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lunaprincipessa · 7 months

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ENTRY 107

Comfort Shows:

Many different people enjoy many different kinds of shows, but there is one thing all comfort shows have in common, and that is the ability to take viewers away from reality.

They (comfort shows) are said to ease the symptoms of stress utilizing plots and characters that appeal to viewers. Of course, the people creating these shows don't always have the element of comfort in mind, but that's certainly how many of their viewers respond.

Psychologists weighed in and said there is absolutely nothing wrong with a person having a comfort show, as long as it's a positive distraction that offers a nice break, and not a negative distraction which may keep us from our responsibilities for any elongated period of time. In other words, watch all ya want but get your shit done.

Moving on, the criteria for these shows to meet in order to be considered "comforting" is to have low-stake situations and fun characters that can bring the viewers a sense of familiarity and calm. Basically, something gentle on the nervous system.

Not my comfort show.

My comfort show is Chernobyl.

Chernobyl is an HBO miniseries and historical drama that was released in 2019. It gives an inside look at the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986. I was a 4-year-old girl growing up in the U.S. at the time. Those older than myself told me many people were concerned or scared that the radiation may have had the potential to reach us despite the distance.

It's like the Titanic, we all know the story. On April 26th, 1986, a sudden surge of power created by irresponsible employees during a reactor systems test caused an explosion. This explosion destroyed a Chernobyl nuclear power station unit (#4), releasing a massive amount of radiation into the environment directly affecting Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. It is said that to this day, there are people still living with health defects caused by that disaster.

The show reveals what happened behind closed doors: how the nuclear employees responded (the majority of them dying in attempts to save each other), how the townspeople responded (the majority getting sick/being evacuated etc), how the doctors and scientists responded (the majority threatened with demotion or jail time for telling the truth), and how the government responded (willing to sacrifice human life to keep secrets).

Then there's the story of Lyudmilla Ignatenko, who lost her newborn baby due to radiation poisoning. She received the radiation poisoning from caring for her husband, a firefighter and first-responder at Chernobyl dying of radiation poisioning himself. Unfortunately, the baby absorbed it all, saving Lyudmilla's life but passing away just four hours after birth.

Allow me to explain why it's a comfort show. It is not the suffering that I find comforting. For what it's worth, my heart goes out to everyone involved, like Lyudmilla Ignatenko, who is alive and well, or Valery Khodemchuk, who is presumed to be permanently entombed under the remnants of the circulation pumps (his body was never found). The suffering is no comfort to me at all, I cannot emphasize on that point enough.

What comforts me is the reality of this show. There is no superhero that flies in and fixes everything. There is no prince or king that rides in and fixes everything. No, this is real life. You see unfiltered, raw tragedy and then you see people doing the best they can to make it through. That comforts me because it's real. Average people working together with the odds stacked against them. That comforts me because it's real.

True, this story lacks a happy ending, but so does many of our real life adventures. We just pick up the broken pieces and move on without any cheering or any fun music playing. We just do the best with what we've got, with what we've been given in this life.

I watch that show for comfort because even in the midst of battling a deadly and invisible enemy, in the midst of fighting to heal under an apathetic government, the people still did what they could to pull through. It's a reminder to keep going no matter what, no matter what the odds are or who is against you. That's the best way I can explain it. Words escape me tonight.

More thoughts later.

#Chernobyl #comfort shows

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live-long-and-time-warp · 4 years

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EXCERPTS FROM GORBACHEV'S SPEECH ON CHERNOBYL ACCIDENT

Excerpts from Gorbachev’s first public speech on the disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant following 18 days of radio silence.

Following are excerpts from Mikhail S. Gorbachev's television address tonight on the Chernobyl nuclear accident, as distributed in translation by the Soviet press agency Tass:

Good evening, comrades.

As you all know, a misfortune has befallen us - the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. It has painfully affected Soviet people and caused the anxiety of the international public. For the first time ever we encountered in reality such a sinister force as nuclear energy that has escaped control. So what did happen? As specialists report, the reactor's capacity suddenly increased during a scheduled shutdown of the fourth unit. The considerable emission of steam and subsequent reaction resulted in the formation of hydrogen, its explosion, damage to the reactor and the associated radioactive release.

It is yet early to pass final judgment on the causes of the accident. All aspects of the problem - design, projecting, operation and technical -are under the close scrutiny of the Government commission.

It goes without saying that when the investigation of the accident is completed, all the necessary conclusions will be drawn and measures will be taken ruling out a repetition of anything of this sort.

'Seriousness of the Situation'

The seriousness of the situation was obvious. It was necessary to evaluate it urgently and competently. And as soon as we received reliable initial information it was made available to Soviet people and sent through diplomatic channels to the governments of foreign countries.

In the situation that had taken shape, we considered it our top priority duty, a duty of special importance to insure the safety of the population and provide effective assistance to those who had been affected by the accident.

The inhabitants of the settlement near the station were evacuated within a matter of hours and then, when it had become clear that there was a potential threat to the health of people in the adjoining zone, they also were moved to safe areas.

Nevertheless, the measures that were taken failed to protect many people. Two died at the time of the accident - Vladimir Nikolayevich Shashenok, an adjuster of automatic systems, and Valery Ivanovich Khodemchuk, an operator at the nuclear power plant.

As of today 299 people were in hospital diagnosed as having radiation disease of varying degree of gravity. Seven of them have died. Every possible treatment is being given to the rest. The best scientific and medical specialists of the country, specialized clinics in Mosow and other cities are taking part in treating them and have at their disposal the most modern means of medicine.

On behalf of the Communist Party Central Committee and the Soviet Government, I express profound condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased, to the work collectives, to all who have suffered from this misfortune, who have suffered personal loss. The Soviet Government will take care of the families of those who died and who suffered.

A stern test has been passed and is being passed by all - firemen, transport and building workers, medics, special chemical protection units, helicopter crews and other detachments of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

I must say that people have acted and are continuing to act heroically, selflessly. I think we will yet have an opportunity to name these courageous people and assess their exploit worthily.

The most serious consequences have been averted. Of course, the end is not yet. It is not the time to rest. Extensive and long work still lies ahead. The level of radiation in the station's zone and on the territory in the immediate vicinity still remains dangerous for human health.

Thanks Foreign Scientists

I cannot fail to mention one more aspect of that affair. I mean the reaction abroad to what happened at Chernobyl. In the world on the whole, and this should be emphasized, the misfortune that befell us and our actions in that complicated situation were treated with understanding.

We are profoundly grateful to our friends in socialist countries who have shown solidarity with the Soviet people at a difficult moment. We are grateful to the political and public figures in other states for the sincere sympathy and support.

We express our kind feelings to foreign scientists and specialists who showed readiness to come up with assistance in overcoming the consequences of the accident. I would like to note the participation of American medics Robert Gale and Paul Terasaki in the treatment of affected persons and to express gratitude to the business circles of those countries which promptly reacted to our request for the purchase of certain types of equipment, materials and medicines.

We evaluate in a fitting manner the objective attitude to the events at the Chernobyl nuclear power station on the part of the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General, Hans Blix.

'Anti-Soviet Campaign'

In other words, we highly appreciate the sympathy of all those who treated our trouble and our problems with an open heart.

But it is impossible to leave without attention and political assessment the way the event at Chernobyl was met by the governments, political figures and the mass media in certain NATO countries, especially the U.S.A.

They launched an unrestrained anti-Soviet campaign.

It is difficult to imagine what was said and written these days - ''thousands of casualties,'' ''mass graves of the dead,'' ''desolate Kiev,'' that ''the entire land of the Ukraine has been poisoned,'' and so on and so forth.

Generally speaking, we faced a veritable mountain of lies - most dishonest and malicious lies. It is unpleasant to recall all this, but it should be done. The international public should know what we had to face. This should be done to find the answer to the question: What, in actual fact, was behind that highly immoral campaign?

Its organizers, to be sure, were not interested in either true information about the accident or the fate of the people at Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, in Byelorussia, in any other place, in any other country.

The Tokyo Summit Talks

They needed a pretext by exploiting which they would try to defame the Soviet Union, its foreign policy, to lessen the impact of Soviet proposals on the termination of nuclear tests and on the elimination of nuclear weapons, and at the same time, to dampen the growing criticism of the U.S. conduct on the international scene and of its militaristic course.

Bluntly speaking, certain Western politicians were after very definite aims - to blast the possibilities for balancing international relations, to sow new seeds of mistrust and suspicion toward the socialist countries.

All this made itself clearly felt during the meeting of the leaders of ''the seven'' held in Tokyo not so long ago. What did they tell the world, what dangers did they warn mankind of? Of Libya groundlessly accused of terrorism, and also of the Soviet Union, which it turns out, failed to provide them with ''full'' information about the accident at Chernobyl. And not a word about the most important thing - how to stop the arms race, how to rid the world of the nuclear threat.

The accident at the Chernobyl station and the reaction to it have become a kind of a test of political morality. Once again two different approaches, two different lines of conduct were revealed for everyone to see.

The ruling circles of the U.S.A. and their most zealous allies - I would like to mention specially the F.R.G. among them - regarded the mishap only as another possiblity to put up additional obstacles holding back the development and deepening of the current East-West dialogue, progressing slowly as it is, and to justify the nuclear arms race.

Our attitude to this tragedy is absolutely different. We realize that it is another sound of the tocsin, another grim warning that the nuclear era necessitates a new political thinking and a new policy.

As to the ''lack'' of information, around which a special campaign has been launched, and of political content and nature at that, this matter in the given case is an invented one. The following facts confirm that this, indeed, is so.

Everybody remembers that it took the U.S. authorities 10 days to inform their own Congress and months to inform the world community about the tragedy that took place at Three Mile Island atomic power station in 1979.

'Lesson of Chernobyl'

The indisputable lesson of Chernobyl to us is that in conditions of the further development of the scientific and technical revolution the questions of reliability and safety of equipment, the questions of discipline, order and organization assume priority importance. The most stringent demands everywhere and in everything are needed.

Further, we deem it necessary to declare for a serious deepening of cooperation in the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency. What steps could be considered in this connection?

First, creating an international regime of safe development of nuclear power on the basis of close cooperation of all nations dealing with nuclear power engineering. A system of prompt warning and supply of information in the event of accidents and faults at nuclear power stations, specificially when this is accompanied by the escape of radioactivity, should be established in the framework of this regime. Likewise it is necessary to adjust an international mechanism, both on a bilateral and multilateral basis, for the speediest rendering of mutual assistance when dangerous situations emerge.

Second, for the discussion of the entire range of matters it would be justifiable to convene a highly authoritative specialized international conference in Vienna under I.A.E.A. auspices.

Third, a view of the fact that I.A.E.A. was founded back in 1957 and that its resources and staff are not in keeping with the level of the development of present-day nuclear power engineering, it would be expedient to enhance the role and possibilities of that unique international organization. The Soviet Union is ready for this.

Fourth, it is our conviction that the United Nations organization and its specialized institutions, such as the World Health Organization and the United Nations Environmental Program should be involved more actively in the effort to insure safe development of peaceful nuclear activity.

'Abyss' of Nuclear War

The accident at Chernobyl showed again what an abyss will open if nuclear war befalls mankind. For inherent in the nuclear arsenals stockpiled are thousands upon thousands of disasters far more horrible than the Chernobyl one.

In conditions when the attention to nuclear matters increased, the Soviet Government, having considered all circumstances connected with the security of its people and entire humanity, has decided to extend its unilateral moratorium on nuclear tests until Aug. 6 of this year, that is until the date on which more than 40 years ago the first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, as a result of which hundreds of thousands of people perished.

We urge the United States again to consider with utmost responsibility the measure of danger looming over mankind, to heed the opinion of the world community. Let those who are at the head of the United States show by deeds their concern for the life and health of people.

I confirm my proposal to President Reagan to meet without delay in the capital of any European state that will be prepared to accept us or, say, in Hiroshima and to agree on a ban on nuclear testing.

The nuclear age forcefully demands a new approach to international relations, the pooling of efforts of states with different social systems for the sake of putting an end to the disastrous arms race and of a radical improvement of the world political climate. Broad horizons will then be cleared for fruitful cooperation of all countries and peoples, and men on earth will gain from that.

#chernobyl #chernobyl exclusion zone #valery legasov #boris shcherbina #soviet union #Soviet History #history #valery khodemchuk #vladimir shashenok #ukraine

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