Emergency Relief // Current

Sweden donated twice more relief money than US?

"Sweden is donating SEK 500 million (USD 75.6 million) in relief aid, reported the Swedish paper Aftonbladet. The US is... more

Freakna
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6 months ago

A heart-breaking video about the shakiest and deadliest earthquake in the century.

Less than two weeks after the monster earthquakes hit Sichuan, China, the Western media have significantly cut back on, if not forgotten, the disaster coverage. Many have seen the horrific images of dormitory buildings shaking, people running for lives and soldiers digging rubble for signs of life. But this earthquake, along with its thousands of aftershocks, is very very different, and so much more brutal than any earthquake in recent history.

To present the disaster's visual destructiveness and ruthlessness isn't the most difficult job, as there are thousands upon thousands of video clips and images available on English and Chinese portal sites, TV network web pages, among other online entities. But how to get the viewers to understand the full magnitude of the destruction and, more importantly, the extreme challenges for refugee resettlement and reconstruction in less than 10 minutes is no easy task. (Most people nowadays don't have more than 10 minutes online for things they don't care much about any more.)

I set out to tell the earthquake story in a powerful video in a few minutes to the English speaking audience. By picking through over a thousand photos and dozens of video clips found on Chinese web sites, I managed to weave out a narrative of some major highlights with the help of a few Chinese classic tunes in the background. Strong components of this presentation includes:

The opening factoids - babies becoming orphans, parents grieving souls, 7,000 school buildings collapsed and one survey in a school found 90% students lost their friends.

Images of an anchorwoman running away from studio scared of shaking, continuous sound a minute's worth of studio desk trembling, and a clip of a security tape capturing people fleeing the building and sunshade umbrella shaking.

An emotional short conversation of an intact family describing how the father saved the daughter and what the daughter was thinking in the three hours buried under rubble. The daughter was so grateful for her survival that she kept saying "thank you" to her father, and the father kept telling her "don't mention it, stop crying." (This may not be something unusual for most Western viewers, but for those who understand Chinese culture, people often don't express emotions explicitly and saying thanks to parents or children is something rarely heard.)

Contrast photos of communities before and after the quake, photos of landslides, leveled landscapes, successful and failed rescues, satellite imagery, and a climactic string of photos that present a whole variety of difficulties for those who deal with the earthquake destruction, from 4 million Chengdu citizens sleeping on the streets to babies crying for parents.

At the end, I chose to have a moment of silence and, during this moment, open some thoughts about some of the questions journalists and many Chinese raised about shoddy buildings for schools, concerns about safety of many dams in this earthquake prone region, so on and so forth. As these will be some of the very important questions for China to address to rebuild stronger and better houses, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure projects.

This production is the most heart breaking piece I have done. But as a powerful video presentation, I hope it can help my nation and millions of those affected in their reconstructions by getting continued attention from outside China even though people here tend to forget about a most devastating earthquake in this century on the other side of the planet.Less than two weeks after the monster earthquakes hit Sichuan, China, the Western media have significantly cut back on, if not... more

chinashaken
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6 months ago

May 28: more than half of 2.4 million Myanmar survivors await relief: ADRA expands aid

In the Labutta Township, where thousands of displaced families initially sought refuge from low-lying areas after the storm, ADRA... more

ASUK999
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6 months ago

Pupils donate money for Burma Crisis

Year 11 pupils from Nelson's Pendle Vale College have helped raise £100 to donate to the needy people of Burma. The... more

ASUK999
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6 months ago

Saudi Arabia gives $50 million aid for China quake victims!

Saudi Arabia has given $50 million and delivered 260 tonnes of relief aid to help China deal with the aftermath of the devastating... more

ASUK999
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6 months ago

'No access' to Burma cyclone zone

Burma's junta has tightened access to areas hit by Cyclone Nargis, despite pleas to allow in foreign aid workers. A UN... more

kushan
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6 months ago

Aid Groups Say Myanmar Food Stolen by Military

The directors of several relief organizations in Myanmar said Wednesday that some of the international aid arriving into the country for the victims of Cyclone Nargis was being stolen, diverted or warehoused by the country’s army.

The United States military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said there was a possibility that “a significant tropical cyclone” — a second big storm — would form within the next 24 hours and head across the Irrawaddy Delta, the region that suffered most from the first storm that struck on May 3.

In Yangon, the main commercial city, winds were already beginning to whip up Wednesday evening, but it was unclear how strong the storm would become.

Thailand’s prime minister, Samak Sundaravej, flew to Yangon on Wednesday to persuade Myanmar’s leaders to allow more foreign aid workers into the country. The members of the military junta told him they were in control of the relief operations and had no need for foreign experts, he told reporters after returning to Bangkok, The Associated Press reported.

The government said there were no outbreaks of disease or starvation among the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the cyclone. In Yangon, Mr. Sundaravej met the prime minister, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, The A.P. said.

The aid directors in Myanmar declined to be quoted directly on their concerns about the stolen relief supplies for fear of angering the ruling junta and jeopardizing their operations, although Marcel Wagner, country director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, confirmed that aid was being diverted by the army. He said the issue would become an increasing problem, although he declined to give further details because of the sensitivity of the situation.

International aid shipments continued to arrive Wednesday, including five new air deliveries of relief supplies from the United States. Western diplomats said their representatives at the airport were making sure the cargo was unloaded efficiently and then trucked to staging areas.

The fate of the supplies after that, however, remained unknown, because the junta has barred all foreigners, including credentialed diplomats and aid workers, from accompanying any donated aid, tracking its distribution or following up on its delivery. The directors of several relief organizations in Myanmar said Wednesday that some of the international aid arriving into the... more

kushan
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3 responses

6 months ago

Chinese Politburo stresses saving lives first in quake relief

Saving lives should be taken as the top priority during the quake relief after nearly 15,000 confirmed dead, a high profile... more

kushan
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6 months ago

China: Troops plug dam as death toll soars

China's death toll from a massive earthquake soared by thousands Wednesday as troops rushed to plug "severe cracks"... more

kushan
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6 months ago

Some Myanmar Aid Reportedly Stolen

The directors of several relief organizations in Myanmar said Wednesday that some of the international aid arriving into the country for the victims of Cyclone Nargis was being stolen, diverted or warehoused by the country’s military.

The United States military’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said there was a good chance that “a significant tropical cyclone” — a second big storm — would form within the next 24 hours and head across the Irrawaddy Delta, the region that suffered most from the first storm that struck earlier this month.

In Yangon, the main commercial city, winds were already beginning to whip up Wednesday evening, but it was unclear how strong the storm would become.

Thailand’s prime minister Samak Sundaravej flew to Yangon on Wednesday to persuade Myanmar’s leaders to allow more foreign aid workers into the country. The members of the military junta told him they were in control of the relief operations and had no need of foreign experts, he told reporters after arriving back in Bangkok, The Associated Press reported.

The government said there were no outbreaks of disease or starvation among the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the cyclone. In Yangon, he met Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, The A.P. said.

The aid directors in Myanmar declined to be quoted directly on their concerns about the stolen relief supplies for fear of angering the ruling junta and jeopardizing their operations, although Marcel Wagner, country director of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, confirmed that aid was being diverted by the army. He said the issue would become an increasing problem, although he declined to give any further details because of the sensitivity of the situation.

International aid shipments continued to arrive Wednesday, including five new air deliveries of relief supplies from the United States. Western diplomats said their representatives at the airport were making sure the cargo was unloaded efficiently and then trucked to staging areas.

The fate of the supplies after that, however, remained unknown, because the junta has barred all foreigners, including credentialed diplomats and aid workers, from accompanying any donated aid, tracking its distribution or following up on its delivery.

There were rumors in the capital on Wednesday that special high-energy biscuits donated for distribution in the disaster areas had been replaced by cheaper, off-the-shelf crackers. But Mr. Wagner and the others said they had not heard of high-quality foodstuffs being stolen and replaced by inferior products.

Although aid flights are now regularly seen arriving at the Yangon airport, international rescue teams and disaster-relief experts for the most part are being kept away from the country. A small French rescue team has arrived in Yangon, although it was unclear whether it had received official permission. Diplomats and representatives of aid missions said that visas for overseas experts were still being denied.

Mr. Wagner said he and his agency’s foreign staff members were now barred from the Irrawaddy Delta, even to areas where the group has ongoing projects dating from before the storm. Fortunately, he said, he has Burmese staff who are permitted come and go through an increasing number of military checkpoints.The directors of several relief organizations in Myanmar said Wednesday that some of the international aid arriving into the... more

kushan
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2 responses

6 months ago

Troops sent to repair quake-hit Chinese dam

Some 2,000 Chinese troops were sent today to repair "extremely dangerous" cracks in a dam upstream of an earthquake-hit... more

kushan
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6 months ago

Quake Toll Up in China as Soldiers Reach Epicenter

Hundreds of Chinese soldiers marching through mud and debris reached mountain towns at the epicenter of the earthquake on Wednesday, while army helicopters began airdrops of food and medicine in the same area. Officials raised their estimate of the number of people killed to nearly 15,000, with thousands more trapped and missing in remote areas.

The soldiers who reached Wenchuan County, the epicenter of the 7.9-magnitude quake that struck China on Monday, began ferrying survivors across rivers on plastic skiffs. But in the first township that the soldiers reached, Yingxiu, only 2,300 of 10,000 residents could be confirmed alive, according to Xinhua, the state news agency.

A poor farming region that is home to a famous panda reserve, Wenchuan is believed to be one of the worst-hit areas.

“There is an urgent need for medical staff, medicine, food and drinking water,” said He Biao, the deputy secretary-general of the Aba prefectural government, which includes Wenchuan.

At the same time, Chinese state media reported that “extremely dangerous” cracks had appeared in a dam upriver from the earthquake-hit city of Dujiangyan, also in Sichuan Province, according to The Associated Press.

Dujiangyan is the site of some of the most horrific scenes in the last few days. A school collapse in a southern suburb killed hundreds of children, perhaps as many as 900. Parents have begun setting up memorials and bodies are still being pulled from the rubble.

The fact that aid was finally able to reach Wenchuan was a minor triumph in the aftermath of the worst earthquake to hit China in more than 30 years. Until Wednesday, Wenchuan had been completely cut off from the outside world, and the longer it remained completely isolated, the more people would suffer and ultimately die. Half of the survivors had severe injuries, Chinese officials said.

But the threat of further earthquakes and aftershocks remained high across the entire region. A small tremor could be felt here in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan Province, around 11 a.m. Wednesday. Hours later, workers in at least one high-rise hotel asked guests to move to lower floors because of a heightened earthquake alert.

More than 800 police officers arrived in Yingxiu soon after the soldiers broke through. Aerial photos taken from a helicopter flying over one town in Wenchuan County showed empty avenues and row after row of deserted buildings, and what appeared to be a large cluster of makeshift tents on a wide soccer pitch.Hundreds of Chinese soldiers marching through mud and debris reached mountain towns at the epicenter of the earthquake on... more