Message from Noam Chomsky hearing “Japanese Court Rejected Demand to Evacuate Children”
Chomsky said:
It is deeply disturbing to learn that the courts have blocked efforts to evacuate children from the Fukushima site, though acknowledging the health risks. Nothing tells us more about the moral level of a society than how it treats the most vulnerable, in this case its most precious possession, its children. I hope and trust that this grim decision will be reversed.
Noam Chomsky”
I was about to like this message, but I decided to look around the internet first before auto reflexing. I especially get suspicious when people start to tell that that courts of law in democratic countries are misbehaving. While I am not so naive as to belief that democratic courts are flawless, I think you need to come with a lot of proof when you say that they are abusive of children. Some of the judges are parents!
In a nutshell: a group of parents and activists filed a lawsuit on behalf of a group of children who live in the city Koriyama, which is about 55(40 miles) kilometers west from the nuclear power plant that broke down during the tsunami of 2011. The lawsuit basically asked the court to rule that the government should pay the costs for the evacuation of those children from that city.
The court ruled that the government is not obliged to pay the costs for the evacuation because there was no reason to evacuate as the levels of radiation in the city of Koriyama are well below the threshold that is established as dangerous, even though there hotspots in the area.
What the court did not say is: you are not allowed to leave yourself. It said that the government is not obliged to evacuate and thus not obliged to pay for moving.
What is dubious is trying to pressure a court into changing a ruling. It is dubious because courts should operate independently from power groups and popular opinion. It is why they are called impartial.
If you don’t like the ruling there is the option to appeal to a higher court if you can proof there has been a legal omission.Or you can have a ruling or decision changed via proper democratic means. Another option is to ask you local representative or government to help finance the move. I suspect they got a negative on that request before, which is why they tried to get the courts to force them to paying. Another option is to file a lawsuit against the company running the powerplant, the Tokyo Electric Power Company. Since that would have been the most obvious route I suspect they got a negative on that one as well.
In general it turns out that the complaining party is angry because the court did not rule in favor of that party. It is downright selfish and disgraceful that the lawyer accuses a court of child abuse because it did not favor his lawsuit. Perhap he ought to have a look in the mirror and wonder if he is not crossing a line himself?
I am sad to see that Noam Chomsky auto reflexed his message. His message basically says that the courts forbad evacuation of children, which is not true at all. And since he is some kind of authority with some groups, all other people instantly auto reflexed. And then calling for the court to change their ruling is dubious method of dealing with this.
Perhaps people should watch twelve angry men? It deals with the subject of people with fixed opinions and the judicial process.
Merit Coba 
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