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from Global News Journal:
EU catches up in race to help Haiti
In the six days since a powerful earthquake struck Haiti, the world has responded with vast amounts of aid and promises of long-term reconstruction, something the Caribbean country's creaking infrastructure desperately needs.
The World Bank and the United States pledged $100 million each, the United Nations promised $10 million and announced a "flash" appeal for $500 million more, and dozens of companies including Google, Microsoft and Bank of America committed $1 million a piece. Hollywood stars, rap singers and tennis champions all immediately raised money themselves or lent their support to encourage donations to the relief effort.
The European Union was, at least initially, a bit more low-key.
The bloc of 27 countries has a foreign aid budget of nearly 8 billion euros ($11.4 billion), around 45 percent of which is allocated to humanitarian relief and development work. But 24 hours after the quake hit, with fears of up to 200,000 dead, the EU as an institution had promised only 3 million euros of "fast-track funding". Individual member states had made their own, generous bilateral pledges to Haiti, but the EU and its executive Commission was still battling to coordinate a unified response from the 27 member states as a whole.
Two days after the earthquake struck, the EU's newly appointed high representative for foreign affairs, Catherine Ashton, said EU ministers would meet to discuss the situation. Over the weekend -- with bodies still being dug out of the rubble in Haiti -- the EU announced that ministers would discuss holding an international conference on Haiti during Monday's meeting, but didn't say when any such conference would take place or where, or what the aid funding target might be.
from Tales from the Trail:
Helping Haiti: the nightmare scenario
About the only thing that has gone right in the Haitian earthquake is the weather.
The dry, warm nights have been kind to the multitudes of homeless, injured and terrified Haitians sleeping out in streets, parks and pavements all over the nation. Not to mention the ever-growing legion of foreign rescuers, aid-workers and journalists who -- like the locals -- fear sleeping indoors because of still-rumbling aftershocks.
from Tales from the Trail:
Haiti … Too Much Suffering
Having hurtled by car through the Dominican Republic to the ramshackle Haitian border, I and four other foreign journalists were desperate to reach Port-au-Prince by nightfall. So after exchanging Ramon's beaten-up taxi for the the back of a modern pickup owned by one of Haiti's elite families, our speed stresses were soon put into terrible perspective.
Just a mile or two into Haiti, a group of people stood disconsolately by the road, trying to flag down any vehicle that would stop, and pointing to the collapsed face of a nearby quarry. "There's someone inside there," one of them said, pointing to a pile of rocks.
from Photographers Blog:
Reliving the tsunami
Today I returned to Aceh, determined to take pictures of the same locations my team and I had photographed five years ago, when the capital Banda Aceh was completely devastated by a tsunami. At the time, I was with two Reuters journalists from the Jakarta bureau.
We landed at Aceh’s Sultan Iskandar Muda airport on December 27, 2004 - one day after the giant waves paralyzed the city, previously unaware of what a tsunami could do to a city. Information from Banda Aceh in the first few days after the disaster was very limited. It dawned on us later that the lack of news from Banda Aceh was because all of the communication facilities had been damaged.
from FaithWorld:
Buddhist charity turns bottles into blankets for disaster victims
(Photo: Crushed plastic bottles at the Tzu Chi Foundation recycling factory in Taipei, 4 Nov 2009/Nicky Loh)
A plastic bottle thrown into a Taipei recycling bin could be reincarnated as a blanket to warm disaster victims in any of 20 countries, thanks to a unique project by the world's largest Buddhist charity.
The Taiwan Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation has been taking plastic bottles from the waste stream of Taipei, a city of 2.6 million, for three years to convert them into about 244,000 polyester blankets intended for disaster zones. It has sent volunteers with relief supplies to some of the world's biggest disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in the United States in 2005 and last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake in China.
from Global News Journal:
YOUR TURN TO ASK: Karel De Gucht, EU humanitarian aid chief
** This post is from Alertnet, the Thomson Reuters Foundation's global humanitarian news Web site.**
Earthquakes, floods, the global recession and recurrent famines have been keeping aid professionals across the world as busy as ever. Such crises hit poor countries the hardest, focusing increasing attention on preventing and preparing for disasters rather than dealing with their devastating aftermath.
from Photographers Blog:
How the earthquake in Sumatra affected me
Write a personal blog on an earthquake where thousands have been killed. Spot the contradiction there... but here goes - how the earthquake in Sumatra affected me.
So usual drill (1) Get a call. (2) Pack my bags, too much, too little, unpack, repack - I know I'm missing something. (3) catch a flight - London, Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Padang. (4) Take pictures. (5) Transmit pictures. (6) Repeat (4) and (5).
from Photographers Blog:
Remembering Lockerbie
Reuters Sports Editor, Pictures, Greg Bos recalls covering the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in the following question and answer session.
What role were you in when the bombing happened?
I was working on the Reuters pictures desk at the time, but was also part of the rotation system we had - where photographers could go out and cover picture assignments.
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Mud, manure and pedicure…
Hey Marcia, I'm goin' over for my weekly pedicure. I'm on the cell.
Oh Lonnie, ya think they'll be open today?
Why? Is this Labor Day or something?
No Lonnie, but I was wonderin', did ya read about the flooding we had?
Ya know, I DID notice I'm standin' knee-deep in muddy waste water in our bedroom, honey.
Boy, nothin' gets past you, Hotshot. I was thinkin' ya might wanna stay home and help save our stuff?
from Oddly Enough Blog:
Well here’s your problem right here, ma’am!
Ring ring ring...
"Hello? Is this the police? I want to come down to the station to report a stolen car..."
"Your call is important to us. Currently our office is being overrun by hundreds of venomous snakes, so please expect to be bitten a few times and maybe die."
