· April, 2008

Stories about Disaster from April, 2008

Kuwait: Remembering Chernobyl

The birthday of Bashar, from Kuwait, coincides with the Chernobyl disaster. “I have had several bad incidents on my birthday before, I started wishing I could just skip it. It’s just in my mind I know, it’s a low probability that just happens,” he reasons.

China: Train Accident

  29 April 2008

Yesterday a train accident happened in Shandong which injured 416 and killed 70 people. Ting yun from my1510 pointed out that the investigation should be conducted by an independent team and the head of railway department should take the blame and resign [zh].

Southeast Asia: Rice and food price crisis

  28 April 2008

The Southeast Asian region, home to several emerging and developing economies, is also struggling to cope with the global food price crisis. Bloggers discuss the impact of the crisis in the region.

Ukraine: Remembering Chernobyl

  26 April 2008

Déjà Vu – The Uncanny Feeling remembers Chernobyl: “When I think of Chernobyl … […] … I see 16-year-old Katya in Kiev, 90 km south of Chernobyl, scared to death by a danger she can't see, she can't sense, getting on a train for Leningrad to escape from radiation. She...

Russia: “Chernobyl's Other Victims”

  25 April 2008

Window on Eurasia writes about “Chernobyl's other victims” – “the thousands of people who exposed themselves to extraordinarily high levels of radiation while taking part in the clean up” and who now “find themselves not only sick as a result but largely forgotten by the successor governments to the regime...

Israel: Modern Day Exodus, on African Refugees and their Right for Medical Care

Around 6,000 African refugees escaped the horrors in their countries, and seek refuge in Israel. Many of them live in harsh conditions and can be spotted shivering cold on the streets of southern Tel-Aviv. The insensitive behavior from the side of the Israeli government comes only tens of years after the holocaust, when Jews came to the same plot of land, seeking refuge from the horrors of Europe, writes Gilad Lotan, who shows us how a group of bloggers are volunteering to draw a smile on the faces of countless of destitute refugees.

Jamaica: Flood Waters

  22 April 2008

Montego Bay Day By Day posts photos (not her own) of the recent flood in Jamaica's St. Ann Parish, which also affected the resort town of Ocho Rios.

Haiti, Congo, and the politics of hunger

  18 April 2008

Two francophone bloggers respond to the crisis over rising food prices, but rather than blame their proximate cause–subsidies for biofuels in rich countries–they criticize the politics and the politicians who left their countries this vulnerable to begin with. They write that the riots of these last few weeks and the riots to come, like the crisis itself, are symptomatic of deeper problems that cannot be solved by the simple magic of foreign aid.

Indonesia: Alert level raised around Mt. Papandayan

  17 April 2008

News from Indonesia reports that alert level was raised on Indonesia's Mount Papandayan volcano. The volcano lies 51 Kilometers southeast of Indonesia's third-largest city, Bandung, which is home to around three million people.

Singapore: Contagious disease

  16 April 2008

Mr Wang Says So believes that the contagious hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) outbreak in Singapore is a good reason for his children to skip classes for a few days.

Indonesia: Volcanic eruption

  16 April 2008

The Volcanism Blog reports that Mount Egon on Flores Island, Indonesia, erupted a 4 kilometer ash plume late on Tuesday 15 April, causing the evacuation of hundreds of villagers from nearby communities.

Bermuda: Road Deaths

  16 April 2008

Vexed Bermoothes is “appalled by the multiple deaths on Bermuda’s roads” and says that “police enforcement will improve driving behaviour.”

D.R. of Congo: Fifth fatal crash in under a year, food prices the real disaster

  15 April 2008

News agencies are reporting that 75 were killed when a cargo plane crashed in Goma shortly after takeoff on Tuesday. Du Cabiau à Kinshasa reflects on how a plane crash can bring attention to the DRC, generally ignored by Western media, even though it's reeling from one of the greatest human disasters in a century. But Cabiau thinks the skyrocketing food prices, although less photogenic, are the real disaster in the making.