Radioactive Waste on the Shores: A Call for Action

[NASSIR]

Radioactive Waste on the Shores: A Call for Action

 

Dr. Mohamoud A. Gaildon

 

March 12, 2005

 

The reports of bleeding, abdominal pain and, more recently, death of people who had been exposed to waste washed ashore by the tsunami waves are alarming. To explain why, let me provide a brief description of the effects of radiation.

 

Low levels of radiation can induce cancer and lead to gene alteration in cells. These are delayed effects that can take decades to develop. The hallmark of high levels of radiation, on the other hand, is cell killing. A small part of an organ can (unless it is a serial structure like the spinal cord) take a lethal dose of radiation. (This is what radiotherapy is all about: killing the tumor and, with it, some surrounding healthy tissue, with radiation). Irradiating the total body, however, is a different matter.

 

Hiroshima , Nagasaki , and the Chernobyl nuclear accident, along with experiments on animals, have supplied us with abundant data on clinical response when the whole body is subjected to high levels of radiation. Acute radiation syndrome, as this condition is called, manifests itself (in order of increasing severity) as hematopoietic (mainly affecting bone marrow), gastrointestinal, and neurovascular syndromes.

 

Mostly, healthy adults with proper medical care can survive low levels of radiation damage to the bone marrow, an appreciably increased risk of leukemia not withstanding. But severe damage to the bone marrow is almost always fatal. Platelet loss leads to bleeding, while the depletion of white cells causes infection. It is the combined effect of the bleeding and the infection that leads to death.

 

The next level of ARS (acute radiation syndrome) is gastrointestinal syndrome. The intestines suffer ulceration and hemorrhage, and the damage to the bone marrow is even more severe than with hematopoietic syndrome. Death occurs within 3 to 10 days after exposure. Neurovascular syndrome, the most severe form of ARS, gives little chance for the lower levels of ARS to take hold as the victim goes into severe neurological disorder and cardiovascular shock. Death occurs within 2 to 3 days.

 

Now, I hope, you can forgive me if in the beginning of the article I came across as too much of an alarmist. The reported symptoms are consistent with exposure to lethal levels of radiation. What is more, this is surely only the tip of an iceberg, and maybe a whiff from hell. Just how much nuclear waste is out there and exactly where are only two of the many unknowns. How many victims will die from radiation overexposure today, tomorrow, next month, next year, twenty years from now, fifty years from now, or centuries from now? How many will suffer and die slow deaths from radiation-induced cancer, ten years from now…fifty years from now…a hundred…? How many children will grow up, if you can call it growing up, mentally retarded? The daunting list of questions can continue, but at the risk of turning it into an overkill.

 

Then What? What Should We Do Now?

 

• Dispatch a team to survey the suspected areas. DO NOT WAIT FOR THE UN. For now, it is not necessary to have an accurate and detailed study. We just need to confirm the presence of significant levels of radiation. The instruments needed are inexpensive hand-held Geiger-Mueller survey meters and ionization chambers. We will also need to secure personnel monitoring film badges;

 

• If the presence of high levels of radiation is confirmed, there is only one of two choices: a) do nothing and leave tens of thousands of poor, unsuspecting Somalis at the mercy of an enemy they cannot see, touch or smell; or b) mount a rescue operation by mass-evacuation of the local populations to nearby towns and regions. How? I do not know. At the very least, children and pregnant women must be rescued.

 

Then What?

 

• Fence off areas with significant quantities of radioactive material;

 

• Bring together a team of Somali scientists, engineers, doctors, environmentalists, lawyers and official representatives from the affected areas. The mission of committee would be to study and work on the issue for decades;

 

• Responsible companies should be held accountable. We should seek the help of European environmentalists to bring them to court. The offending companies should divulge crucial information (exactly what has been disposed of and where) and make monetary compensation for damages caused to local populations and to the environment. Payments should be used for the benefit of affected populations alone;

 

• Ask the UN and the European Union to shoulder cleanup work, both offshore and onshore. This will most likely be a long-term, massive project, which may never be complete;

 

• Devise ways to educate the local populations on the dangers of radiation. If they have to go into an area suspected of contamination, time (seconds) and distance are of the essence. Children under the age of 18 and women of childbearing age should never venture into a suspected area. NO ONE SHOULD GO INTO AN AREA KNOWN TO BE CONTAMINATED.

 

This is an attempt on my part to draw the collective attention of all Somalis to the grave danger this matter presents. WE HAVE A MORAL DUTY OT ACT NOW.

 

Mohamoud A. Gaildon

 

Medical Physicist

 

Atlanta , Georgia

 

mgaildon@aol.com

[NASSIR]

Secrets About Somali Annihilation and The Indonesian Tsunami

 

Faisal Roble

March 19, 2005

 

In Nuruddin Farah's novel, “Secrets,†we learn that Somalis have layers of, cultural, clan, family and individual secrets. They can hold and stay tight-lipped about these secrets, which if unveiled could have repercussions for many years. The society is so secrecy-ridden that even the deadly AIDS is given the code name “caateeye,†or the “slim disease.†In this way, neither the killer disease nor the identity of the soon-to-die patient is revealed.

 

Every now and then, though, unexpected social or natural waves come around and stir up the state of secrecy, throw out every thing in to the open air, and expose the collective guilt of the society. It is only after such happenings that what was yesterday's secret becomes today's much talked about subject. For Somali society, it is not uncommon that someone would learn about the divorce of his/her mother and father only when the patriarch is on his deathbed.

 

Likewise, Somalis have recently found that the Indonesian Tsunami in December stirred up the nuclear and other toxic waste materials that had lain secretly undisturbed in the Somali shores for more than a decade.

Jonathan Clayton of Johannesburg, referring to United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), says that “initial reports indicate that the Tsunami waves broke open containers full of toxic waste and scattered the contents†which include “everything from medical waste to chemicals.â€

 

Not secret anymore is the serious diseases that nuclear and waste materials, dumped in this stateless, ancient land of northeast Africa, can cause both in the short- and long-term. When these materials come in contact with humans, never-seen before diseases will come part of our not-so-secret vocabularies. As graphically described in M. Gaildon's article, “Radio Active Waste on the Shores: A Call for Action†(Wardheernews, March 12, 2005), hematopoietic syndrome, neurological disorder, ulcer bleeding, revulsion and gene mutations are some of the terminologies we need to familiarize ourselves with. And worse, “low levels of radiation†from these materials “can induce cancer and lead to gene alteration in “cells, … or cell killing.†This certainly terrifies us all!

But the real secret that is yet to be revealed is who are those western companies that have taken advantage of this nation – a nation that has lately been inflicted with another damning disease, known as self-hating syndrome (Said Samatar) and laid down the foundation of what could be the annihilation of millions of innocent citizens? And who are the local agents who have collaborated with greedy, old dead white men-owned multinationals that have decided to potentially poison the pristine Somali shores.

 

We must look for answers to Italy's Famiglia Cristiana newspaper and to the Greenpeace party. As Clyton describes it, in 1997 and 1998, the Greenpeace and the Famiglia Cristiana “jointly investigated a serious of articles†that placed the Italian waste broker, Progresso, in the center of our secret dumping. And, boom, in the center of this secret episode is our own North Mogadishu warlord, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, and his government, who accepted $80 million in exchange of 10 million tones of toxic materials dumped in Somalia's shores. And more secret dumping and the murder of journalists, as reported by VOA, March 16, 2005, is done under the current Mogadishu warlords who are yet to be scrutinized.

 

As to past Mafia secrets in Somalia, we turn to a less known, but fascinating article (Horn of Africa journal, 1982) written by G. Miller, a medical anthropologist. In it, he presented a persuasive case that Italian Mafia fully controlled Somalia's fruits export, insurance business, livestock and pharmaceutical plants, thereby documenting how Somalia's plants had been processed by European pharmaceutical companies into some of the widely used medical drugs. This is a secret that could only be stirred up by another force as powerful as the Indonesian Tsunami that just blew up the cover off of one our deadliest secrets – the nuclear and waste dumpsites in our own (shore) backyard.

Mr. Gaildon, in his short, yet critical article, advanced some valuable recommendations and has already planted the seeds for a plan of action to deal with this predicament. The UN and the European Union are identified as the agents for future clean up. In addition, I would like to recommend the following:

 

• A team of Somali and non-Somali legal experts must be identified to follow up and contact the Famiglia Cristiana and the Italian Greenpeace to build on what these groups have so far done. Make all those involved accountable for recent and past dumps and have them reveal all that they know.

• The Transitional Federal Government of Cabdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister CAli Maxammed Geedi, if it ever survives, shall establish special czar to work on this matter with the UN and EU for a comprehensive clean up program.

 

• The Somali nationals whose relatives have fallen victim of this deliberate poisoning in the hands of multinational companies must seek and retain legal representation here in the west with the decided goal to seek compensation for their impacted relatives.

 

• For this is a sinister and a racist deliberate action against the stateless, and helpless African Somalis, Somali community groups in the U.S.A. must publicize and disseminate information about this issue, particularly among the African American communities in major cities. Transafrica must be contacted to publicize this matter.

 

Secrets take their own toll. This time around, the secret dumping of toxic and nuclear waste materials in Somalia's shore is expected to exact a much serious toll on both Somalis and the people in the region that may even change our daily health and medical vocabularies for a long time to come. If not quickly addressed, the West would certainly be watching CNN airing of the death of many Somalis and other East Africans in mass.

 

 

Faisal Roble

 

E-mail: fabroble@aol.com

[General Duke]

Tragic, but annihiliation is a big word.

[NASSIR]

Duke, you never know, the author refers to potential effect, the slow genocide that it may cause on Somali people. The first article is more critical .

[General Duke]

^^^ I agree, the first article seems to have been researched more. As for the issues raised I agree totally, we need to focus more on this and understand the magnitude of the problem, rather than reliying on speculative media reports.

 

Again thanks for the thread.

[Emperor]

• A team of Somali and non-Somali legal experts must be identified to follow up and contact the Famiglia Cristiana and the Italian Greenpeace to build on what these groups have so far done. Make all those involved accountable for recent and past dumps and have them reveal all that they know.

• The Transitional Federal Government of Cabdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister CAli Maxammed Geedi, if it ever survives, shall establish special czar to work on this matter with the UN and EU for a comprehensive clean up program.

 

• The Somali nationals whose relatives have fallen victim of this deliberate poisoning in the hands of multinational companies must seek and retain legal representation here in the west with the decided goal to seek compensation for their impacted relatives.

Good points

 

. And, boom, in the center of this secret episode is our own North Mogadishu warlord, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, and his government, who accepted $80 million in exchange of 10 million tones of toxic materials dumped in Somalia's shores. And more secret dumping and the murder of journalists, as reported by VOA, March 16, 2005, is done under the current Mogadishu warlords who are yet to be scrutinized.

Sad sad sad, it's painful ....