· June, 2007

Stories about Disaster from June, 2007

China: Victims of slave labour

  29 June 2007

Tan Weishan posted some photos of the victims of slave labour in Shanxi brick kiln, one of them lost his legs because of the supervisor abuse. He was dumped in the middle of the mountain in 2002. Eventhough he had won the court case and the brick kiln had to...

Russia: Beslan Evidence

A Step At A Time reports on the copies of faxes published by PravdaBeslana.ru, which “show that the local [North Ossetian] authorities were aware of preparations for a major terrorist attack involving the movement of convoys of vehicles, and targeting a public building, most probably a school, on “Knowledge Day”...

Arabeyes: How the Palestinians Defeated Themselves!

What is happening in Palestine? Why have the Palestinians turned against each other? What is fueling the conflict? Who is the victor and who is really being defeated? And what next? Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah sums up his feelings of disgust and attempts to answer these questions in the following...

Lebanon: Almost Non-Political Questions

What are we eating? Why are our banks flourishing? Who are those clearing cluster bombs? How will Brazil help in recycling Lebanese wastes? Where are some of the children who were caught in the crossfire? What about some music? These are some of the questions answered in this week’s selections from the Lebanese blogosphere.

China: Flood and Drought

  25 June 2007

Kenneth T from Shanghaiist reports on the extreme weather in China: worst drought in 30 years in North East China, floods in Central China and super hot in North West.

Barbados: Drilling for Oil

  20 June 2007

Twenty-five companies are in a bid to drill for oil off the coast of Barbados. Barbados Free Press puts forward its opinion about which firms should be disqualified based on their environmental records.

China: Slave Labour

  18 June 2007

Bingfeng put together reports on the Shanxi slave labour scandal. Chong from interlocals translated an internet article on the power of internet to expose and rescue the forced labour.

Bangladesh: natural disaster and responsibilities of the bloggers

  17 June 2007

Last Monday rain-triggered mudslides buried dozens of hillside shanty homes in Chittagong killing at least 134 people. This is just another piece of tragic news that we read everyday. As a blogger how do you respond to it? Arild Klokkerhaug is an entrepreneur, blogger and the man behind the largest...

Oman: Post-Gonu Reflections

Life is slowly returning to normal in Muscat and the rest of Oman two weeks after the Sultanate was hit by deadly tropical Cyclone Gonu, which left about 50 people dead. Riyadh Al Balushi gives us a round up of how bloggers reacted to the disaster, relief efforts in Oman and lessons learned from the crisis.

Lebanon: Living Through Terror

This was yet another violent week here in Lebanon. In addition to the military action, taking place in the North between the Lebanese Army and the militants, and the almost regular explosions taking place around the country, this week was marred by another assassination, writes Moussa Bashir, who brings us the latest conversations from the Lebanese blogosphere.

Trinidad & Tobago: Road Carnage

  13 June 2007

Now is Wow reprints a Letter to the Editor that she wrote out of concern about irresponsible driving practices on Trinidad and Tobago's roads, while Trinidad and Tobago News Blog agrees that the carnage on the streets is not normal.

Oman: Sad About Gonu

Sad About Gonu is a new blog in town – which aims to aggregate information about the deadly tropical cyclone Gonu, which hit the shores of Oman. “It is very unfortunate that large international media organisations such as CNN and the BBC (!) have failed to provide the public with...

Kenya: Nairobi bomb explosion: God blinked

  12 June 2007

“If there is a god then the speck of dust on his eye that is Nairobi must have gotten too big. This morning he blinked. A product of the nineties, my fondest memories of my childhood include sneaking out of home to watch Bruce Lee and Jean-Claude van Damme movies...

Kenya: the double edged nature of personal media

  11 June 2007

Following the explosion in Nairobi today, Thinkers Room discusses the double edged of personal media: Today has just illustrated the double edged nature of pervasive communication like blogs, email and text messaging. There is no doubt that these platforms are powerful tools for communicating information. There is also no doubt...