Sponsors to the fore in torch relay but who will light the flame in the London 2012 Olympic stadium?This article titled “The London 2012 torch mixes the Olympian and the corporate” was written by Owen Gibson, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 19th May 2011 09.58 UTCAs Seb Coe stood up to speak about the inspirational effect of the flame that will a year from now be passing through the cities, towns and villages of Britain having been “lit by the power of the sun on Mount Olympus”, three other figures looked on intently.They sat alongside him as he went on to talk about the galvanising effect he expected the tour to have on communities as the Olympic spirit coursed through them and they hosted their own celebratory events in the early summer gloaming.And they listened intently as Coe spoke affectingly about a husband and wife team who sold their house so the community gym they run in south-east London could survive – his nomination for one of the 7,200 out of 8,000 torchbearer slots reserved for members of the public.The three onlookers, who then got to take their turn to speak, were representatives of the three “presenting partners” – Samsung, Coca-Cola and Lloyds TSB – who get to plaster their branding over the torch relay. The man from Coca-Cola alone promised to bring “happiness and celebration” to the route.It is they (along with local authorities along the way) who effectively pay for the hoopla that will surround the torch relay that organisers hope will be the moment that the nation drops any lingering cynicism and truly embraces the Games.It was the most obvious manifestation in London to date of the sometimes uneasy, but ultimately profitable, mix of heady Olympic ideals and hard-nosed commercialism that has turned the modern Games into the globe-straddling event that it is.The genius of the International Olympic Committee’s commercial growth since the Los Angeles Games of 1984 has been to rake in huge sums from sponsors while enforcing very strict rules on how they can use the rights.As one of the very few events that the IOC allows them to overtly brand, the torch relay is where that symbiotic relationship – the organising committee Locog needs the sponsors to contribute £700m towards its £2bn budget, the sponsors want to extract every last drop of value out of their huge investment – becomes clearest.So it was that Coe began his press conference invoking the loftiest of Olympic ideals and ended it defending the involvement of Coke and answering questions on how many fizzy drinks his children guzzled.In common with their wider activity to date surrounding the London Games – which has tended to focus on warm and fuzzy corporate social responsibility activity rather than overt branding – all three sponsors have bought into the idea of using the relay as a means to run campaigns offering worthy members of the public the opportunity to claim their own slice of Olympic history and run a few hundred yards with the torch.A Locog team has spent two years painstakingly researching the 8,000-mile route and negotiating with local authorities. They hope that when the relay hits town, backed by wall-to-wall coverage from local media who will concentrate on the rich back stories of those running and the celebratory event that will take place every night (something between a Radio 1 roadshow and a county fair sponsored by multinationals, by the sound of things) Olympic fever will take hold up and down the country.Whether they succeed will depend to a large extent on those sponsors. If they get it right, Locog, the brands and the public will benefit. Get it wrong, and it could dent public enthusiasm.Sally Hancock, head of 2012 at Lloyds TSB, argued at the launch that in many ways the Olympics couldn’t have come at a better time for her company. Struggling to repair public trust and negotiating the internal challenge of merging two huge banks, the opportunity to create a feelgood factor around an event that is at once local and national in scale could be a huge one.But if the public is turned off and fails to buy into the concept – Locog has promised half the runners will be between 12 and 24 and 90% will be ordinary members of the public, to be nominated through four separate campaigns by the organisers and the sponsors– then it will feel like a long 8,000 miles.Locog will also have to get the balance right between safety and celebration. The defining public image of the Beijing international torch tour, which caused the IOC to turn it into a domestic event confined to the host country, was of a scrum of security guards bludgeoning their way through human rights protesters as bussed-in supporters of the Chinese government looked on.The UK’s experience will be becalmed by comparison. But Coe – who has often described Britain as a “slow-burn nation” that will take time to reach fever pitch over the Olympics – knows more than anyone how crucial it is that the relay is the moment at which the flame ignites that enthusiasm.And by the time the torch reaches the Olympic stadium, the eyes of the world will be on it. Which raises three obvious questions: Who will light the cauldron? How? And where will it be (there is still debate within Locog about whether it should be in the stadium, on top of it or on some sort of structure nearby)?The most memorable final torchbearers – Muhammad Ali in Atlanta, Cathy Freeman in Sydney – have held resonance beyond merely their status as sporting heroes in their home country. And the more spectacular the method of lighting the cauldron (the archer in Barcelona, the flying Beijing gymnast), the greater the risk of global humiliation.The task for Danny Boyle, the Trainspotting director already planning the opening ceremony in an east London warehouse, will be to come up with something to top what has gone before. Bookmakers immediately installed Sir Steve Redgrave as favourite, but will the emphasis on youth that characterised the bid promises lead organisers to a younger face? Coe, who might have been a leading contender were he not already so intimately involved with the staging of the Games, has already ruled himself out. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogThe London 2012 torch mixes the Olympian and the corporateRelated posts:London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame routeLondon 2012 Olympics countdown clock stopsLondon 2012: Ten best of the web
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The London 2012 torch mixes the Olympian and the corporate
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May 19 2011, 5:24am | Comments »
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London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame route
Lord Coe says he is confident balance can be struck between security and celebration as he unveils locations of the Olmpic torch’s 70-day journey around the UK to herald the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.This article titled “London Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame route” was written by Owen Gibson, sports news correspondent, for The Guardian on Wednesday 18th May 2011 16.03 UTCLondon 2012 organisers called on protest groups not to disrupt the 8,000-mile journey of the Olympic flame around the UK, after unveiling its route for the first time.Lord Coe, chairman of the London organising committee of the Olympic Games (Locog), said he was confident the balance could be struck between guaranteeing the safety of the 8,000 torchbearers and ensuring a celebratory atmosphere.“We will make sure that the torch flame gets around the UK in the safest and most secure way, but at the same time we want communities to celebrate it and not [put it] behind a cordon of steel. I think we’ll get the balance right,” he said.He appealed to protest groups not to target the route of the torch, which according to tradition will be lit on Mount Olympus before beginning its journey around the UK at Land’s End on 18 May next year.“This is friendship, this is respect, this is showcasing extraordinary talent in local communities. I really don’t sit here thinking this will be a catalyst for massive demonstrations. I think people get this,” he said.The Beijing torch relay in 2008, the last that ventured beyond the borders of the host country before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) changed its policy, was chiefly remembered for protests and heavy-handed security. In Vancouver, protesters disrupted the last few days of the event, sparking counter-demonstrations from those supporting it.Coe, unveiling the first 74 locations on the torch’s 70-day tour of the UK, said the relay would be vital in igniting enthusiasm for the London Games beyond the capital and insisted that it would not be a giant marketing exercise for sponsors.“I am proud and excited as I envisage the moment that really marks the start of our Olympic celebrations in the UK and far beyond,” said Coe, who ran with the torch ahead of the Vancouver Games.“As it made its way around Canada, it drew renewable power from every community it passed through. As it made its journey across that huge land mass, Vancouver’s Games became Canada’s Games.“That is London 2012′s intention too. Ours will be a Games that takes place on your doorstep.”The 8,000 torchbearer places are divided between Locog and the three “presenting partners” – Coca-Cola, Lloyds TSB and Samsung – who will help fund the events that will take place at each overnight stop.As the only part of the Olympics that can be branded, it is likely the sponsors will have a heavy presence but, like Locog, they have promised to make the vast majority of their torchbearer places available to members of the public.Coe said more than 90% of places would be taken by the public, with half of the torchbearers aged between 12 and 24.Locog has already launched its own nominations campaign, inviting the public to put forward members of their community with inspiring stories.The sponsors will take a similar approach in distributing the tickets to the public and staff. The cast of public torchbearers is likely to be augmented by athletes and celebrities.The announcement has also sparked speculation about the likely identity of the final torchbearer who will light the cauldron in the Olympic stadium at the climax of the opening ceremony, with bookmakers installing Sir Steve Redgrave as favourite.The final route will take the torch to within an hour of 95% of the population across England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and six outlying islands. It will visit the Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Shetland, Orkney and the Isle of Lewis. Coe said Locog was also in advanced talks to take the torch to Dublin.British IOC member Sir Craig Reedie said the route would also pass UK sporting landmarks including Wimbledon, Old Trafford, St Andrew’s and Much Wenlock in Shropshire, the birthplace of the modern Olympics.The event will also be crucial to the cash-strapped British Olympic Association. Under the terms of its recent settlement with Locog after it backed down in a row over the division of any surplus from the Games, it will receive the royalties to two branded items of Olympic merchandise.In Vancouver, more than 3.5m pairs of red mittens were sold to those who lined the route to raise money for Canadian sport. The BOA will unveil its branded merchandise next year. guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.Thanks for subscribing to Andy Roberts blogLondon Olympics organisers appeal to protesters not to disrupt flame routeRelated posts:London Olympic organisers defend ‘peculiar’ ticket payment processLondon 2012 Olympics countdown clock stopsIran claims London 2012 Olympics logo spells ‘Zion’
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May 18 2011, 11:57am | Comments »
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Red songs ring out in Chinese city’s new cultural revolution
Chinese city Chongqing’s ambitious party boss Bo Xilai has got the population singing red songs such as Road to Revitalisation and Love of the Red Flag
This article titled “Red songs ring out in Chinese city’s new cultural revolution” was written by Tania Branigan in Beijing, for The Guardian on Friday 22nd April 2011 15.46 UTC Road to Revitalisation may not sound like the most catchy name for a tune, but authorities in Chongqing are urging residents to sing along to it – and 35 more carefully selected “red songs”. The south-western Chinese city has launched the musical campaign to mark this year’s 90th anniversary of the Communist party’s birth. Television and radio stations are broadcasting the tunes, newspapers are carrying the scores and officials are arranging public performances of Love of the Red Flag and Good Men Should Become Soldiers. Officials are also urging artists to help train people “to raise a fever of singing red [revolutionary] songs,” according to the People’s Daily website. The initiative is the latest phase in the “red culture movement” launched by the city’s ambitious party boss Bo Xilai. “Red songs won public support because they depicted China’s path in a simple, sincere and vivid way,” Bo said last year. “There’s no need to be artsy-fartsy … only dilettantes prefer enigmatic works.” Chongqing television was recently ordered to drop popular soap operas and sitcoms. Instead, it airs improving material such as classic dramas and red song shows, reportedly leading to a sharp drop in ratings and advertising revenue. Other initiatives include ordering students to work in the countryside and getting cadres to don Red Army uniforms and follow the path of their forebears “to deepen their understanding and experience of hardships”.
While most expect Bo to be included in the top political body, the politburo standing committee, it is not clear what position he might take. His other striking initiatives have included a mass drive to urbanise the population and a campaign against organised crime, which won him plaudits but raised concerns about the manner of the crackdown. “He is a maverick. He has the confidence of his family background,” Bo’s father was a Communist “immortal”, rehabilitated after the Cultural Revolution, in which Bo’s mother died. “Bo’s approach appears to be gaining some traction among some very high-level leaders,” said Beijing-based political analyst Russell Leigh Moses. Several senior figures have visited Chongqing recently, notably Xi Jinping, the vice president expected to take the top job next year, who praised Bo’s cultural drive. Moses said: “Bo’s campaign is multidimensional, but its primary objective seems to be trying to redefine local affairs as mass politics. [It] is not about policy as much as it is about a new communist theology that is nostalgic and not like anyone else’s.” Brady said propaganda had changed so much in content as well as method that comparisons to Maoism were lazy. When Bo invokes Mao Zedong in text messages to residents, instead of references to class struggle he chooses feelgood quotations such as: “The world is ours, we should unite for achievements.” “Some appear to have misunderstood the message in our campaign,” Xu Chao, the official leading the red song drive, told the Global Times. “‘Red’ doesn’t only represent revolution, communism or socialism. It also includes elements that represent happiness, harmony, being positive and healthy. The term is actually quite inclusive.” There are no Mao-era songs on the 36-strong list and many are recent popular hits about loving one’s family or one’s nation. Go China! praises Olympicdiver Guo Jingjing, baseball star Yao Ming and film director Zhang Yimou rather than Communist cadres. “It’s definitely not on-message in terms of what was traditionally regarded as ‘red’,” said Brady. “I think a Cultural Revolution-era propagandist would be appalled.”
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April 24 2011, 4:21am | Comments »
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Golden rower Tom James forces his way back into Olympic reckoning
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/25/rower-tomjames-olympicgames-boatrace
A Welshman Tom James heads the British squad‘s internal rankings for the boat race at the London 2012 Olympic games.
This article titled “Golden rower Tom James forces his way back into Olympic reckoning” was written by Martin Cross, for The Guardian on Wednesday 16th March 2011 15.33 UTC Tom James, one of the men who took a fours gold medal in Beijing, has made a dramatic return to the sport by heading the rankings of the British squad’s internal races, held last weekend. The Welshmen took a year out after Beijing 2008 and missed the 2010 season after an operation for a back injury. But the 27-year-old, who is still intent on forcing his way into the team’s top boat in 2012, surprised with his performance. On this form, it is likely that James could have a major influence on the shape of the British Olympic team. James will now be teamed up with Alex Gregory, a former fours world champion, who also came well in well in the internal series of races. Remarkably, though the two men have not raced together before, they share the same age and birthday. Britain’s chief coach, Jürgen Gröbler, will be hoping that this new combination will have enough synchronicity and dynamism to challenge his top pair of Andrew Triggs-Hodge and Peter Reed – who were told by Gröbler to sit out the trials. But despite being the anchor men of the British squad, since 2004, Triggs-Hodge and Reed – also Olympic champions – have recently suffered 12 straight defeats at the hands of New Zealand’s top pair. Now, Gröbler will hope that the new partnership of James and Gregory may just be the combination, either to beat Triggs-Hodge and Reed or push them hard enough to help them find more speed for the 2011 season. The 38-year-old Greg Searle is also a man in search of more speed. The Barcelona Olympic champion wants a second gold in 2012 but found the pace tough last weekend. While his physiology is still developing well, Searle knows he must be fully focused on delivering a better result in the next crucial trials race, now just four weeks away.
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March 25 2011, 3:37pm | Comments »
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Will the 2012 Olympics be a sell out?
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/24/will-the-2012-olympics-be-a-sell-out
Now the London 2012 Olympic Games tickets have been on sale for a week, the success of the event in London will be determined by the sports fans.
This article titled “Will the 2012 Olympics be a sell out?” was written by Owen Gibson, for guardian.co.uk on Thursday 24th March 2011 11.21 UTC It is an extraordinary ticketing process in more ways than one. Ten days into the application process for 6.6m of the 8.8m tickets to the biggest sporting event ever to hit these shores and it remains hard to precisely calibrate the level of enthusiasm for being there. The keenest have constructed elaborate spreadsheets and affixed colour coded Post-it notes to their already dog eared Guardian guides as they try and spread their bets between events they are desperate to see and their chances of getting the hottest tickets (opening and closing ceremonies, velodrome, evening athletics sessions among them). For others, next August still feels like a long way away – particularly if there are more pressing financial concerns. My barber reckons he’ll leave it until closer to the time and see what’s left, our childminder has become so used to picking up tickets at the last minute from eBay or Viagogo that she too can’t see the point in shelling out more than a year before the Games. For some football fans, there’s the annual debate about whether to renew their season ticket to be had first, for others a discussion about whether to forego the family holiday in favour of the Games. The fact that Locog has promised a ticket resale system has perhaps encouraged those inclined to wait it out. Locog has successfully communicated the “marathon not a sprint” message to avoid a rush on the first day that applications opened – but could be a victim of its own success if people translate that as a signal not to hurry at all. Expect the reminders about this being the best chance to secure tickets for the events you really want to see to increase in frequency as the closing date on April 26 approaches. For the media too, there seems to be uncertainty about how to judge success. The usual media narrative around the sale of tickets for big events (Glastonbury, Take That, Champions League final) runs like this: huge hype around the onsale date, followed by a mad rush, creaking technology and a spate of stories about tickets being sold for exhorbitant sums and online scams. Because this process is so different, we have instead already seen the first stories hinting that sales have been “steady” rather than spectacular. In truth, it is hard to criticise Locog for doing exactly what they said they would do – give people time to find their way through a complex process. During this period of stasis, Locog – which can monitor what registered users are doing – believes many people are still calculating their options and trying different combinations of tickets in their online shopping baskets before hitting the buy button. Such is the scale of the task – 645 sessions across 26 sports at five main price points – that it was never going to be simple. Locog deserves huge credit for thinking long and hard about how to balance the need to raise the £2bn required to stage the Games with its promise to make it as accessible as possible. The eye watering prices for the most expensive (including that £2012 opening ceremony ticket) were justified on the basis that it was better for that money to flow to Locog, where it could subsidise cheaper price points, than touts who would mark them up anyway. But even given the number of £20 tickets (2.5m), the pay your age scheme, the concessions for over 60s and the free tickets for some school kids there is no getting away from the fact that the sums involved soon add up – particularly if you are buying for a whole family, and particularly if you are coming from outside London. There are already some grumbles about the high prices of the packages being sold through Thomas Cook and for all the entreaties from Locog and the Mayor to the hotel industry, staying in London during the Games was never going to be cheap. Which? has also raised concerns about the fact that money could come out of ticket buyers accounts on May 10 but it could be as late as June 24 before they are told which tickets they have. For most, it is likely to be a big outlay in one go. And while some have alighted upon the solution of applying for a Visa card with an interest free period to spread the cost, it is something of a surprise that Locog have not put in a place a more formal scheme to pay in installments. While reluctant to go into detail about levels of demand for individual sports and sessions, organisers say they are pleased with the level of steady engagement and that the spikes of demand are largely where you would expect them to be. Sports that are less familiar, but on the Olympic Park, are unlikely to prove too difficult to shift as people look for a relatively cost effective way of grabbing a slice of the atmosphere. More problematic could be the events at the cavernous Excel. And there must be a nagging fear that the there is a band of mid range tickets – those around £300 that are not the prized blue riband ones that people will want at all costs, nor the relatively cheap ones that will give you a slice of the experience – that will prove most difficult to shift. Somewhat ironically, given the extent to which it dominates media coverage and conversation in this country, football is likely to give organisers the biggest headache. With more than a million tickets to sell to a population who perhaps see the Olympics as an antidote to football’s dominance for the rest of the sporting calendar, just a few weeks after Euro 2012, it is a big ask. Bear in mind too that the Olympics (under 23 with a handful of over age players) is not the pinnacle of achievement as it is for most other sports, while the political issues surrounding the British team appear endlessly intractable. And while 2012 represents a huge opportunity for women’s football in this country if organisers can fill the Ricoh Stadium in Coventry or St James’ Park to see, say the Japanese women’s team take on the Swedes on a night when Team GB is going for gold elsewhere the Locog marketing and ticketing gurus will deserve every one of the plaudits that will flow their way. Locog chief executive Paul Deighton has set a high bar by promising to marry an electric atmosphere with full stands in all venues, while selling out all tickets. It is something that has never been achieved in recent Games. He has the British love of sport and major events of any kind on his side. But our natural cynicism and tendency to wait until the last minute might yet leave him with some nervous moments.
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March 24 2011, 1:28pm | Comments »
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London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/15/london-2012-olympics-countdown-clock-stops
I was in Trafalgar Square yesterday, but that was before the unveiling ceremony of the countdown clock for the London 2012 Olympic Games. It all looked like and advertisement for Omega, buts as it turns out, not a very good one perhaps.
2012 Olympics countdown clock Trafalgar square London
This article titled “London 2012 Olympics countdown clock stops” was written by Owen Gibson, sports news correspondent, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 15th March 2011 15.24 UTC It was launched in a blaze of sparklers by Lord Coe, London Mayor Boris Johnson and potential London 2012 gold medallist Jessica Ennis. But on the day Olympic tickets went on sale, organisers suffered a major embarrassment as their official countdown clock stopped. The timepiece, which has become a traditional fixture for Olympic host cities and is made by sponsor Omega, stalled reading 500 days, seven hours and 56 seconds to go until the opening ceremony. The 6.5m-high structure, which is in a prominent position in Trafalgar Square, was launched on Monday night at an event hosted by Clare Balding. It was unveiled by four Olympic gold medallists from Team GB – rowers Pete Reed and Andy Hodge and sailors Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson. “The launch of the Omega countdown clock is an important milestone for any Olympic Games and is something of a tradition within the Olympic movement,” said Locog chairman Lord Coe before the launch. “It will be a daily and hourly reminder to everyone who visits Trafalgar Square that the countdown to the start of London 2012 has well and truly begun and that the greatest show on earth is soon coming to our country.” Omega says it is not immediately apparent what has caused the problem. In a case of life imitating art the BBC on Monday night launched a Thick of It style mockumentary, Twenty Twelve, which featured a PR farrago around a countdown clock. A spokeswoman for Omega said: “‘We are obviously very disappointed that the clock has suffered this technical issue. The Omega London 2012 countdown clock was developed by our experts and fully tested ahead of the launch in Trafalgar Square. “We are currently looking into why this happened and expect to have the clock functioning as normal as soon as possible.”
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March 15 2011, 10:39am | Comments »
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Olympic Games 2012 medal haul will beat Beijing, promises UK Sport
Best showing ‘in living memory’ promised for London 2012 Olympic Games
This article titled “Olympic Games 2012 medal haul will beat Beijing, promises UK Sport” was written by Owen Gibson, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 15th March 2011 09.02 UTC With 500 days to go until the 2012 Opening Ceremony, the body responsible for Team GB has promised to beat its Beijing medal haul and record the best performance “in living memory”. Around 6.6m tickets will on Tuesday go on sale and UK Sport, which has invested £100m a year in Olympic sports since Beijing, said it would deliver “more medals, in more sports” than ever before. Peter Keen, the performance director, said a host of sports would be expected to step up and deliver “a load of ones and twos” to augment the medal hauls of those where Britain has recently excelled. “Some of the big boys are now pretty good at holding back and you’ve got some real wannabes who are coming up real quick,” he said. Keen picked out taekwondo as one sport that had invested its development budget wisely and built a “performance pathway” that would deliver in London and beyond. “We’re moving out of the comfort zone of sports we know well and do well and are able to translate those lessons into a wider number of sports while still retaining our performance in bedrock ones,” he said. “That’s a really good outcome and a really healthy one for the investment that has been made.” UK Sport on Monday set a new target range of between 30 and 61 world championship medals this year to keep them on track for success in 2012. Its chair, Baroness Campbell, said that British Olympic sport was in “a very strong place”, even compared to the same point in the Beijing cycle. “We’ve had unprecedented amounts of investment, we’ve got way better at targeting that and managing that money to have the results we want. We’ve got a really great set of world-class performance directors. We’ve got some of the best coaches in sport and our performances are better than they’ve ever been,” she told the Guardian. “Nobody wants to add even more pressure to the athletes but I think they are in a strong place and our ambition would be that the British team makes the nation proud and performs the best they have done in living memory.”
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March 15 2011, 4:09am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Japan’s nuclear emergency prompts panic buying in Tokyo
Tokyo is 150 miles away from Fukushima but residents are right to be worried about the unfolding nuclear disaster since the authorites have been failing to communicate truthfully. Tokyo citizens are prepared for a possible lockdown as foreign embassies advise citizens to leave the city.
This article titled “Japan’s nuclear emergency prompts panic buying in Tokyo” was written by Justin McCurry in Osaka, for The Guardian on Tuesday 15th March 2011 08.52 UTC News of a serious radiation leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant has sparked panic buying in Tokyo, as some residents started to leave the capital to escape potential contamination. Several embassies advised their citizens to leave affected areas, including Tokyo, and some multinational companies either told staff to leave or were considering relocating outside the city. As officials urged people living near the stricken plant to stay indoors, residents in the capital, 150 miles to the south, began preparing for the possibility of a similar lockdown. Experts were keen to stress, however, that only “minute” levels of radiation had been detected in Tokyo. Weather forecasters said winds near the atomic plant, which experienced a third explosion on Tuesday morning, were blowing in a south-westerly direction – towards Tokyo – but would move in a westerly direction later in the day. People in the capital, home to 12 million, snapped up radios, torches, candles, fuel containers and sleeping bags, while for the fourth day there was a run on bread, canned goods, instant noodles, bottled water and other foodstuffs at supermarkets. Retailers said the panic buying was reminiscent of the oil crisis in the 1970s. The electronics firm Panasonic said it was increasing production of batteries, which were being bought in large quantities as far away as Hiroshima in the south-west. Fears are rising that if the hoarding frenzy continues it will affect the ability to deliver emergency supplies to the disaster zone. “The situation is hysterical,” said Tomonao Matsuo, a spokesman for the instant noodle maker Nissin Foods. “People feel safer just by buying Cup Noodles.” Foreign journalists covering the nuclear crisis, including reporters from the BBC and CNN, withdrew from the Fukushima area. On Monday, the German magazine Der Spiegel said its veteran war correspondent was being pulled out of Tokyo. Tourists cut short holidays and descended on international airports in Tokyo and Osaka, seeking flights home. They included about 200 South Koreans who have now arrived back in Seoul. Liezel Strauss, a South African, said on Twitter on Tuesday morning: “I just woke up to several calls & emails, family & husband freaking out, it’s time to go, flight booked to singapore this pm.” She added: “Realised no use staying stressing + freaking my family out if i’m not helping and physically contributing, I want to but reality is I’m not.” The number of people stranded at Narita airport, near Tokyo, rose after airlines cancelled flights but officials said there had been no surge in passenger numbers. Air China cancelled flights to Tokyo from Beijing and Shanghai. Other airlines in the region said they were monitoring the situation but had no immediate plans to cancel services. South Korea has urged its nationals in Japan to stay away from the quake zone while Germany advised its citizens to consider leaving the country. The French embassy warned in an advisory that a radioactive wind could reach Tokyo on Tuesday evening and advised its citizens to leave. Britain’s Foreign Office advised against all non-essential travel to Tokyo and north-eastern Japan. “Our advice is people should take their lead from the Japanese authorities,” the Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne told Sky News. The US state department urged its citizens to avoid tourism and non-essential travel to Japan. “[Our] travel advice is not to go to that part of Japan in any case unless you have an extremely compelling reason for doing so,” it said. Japan’s government has ordered people within 12 miles of the Fukushima No 1 plant, about 150 miles north-east of Tokyo, to evacuate. Those living between 12 and 19 miles from the plant were told to stay indoors due to fears of exposure to radiation. In Saitama, a prefecture north of Tokyo where safe but higher radiation levels have been detected, residents struggled to secure food. Yoshiyuki Sakuma was one of many who could not find a single bag of rice. “I couldn’t find any anywhere,” he said, adding he was now searching for bread. “If you lose electricity, water and gas, at least you can still eat bread.”
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March 15 2011, 4:01am | Comments »
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I posted to distributedresearch.net
Fukushima nuclear plant blast puts Japan on high alert
Warnings of possible meltdown amid radiation leaks with tens of thousands evacuated after plant explosion. Up to 1,300 killed in earthquake and tsunami
This article titled “Fukushima nuclear plant blast puts Japan on high alert” was written by Ian Sample and Tania Branigan in Beijing, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 12th March 2011 11.40 UTC Japan is battling to stave off a nuclear disaster after an explosion at a north-eastern nuclear plant in the wake of the enormous earthquake and tsunami. Authorities are evacuating tens of thousands of residents living within a 12 mile (20km) radius of the Fukushima Daiichi plant and those within 6 miles of a second installation in Futuba, 150 miles north of Tokyo. The explosion followed warnings of a possible meltdown after problems with the cooling system and confirmation of a radiation leak at Fukushima No 1 plant. But nuclear safety officials said it was unlikely the reactor had suffered serious damage, according to the Kyodo news agency. It is feared that 1,300 people died in Friday’s double disaster, most being killed as the wall of mud and water engulfed buildings, roads and vehicles, Japanese media reported. But the priority now is to tackle the crisis at the power plant. Kyodo cited an official who said that the rate of hourly radiation leaking from Fukushima was equal to the amount usually permitted in a year. Authorities had previously heralded a successful release of radioactive gases to reduce pressure inside the reactor, which might account for the high levels. “We are now trying to analyse what is behind the explosion,” said the chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano. “We ask everyone to take action to secure safety.” Television footage showed the walls of one building had crumbled, leaving only its metal frame, but it was not clear whether it housed the reactor. The Tokyo Power Electric Company, which runs the Fukushima Daiichi plant, said four workers were injured in the explosion. Hours after the blast, officials widened a 6-mile evacuation zone around the plant and around Fukushima No 2 plant. The Tokyo fire department has dispatched an elite Hyper rescue team to the nuclear plant. An uncontrolled temperature rise at the plant could lead to a meltdown of the uranium reactor core. This could burn through the walls of the vessel and release radiation into a containment building that surrounds the reactor. Some fuel is already thought to have melted in the reactor. Japanese media said officials had detected iodine and caesium, elements released when overheating causes core damage. The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said it was urgently seeking information. An explosion of the pressure vessel at the Chernobyl reactor in 1986 led to a vast release of radiation. But experts and authorities urged people to remain calm, suggesting the chances of a major disaster were slight. The crisis began when the 8.9 magnitude earthquake cut out power, turning off the water supply needed to cool the system. The tsunami is thought to have cut off the backup diesel generator an hour later, leading to pressure rising rapidly within the reactor. Earlier in the day a Japanese nuclear safety panel said radiation levels were 1,000 times higher than normal in a control room and eight times higher than normal just outside the plant. Speaking before the blast, Naoto Sekimura, a professor at the University of Tokyo, told the Associated Press a major radioactive disaster was unlikely. “No Chernobyl is possible at a light water reactor. Loss of coolant means a temperature rise, but it also will stop the reaction,” he said. “Even in the worst-case scenario, that would mean some radioactive leakage and equipment damage, but not an explosion. If venting is done carefully, there will be little leakage. Certainly not beyond the 3km radius.” A partial meltdown in one of the light water reactors at Three Mile Island in 1979 resulted in the release of radioactive gases in the most serious incident in the history of the US nuclear power industry. The reactor was eventually brought under control despite a series of errors. The blast has compounded the fears of survivors in the worst hit region, north-eastern Tohoku, where aftershocks continue to rock the ground. @DavidHalton in Sendai city tweeted: “Constant sirens and aircraft that I hope are military that on top of worrying about nuclear fallout and tremors.” Residents woke up after a freezing night on rooftops and in emergency shelters to a sea of mud, water and debris. Earthquakes continued to rock the north-east coast overnight, although some said the worst tremors appeared to be subsiding. Kyodo said rail operators had yet to find four trains after losing contact with them as they operated on coastal lines on Friday. East Japan Railway Company said it did not know how many people were on board the trains. Japan downgraded tsunami warnings in most areas but Tohoku remained on high alert for waves of up to 10 metres high. The tsunami has reached countries across the Pacific region but there were no reports of major damage outside Japan. The country has mobilised 50,000 rescuers, and footage showed some winching people to safety from rooftops. Witnesses said the tsunami had swept inland by up to six miles in Sendai, which has around 1 million inhabitants and is 80 miles from the epicentre. “The flood came in from behind the store and swept around both sides. Cars were flowing right by,” said Wakio Fushima, who owns a grocery shop. “The tsunami was unbelievably fast. Smaller cars were being swept around me and all I could do was sit in my truck,” said driver Koichi Takairin, who was trapped in his four-tonne vehicle by the torrent.
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March 12 2011, 5:12pm | Comments »
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Japan battles to stave off possible nuclear meltdown
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/12/japan-battles-to-stave-off-possible-nuclear-meltdown
The Earthquake yesterday has knocked out the cooling system and atomic material is seeping out. White smoke is rising.
As the world gears up to build many more nuclear power stations in response to peak oil and climate change, the biggest earthquake in Japanese history should make us think twice.
This article titled “Japan battles to stave off possible nuclear meltdown” was written by Tania Branigan in Beijing, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 12th March 2011 07.11 UTC Workers are battling to stave off a possible nuclear meltdown at a plant in north-eastern Japan as the country struggles with the aftermath of Friday’s enormous earthquake and tsunami. Japanese media said officials had detected caesium, one of the elements released when overheating causes core damage, around the reactor at Fukushima No 1 plant in Futuba, 150 miles north of Tokyo. The Tokyo Electric Power Company said it did not believe a meltdown was underway but Ryohei Shiomi, an official with Japan’s nuclear safety commission, said that it was possible. Experts and authorities played down the dangers of a Chernobyl-style disaster, saying they believed a partial meltdown was controllable. The government urged people to remain calm. Officials had earlier evacuated 20,000 residents living within 10km on the plant on the orders of the prime minister, Naoto Kan, who had inspected it via helicopter. Experts told Associated Press that the risk area was 6km. The crisis began when the 8.9 magnitude shock cut out power, turning off the water supply needed to cool the system. The tsunami is thought to have cut off the backup diesel generator an hour later, leading to pressure rising rapidly within the reactor. Broadcaster NHK said that attempts to vent radioactive gas to lower pressure had been suspended because the radiation level on one valve was higher than expected, heightening the risk of exposing workers to radiation. Earlier in the day a Japanese nuclear safety panel said radiation levels were 1,000 times higher than normal in a control room and eight times normal just outside the plant. Workers were frequently changing shifts. The Tokyo Electric Power Company has also reported problems with a second reactor at the plant and declared an emergency at the Fukushima No 2 plant. The chief cabinet secretary, Yukio Edano, said the pressure control system was not functioning at the plant’s three reactors. Officials were evacuating residents within a 3km radius and had ordered those with 10km to stay indoors, NHK said. Naoto Sekimura, a professor at the University of Tokyo, told AP a major radioactive disaster was unlikely. “No Chernobyl is possible at a light water reactor. Loss of coolant means a temperature rise, but it also will stop the reaction,” he said. “Even in the worst-case scenario, that would mean some radioactive leakage and equipment damage, but not an explosion. If venting is done carefully, there will be little leakage. Certainly not beyond the 3km radius.” A partial meltdown in one of the light water reactors at Three Mile Island in 1979 resulted in the release of radioactive gases in the most serious incident in the history of the US nuclear power industry. The reactor was eventually brought under control despite a series of errors. Across the worst hit north-east Tohoku region of Japan at least 630 people are dead and a similar number missing, according to police sources, with 1,128 injured. The country has mobilised 50,000 rescuers but they have yet to reach the most severely affected areas. Residents woke up after a freezing night on rooftops and in emergency shelters to a sea of mud, water and debris. Earthquakes continued to rock the north-east coast overnight, although some said the worst tremors appeared to be subsiding. Japan downgraded tsunami warnings in most areas but the Tohoku remained on high alert for waves up to 10m high. The tsunami has reached countries across the Pacific region but there were no reports of major damage outside Japan. Images shot from helicopters showed many people still crowding the rooftops of buildings surrounded by water and mud. Some, including small children, were winched to safety by rescuers. Other footage showed the letters SOS spelled out on the roof of a hospital in Iwanuma, Miyagi prefecture. Photographs from Sendai – one of the worst hit cities – showed families crammed into schools. “The flood came in from behind the store and swept around both sides. Cars were flowing right by,” said Wakio Fushima, who owns a convenience store in Sendai, which has around 1 million inhabitants and is 80 miles from the quake’s epicenter. Witnesses said the tsunami had swept inland about six miles. “The tsunami was unbelievably fast. Smaller cars were being swept around me and all I could do was sit in my truck,” said truck driver Koichi Takairin, 34, who was trapped in his four-ton vehicle by the torrent. Hundreds queued outside supermarkets for basic supplies and petrol stations were swamped with cars. Authorities warned citizens in northern Japan to be prepared for severe power cuts due to the shut down of nuclear plants, which provide about 30% of the country’s electricity. More than 1 million households are without water. Phone voice services are also down across much of the north east, although data services seemed to be working sporadically.
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March 12 2011, 3:10am | Comments »
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China considers relaxing one-child policy
http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2011/03/08/china-considers-relaxing-one-child-policy
Pilot projects for a two-child rule have also suggested it would not result in a population boom. How do you run a pilot project for such a grand scale population tinkering exercise as this?
This article titled “China considers relaxing one-child policy” was written by Tania Branigan in Beijing, for The Guardian on Tuesday 8th March 2011 10.49 UTC Beijing is considering whether to adopt a two-child policy within the next five years, ending the three-decade-old one-child rule, Chinese media have reported. Experts have mounted a renewed push for a relaxation of the strict family planning laws at an annual political meeting in the capital, warning that the country’s population of 1.3 billion is becoming dangerously unbalanced, with too few adults of working age supporting too many of their elders. Officials, concerned that hinting at an end to the curbs could lead to a huge rise in the number of births, have quashed previous public discussion of a change. The one-child policy was adopted in 1979 after China’s population surged – in part because Mao Zedong had suggested procreation was a patriotic duty. Some families – such as ethnic minority households or farmers whose first child is female – are already exempt. The government has been gradually relaxing regulations, for example by allowing two only children to each have two offspring. Experts in the field believe a uniform two-child rule would be fair, easy to enforce and would help to rebalance the population. Speaking at the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – an advisory body meeting now in Beijing – Wang Yuqing said officials were studying proposals for a two-child policy and that he believed it should be introduced gradually. Wang, deputy director of the CPPCC’s National Committee of Population, Resources and Environment, told the New Express Daily he believed urban couples whose first child was female might be allowed to have a second child from as early as 2015. Wang added that cities such as Beijing and Shanghai were already experiencing declining birth rates, in line with the international trend for people to have fewer children as living standards rise. Pilot projects for a two-child rule have also suggested it would not result in a population boom. The South China Morning Post said another official had confirmed the government was considering a new exemption for five provinces, which would allow couples to have a second child if one of the parents was an only child. Li Jichun, the deputy chairman of the Heilongjiang provincial CPPCC, said it had not been decided whether his province would be included. Official statistics from the government’s population agency suggest the fertility rate – the average number of births per woman – is still around 1.8 in China, slightly lower than in the UK but far higher than in Japan or Italy. Others put the figure far lower, although it is not clear whether they account for births that should be registered but are not. Ji Baocheng, a member of the rubber-stamp legislature the National People’s Congress, said there was a pressing need for a two-child rule because if the policy was not changed in time, the population structure would be severely imbalanced. According to state news agency Xinhua, over-60s make up more than an eighth of the population and will account for a third within three decades, with their numbers growing to 400 million as the number of younger people falls. Speaking to New Express Daily, Ji pointed to the burden faced by couples caring for two sets of parents. “The responsibility will be overwhelming,” said Ji, who is also president of Renmin University. Ye Yanfang, another CPPCC member, said nine out of 10 experts had been pressing for a relaxation of the policy for several years. But he added: “[The authorities] are still worried that more people will drive up the unemployment rate in the future.” Experts also argue that the one-child policy was never supposed to be a permanent measure, but was meant to bring down population growth to a manageable level. Tian Xueyuan, a leading member of the team that oversaw the policy’s introduction, told the Jinghua Times: “The purpose of the policy was to control birth rate for one generation.” Additional research by Lin Yi
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March 8 2011, 5:04am | Comments »
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Anger on the streets: unrest in Iran, Algeria, Yemen, Morocco and China
The list of countries in which there is unrest is getting almost too long for any headline.
Iran Algeria Yemen Morocco China
Not to mention Bahrain and Libya
This article titled “Anger on the streets: unrest in Iran, Algeria, Yemen, Morocco and China” was written by Nora Fakim in Rabat, Giles Tremlett, Saeed Kamali Dehghan, Tania Branigan in Beijing and agencies, for The Guardian on Sunday 20th February 2011 21.47 UTC Morocco: Peaceful protests against prime minister Thousands took to the streets of Rabat, Casablanca, Tangier and Marrakech in peaceful protests demanding a new constitution, a change in government and an end to corruption. Sunday’s protests were a test for King Mohamed VI’s regime, which boasts that it is more liberal and tolerant than other countries in the region that have seen violence and revolution. Despite a heavy secret police presence, uniformed police stayed in the background as demonstrators carefully avoided overt criticism of the king or Islamist chanting. “Where has the money gone?”, “The people of Morocco want change” and “We need a new constitution” were among the cries of 5,000 marchers in the capital, Rabat. “The atmosphere today is peaceful, as it is in our Moroccan nature to be peaceful,” a 50-year-old doctor, Mohamed Bebakri, said. Said Benjibli, the creator of Facebook protest group and one of the few prepared to complain about the monarch, said: “The king has too much power and he needs to distribute more money to the people.” Much of the rage was directed against prime minister Abbas El Fassi and his many family members in government posts. Iran: Thousands dispersed with teargas and batons Riot police and plainclothed basiji militia fired teargas and wielded batons to disperse thousands of defiant protesters commemorating the death of two pro-democracy demonstrators killed during anti-government protests last week. Supporters of the Green Movement gathered in scattered groups for the second time within a week to denounce the death of Saane Zhaleh, 26, and Mohammadi Mokhtari, 22, who were killed in Tehran on Monday. An opposition website affiliated to Mehdi Karroubi, a former presidential candidate, said that one person had been killed in Haft-e-Tir square in central Tehran when security forces opened fire at protesters. Dozens were arrested. Iran’s IRNA state news agency reported that Faezeh Rafsanjani, the daughter of influential cleric and former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, had been arrested in Tehran but semi-official FARS news agency reported later that she had been released. Iran had banned foreign media based in Tehran from reporting the protest. Instead, the opposition turned to social networking websites to spread their voice. Opposition websites claimed the protests reached other big cities, including Shiraz, Isfahan, Tabriz, Mashhad and Sanandaj with scenes similar to those in the capital, Tehran. The Green Wave opposition grouo announced that Ahmad Maleki, the vice-consulate at the consulate general of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Milan, had defected. He is the forth diplomat to defect since Iran’s post-election unrest in 2009. Algeria: Police separate crowds with clubs and shields Police thwarted a rally by thousands of pro-democracy supporters, breaking up the crowd into isolated groups to keep them from marching. Police brandishing clubs, but no firearms, weaved their way through the crowd in central Algiers, banging their shields, tackling some protesters and keeping traffic flowing through the planned march route. A demonstrating politician was hospitalised after suffering a head wound when he fell after police kicked and hit him, colleagues said. The gathering, organised by the Coordination for Democratic Change in Algeria, comes a week after a similar protest, which organisers said brought an estimated 10,000 people and up to 26,000 riot police on to the streets of Algiers. Algeria has also been hit by numerous strikes over the past month. President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has promised to lift the state of emergency, which has been in place since early 1992 to combat a budding insurgency by Islamist extremists. The insurgency, which continues sporadically, has killed about 200,000 people. Bouteflika has warned, however, that a longstanding ban on protests in Algiers would remain in place, even once the state of emergency was lifted. Algeria has many of the ingredients for a popular revolt. It is riddled with corruption and has never successfully grappled with its soaring jobless rate among its youth, estimated by some to be up to 42% despite its oil and gas wealth. “The people are for change, but peacefully,” said sociologist Nasser Djebbi. “We have paid a high price.” Yemen: Unrest continues for ninth consecutive day The leader of Yemen’s secessionist Southern Movement, Hasan Baoum, was arrested by an “armed military group” in an Aden hospital, according to his son, and shots were fired at a demonstration in the capital Sana’a, as unrest continued for a ninth consecutive day. Thousands of people also staged sit-ins in the cities of Ibb and Taiz, demanding the departure of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who renewed his call for opposition parties to pursue a dialogue with the government. Security in the southern port of Aden was stepped up with tanks and armoured vehicles out on the main streets. China: Crackdown after call for ‘jasmine revolution’ Chinese security officials questioned or detained scores of activists at the weekend and warned others against staging protests after an online call was made for demonstrations in 13 cities, campaigners said. The message, posted on an overseas website on Saturday, was titled: “The jasmine revolution in China”. The swift crackdown underlined the anxiety of authorities in the wake of the Egypt uprising and protests across the Middle East. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy estimated that more than 100 activists across the country were taken away by police, prevented from leaving home or were missing. Wang Songlian, of the Chinese Human Rights Defenders network, said more than 40 campaigners or dissidents had been summoned or questioned by police or placed under “soft detention” at home or elsewhere. In many more cases, police had visited people to ask them what they were doing or warn them not to take part, she said. “[The message] linked it to the jasmine revolution and I guess that made the government nervous,” she said. “It really shows us how much the government has identified with regimes in the Middle East where people are so aggrieved about social injustice.” Despite a huge police presence at the proposed demonstration locations, there were signs that at least a handful of people in Beijing and Shanghai had hoped to protest. It is not clear who posted the call for demonstrations on the Boxun website, and the message may well have come from abroad. Many mainland activists appeared to have been unaware of it until police contacted them. The message said: “You and I are Chinese people who will still have a dream for the future … we must act responsibly for the future of our descendants.” It urged people to shout demands for food, work, housing and fairness.
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February 20 2011, 5:09pm | Comments »
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