By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 5 -- For the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Japan, the UN showed photographs, held a concert and a press conference by Margareta Wahlstrom, Special Representative of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for Disaster Risk Reduction.
Inner City Press asked about the Fukushima nuclear plant and whether Japan's evacuation radius -- which started at 20 kilometer then belated move to fifty kilometer -- was enough, or if 75 kilometers would be better. Video here, from Minute 21:51.
Wahlstrom was willing to analyze Japan's "preparedness" but not what it actually did, arguing that "in hindsight you cannot say, certainly certainly not non-experts like ourselves."
Who the UN's expert is and what they'd say is not clear. Wahlstrom to her credit said that "One of the challenges for the Japanese was that the people who managed the crisis were not particularly well informed about the consequences of what happened in Fukushimi."
She mentioned petrochemicals and Bhopal, then asked, "how do you inform the public about something like this if you don't feel you have enough info yourself? What is the balance of saying nothing or saying a little bit?"
How and what, indeed. Watch this site.
Outgoing DPI chief Akasaka open photo exhibit (c) MRLee
