Beppe Grillo's Blog

Nuclear dwarves

France contaminated
(9:20)

If the nuclear “picciotto” {rank and file mafioso} in Italy is Berlusconi, its instigator is Sarkozy. The greatest pusher of nuclear power stations in the world. And thus it is with joy that I read the news of the electoral collapse of the “Transalpine Carlànano”. One dwarf attracts another…. Sarkozy could lose in the whole of France at the second round. In the first round the socialist party (PS) won in absolute terms over the governing coalition (UMP), 29.5% to 26.5%. In the different regions it’s leading nearly everywhere, with a few exceptions: the regions that have a border with Italy “Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur” and “Rhône-Alpes” where the closeness to our borders must be contagious and in French Guyana, well known for the forced labour on Devil’s Island (a good omen). The Greens are gaining in France and this is another bit of good news for the planet. What’s also growing is Le Pen and his National Front that has such an impressive similarity with the Lega of Borghezio and Calderoli. The true winners are those who abstained, 54.6%. It’s the signal that the politics based on carte blanche delegation to the politicians is at its sunset. The citizen who does not participate, who is excluded, is abstaining.
Sarkozy is nuclear. France is a nuclear power. France exports military nuclear, as happened in Israel (*) and civil nuclear. Nuclear is uneconomic, dangerous, based on a non-renewable energy like uranium. No one has yet resolved the problem of the nuclear waste. The safe and economic French nuclear, the stuff that we will import into Italy, does not exist. “In France, if “Électricité de France (EDF)” had to insure for the full cost of a meltdown, the price of nuclear electricity would increase by about 300%. In France, in August 2003 there was a heat wave so strong that it killed 14,000 people. The flow of cold water was reduced … the company was allowed to pour secondary cooling water into the nearby rivers, and to do that at temperatures that were so high as to kill the aquatic life.” (*). French civil nuclear power would not be possible without the military nuclear and both of them are kept alive using the taxes of the French. But these are trifles. The safe French nuclear is a Government joke. Try and put the words France “nuclear accidents” into Google. You get about 28,000 results. Nuclear accidents in France are no longer news.
Nuclear is a business for the ones exporting it. For the French lobbies, and for the Confindustria companies that will receive financing from the Italian State. An enormous waste of resources. In Italy, tens of billions of euro are destined for the power stations instead of for the development of renewable energy. Italians voted against nuclear in a referendum. No Italian region wants nuclear, unlike Berlusconi and his court of miracles (with external support from Caltagirone’s son-in-law, Azzurro Pierferdinando). France has shown the way. One dwarf attracts another …

(*) From Nuclear Power Is Not the Answer to Global Warming Or Anything Else by Helen Caldicott

Comments

Yesterday, I clicked on "La vita in diretta" (the only show of any interest that RAI's management and "little Mussolini" allows us to watch) during the segment in which host and guests were comparing the situation of young people in Italy with the situation of American youth. Interesting discussion, to be sure, and I thought the correspondent from New York made, more or less, a good comparison, slightly favoring the American youth situation. However, it's no longer true that young Americans free themselves from their parents before Italian youth: that custom stopped ten to fifteen years ago. Before that it was not unusual for a working class kid to drop out of high school, get a good- paying job in an auto plant or steel mill and find an apartment for himself. Today, young people still drop out of high school only to find minimum-wage jobs in the service sectors, rarely finding good-paying jobs allowing them to be free of their parents. Whereas at one time a working class kid could make true the dream of becoming a lawyer, doctor, teacher or dream about other lucre professions, today - generally speaking- rarely, if at all, do such dreams become true for working class kids: colleges and universities are way beyond their economic reaches: the military is more within their grasp. Or, if they ever do make it to college or university, they learn to be in debt, probably, for the rest of their lives, as most of them take out loans to pay the expensive university tuition fees. After four years the graduates find themselves $40 to $50,000 in a hole. In years gone by school loans were no problem since employers hired new grads even before convocation day. Today, employers are scarce and it's not unusual for a new grad to work at minumum-wage jobs for three or four years. And when that's the case even university educated people can't afford to leave home. And more often than one can think today's economic conditions are also forcing thirty and forty year-olds, laid off from their jobs, to be stuck with mommy and daddy. The big problem (among others) in Italy is the 32% youth unemployment rate. It's the second highest rate among thirteen industrialized countries, only Spain's youth unemployment is highest at 40%. But, as long as Silvio is there, so what!

Posted by: Louis Pacella | March 17, 2010 07:23 PM

Grazie per aver registrato il mio commento,ma perchè è risultato così scorretto ed incompleto riguardo all'originale? Vi prego di darmene cortesemente spiegazione.

Posted by: Aldo Cannavò | March 17, 2010 12:32 PM

Inutile fare commenti sul nucleare ed altro,finchè il mondo è governato dalle lobbies multinazionali.Esse non hanno nè patria,nè Dio, nè famiglia,contrariamente a quello che dichiarano,ma solo interessi, per i quali manovrano gli stati ed i ministri.Quelle sono i veri extracomunitari,che impoveriscono gli stati,economicamente e moralmente.Ma chi è in grado di combatterle e fare bonifica?

Posted by: Aldo Cannavò | March 17, 2010 12:28 PM

@Paul Scaglia

sorry, may be you have not yet read all his post but I can assure you Mr Grillo do also rail about American forces and nuclear bombs in Italy !
He is right when he says that nuclear energy is economically efficient only when coupled with the atomic bomb and this hasn't prevent France to do a nasty business in Birmany (see the company "Total")
In Belgium also we do have American nuclear bomb
but we didn't go to war in Iraq !

Posted by: bar fernand | March 16, 2010 09:16 PM

Instead of railing against nuclear energy, perhaps Mr. Grillo should turn his attention to the 45 American bases inside of his country, some with nuclear weapons, before attacking another European country.

Due to the fact that France told all American forces to leave its country at the height of the Cold War, it has not been forced to support the failed American foreign policy of invading countries to secure their petroleum supplies like it has done in Iraq. The Italian people should follow the French example and expel American forces out of their country, in order for Italy to become more integrated in Europe and have more control over their own country.

Nearly 20 years after the Cold War ended and over 30 years since Also Moro was killed for standing up to the powers in Washington, Italy has continued to enjoy the economic benefits of American bases located in their country, which contributes to the continuing aggressive use of American military forces.

Posted by: Paul Scaglia | March 16, 2010 08:08 PM