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The True, Heartbreaking Faces of the Nuclear Era
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The True, Heartbreaking Faces of the Nuclear Era |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/10/09
I went to see Ed Ou's work at the Gettyimages Gallery in London when he won the Ian Parry Scholarship. It was accompanied with the stories of all the people in the photographs although the images alone are enough to trigger some truly deep thought and a regret that wasn't mine to bare.
I also remembered that there are hundreds of thousands of people and families in facing similar plights all over the world... that made the world hundreds of thousands times worse in an instant.
That's what the photography made me feel.
And now for a cup of tea and sit down. #nucleartest
11/10/09
I try to smile and be a bit optimistic because, no matter how monstrous some men and women can be, the human spirit always seems to find a way to survive.
This isn't meant as a specific criticism, more like an artistic critique: the end of that post was really not good. I mean... I think it takes away from the reporting, the gallery and the linking to this great book to end off with a sort of pedestrian "oh but I FEEL human spirit triumph adversotragedy tears kittens fuzzwarm ME." #nucleartest
11/10/09
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11/10/09
@macserv: THIS blog is all about writing for an audience. It's not specifically anything personal. So they're writing to please US. And if I find that something pretty cheeseball ruins a good post, then why wouldn't I say so? That's what these comments are for, right? #nucleartest
11/10/09
I have noticed too (as fore written) that despite a single mention in your introduction, you are emphasizing on these horrible crimes committed by former USSR. I feel the need to point out, that the US is no less viable for crimes against humanity than any other nation that has used nuclear weapons which caused the same pain and suffering that is depicted in these photos.
To close this comment, I pray that every nation that has such frightening power in its hands (including US, it has a vast nuclear arsenal in its disposal too) never use it again. And to that extent never engage in war with another nation again. War brings only pain and suffering (appart from vast amounts of profit to multinational corp. giants, but that's another topic). #nucleartest
11/10/09
Sorry, as horrific as the results of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, there is no comparison. The Soviets were worse by a whole magnitude of order at least, all in the name of testing/saber rattling. At least the USA was trying to end a war. #nucleartest
11/10/09
11/10/09
How any idiot can compare the terror inflicted upon those people during SIXTY years with whatever the US or any other country—except China and Germany, and to a lesser extent Japan, Cambodia, Turkey, Vietnam, and North Korea—has done is beyond me.
It just shows rampant anti-americanism and/or complete stupidity and ignorance. Probably both.
Whoever thinks alike, go READ:
[www.hawaii.edu] #nucleartest
11/10/09
Secondly, I think I have some clue, otherwise I would be not talking. However, this whole topic is about nuclear weapons and the terror it inflicts.
Again, it is not about who has scored more "hitpoints". It is about the value of a single human life.
Regarding practices, you are stating that American practices are civilized? I do not think you really want to go there. #nucleartest
11/10/09
And on the point of nuclear weapons, I would say that their very existence has prevented the world from breaking out in another conventional war on the scale of WWI or WWII, in which dozens of millions of lives are lost. Even the bombs dropped on Japan arguably saved 1 million + American soldiers and countless Japanese lives.
11/10/09
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11/10/09
[deoxy.org]
Signed: [deoxy.org]
And that alone regarding only Iraq.. But hey, shit happens.. It IS war after all, right?
Please, let us not go any further than this. We are vastly off topic. #nucleartest
11/10/09
I think the photographer deserves an enormous amount of credit. Not only is it very good work, but it takes some serious balls to approach people who have suffered so much and depict them with dignity and respect.
If you guys haven't actually followed the photographer's link, I highly recommend it. The other images are just as moving. #nucleartest
11/10/09
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11/10/09
I simply can't understand the argument that weapons escalation is in fact for world peace. Would you pad your car with explosives if it made it somehow less likely to crash?
Not talking about relying on national and military leaders to appreciate the consequences of the use of the weapons... let's all go read Watchmen and play Missile Commander. #nucleartest
11/10/09
I'm not advocating that we should always rely on nukes to prevent war, I'm merely stating that they did. #nucleartest
11/10/09
It still freaks me out and I get all antsy talking about it :S
#nucleartest
11/10/09
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11/10/09
Not the first time that I am seeing images like these, and the worst part is that every time I see these images, I think we, the readers and the writers, are far detached from this reality. Seeing these images only wells up a feeling akin to sadness and pain, which abates as soon as we skip over to the next article about another gadget. Isn't that sad, I mean, really really sad?
It was, no doubt, a good read. But I disagree with '... no matter how monstrous some men and women can be, the human spirit always seems to find a way to survive... '. Maybe the survival of human spirit is what is exactly wrong with humans. I can't even begin to imagine the life lived by people in those photographs, and the fact of the matter is, there are many more such lives being crafted every day. All thanks to one of the many human follies, Nuclear technology. #nucleartest
11/10/09
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11/10/09
We are all taught about Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Chernobyl We see there pictures everywhere, hear the cries and the condemnations.
But where are the pictures of Wieluń and Frampol, or Dresden and Hamburg, or Tokyo and Halabja.
Where are the cries for those killed by fire and gas? The condemnations for those who developed that most terrible of strategies called 'Terror Bombing'?
Who are you to say that these dead represent the evil nature of man, but those dead are to be ignored?
By what factor is the tragedy of Hiroshima not equaled and more by the hellstorm of Tokyo?
What is represented by the Atom that is not to be found in magnesium, phosphorous and petroleum?
11/10/09
Just the word "Dresden" is enough to conjure up images of one of America's worst moments. Similarly, for nearly a century, those killed by gas in the fields of France have been remembered and mourned. Likewise, America's use of napalm in Vietnam has also been a black mark on its history.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki do get a lot of attention - as they did during the Reagan years. But the world has never forgotten the firebombing of Dresden or the bombing of Tokyo or the horrors of mustard and chlorine gas or the twin terrors of napalm and Agent Orange.
A lot of ink has been spilled for those dead. Just because Jesus wrote an article about the lingering effects of atomic and nuclear testing does not mean that the world has forgotten about the other victims of WWI, WWII or Vietnam. #nucleartest
11/10/09
11/10/09
More people died over land and religion then from the atom. #nucleartest
11/09/09
I hope our collective brilliance can one day bring advancements without terror and technology that will truly bring peace the world over.
These pictures are heartbreaking. #nucleartest
11/09/09
More to come soon in a town near you. Could someone come up with number of nuclear tests that comes close to the real one? Summing up the whole world nuclear detonations. Watch Alex Jones documentaries on youtube.
11/09/09
We don't learn, do we? #nucleartest
11/09/09
It shows how mankind has achieved success in their search for knowledge.
It's really sad however that the first use we gave to nuclear power was to destroy each other and to create fear. If those who started nuclear research could have imagined what others would do with that knowledge, they'd have resigned to that knowledge.
If all the funds that went into research and construction of nuclear weapons, would have been invested in researching nuclear power plants and safer ways to dispose radioactive waste, maybe and just maybe we will be writing these comments using green energy, not worrying too much about what we've done to our planet, and these people would be living really different lifes.
It's not their faces, but there is something in those photos that tells us how much they want to live, maybe they havent even think'd about wanting to die, and most of us would think they have the right to think that.
They just don't care about their blackberry battery dying, or their iphone being better than their coworker's cellphone, they care about waking up one more day and just living it. #nucleartest
11/09/09
11/09/09
But, that said, the consequences of radiation exposure in utero are relatively well-studied. To over-simplify, exposure in the 0 to 4 week timeframe usually leads to outright death of the embryo, or the embryo survives unharmed (it's a pretty sensitive developmental time, and usually the radiation insult will be survivable, or 100% not survivable). In the 8 to 15 week timeframe, radiation exposure of a harmful enough level will usually lead to serious organ damage and a newborn which will have a very limited survival. In the 8 to 30 week timeframe, mental retardation/microcephaly and perhaps growth stunting are possible, but the most sensitive timeframe is 8 to 16 weeks for retardation. Past 30 weeks, the fetus has about the same risk profile as an adult: either you survive the radiation exposure, or you don't; but either way, no harmful structural abnormalities will result. Cancer risks (leukemia, thyroid e.g.) are increased substantially later in life (childhood, adulthood). Again, in general, substantially increased risks of remarkable, unsightly birth defects is rare; this is based on the Hiroshima/Nagasaki data, and the emerging Chernobyl data.
So, my opinion on the pictures is: the child with macrocephaly (large head) was not a radiation-associated case. The children with retardation and microcephaly could be radiation-associated. The young man that looks the most deformed probably has a case of large facial angiomatous malformations, and those are almost certainly not radiation-related. #nucleartest
11/09/09
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"I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph. And there's purpose and worth to each and every life." - Ronald Reagan
God Bless #nucleartest