not from the government or increased electricity prices.
And in a massive display of unintended irony, a group of shareholders and their environmentalist allies put forward the motion that the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant in Niigata prefecture be decommissioned and a gas power plant built in its place. Is it possible to imagine an action that will have a more detrimental effect upon the environment than building a gas-powered plant? Building a pollution-producing plant that pours massive amounts of CO2 into the atomosphere, and mothballing a building that produces massive amounts of cheap safe power that is CO2 free?
One protestor said, "I don't want TEPCO to take taxpayer money and raise electricity rates in order to avoid responsibility for the Fukushima accident', a statement which betrays an extraordinary ignorance of reality - specifically a 100 billion dollar reality, which is the estimated cost of the accident, including dealing with the accident itself, cleanup, contamination, evacuation, compensation and decommissioning. TEPCO has been charged with paying for much of this. Which makes one wonder where the protestor thinks the money will come from, if not from the government or increased electricity prices.
And in a massive display of unintended irony, a group of shareholders and their environmentalist allies put forward the motion that the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant in Niigata prefecture be decommissioned and a gas power plant built in its place. Is it possible to imagine an action that will have a more detrimental effect upon the environment than building a gas-powered plant? Building a pollution-producing plant that pours massive amounts of CO2 into the atomosphere, and mothballing a building that produces massive amounts of cheap safe power that is CO2 free?
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
My Geiger Counter
I bought this little baby on the weekend at Yodabashi camera, a major electronics store. It cost about 10,000 yen, $120 or so. Here's a shot from my living room:
This detector measures radiation in microsieverts per hour. There's a bit of variation, anything from less than 0.05 (which just reads as 'low') to about 0.2. These kind of readings are very miniscule, reflecting natural background levels of radiation that are found anywhere in the world. For example, this measurement above of 0.15 micro/hr works out to 1.3 millisieverts a year, well within background radiation. Yesterday I went for a walk along the stream near my house and the readings were the same. On the weekend I'll go up to the park underneath the zoo up the hill from this apartment, and post some readings from there. I have heard that last year people were concerned at readings from the park, due to 'caesium accumulating on the leaves'.
It looks increasingly likely that at least some nuclear power reactors will be restarted before the summer reaches its peak. Specifically, reactors at the Oi power station in Fukui prefecture are being targeted for imminent restart in order to prevent power shortages in the huge Kansai region. It is known that the prime minister supports this move, and today the governor of Fukui prefecture toured the power plant to 'ensure its safety'. Amongst other things, new diesel generators have been installed on a hillside above the reactor to power cooling systems in the event of a devastating tsunami. There's that reflective hindsight again: if only the Japanese could turn their technological prowess to the production of time machines! They could go back in time and save Fukushima!
Speaking of these expensive (and largely redundant) safety measures, a meeting of experts in Fukui on Sunday to present a safety report was interrupted repeatedly by shouting protestors. The meeting had to be adjurned and reopened in another room, and this time the anti-nuclear activists were prevented from entering. They responded by denouncing the meeting and complaining loudly that democracy was being subverted when the public was not allowed to attend important meetings. Oh, well.
Maybe those activists would prefer to have even more deaths caused by unnecessary evacuation. The Yomiuri Shinbun has reported 573 deaths as 'related' to the disaster. These were people living in evacuation centers in the days, weeks and months after the nuclear 'crisis'. In the general chaos of a genuine disaster that killed 20,000 people, many were left in conditions of extreme fatigue, old age and chronic disease without adequate health or nursing care. Now, a large percentage of these people were elderly, but there is no doubt that many would still be alive today if they had been allowed to stay in their homes.
As comparison, this is about 10 times the entire death toll from radiation in the Chernoby accident.
If that doesn't make you think the dangers of radiation are exaggerated, I'm not sure what would.
This detector measures radiation in microsieverts per hour. There's a bit of variation, anything from less than 0.05 (which just reads as 'low') to about 0.2. These kind of readings are very miniscule, reflecting natural background levels of radiation that are found anywhere in the world. For example, this measurement above of 0.15 micro/hr works out to 1.3 millisieverts a year, well within background radiation. Yesterday I went for a walk along the stream near my house and the readings were the same. On the weekend I'll go up to the park underneath the zoo up the hill from this apartment, and post some readings from there. I have heard that last year people were concerned at readings from the park, due to 'caesium accumulating on the leaves'.
It looks increasingly likely that at least some nuclear power reactors will be restarted before the summer reaches its peak. Specifically, reactors at the Oi power station in Fukui prefecture are being targeted for imminent restart in order to prevent power shortages in the huge Kansai region. It is known that the prime minister supports this move, and today the governor of Fukui prefecture toured the power plant to 'ensure its safety'. Amongst other things, new diesel generators have been installed on a hillside above the reactor to power cooling systems in the event of a devastating tsunami. There's that reflective hindsight again: if only the Japanese could turn their technological prowess to the production of time machines! They could go back in time and save Fukushima!
Speaking of these expensive (and largely redundant) safety measures, a meeting of experts in Fukui on Sunday to present a safety report was interrupted repeatedly by shouting protestors. The meeting had to be adjurned and reopened in another room, and this time the anti-nuclear activists were prevented from entering. They responded by denouncing the meeting and complaining loudly that democracy was being subverted when the public was not allowed to attend important meetings. Oh, well.
Maybe those activists would prefer to have even more deaths caused by unnecessary evacuation. The Yomiuri Shinbun has reported 573 deaths as 'related' to the disaster. These were people living in evacuation centers in the days, weeks and months after the nuclear 'crisis'. In the general chaos of a genuine disaster that killed 20,000 people, many were left in conditions of extreme fatigue, old age and chronic disease without adequate health or nursing care. Now, a large percentage of these people were elderly, but there is no doubt that many would still be alive today if they had been allowed to stay in their homes.
As comparison, this is about 10 times the entire death toll from radiation in the Chernoby accident.
If that doesn't make you think the dangers of radiation are exaggerated, I'm not sure what would.
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Earthquakes, risk and the Japanese psyche
The Japanese world is a very dangerous place. Earthquakes, tsunami, floods, nuclear radiation, tornados, murder, lightning, foreigners, overseas travel, snakes, monkeys, wasps, bears, heatstroke, unemployment, overwork; every night on the news the dangers of some new terror are described in excruciating detail. The only thing they apparently have no fear of is unintended irony, as statistically Japan is the safest country in the world, with the lowest or close to the lowest levels of crime and premature death (not to mention spontaneous dancing) in the history of humanity. The real threats to society largely go unnoted: depression, loneliness, alcohol and tobacco, AKB48.
The fear of earthquakes is an excellent example of where the Japanese perception of risk results in a hugely sub-optimal outcome. The earthquake and tsunami last year affected large areas of Tohoku, especially the prefectures of Ibaraki, Fukushima and Miyagi. About 20,000 people were killed by the tsunami. Yet this earthquake was completely unpredicted. Indeed, the last time an earthquake of this magnitude was recorded in the region was in the 800s, and there are only a few incidents of quakes this size in recorded human history. Japan is an earthquake-prone country; there will undoubtedly be fatal tremblors in the years to come; yet it is extremely unlikely that another quake of similar magnitude will occur in the near future. In fact, there probably won't be one of similar size for decades or centuries.
That hasn't stopped the Japanese becoming obsessed with quakes and tsunamis. Schools practice evacuation drills religiously, and town halls pore obsessively over topographic maps, searching feverishly for escape routes to hilltops that are 20 meters or more above sea level. Most absurdly of all, areas affected by last year's tsunami have responded with the most extraordinary levels of surreal retrospective wishful thinking: land prices on hilltops have doubled or tripled, while land prices at sea level have dropped by 60% or more. Meanwhile local governments draft plans to install tsunami-proof structures on rooftops for people to hold onto when forced to the roofs of their buildings. This is despite the fact that these regions are the only areas in Japan that are safe from tsunami: statistically, they will, in all probability, be safe for about a thousand years. The immense pressure on the tectonic plates nearby has been relieved for the foreseable future, and geologically it is the safest place in Japan. In the words of Robin Williams in The World According to Garp, the whole area has been pre-disastered.
At this point it's worth pointing out the atrocious record of earthquake forecasting. Neither the Tohoku earthquake or the Kobe earthquake were predicted and both were completely unexpected in terms of ferocity. Meanwhile, the Tokyo region is constantly brought up as the site of the imminently expected 'Big One'. The truth is that earthquake prediction is such an inexact science that its success rate is little better than chance. Put it this way: I'm not losing any sleep over it.
The Japanese are not a people that cope well with the unexpected. They respond to surprise with yet more emphasis on preparing for what they can predict, regardless of its improbability. They have yet to learn that flexibility in the face of the unexpected is a more useful attribute than a detailed and idealistic plan for a disaster that will probably never come. As the Sunscreen Song pragmatically tells us:
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never cross your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
The fear of earthquakes is an excellent example of where the Japanese perception of risk results in a hugely sub-optimal outcome. The earthquake and tsunami last year affected large areas of Tohoku, especially the prefectures of Ibaraki, Fukushima and Miyagi. About 20,000 people were killed by the tsunami. Yet this earthquake was completely unpredicted. Indeed, the last time an earthquake of this magnitude was recorded in the region was in the 800s, and there are only a few incidents of quakes this size in recorded human history. Japan is an earthquake-prone country; there will undoubtedly be fatal tremblors in the years to come; yet it is extremely unlikely that another quake of similar magnitude will occur in the near future. In fact, there probably won't be one of similar size for decades or centuries.
That hasn't stopped the Japanese becoming obsessed with quakes and tsunamis. Schools practice evacuation drills religiously, and town halls pore obsessively over topographic maps, searching feverishly for escape routes to hilltops that are 20 meters or more above sea level. Most absurdly of all, areas affected by last year's tsunami have responded with the most extraordinary levels of surreal retrospective wishful thinking: land prices on hilltops have doubled or tripled, while land prices at sea level have dropped by 60% or more. Meanwhile local governments draft plans to install tsunami-proof structures on rooftops for people to hold onto when forced to the roofs of their buildings. This is despite the fact that these regions are the only areas in Japan that are safe from tsunami: statistically, they will, in all probability, be safe for about a thousand years. The immense pressure on the tectonic plates nearby has been relieved for the foreseable future, and geologically it is the safest place in Japan. In the words of Robin Williams in The World According to Garp, the whole area has been pre-disastered.
At this point it's worth pointing out the atrocious record of earthquake forecasting. Neither the Tohoku earthquake or the Kobe earthquake were predicted and both were completely unexpected in terms of ferocity. Meanwhile, the Tokyo region is constantly brought up as the site of the imminently expected 'Big One'. The truth is that earthquake prediction is such an inexact science that its success rate is little better than chance. Put it this way: I'm not losing any sleep over it.
The Japanese are not a people that cope well with the unexpected. They respond to surprise with yet more emphasis on preparing for what they can predict, regardless of its improbability. They have yet to learn that flexibility in the face of the unexpected is a more useful attribute than a detailed and idealistic plan for a disaster that will probably never come. As the Sunscreen Song pragmatically tells us:
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never cross your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Electricity, gas, and Formaldehyde
Unless nuclear reactors in Japan are restarted in the near future, some very large chickens will be coming home to roost this summer.
The economic impact upon the country is already very significant and will only increase in severity. News like this announcement of a 4.4-billion-dollar gas deal with an Australian gas exporter probably sounds very good to the gas industry. It's not so good news, however, for the Japanese public, faced with rising electricity costs, nor for struggling energy-intensive industries, and not very good at all for the global environment being flooded with a massive increase in CO2 emissions.
Even worse, the consequences of this self-enforced nuclear moratorium are not limited to environmental vandalism and high electricity bills. There is a serious possibility that large areas of Japan will be faced with blackouts come the peak of electricity usage in summer. Regardless of the expansion of fossil fuel-based electricity generation, the huge amounts of power created by the country's nuclear fleet is just too hard to replace. As a consequence, 7 of Japan's 9 regions are being requested to meet new power-saving targets this summer to get by. Most alarmingly the Kansai region with the major cities of Osaka and Kyoto is being asked to reduced household electrical consumption by 15% even though last year, when similar conservation efforts were in place, household power consumption was reduced by only 4%. Even then there were reports of elderly people dying from heatstroke when they cut down on or eliminated the use of airconditioning.
They better hope for a cool summer in Kansai.
Meanwhile there was a minor public health scare on the weekend when formaldehyde was found in some of the drinking water in Chiba, Saitama and Gunma prefectures. Apparently some illegal dumping had been taking place upstream. Although the level of contamination was under the threshold that could be dangerous to human health, drinking water was cut off in some areas as a precaution.
Sound familar? Funny that media interest seems to have died down, though. There is no mention of the issue in today's Japan Times, let alone in international media. I guess 'formaldehyde' just doesn't tick the same boxes as 'radiation'. There's a lesson in the effects of news coverage upon people's perception of risk.
Personally when I see news of this kind I am heartened and reassured: naturally it is regrettable that chemicals get into the water supply, but I would much rather something got in the water and was detected by the authorities, than if something got in and it wasn't. It tells me that people are doing their job, that public health is taken seriously and that the authorities that are responsible are trustworthy. Who could not be reassured by that?
Friday, May 11, 2012
Electricity Price to go up!
Today TEPCO officially applied to the government for permission to raise house electricity prices in July by 10.28%. Given that TEPCO has already received permission to raise prices for business and industry by 30%, it seems probable that this price rise will go ahead. For the average household, this works out at about 480 yen extra a month.
Do I need to mention that this price rise is completely unnecessary? TEPCO has stated that the money is needed to fund compensation for victims of the Fukushima accident, and to cover the costs of imported fossil fuels needed to cover the gap in electrical generation left by the closure of all of Japan's nuclear power plants. However, as radiation around the Fukshima plant never hit levels that could affect human health, it is hard to see what people are being 'compensated' for. And regarding the import of fossil fuels, there is no excuse for keeping Japan's nuclear fleet idling; all this achieves is to keep billions of dollars of infrastructure unused and thousands of people out of work.
The reason that nuclear power plants remain closed is because of significant (and misguided) public opposition. But the reality is that, in terms of safety, nothing could be worse than leaving the nuclear power plants turned off, because the inevitable alternative, fossil fuel usage, is incredibly damaging in terms of global warming, air pollution. Not to mention political destabilization.
It's incredibly disappointing that at time when the Japanese nation is facing such genuine and intractable problems as economic stagnation, demographic decline and political paralysis, that society is obsessing over an accident that, after all, killed or injured noone.
Electricity is an incredibly useful resource, and vital for improving living standards. To restrict its use for no good reason seems criminal to me. This applies to the globe as a whole as well as Japan.
Do I need to mention that this price rise is completely unnecessary? TEPCO has stated that the money is needed to fund compensation for victims of the Fukushima accident, and to cover the costs of imported fossil fuels needed to cover the gap in electrical generation left by the closure of all of Japan's nuclear power plants. However, as radiation around the Fukshima plant never hit levels that could affect human health, it is hard to see what people are being 'compensated' for. And regarding the import of fossil fuels, there is no excuse for keeping Japan's nuclear fleet idling; all this achieves is to keep billions of dollars of infrastructure unused and thousands of people out of work.
The reason that nuclear power plants remain closed is because of significant (and misguided) public opposition. But the reality is that, in terms of safety, nothing could be worse than leaving the nuclear power plants turned off, because the inevitable alternative, fossil fuel usage, is incredibly damaging in terms of global warming, air pollution. Not to mention political destabilization.
It's incredibly disappointing that at time when the Japanese nation is facing such genuine and intractable problems as economic stagnation, demographic decline and political paralysis, that society is obsessing over an accident that, after all, killed or injured noone.
Electricity is an incredibly useful resource, and vital for improving living standards. To restrict its use for no good reason seems criminal to me. This applies to the globe as a whole as well as Japan.
Saturday, May 05, 2012
Japan turns off its last nuclear power plant tonight
Tonight Japan has turned off its last remaining running nuclear reactor, at the Tomari plant in Hokkaido.
All of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors are now standing idle. And while they were switched off as part of regular maintenance schedules, none have been allowed to go back online as the government has come under strong pressure to keep them unused.
Prime Minister Noda has been working to get the first one back online, but there is significant resistance from some local governments; as yet the confrontation is unresolved.
The unnecessary mothballing of Japan's nuclear industry is having serious consequences. Already, Japan's production of carbon dioxide has significantly risen as a result of using fossil fuels to cover the gap, thus contributing directly to global warming and putting at risk the global environment:
According to the Asahi Shinbun, the Japanese economy suffered its first trade deficit in over three decades as power producers spent billions of dollars on fossil-fuel imports to provide extra generating capacity. Just as alarming, the coming summer is beginning to look like last summer, with enforced power conservation across the country, night-time factory operation, appeals to the public to conserve power and behind everything the crippling threat of blackouts if demand exceeds supply.
Incredibly, this weekend across the country there have been protests against nuclear power, and celebrating the shutting down of the last reactor. After over a year of serious reflection and research, it is hard for me to view these protests as anything but demonstrations in support of human stupidity. To me it is almost literally unbelievable that an accident which hurt or killed nobody could arouse such hatred.
It's an irony that Japan's new citizen-level activist movement is focused on combating something so harmless and beneficial as nuclear power. And it's regrettable that such things as government paralysis, wasteful expenditure on public works, and Japanese society's penchant for painful and useless effort, all of which might be the targets of a real revolution, remain unaddressed, while people waste their self-righteous anger on something that actually makes the world a better place.
All of Japan's 54 nuclear reactors are now standing idle. And while they were switched off as part of regular maintenance schedules, none have been allowed to go back online as the government has come under strong pressure to keep them unused.
Prime Minister Noda has been working to get the first one back online, but there is significant resistance from some local governments; as yet the confrontation is unresolved.
The unnecessary mothballing of Japan's nuclear industry is having serious consequences. Already, Japan's production of carbon dioxide has significantly risen as a result of using fossil fuels to cover the gap, thus contributing directly to global warming and putting at risk the global environment:
According to the Asahi Shinbun, the Japanese economy suffered its first trade deficit in over three decades as power producers spent billions of dollars on fossil-fuel imports to provide extra generating capacity. Just as alarming, the coming summer is beginning to look like last summer, with enforced power conservation across the country, night-time factory operation, appeals to the public to conserve power and behind everything the crippling threat of blackouts if demand exceeds supply.
Incredibly, this weekend across the country there have been protests against nuclear power, and celebrating the shutting down of the last reactor. After over a year of serious reflection and research, it is hard for me to view these protests as anything but demonstrations in support of human stupidity. To me it is almost literally unbelievable that an accident which hurt or killed nobody could arouse such hatred.
It's an irony that Japan's new citizen-level activist movement is focused on combating something so harmless and beneficial as nuclear power. And it's regrettable that such things as government paralysis, wasteful expenditure on public works, and Japanese society's penchant for painful and useless effort, all of which might be the targets of a real revolution, remain unaddressed, while people waste their self-righteous anger on something that actually makes the world a better place.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
My first day on the job.
I teach at a university in the Yokohama area. I started several years ago, but I will never forget the first day and the first class.
"We're interested in someone who has skills in motivating students", I was told in the interview.
"Oh, do you have motivation problems?" I said brightly. "I think I can deal with that!"
The man interviewing me said nothing. He just looked down.
My first teaching day was a Thursday, an afternoon. I had been warned 'not to expect too much'. But I had worked with students of varying levels of interest before. How bad could it be?
I walked into the classroom. It was really what you might call a lecture room, dominated by a huge blackboard at the front. About 20 students sat in seats, behind desks, towards the back, separated from each other by two or three other chairs. Nobody was speaking or moving.
"Good afternoon!", I said.
Nothing. A massive and deafening silence.
I tried again. "Good afternoon!" Nothing. I couldn't even detect any movement. Maybe they were petrified, maybe they were mannequins, I couldn't tell.
I looked at the information I had been given. Checked the room number. The class number.
"Um, is this class 254?"
Nothing. They sat there, looking at me without expression.
Did I really have the right classroom? How could this be possible?
I looked at one of the students. "You! What subject is this?"
The student looked blankly at me. Perhaps he wasn't there. Perhaps I was hallucinating.
"What's your name?" I pointed directly at another of the students, a big no-no in Japan. But my options were shrinking.
"Eh?"
"What's your name?" I spoke more loudly.
"Matsumoto Shunsuke desu." He spoke in rapid-fire heavily accented Japanese.
I looked at my class roll. There was a Shunksuke Matsumoto. My heart sank. I was in the right place after all. There would be no escape.
These were students who had all studied English for a minimum of 7 years, often considerably more. Many had gone to cram schools to 'improve' their English even more, had studied for hundreds of hours to pass university English exams to get here.
I looked at my textbook, which as an introduction to today's lesson suggested I get the students, in groups, to imagine they were travellers in a spaceship going to a new planet and roleplay from there.
It was going to be a long day.
"We're interested in someone who has skills in motivating students", I was told in the interview.
"Oh, do you have motivation problems?" I said brightly. "I think I can deal with that!"
The man interviewing me said nothing. He just looked down.
My first teaching day was a Thursday, an afternoon. I had been warned 'not to expect too much'. But I had worked with students of varying levels of interest before. How bad could it be?
I walked into the classroom. It was really what you might call a lecture room, dominated by a huge blackboard at the front. About 20 students sat in seats, behind desks, towards the back, separated from each other by two or three other chairs. Nobody was speaking or moving.
"Good afternoon!", I said.
Nothing. A massive and deafening silence.
I tried again. "Good afternoon!" Nothing. I couldn't even detect any movement. Maybe they were petrified, maybe they were mannequins, I couldn't tell.
I looked at the information I had been given. Checked the room number. The class number.
"Um, is this class 254?"
Nothing. They sat there, looking at me without expression.
Did I really have the right classroom? How could this be possible?
I looked at one of the students. "You! What subject is this?"
The student looked blankly at me. Perhaps he wasn't there. Perhaps I was hallucinating.
"What's your name?" I pointed directly at another of the students, a big no-no in Japan. But my options were shrinking.
"Eh?"
"What's your name?" I spoke more loudly.
"Matsumoto Shunsuke desu." He spoke in rapid-fire heavily accented Japanese.
I looked at my class roll. There was a Shunksuke Matsumoto. My heart sank. I was in the right place after all. There would be no escape.
These were students who had all studied English for a minimum of 7 years, often considerably more. Many had gone to cram schools to 'improve' their English even more, had studied for hundreds of hours to pass university English exams to get here.
I looked at my textbook, which as an introduction to today's lesson suggested I get the students, in groups, to imagine they were travellers in a spaceship going to a new planet and roleplay from there.
It was going to be a long day.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Japan starts to pay the price for curtailing nuclear power
As I write this the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power-Free World, attended by thousands, is coming to a close in central Yokohama, a few kilometres away. In this context it is worth reflecting upon some to the costs that Japan is starting to incur as a result of choosing to minimise its use of nuclear power now and in the future.
There are now only 5 nuclear power plants in the country currently in operation. The other 49 have been shut down for maintenance or repairs, either directly after March 11 or in the months since then. Many of these shutdowns were routine; the problem is that once shut down, no plant has been permitted to start up again. It is unlikely that many will be allowed to do so without serious public debate.
Without the steady baseload that nuclear power has supplied, the shortfall is being made up with 'thermal' plants, i.e. fossil fuels. This is already resulting in higher costs of electricity, and the Japan Times reported this weekend that TEPCO is asking permission to raise household rates this March as a direct result.
An even more worrying repercussion of this 'Back to the Future'-style return to dependence on fossil fuels was this week brought to the attention of many when Japan pondered the predicament of being pressured by the U.S. to cut all trading ties with Iran. The U.S. is determined to pursue trade sanctions against Iran in an attempt to strangle Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, yet Japan has traditionally had a friendly relationship with the Iranians, and gets 10% of its oil from them. The Japanese have yet to decide what to do. Meanwhile Iran is threatening, if provoked, to block the Strait of Hormuz completely, which carries one-fifth of the world's oil supply.
Once you start looking at global issues with the idea that nuclear power is the best possible large-scale power source available, your perception of many problems may change. Since my conversion to a supporter of nuclear power I have challenged myself to imagine a world that is not dependent for energy supplies from dangerous theocratic nation-states in the Middle East. An Iran that would have to gain the currency to build nuclear weapons from somewhere other than the pockets of people in other countries who want to heat their house or drive their car. A world that doesn't need to go to war over oil. An America that didn't need to invade Iraq.
When I think about this I am also reminded that uranium exploration has yet to be undertaken in many parts of the world, and that two-thirds of currently known reserves, enough to last for many decades, are in Canada and Australia, two mining-friendly democracies that are probably among the most stable and internationally respected nations in the world.
There are now only 5 nuclear power plants in the country currently in operation. The other 49 have been shut down for maintenance or repairs, either directly after March 11 or in the months since then. Many of these shutdowns were routine; the problem is that once shut down, no plant has been permitted to start up again. It is unlikely that many will be allowed to do so without serious public debate.
Without the steady baseload that nuclear power has supplied, the shortfall is being made up with 'thermal' plants, i.e. fossil fuels. This is already resulting in higher costs of electricity, and the Japan Times reported this weekend that TEPCO is asking permission to raise household rates this March as a direct result.
An even more worrying repercussion of this 'Back to the Future'-style return to dependence on fossil fuels was this week brought to the attention of many when Japan pondered the predicament of being pressured by the U.S. to cut all trading ties with Iran. The U.S. is determined to pursue trade sanctions against Iran in an attempt to strangle Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, yet Japan has traditionally had a friendly relationship with the Iranians, and gets 10% of its oil from them. The Japanese have yet to decide what to do. Meanwhile Iran is threatening, if provoked, to block the Strait of Hormuz completely, which carries one-fifth of the world's oil supply.
Once you start looking at global issues with the idea that nuclear power is the best possible large-scale power source available, your perception of many problems may change. Since my conversion to a supporter of nuclear power I have challenged myself to imagine a world that is not dependent for energy supplies from dangerous theocratic nation-states in the Middle East. An Iran that would have to gain the currency to build nuclear weapons from somewhere other than the pockets of people in other countries who want to heat their house or drive their car. A world that doesn't need to go to war over oil. An America that didn't need to invade Iraq.
When I think about this I am also reminded that uranium exploration has yet to be undertaken in many parts of the world, and that two-thirds of currently known reserves, enough to last for many decades, are in Canada and Australia, two mining-friendly democracies that are probably among the most stable and internationally respected nations in the world.
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