David Hardingham, of the Salisbury-based NGO Friends of Maldives has appealed to the British people to pressure the Government of Maldives to allow FOM aid to reach tsunami victims.
Speaking on BBC Radio’s Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Hardingham said: “We urge people of Britain to contact the Maldivian High Commission in London and find out what is happening to our aid. Check that it’s getting through, contact your local MP and put pressure on the Maldivian government.”
He also spoke about the Maldive government’s recent decision to ban him from the country.
“[The blacklisting is hampering our aid efforts] we really need to speak to the Disaster Management Centre to work out a way we can be involved in the distribution of the last of our aid.”
“We also want to see the progress of the aid effort in the Maldives in general. Government sources have told us that only about 10% of what is needed has got through to the people… so it sounds as if the Maldives is still having huge problems.”
“About ten tones of educational aid is sitting in government warehouses in the Maldives. We have asked the Maldivian government if we can deliver the aid ourselves or be part of the aid distribution or at least ensure that it gets out to the people that need it and they have refused all our requests.”
“We are going to request as much help as possible [from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office]. We’ve got the help of a lot of MPs and the support of a lot of people.”
“The Maldivian government is a dictatorship… very corrupt and it’s very difficult to deal with them” he added.
Hardingham was in meetings with the British Foreign Office this week to explain FOM’s problems and seek diplomatic support from the UK, who now head the Presidency of the European Union.
Speaking to Minivan News yesterday, several resort owners complained that the Government of Maldives have “done nothing” to help tourism recover in the country and have been “preoccupying themselves with petty politics.”
Occupancy rates in Maldives resorts are approximately 20% down on last year, six months after the Tsunami tragedy.
(Source: Minivan News)
Only half of Israeli donations to disaster victims have made it to Asia.
When disaster struck Southeast Asia in late December, Israelis donated more than NIS 4 million (USD 860,000) to the National Council for Volunteerism to aid relief efforts to millions of affected families. But according to Yedioth Ahronoth, more than six months later, at least NIS 2 million (USD 430,000) remains in Israeli bank accounts.
Sri Lanka, the country hardest hit by the tidal wave, has only received a few hundred thousand shekels. High tech company Amdocs, one of the principal donors to the relief effort, said Wednesday it did not know what happened to the money it contributed, but following an inquiry from Yedioth Ahronoth it would look into the matter.
Read More...
(Source: YnetNews)
When disaster struck Southeast Asia in late December, Israelis donated more than NIS 4 million (USD 860,000) to the National Council for Volunteerism to aid relief efforts to millions of affected families. But according to Yedioth Ahronoth, more than six months later, at least NIS 2 million (USD 430,000) remains in Israeli bank accounts.
Sri Lanka, the country hardest hit by the tidal wave, has only received a few hundred thousand shekels. High tech company Amdocs, one of the principal donors to the relief effort, said Wednesday it did not know what happened to the money it contributed, but following an inquiry from Yedioth Ahronoth it would look into the matter.
Read More...
(Source: YnetNews)
Forced Migration Review is the world’s most widely read magazine on refugee and IDP issues., says the email. They've done a pretty cool job and you guys should probably check it out. The HTM/text version is here, and the PDF version is here. The HTML version offers Word files for download, chapter by chapter.
The National Hydro-Meteorology Center has been assigned to report on the requirements for the building of the center, the minister added. Director of the National Hydro-Meteorology Centre Bui Van Duc said that the tsunami warning system's technical network should be built in coordination with other systems monitoring other kinds of natural disasters. He suggested that close watch be kept on tsunami risks in Vietnam, as the country is exposed to more than 3,000km of coastline on the South China Sea (East Sea), where large earthquakes originating in the Philippines often occur.
"The center is devising a plan to disseminate information guiding people to protect themselves from natural disasters, storms and tsunamis, and to evacuate when sea water suddenly withdraws. The plan is expected to be completed before the year's end", Duc said.
He warns that people's awareness on natural disasters and tsunamis is still limited. Fishermen still go to sea, even without lifebuoys, when they are informed that there will likely be a storm, Duc noted.Though Vietnam has 21 marine meteorological stations under the National Hydro-Meteorological Center, and a number of earthquake measurement stations under the Vietnam Global Physics Institute, they are as yet unable to forecast tsunamis. Vietnam has called for international support to the building of a tsunami warning centre.
(Source: ThanhNien News)
"The center is devising a plan to disseminate information guiding people to protect themselves from natural disasters, storms and tsunamis, and to evacuate when sea water suddenly withdraws. The plan is expected to be completed before the year's end", Duc said.
He warns that people's awareness on natural disasters and tsunamis is still limited. Fishermen still go to sea, even without lifebuoys, when they are informed that there will likely be a storm, Duc noted.Though Vietnam has 21 marine meteorological stations under the National Hydro-Meteorological Center, and a number of earthquake measurement stations under the Vietnam Global Physics Institute, they are as yet unable to forecast tsunamis. Vietnam has called for international support to the building of a tsunami warning centre.
(Source: ThanhNien News)
<>The devastating Boxing Day Tsunami in South East Asia has increased the AIDS-risk within the region. The United Nations believes the tsunami has left millions of people homeless who are still, six months after, living under most awkward conditions. Furthermore at many places the health system has collapsed and people cannot get condoms.The situation has increased the risk of a rapid spread of the fatal low immunity disease AIDS in Asia, UN representatives said on Monday at an international AIDS-conference in the Western Japanese city of Kobe.
<>"That's why we are extremely worried", Jan Leno of the UN AIDS Programme highlighted. The number of new infections with the HI-Virus in the Tsunami-region has not yet risen. But latest surveys show a boost of pregnancies and diseases transmitted via sexual intercourse.According to UN estimations 8.2 million people in Asia are infected with the HI-Virus, worldwide 39 million people live with HIV or AIDS.
(Source: Scoop - New Zealand)
<>Three places in Malaysia have been identified as locations where tsunami-monitoring devices will be placed to help warn people of impending danger. Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis said one would be placed a few hundred km north of Langkawi while the other two would be at South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.
"We have to place the devices a few hundred kilometres away from land so that people would have at least 45 minutes to an hour to flee if a tsunami should occur."
"If the devices are too near, there'll be no time to run," he said, adding that the government was still finalising the exact locations with international bodies.
<> The minister said this to reporters after opening the Second International Hydrographic and Oceanographic Industry 2005 Conference and Exhibition (IHOCE) on Tuesday (Malaysia). He said talks were also going on between Malaysia and Indonesia to link earthquake alert information via satellite to ensure that the people get real time reports from both sides."Present there is a 15 minute delay because we have to get confirmation from our Indonesian counterparts when an earthquake happens."
"With direct connection from both sides, information will be available immediately and online for the public," he said.
(Source: The Star - Malaysia)
Tourists on one of Phuket's most popular beaches were evacuated on Tuesday morning after a new tsunami-warning system responded to an earth tremor off the Indonesian coast. Foreign sunseekers and local people were told to leave Patong beach by a multi-lingual warning alarm, according to the Thai television network, The Nation. In the aftermath of last December's tsunami, the Thai authorities have set up new mechnanisms to alert people in the case of earthquakes that could trigger killer waves.
The alarm was soon scaled down from red to yellow after it was established that the Indonesian eartquake had not prompted a tidal wave. Indonesian geophysical authorities say the quake on North Sumatra on Tuesday registered around 6.0 on the Richter scale. The quake triggered panic among residents in the North Sumatra capital of Medan. In the aftermath of the disaster, the Thai government launched an early warning network with the first segment operational in Patong, a popular beach some 600 kilometres south of Bangkok.
(Source: AKI)
The alarm was soon scaled down from red to yellow after it was established that the Indonesian eartquake had not prompted a tidal wave. Indonesian geophysical authorities say the quake on North Sumatra on Tuesday registered around 6.0 on the Richter scale. The quake triggered panic among residents in the North Sumatra capital of Medan. In the aftermath of the disaster, the Thai government launched an early warning network with the first segment operational in Patong, a popular beach some 600 kilometres south of Bangkok.
(Source: AKI)
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