A free GIF(t) from a Namazu awareness project of Japanese artists.
Back to business, there are news, the radiation at the nuclear power plant of Fukushima jumped to a new level at certain spots. Well, 10 sieverts per hour versus the allowed 250 millisieverts per year… you can calculate yourself how long the recovery teams can work at such really hot spots. But why? New leakage caused by the latest (just one of many) and strong aftershock on Sunday in Fukushima? Who knows? Less than 2 weeks ago, mysterious hots spots did appear in the outer rim of the evacuation zone, maybe caused by flowing groundwater. That means more refugees which have to stay in temporary shelters which are still full, most of the people there have no new home. A futon, some clothes, that’s all. Tepco and the gouverment are dropping just peanuts (and stupid statements), the Red Cross and other organizations care for the many homeless humans and animals. And the yesterday’s quake in Papua New Guinea (it’s Japan’s tectonic hood) is a sign that Namazu is still very, very pissed, the party isn’t over yet…
Now, even you don’t like this blog, don’t let the cash flow stop. If you can spare a Yen, donate a Yen. But please watch out, there are benefit performances which not really deserve that name. Our local relief fund for Fukushima recived more than 1ooo € from a raffle of a local supermarket. Looks good on paper, but take a closer look. No matter if they gave away shelf warmers or really good stuff, they did deduct everything from tax, dito the donation itself. And the tickets have been sold by volunteers. Well, not a very impressive performance of that supermarket (which makes 1000 € in no time each day), they didn’t even round the sum up instead of doubleing it. That was very poor, that was even poor promotion, that was pure and unfiltered marketing. But wait, there’s more, a wicked side effect. A raffle like that spoils people, now they want something „real“ for their generosity. I offer just a symbol because that keeps the donation altruistic. There must be no profit, not for you and not for me… a little promotion is okay. But especially if you are an artist or even a real celeb and I ask you to contribute something for the blog to keep it alive and interesting, please, please, please don’t ask yourself „Is the promotion here worth my contribution?“.
Because it’s vice versa!
Namazu-e-shirt 