Wave of misery (tsunami updates Asia and global)

[Guest guest]

Hi,

 

Here is the Global Development Briefing regarding the latest tsunami

information.

Also, Promed has been warning about the dangers of foreigners working in

Asia

from taking zoonotic diseases back to their own countries (eg Avian

influenza which

has killed humans etc).

 

Marguerite

 

Global Development Briefing - Wave of Misery

 

" The longer term effects may be nearly as devastating as the Tsunami

itself. "

 

- UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland, in the early hours after

an undersea earthquake on Dec. 26 trigged massive tidal waves throughout

southern Asia. The United Nations has warned of epidemics within days

unless health systems in the region can cope after tens of thousands of

people were killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless by a giant

tsunami on Dec. 26. Worst hit was Indonesia, where authorities estimate

that the country's coastlines can count at least 80,000 victims and

would bring the potential death toll to over 116,000 across 12 nations,

with numbers expected to rise. Death was so widespread in Sri Lanka -

more than 27,000 people died - that the government waived rules

requiring an autopsy before burial. More than 7,000 were killed in India

and some 2,000 in Thailand. Scores were also killed in Malaysia,

Myanmar, Bangladesh, and the Maldives. The giant waves raced nearly

3,000 miles to east Africa, causing deaths in Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya

and Seychelles. Fresh trauma awaits many of the estimated 5 million

people displaced by the waves, as they try to find shelter, water and

food, and cope with the psychological effects of their experiences. U.S.

President, George W. Bush has announced that he is forming a coalition

or " core group " with Japan, India, and Australia to coordinate relief

efforts.

Global Development Briefing - Wave of Misery

December 30, 2004

 

THE WEEK IN REVIEW Read the Global Development Briefing -- in Full

 

INTERNATIONAL

 

U.N. ROUND-UP: On day three of the massive United Nations relief effort

after the devastating Asian tsunami, senior officials issued an

immediate call for $130 million ahead of a much vaster appeal next week,

stressed that coordination was now vital to save hundreds of thousands

of lives, and set a 12-month deadline to install an early warning system

to prevent a repeat disaster. **** The United Nations described efforts

in the wake of the south Asian tsunami as the biggest international aid

operation in history .Epidemics could soon plague southern Asia, the

United Nations warned. UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland

pointed to the danger caused by " contaminated water and bodies " for the

looming outbreak of typhoid, hepatitis, diarrhea and cholera in the

countries ravaged on Sunday (Dec. 26) by tsunamis. **** Some two dozen

African countries face food emergencies despite normal or above-average

food production in others during 2004, says the FAO. The UN agency said

food security in sub-Saharan Africa has been hit by several factors,

including drought, invasions by crop-devouring locusts and civil

conflicts. **** About 260,000 people in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur

region will miss their food ration this month because the World Food

Programme (WFP) has been forced to suspend its relief convoys after

rebels this week launched a large-scale attack on a nearby town and

government forces retaliated. **** UNESCO announced that it has joined

with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in a

two-year project to reduce the impact of the HIV/AIDS crisis in a dozen

Arab and Asian countries through education. The OPEC Fund, a

multilateral development finance institution established in 1976, is to

provide $2.25 million for the project, which will focus on information

and education, assistance to ministries, teaching programmes and

curriculum enhancement. The countries involved are Afghanistan,

Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Syria,

Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Viet Nam.

 

 

IMF & WORLD BANK ROUND-UP: Both the Asian Development Bank and the World

Bank put the likely cost of coping with the disaster at around $10 to

$15 billion. International lenders offered to help Asian nations

devastated by recent tsunamis. World Bank president James Wolfensohn

told in a written statement that the organization is mulling over

diverting resources or granting emergency loans to meet " the immediate

humanitarian needs in the countries hit by this disaster. " IMF managing

director Rodrigo Rato said that the institution is " ready to do its part

to assist these nations with appropriate support in their time of need. "

**** Southern Asia will need billions of dollars in assistance to

recover from the calamity generated by the latest earthquake and

tsunamis that struck the region, the World Bank predicted. A bank

spokesman said the lender is likely to devise a support package with

financing magnitude similar to its $5.3-billion response plan for

Central America following Hurricane Mitch in 1998. **** As the World

Bank and IMF assess economic costs to South Asian governments of the

cataclysmic tsunami, the current outpouring of aid could mean

international lenders won't need to step in with new loans. Paul

Freeman, author of an IMF research paper on natural disaster risks, said

it was too early to say whether countries would require balance of

payments support from the fund. He estimated that economic losses from

natural disasters will average $40 billion a year, a more than sevenfold

increase in losses since the 1960s. **** With the world economy making

positive headway in the year 2004, the poorest continent, Africa, also

sees developments, showing signs of recovery. But experts are cautious

to say whether the lukewarm growth can kindle its economy that's long

been marginalized. The world economy grew 4.1 percent in 2004, while

sub-Saharan Africa registered an above-average 4.5 percent in the same

year, according to IMF projections. Some of the non-oil producing

African countries made remarkable changes during the past decade.

Fifteen countries in Africa, including Uganda, Ethiopia and Burkina

Faso, have averaged growth of over 5 percent per year since the

mid-1990s, said the World Bank's vice president for Africa, Gobind

Nankani.

 

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

 

IVORY COAST: A United Nations report has found proof of torture, mass

executions and rape over the past two years in Ivory Coast, reports

Liberation (France). The unpublished report accuses both sides in the

Ivorian civil war of violations of human rights. It includes a secret

list of 200 people who could face prosecution or UN sanctions,

Liberation says. Since a failed a coup against President Gbagbo in 2002,

the country has been wracked by civil conflict and has been left in a

state of division. Rebels fighting President Laurent Gbagbo currently

control the northern half of Ivory Coast. The newspaper said the

100-page report lays out " the nightmare of Ivory Coast in all its

horror. " UN peacekeepers filmed many of the abuses, and evidence could

later be used in war crimes prosecutions. Meanwhile, President Gbagbo

has called on the UN to impose sanctions on neighboring countries

involved in Ivory Coast's two year conflict. The BBC reports he said a

leaked UN report detailing widespread abuses showed the country was a

victim of deserting soldiers backed by neighbors.

 

AMERICAS & CARIBBEAN

 

UNITED STATES: A suggestion by a UN official that the world's richest

nations were " stingy " irritated the Bush administration, especially when

U.S. aid for Asia's earthquake is expected to eventually rise from the

millions to more than $1 billion, AP reports. " We were more generous

when we were less rich, many of the rich countries, " said Jan Egeland -

the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator and former head of the

Norwegian Red Cross - to challenge the giving of rich nations. " And it

is beyond me, why are we so stingy, really.... Even Christmas time

should remind many Western countries at least how rich we have become. "

The comment reopened the question of how to measure American generosity.

The answer ultimately depends on the measuring stick. AP notes that the

U.S. government is always near the top in total humanitarian aid dollars

- even before private donations are counted - but it finishes near the

bottom of the list of rich countries when that money is compared to GNP.

The chief of U.S. Agency for International Development, which

distributes foreign aid, was quick to point out Dec. 28 that foreign

assistance for development and emergency relief rose from $10 billion in

President Clinton's last year to $24 billion under President Bush in

2003. Secretary of State Colin Powell said assistance for this week's

earthquake and tsunamis alone will eventually exceed $1 billion.

 

ASIA & PACIFIC

 

SOUTHEAST ASIA: Hundreds of tonnes of emergency supplies of tarpaulins,

water purification systems, food and medicines poured into Asia on Dec.

30, but little was reaching injured, sick and hungry tsunami survivors,

Reuters reported. Some survivors have seen no aid since the tsunami

struck on Sunday due to the inaccessibility of the worst hit areas, cut

off from the outside world by flooding and downed bridges, and the sheer

magnitude of the disaster affecting many countries. Aid started pouring

into Indonesia only to stop at the airport due to a lack of fuel for

trucks to move it. Rescue workers were still struggling to reach some

cut off areas and many have been too busy recovering the thousands of

disfigured and bloated corpses to help deliver aid. The UN admits only a

fraction of aid is getting to where it is needed as the death toll rose

above 116,000. Aid officials say the next stage of the tsunami disaster

could be the spread of deadly diseases like cholera, through

contaminated water, which could double the death toll. U.S., Japanese

and Australian naval ships were steaming towards the disaster area with

onboard hospitals and water desalination plants. Seven of the U.S. ships

can produce 90,000 gallons of fresh water a day and one ship can deploy

a field hospital ashore when it arrives in Thailand in about a week.