Chernobyl (2019)
Netflix miniseries
I could not help it but compare the disaster at Chernobyl to the fall of the Malaysian ruling party of 61 years in the last general elections.
Everything was going wrong in 1986, Russia. In 1917, when the peasants were starving, and the Romanov family was perched in their castles oblivious to the people's sufferings, it seemed like the best thing to do. Singlehandedly, the people defended their Motherland from external aggressors. The propaganda news suggested that they had the best leader in the world. In the field of science and technology, they were beyond compare. Proof of their achievements was evident in the area of space travels. Communism took care of everybody, they were told.
But happy hours do not last forever.
Communism never lived to its promise. Somehow, from the word go, the lure of human desires always superseded the need to do the just thing. Under the cloak of grandiosity, lay beneath a corrupt system which was hellbent on suppressing citizen dissatisfactions and punishing them. Improving the system was last on the agenda. Every economic transformation system has a shelf-life, I guess.
Back at home, a similar scenario was occurring. Immersed in 60 years of unabated power, they thought they were invincible. Accountability and people-centred programs were forgotten. Fattening one's own and cronies' wallets became the order of the day. Racial and religious issues were fanned to keep citizens self-absorbed in self-defeating exercises.
The thing that befuddles me is why, of all the elected and non-elected leaders of the executive, legislature and judiciary arms of the country, none had the gumption to stand up against the shenanigans that were happening under their supervisions. Did the system stupefy them or were they like mere obedient servants like Adolf Eichmann? Mind-boggling indeed.
This five-episode miniseries narrated the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1985. It re-creates the events, as told by the local population. It describes, with the liberty of poetic licence, through the eyes of a fictitious nosy (or conscientious) scientist the real shortcomings that led the accident in the first place and at their lousy handling of the aftermath of the mishap.
The Russians were not cordial to this show. They have decided to make their own show with their version of the truth. Even the mortality figures are disputed. The official Soviet figures put death at 32, whilst Western journalists estimate 4,000 to 93,000 fatalities.
Memorable quotes:
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies.”
“the gift of Chernobyl: where I once would fear the cost of truth, I only ask”—“what is the cost of lies?”
Netflix miniseries
I could not help it but compare the disaster at Chernobyl to the fall of the Malaysian ruling party of 61 years in the last general elections.
Everything was going wrong in 1986, Russia. In 1917, when the peasants were starving, and the Romanov family was perched in their castles oblivious to the people's sufferings, it seemed like the best thing to do. Singlehandedly, the people defended their Motherland from external aggressors. The propaganda news suggested that they had the best leader in the world. In the field of science and technology, they were beyond compare. Proof of their achievements was evident in the area of space travels. Communism took care of everybody, they were told.
But happy hours do not last forever.
Communism never lived to its promise. Somehow, from the word go, the lure of human desires always superseded the need to do the just thing. Under the cloak of grandiosity, lay beneath a corrupt system which was hellbent on suppressing citizen dissatisfactions and punishing them. Improving the system was last on the agenda. Every economic transformation system has a shelf-life, I guess.
Back at home, a similar scenario was occurring. Immersed in 60 years of unabated power, they thought they were invincible. Accountability and people-centred programs were forgotten. Fattening one's own and cronies' wallets became the order of the day. Racial and religious issues were fanned to keep citizens self-absorbed in self-defeating exercises.
The thing that befuddles me is why, of all the elected and non-elected leaders of the executive, legislature and judiciary arms of the country, none had the gumption to stand up against the shenanigans that were happening under their supervisions. Did the system stupefy them or were they like mere obedient servants like Adolf Eichmann? Mind-boggling indeed.
This five-episode miniseries narrated the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in April 1985. It re-creates the events, as told by the local population. It describes, with the liberty of poetic licence, through the eyes of a fictitious nosy (or conscientious) scientist the real shortcomings that led the accident in the first place and at their lousy handling of the aftermath of the mishap.
The Russians were not cordial to this show. They have decided to make their own show with their version of the truth. Even the mortality figures are disputed. The official Soviet figures put death at 32, whilst Western journalists estimate 4,000 to 93,000 fatalities.
Memorable quotes:
“Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid. That is how an RBMK reactor core explodes. Lies.”
“the gift of Chernobyl: where I once would fear the cost of truth, I only ask”—“what is the cost of lies?”
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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