· June, 2008

Stories about Disaster from June, 2008

Philippines: Callous leadership?

  30 June 2008

Neo Filipino criticizes politicians, including the Philippine president, who visited the US despite the typhoon devastation and ferry tragedy which hit the country last week.

Israel: Sarkozy Security Scare at Airport

As French President Nicholas Sarkozy departed Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, shots rang out. A quick assessment revealed that one of the Israeli members of Sarkozy's security detail had turned his weapon on himself, apparently committing suicide. The victim, whose name has not been revealed at his family's request, was in his...

China: Earthquake Runaway Teacher

  23 June 2008

Fan Meizhong a teacher who dashed out of the classroom when the earthquake hit and left his students behind has become the most controversal figure in China. ESWN has translated yweekend's chronicle of the debate.

Philippines: Ferry disaster

  23 June 2008

More than 700 are dead or missing after a ship capsized in central Philippines. Talim ng Araw blames the ship owners and coastal guards. Some pictures of the tragedy were uploaded by Ang Umalohokan.

China: Right to Entertainment

  20 June 2008

Ran Yun-fei from my1510 points out that earthquake victims need entertainment to restore their lives, others shouldn't be too harsh to judge them [zh].

Japan: Iwate-Miyagi Inland Earthquake

  17 June 2008

On June 14, an inland earthquake reaching M7.2 on the Richter scale struck the Tohoku region of Japan. In Iwate and Miyagi, the hardest hit prefectures, 10 have been confirmed dead, about a dozen are missing, and more than 200 people have been injured.

China: Curse of the Olympic mascots?

  16 June 2008

In case you ever wondered if those Olympic Fuwas weren't just a little too cute to be true, apparently you aren't the only one. For China, the superstitious formula to that effect which has been making its way across various networks since the Sichuan earthquake looks accurate enough given the...

Hong Kong: Earthquake Photos Behind the News Story

  16 June 2008

Florence blogs about an exhibition on “Sichuan earthquake photos: behind the news story“. The exhibition displays photos and videos taken from the Sichuan earthquake area to share the front line reporters’ story behind the news.

Japan: Reflections on the Akiba Massacre (Part 2)

  16 June 2008

The massacre on June 8th in Tokyo's Akihabara district sparked heated debates in Japanese blogs about the limits of citizen media. Two Ustream users who were on at the scene just after the killing shot live footage of victims of the knife attacks, images that were was streamed onto the Internet and attracted as many as 3000 viewers before going down. While many have criticized the decision to stream the images live from the scene, others have described what happened as inevitable.

Myanmar: Kyan Hmaw village

  16 June 2008

Before Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar last month, the village of Kyan Hmaw was inhabited by 1,316 people. Now, according to Ashin Mettacara, only 332 people are living in the community.