Government Policies?

In the chapters that we are assigned to read for this week, the author of Life Exposed: Biological Citizenship after Chernobyl discusses the policies of government, the relationship between government and survivors, and also some ethical positions that local clinicians had to take or took. Largely, Adriana talks about the policies of government and how their interventions contribute so little in the Chernobyl aftermath.

She draws on many narratives of the sufferers who were relocated to several Zones after Chernobyl. Many sufferers who were exposed to radiation or got affected by Chernobyl in any way had to prove their disability status to get social benefits by the government. They also became refugees who lost their homes and now had nowhere to go but the relocated Zones.

Some of these ideas addressed by the author terrified me because how those people had to what it takes to get benefits was so sad, but at the same time you can't really do anything but watch it happen. Being situated in an environment where you had to expose yourself to harm seems really inhumane.

It made me ponder over why the policies are all  related to monetary/social benefits, while their mental state also plays a pivotal role in coping with their lives in the Chernobyl aftermath. I understand that the government also had to show the world that they were recovering from the disaster economically and had ability to be engaged in the global market,  but the government should have also focused on developing a long-term and comprehensive program that helps them to recover mentally as well.

Petryna, Adriana. Life Exposed: Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 2002. Print.