Archive for October 10th, 2014

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10/10/2014

Airpocalypse Hits Beijing… and Breaks Devastating New Record

Human Wrongs Watch

By Zhang Kai*, 10 October, 2014, Greenpeace — Usually it’s only locals that have to suffer through Beijing’s notorious air pollution. But as records in air quality are smashed, celebrities and sport stars in town this week are forced to power through as well. Mariah Carey, top cyclists and football star Lionel Messi will get a taste today of Airpocalypse – episodes of extreme air pollution.

Source: Greenpeace/Wu Di

Credit: Wu Di/Greenpeace

For the first time this year, air quality reached “hazardous levels”, or 215 times “safe” levels, for over 50 hours. This is the longest Beijingers have been forced to breathe this sort of air this year.

Parents, children, students and even visiting football star, Lionel Messi who is in Beijing for a football match this year, have been going about their daily business in air so noxious and thick with pollutants that visibility is down to 500 metres.

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Posted in Asia, Market Lords, Mother Earth, The Peoples | Leave a Comment »

10/10/2014

In South Sudan, a Single Mother’s Fight For Survival

Human Wrongs Watch

‘Forced to flee violence and struggling to feed her three children, a woman in South Sudan is one of thousands to get help from a UNICEF/WFP Rapid Response Mission – and one of millions still trying desperately to survive.’

© UNICEF South Sudan/2014/Donovan | Cuaca, 22, with her daughters Nyadieng, Mawiek and Nyawech, waiting to receive food vouchers during a UNICEF/WFP Rapid Response Mission in Pathai, Jonglei State, South Sudan. She has already spent several hours waiting to register.

© UNICEF South Sudan/2014/Donovan | Cuaca, 22, with her daughters Nyadieng, Mawiek and Nyawech, waiting to receive food vouchers during a UNICEF/WFP Rapid Response Mission in Pathai, Jonglei State, South Sudan. She has already spent several hours waiting to register.

By Kate Donovan, Pathai, South Sudan, 10 October 2014 (UNICEF)* -– The remoteness of Cuaca’s new home makes it a hard place to raise her three children. There are no roads, markets, hospitals or schools. Two of the four wells in the village are broken, while the population that depends on this water has doubled.

“I fled because I am afraid of guns and afraid to be shot and killed,” says Cuaca, an elegant woman of 22 years who is waiting in line to register with UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP), who have arrived here by helicopter with life-saving supplies and services, the first humanitarian aid in nine months.

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Posted in Africa, Mother Earth, The Peoples | 2 Comments »

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