Read a little. Learn a lot. • Tightly-written news, views and stuff • Follow us on Twitter • Be a Facebook Fan • Tumble us!

03 Apr 2011 14:54

tags

World: Japan’s victims not seeing direct results from donations

  • $1 billion the total donations for Japan’s earthquake relief to the Red Cross
  • none the amount of those donations that have gone directly to victims  source
  • » Yukiyo Edano says speed it up: Edano, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, explained that the standard procedure is for independent panels throughout the prefectures to decide how to handle the money; basically, distribution at the local level. This can slow the whole process when these communities are in such disarray, though, which is why Edano believes the central government should set up an independent committee. The Red Cross, it bears mentioning, has sent over 200 crisis relief teams into stricken areas. And it must be said in the strongest possible terms that we don’t mean to discourage people who either have, or want to donate to Japan’s relief efforts. Rather, we think it’s worth understanding the functional realities that can hamstring those efforts. But the donations are nonetheless noble, vital, and necessary; none of this changes that.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Apr 2011 14:27

tags

World: Unintended consequences, priorities complicate Japan crisis

  • action Lacking the ability to pump water through the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant as they usually would, workers were hosing in as much seawater as they could to try to cool the unstable fuel rods.
  • outcome This consequently left the plant covered in contaminated salt water, and has made it extremely difficult for those in the plant to work near the reactors, thus impeding the crisis control effort. source
  • »And don’t forget about Japan’s other problems: Prime Minister Naoto Kan was pretty unpopular prior to the earthquake and tsunami that decimated the country, and his abilities at crisis management haven’t escaped public criticism. Reuters reports that many Japanese are unhappy with the Prime Minister’s focus on the nuclear crisis, feeling that not enough attention is being paid to other pressing humanitarian tolls caused by the earthquake; the number of dead or missing currently sits at 28,000 people, though obviously that estimate is changing all the time. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 19:51

tags

World: Radioactive water continues to leak into ocean from Fukushima

  • NO concrete fails to plug irradiated water leak at Fukushima source
  • » The flow has continued at a seemingly unchanged rate. This is bad news for pretty obvious reasons- the leak, coming through an eight-inch crack in a pit containing power cables, is sending water irradiated at 1000 millisieverts per hour into the ocean. Having tried pumping in concrete and failed to make any progress, TEPCO’s next plan is to employ a similar strategy using a type of polymer. Polymer spraying has already been happening throughout the plant, in an effort to prevent radioactive isotopes from escaping into the environment.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 13:38

tags

World: Nine people killed in Kandahar amid Koran-burning protest

  • Blood continues to flow over Terry Jones: Yesterday, we mentioned the deaths in Afghanistan that had occurred when a protest against Koran-burning pastor Terry Jones boiled over. Sadly, the violence has spread: 9 more have been killed in Kandahar, ostensibly because Jones burned several Islamic holy texts on March 20th. Not to belabor our earlier point, but it seems worthwhile to balance disdain for Jones’ self-serving and gross bigotry with some basic honesty about what it’s caused- namely, that a danger intrinsic to any religion that takes itself very seriously is that it can cause overreactions to slights against it. The deaths of 20 people in 2 days because somebody on the other side of the planet burned some books is a tragic example. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Apr 2011 12:53

tags

World: Gbagbo’s forces not done fighting in Abidjan

  • yesterday Forces loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the elected leader of the Ivory Coast, stormed into Abidjan to oust Laurent Gbagbo, who has waged a bloody battle to stay in power. The Ouattara forces were thought to be quite close to ousting Gbagbo.
  • today The Red Cross says that some 800 people have been massacred in the  town of Duekoue, while Gbagbo has gained ground by retaking the state T.V. network, a powerful outlet that has been accused of inciting violence during the conflict.  source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Apr 2011 23:12

tags

World: Libyan rebels issue ceasefire demands

  • The necessary concessions are laid out: Protests against Muammar Gaddafi must continue safely, as must a process to replace the longtime dictator be agreed upon, if the Libyan rebellion is to halt its fight. The offer has already been rejected by the Gaddafi government, but this does have interesting implications for the reported mounting defections. The more the rebellion strikes the pose of a unified front with organized leadership and goals, as they have here, it may turn up the pressure on officials mulling whether they can ride this out or not. Also, it’s heartening from a foreign relations standpoint to see a few American flags in that crowd at the end. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Apr 2011 22:45

tags

World: Ivory Coast rebels within inches of victory?

  • then Yesterday, opposition forces in Ivory Coast, led by Alassane Ouattar, seized the region’s administrative capital. Their next destination? Abidjan, the commercial capital and home of Laurent Gbagbo, the ex-president who refuses to step down.
  • now Ouattar’s troops reached Abidjan, and once there, attacked both Gbagbo’s home and the presidential palace. There’s reportedly been heavy fighting non-stop since they arrived; some are describing this as Gbagbo’s “last stand.” source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Apr 2011 15:26

tags

World: Earthquake in Greece sends tremors across the region

  • greece The earthquake in Crete today is much more severe than usual, but Greece is a seismic hot-bed; they have thousands of small quakes per year.
  • turkey Reports from Anatolia, a Turkish news outlet, indicate that the earthquake was felt all the way to the Turkish resort towns of Bodrom, Mamaris and Fethiye.
  • egyptThe earthquake also caused shakes all the way to Cairo, as its been reported that some buildings within the Egyptian capitol were rattled by tremors. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

01 Apr 2011 14:24

tags

World: Recall push against Wisconsin GOPers heating up

  • impetus The Wisconsin Democratic Party has been running at high intensity since Gov. Walker’s anti-union bill passed (a court order has since halted it). Remember, this plan is demonstrably not about fiscal issues, it’s about crushing unions.
  • blowback GOP state Senator Dan Kapanke is feeling the heat, as the Democrats will file 15,588 signatures, enough to force a recall election against him. The biggest fish here is clearly Gov. Walker, but he’s immune from recall for his first year in office. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

31 Mar 2011 21:57

tags

World: Kidnapped reporters speak out on Libyan captors

  • These are real thugs. They’re really people who shoot first and ask questions later…there was so little organization and absolutely no command structure going on.
  • Tyler Hicks, one of the reporters kidnapped by the Libyan military • Reflecting on the nature of his captors. Hicks and three others were held for six days by Gaddafi’s forces before being released. source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
<< newer 
top tags
older >>