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Malaysia: Lessons from the flooding disaster

Mong Palatino · 21:57, January 19th, 2009 · East Asia

lingua → fr · mg · sw · zht · zhs · es

Last week, flooding hit several areas in the Sarawak State of Malaysia. More than 8,000 people in the Bau District were evacuated in 24 temporary shelters. The flooding was the worst in three years. Water level rose up to the waist level.

bau

flood
Flooding in Bau, Sarawak. Pictures from the blog of Denis

a better future advises the government to sum up the lessons of the flooding disaster:

“Immediate relief was going on quite well but the Government could have done better if they had marked all the flood sections of the roads with bamboo poles or other alternatives with clear signs to show how deep the flood level is. It would have made it easier for monitoring as well as for traffic to decide whether to “swim” through or not. These markers can be used for future planning especially in the upgrading of the main trunk roads.

“Thus unless we have proper records of flood levels in flood prone areas to guide future planning and implementation of projects, we will have more unnecessary problems due to poor implementations by the respective agencies involved in future.

“Hopefully the Government has learned all the lessons so that future floods will be less disruptive, not only in Bau but throughout Sarawak and if possible Malaysia. The main trunk roads should be built to be weather-proof, meaning the level to which they must be constructed must be above the highest known flood level. Police stations and critical government buildings must be sited in non flood prone areas, where possible. If not, then the site of any buildings should be dumped to raise it above the known flood level at the very least. Access to these buildings must be also flood proofed where possible.”

The Lost Aborigine urges leaders to prioritize the flooding issue over other foreign matters:

“How about the flood relief to those affected area especially those poor villages like Serian, Padawan, Bau and some in Sibu and Miri? Why we so busy with Gaza but our own people are helpless and dying? The Malaysian attitude is that we ignore our household affair and get busy with other issue that it less related to us.”

Nana Natu notes that the flooding was the worst in 20 years:

“Sarawak River showed yesterday its might when it burst it banks and water spilled into Kuching Waterfront.And the floods descrides by Kuchingites as the worst flood in 20 years, caused massive trafic jam, halted business and caused panic among some who anticipated that worst was yet to come. There were no warnings. The flood this year is worse then the one in 2004.And the floods caused 119 schools closed.”

Sounding Intelligent writes the possible causes of the flooding:

“I am in no position to say what the actual cause of the recent flood is but I firmly believe that it is man-made. After all, who constructed levees that forced rivers into narrow channels? Who destructed the wetlands that once absorbed excess rainfall? Who contributed to global warming?

“Global warming is a real threat. It is affecting weather patterns, creating a modest increase in violent downpours and melting ice all over the world, causing an avalanche of effects.

“Despite these warnings, some people still continue to be selfish, refuse to switch to cleaner fuels or reduce their carbon footprints somehow.”

The flooding disaster was not limited to Malaysia. Flooding also hit several parts of the Philippines, Indonesia and Fiji.

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Guyana: Flooding Controversy

Janine Mendes-Franco · 14:23 · Americas

lingua → fr · zht · zhs · es

Guyana has been experiencing severe bouts of flooding recently, causing damage to crops and livestock and outrage among bloggers. This flooding phenomenon is nothing new, but the latest development in the story - Oxfam International's rapid assessment survey which categorizes the flooding as “a full blown natural disaster” - has only added to the controversy.

Living Guyana, the first blog to draw attention to the report, comments:

All of this while the government has instructed the state media not to use the word ‘flooding' but rather to use ‘water accumulation'. Government officials refuse to accept that there is a disaster on the ground even as Oxfam has deemed the situation a natural disaster.

He goes on to criticize some mainstream media for failing to pay attention to the story, but lauds “the efficient Capitol News” for carrying the story in detail, “including an interview with a local Oxfam official.” The government also gets its fair share of criticism from the blogger, who continues to quote the Oxfam report:

Weak coordination on the ground. No large scale responses by stakeholders.

As if to prove his point, Living Guyana makes another observation:

At 12:09pm today the Minister of Agriculture was proudly LIMING ON FACEBOOK and commenting on Ruel Johnson's page.

Does he not have work to do instead of LIMING ON FACEBOOK? Like helping people bailing out water from their houses? Is this what we are paying him taxpayers money for? To be LIMING ON FACEBOOK…while people are up to their noses in water?

Not surprisingly, rumours abound over strained relations between Oxfam and the Guyanese government, which the aid organisation is playing down, even as Guyana's National Disaster Coordinator calls its motives “suspect”.

This, of course, has not stopped bloggers from widely quoting the contents of the report - and it appears that heads are rolling. Living Guyana was the first to report that “head of the Presidential Secretariat and Guyana's National Disaster Coordinator Dr. Roger Luncheon today fired Retired Major General Michael Atherly as head of the Civil Defence Commission which was tasked with coordinating government's response to the flooding in the East Coast of Demerara and the Mahaica Mahaicony Abary region.” He also comments on the curious timing of the move:

This action comes just two days after the Oxfam report slammed the government response to the ongoing flooding disaster as weak. The report was dismissed by various government officials but it appears as though it has stung the government into action even though Oxfam did not blame the CDC, claiming that the body had lacked the resources to execute its mandate having been starved of such by the government.

It would appear as though Ret Maj Gen Atherly is being made a scapegoat for the government's poorly coordinate response even as the government refuses to declare the heavily flooded MMA region a disaster area and even refuses to accept that there is an ongoing flood, preferring instead to deem it ‘water accumulation' while using the state owned media to peddle cheap propaganda on the issue. The stated own National Communications Network and Guyana Chronicle have been quietly banned by the Office of the President from using the word ‘flood' in their news reports.

Soon after that entry, Living Guyana posts aerial photos of the flooding courtesy Guyana Providence Stadium. But the thing that seems to be upsetting bloggers the most is the apparent absence of strong leadership in the midst of a crisis:

Where is our leader? Where is our president?

He is gallivanting, cavorting and carrying on on a useless three nation trip to Libya, Greece and Qatar which are all minor global players with no clout who will bring no major investments to Guyana. This trip will bring a total of ZERO benefit to Guyana and it takes place at the same time that Mahaica and Mahaicony residents are in water up to their necks and East Coast residents have been under water for over three weeks now.

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Palestine: Assessing the Aftermath in Gaza

Ayesha Saldanha · 09:20 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → fr · it

On Sunday evening the Israel Defense Forces began a troop withdrawal from Gaza, following three straight weeks of attacks. Israel's unilateral ceasefire was announced earlier in the day, and met with an offer for a one-week ceasefire from Hamas, the full text of which is here. Bloggers in Gaza, able to safely leave their homes for the first time in weeks, are mulling over the events of the day.

Palestinian photojournalist Sameh Habeeb blogs at Gaza Strip, The Untold Story:

Thousands of people appeared on the Gaza streets. Everybody is trying to explore what has happened to his relatives, houses and areas. I have documented a massive devastation throughout east, north and west of Gaza Strip. The devastation storms everything needed for normal life. Houses, schools, hospitals, clinics, police stations, charities, universities and streets totally and partially destroyed.

Australian activist Sharyn Lock, who writes at Tales to Tell, updates us:

So you remember I wrote this about Wed morning Jan 14:
“While there, heard shouting, went up stairs to see medic S covered in blood, he had just carried a little girl in from the street who snipers had shot in face and abdomen. We saw her father fall on the hospital stairs, having been shot in the leg. Mother was panicking, shouting there was another girl left behind. S, I and other medics went out to get her, found her not far away, S took her on his shoulders into the hospital. The other medics and I realised they were just the beginning of a stream of desperate people fleeing their buildings, many of which were on fire.”
This was the Batran family. Faddel al Batran, 54, was shot in the leg. Yasmine, 12, was the girl we went to bring in. Haneen, 9, was the one shot in the face and abdomen: I knew she had been taken straight into surgery at Al-Quds. Today [January 17] I found out that she was transferred to Al-Shifa [hospital] and died shortly afterwards.

Last night [January 16] they bombed another UNRWA school in which homeless people had taken refuge in Beit Lahia. There are 36 wounded, including 14 children. Two boys aged 3 and 8 are dead. John Ging of UNRWA was on the TV being coldly furious. But as I type (I’ll be reading this out over the phone to the UK for uploading) a truce has apparently begun. It is strangely quiet. Everyone desperately wants to hope it’ll have some meaning.

In a post published on January 18 she says:

The planes are still buzzing overhead, but there have been no explosions near me today. However this supposed ceasefire from Israeli’s side since 2am does not seem to have extended to Beit Hanoun, where there was shelling this morning and F16s were attacking.

Canadian activist, Eva Bartlett, blogs at In Gaza:

Today [January 18] was the first day that medics and journalists were able to reach areas occupied by the invading Israeli troops. Palestinians by this point, by weeks ago, were desperate for any semblance of a normal life, though normality here is far from normality anywhere else. They were desperate to return to their homes, survey the damage and if possible repair it, find displaced family members, or their corpses, as well as neighbours, friends. Not everyone returned home to stay; many could be seen returning to where their homes were, or had stood, to retrieve anything worthwhile. Donkey carts and taxis were piled with blankets, clothes, cooking pots, cupboards, pieces of furniture, people… […] I have so much to tell, so many photos that don’t do justice to the suffering, heart-break, trauma, psychological damage, and despondency of people here. So many smells ingrained in my memory, that when sniffed will bring images of dead children, burned houses, chemical fires. Slamming doors will forever remind of the missiles slamming the earth, the life below. […] While the bombs may have stopped, for now, the terror remains. F-16s still flew low, terrifyingly low, today, so loud, so unpredictable. No one here has any reason to believe any words Israeli leaders proclaim. Only reason to believe in the worst. But out of necessity, we must hope for the best.

Mutasharrid (‘homeless person’ or ‘vagrant’) is a school pupil in Khuza'a, east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, who has lost many friends:

لا أستطيع أن أغيّب وجوههم عنّي ، وجوه أراها في كل وقت و في كل مكان في هذه البلدة الصغيرة جداً ، لا أستطيع أن أتجاهلك يا سليمان وأنت تتحرك بخفّة محاولاً تجنب النظر إلى نقطة رباطك على ثغر البلدة ، نعم أستطيع أن أميّزك رغم لثامك حينها ، يوميا الساعة الثامنة تماما أراك .. لا أدري ما سرّ هذه الساعة لكن الشباك يكون فيها ملجأي بشكل لا إرادي
نور .. نور ، أيضاً لا أستطيع أن أتجاهل وجهك صباحا في طريقي لمدرستي وأنت لجامعتك ، آخر مرة حدثته فيها كانت قبل أن يحدث هذا كله و سألته كم تبقى لك في الجامعة ؟ أجابني ” هذا الفصل الأخير لأتحرر .. وأتخرج ” ، نِلتَ تخرجك مبكراً يا صاحب الإبتسامة الأوسع ، مبارك لك و عليك يا صديقي
ممدوح .. ممدوح .. ممدوح ، اللعنة ! ماذا أكتب فيك ؟ ولمَ أبدو هذه اللحظة عندما أحاول أن أكتب لك سخيفاً كرئيس دولة في قمة عربية ؟ .. كسرت قلبي يا ممدوح ، كيف لك أن تسرق نفسك منّا ؟ كيف تحرمنا من إبتسامتك و حضورك المازح دوماً .. لن أسامحك ، أؤمن بأنه كانت لديك فرصة لتنجو لكنك آثرت الرحيل ، فرصة لم يحظى بها غسّان مثلا ..

I cannot get their faces to leave me, the faces I see at all times and in all places in this very small town. I cannot shut my eyes to you, Sulaiman, moving lightly; I'm trying to avoid looking at the spot where you held your position at the town entrance – yes, I can distinguish you even though your scarf covers you. Every day at 8 o'clock exactly I see you. I don't know what the secret of this time is, but the window becomes my refuge without me wanting it to.
Noor… Noor, I cannot ignore your face either, in the morning on my way to school and you to your university. The last time I talked to him was before all this happened, and I asked him, “How much longer do you have at university?” He answered, “This is the last class before I am free, and graduate.” You got your graduation early, my wide-smiled friend, congratulations to you.
Mamdouh… Mamdouh… Mamdouh… Damn it! What shall I write to you? Why do I think of the moment when as a joke I tried to write to you as a head of state at an Arab summit? … You have broken my heart, Mamdouh – how could you let yourself be stolen from us? How could you deprive us of your smile and your presence, forever joking… I will never forgive you, I believe that you had a chance to save yourself but chose death, an opportunity that Ghassan did not have, for example…

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Ecuador: Correa Faces Pressure From Indigenous Groups

Milton Ramirez · 01:55 · Americas

lingua → de · it · es · jp

“Young People, Work and Development for an INTAG (cloud forest reserve) free of contamination and free of mining!” Image by d∂wn and used under Creative Commons lisense.

Despite protests and road blockades in southen Ecuador, a new mining law [es] (pdf format) was passed in Congress. Now the new bill will head to the executive branch for final approval from President Rafael Correa. Opposition to the bill is coming from indigenous groups, who have called for a national march to be held on January 20 to protest the government's support for the new law.

The mobilization is being led by the country's largest indigenous organization, the National Confederation of Indigenous Nations (CONAIE), which is stating that there was very little discussion regarding the new law and that it will be harmful to the environment and is going against the sovereignty of indigenous communities. What makes this march especially interesting is that these communities have been generally very supportive of Correa and his administration, and now they are leading the way against his policies.

The last time Ecuador has seen mobilizations of this magnitude was in 2005, when protests forced then-President Lucio Gutiérrez from office. They are even attracting the support of other indigenous groups [es], such as the Indigenous Movement Confederation of Chimborazo (COMICH) in the northern part of the country. Up until now, many of these sectors have been content with President Rafael Correa, but now he is dismissing the actions of these groups led by CONAIE. This confederation, according to blogger Inca Kola is “a smart, canny intelligent political animal” and that it is leading the movement for the promotion of indigenous sovereignty.

One blogger, Fernando Doylet of Madurando Con Sentido [es] is backing the indigenous protests and suggests that local communities decide what is best for their territories and that they should have veto power:

En mi humilde opinion, lo mejor que puede hacer el gobierno (por medio del Ministerio correspondiente) es dejar que los gobiernos locales decidan si autorizan o no la mineria en sus areas geograficas; y si la mayoria de la poblacion rechaza lo que decida el gobierno local, pues que lo cambie.

No creo que ninguna ley deba obligar o negarle sus derechos a los pobladores de un sector; y si tanto le interesa al gobierno central, tiene que ser convencer a la gente, en lugar de simplemente ignorarlos.

In my humble opinion, the best that this government could do (through the proper Ministry) is allow for local governments to decide whether or not they authorize mining in their geographic areas; and if the majority of the population rejects what the local government decides, then they should change it.

I don't think that no law should force or deny the rights of residents of an area; and if it such an interest for the central government, then they must convince the people, instead of simply ignoring them.

Other issues are also at stake. La Voz de Guamote [es] writes about an environmental group Acción Ecológica (Ecological Action) that protested outside the Legislative Palace and participated in a hunger strike. One of the major complaints of this new mining law is that it will jeopardize sources of water for area residents. However, one blogger is making light of this complaint. El Botulista Independiente [es] writes a satirical post regarding solving the water contamination problem:

La explotación de oro y cobre proporcionará al Estado más de cien mil millones de dólares. Con esas cantidades, sin lugar a dudas nos sobrarían recursos para importar agua embotellada. Si bien es cierto que la minería a cielo abierto no es 100 % segura, el gobierno ha previsto la firma de un convenio con la compañía francesa Evian, para asegurar a nuestros campesinos el acceso a agua de la mejor calidad para sus cultivos.

The exploitation of gold and copper will provide the state more than one billion dollars. With that amount, undoubtedly there will be a surplus of resources so that we can import bottled water. While open pit mining is not 100% safe, the government has planned the signing of an agreement with the French company Evian, to ensure that our farmers gain access to the best quality water for their crops.

However, not all indigenous groups are against the new mining law. The community coordinator of the Shuar indigenous group, Antonio Chirias, believes that the new mining law will help his Amazonian community in the country's Orient region [es]. The previously quoted blogger Inca Kola, who writes on economic and banking issues across Latin America believes that the mining law deserves attention and applauds the president, “Correa has done great service to his country via this new law. It banishes the speculators and wide-boys from the scene, it protects the environment (I mean, woe betide any miner that tries to cut corners on this piece of statute) and it will allow Ecuador to grow as a country in a responsible way.”

On January 20, the eyes of the world will be on the U.S. for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama and the eyes of Ecuador will be on the marches planned for the same day. President Correa will face a challenge from the protests of groups that have historically supported his government. As B.P.L.E [es] writes: