No thanks, no nuclear energy.

The German newspaper "Die Tageszeitung" (TAZ) has organized a nice action. They gave away 1000 flags with the text and classical image: Atomkraft nein Danke. All they asked was that people would fly the flag or show it in their window, or wherever it would be highly visible. It is the day of the catastrophe of Fukushima, a day which is made special by this action with its poignant message. I guess  you are all aware that the nuclear water is arriving at Canada's west coast... these days. This is a picture taken at Doel, where you can walk up to the old plant which has fine hare cracks in its reactor vats. I can see it from my window. If something happens over a million people will be in the first wave of radioactivity getting out. And evacuation will be difficult since on normal days the ring around Antwerp is usually totally stuck.

We need to think about longterm Futures and, being a linguist, I have been wondering how to warn the future generations about the dangers of no longer used nuclear plants and the unsafe deposits of nuclear waste. What language will they understand. So I wrote this poem:

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The long now

the long now

10.000 years

who can then

read this

understand

the symbol

who knows then

looking

for the cause

of double timing halftime

short selling

of what how long

then still

has to come

now

10.000

years from now

the late burden

of moot mushrooms

and fantasies of fission

we all live

in the halftime

of the long

now -

Nuclear energy no thanks

Nuclear weapons no thanks

Old nuclear plants, like the one in Antwerp and Tihange are kept open longer in Europe, they all should be decommissioned and their nuclear waste be put away in the safest possible way.