George Monbiot and others at best misinform and at worst distort evidence of the dangers of atomic energy Soon after the Fukushima accident last month , I stated publicly that a nuclear event of this size and catastrophic potential could present a medical problem of very large dimensions. Events have proven this observation to be true despite the nuclear industry’s campaign about the “minimal” health effects of so-called low-level radiation. That billions of its dollars are at stake if the Fukushima event causes the “nuclear renaissance” to slow down appears to be evident from the industry’s attacks on its critics, even in the face of an unresolved and escalating disaster at the reactor complex at Fukushima. Proponents of nuclear power – including George Monbiot, who has had a mysterious road-to-Damascus conversion to its supposedly benign effects – accuse me and others who call attention to the potential serious medical consequences of the accident of “cherry-picking” data and overstating the health effects of radiation from the radioactive fuel in the destroyed reactors and their cooling pools. Yet by reassuring the public that things aren’t too bad, Monbiot and others at best misinform, and at worst misrepresent or distort, the scientific evidence of the harmful effects of radiation exposure – and they play a predictable shoot-the-messenger game in the process. To wit: 1) Mr Monbiot, who is a journalist not a scientist, appears unaware of the difference between external and internal radiation Let me educate him. The former is what populations were exposed to when the atomic bombs were detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945; their profound and on-going medical effects are well documented. [1] Internal radiation, on the other hand, emanates from radioactive elements which enter the body by inhalation, ingestion, or skin absorption. Hazardous radionuclides such as iodine-131, caesium 137, and other isotopes currently being released in the sea and air around Fukushima bio-concentrate at each step of various food chains (for example into algae, crustaceans, small fish, bigger fish, then humans; or soil, grass, cow’s meat and milk, then humans). [2] After they enter the body, these elements – called internal emitters – migrate to specific organs such as the thyroid, liver, bone, and brain, where they continuously irradiate small volumes of cells with high doses of alpha, beta and/or gamma radiation, and over many years, can induce uncontrolled cell replication – that is, cancer. Further, many of the nuclides remain radioactive in the environment for generations, and ultimately will cause increased incidences of cancer and genetic diseases over time. The grave effects of internal emitters are of the most profound concern at Fukushima. It is inaccurate and misleading to use the term “acceptable levels of external radiation” in assessing internal radiation exposures. To do so, as Monbiot has done, is to propagate inaccuracies and to mislead the public worldwide (not to mention other journalists) who are seeking the truth about radiation’s hazards. 2) Nuclear industry proponents often assert that low doses of radiation (eg below 100mSV) produce no ill effects and are therefore safe. But , as the US National Academy of Sciences BEIR VII report has concluded, no dose of radiation is safe, however small, including background radiation; exposure is cumulative and adds to an individual’s risk of developing cancer. 3) Now let’s turn to Chernobyl. Various seemingly reputable groups have issued differing reports on the morbidity and mortalities resulting from the 1986 radiation catastrophe. The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2005 issued a report attributing only 43 human deaths directly to the Chernobyl disaster and estimating an additional 4,000 fatal cancers. In contrast, the 2009 report, “Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment” , published by the New York Academy of Sciences, comes to a very different conclusion. The three scientist authors – Alexey V Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V Nesterenko – provide in its pages a translated synthesis and compilation of hundreds of scientific articles on the effects of the Chernobyl disaster that have appeared in Slavic language publications over the past 20 years. They estimate the number of deaths attributable to the Chernobyl meltdown at about 980,000. Monbiot dismisses the report as worthless , but to do so – to ignore and denigrate an entire body of literature, collectively hundreds of studies that provide evidence of large and significant impacts on human health and the environment – is arrogant and irresponsible. Scientists can and should argue over such things, for example, as confidence intervals around individual estimates (which signal the reliability of estimates), but to consign out of hand the entire report into a metaphorical dustbin is shameful. Further, as Prof Dimitro Godzinsky, of the Ukranian National Academy of Sciences, states in his introduction to the report: “Against this background of such persuasive data some defenders of atomic energy look specious as they deny the obvious negative effects of radiation upon populations. In fact, their reactions include almost complete refusal to fund medical and biological studies, even liquidating government bodies that were in charge of the ‘affairs of Chernobyl’. Under pressure from the nuclear lobby, officials have also diverted scientific personnel away from studying the problems caused by Chernobyl.” 4) Monbiot expresses surprise that a UN-affiliated body such as WHOmight be under the influence of the nuclear power industry, causing its reporting on nuclear power matters to be biased. And yet that is precisely the case. In the early days of nuclear power, WHO issued forthright statements on radiation risks such as its 1956 warning: “Genetic heritage is the most precious property for human beings. It determines the lives of our progeny, health and harmonious development of future generations. As experts, we affirm that the health of future generations is threatened by increasing development of the atomic industry and sources of radiation … We also believe that new mutations that occur in humans are harmful to them and their offspring.” After 1959, WHO made no more statements on health and radioactivity. What happened? On 28 May 1959, at the 12th World Health Assembly, WHO drew up an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); clause 12.40 of this agreement says: “Whenever either organisation [the WHO or the IAEA] proposes to initiate a programme or activity on a subject in which the other organisation has or may have a substantial interest, the first party shall consult the other with a view to adjusting the matter by mutual agreement.” In other words, the WHO grants the right of prior approval over any research it might undertake or report on to the IAEA – a group that many people, including journalists, think is a neutral watchdog, but which is, in fact, an advocate for the nuclear power industry. The IAEA’s founding papers state : “The agency shall seek to accelerate and enlarge the contribution of atomic energy to peace, health and prosperity through the world.” Monbiot appears ignorant about the WHO’s subjugation to the IAEA, yet this is widely known within the scientific radiation community. But it is clearly not the only matter on which he is ignorant after his apparent three-day perusal of the vast body of scientific information on radiation and radioactivity. As we have seen, he and other nuclear industry apologists sow confusion about radiation risks, and, in my view, in much the same way that the tobacco industry did in previous decades about the risks of smoking. Despite their claims, it is they, not the “anti-nuclear movement” who are “misleading the world about the impacts of radiation on human health.” • Helen Caldicott is president of the Helen Caldicott Foundation for a Nuclear-Free Planet and the author of Nuclear Power is Not the Answer [1] See, for example, WJ Schull, Effects of Atomic Radiation: A Half-Century of Studies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki (New York: Wiley-Lis, 1995) and DE Thompson, K Mabuchi, E Ron, M Soda, M Tokunaga, S Ochikubo, S Sugimoto, T Ikeda, M Terasaki, S Izumi et al. “Cancer incidence in atomic bomb survivors, Part I: Solid tumors, 1958-1987″ in Radiat Res 137:S17-S67 (1994). [2] This process is called bioaccumulation and comes in two subtypes as well, bioconcentration and biomagnification. For more information see: J.U. Clark and V.A. McFarland, Assessing Bioaccumulation in Aquatic Organisms Exposed to Contaminated Sediments, Miscellaneous Paper D-91-2 (1991), Environmental Laboratory, Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS and H.A. Vanderplog, D.C. Parzyck, W.H. Wilcox, J.R. Kercher, and S.V. Kaye, Bioaccumulation Factors for Radionuclides in Freshwater Biota, ORNL-5002 (1975), Environmental Sciences Division Publication, Number 783, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN. Nuclear power Energy Japan disaster Japan guardian.co.uk
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Yoko Ono gives permission for first collection of late Beatle’s correspondence to be printed John Lennon’s previously unpublished letters will finally appear in print. Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow, has agreed to help compile a collection of the singer’s correspondence, including postcards and doodles, to be published in October 2012. This is the first time that Ono has consented to publish his letters. The anthology will be edited by Hunter Davies, the official Beatles biographer, using Ono’s archive and letters from private collections. But Davies is aware that Lennon had many unknown pen pals over the years, fans or early friends whose correspondence with the singer is packed away in boxes. Anyone who has Lennon letters to share may contact the editor at johnlennonletters@hotmail.co.uk. As the book’s publisher points out, Lennon never sent an email. “Pen and ink were his medium,” Little, Brown explained. “John wrote letters and postcards all of his life; to his friends, family, strangers, newspapers, organisations, lawyers and the laundry – most of which were funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, poetic, anguished and sometimes heartbreaking.” The Lennon Letters will be printed in chronological order “so that a narrative builds up”, and many will be reproduced exactly “in [Lennon's] handwriting or typing, plus the odd cartoon or doodle”. Davies has tracked down about 200 letters and postcards so far. In 2003, a missive from Lennon to an art critic at the Syracuse Post-Standard sold for more than $38,000 (£23,243) . “Society only likes dead artists,” Lennon wrote in the letter. “I’m afraid Yoko and myself cannot oblige.” John Lennon Pop and rock The Beatles Sean Michaels guardian.co.uk
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Looking for a family day out over Easter? Been there readers have plenty of suggestions, from ice-cream factories and egg hunts to the Strangest Place in the World WINNING TIP: The Forbidden Corner, North Yorkshire The self-styled Strangest Place in the World is a labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, follies and surprises created in a four-acre garden. I recommend it because it is so unlike anything else and it keeps everyone wondering what’s around the next corner. It’s for all ages, and very memorable. • Adults £10, children £8, family ticket £34, booking essential. Tupgill Park Estate, Coverham 01969 640638, theforbiddencorner.co.uk Lara999 Blue Planet Aquarium, near Chester Chester ( visitchester.com ) is a great place for families to spend a day, or even a few days. The Blue Planet Aquarium is about 10 minutes’ drive from the city centre. One of the largest aquariums in the UK, it has two amazing underwater tunnel experiences. This is a great idea for wet days. The aquarium is close to the Cheshire Oaks retail park ( cheshireoaksshopping.co.uk ), good for some credit-crunch retail therapy, with designer brands at discount prices, lots of restaurants and a huge cinema. • Adults £15, children £11, family £50.50. Longlooms Road, Ellesmere Port, 0151-357 8804, • blueplanetaquarium.com matthudson1 Easter Egg Trail, Ham House, near Richmond, Surrey This is a great family day out over Easter weekend. There are Easter egg trails at NT properties all over the country, but Ham House makes for some really stunning photographs. The entertainment works for the whole family, with activities, gardens to explore and lots of great play areas. Kids can enjoy face-painting, too. • Entrance to property, adults £9.90, children £5.50. Egg trails (24, 25 April 11am-4pm) £3. Ham Street, Ham, Richmond-upon-Thames, 020-8940 1950, eastereggtrails.com/Ham-House-and-Garden.aspx Songbird21 Muddy Boots, Glenrothes, Fife Muddy Boots started as a farm shop, selling veg, fruit, jam and honey, among others. There is a large cafe with a kids’ menu, children’s entertainment in the form of a tractor track, quad train, a large jumping pillow, gyro cars, grass sledging, turf boarding and indoor and outdoor play areas. It’s fantastic fun for all the family: leave grandparents in the cafe while the kids go and explore. The food is great and there are activities galore to speed the day. There is also a pottery area where kids can paint their own designs, from plates to money boxes. • Under-fives £2, outdoor play area (over-sevens) £5. Balmalcolm Farm, Balmalcolm, Fife, 01337 831222 Lizzy1921 Cream O’Galloway ice-cream factory, Castle Douglas, Dumfries and Galloway This place is excellent fun for all ages, all year round (they’ll open up for groups out of season if you book ahead), whatever the weather and for only a few quid. Cold and wet outdoors? Head for the indoor play area, built to take adults so they can squeeze through the tunnels and down slides with their children, which is so much more fun than standing on the sidelines. If the weather’s half-decent, go for the outdoor adventure playground, an amazing structure between the trees and the ice-cream factory with something for everyone: a tower with amazing views over the surrounding countryside, bridges, chutes and a maze. And if that’s not enough, there’s also the possibility of creating your own ice-cream, although adults may have to curb their enthusiasm for alcohol-based desserts if the kids are to get a look in. They didn’t when we were there! • Adults £2, children £4, extra charges for individual activities, such as Ice-Cream Experience (adults £5.50, children £3.50). Rainton, Gatehouse of Fleet, Dumfries & Galloway, 01557 814040, • creamogalloway.co.uk BarbEdinburgh The Welsh Mountain Zoo, Colwyn Bay, Clwyd This is a good all-round family experience. They have lots of animals from around the world and tons of experiences to engage in. Amazon parrots are new this year – some of them talk – and agoutis, large rodents from South America. • Adults £9.95, children £7.50, family ticket £31.40. 01492 532938, welshmountainzoo.org amandtony United Kingdom Family holidays Guardian readers guardian.co.uk
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Hot weather comes to an end as rain crosses much of country and temperatures revert to seasonal averages “Was that it then?” asked hundreds of thousands of Britons as the weekend’s mini heatwave began to collapse just in time for the Monday morning return to work. The answer from the Met Office is essentially: “Afraid so”, as temperatures revert to seasonal averages and rain crosses much of the country, ending the driest early spring since 1953. A cold front has begun moving in from the Atlantic, initially in the north-west, but it is expected to reach all areas by Wednesday. Sadness at the transitory nature of the “little summer” – which will at least persist for much of Monday along the south coast – was mixed with relief at a bit of damp for farmers and the horticultural industry. Resorting to mains water has leached supplies from reservoirs, especially in the south-west where some have dropped to 80% capacity at a time of the year when things are usually more waterlogged. The area may miss out on heavy rain which is expected to cross northern England and the Midlands on Tuesday. But few will escape an accompanying fall in temperatures, with unsettled and sometimes gusty weather in place nationwide by Wednesday night, according to forecasters. Victoria Kettley, of MeteoGroup, said: “Barbecue weather will be beating a retreat for at least the next few days. The front system will be moving in across the UK over Ireland, Scotland, and north-west England bringing colder air and rain. “Temperatures will be cool across north and western parts of the UK with readings between 11-14°C.” Much of the UK was hotter than the north Mediterranean and even Bermuda over the weekend, with Scotland joining in the bonanza. The highest temperatures were at the country’s opposite ends, with both Southampton and Aboyne near Aberdeen recording 23°C. The Algarve and Rome recorded 21°C. The peaks were 8°C above April averages and the natural world has produced its usual crop of anomalies as a result. Dandelions are on average three weeks earlier, brightening roadside verges and keeping gardeners busy. Dominic Price, of Plantlife, said: “They respond to the sun and it has suddenly become warm enough to trigger them so all the flowers have opened at once, creating a mass of yellow, but not always where it’s wanted, such as on our lawns. Large numbers of dandelions also come at the expense of other wildflowers, such as orchids and harebells, as they will gorge on the nutrients in the soil, leaving the weaker plants struggling to survive.” Weather Martin Wainwright guardian.co.uk
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Serviceman Ryan Donovan charged with murder of lieutenant commander and attempted murder of three other officers A Royal Navy sailor has appeared in court accused of the murder of a colleague and the attempted murders of three other crew on board a nuclear submarine. Able Seaman Ryan Samuel Donovan, 22, of Dartford, Kent, spoke only to confirm his name, age and address during the short hearing at Southampton magistrates court. Donovan has been charged with the murder of Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, 36, who was fatally shot on board HMS Astute while it was docked in Southampton, Hampshire, on Friday. He has also been charged with the attempted murders of Petty Officer Christopher Brown, 36, Chief Petty Officer David McCoy, 37, and Lieutenant Commander Christopher Hodge, 45. Donovan was remanded in custody to appear at Winchester crown court on 13 April. Nick Hawkins, prosecuting, said the case could have been handled internally by the armed forces but it had been agreed that it would be held in the civilian courts. Molyneux’s widow, Gillian, described the father of four from Wigan as “utterly devoted to his family”. “Everything he did was for us. He was very proud to be an officer in the Royal Navy submarine service.” The shootings took place as local dignitaries, including the city council’s mayor, chief executive and leader, were being given a tour of the submarine while it was berthed at the Eastern Docks on an official five-day visit to the city. HMS Astute has been cleared to leave Southampton this afternoon to return to its base at Faslane, Scotland. Hawkins, the chief prosecutor for Hampshire Crown Prosecution Service, said: “The armed forces do have jurisdiction but during the course of the weekend I had discussions with the director of service prosecutions and we are in agreement this case is properly to be tried in the civilian courts and therefore should be dealt with no differently to any other murder or attempted murder cases that appears before your court.” Describing the allegation against Donovan, he said: “The prosecution claims it was the deliberate discharge of a SA80 rifle six times, aimed at four people, one of which was fatally wounded.” Crime Military guardian.co.uk
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April 11, 2011 No Comment
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Paris police have detained two women wearing Islamic veils at a protest on the first day of France’s ban on the burqa and niqab Live updates from Angelique Chrisafis in Paris Paris police have detained two women wearing Islamic veils at a protest on the first day of France’s ban on the face coverings. The ban makes France the first country in the world to forbid the veils anywhere in public. About a dozen people, including three women wearing veils, staged a protest in front of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris on Monday, and two women were taken away in a van. A police officer on the site said at least one of the women was detained because the protest was not authorised and the protesters refused to disperse. It is unclear whether she was also fined. Two male colleagues of the veiled women were also detained by police. France’s ban on face veils went into force on Monday, and anyone wearing the niqab or burqa in public could now face a fine of €150 (£132), or lessons in French citizenship. The centre-right government, which passed the law in October, has rolled out a public relations campaign to explain the ban and the rules of its application that includes posters, pamphlets and a government-hosted website. Guidelines spelled out in the pamphlet forbid police from asking women to remove their burqa in the street. They will instead be escorted to a police station and asked to remove the veil there for identification. Widely criticised by Muslims abroad as impinging on their religious freedom, the law has provoked a limited backlash in France where a strict separation of church and state is seen as central to maintaining a peaceful civil society. A property dealer is urging women to engage in “civil disobedience” by continuing to wear the veil if they so desire and had called on supporters to hold a silent prayer in protest at the ban in front of Notre Dame. Rachid Nekkaz, who is a Muslim, said in a webcast he would help pay fines and was putting a property worth around €2m up for sale to fund his campaign. “The street is the universal home of freedom and nobody should challenge that so long as these women are not impinging on anyone else’s freedom,” he said. “I am calling on all free women who so wish to wear the veil in the street and engage in civil disobedience,” he said. In Avignon, Vaucluse, Reuters TV filmed a woman boarding a train wearing a niqab, unchallenged by police. “It’s not an act of provocation,” said Kenza Drider. “I’m only carrying out my citizens’ rights, I’m not committing a crime … If they [police] ask me for identity papers I’ll show them, no problem.” France has five million Muslims, but fewer than 2,000 women are believed to wear a face veil. Many Muslim leaders have said they support neither the veil nor the law banning it. On Saturday, French police arrested around 60 people who turned up for a banned protest over the veil ban which had been called by a Muslim group in Britain. One of the protesters was arrested on his arrival from Britain, a police spokesman said. The timing is all the more sensitive after France’s ruling UMP party called a debate on the role of Islam in French society, a forum that some criticised as unfairly singling out a portion of the population as problematic. The guide sent out last week to police notes that the burqa ban does not apply inside private cars, but it reminds officers that such cases can be dealt with under road safety rules. France Europe Religion Islam French burqa and niqab ban guardian.co.uk
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Heavy fighting in Abidjan as Alassane Ouattara’s forces backed by France advance on Ivory Coast presidential residence The biggest joint ground assault of the war in Ivory Coast so far is now under way against Gbagbo’s presidential residence, an Ouattara official claimed. Apollinaire Yapi, a spokesman for Alassane Ouattara’s military commander Guillaume Soro, said the pro-Ouattara republican forces were advancing in the Plateau and Cocody districts of Abidjan on Monday with significant French support. “It is the biggest ground assault since this started,” Yapi said. “This time it will not stop. It will continue until Gbagbo steps down, or at least until he is pushed back into his residence. If he wants to stay there as a prisoner then he can. The main concern for Mr Ouattara is for normal life to resume.” Yapi added: “What’s happening is the same as yesterday, by ground and helicopter. The military target is to destroy all heavy weapons that have been threatening the civilian population. They are not targeting Mr Gbagbo. He must be captured and put on trial.” The Red Cross was also present, collecting the wounded and killed, he added. Meanwhile Yapi claimed hundreds of pro-Gbagbo fighters were in custody at the Golf Hotel and other locations. French military officials were not available for comment. A UN mission spokesman said: “We haven’t had an assessment of last night’s operation. I can’t speak for the French forces.” Twenty-four French military vehicles rolled out of their base in Abidjan on Monday morning in a fresh attempt to stem the fighting in Ivory Coast’s key city. The convoy included three tanks and several armoured personnel carriers. Residents have reported heavy fighting between forces loyal to Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Ouattara in the Cocody and Plateau districts. On Sunday night, at least six French and two UN helicopters fired rockets on the presidential residence where Gbagbo is defiantly clinging to power. Gbagbo’s spokesman Ahoua Don Mello said thick smoke billowed from the presidential residence after the combined strikes, but he declined to say whether Gbagbo was inside at the time. “UN and French helicopters continue to fire at President Gbagbo’s residence which has been partially destroyed,” he told Reuters on Sunday night. The head of the UN and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, authorised the strikes, accusing Gbagbo of continuing to use heavy weapons against civilians in his bid to hang on to office more than four months after losing the presidential election. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, said Gbagbo’s camp had pretended to surrender on 5 April so they could regroup their forces and redeploy heavy weapons. They have since resumed attacks on civilians, the UN mission (UNOCI) headquarters and patrols and Ouattara’s base at the Golf Hotel, he said. “On 7 April, Mr Gbagbo’s forces used armoured personnel carriers mounted with heavy machine guns to attack the civilian population in Adjamé and Attecoube districts,” Ban said. “More than 200 civilians from the two districts came to UNOCI headquarters to seek refuge, and the mission treated 50 wounded civilians.” He continued: “These actions are unacceptable and cannot continue. The continued use of heavy weapons against the civilian population and our peacekeepers, as well as the attack against the headquarters of the legitimate government, have compelled me, once again, to instruct UNOCI to use all necessary means to prevent the use of these weapons.” It was for this reason that the UN carried out last night’s military operation, he added, with support from the French at Ban’s request. “I am particularly concerned about the humanitarian situation across the country and about human rights abuses. Civilians are bearing the brunt of the violence – the fighting must stop. Mr Gbagbo needs to step aside immediately.” Jean-Pierre Mignard, a lawyer for Ouattara, the internationally recognised winner of the November vote, said he supported the French and UN strikes. “We are satisfied because the Gbagbo residence is a headquarters, and it is from this headquarters that shots from heavy weaponry are being fired,” Mignard told Europe-1 radio. “Gbagbo is in the process of creating a situation of civil war to make the situation impossible.” On Sunday night residents from nearby neighbourhoods reported seeing two UN Mi-24 attack helicopters and a French helicopter open fire on the residence. Reporters saw the helicopters take off from the French military base followed minutes later by explosions coming from the direction of the residence. Successive waves of French helicopters took off from the base in the following hours and additional bombardments could be heard. A first round of UN and French air strikes last week destroyed some of Gbagbo’s arsenal of tanks, mortars and other heavy weapons. Gbagbo has been living in a bunker in his residence in Abidjan for nearly a week. Pro-Ouattara forces began an offensive late last month to install him in power, sweeping across the country in just days before meeting resistance in Abidjan. Human Rights Watch has accused the pro-Ouattara forces of killing hundreds of civilians, raping political opponents and burning villages during the offensive to try to put him in office. “Everyone here is traumatised. We’ve all lost something – a member of the family, our homes, our belongings,” Philomene Houe, a 39-year-old soap maker in the western town of Duékoué, told the Associated Press. Ivory Coast Laurent Gbagbo Alassane Ouattara France United Nations David Smith guardian.co.uk
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TV host comes under criticism from government and media for allowing six-year-old boy to mimic a striptease dancer The Philippines’ most popular TV game show was pulled off the air on Monday amid a public uproar over the host letting a crying six-year-old boy mimic a striptease dancer. Willie Revillame, who hosts the show Willing Willie, said he was taking two weeks of leave after which he will announce whether he’ll return to television. Angry viewers and commentators have launched a campaign on social networking sites to remove Revillame from the show, which offers cash prizes for singing, dancing, storytelling and playing games. They say Revillame showed poor taste and mocked his mostly impoverished viewers by allowing the crying boy to gyrate as a striptease dancer. The boy was a contestant and earned 10,000 pesos (£142) for his dance. The outcry led major sponsors to pull out, including Procter and Gamble, Del Monte Pacific, Unilever and Philippine fast-food giant Jollibee Foods. The 12 March episode also has prompted soul-searching discussions about the quality of TV entertainment in the Philippines. TV5 network said it wants to improve the programme and work with television and advertising industry stakeholders on guidelines for the participation of children in all game and reality TV shows. Philippine-born theatre actress Monique Wilson, in a widely circulated email carried by local media, argued that such TV shows “dumb down audiences [and] disempower them by creating a mendicant society with game shows that promise ‘quick money’”. Benjamin Pimentel, a US-based columnist for Inquirer.net, the online edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, criticised Revillame for “shining a harsh, cruel spotlight” on poverty “for cheap laughs and for ratings”. Social welfare secretary Corazon Soliman last month condemned “the emotional abuse and humiliation” the boy suffered and said the programme violated a law against child abuse. It was not clear if Revillame and TV5 will face charges. The government’s commission on human rights and the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board said they were investigating. Revillame has apologised but said his detractors had mounted a campaign “until they bury me alive”. He blamed his former network and competitor ABS-CBN television for trying to destroy his career and threatened to sue colleagues who criticised him. The Philippines’ highest paid TV host has ruffled feathers in the past for his often brash language and lewd jokes. In 2006 a stampede in a waiting line at a Manila stadium where Revillame’s show was to be broadcast killed 74 people. Criminal charges of negligence against Revillame and executives at ABS-CBN, where he worked at the time, were later dropped. Philippines Reality TV Television Children guardian.co.uk
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This would-be puff for the preservation of vanishing species highlights instead the hopelessness of the task For our grandparents, Donald Duck’s big-screen exploits were a carefree pleasure. Nowadays it seems, the wacky escapades of animated creatures must be predicated on an eco-sermon. Animals United brought our children up to speed on biodiversity . Now, Rio confronts that topic’s cutting edge: extinction . The hero, Blu, and the heroine, Jewel, are the last surviving specimens of the Blue Macaw . Unless they can mate successfully, their species will die out. Efforts to prevent this dire outcome generate the film’s thrills and spills. In fact, there are several species of macaw that happen to be blue. Rio’s story is based on the predicament of one of these, Spix’s Macaw . Like its fictional counterpart, this species is presumed extinct in the wild , and its future depends on a captive breeding programme . A hardly less gloomy fate awaits many other birds. Of the world’s feathered species, 13 per cent are now listed as endangered . This, you might think, is a theme that should surely grip our youngsters, eco-sanctimonious as so many now are. Nonetheless, it’s been more or less forgotten by the end of the film. When Blu and Jewel make out at last, we’re not even told whether issue flowed from their union. For Rio wants no real truck with jeopardy, either immediate or theoretical. Like its Ice Age predecessors, it swamps any hint of dread in either slapstick or exuberance. Nor does it set much store by the glory of nature’s profusion. A plethora of colourful feathered creatures flutter their way through Brazil’s lurid landscapes. Yet they don’t assert the importance of biodiversity. As it turns out, they do the opposite. Various though these avian life-forms may appear, they’re in fact all members of just one species. It isn’t even a bird. It’s a mammal called Homo sapiens. Blu explains himself thus: “I can’t fly, I pick my beak, and once in a while I pee in the birdbath!” As in other such anthropomorphic exercises, it’s not the diversity of the biosphere that brute multiformity celebrates, but the variegation of human personality. Rio’s birds proudly display the traits of which only humanity can boast. They’re vain, competitive, ingenious, witty, sulky, timorous, creative, ironic, adaptable, adventurous, quarrelsome, collaborative and romantic. What a piece of work are they! Inevitably, therefore, the message that the film offers its young audiences isn’t that wildlife is wonderful but that people are amazing. The spectacle provided by the incomparably rich birdlife of South America is easily outclassed by the magnificent extravaganza that is the Rio carnival in 3D CGI. This is of course paradoxical. For it’s humankind which is driving the very Sixth Extinction that’s propelling birdies like Blu and Jewel into the history books. As the palaeontologist Richard Leakey put it, “Homo sapiens is poised to become the greatest catastrophic agent since a giant asteroid collided with the Earth 65 million years ago , wiping out half the world’s species in a geological instant.” So is the Murdoch empire stuffing our children’s heads with dangerous nonsense while pretending to edify them? Maybe not. Maybe it’s just letting them know what’s really what. It’s clear that many of our planet’s current species are indeed on their way out, and that preachy films won’t be able to save them. This is because of the way people are. They’re just like the birds in Rio, unbridled, shameless and unstoppable. There are 6.7 billion of us already, and billions more are on the way . We all want to eat well and enjoy ourselves. If that means raping the habitat of our fellow creatures, and it does , we don’t really care. This phenomenon isn’t an ugly aberration: it’s more or less what you’d expect. Evolution doesn’t just create new species; it destroys old ones as well. The survival of the fittest implies the displacement of the weak. So far, 99.9 per cent of all the life forms that have ever existed have already become extinct , for one reason or another. Maybe Spix’s Macaw is doomed to join them ere long. If so, too bad. Enjoy the movie, kiddies. Animation David Cox guardian.co.uk
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