KarmaGirl,

It's sad isn't it. It would be nice if we could get past the 3 P's....Power, Pride and Profit....
I believe we are moving ever closer to focusing more on life and our spiritual nature rather than what we have become obsessed with as a physical material world.
If only we could use the past to protect the future by not making the same mistakes over and over again. And that is why we have...no we must ..talk over these horrific events in our past and present ..in order to prevent the risk of repeating them in the future.

There is a lot of good in the world, KarmaGirl, have faith in that....and faith in a change for the better....it will happen.

What's even sadder is that George Bush was warned in January , 2001 about Bin Laden , and again in August, when he was on vacation.

He could have been a hero , and stopped the tragedy, but golf and fishing were much more important...

Why doesn't Russia evacuate the place or at least educate the people enough so that they do leave the place? Two decades and still no action?

i hadnt thought of it this way before, but there's something both chernobyl and the twin towers/pentagon have in common besides death and horror.  both could have been much more catastrophic if it hadnt been for incredibly brave individuals who selflessly put their lives on the line in the aftermath.  on 9/11 (and for weeks afterwards) we saw firefighters, police and volunteers risking--and sometimes losing--their lives as they valiantly did what they could to rescue those who were trapped in the wreckage of those buildings.  the same thing happened at chernobyl as a force of volunteers worked for days--frequently without benefit of adequate protection against the effects of radiation and heat so intense that more than a few minutes of constant exposure wasnt possible--trying desperately to contain the meltdown and later to seal the plant to prevent additional contamination.

this may sound weird--it's largely a consequence of the cold war overshadowing my life--but that was the first time i saw russians as something more than enemy drones.

What's even sadder is that George Bush was warned in January , 2001 about Bin Laden , and again in August, when he was on vacation.

Been listening to extreme left propaganda again?  You obviously didn't pay attention to history too much.  Read a bit more on what happened the previous 8 years before Bush took office.  Nobody knew what was going to happen, but we knew the threat was there.  Why didn't Clinton do anything?  Do you think that Bush would have had any support at all if he would have went after bin Laden for no "real" reason?  Does he get support now for trying to protect us now?

Why doesn't Russia evacuate the place or at least educate the people enough so that they do leave the place? Two decades and still no action?

I wish you didn't ask that question, because it is something that I just can't Fathom being an American. Any American who thinks that we have an unfair government, or that our people are treated bad, needs to go take a trip to Russia.

Russia has evacuated the "hot spots" of Russia.  Those are the areas that will be contaminated for the next 48,000 years and not inhabitable for the next 600 to 700 years (let that sink in for awhile).  However, there are outskirts of those areas that people live in.  Their almost like lab rats now.  The government monitors them, but nothing more.  And, the monitoring doesn't try to convince them to leave, it just watches if their body is increasing in contamination. 

And, better yet, for about 10 years after the accident, people were actually encouraged to live in those areas.  The government gave them money to stay there.

both could have been much more catastrophic if it hadnt been for incredibly brave individuals who selflessly put their lives on the line in the aftermath.

You want to know what is sad about Chernobyl?  All the people who were on that shift during the accident went to jail if they lived through the accident even though many questioned doing what they were doing.  The main whistle blower (who nearly escaped being beaten because of questioning what they were doing) lived through the accident.  He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.  He only served 3 weeks, because he died because of the effects of radiation.

Chernobyl is something that is going to haunt this world for as long as we'll know.  The orphanages are filled with children that will either not live to be an adult, or who will live longer and know nothing but a mental institution as a home (even the physically disabled are put there).  France, who got radiated pretty badly, is also seeing the effects.  There is a class action law suit against the French government by a group of thyroid cancer patients.  Thyroid disease has sky rocketed in the *world* since Chernobyl.  I don't think that we know 90% of what all that radiation has done to this world.

i had heard this site mentioned before, karma, and i'm glad you posted the link, i had a really good look.

the photographs are amazing, and the running commentary about how the original residents are dying away is so terrifying. great article.

vanessa/mig XX

I, too, saw that special; it was tear-jerking and heart-wrenching. What's worse is that the communist regime tried to cover it up and ignore the horrific suffering.

I wish LetLive had not made that inappropriate comment.

The scandalous Bush Memo articles get over 140 comments, however something such as this doesn't even rank in 10 comments. We've became a sad, pathetic nation of news-watching, chain-smoking, politically-correct, mentally-masturbating, cretins.

I'm sorry, Karma.

Helix, I really didn't expect it to get too many comments.  In fact, I pretty much knew that "old" history doesn't concern too many people, especially if it is in another country.

I don't think that many Americans can grasp what the orphanages in Russia are like (I know that I can't, even with seeing the images).  We can't understand being "poor" like their "poor" is.  There are people living in houses that aren't fit for rats to live in, no power, and growing their own crops in land that is still radioactive (which then they eat more radiation).

I have been trying to figure out what I as an individual could do to help, but I am left with a blank.  People even warn not to send money because it won't be used for the children.  And, Russia, even though they are up to their ears in abandoned children, still make it hard to adopt, so you can even advocate or help with adoptions.  I'm just at a loss for what you can do to help people in a country where their own government doesn't care.

hehe...that last post was supposed to be under "KarmaGirl" not "JavaBrain".  My split personality is getting the best of me