Remembering Hiroshima, Nagasaki and the Dark Cloud Over Civilization

on 6th August 2009:

August 6-9 marks the 64th anniversary of the atomic bombs that obliterated the Cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the instant slaughter of over 100,000 individuals, with tens of thousands of others dying in the days that followed. People who were outside at the time of the blast simply disappeared, leaving only a shadow on the ground where their bodies had blocked the intense heat from scorching the ground a lighter color.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the development of the far more powerful hydrogen bomb initiated the first period of the nuclear nightmare. The second period was the Cold War when enough nuclear weapons were stockpiled to kill every human being on the planet many times over and create a "nuclear winter" that would spell the end of civilization, if not humanity. The continuing nightmare is that same nuclear threat that dominated the cold war remains with us today with many analysts convinced the situation may be even more dangerous. The reason is the deterioration of Russia's nuclear command structure, its early warning system, the proliferation of nuclear weapon states, and the intention of the Bush administration to build a new class of nuclear weapons.

Moreover, thousands of U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear warheads are on a hair-trigger alert, ready for launch in a few minutes notice. A recent Rand think tank study warned that this situation could result in a nuclear exchange either by accident or miscalculation that would destroy both countries in an hour.

About 20 close calls to nuclear war have been documented over the years, and who knows how many others never recorded.The sad indictment on the values and priorities of our civilization is that the warning made by President Kennedy before the UN General Assembly in 1961 remains true today:

"Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us."

CETsquare conducted an anti-war poster campaign in our college. The poster creation was also a part of our campaign. Using a number of banners and posters created by students we tried to spread our ideas of non-violence and humanity in the campus...

CETsquare's Tribute to Kamala Surayya...

-one of the most courageous writers of India...

on 1st June 2009:

CET Against GM-Crops- PRESS RELEASE

On 4th March 2009:

CETsquare, the students' discussion forum of College of Engineering, Trivandrum organized a seminar, poster exhibition, documentary screening and signature campaign on the dangers of Genetically Modified crops. Dr. V. S. Vijayan(Chairman, Kerala State Biodiversity Board) and Sreedhar.R of 'Thanal' delivered talks in the seminar. After the seminar and discussion, documentary named "Vithachathe Koyyoo.." which depicts the dangers of Genetically Modified crops was screened. Around 1500 students wrote letters to Prime Minister saying that they are not willing to be 'LAB RATS' to be experimented with.

Dr. V.S. Vijayan scientifically substantiated the serious irreversible problems that may occur to environment and human beings. It is unscientific to interfere in the process of evolution by inserting genes of totally different species into food crops. Genetical Engineering is primarily a business rather than a science, which had not considered many concerns of biologycal sciences. GM food is created by taking genes from organisms like bacteria, viruses, and scorpions and forcibly inserting them into our food such as brinjol, bhindi, potato and tomato. When tested on rats GM foods showed serious health problems such as inflamed lung tissue, bleeding stomach, kidney lesions and high death rate among offsprings.He statistically demonstrated the devastations caused by the bt Cotton (the first GM crop introduced in India in 2002 ) on human health, cattle grazing, biodiversity and cotton production. Even though the Kerala Goverment has taken a strong stance against introduction of GM crops in Kerala, being a consumer state our food is also not safe.

Mr. Sreedhar said that the decision making on approval of GM food is based entirely on the claims made by companies who developed and this has been challenged by the leading scientists in India and elsewhere. GM crops once introduced in the environment resulting genetic contamination which cannot be reversed. it could leave to unpredictable results like emergence of super pests and super weeds and have adverse impact on the traditional variety and biodiversity.Majority of countries do not allow GM crops including most of the European nations.

The Engineering students in College of Engineering, Trivandrum, have decided to take part in the national campaign against this unscientific, dangerous, unethical and irreversible experiments on life and environment. Being students in the field of science and technology they felt the moral responsibility to fight against these experiments which treat human beings as 'Lab Rats'.