Stories about Disaster from April, 2008
Qatar: Online Community Comes to the Aid of Workers
Qatar Living members are rallying to help an offline community of 600 workers who have lost all their belongings after a devastating fire broke out in their labour camp, writes Mohamed Nanabhay, from Doha, Qatar.
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...
Ukraine: Privatization Confrontation
Orange Ukraine posts a roundup on Ukraine, which includes an examination of the confrontation between president Yushchenko and PM Tymoshenko over privatization. A close-up on an earlier privatization case is...
China: Train Accident
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...
Ukraine: Chernobyl
Belatedly, a link to Ukrainiana‘s extensive post on the 22nd anniversary of Chernobyl.
Southeast Asia: Rice and food price crisis
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
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...
Russia: “Chernobyl's Other Victims”
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...
Lebanon: CLuster Bombs
M Bashir from Lebanon draws our attention to the dangers of cluster bombs in his country – which are still claiming lives today.
Iran: Armenians remember Anniversary of Genocide
Armenians remembered 93th anniversary of Armenian Genocide in Tehran,Iran. You can watch related photos of this event here.
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
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.
Singapore: How a terrorist escaped from a high-security cell
The Sun Shines on Singapore comments on a government report explaining how a terrorist escaped from a maximum security prison
Myanmar: Bomb blasts in Yangon
Ashin Mettacara reports that two bombs exploded in the largest city of Myanmar. No casualties were immediately reported.
Haiti, Congo, and the politics of hunger
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
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...
Jamaica, Guyana, U.S.A.: Virginia Tech Remembered
Jamaican Geoffrey Philp links to Guyanese poet Fred D’Aguiar's poem for Virginia Tech on the one-year anniversary of the shootings.
Singapore: Contagious disease
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...
Indonesia: Volcanic eruption
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...
Bermuda: Road Deaths
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
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.
