· July, 2007

Stories about Disaster from July, 2007

Haiti: Unmasked

  13 July 2007

gmtPlus9 (-15) links to a project called Kids With Cameras, which has given Haitian children in indentured servitude the power to tell their own stories.

Japan: Responses to the Kyuma A-Bomb Statement

  9 July 2007

Two weeks ago, then-Defense Minister Kyuma Fumio made a famous statement referring to the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as something that "couldn't be helped". Despite later attempts to qualify this statement, Kyuma was ultimately forced to resign amid public outcry and political opposition. Bloggers also had a lot to say on the topic of the controversial statement.

Palestine: Palestinians Celebrate Alan Johnston's Release

From the sad news of a death of a 31-year-old mother waiting to cross into Palestine from the Rafah Crossing to celebrations over the release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston, Palestinian blogs this week are abuzz with activity. Ayesha Saldanha reports how one Canadian-Palestinian blogger is ashamed to be an Arab and how another expresses her disbelief at how veiled women are being discriminated against in Jordan.

Hong Kong: Refugee

  6 July 2007

Ivy Chang reported on a photo exhibition about the life of refugee in Hong Kong (zh) at inmediahk.net. Since May 2006, the UN refugee agency had stopped giving financial support to refugee in Hong Kong.

Iran:Helping Lebanon but not Iranian Flood Victims

Balouch says[Fa] that according to Iranian media, government's help for many flood victims in Sarvan in Sistan and Balouchestan province has not been sufficient.The blogger reminds us that Iranian government paid 20 thousands dollars to (Shi'ite) people who lost their houses in Lebanon during last year war.

Bahamas: Hurricanes and Global Warming

  5 July 2007

Larry Smith at Bahama Pundit refers to a book by science journalist Chris Mooney, which links hurricanes with the battle over global warming: “This has enormous implications – particularly for us in the Bahamas – because strong hurricanes cause dramatically more destruction than weak ones when they hit land.”

Rwanda: Foreign aid workers who live like kings

  5 July 2007

Foreign aid workers in Africa and elsewhere are often criticized for living far removed from the populations they are supposed to serve. How can people who spend their time zipping around in air-conditioned SUVs, tinted windows rolled to the top to shut out the noise and the dust and the people hope to be effective, the argument goes. Les aventures du Civiliste Guillaume wades through Rwanda's alphabet soup, writing about the legion of aid and relief agencies station in the country and finding reasons both to criticize and defend those who have come to help.

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Genocide Conference

Srebrenica Genocide Blog reports that the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) will hold its 7th meeting in Sarajevo on July 9-13, 2007: “Our conference theme, Responding to Genocide Before It's Too Late: Genocide Studies and Prevention, is always appropriate, of course, but also has an immediate resonance as we...

China: Desertification

  3 July 2007

Jiao told the story of her home province in Gansu which would be buried soon by yellow sand because of intensified desertification (zh).