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| Greenpeace staff, volunteers and supporters marched in solidarity with the people of Bataan to oppose the revival of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant during the church-led rally in Moron |
The word 'solidarity' rarely strikes a chord in this day and age.
Gone were the days when the word solidarity was so taken seriously that one would risk their life, limb and liberty in solidarity with the plight of a people, a race, a cause and the earth.
It seems that along with the advent and progress of the technological age, a lot of people have gotten busy. Busy with meeting deadlines, work and making ends meet, without fully realizing that it exactly their business that has kept them in an 'ignorance is bliss' and 'business-as-usual' mode, which is fertile ground for injustice.
Three Mile Island and the BNPP
Thirty years ago, people in central Pennsylvania awoke to an alarming bulletin. A malfunction had occurred in the reactor's cooling system in Unit 2. Radiation — an alarming word — was reportedly leaking.
After the 1979 Three Mile Island accident in the US, the BNPP construction was immediately stopped. An inquiry on the plant's safety revealed 4,000 defects. "...Mr. Marcos and his nuclear advisers may well be long remembered for having put up the most expensive and dangerous nuclear power plant in the world, thereby saddling present and future generations of Filipinos with enormous foreign loans...," according to former Senator Lorenzo Tanada, on August 6, 1983.
Today, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant still stands as a monument to man's folly, to pride and refusal to admit a mistake--a grim memorial of the betrayal of the Filipino people.
I think it is quite possible that it is that sort of mindset that stirred the likes of Mark Cojuangco and the other legislators who moved in Congress to push for the "re-comissioning" of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. They figured that it would be business as usual for the people and that the bitter lessons of the historic struggle against the BNPP would be forgotten, by a late-blooming generation.
Thankfully the lesson wasn't forgotten. There are still those who choose to go not gently unto the night of the nuclear renaissance.
Today we choose to stand in solidarity, with the broad movement that seeks to oppose the unfeasible, dangerous, economically unviable and corruption laiden monster that is the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
Prayer
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| "To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." -- Karl Barth |
Prayer is universal because it speaks to some basic human need. As Thomas Merton puts it, “Prayer is an expression of who we are… we are a living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.” In prayer we break silence, and sometimes those words flow out of our deepest parts.
We pray because we want to thank someone or something for the beautiful glories of life, and also because we feel small and helpless and sometimes afraid. We pray for forgiveness, for strength, for contact with the One who is, for assurance that we are not alone.
The case of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant is truly a cause for prayer.
Solidarity with the people of Morong Organized by the Parish of our Lady of the Pillar, Morong, Bataan, and supported by the Diocese of Balanga prayer rally brought not only the faithful men and women of faith, but also the various groups of individuals, NGOs, people's organizations, social movements etc into a collective expression of solidarity.
It is our hope that our solidarity with the people of Bataan who are faced with the 30-year old Monster of Morong, will create a ripple towards the final vanquishing of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant.
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The story of the BNPP and the people of Morong is one seemingly unending saga of greed, corruption and utter disregard for the environment and plain logic. Our hearts here at Greenpeace is in solidarity with the people of Bataan.