Supports the heroes

Safety must be ensured for the workers on the front line of the battle to contain the nuclear crisis triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The four reactors at the Fukushima plant are still in dangerous and volatile conditions. It is imperative to restore the cooling systems for these reactors and their spent fuel pools to stabilize the situation.

To achieve that goal, a mountain of tasks must be carried out in areas contaminated with high levels of radioactivity.

Completing the mission will take at least a month, according to one estimate. This is going to be a long, drawn-out battle.

People from various companies and organizations are working at the crippled plant, tackling a broad array of tasks according to their skills and expertise.

The government needs to obtain maximum assistance and cooperation from various organizations, including reinforcements from other electric power companies and manufacturers.

Some 700 employees of TEPCO and affiliated companies are currently working at the Fukushima power station. Many of them come from local communities in the quake-hit areas. Some of them have had their houses swept away by the tsunami ... Some of them can only get one or two hours of sleep in a chair a day.

A system should be created swiftly to ensure that the people engaged in the heroic efforts to defuse this national crisis will receive all the possible support from both the government and the private sector, including from the nuclear power industry, nuclear safety experts and medical institutions.

- Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo, Japan

Stunt monkeys, eh?

The stunt monkeys from Greenpeace showed up in Courtice, Ontario, Canada, to do what they always do.

After all, the stunt monkeys ... are nothing if not predictable.

This time, they chained themselves to a table - other times it's a gate, or a tree, or a piece of equipment - to disrupt public hearings into Ontario Power Generation's plan to build new reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Station.

Greenpeace pulls these stunts because it has nothing constructive or realistic to offer to solve complex problems like balancing our energy needs with public safety and concern for the environment.

But don't take our word for it.

Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore abandoned the stunt monkeys years ago in disgust, saying while they started off as sincere environmentalists with a valid cause, they have, over the years, become increasingly "antihuman" in their views.

Moore told a British documentary several years ago that once their sensible views became mainstream, "the only way to remain antiestablishment was to adopt ever more extreme positions."

If wind and solar energy were capable - as the stunt monkeys inaccurately claim - of providing reliable, affordable, on-demand, base-load electricity to the Ontario grid, who wouldn't be in favour of shutting down all nuclear plants tomorrow?

But that's just not realistic.

And so we have tough decisions to make in a province where 50 percent of our power comes from nuclear energy, balancing safety with energy and environmental concerns. 

- The Ottawa Sun, Ontario, Canada

Praise ally?

Nearly two weeks after U.S. and European jets started pounding forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi's, President Barack Obama has finally broken his silence on what's being labeled as the third Western war on the Muslim world. The U.S. leader tried to explain to Americans why the U.S. had to get involved in Libya. And ever the suave and persuasive orator that he is, Obama managed to do so.

Indeed, even as the U.S, France and Britain come under fire for Libyan strikes some of which have ended up killing civilians, it's not possible to ignore the fact that the West was offered a perfect opportunity - excuse? - to intervene in the Arab country by the Libyan strongman himself who unleashed despicable savagery against his own people.

Of course, given the long and sordid history of Western machinations in the region, it's but natural everyone is suspicious of its intentions. How can anyone forget what happened - and is still happening - in Afghanistan and Iraq?

This is why many suspect the Western interest in Libya is driven by the oil factor.

It has taken Uncle Sam eight years and more than 5,000 American lives, not to mention more than a million Iraqi lives and destruction of an ancient civilization, to realize the absurd and unjust nature of its foreign policy. Nonetheless, this is a welcome change in the U.S. policy, if it's indeed a change. Does it mean the U.S. has finally realized that it's not the lord of all it surveys and regime change is not its job but the people of Libya, or for that matter, of Iraq and Afghanistan? We'll wait and see.

- Arab News, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia