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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
August 11, 2010
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| July 9, 2010 |
Campaigning for a Nuclear-Free World – Kathleen Sullivan |
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Kathleen Sullivan has worked closely with the survivors of the atomic bombings of Japan, known as Hibakusha. She led 15 Hibakusha who went to this year's Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York. |
Kathleen Sullivan is a veteran campaigner who has dedicated her life to educating people about the importance of nuclear disarmament. She became involved in the issue more than 25 years ago as a university student in the United States. Dr Sullivan held a series of workshops onboard so that people can engage on a personal level with the meaning of nuclear disarmament. "This is not something that involves just politicians or people working for the United Nations, but a real issue which requires work from everyone around the world," she said.
Dr Sullivan first became involved in campaigning for the abolition of nuclear weapons when she accompanied her mother to a rally at the age of 13. She said that as a child growing up during the Cold War era, she was continuously terrified about the threat of nuclear warfare. "I had nightmares all the time and felt that my parents weren't doing enough to stop the arms race." Unfortunately since the Cold War's end, there has not been a halt in the production of nuclear bombs and the number is now more than 23,000 around the world. |
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| Dr Sullivan worked with the Hibakusha who are travelling on the 69th Voyage to give testimonies in each port. |
As a university student, Dr Sullivan worked in the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Centre near her university at Boulder in Colorado. Just outside the city there is a plutonium factory which is a key part of the assembly line that creates nuclear weapons for the US. "My great aunt drove me to the factory and told me what they did." Dr Sullivan said that although she was concerned about nuclear weapons, it was only during this trip that she learnt about the effects of plutonium on people.
"It blew my mind that humans created an element which could cause cancer and mutate the gene pool," Dr Sullivan said. "It was a terrible thing to learn and I couldn't believe we were making something like this." She went on to campaign directly to the Mayor of Colorado to stop the burning of plutonium waste at the site, and was successful in having this practice banned. |
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The workshops encourage participants to form a connection with each other and appreciate that no one should be threatened by nuclear weapons. |
Dr Sullivan travelled on the 69th Voyage from Jamaica to Mexico and facilitated workshops to explain the threat that nuclear weapons pose. She worked with many people including a group of international students from Latin America and the Caribbean, who live in one of the world's biggest nuclear free zones. It was the first time that many of these students were able to learn about how atomic bombs have affected Japanese society and the rest of the world. Dr Sullivan held sessions which outlined how nuclear weapons have the potential to kill millions of civilians around the globe.
"Nuclear weapons threaten everything we love," Dr Sullivan said. This is not only people who are alive today, but also animals, plants and the very existence of human life. "We should work hard to get rid of these weapons which can destroy everything on earth in the spate of an afternoon." As long as people use war as a way to solve disputes, then nuclear weapons will remain a danger to us all, Dr Sullivan said. |
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