The 213° week of the vigil
in front of WHO
The Vigil for the month of March 2009 was maintained by ...
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Blandine Lochmann, Carole Bouvier and Corinne Trit - from 2nd to 3rd March 2009 Corinne Trit, Christophe Elain and Jean Pierre Pasquet - from 4th to 6th March 2009 Anne Baldens, Dominique Louvet and Christophe Elain - from 9th to 13th March 2009 Cécile Ziélinski and Anne Dupuis - from 16th to 20th March 2009 Françoise Chanial and Claudine Le Tallec - from 23rd to 27th March 2009 Christine Kjelberg, Damien Rotureau, Thierry Pottier and Philippe Monier-Genoud from 30th March to 3rd April 2009 |
 Blandine Lochmann (Chalonvillars-France) and Carole Bouvier (Geneva-Switzerland) |
from 2nd to 3rd March 2009 |  Corinne Trit (Toulouse-France) |
 Christophe Elain (Globetrotteur) and Corinne Trit (Toulouse-France) |
from 4th to 6th March 2009 |  Jean Pierre Pasquet (Garges les Gonesses-France) |
 Anne Baldens (Mulhouse-France) and Dominique Louvet (Chalonvillars-France) |
from 9th to 13th March 2009 |  Christophe Elain (Globetrotteur) |
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Cécile Ziélinski (Le Puy en Velay-France) and Anne Dupuis (Le Puy en Velay-France) from 16th to 20th March 2009 |
(Orchamps Vennes-France)
from 23rd to 27th March 2009
I – The 100th week
I arrive from Poiters on Monday 23rd March to take my place at the crossroads in front of WHO, the World Health Organisation which has its headquarters in Geneva. It is the beginning of the 100th week of the vigil: on Friday it will be the 500th day of a presence that lasts 10 hours every day, from 8 am to 6pm. It is likely that the Media will let the 5,000th hour go by, just like Louis XVI writing “NOTHING” in his diary for 14th July 1789, so I shall explain why this small event is nevertheless of profoundly historical and symbolic importance.
The city authorities have given permission for 3 people, no more, to stand on a section of pavement in the shape of an arrow driven into the heart of the traffic leading to the UN building. We set up our furniture: 3 placards on a trailer, reminding people that Chernobyl continues to cause death and suffering, in particular to millions of children, and that WHO says nothing about it. By an agreement signed in 1959 with the IAEA, the atomic energy agency, WHO undertakes to do nothing to tarnish the reputation of the Atom. The agreement is still in force and explains why it is the IAEA who fixes the levels and published the figures that suit its purposes …
Between the actors and the public in this drama, the division of roles could not be more contrasting: - on one side, exposed to extremes of weather (falls of snow covering the trees, red rose bushes), 1, 2 or 3 volunteers who ask nothing for themselves.
- on the other side, a large number of the general public – more than 3,000 people – insulated behind the windows of limousines, 4x4s, buses, coaches and the offices which tower above our pavement. Very few come on foot or on bicycles: these are more likely to greet us. The others think that they are paid to ignore us. A comfortable salary, exempt from paying tax, paid out of our taxes, ostensibly for caring for the world, but in reality for covering up the fact that the world is dying, either slowly or quickly. And we, taxpayers, give up our time and pay our own expenses, and put up with discomfort for the sake of winning THEIR freedom, and maintaining the dignity of THEIR work.
Should we see what we are doing as a sacrifice? No!
We simply need to remember those who genuinely sacrificed themselves so that we in the rest of Europe might survive – the “Liquidators”, these young people who ran in their thousands on the roof of the reactor to prevent an explosion, and who have since died – and maintain our obligation to protect our species, which doesn’t end with our direct descendants but extends to all the children of the world. Our strength, thankfully, comes from not being alone in holding these values: we share them with all of our comrades who are involved in the Vigil, and all of the “locals” who welcome us with so much human warmth (thank you to Odile and George).
A small mouse comes to join us, exceeding our permitted quota, since there are times when that makes 4 of us. Its message is: I am light, elegant, perfectly adapted to my environment, and I am on you’re your side. Claudine grey eyes shine as she speaks of Britanny: her greatest wish is to create shared gardens to help spread respect for the earth and its biodiversity. The word “culture”, from the same roots as “cult”, implies respect and our greatest respect is owed to Nature, which forms us and feeds us. The other types of culture – poetry, science – stem from the same source. After Claudine and the small mouse, I want to speak about Nicolai, a franco-russian American, and about Hassan the Nubian. To be continued …
GENEVA, Spring equinox 2009
Summary of Chapter I
The 100th week of the Vigil has taken place in front of the World Health Organisation which has its headquarters in Geneva. By an agreement signed in 1959 with the IAEA, the atomic energy agency, WHO undertakes to do nothing to tarnish the reputation of the Atom. The agreement is still in force and explains why it is the IAEA who fixes the levels and published the figures that suit its purposes … The goal of the Vigil is to establish the independence of WHO.
II Performances
Nicolai, with impressive mane and curly beard, is from New York where he teaches French. He talks heatedly of Rabelais and his message to bureaucrats: “Science without a conscience means the ruin of the soul!” He gets his anger from the writings of his brother: Wladimir Tcherkov who, among other things, is the author of the film “The Sacrifice”, the same film which has brought me to Geneva. I can still see a mental image of a young family-man, a liquidator at Chernobyl, who was falling apart in front of his wife’s eyes, and kept repeating, with an unbearable gentleness, “Nightmare” … This nightmare has become ours and it drives our determination. The name “Chernobyl” comes from the Ukrainian name for a plant with a bitter taste – absinthe – and Nicolai talks about the Apocalypse (in Greek = “revealed secret”): a star called Absinthe fell down on the rivers and streams ; a third of the water then turned into absinthe and many people died from the bitter water.
Those who promote nuclear energy have made a pact with the Devil and in spite of the best efforts of their “communicators” to invent “perfect” names, they give themselves away: at MALville, they killed VITAL Michalon so they could continue to produce their infernal PLUTOnium. Pluto was the god of both Hell and Wealth; that is THEIR god, they don’t try to hide it! Those who promote military uses of nuclear energy, the Siamese twin of the civil nuclear industry, are not idle either: with their underground atomic explosions, the French military have locked up for centuries radioactivity on an island in the Pacific, whose name in Polynesian, Moruroa (and not Muru …) means “the great secret”. Dante, the visionary poet, described hell as a crater buried beneath the earth, on an axis with Calvary in Jerusalem. And on an extension of this axis he located the lost Paradise. Let us look at the Earth: the opposite point to Jerusalem is … very close to Moruroa ! an earthly paradise that was lost through a lack of respect for the fundamental laws of Nature and humanity … Nicolai put his placard on his back and felt that he was like La Fontaine’s woodcutter “all covered in twigs”. The lines come easily, the actor “beneath his burden of faggots” carries on a dialogue with death, approaching his single spectator. La Fontaine holds his hand out to me and, lighter than the mouse, I exalt in the joy of his performance. All my characters join me and everyone joins in a dance, together with all of Nicolai’s characters : there are Russians, Italians, savants, poets and close rand closer, friends and relatives, a huge crowd is represented at this point of the pavement….
A man crosses the street with a huge smile. He is involved in the development of cooperatives, which is a great political and economic solution. He is from Egypt, more specifically from Nubia, the secret land at the source of the Nile. He tells us about his village that was destroyed by the building of the Aswan Dam, about his people who were displaced and who, now that they live in houses with electricity, have already lost half of their songs and their dances and their cultural memories going back several thousand years. A poet refuses to give up, even though constantly criticized, constantly imprisoned… And finally he is proved right: our new friend is really thrilled to tell us that the Egyptian government has just made a promise to the Nubians that they will be allowed to return to the side of the lake… There they will once again spread the sails of their feluccas and the musicians will once again discover their thousand year old inspiration… But for the land of Belarus, sprayed with radionuclides from Chernobyl, WHEN will it be able once again to feed its people without poisoning them? The climate, created by the interaction between land and sun, forms and nourishes “culture”, of both garden and the arts. And health? That is the general consequence! Entire populations are the victims of environmental displacements, stricken in their culture, their health, their survival itself: wars, landmines, dams, rising sea-levels, drought, pollution … and the latest “innovation, bio-fuels ! On our arrow-shaped piece of pavement, we are the representatives of these people who are claiming back the control of their lives and their own land.
GENEVA, Spring equinox 2009
Summary of Chapters I and II :
For the 100th week a Vigil is taking place in front of the World Health Organisation which has its headquarters in Geneva. By an agreement signed in 1959 with the IAEA, the atomic energy agency, WHO undertakes to do nothing to tarnish the reputation of the Atom. The agreement is still in force and explains why it is the IAEA who fixes the levels and published the figures that suit its purposes … By demanding the independence of WHO, we are the representatives of these people who are claiming back the control of their lives and their own land.
III– across the road from WHO
And you, ladies and gentlemen, in the comfort of your offices, who do you represent? The doors to your offices are well guarded; the only statistics that are allowed to enter are those that have been officially approved by governments … and by the IAEA! You give out brochures, with colour photos and glossy paper, to advise, with supporting statistics, that you mustn’t allow children to fall down wells or into the swimming pool. The advice is unquestionably useful, but its benefits are limited, if it doesn’t take account of what is at stake for the world: for us all to take back control of our lives, as far as Nature is concerned. There you are, you say that would involve you in politics and you are not paid to do that. It’s true: you are paid to serve the opposite political view. A form of politics that isn’t accountable, which is happy to give more and more power to those who already have it. Claudine tells us the story that Ceausescu was brought down by a little old lady in the crowd who took advantage of a silence to shout out “You’re lying”, which was then taken up by the crowd. The dictator “lost face” – but faced with international or multinational organizations, to whom can we say “You’re lying”?
(Biard-France)
from 23rd to 27th March 2009
And who are you travelling for “Mr and Mrs United Nations person”?
In shifts we go to eat at the cafeteria at an Ecumenical Foundation. Sitting next to me there is a worker from the United Nations and his teenage daughter. He is telling her that he is going to catch a plane to Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay … “Take me with you daddy!” It’s completely normal, especially at her age, to want to travel all over the world. But it has become too easy to jet around all over the place. You can feel really proud of all the miles you’ve travelled, all the time you don’t worry about burning up fuel. In order to justify the environmental destruction linked to high-speed travel, you have to think of yourself as very important … which you’re not. And too often it means dismissing the alternative solutions. The journey to Geneva has another dimension for those who come to do the Vigil. We are the guardians of a cause that is much greater than ourselves … it is the cause that counts. As far as we are concerned, we share our means of survival and our ideas. We minimise our carbon footprint, but we give and receive a great deal of vital energy! “Sharing is caring”, says Nicolai to the small mouse who nibbles at our bread. What a great phrase! It is not the rule that our governments follow, but we need to change those rules. To Rabelais’ prophecy “Science without a conscience means the ruin of the soul!” we can add “Money without conscience means the ruin of the world”. Utopia?
“Where there is a will, there is a way”: another piece of popular wisdom from Nicolai: Make it happen!
Françoise Chanial, Friend of the Earth - Poitou
 Damien Rotureau (Angers-France) and Thierry Pottier (Chambéry-France) |
 Christine Kjelberg (Geneva-Switzerland) |
from 30th March to 3rd April 2009 |
 Philippe Monier-Genoud (Speracedes-France) |
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