The radio and the atom bomb

I love listening to the radio.

I don't do it often enough. I listen in the kitchen when I'm preparing food and I listen in the car. Mostly I tune in to Radio 4 Extra, which plays old comedies and quiz shows, but every now and then I cross over to Radio 4. 

It's amazing the programmes they have on there and the subjects with which they deal. If I saw or heard an advert for programme entitled African Hair, for example, I'd skip it. 'That sounds boring.'
But now and again I will switch on in the middle of a programme about something obscure and end up being sorry I missed the rest of it. (Admittedly these days I could 'catch up' on iplayer but I rarely bother.)

Today for instance a young woman was talking about her problems in finding a hairdresser who is willing to deal with 'Black hair' with its different problems. Outside of the M25 and in Europe she said it's almost impossible to find a hairdresser and it's not that easy in London. She was also talking about how young white model fashion their hair African style and it's lauded while black women have been mocked for having the natural look. It's taken her years to learn to celebrate her hair and her own culture. To be proud of who she is. A new European. 

And the other day there was an item about the new Prime Minister of Japan. I just looked it up and he's actually the old PM but he held a snap election to get a mandate for his policies, one of which is the rethinking of Japan's post-war pacifist constitution.

I didn't know they had a pacifist constitution but apparently it's something the Japanese people feel strongly about. It's interesting, I think, that the country that has lived through Hiroshima and Nagasaki is pacifist. They have experienced the horror of the alternative.

I hope we don't all have to experience it for ourselves before we too see the nonsense of nuclear deterrents. 

P.S. The Japanese ruling party isn't popular but there isn't a viable alternative. A 'Support No Party' party won 125,000 votes in the election