Monsoon
The huge death toll from the Asian tsunami disaster is a
tragic demonstration of the UN system's failure to get its
priorities right
The failure of the global society to effect an adequate warning of
the magnitude, direction, speed and form of the tsunamis
originating from the tectonic movement of the northwest coast of
Sumatra can be put down to three separate factors. The first
involves a fundamental organisational shortcoming, while the other
two are essentially political.
Blame for the organisational shortcoming can be laid directly at the
feet of the highest officials in the UN System.
Quest to Restore
Tamil Rights
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Quirin Schiermeier travels to Sri Lanka with a team of
scientists in the wake of last month's tsunami. Together with
locals they search through the damage for clues of where
the wave hit hardest.
It was 8:45 on a tropical December morning when Mohamed Nazfer
saw the tsunami coming. He remembers the time exactly because
he was eating breakfast, listening to the news on the radio. When
he heard screaming in the street outside his house on the
beachfront of Kalmunai, a fishing village on the east coast of Sri
Lanka, he walked a few steps towards the beach to see what all the
fuss was about. Then he began to run, fast, from the white wall of
water hurtling towards him.
"Top 10" most
underreported
humanitarian stories
from 2004 [MSF]
Relief is in full swing in all the tsunami-hit areas of India. Medium-
and long-term rehabilitation demands three things all along the
coast. First, strengthening the ecological foundations of sustainable
human security. Secondly, rehabilitating livelihoods and fostering
sustainable livelihood security. Thirdly, putting in place a network of
rural knowledge centres. M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the
National Commission on Farmers, proposes a systematic
beyond-the-tsunami' agenda for action.
Sri Lanka's president has launched a reconstruction drive worth
$3.5bn (£1.8bn) by appealing for peace and national unity.
Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said damage
from the tsunami would cut one percentage point from Sri Lanka's
economic growth this year.
It estimated the wave left physical damage equal to 6.5% of the
economy.
For generations, the people of Poompuhar have spoken of the
days when their sleepy fishing town was the capital of a powerful
kingdom, and traders came from Rome, Greece and Egypt to deal
in pearls and silk.
Then, more than 1,500 years ago, it was gone. The thriving town,
according to ancient Tamil-language texts, was "kodalkol" --
"swallowed by the sea."
Krakatoa had been dormant for two centuries before it began
erupting on 20 May 1883. The eruption had been preceded by
several years of noticeable earthquakes, some felt as far away as
Australia. The eruption began with small steam eruptions on 20
May, and these continued for the next three months.
By 11 August, three vents were regularly erupting on the volcano.
During this time tides were unusually high, and phenonema such
as windows suddenly shattering were commonplace. Ships at
anchor were sometimes tied down with chains as a result. 11
August saw the onset of larger eruptions, with ash-laden eruption
columns being emitted by up to eleven eruption vents. 24 August
saw a further intensification of the eruption, and the cataclysmic
phase began on Sunday 26 August at about midday. Ash clouds
from the eruption reached a height of 36km, and the first tsunamis
were generated.
The August 27 eruptions occurred at 5:30 am, 6:42 am, 8:20 am
and 10:02 am local time. The last of these eruptions opened
fissures in the walls of the volcano, allowing sea water to pour into
the magma chamber. The resulting explosion of superheated
steam destroyed most of the island. The sound of the explosion
was heard as far away as Australia 3500 km away (2200 miles),
and the island of Rodrigues near Mauritius 4800 km away (3000
miles). It is the loudest-ever sound in recorded history. (A possibly
louder sound is believed to have been generated during the 1815
eruption of Mount Tambora, also in the Indonesian archipelago).
People from the 'Arangalaya' group from Vavuniya entertaining the
Tsunami affected children living in camps at Amparai and
Thirukkovil:
Babies start to laugh when they are 10 weeks old: six weeks later
they are laughing about once every hour. Four-year-olds laugh
once every four minutes. The average grown up is said to laugh
only about 15 times per day. Sadly, our culture seems to inhibit
humour. We learn to associate growing up with "getting serious"
and being serious is somehow associated with being solemn and
humourless. Sometimes we repress our good humour, because we
are afraid that others will think we are frivolous or foolish. Here are
some suggestions for repairing your sense of humour and
regaining healthy laughter.
Expose yourself to humour: There is a lot of funny material
around. Actively seek out things that make you laugh.
Keep a humour journal: Get into the habit of listening to the
unintentionally amusing remark. Watch for the wonderfully funny
young children spontaneously say or write. Listen for the amusing
slips of tongue or the amusing error or the clever pun.
Tell a joke: Having a good sense of humour doesn't mean you
have to have a store of jokes or tell them perfectly. Do not worry
about how well you are telling it. Sometimes screwing up the
delivery can create something that's even funnier than the original
joke. [Contd.]
Would you run a business and ignore five billion potential
customers? The fact is, many businesses do.
Janet was in her early forties when she lost her husband. Farming
her little plot of land in Western Kenya, she earned about $25 a
month.
Enough to feed her six children. Hardly enough to send them to
school or pay for proper healthcare.
Eight years on she is making $8,000 a year, employs five workers,
all her children will go to college and health worries are a thing of
the past.
Peanuts, often derided as unhealthy party food, contain the same
amount of beneficial chemicals as strawberries, researchers have
found.
A University of Florida team says peanuts are rich in antioxidants
which protect cells from damage linked to heart disease and
cancer.
Peanuts also contain high levels of protein and "good" mono
unsaturated fat.
But a spokeswoman for the British Dietetic Association said people
should steer clear of salted peanuts.
We drove from Melbourne at a leisurely pace of 11/2 hours to
reach this gorgeous island mainly to witness a major international
attraction — the Penguin Parade.
When you look at flightless birds, the 17 species of penguins form
the largest in the group. Penguins are usually associated with the
cold Antarctic regions, but they are also found around the coasts of
most islands in the Southern Ocean. The Emperor penguins are
large and found only in the Antarctic regions. Fiordland penguins
are found among the fiords that make up the South West coast of
New Zealand's South Island and on Stewart Island (just south of
New Zealand). Royal penguins are sometimes regarded as a sub-
species of Macaroni penguins with a white throat. They are only
found on Macquarie Island south of Australia.
The Fairy penguins with which we were to be acquainted with stand
35 to 40 cm high and weigh about one kilogram. They breed on the
coasts of Southern Australia and Tasmania as well as in New
Zealand and several sub-Antarctic Islands south of New Zealand.
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