{"id":21413,"date":"2012-09-10T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T11:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=21413"},"modified":"2012-11-03T14:17:26","modified_gmt":"2012-11-03T14:17:26","slug":"letter-from-the-koodankulam-children-to-pres-obamas-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/09\/letter-from-the-koodankulam-children-to-pres-obamas-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter from the Koodankulam Children to Pres. Obama\u2019s Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

From: \u201cThe Koodankulam Children\u201d
\nC\/O People\u2019s Movement Against Nuclear Energy\u00a0(PMANE)
\nIdinthakarai & P. O. 627 104
\nkoodankulam@yahoo.com<\/a><\/p>\n

To: Malia Obama and Sasha Obama
\nC\/O President Barack Obama
\nThe White House
\nWashington D.C.
\nUSA<\/p>\n

Through
\nThe American Consulate General
\nAnna Salai
\nChennai 600 006
\nIndia<\/p>\n

September 6, 2012
\nDear Malia and Sasha:<\/p>\n

Greetings to you both! We are the children from Koodankulam, Idinthakarai and other neighboring villages near the southernmost tip of India. Our parents and we have been struggling intensely against the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) for more than a year now.<\/p>\n

The Government of India has not shared any basic information with us about the project; and they have not heard our opinions or allayed our fears and concerns either. They have not given us any disaster training to confront any possible disasters at the largest and imported nuclear power plant at Koodankulam. Neither have they got any liability from the Russian government or companies for this project. Worst of all, our country does not even have an \u201cempowered and independent\u201d nuclear regulatory authority to monitor the commissions and omissions of the nuclear installations.<\/p>\n

Your country, the United States, has also signed a nuclear agreement with our country, India, and a few American companies are planning to set up two huge nuclear parks at Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh and Mithi Virdi in Gujarat. Your Dad\u2019s government has been supporting this agreement and the nuclear park projects in India.<\/p>\n

As you both know, Malia and Sasha, the nuclear power projects are dangerous as we witnessed recently at Fukushima, Japan. The nuclear power plants are also directly linked to nuclear weapons program and that is why your country strongly objects to the nuclear power programs of Iran and North Korea etc.<\/p>\n

Just because our parents\u2019 generation can get electricity for 40 years and their business corporations, politicians and bureaucrats can make a lot of profit and commission, we, children of today, should not suffer tomorrow with deadly radioactive waste, radiation and all sorts of illnesses. We should not trust the misleading argument that nuclear power is the answer for climate change. We know, polluted air is certainly a big problem; but poisoned Earth cannot be the answer for that.<\/p>\n

We hear that people of your country have just celebrated the American workers\u2019 and their labor unions\u2019 contributions to the American economy today, the Labor Day. We must value workers and their welfare all over the world and our parents are all workers and make an honest living out of the sea, land and small businesses etc.<\/p>\n

We do not want the United States to set up nuclear power plants in India for the profit of big corporations at the cost of our well-being, security, health, disease-free life of our parents, and the protection of our Natural resources. We do not want the United States to kill small businesses in our country by thrusting big corporations such as Walmart down our throats.<\/p>\n

Dear Malia and Sasha, let us all together, the children of the United States and India and other countries around the world, build a safe future for all of us without nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. We would very much like to request you to talk to your Mom and Dad and friends and help us close down the Koodankulam nuclear power plant and not start any American plant in our country.<\/p>\n

Looking forward to your kind support and sympathetic efforts, we send you both and your parents our love, regards and all peaceful wishes. We would also like to wish your parents all the best with the upcoming Presidential election.<\/p>\n

Yours sincerely,
\nThe Koodankulam Children<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Malia and Sasha, let us all together, the children of the United States and India and other countries around the world, build a safe future for all of us without nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. We would very much like to request you to talk to your Mom and Dad and friends and help us close down the Koodankulam nuclear power plant and not start any American plant in our country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kudankulam-anti-nuclear-satyagraha-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21413\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}