Homer Simpson on the job at NPP Springfield: People in

Switzerland are wondering if banning Simpsons episodes

will make anyone safer.

 

 

News, Switzerland

Swiss Approach to Radiation Safety: Cancel The Simpsons

 

"At the pinnacle of economics and politics, it is unfortunately most often those sitting in positions of influence that have the fewest scruples about doing the wrong thing when it pays - and who like it least when they and their deeds are revealed as ridiculous and laughable … even when it happens on the early evening episode of The Simpsons. No, radiation safety a la Swiss Radio and TV is something we can do without."

 

By Patrick Etschmayer

                                     

 

Translated By Carol Goetzky

 

March 29, 2011

 

Switzerland - News - Original Article (German)

After the reactor disaster in Fukushima, SRF’s first precautionary measure was to censure those Simpsons episodes containing nuclear power plant incidents. A brilliant step, indeed! Especially since the Swiss Radio and Television [SRF] had already declared the Simpsons inappropriate for children under 12-years-old. 

 

For those who are still unfamiliar with the cartoon series 24 years after it first aired: Homer Simpson, incompetent husband, family man and very capable beer drinker, is an employee of NPP Springfield, where he works as a safety inspector. He regularly falls asleep on the job, is utterly unqualified, and believes that “nuclear” is spelled “nucular.” 

 

The fact that Homer is employed there in the first place is thanks to Montgomery Burns, the greedy nuclear power plant owner who brings to mind the living dead, and who, without hesitation, puts his energy customers at risk for a penny of profit. 

 

In good German: Given the incredible sloppiness of plant operator TEPCO prior to the disaster in Japan, it sounds as if Fukushima were in Springfield … or vice versa. It is, therefore, only fair to ask whether it is inappropriate to show these episodes, and what the Swiss channel's executives were thinking when they made that decision.

 

No one is making fun of nuclear accident victims because of the Simpsons - just the profit, greed and irresponsibility of companies that, unfortunately, fit a caricature that has all-too-often been caught up to and surpassed by reality. 

 

Unfortunately, there are no greedy banker characters in the Simpsons. It would have been interesting to see if episodes with such a villain would have been banned by the station [SRF] during the financial crisis. And just imagine if the Simpsons had a vicious polar bear! He would been banned from TV screens at least until the end of the mourning period for Knut, so as not to distress sensitive polar bear lovers.

 

[Editor's Note: Knut the polar bear, who died in March, was a resident of the Berlin Zoo].

 

Semiofficial concerns, as demonstrated by this issue of The Simpsons, are cheap, useless, potentially counterproductive, and in any case, annoying. Of course, it may well be that the feelings of many will be hurt. But this compulsive political correctness protects precisely those who need it least. 

 

 

SEE ALSO ON THIS:
Nishinippon, Japan: Japan Authorities Must Offer Total Nuclear Transparency
The Telegraph, U.K.: Workers Using Newspaper and Sawdust to Block Pipes
Akita Sakigake, Japan: G7's Yen Intervention a Step Toward Decisive Cooperation
Die Welt, Germany: Japan's Nuclear Wreck: The 9-11 of Global Energy Policy
Mainichi Shimbun, Japan: Rescuers Find Going Tough; Many Victims Remain Cut Off
Akita Sakigake, Japan: After the Great Quake, Let's Do Our Utmost to Help!
Asahi Shimbun, Japan: Quake-Prone Japan Must Reconsider Use of Nuclear Power

Daily Mail, U.K.: Chilling Echoes of Hiroshima in Images of Tsunami's Aftermath
Der Spiegel, Germany: Nuclear Disaster 'Will Have Political Impact of Sept. 11'

Guardian. U.K.: The World's Nuclear Fate Rests in Japan

The Japan Times, Japan: Nuclear Power Industry is in Disarray

 

 

Who knows, perhaps SRF is right and the media shouldn’t poke fun at the misdeeds of the powerful - and shouldn’t present the ugly truth as the absurdity that it is at a time when a filter of selective information is imposed out of the most simplistic, childish and primitive motives.    

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

The ominous and the evil can be exploited much more effectively than the simple truth. And at the pinnacle of economics and politics, it is, unfortunately, most often those sitting in positions of influence that have the fewest scruples about doing the wrong thing if it pays - and who like it least when they and their deeds are revealed as ridiculous and laughable … even when it happens on the early evening episode of the Simpsons. No, radiation safety à la SRF is something we can do without.

 

CLICK HERE FOR GERMAN VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US April 5, 4:46pm]