Exploitations of Tragedy

   In continuing our discussion of Adriana Petryna's book Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl, I would like to talk about a specific passage pertaining to the use of Chernobyl for profit.  Petryna writes, "The funds president, Mr. Repkin ran an operation that looked like a cross between a NGO and a business.  He was particularly proud of the fact that he employed disabled people.  Their special Chernobyl status allowed them to 'shuttle' goods from Western Europe to Ukraine and pass through Ukrainian customs with relative ease" (page 145).  It is later revealed that Mr. Repkin further gave to needy mothers who lost their spouses in the disaster.

    However, it seems that Repkin's employing victims is morally wrong.  While it normally would be commended that an employer hire disabled workers, especially ones as marginalized as the victims of Chernobyl, Repkin’s actions hardly seem like those of the humanitarian.  Instead, he uses individuals who have suffered to allow him to conduct business, one that appears to have illegal components, with ease.  It is not the victims that he values, but what their new privilege gives him.  Thus, even getting a job isolates the victims as they are different than there fellow citizens.  Even the benefits of suffering from the disaster isolate them from everyone else.

     What is also disturbing is that Ripkin did not suffer due to Chernobyl, but has instead profited from the tragedy.  This seems shameful.  More so, it reminds me of recent controversy surrounding the exploitation of Chernobyl (I believe a fellow classmate has mentioned a recent videogame about the tragedy).  In May, a film entitled Chernobyl Diaries was released in theatres.  Though from the name one would guess that the film was some sort of documentary looking into the disaster and perhaps examining the lives of the bio-robots and other victims, Chernobyl Diaries was in fact a horror film dealing with a group of American tourists visiting Chernobyl and being attacked and eaten by mutants.  The subject material is hardly flattering to the Russian government (which covers up the mutants’ existences and later feeds a protagonist to them to keep the secret).  But, the film isolates the victims even more.  Before the disaster, they are human.  Afterwards, they are cannibalistic creatures that enjoy living in the exploded core.  The disaster robs them of their humanity even in popular culture.