Stories about Disaster from January, 2010
Global Voices in Haiti: Talking to Volunteer Régine Zamor
Alice Backer, on assignment for Global Voices in Port-au-Prince, interviews Régine Zamor, a Haitian-American who travelled to Haiti after the 12 January earthquake and has helped dozens of people as an independent volunteer. "Many Haitians and others willing to help took matters into their own hands during the first-response period."
Haiti: The Homeless Situation
Potoprincipe expresses [Fr] bewilderment at Haitian president Preval's decision to live under a tent in front of the ravaged Presidential palace, in solidarity with his people, when solutions need to be found to relieve the homeless, who will soon have to cope with the coming hurricane season.
Global Voices in Haiti: On Reconstruction
With scattered clean-up efforts under way in Haiti, debates have begun about how best to rebuild houses and other structures destroyed in the 12 January earthquake. Georgia Popplewell reports from Port-au-Prince on "the critical matter of shelter for those who have lost their homes".
Haiti: Where are the 15 missing children?
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the question of international adoption and its legitimacy has been on many mouths: Both Espas Ayisyen and Haiti Recto Verso weigh in by posting a UNICEF statement [Fr] announcing that 15 children are “missing” from Haitian hospitals and questioning the possibility of abduction.
Haiti: Bloggers’ Reactions to Regional Interventions
For more than two weeks, the governance of Haiti after the earthquake has been seriously questioned by Haitian bloggers. They are now discussing the reactions in the neighboring countries and islands of the Caribbean. Here is a review of the French-speaking posts dealing with this question.
Haiti: Wired Money May Help Rebuild Before Aid
With phone lines being restored in Haiti, money sent from families abroad “by wire” is again arriving, and helping reconstruction even where international aid has not arrived. Remittances from family members living abroad represented at least thirty percent of Haiti's Gross National Product before the January 12 earthquake.
Pakistan: Depleting Water Resources
Owais Mughal at All Things Pakistan discusses about the depleting water resources of Pakistan and urges the decision makers to “invest in Pakistan’s Water Resources for the stability of the country and the region.”
Global Voices in Haiti: Litmus Test
Georgia Popplewell, on the ground in post-earthquake Haiti, looks into reports of "tear gas" being used at a food distribution point, and visits the Carrefour area of Port-au-Prince. The second in a series of special reports.
Global Voices in Haiti: Arriving in Port-au-Prince
Georgia Popplewell, a member of the two-person Global Voices team on the ground in post-earthquake Haiti, files her first report from Port-au-Prince. "Two of Pétionville's squares have been transformed into teeming tent cities. The area just east of the Champs de Mars is a long corridor of rubble, not a building left standing."
Global Voices in Haiti: Our Team on the Ground
In the aftermath of the 12 January earthquake in Haiti, Global Voices has sent a two-member team to Port-au-Prince to augment our coverage of recovery efforts, and stimulate local participation in citizen media. Here are details of the objectives Georgia Popplewell and Alice Backer are working towards.
Haiti, U.S.A.: Donating Breastmilk
Repeating Islands links to a story about the importance of breast milk for the infant victims of Haiti's earthquake.
Haiti: The Politics of Recovery
The last thing that Haiti needs as it faces the monumental task of recovering from the earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and its environs on January 12 is a lack of good governance. Yet, some members of the Haitian blogosphere are bracing themselves for more of the same when it comes to the 2010 earthquake recovery effort.
Peru: Video of Stranded tourists near Machu Picchu
Periodismo en Línea points us to a two day old video by NicoRios, a Chilean tourist stranded in Aguas Calientes. In the video he shows how they wait for the helicopters to arrive and explains how they were running out of food and stores have drastically increased prices for food...
Haiti: Teen Found Alive
Real Hope For Haiti reports that rescuers have pulled a 16-year-old Haitian girl alive from the rubble 15 days after the devastating earthquake.
Haiti: Security vs. Relief?
More than two weeks after the 12 January earthquake in Haiti, and despite an international outpouring of aid, thousands of affected Haitians in and around Port-au-Prince have received little or no relief assistance. Some Haitians and others on the ground suggest that exaggerated concerns about security and violence may be hindering relief efforts.
Video: Call for Aid in the Peruvian South due to Flooding
The state of emergency the city of Cusco and surrounding areas has moved many locals to make videos and upload them to the web, trying to get mass media to pay attention to the drama lived by villagers throughout the area who are now homeless, isolated and without food, water or electricity.
Belarus: “Hating Haiti?”
Andrei Khrapavitski writes that Haiti “has become a popular topic” for Belarusian bloggers “to chatter about and for some to sarcastically grin at the pain of Haitians. It hurts to read how my compatriots, some of whom have received foreign aid themselves, seem to be quite cynical about the Haitian...
Haiti: Damage in Surrounding Areas
how can they hear takes a trip to Leogane and posts photos of the damage, saying: “The truth is that people need to see that Leogane and the surrounding areas need help. We still have families buried underneath the rubble here”, while Ellen in Haiti crunches some numbers: “It says...
Haiti: Endurance
“Over and over mind-numbing injuries that are now two weeks old — yet the people are stoic, strong, long-suffering, graceful … resilient beyond comprehension”: The Livesay [Haiti] Weblog is convinced that “against the odds, the people of Haiti will endure.”
Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti: On the Ground
“You try to get around as much as you can, but in the end you’ll see only a tiny fraction of the whole, and perhaps understand or read accurately only a fraction of that”: Caribbean Free Radio blogs from Port-au-Prince.
Jamaica, Haiti: Making sense of it all
Jamaican litblogger Geoffrey Philp posts a poem for Haiti.
