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Wednesday 22nd February 2012
A good thing:
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the only international agency deploying aid workers in Syria, is negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition fighters on a ceasefire for two-hours to bring life-saving aid to civilians hardest hit by the conflict.
Read more: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/red-cross-negotiating-syria-ceasefire-to-bring-aid/
A bad thing:
Via UN Wire: Aid workers will be paying $500 to each of the estimated 20,000 Haitians living in a makeshift camp in the Champ de Mars park in downtown Port-au-Prince, just across the street from the collapsed National Palace, in a bid to shutter the country’s most notorious camp two years after a devastating earthquake. The displaced — like the estimated 135,000 such families nationwide — will mostly have to fend for themselves.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/clearing-earthquake-camps-in-haiti-is-not-pretty/2012/01/27/gIQAnxzNOR_story.html
A thing to change:
Experimental seabed mining could soon begin in the Pacific Ocean despite the risks of an environmental catastrophe and the fact it is not a sustainable development option for indigenous peoples. Experimental seabed mining can completely destroy underwater hydrothermal vents. These vents contain mineral deposits and rich and unique eco-systems. The mining will also involve the transport, stockpiling, trans-shipment and processing of mineral ores and produce millions of tons of toxic wastes, all of which will occur close to remote coastal communities that rely heavily on a healthy sea for their diet and income.
Ask Pacific Leaders not to go ahead with it: http://www.actnowpng.org/content/please-help-stop-experimental-seabed-mining-pacific
