Japanese Government Incompetence

Governments think they can lie to their people and get away with it. They think they can lie to the outside world and get away with it. Maybe in feudal times that was a successful strategy, but for well over 150 years that has been a recipe for a bigger scandal and a lot more problems. But governments persist in lying.

Here's the latest from Japan from the UK's Guardian newspaper:

Nuclear experts have thrown doubt on the accuracy of official information issued about the Fukushima nuclear accident, saying that it followed a pattern of secrecy and cover-ups employed in other nuclear accidents. "It's impossible to get any radiation readings," said John Large, an independent nuclear engineer who has worked for the UK government and been commissioned to report on the accident for Greenpeace International.

"The actions of the Japanese government are completely contrary to their words. They have evacuated 180,000 people but say there is no radiation. They are certain to have readings but we are being told nothing." He said a radiation release was suspected "but at the moment it is impossible to know. It was the same at Chernobyl, where they said there was a bit of a problem and only later did the full extent emerge."

According to some reports, 17 helicopter crewmen helping in rescue efforts were contaminated with low-level radiation, but Japanese officials declined to comment.

The country's government has previously been accused of covering up nuclear accidents and hampering the development of alternative energy.

Governments must think people are idiots. That was the message of Philip J. Crowley when he was reported by a CBS news report as saying:

Chief State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley quit on Sunday after causing a stir by describing the military’s treatment of the suspected WikiLeaks leaker as “ridiculous” and “stupid,” pointed words that forced President Barack Obama to defend the detention as appropriate.

But of course Hilary Clinton fired him and Obama "officially" announced that Bradley Manning was "well treated according to acceptable standards". Yeah sure, if you think being in isolation for months, stripped naked, forced to undergo "suicide checks" that are pure humiliation and harrassment. Oh wait a second... I forgot... the US is a torture nation so in fact the treatment of Bradley Manning is in fact "standard procedure"!