[-empyre-] (hegemonic) Urban resilience. A view from from Fukushima

[Pablo de Soto]

 dear friends

I am Pablo de Soto, architect and co-founder of hackitectura.net, I have
been working on border and migration <http://fadaiat.net/> issues, critical
media-architecture <http://issuu.com/pablodesoto/docs/situation_room>,
filmmaking activism against Gaza siege in Egypt
<http://vimeo.com/11807140>and recently compiling
the maps of 15M movement in
Spain<http://tomalapalabra.periodismohumano.com/2011/10/15/los-mapas-del-15m-al-15o/>
.

Sorry I am joining late the discussion and running to read all your
previous mails. Ana want me to add my perspective from recent experiences
in Fukushima's age Japan.

I spent the last months accompanying the actions of antinuclear movement in
Tokyo, been part of Occupy
Kasumigesaki<http://www.scoop.it/t/cartas-desde-fukushima?tag=05_%20Occupy%20Kasumigaseki>(the
3 tents camp in front of the ministry of Industry, Economy and Trade)
and researching about cultural and artistic response to nuclear ongoing
nuclear crisis<http://es.scribd.com/doc/81789987/NuclearPowerPlants-RadicalArt>.
I made two trips to Fukushima prefecture to follow the stories of radiation
refugees<http://www.scoop.it/t/cartas-desde-fukushima?tag=02_%20Radiation%20refugees>,
and I took part of the Yokohama Global conference for a nuclear power free
world <http://npfree.jp/english.html>.

If analising the situation in Japan (the ongoing nuclear crisis) under the
lenses of "resiliance and resistance", what I found there is how (by
design) resilient capatilism is. "By design" I mean how well a
hypercapitalist mainframe as Tokyo has been designed to survive a nuclear
disaster: 1/ In geography by sacrifiying the surrounded area (of course the
dangerous power plants that provide electricity are not in the capital but
200kms away). 2/ In the infosphere by controlling mainstream media,
covering up information and keeping the consumerism dream even if the "Myth
of Safety" has melted down.

What I found in Japan is a situation of resiliance by force: population not
evacuated in Fukushima being forced to live in a low level radioactive
enviroment and been force to learn about how to protect themselves against
radiation while government states a non really true "crisis is over".

The resistance to this "hegemonic resiliance" is a vibrant and creative
insurgency, that in such a matrix scenario, struggles against
naturalization of nuclear disaster. And the movement is growong because of
the cognitive dissonance: the difference in between the facts and the lies
coming out from governement and Tepco (the energy corporation).

Pablo
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