Singapore Web DesignerWe are thin wooden sticks » AEN—Designer & Consultant

Men with power has throughout history, demonstrated merciless acts of inflicting terror on the innocent and powerless, for gain and more power. With the advancement of technology, human lives have improved. We now live longer, but we are also ironically more easily killed. Our lives lies in the hands of those above us, those above the human race, those with power. And in the hands of these people are tools capable of destroying human life made possible by the very technological and scientific advancements that gave us our improved lives.

“Life is so fragile. We are just like thin wooden sticks in the hands of those armed with terrible weapons, easily broken with a twist of the finger.”

This blog post has nothing to do with design nor my creative work. I had asked myself this question, “Life is so fragile. Aren’t we just like thin wooden sticks in the hands of those armed with terrible weapons, easily broken with a twist of the finger.” That is eaxctly the feelings that had left me feeling much disturbed for the last week and probably will for the rest of my life, after I came across content from the internet on nuclear weapons, Chernobyl, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Read on.

Chernobyl

A prosperous Ukrainian city turned into a ghost town by the devasting effects of the most terrible nuclear accident in history.

Video from time I spent around the still radioactive Chernobyl, the reactor and the abondoned town of Pripyat. by carlmontgomery

Some Discovery Channel Videos from YouTube explaining why the accident happen and what effect it had on its people and the world.
Disaster at Chernobyl part 1 of 6
Disaster at Chernobyl part 2 of 6
Disaster at Chernobyl part 3 of 6
Disaster at Chernobyl part 4 of 6
Disaster at Chernobyl part 5 of 6
Disaster at Chernobyl part 5 of 6

Lots of intriguing images by an adventurous biker who rode into the “dead zone”.
PRIPYAT ghost town (1970-1986), MY CHERNOBYL RIDES
beginning of a story about town where one can ride fast, with no stoplights, no police, no danger to hit some cage or some dog.

Some other links: Chernobyl Disaster (Wikipedia), Chernobyl on Google Maps

If you have followed the above content and watched the Discovery Channel videos, you would have realized how easy it is for peoples’ lives to be destroyed by the acts of a single person or organization.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki

The BBC Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Video with CG re-enactment of what happened as the bomb exploded among an otherwise quiet afternoon. Part 2 is here.

From Digg. Hiroshima, the pictures they didn’t want us to see.
Photos of the aftermath of the bombings were censored by the American occupation forces because they prohibited any thing “that might, directly or by inference, disturb public tranquility”. The pictures remained classified ‘top secret’ for many years. This is the horror they didn’t want us to see, and that we must NEVER forget.

It is said that prior to the dropping of “Little Boy” and “Fat Man” (names of the 2 bombs), Japan was already on the verge of collapse and was already seeking a way to surrender with “minimum loss of face”. It is thus unnessary as a means to end a war by destroying women and children.

The bombings were also viewed as revenge on Japan for the bombing of Pearl harbor. Check out this comment on Digg. It says:

Pearl Harbour was a naval base. It was a military target. The Japanese attack wiped off much of US Navy. It was a loss of life of those men that were in the military - those that were willing to put the lives on the line for their country. When you get enlisted that’s what you agree to. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were civilian towns. They had nothing to do with the war. The attack was a deliberate statement. A demonstration of power through terror. Some call it terrorism. It’s the kind of thing that happens when some people choose to fly commercial airliners into office buildings. by BESTenemy

I absolutely agree. It is not revenge. It is terrorism.

Here’s a Before & After image of the bombing of Nagasaki. Much of it was practically vaporized or wiped out.

Some other links: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Wikipedia), The Voice of Hibakusha

Are we really living in peace? Or are we living in a pan ready to be fried at a twist of a knob. I think we truly are thin wooden sticks in the hands of those with power and weapons of mass destruction.

“There will one day spring from the brain of science a machine or force so fearful in its potentialities, so absolutely terrifying, that even man, the fighter, who will dare torture and death in order to inflict torture and death, will be appalled, and so abandon war forever.”
Thomas A. Edison

“I do not know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Albert Einstein, in a letter to Harry S. Truman