Say no to atomic bombs: Float around the city to trace devastation of nuclear attack

Global Zero activists raise voice against nuclear weapons in 25 cities across the globe

KARACHI: Seventy-one years ago, a boom changed the world as we know it. Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombing seeks to remind us of all the ways we failed humanity.

We continue to live under the shadow of 15,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Shrouded in a mushroom cloud of myopia, we fail to realise the severity of the situation. A nuclear war would not only destroy us but our future generations too.

Marking the 71st anniversary of the bombing, Global Zero held events in 25 cities across the globe, including four in Pakistan, three in India, where activists demanded elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Not letting the torrential rain deter their plans, around 30 eager volunteers of Global Zero were adamant on making their voices heard loud and clear in the city on Saturday. The event, 'Ride Around the Bomb', took the participants to different landmarks in the city and remind them of what they seek to lose in case of a nuclear war. However, the tour was cut short due to delay caused by the rain.

"We want to bring to peoples' consciousness the catastrophe caused by such a war," explained Global Zero, South Asia, field organiser Haneen Khalid.

"It's not an issue that we are reminded of daily such as load-shedding or corruption but a pressing reality we tend to forget," she said, adding the purpose of the event is to make people realise just how serious the issue is. "Whether by accident or design, entire cities can be erased in a matter of minutes [with nuclear weapons]" she said in a press statement.

Back to familiar

The activists met at Frere Hall in the afternoon and the ride rolled out to Empress Market, Merewether Clock Tower and Sands' Pit. The bus rode slow and steady on the roads enveloped by puddles of water.

On all the stops, the activists held the banner, 'Who Will Keep Us Safe? #EliminateNukes', and posed with it, aloof of all the passersby getting curious about the slogan.

More than the monuments, the tour was also about reminding people of the little moments in the city be it vendor selling coconut slices inside the bus, people getting excited while taking pictures with a foreigner or simply observing man bargaining with a dry-fruit seller. The encounters make Karachi what it is and nuclear weapons pose a threat to all of this and our way of life; a point which the activist sought to make.

The event was held in Islamabad, Lahore and Faislabad. However, all the events were planned in different ways to make people stand together yet cherish their respective cities.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2016.