From mosa@netcom.com Sun Jul 9 08:51:25 1995 From: mosa@netcom.com (Michele Lord) To: dave@sgi.sgi.com Newsgroups: soc.culture.native,alt.native From: reyburn@peg.pegasus.oz.au Subject: MURUROA Sender: indig.rights.oz@gnosys.svle.ma.us Date: Tue, 4 Jul 1995 07:08:01 GMT Lines: 241 MURUROA ET ECOPOX, MON AMI 1. A NUCLEAR TEST OR A NUCLEAR WAR? Does Mururoa understand French? When they say they are "Just testing" can she, the atoll, tell the difference between a 'not really real' test and an all-out nuclear war on the structure and integrity of the atoll and associated life? If this is just a test, what would constitute a real nuclear assault? Shouldn't we be calling to: STOP FRENCH NUCLEAR WAR AGAINST PACIFIC LIFE What a lovely phrase "Pacific life" Yes! "French nuclear war". Ugh. 2. WHAT IS THE REAL EXPERIMENT AT MURUROA? Little evidence has been made available by French authorities on which to base an assessment of destabilization of the volcanics...The volcanics have undoubtedly been severely altered. (Report of a New Zealand, Australian, and Papua New Guinea Scientific Mission to Mururoa Atoll 1984? pages 98-99) Given the tunnel vision of the authorities in charge, the full effects of their explosions are going to be far more extensive than what they can conceive. Picture, if you will, a recently uncapped volcano spewing a deadly brew of radioactively hot gasses into the atmosphere of the South Pacific. What effect would this have on life? I mean, if you wanted to unplug a volcanic core, how would you go about it? Would it be much different to the unintentional pattern of massive explosions we have had to date? And, given the speed at which event stake place in geological time, when could the first signs of 'success' become obvious - and what would they be? Is the protection of the illusions of the importance of French culture to the world really worth the risk? 3. COMPREHENSIVE ACCOUNTING OF CLEAN-UP COSTS. Picture, if you will, the canoe which arrives at the atoll after the inevitable collapse of the present ill-founded experiment in material civilisation. What group of seekers would it contain? Where have they come from? Lives seeking shelter? What precious life-seed might they contain? Perhaps their journey is an indirect result of the European nuclear war which evaporated - in fratricidal white heat - once and for all the category "French" and "France". After some weeks at sea, in an ocean now returned to immense proportions, a landfall. But what sort of landfall? One resulting in sickness and deformity? Waste management at Mururoa in earlier times was poor; it is now very good and the French authorities are making every reasonable effort to clean up previously contaminated land areas. (Report of a New Zealand, Australian and Papua New Guinea Scientific Mission to Mururoa Atoll 1984? page 174). What reason? Not life's but an accountant in the employ of a State?. Reasonable effort? What constitutes the limits of this reason? Financial considerations? The state of our feeble-sighted scientific understanding which cannot provide us with a reliable weather forecast? In a British atmospheric test off the coast of Western Australia the wind blew the 'wrong way' carrying the plume back onto the land and into the lives of people, animals, plants...Trust us? You have to be joking. What sort of contamination resulted from these 'earlier days' of French/European experimentation in the Pacific? How long lasting is the contamination? Should the French be not allowed to continue until it is demonstrated that they have adequately restored the ecosystem to a fit condition for life? The Australian experience at Rum Jungle and other British test sites demonstrates that European powers consistently seek to wipe their hands of the on-going costs which result from playing with nuclear materials. The emerging pattern is one in which the proponents attempt to transfer future costs to another player (the Australian taxpayer) by corrupting the local authorities into accepting a once and for all settlement. This may involve yet another dose of ecosystemic cosmetics in an attempt to cover over a dead-seated and deadly eco-pox on life. And beyond the question of what constitutes 'reasonable effort', there is an other question. Is it theoretically possible for them to restore it to a state of well-being fit for the higher forms of life which will predictably come ashore from time to time in the future? Or, given the character of the activity, is theoretical ecosystemic well-being out of the question in places where nuclear experimentation is carried out (locally and globally)? If this is so, why should they be allowed to proceed until the proponents have examined the full effect of their experiment with life's forces. 4. THE SICKNESS OF NATIONALISM What could be more symbolic of the destructive forces which generate the 'modern' nation-state than the atomic bomb? European life, in recent times, shifted into a cult of science which placed a distorted emphasis on the value of experimentation and a corresponding undervaluing of the costs of these experiments. Attention is encouraged to be focused on the products of this form of magic (e.g. fridges and colour television) in a form of mass hypnosis which robs us of our critical faculties. But what right or process are these social practices introduced into the lives of peoples far from the home of the Western Way? Forced cloning of an alien culture - by means of violence and colonialism - into the lives of other peoples. This is associated with a carve up of life which produces an indigenous elite. This Westernised elite can be left in place as local managers when the colonial power withdraws. And the Elders are often silenced by these youngsters who are 'sophisticated' in the ways of the 'modern' world. How much more attractive and balanced the original indigenous cultures now appear. Who is the Elder Brother-Sister, now? Where is that wisdom? What form of madness is it that allows French speaking authorities to wash their hands of their global responsibilities to life by talking of Mururoa atoll as being "in France". Answer - the form of madness is commonly known as 'nationalism'. To embrace it is to feed the insanity, rather than to cure. Mururoa is not in France, mon ami. Einstein said that nationalism was the measles of mankind. An infantile condition which demonstrates that we do not have the maturity to play safely with the powerful forces of creation. I suggest that - as a precondition for humans qualifying for the position of playing god - the objective must be to cure life of these infantile diseases. Perhaps our French speaking Brothers and Sisters could provide us with a demonstration of their abilities in this area. They made a good start in 1789, but their attempts to reform life were hijacked. 5. ELDERS AND ADULTS - BLOCKADE MURUROA It is important to accept that the nuclear assault on Mururoa is part of a human (not merely "French") attack on planetary ecosystems and life globally. Note the use of the expression "THE French nuclear whatever". This accepts and objectifies nationalism - THE French people - as something primarily separate from the rest of life. The bomb is necessary to protect 'The French Nation-State". Reforming life requires us to see Mururoa as a Western - and not merely French - attack on Pacific life. The Western Way is one of states and nationalism. Accepting this way of carving up life projects responsibility outside of our own lives. It paves the way for us to wash our hands of our responsibilities - after, perhaps, a token and symbolic protest. The extent of protest from State governments will be (I predict) one which will stop well short of calling into question the underlying assumptions about the 'naturalness' of nation-states. French authorities are probably secure in their belief that ships of other nations will not form a blockade around Mururoa to protect her from the insane 'experiments' by physically keeping war-scientists off the atoll. How telling it is that the ship presently sailing into the danger zone - the Rainbow Warrior - is not a ship of a nation-state but one funded by a process of door-knocking around the world to raise small donations. A ship of the world's peoples roused to action. The other nation- states are just as likely to see her as the real threat and join with fellow elites to blow her out of the water! The pretence of nation-states that Mururoa is part of a sovereign nation-state of France will most likely be accepted by other nation-states. Basically, other nation-states will send off messages designed to placate their own citizens, and will shrug "What else can we do" when those messages are ignored. The elite playing the game well understand just how far they have to go, and where they have to draw the line to protect their own powerbase and interests. I think the adult approach is one which accepts that the problem posed by Mururoa requires us to accept that we all have some responsibility. Rethinking our mode of Being - to the rest of life - is central to the challenge posed to us. Supporting our French speaking other-selves regain sanity and a fuller sense of reason will require the exercise of mature intelligence of the world's adults - those not crippled by the infantile disease of nationalism, that is. I offer these thoughts in solidarity, Bruce Reyburn 4 July 1995