Stories about Disaster from June, 2008
Afghanistan: Lack of drinking water in Balkh province
The Rumi says that thousands of families have been forced to leave their homes due to food and drinking water scarcity in Balkh, northern province of Afghanistan.
Ukraine: Charity Tennis Tournament
Scenes from the Sidewalk is posting updates on the Strokes Against Hopelessness charity tennis tournament, currently being held in Kyiv.
Ukraine: Soviet Monuments to Chernobyl?
Chernobyl and Eastern Europe writes about president Yushchenko's order to demolish some 20,000 Soviet-era monuments in Ukraine, as part of the commemoration of Holodomor, the great famine of 1932-33, and about the culture and tourism minister's suggestions to move these monuments to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
Japan: Toyota's Kanban System, Applied to Humans
A post by blogger boiledema [ja], offering an alternative perspective on the background of Tomohiro Kato, offender in Sunday's Akiba massacre, has drawn a huge reaction, with over 1200 bookmarks [ja] on Hatena. boiledema suggests that Toyota's system of Kanban production is being applied to human beings, through unstable short-term...
Bosnia & Herzegovina: Landmine Deaths
YakimaGulagLiteraryGazett writes about landmine deaths in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Indonesia: Mud volcano
Mikhail Tsyganov blogs about the “largest mud volcano disaster in the world” in East Java, Indonesia
Blogger witnesses whales beaching in Madagascar
The mass stranding of at least one hundred melon-headed whales were reported in the mangrove of Antsohihy Bay (Northwest region of Madagascar) in the first week of June. Harinjaka and the non-governmental organization Fanamby were among the first to report (fr) and publish photos (mg) of this ecological disaster. The...
China: Earthquake Animal Victim
In order to prevent plague, most of the animals and pets from the earthquake zone were killed. Zhengying remembered many stories about dogs saving or standing by earthquake victims until the last minute and felt very sad about the killing of animals [zh].
Lebanon: Half cluster cleared
“Almost half of the areas in southern Lebanon contaminated with cluster bombs dropped by Israel in 2006 have been cleared, a UN official said on Wednesday,” reports Sursock.
China: Olympic Pandas now in Beijing
Sina.com blogger EastIsRed66, who appears to be an employee of the Wolong Nature Reserve in Wenchuan, Sichuan, the hardest-hit area in last month's earthquake, has recently started a blog and has been posting photos of the eight Olympic Pandas who once lived there.
China: Why School Crumbled?
Hu Yong said that the Chinese government should answer to the question why schools were crumbled in the earthquake zone. The blogger insisted that if the truth was buried, China would have no future [zh].
China: Reconstruction
TECN posted Qian Li qun's speech on earthquake reflection, which stressed that earthquake reconstruction work should incorporate the reconstruction of the Chinese society in term of the development of humanitarianism, civil society, social reform, etc [zh].
China: Earthquake Migration
Zhao mu interview specialists about the resettlement of earthquake victims [zh]. As the whole Wenchuan region becomes an active earthquake zone, relief work would include a huge migration plan.
Japan: Bloggers on Akihabara knife rampage
A knife attack in Tokyo's Akihabara area has taken the lives of at least seven people and left many more injured. The suspect apparently crashed a two-ton rented truck into pedestrians on an intersection close to Akihabara station, and then began attacking onlookers. Bloggers at and near the scene describe what they saw through words and photos.
China: Blogger suggests temperance, accused of brown-nosing
Cultural commentator Yu Qiuyu has written a post to his blog offering some suggestions to angry parents of children who died in the thousands of school buildings which collapsed in the earthquake, many of whom are now being forcibly prevented from both mourning and denied legal recourse by courts. Roland...
Catholic aid effort for Myanmar
Catholic News reports the efforts of Catholic groups in Singapore in organizing an aid response to help Myanmar's refugees
Myanmar: Comedian arrested for distributing relief goods
A comedian was arrested for organizing relief efforts to help Myanmar's cyclone victims. Rule of Lords also tackles other cases of private aid initiatives which were blocked by the junta.
Myanmar: Junta condemns “invented stories”
Myanmar's state-controlled newspaper features a report castigating “self-seekers and unscrupulous elements” who sell video tapes featuring “invented stories” to foreign news agencies about the cyclone disaster.
China: The Suffering of Qiang Minority
Sunbin draws readers’ attention to the suffering of Qiang (an ethnic minority in Sichuan) in the earthquake. Initial stats shows that Qiang had lost close to 10% of its population. The government official acknowledged the need to save Qiang's culture.
Egypt: Doctors shoot video of hospital blackout emergency
With more frequency now, hospitals are being managed as big businesses with clients instead of health facilities with patients. Doctors who wish to honor their Hippocratic Oath have to hope that their hospital management has the same ideal of keeping the good of the patient as the highest priority. This was the case last week in the Al Matrya teaching hospital in Egypt, where 4 babies and 2 adults on life support lost their lives due to a 2 hour blackout in the early morning hours and generators failed to kick in once again.
China: Earthquake Witness from Beichuan
Qiang-shan You-ke from my1510 writes in detail what had happened in Beichuan secondary school after the earthquake. The writer lost his wife on that date and witnessed the deaths of hundreds of teachers and students. He believes that 80% of the deaths were result of human mistake [zh].
