Japanese politician drinks water from Fukushima

JAPANESE politician Yasuhiro Sonoda gulped down a glass of water taken from inside the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant today in an attempt to show the world that decontamination efforts at the site, hit by a tsunami in March, were succeeding.
 
He looked distinctly nervous as he raised the glass to his lips and sucked down the water in two gulps. Although his efforts may not have convinced the watching world to start filling their water bottles from the site, he won plaudits for his bravery.
 
Sonoda, who is parliamentary secretary for the Japanese cabinet office, explained that he was drinking the water in an attempt to stop people asking him if the area was safe. However, he immediately appeared to devalue his own efforts by announcing: "Simply drinking the water does not mean its safety has been confirmed. Presenting data to the public is the best way."
 
Sonoda is not the first politician to risk his life – or at least his dignity – to make a point...
 
John and Cordelia Gummer, 1990:
At the height of the BSE crisis, amid fears that British beef products were not safe to eat, Tory agriculture minister John Gummer and his four-year-old daughter, Cordelia, were pictured tucking into burgers at a boat show in Suffolk. Unfortunately when photographers and camera crews turned their lenses on young Cordelia she turned her nose up at the burger, although her dad had no qualms about taking a big bite. His faith in the quality of the meat may have been misplaced. Over the next eight years 32 people died of CJD, the human form of BSE, and in 1996 the EU banned all British beef exports. The Gummers survived.
 
Barack and Sasha Obama, 2010:
Five months after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, US President Barack Obama and his nine-year-old daughter Sasha found time to go for a dip in the warm waters off Florida, and show the world that it was safe. No reporters or camera crews were present as the President and Sasha took the plunge, but a photo of the pair with their heads just above the water was released in an attempt to boost tourism. It may have convinced some, but it also led to Obama being criticised for using his family to score points. Cynics also pointed out that his visit to Florida lasted all of 26 hours.
 
Clara Aguilera and others, Spain, 2011:
During the E.coli outbreak in Germany earlier this year the finger of blame was pointed at the Spanish cucumber industry, an accusation that had Iberian politicians falling over themselves to deny it. First up was Clara Aguilera, Andalucia's minister of agriculture, who proudly bit into a whole cucumber on live TV. A day later Mariano Rajoy, leader of the Popular Party, and Esperanza Aguirre, president of Madrid's regional government, did the same. In the end it turned out they were perfectly right to defend the humble Spanish cucumber. The source of the outbreak, which killed 17, was traced to German beansprouts.
 
Peter Beattie and Anna Bligh, Queensland, 2007:
In 2007 the former Premier of Queensland Peter Beattie and his successor Anna Bligh were filmed drinking recycled sewage water as part of a scheme to prevent shortages in the Australian state. "I think it tastes better," joked Bligh. However, Queensland residents were not so impressed and in 2008 Bligh announced that the recycled water would only supplement drinking supplies if levels dropped below 40 per cent.
 
Mikhail Gorbachev, 1989:
Three years after the world's worst nuclear disaster - at Chernobyl in Ukraine - Soviet president Gorbachev and his wife Raisa toured a reactor at the plant and promised a host of environmental measures. By then, of course, it was far too late to convince anyone that the area had not been badly affected. But his visit was an acknowledgement of the catastrophe that the Soviet government had tried to cover up at the time. ·