Skip to main content

tv   [untitled]    March 19, 2012 9:30am-10:00am EDT

9:30 am
markets why not. why not what's really happening to the global economy with much stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on r.t. . if you're just joining us a very warm welcome to you this is our area headlines accusations over who is behind the weekend of bombings in syria slide between rebels and the government but the mask is claiming saudi arabia and qatar left traces of their involvement in the crime scene. post revolution the old ways are still dominate in egypt but critics this point choosing the new islamist strong parliament of turning the constitutional assembly into a fox. and us police received death threats after
9:31 am
a crackdown on occupy protesters marking the six month anniversary of the movement with peaceful demonstrations. i those are the headlines on r t the next a special documentary about the world's nuclear arsenals and whether what some call antiquated technology still poses a threat to our every day lives. the nuclear age is the first sixty years. i can describe exactly how an underground test was. dory one zero or more you couldn't hear anything there was no noise at all when the ground lifted up. we live under the threat of increasingly sophisticated. in two thousand one hundred. to the truly. signed on to a statement providing for an unequivocal undertaking to the total elimination of
9:32 am
nuclear weapons it has been set back by principally the united states but not alone russia france china and u.k. all have their share of responsibility. disarmament agreements are not being honored. what is happening now it is that it all is entire countries are able to write a draft over international and all because there is insufficient body of protest from within that country boarding them to these basic principles. range ponies and the rest into the midst of a nuclear test. we accompany them to ground zero with guns pointed. ready to fire who are we going to fire at and i wonder the issue clearly crabs problem. yet with me there was a russian or american invasion nigel no end of the cord war and going away of the soviet union many people thought that nuclear weapons disappeared so
9:33 am
a lot of the people who were at the best run disarmament issues moved their activism to the environment or fighting globalization or other issues and no one today is fighting in the streets for disarmament and nonproliferation. it danger is growing with the anti-nuclear movement wake up. america was not the only western power to consider the pacific islands far enough from home to use for practicing nuclear war. in one thousand nine hundred sixty six french polynesia out of more meaning the great secret became france's marshall islands for thirty years this earthly paradise showed under nearly two hundred
9:34 am
nuclear explosions but more also became ground zero of the anti-nuclear movement. gloria cannot overcome the fact that her country collaborated in the development of the atomic bomb. to regenerate the goals and that french polynesia is proud to be part of what france will become in week that is to say imagine uclear palmer. but to me that is disgusting. and more than hmong was imposed on us don't go off it in the mud in fact she makes us give it to him yeah for we are victims but we are also responsible for what's happening to us and for what might happen if france were to use its nuclear weapons. and i find that on forgivable and.
9:35 am
behind this image of paradise lies the secret that surrounds attesting and rips apart the people of french polynesia here economy is dependent on france and the subject of nuclear testing remains taboo but this doesn't stop maria. bristow mood right now. because i'm thinking of my children's future. not so much. a tiny territory a tiny country before but we have a high percentage of people suffering from thyroid long and bladder cancer. and it's frightening to know all that. with the help of her husband it's a haitian teacher and mother of two uses the internet to broadcast an image of her country one that is rather different from those in the travel agency brochures. the ballot in cuba he decided to speak out of the open nuclear issue because it's
9:36 am
part of our contemporary history and it is disrupted our society since the sixty's . or not now we suffer from the ills of our modern society yes we tell our son about our country's history but then when he asks us. there is some fact we were just talking about nuclear testing with a lottery yes he was wondering why they did the tests here in northern france or we explained that we are in the middle of a big ocean. and there are only two hundred thousand inhabitants are there could be so fewer people are likely to be affected. yes. my father is a vice president of the independence party. and he has been involved in many hands i knew clear demonstrations. just as you were my going to say to them when they ask
9:37 am
what did you do to get my country into this situation is not that's what i worry about. we were the atom bomb generation. play football paddle your boat stance on have a good time don't worry about anything else will look after your country. france is keeping its nuclear arsenal because it needs the nuclear deterrent to discourage various threats to its vital interests. that is the doctrine that was established in the sixty's and it is still valid today. that their leaders of the church and i've been one since one thousand nine hundred sixty three have never agreed with nuclear testing. but if we cannot agree to weapons of mass destruction and so must it's not possible they are forgotten it's not just since the french
9:38 am
tests we were against the american nuclear tests in the marshall islands of washup . long before france in one nine hundred forty six the united states and then great britain chose the pacific to conduct their testing but their tunick mushroom clouds were poisonous radioactive debris fell on to the surface of the earth and threaten the health of people all over the planet in one nine hundred fifty eight campaign for nuclear disarmament organize the first world wide grassroots opposition in one thousand nine hundred sixty three under the pressure of the peace movements the two western powers and the u.s.s.r. signed an agreement banning atmosphere testing france was unconcerned and continue to detonate suspended from big buildings. by nine hundred seventy four forty six bombs pierced the atmosphere of french polynesia the word environment was still
9:39 am
alien to the french however this was not the case for greenpeace but the campaign against the french was conceived during the first campaign against the united states because the united states was testing nuclear weapons but was testing them underground and france was still testing weapons in the atmosphere. in one nine hundred seventy one this small thank you for basically decides to stop all nuclear testing in the pacific soon greenpeace departs for more they find an ally in new zealand where fall out from the french testing has been detected on its soil. new zealand classically the international court of justice and wins. france is forced to renounce atmosphere testing but there is still another option the era of french underground testing begins it will last more than twenty years. you don't actually need to do any tests once you've configured it recently well from a physicist point of view there is no chance that it explodes the problem is
9:40 am
therefore to figure out exactly what conditions it's going to explode and with how much hard which is a ridiculous justification since the purpose of the bomb is to kill people women and children so to achieve that goal you don't need to be a perfectionist i call him uncle because i've known him since i was little but i never knew she worked on me. as i told my superiors i want to be protected why are they protected and i'm not changing with my khaki police uniform shorts i can't be all that. and the military personnel were covered from head to toe. what about us polynesians in what about us it's not the same bomb on we're tougher. we're tougher so we can take a dose of radiation i don't know maybe it's from eating tarot or who knows.
9:41 am
scooter diplo the only one i deplore is when some polynesians played the card about the french injecting billions here. from the force they say take advantage of it and don't go around talking nonsense. and you've got to end your association tatto it's really a very young association two thousand and one wasn't his uncle. last year head to the presidential dissociation role and all ham on the radio he was appealing to young people is a region them to take a greater interest in the nuclear problem then in. so that's how we joined they so ca. the nuclear tests here devastated polynesian society not just in terms of health the environment and other things. like the structures of the society were destroyed. what does it mean to stop the tests no
9:42 am
jobs no money no economy will all starve that was the government's message. was. if you were against obama and your father or uncle worked at the site and they didn't want to protest against the boy. that's a real rift in the family even between father and son it seems i became aware when i was about twenty four. my father went sort of crazy. he said take your wife and daughter and get out i don't want to see you anymore. and i was a teenagers than. and i said to myself who are the real crazy ones. says they are the ones who are in gains nuclear testing so all the ones who supported. because my classmates for example were saying oh yeah nuclear testing so it's
9:43 am
a bomb that explodes that's it. only the when you hear about an activist getting arrested by the police i'm thrown in jail and what do you need to get to me i think that in her mind she wondered why is it always my father. if you don't it's true that when she was in jail it shocked me because i felt that it was too much of a sacrifice to sell it you know i wonder if it was really worth it for him to make the sacrifice when all this would not yes i was a little angry about that. not only do didn't you know were young various trips to new zealand with my parents don't think i had the opportunity to meet some members of greenpeace the to go and
9:44 am
no you couldn't i think they will bring you to cross the ocean to try and stop nuclear tests and but it would have been so much better all if our people had risen up together in protest all messages to move. greenpeace irritates the french military july tenth one thousand nine hundred five while the activists prepared to sail again to morrow of france orders the sinking of their ship the rainbow warrior anchored in new zealand's auckland harbor. the bombing provokes an uproar from the international community and tremendous publicity that repeats. ten years later in one thousand and five the french president jacques chirac orders a new series of nuclear tests this time to heat the balance. up and never actually our first demonstration was in one thousand nine hundred four. and in one thousand nine hundred five in the airport. and we saw the riot police
9:45 am
shooting at protesters. if. it ever was we know it was like watching a big movie screen. because it is. what was very upsetting it was a feeling of hate. hate. the polynesian people rose up together and said you know mr chirac please stop. if you just brush it away and said something my decision is final. one person one person decided the entire future of my children. my grandchildren and my great grandchildren. sits in c. in. january one thousand nine.
9:46 am
hundred ninety what turns out to be the starting point for a long term research. we've done is in the last tests justified an enormous investment to build a new quit meant numerous new bombs the laser maker jewel and you aircraft coming so everything is being updated between now and twenty twenty. only interesting things that result from countries like the united states. some of the other western nations in developing new nuclear weapons that excites the interest in countries like korea and iran who want to draw in the nuclear club. two thousand and six is a landmark year the united states the united kingdom france russia and china all reinvest in their nuclear arsenals the message is clear it is necessary to their
9:47 am
security on the other hand the same countries keep telling non-nuclear nations that acquire nuclear weapons is illegitimate leaders would be fooling themselves if they think that this type of suspicion can continue we are still living in a system that emanates from the end of the second world war five countries in the security council have special powers and it's even more problematic that these five countries are also the five countries with nuclear weapons so in a sense it gives the impression that having nuclear weapons gives them the special status i was going to one law one standard we're going to have to do class world increasingly countries critical and developing world are saying that they're not going to live in a two class world. system some force where french we are in our passports also french but second class citizens your second rate is do you remember which all sunset the other day. if we had been pulling michigan we'd never have had nuclear
9:48 am
tests. well that's what i was called back than a little more savvy if i think that when we have our independence. the whole truth of all the tests and their consequences will come out because. well it is our people are taken for ignorant and that has to stop polluting and we are not ignorant. today we want the truth and we're going to get it france always maintained that their bombs were clean that they were exploding clean atomic bombs but in two thousand and six they conceded to some follow up throughout french polynesia. measure of woe is me i see the capricorn test and the stamps are test which were carried out the year i was warren. if you know that i've had
9:49 am
a thyroid problem for two years now. and i wonder if it's connected to the nuclear tests. this is interesting. so this shows that one hundred and ninety six radioactive follow its were detected in french polynesia. but we don't know the deuce. they're not telling us but they know. in france it takes time for things to be made public particularly with respect to nuclear testing it's top secret it's a defense secret so there's no information at all. on the problem exists in french polynesia either as the collective anxiety brought apart by cycles sociological poisoning or in terms of the code of silence that has prevailed over the radioactive fallout it's. your duty here you know if there is a psychosis it's because the government created it we want to know the radiation
9:50 am
dose of those follow ups oh they tell us there were one hundred ninety six of them with no health consequences the truth has to be told not after years and years of this atmosphere of secrecy let's call it by its rightful name. is really popular people who live there are worried and rightly so because i think they deserve the truth any people are campaigning for transparency doesn't necessarily make you a doomsayer. in general we have a higher rate of fire wood cancer as you compared to some regions it's much higher seems that if we have a higher incidence of leukemia than elsewhere it's probably due to the palm missing but that needs to be proved we have to hurry in tick. samples from people who are still alive viva the easiest way to find the people who worked on more is to tour
9:51 am
the halls outside the un college apartment in the hospital after people. you know for you all of this year he worked at the santa. fe repair facility for navy ships returning from the test states. now and i have lung cancer he has cancer in his love longer. your posture recall he worked on more wall for a very short time only six months and the second time they brought him home because he was having trouble breathing. you know we had three brothers who work to morrow and all three died of this yes. yes yes they died. and this is his wife she has it's my tirade. and it's starting to get bigger look yeah and later it will be here is what i'm not saying is because of no i can't we don't have
9:52 am
scientific proof but we have lots and lots of questions about it that's all i don't want to say that we should be criticizing. it. goes so in addition to the serious nature of their illness if you say anything they insult you and they tell you all you want is to benefit from french money to prevent home i could not i prefer my husband to monitor. his illness has gotten worse and i'm going to lose him so it hurts i don't care about money even if yes that's the way. the four years they have been checking me more each day before they couldn't figure out that i had a kidney tumor. written in the other. i am waiting for someone to say clearly your illness was caused by eating too much pork too much of
9:53 am
this or that well also because of the nuclear testing because so much what have we done it has to stop them and so they give you a load of nonsense and then just say. don't worry you can eat fish you can grow food and there's no problem. well yes there is a small problem but it's not serious problem it's clean. water. is used a lot of it is just left behind for that's what we're talking. most of that. is problem when it gets into the water and when it gets. plant then it could be a problem. what is the legacy of one hundred fifty to undergo nuclear tests say it's seven hundred kilos of plutonium underneath
9:54 am
. what does that mean. one tenth of a millionth of a gram of plutonium can cause cancer. so it's radioactive half life is twenty four thousand four hundred years i don't think that's means it will take more than two hundred forty thousand years before it can be considered harmless you know forced into. this assumption that plutonium will not go anywhere which is held by testing authorities i think in more than one country turns out to be not quite right. recent research done by the u.s. government in there about it indicates that in one. has migrated quite frankly has already within forty years. one of the additional problem that had been discovered in the last fifteen years turned out to be
9:55 am
a very complicated substance chemical behavior is very difficult to characterize and it may migrate faster into the water. than before and so now we have to worry about that and. we have seven hundred kilos down there. nobody knows if it's stabilize. the heart of more is beginning to cave in that's the legacy we're left with and they want us to close the book on more war no no never. said some to seven hundred kilos of plutonium buried in our soil. and i ask myself as whether it's worth having the children see green when they're faced with a tragedy. and if it could indeed happen tomorrow.
9:56 am
if you go through nano it would take would be a tsunami but up. this week when i heard him talking about the legacy on judical dave says she considered my so my daughter. hugging and kissing me here and i thought if i don't do anything unusual to anyone they should blame me if you put that's what motivates me to find the nuclear threat going through and struggle for my country seing dependence. cultures that so much as i wish are right on it so here are the candidates meet paul what makes him tick why is he so popular among younger voters why do
9:57 am
republicans smear him while. fewer chances but full of life. time. more optimistic. the theater where the ingenious opened their hearts to the rest of us. what are the real limits. on our team.
9:58 am
9:59 am

26 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on