BBC NEWS - Flood in Peru

Death toll rises in Peru floods

The number of people killed in heavy flooding over the past several days in southern Peru has risen to 20, local officials say.

They say that at least five more people are missing and almost 40,000 others have been affected.

On Friday, officials airlifted the last of nearly 4,000 tourists stranded near the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu.

The tourists became trapped after floods and landslides destroyed road and rail links to the famous site.

'Terrified'

Peru's Cusco region in the Andes is the worst-hit.

"Before we could even get out of our beds the water was flowing over them"

Berta Pantoja, flood victim, Lucre

Your pictures: Peru floods

Journey to the flood villages

Lucre - a village situated next to a river with the same name - was all but washed away earlier this week, the BBC's Dan Collyns reports from the region.

"The waters hit our home at 2330 at night when we were all asleep," local resident Berta Pantoja says.

"Someone heard the noise and before we could even get out of our beds the water was flowing over them. Terrified, all seven of us ran in different directions trying to escape," she adds.

Many local residents are now trying to salvage what they can from their destroyed houses.

After the impressive airlift from Machu Picchu, bringing aid to hundreds of villages spread over a wide area will pose a far greater challenge, our correspondent says.

Other regions such as Puno, Ayacucho and Huancavelica were also hit hard by the torrential rains.

Officials say the floods are the worst to hit the country in years.

Related to this story:
Machu Picchu airlift is completed (30 Jan 10 | Americas )
In pictures: Machu Picchu airlift (30 Jan 10 | In Pictures )
Machu Picchu rail link still shut (28 Jan 10 | Americas )
Peru begins Machu Picchu airlift (26 Jan 10 | Americas )

Questions:

Have you ever been affected by a serious flood?

What NGO activity did you observe?

How does the flood in Peru compare to the floods we regularly see in Jakarta?

How do the challenges of emergency response differ?

BBC NEWS - Bill Gates' Vaccine Pledge

What do you think about this news item?

What impact do you think this initiative will have on Indonesia?

What role could NGOs have in implementing this programme?

Gates makes $10bn vaccine pledge

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have said they will donate $10bn (£6.2bn) over the next 10 years to develop and deliver new vaccines.

Mr Gates, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said the aim was to see 90% of children in developing countries immunised.

Over the past 10 years, the couple's charity has committed $4.5bn (£2.78bn) to the development of vaccines.

The World Health Organization called the commitment "unprecedented".

Mr Gates said that by increasing immunisation coverage in poorer countries to 90% it should be possible to save the lives of 7.6 million children under five between 2010 and 2019.

'Incredible impact'

"We must make this the decade of vaccines," he said in a statement.

"Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before."

He said money was needed to make the most of new vaccines now becoming available, including ones against severe diarrhoea and pneumonia.

Melinda Gates added: "Vaccines are a miracle. With just a few doses, they can prevent deadly diseases for a lifetime.

"We've made vaccines our number one priority at the Gates Foundation because we have seen first hand their incredible impact on children's lives."

Margaret Chan, head of the World Health Organization, said it was an unprecedented contribution and urged governments and private donors to add to the initiative.

"An additional two million deaths in children under five years could be prevented by 2015 through widespread use of new vaccines and a 10% increase in global vaccination coverage," she said.

Related to this story:
Malaria vaccine 'three years off' (26 Jan 10)
Grant to tackle sleeping sickness (20 Jan 10)
Gates' charity funds new vaccines (27 Oct 09)
Gates cash to help fight rabies (21 Sep 09)
Tycoon helps pneumonia research (07 Apr 09)
Malaria battle given $3bn boost (26 Sep 08 )

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
World Health Organization

Supplementary Reading - Indonesia's Economy

A sunny outlook

Aug 21st 2009
From The Economist Intelligence Unit ViewsWire

Indonesia's robust economy continues to grow

Indonesia has proved to be less exposed to the global recession than many of its neighbours, and its economy expanded by 4.2% year on year in the first half of 2009. As a result, the Economist Intelligence Unit has revised up its forecast for real GDP growth to 4.1% (from 2.6% in our previous forecast) in 2009 and 4.4% (from 3.4% previously) in 2010.

The government's Rp71.3trn (US$7.1bn) stimulus package for 2009, which includes cash transfers and higher salaries for civil servants, is supporting household expenditure. So are lower prices for food and fuel, which have provided a boost to personal disposable income.

However, we forecast that fixed investment will expand by only 0.5% this year, as domestic firms will experience difficulty in obtaining capital. Before the onset of the global financial crisis, domestic non-financial corporations obtained almost 50% of their financing from abroad. The Western investors that provided much of this cash have since scrambled to sell assets to meet their own short-term liabilities, which have become difficult to roll over. As a result, many investment plans in Indonesia are being postponed or dropped. Moreover, weak overseas demand will continue to prompt companies in the export sector to reduce investment. Although firms have so far not moved to lay off employees in large numbers, possibly because of the high severance costs that they must pay to sacked workers, we expect the unemployment rate to rise in response to the contraction in investment.



Although exporters will struggle amid economic weakness in 2009, imports are also likely to decline significantly. We therefore expect the foreign balance to continue to make a positive contribution to growth. Indeed, this contribution, at 1.2 percentage points, will be double that in 2007 and 2008.



There are still downside risks to our forecast. The international financial crisis could deepen, with a more damaging impact on global economic growth and capital inflows to Indonesia than we currently expect. The rupiah's exchange rate is also important to the health of the Indonesian economy. Although the currency has appreciated since mid-March, renewed weakness is possible, and the effect of a collapse in the value of the rupiah (not our central forecast) would be to lower the spending power of most Indonesians. A weaker rupiah would also make it more difficult for local corporations to meet their external debt obligations, raising the number of bankruptcies.

In addition, political risks exist: if deteriorating economic conditions spark social unrest, investment growth could be even more sluggish than currently forecast as investors lose confidence in the country. That said, the outlook remains broadly encouraging. The convincing re-election of the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is likely to boost political stability and will give the new administration a strong mandate to pursue economic reforms—even though many of these will have to wait until the worst of the global economic downturn has passed. There are also signs that the rate of contraction in the global economy has slowed in recent months, while conditions in global financial markets have also improved. A stronger recovery in the global economy than we currently forecast would enable Indonesia's economy to grow at a faster rate.

Article available online HERE.

Copyright © 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.

x

BBC NEWS - Haiti Airlift

Read this article. We will discuss it briefly in class on Friday.

Concern over Haiti airlift halt

US doctors in Haiti have voiced concern about the suspension of evacuation flights to America for critically injured Haitian earthquake victims.

A senior US medic told the BBC that scores of patients could die if they did not get treatment in the US soon.

The US military stopped the flights to Florida on Wednesday.

A White House spokesman told the BBC the move was due to "logistical issues", not over medical costs as had been reported earlier.

In a separate development, Haitian officials have detained at least nine US nationals on suspicion that they tried to take more than 30 children out of the country without authorisation.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme said it had established fixed sites for food distribution in the Haitian capital, Port au Prince, where only women would will be allowed in to collect earthquake relief supplies.

'Order from above'

Barth Green, a senior American doctor at a field hospital in Port-au-Prince airport, warned that the suspension of the so-called mercy flights could result in the deaths of scores of critically injured patients.

"The consequences - in the kids with crushed chests and on ventilators and respirators, and some of the adults - are they will die," Dr Green told the BBC.

He said there were "hundreds of thousands of critically injured and severely disabled Haitians, and we're only trying to send a few hundred to America".

"There has been no policy decision made to suspend medical evacuation flights"

White House spokesman

UK to ship iron to Haiti victims

Haiti holds US 'child smugglers'

BBC Caribbean

"It's really a small issue," Dr Green said.

He also said the US State Department, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security had until now co-operated with the programme, but an "order from above" had halted the flights.

Among the patients was a five-year-old girl suffering from tetanus in a small leg wound.

She would die within a day unless evacuated, Dr David Pitcher, a medic at the institute's temporary field hospital at Haiti's international airport, told the Associated Press.

'Logistical hurdles'

"There has been no policy decision made to suspend medical evacuation flights. This is an unprecedented relief effort with enormous logistical hurdles, and we are working through those in an effort to resume medical evacuation flights," the White House spokesman said.

He stressed the flights had been halted due to "logistical reasons that have nothing to do with funding".

The New York Times earlier quoted a US military as saying that the flights were suspended because of a dispute over whether the federal government or the state government of Florida would pay for the evacuees' medical care.

Hundreds of patients with spinal injuries, burns and other wounds have been evacuated to the US since the 12 January quake that killed up to 200,000 people.

'Reaching saturation'

Confirming the flights had stopped, US Transportation Command spokesman Capt Kevin Aandahl said on Saturday: "Apparently, some states were unwilling to accept the entry of Haitian patients for follow-on critical care.

"We manage air evacuation missions, but without a destination to fly to we can't move anybody. If we don't have permission to bring them, or they won't take them in, we can't fly the mission. It's pretty simple."

He declined to say which states did not want to accept patients.

A spokesman for Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he was not aware of any hospital in his state refusing patients.

In a letter on Tuesday to US Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Mr Crist asked the federal government to activate the National Disaster Medical System, which usually pays for victims' care in domestic disasters.

He warned: "Florida's healthcare system is quickly reaching saturation, especially in the area of high-level trauma care."

Women-only

The Republican governor's letter noted the system was already under strain because of the winter influx of elderly people.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme said it had set up 16 distribution points in Port-au-Prince which would open on Sunday and reach many more hungry Haitians.

But only women will be allowed in to collect rations, because, the WFP says, this has proved that's the best way to get food to the people who need it.

Men will be encouraged wait outside the distribution centres to accompany women after they have been given rations, because lone women would be more vulnerable to attack.

The WFP is also starting to hand out food coupons entitling each family to collect 25kg (55lb) of rice rations, designed to last two weeks.

Supplementary Reading - The Economist Special Report

Ask Adrian if you would like to get hold of the AUDIO VERSIONS of all the following articles.

The Special Report in the latest edition of The Ecomonist is on Indonesia. There are more than ten articles covering various topics. If you're serious about being an Indonesian undergradute studying business or accounting in an international programme, you should really set yourself the target of not only reading all these articles but also going over them very carefully looking for ideas that will help you write.

The first paragraph of each article is as follows: (you can click on the title to see the complete article)

A golden opportunity <<>

WHEN Suharto, Indonesia’s long-serving dictator, fell in 1998 the very integrity of the country seemed in doubt. It faced economic collapse, political chaos and fissile separatist insurgencies in Aceh, Papua and East Timor. Indonesia’s neighbours feared the worst: anarchy within Indonesia; a surge in Islamist extremism; an exodus of desperate boat-people; rampant piracy in some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

A golden chance <<>

COUNTRIES generally hit the headlines only when the news is bad. In Indonesia it has often been spectacularly bad. A decade ago there were fears that the country might disintegrate in a welter of violence, piracy and mass migration. Its former dictator, Suharto, set new standards for kleptocracy. As he fell in 1998, the economy collapsed. The Bali bombing of 2002 that killed more than 200 people was one of a series of such attacks, and the lingering danger of Islamic terrorism was recalled by another murderous blast in Jakarta in July this year. The country is prone to natural disasters too, from the tsunami that devastated parts of Sumatra in 2004 to this month’s deadly earthquake in Java.

More of the same, please <<>

ANY young democracy must clear two big hurdles. It must undergo a peaceful transition from a leader to an opponent, and it must see an incumbent win an election without credible cries of foul. Indonesia has now crossed both barriers. In its first direct presidential election in 2004, the incumbent, Megawati Sukarnoputri, lost to Mr Yudhoyono. Miss Megawati, daughter of Indonesia’s founding hero and leader of a tame opposition under Suharto, went into a sulk and boycotted Mr Yudhoyono’s swearing-in. But power was handed over smoothly enough.

Free to air <<>

HAD things turned out differently, Santoso might have been in jail or in exile by now. In the late 1990s, as chairman of the Association of Indonesian Journalists, a union formed to fight the restrictions of the Suharto years, he spent time in hiding. Now he is managing director of a thriving radio station whose programmes are syndicated to 650 stations in Indonesia and to ten other countries. One of the greatest victories of the reformasi movement of 1998 has been the freedom of the press.

Things do not fall apart <<>

THE Suharto regime used to argue that if East Timor became independent, it would set off an archipelagic chain reaction. So when in 1999 East Timor voted for independence, Indonesian soldiers and their local allies responded with a furious burst of arson and violence. With this disaster coming so soon after the Indonesian economy collapsed, there were fears that Indonesia might unravel. To make matters worse, an ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse archipelago was dominated by Java and the Javanese. It still is.

Tolerance levels <<>

ONE day in June 2007 Dago Simamora, a junior high-school teacher in Palembang in South Sumatra, picked up his nine-year-old son from school. On the way home he was shot dead. His killer scooted away on a motorcycle. The police at first blamed the murder on a land dispute. Only when the culprits were arrested a year later did it emerge that Mr Simamora had been killed because he was a Christian, accused of trying to convert the girls in his class. In April this year ten members of the Palembang jihadist group that killed him were jailed on terrorism charges.

Surprise, surprise <<>

IN RUINS just a decade ago, Indonesia’s economy these days seems a remarkably sturdy structure. Having been worse hit than any other by the Asian economic crisis of 1997-98, it has, by some measures, weathered the global slump of 2008-09 surprisingly well. Economic growth has slowed by less than in most other big countries. In part that is a gauge of its underachievement compared with faster-growing China and India. Indonesia’s GDP growth will decline from 6.1% in 2008 and 6.3% in 2007 to perhaps 4% this year, compared with nearly 8% in China and 6% in India. But given Indonesia’s starting-point a decade ago, that is still impressive.

More than a single swallow <<>

THE best-maintained building in the remote village of Teluk Binjai in Riau province on Sumatra is neither the new, rather Spartan, wooden mosque nor one of the better-off local farmers’ stilt-raised bungalows. It is the home for swallows. A windowless structure, it is studded with rows of dozens of gleaming access chutes. Tapes of alluring music tempt the flighty gadabouts to make themselves at home. Their health-giving nests, once harvested, fetch between 8m and 15m rupiah per kilo in Pekanbaru, the provincial capital, and far more still when they reach their destination: China.

Not making it easy <<>

It does not help that Indonesia is suspicious of foreign investors. It posts a protectionist “negative list” of industries where FDI is capped, including pharmaceuticals, health care and construction. And it is constantly embroiled in disputes with foreign firms. In March, for example, an international arbitration panel ordered Newmont Mining, of America, and Sumitomo, of Japan, to sell some of their shares in a big copper-and-gold mine on Sumbawa island. And in June it banned imports of some models of BlackBerry smartphones, made by Canada’s Research In Motion.

A deep-rooted habit <<>

EVEN before passing through immigration into Indonesia, you may fall prey to the venal flair of its bureaucrats. Most of its embassies now refuse cash payments for visas, after a number of scandals. One ambassador in Malaysia, a former police chief, allegedly pocketed about 2 billion rupiah from unauthorised visa surcharges. But many visitors can now get visas on arrival, payable in cash. To close this tempting window, Ngurah Rai airport in Bali last October introduced an electronic visa-issuing system. By May this year officials at the airport had used it to steal an estimated 3 billion rupiah. Their ruse, to issue 30-day visas, which cost $25, but book them as seven-day ones at $10, was simple and, until spotted, lucrative. The story is typical of Indonesian officialdom’s greed, but also of the increasing efforts to thwart the corrupt.

Acacia avenue <<>

AS A spectacle, the four-hour drive to Teluk Binjai from Pekanbaru, capital of Riau province on the island of Sumatra, tends to the monochrome. Mile after mile of palm-oil plantation alternates with mile after mile of regimented lines of acacia trees, grown for pulpwood. Only an occasional banana grove or superannuated rubber plantation offers a spot of variety. Mountainously laden timber lorries ply the interprovincial highway, their loads of acacia logs almost brushing as they pass. In one direction is the mill of Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper, a subsidiary of APP, part of the Sinar Mas group; in the other that of APRIL, Sumatra’s other big pulp-and-paper producer.

Everybody's friend <<>

IN MOST other respects this is a golden age for Indonesian diplomacy. Its relations with its neighbours are sometimes prickly, especially with Malaysia, with which it squabbles over everything from maritime boundaries to the treatment of migrant workers. And there will always be some resentment of Singapore, a regional haven for the wealthy and, at times, a bolthole for fugitives from Indonesian justice. But these two are also partners with Indonesia in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), so they are among its closest allies. In general Indonesia is on good terms with all countries.

Borobudur Green Map Project

Borobudur Green Map Launched

Wed, 06/10/2009 1:01 PM

YOGYAKARTA: Borobudur Green Map was launched Monday in an effort to preserve the old Buddhist temple and its surrounding area.

Green Map program coordinator Kristanti Wisnu Aji Wardani revealed the map described the geographical site of the temple and social conditions around the tourist destination.

"So far tourists only visit the temple and back home. Actually, there are so many interesting things in villages around the temple," Kristanti said after the launch ceremony at Ngaran hamlet, Borobudur village, Magelang regency.

She said 20 hamlets around the temple had tourism potential.

"Many of the tourists don't know about the hamlets."

Any thoughts from anyone?

What is the Green Map organisation?




You can find out about Green Map here.

This is their mission statement...
Engaging communities worldwide to chart a sustainable future - for all of us!

Green Map System empowers a diverse global movement mapping green living, nature, social and cultural resources in cities, villages and neighborhoods in over 50 countries.

Developing local sustainability networks, we expand the demand for healthier, more vibrant communities with our adaptable mapmaking tools and universal icons, multi-lingual participatory websites, workshops and regional hubs.

Working collaboratively since 1995, Green Maps bring people of all ages together to discover, share and care for their communities. Get involved and support this award-winning perspective-changing movement.

NGO Claims Orangutans in Zoos are Stressed

NGO Claims Orangutans Stressed, Neglected in Zoos

The Center for Orangutan Protection, citing a three-day survey conducted in April, claimed on Wednesday that orangutans in zoos across Java were suffering from unabashed neglect and severe depression.

The nongovernmental organization, blaming an overall failure by local zookeepers to properly operate institutions established to provide sanctuary to the endangered primates, said they had observed 28 orangutans in five local zoos — Bandung, Jakarta, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta.

“The result shows that the orangutans live in poor conditions; most of them are living in stressful conditions and display abnormal behavior,” said Luki Wardhani, the center’s captivity researcher. “We urge the government to immediately follow up our findings.”

She said the animals were stressed out to the point that they were drinking their own urine, banging their heads, eating their own vomit, circling restlessly and masturbating.

“These are symptoms of depression, just the same as in humans,” Luki said. “These are only the ones seen by the public, those put on show. What about the others not on display?”

The complete article is here.

Any thoughts?

Write them in the COMMENTS below.

Reforrestation Project in Yogya

10,000 seeds planted to green Yogyakarta

Mon, 06/01/2009

YOGYAKARTA: To make Yogyakarta a greener city, Mayor Herry Zudianto started to cultivate 10,000 seeds of various plants in the city, on Sunday.

Herry symbolically handed over the seeds to 45 subdistrict heads who would plant the seeds with residents.

"Hopefully, the additional 10,000 trees will make the city greener. The residents were asked to get involved to keep the trees from dying," Herry said.

The seeds will be planted along the city's main roads, such as Jl. Parangtritis, Jl. Gondomanan and Jl. Mataram.

Can anyone tell where the photograph was taken?

Disappearing Languages

NEWS FLASH!




The United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, says more than a third of the world's six thousand languages are in danger of extinction. Of those two thousand, it says, about two hundred are spoken by only a handful of people.

Download and listen to this news story here.

Here is the text:

When a language dies, UNESCO says the world loses valuable cultural heritage - a great deal of the legends, poems and the knowledge gathered by generations is simply lost. In 2008, Alaska's last native speaker of Eyak died, taking the language with her.

Chief Marie Smith Jones, praying here for the survival of the Eyaks. She died at the age of eighty-nine, campaigning to save her people's heritage.

UNESCO says government action is needed if the world is to preserve its linguistic diversity. People must be proud to speak their language to ensure it survives.

In the last five years, the governments of Mexico, New Zealand and the United States managed to reverse the trend locally. But UNESCO says the phenomenon of dying languages appears in every region and in very diverse economic conditions.

Here are some of the words and idioms used in the news report:

• UNESCO - short for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

• valuable cultural heritage - features belonging to a particular society, such as traditions, languages, buildings or works of art, which still exist from the past, are unique and therefore have a historical importance

• a great deal of - many, a lot of

• legends - old stories presented as history but unlikely to be true

• native speaker of... - someone whose first language, or mother tongue, is...

• campaigning - taking action aimed at achieving a goal

• to preserve its linguistic diversity - to save the great number of languages currently spoken

• to reverse the trend - to make sure people are encouraged to speak rare languages, so those languages can survive

Any thoughts on this?

There are many problems in this world. Is 'disappearing languages' something for us to worry about?

Do you speak a language that is disappearing?

How many of you will not teach your children the mother tongue your parents spoke and used with you?

Is English your second language? Third language? Fourth language?


Comments, thoughts, opinions in the COMMENTS below please.