· March, 2007

Stories about Disaster from March, 2007

Ukraine, Belarus: Chernobyl

  30 March 2007

MoldovAnn attends the opening of a photo exhibition of Belarus-based American photographer Kristina Brendel, held at the Chernobyl Museum in Kyiv; she discovers that the Belarusian government's treatment of the Chernobyl catastrophe differs drastically from that of the Ukrainian government: “…there is total denial by the Belarussian government that there...

Ukraine: Book on Chernobyl

  29 March 2007

MoldovAnn reads Piers Paul Read's 1993 book on Chernobyl (Ablaze: The Story of the Heroes and Victims of Chernobyl) and discovers that she has been to a few Ukrainian towns mentioned in it: “Sometimes I forget what my colleagues lived through, that they themselves are first-hand witnesses to the Chornobyl...

Mozambique: mourning after bomb blasts

  27 March 2007

Green Chicken Diaries writes about the recent bomb explosions in Maputo, “Officially, 101 people are dead (at least that was the number of bodies delivered to the morgue so far). The city of Maputo is providing coffins for the funerals which started on Sunday. Searchers are also trying to hurry...

Mozambique: Blasts Kill Dozens in Maputo

  26 March 2007

Photo by Alfredo Mueche, in “Domingo” weekly – March 25, 2007 Mozambique's capital Maputo is mourning the victims of a tragedy that could have been prevented, local bloggers say. Dozens were killed instantly when a series of bombs, mines and rounds of ammunition in the country's largest arms depot exploded...

Landing at the Iraqi Blogodrome

I cannot believe it has been four years since the Iraq war started. Has it ended? I don't know but it feels more like an a lifetime has passed. In one of the rare coincidences with large parts of the media, Iraq bloggers are commemorating another anniversary of the war....

Thai Water Festival Brought Forward to Reduce Smog

  16 March 2007

Malaysia and Singapore are usually the victims of the haze arising from the burning of vegetation in the neighboring island of Sumatra. During the worst hazy days some people who used to fly out to Thailand for brighter skies. Now it seems some areas of Thailand are also suffering from...

Indonesia: Tribute to Australian Journalist

  15 March 2007

Maverick Indonesia writes a tribute to Morgan Mellish, an Australian journalist for a financial newspaper. Mellish lost his life along with 21 other passengers when a Garuda Boeing 737-400 plunged off a runway at Yogyakarta.

Bolivia: Who's to Blame for the Rains?

  13 March 2007

Blame it on El Niño or blame it on the West. Either way, much of the eastern part of Bolivia found itself drastically affected by heavy rainfall and subsequent flooding that left thousands displaced and caused millions of dollars of damage. Reaction or lack of reaction from the government was...

China: water issues

  7 March 2007

Dan Washburn at Shanghaiist puts up a map indicating areas in China that have water issues (such as dam construction, shortage of water, etc.)

Russia: Sochi News

Sochi Travel reports these city news: On March 8, Sochi is hosting this year’s finals of the Missis World 2007 beauty contest; the average monthly salary in Sochi in 2006 was $350; 47 students took part in the Armenian literary language competition; avalanche kills a 10-year-old at Krasnaya Polyana ski...

Hong Kong: Henry Tang's budget

  1 March 2007

Simon's world comments on Henry Tang's budget and raises the issue of migrant domestic workers’ wage for showing the euphemism of his lip service to the lower class.