"Pneumonia is new threat to storm-battered Philippines" by Keith Bradsher | New York Times, November 23, 2013
TACLOBAN, Philippines — Two weeks after Typhoon Haiyan devastated the east-central Philippines, a new problem has emerged: pneumonia.
Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes and are living under tarpaulins and in makeshift huts across Leyte Island and nearby islands. These simple structures are proving no match for torrential rain and a rapid alternation of chilly breezes and sweltering heat.
Three Philippines Department of Health officials said in separate interviews Friday that acute respiratory infections, including pneumonia, were the biggest single public health problem to emerge since the typhoon.
Concerns about pneumonia came as the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council, a Philippines government agency, said the death toll had reached 5,209 by Friday evening.
The agency uses a conservative figure for deaths that relies on bodies being found and logged by officials.
At a meeting on Friday, representatives of several dozen domestic and foreign medical groups described the latest health concerns....
Dr. Rajiv Shah, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development, said in a telephone interview from Washington on Friday that the US government was concerned about reports of pneumonia in typhoon-affected areas.
AID = CIA
Shah said better shelter, nutrition, and clean water were crucial to preventing a further spread of acute respiratory infections in the upcoming months.
Good way to kill a lot of people off if you are a sick globalist freak with weather control technology.
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I thought the Globe had forgotten the Philippines for I had not seen any coverage over the last three days. Plenty about Syria, Iran, and the overall war agenda every day though!
"Filipinos’ plight improving slowly, aid groups say; Major roads are cleared, fuel now more accessible" by Austin Ramzy | New York Times, November 18, 2013
TACLOBAN, Philippines — International aid groups said Sunday that conditions in the typhoon disaster zone were gradually improving, as more international aid flowed into the country and Philippine community groups expanded their role in the relief effort.
That looks kind of hollow after four days. Is there nothing the agenda-pushing pre$$ won't distort?
“I think in the last few days we’ve managed to overcome some of the obvious structural and logistical issues,” said Matthew Cochrane, spokesman for the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Major roads have been cleared, cellphone service is getting better, and fuel is becoming more widely available, Cochrane said. Some electricity is available in small amounts through diesel generators. There is no running water, but people were receiving water supplied by tankers.
“We’re going to be able to push aid out and get assistance to people who need it,” Cochrane said.
“It’s been more than a week; there’s a lot of people who haven’t received assistance. I guess the message is that progress is being made,’’ he said.
But, he added, “we’re very aware that it needs to be more, it needs to be faster, it needs to be better.”
President Benigno Aquino III said Sunday that he will stay in typhoon-battered Leyte province until he sees more progress in the aid effort, the Associated Press reported. Aquino was responding to complaints from survivors that they have yet to receive proper help.
Aquino is expected to set up camp in Tacloban, the capital of the hard-hit province, but it is not clear where he will find suitable accommodations. Virtually every building in the city was damaged or destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan, which killed 3,974 people, according to the latest official count released Sunday. The storm left about 1,200 people missing.
Aquino said Sunday that although there has been some progress in the aid effort, it is not enough. The international community has donated aid and cash worth more than $248 million, which is beginning to show improvements on the ground.
‘‘We really want to ease the burden of everybody as soon as possible. As long as I don’t see any more improvements, we’ll stay here,’’ Aquino said, referring to his official team.
As far as I know he is still there.
Presidential spokesman Ricky Carandang said Aquino wanted to ensure that the distribution of relief goods goes on smoothly and power is restored soon in this city of 220,000.
On Sunday, thousands of Filipinos, many homeless and grieving, flocked to dozens of churches across the region for their first Sunday Mass since the typhoon struck. More than 80 percent of the 90 million people in the Philippines are Roman Catholic.
The Nov. 8 storm destroyed much of the local government’s ability to function....
The national government has had to step in, sending police officers and troops, including about 1,000 to Tacloban, although local officials have called the response inadequate.
As local governments saw their capacities greatly diminished by the storm, religious and community groups have vastly expanded their roles....
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Also see:
Volunteers collect donations for the Philippines
Boston medical teams aid typhoon victims
US-built airstrip is conduit for relief
Hope and heroes surface!
"Typhoon survivors facing hunger, squalor; Despair growing in Philippines; 4 million ousted from their homes" by Austin Ramzy | New York Times, November 19, 2013
BASEY, Philippines — As the Philippines begins to clean up after the worst typhoon in memory, it is faced with a huge problem of feeding and housing its displaced population....
That will not be solved any time soon.
“People are saying, ‘We don’t want a message of hope. We want food,’ ” said Basey’s mayor, Junji Ponferrada.
More than $270 million in foreign aid has been donated to help the victims of the typhoon, which killed at least 3,976 people and left nearly 1,600 missing, according to government figures updated Monday.
Amid concerns that some of that aid money may be illegally diverted, the government of President Benigno Aquino III announced Monday it has established a website called the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub where funds given by foreign donors can be tracked, the Associated Press reported.
Corruption is a concern after any major natural disaster, as millions of dollars in cash and goods rush in from around the world. But those worries are especially acute in the Philippines, where graft has been a part of life for decades.
Despite the hardships, some battered communities in the disaster zone appeared to be shifting from survival mode to one of recovery Monday. Markets were reopening, though with very limited wares. Some gasoline stations were pumping, and residents were repairing damaged homes or making temporary shelters out of the remains of their old ones....
I guess that is why the Globe dropped coverage until today.
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Related(?):
"Dozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the Midwest on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipped over cars, and uprooted trees. Illinois took the brunt of the fury as the string of unusually powerful late-season tornadoes tore across the state, injuring dozens and even prompting officials at Chicago’s Soldier Field to evacuate the stands and delay the Bears game."
Also see: As twisters neared, alerts were sent in Illinois
"Carbon levels accelerate, UN says" Associated Press, November 07, 2013
GENEVA — World carbon dioxide pollution levels in the atmosphere are accelerating and reached a record high in 2012, the UN weather agency said Wednesday....
So?
Carbon dioxide accounts for three-quarters of the planet’s heat-trapping gases, which scientists say are causing sea levels to rise, glaciers to melt, and some weather patterns to change.
Related: Sunday Globe Special: The Rising Level of Bulls***
Had it with the stinky lies yet?
Methane, another destructive greenhouse gas, traps heat much more effectively but has a shorter life span.
Atmospheric methane also reached a new high....
That's different than carbon dioxide.
Methane comes from natural sources such as wetlands and termites and human activities such as cattle breeding.
And fracking, but that somehow escapes the whoreporate pre$$'s notice.
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"UN climate talks near end, with disagreement on money" by David Jolly | New York Times, November 23, 2013
WARSAW — The UN climate conference ambled toward a conclusion Friday, with delegates saying that the meeting would produce no more than a modest set of measures toward a new international agreement two years from now. As usual, the biggest dispute was over money.
Doesn't that just say it all?
The talks, the 19th annual meeting of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, opened nearly two weeks ago in the shadow of a devastating typhoon in the Philippines.
Is that guy still fasting?
Notice any mention of US military hardware moved into the area has gone down the memory hole?
The disaster added momentum to a proposal by poorer nations for the creation of a new mechanism to compensate developing countries for damage from climate-related disasters.
With the clock winding down and the talks likely to extend into Friday night, the loss-and-damage proposal remained alive. But the wealthy countries that would presumably provide financing for the plan were offering a weaker alternative that would wrap it into an existing area of the climate treaty.“There are no surprises here,” said Ronald Jumeau, a Seychelles diplomat who acts as spokesman for the Alliance of Small Island States, countries likely to be damaged by rising seas and intensive storms. “It’s brinkmanship.”
Jumeau said he had not expected the loss-and-damage negotiations to get far in Warsaw, but that “the concept has now been accepted,” and he would consider it a victory if the issue made it onto the agenda for next year’s talks in Lima, Peru....
Surveying the state of negotiations Thursday, Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN climate body, had sought to play down expectations about the outcome, saying the Warsaw talks should be seen as a “stepping stone” toward reaching a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol at a climate summit meeting in Paris, scheduled for December 2015.
They haven't been able to get a new deal for about five years now.
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NEXT DAY UPDATE: Deal breaks deadlock in UN climate talks
As with the recent negotiations with Iran, I am served deception and distortion by my propaganda press (with nothing about the Philippines in my Sunday Globe).
"Environmental crime wave costs world billions" Associated Press, November 07, 2013
NAIROBI — The illegal cutting of timber and the poaching of elephants and rhinos are part of an increasingly sophisticated and organized crime wave that international governments must combat by boosting cooperation, police and environmental officials said Wednesday.
Using one criminal organization to stop another.
Interpol and the United Nations Environmental Program are working together to stop environmental crimes that cost tens of billions of dollars a year, said Achim Steiner, the program’s executive director. Some 500 law enforcement and environmental experts from around the world are meeting in Nairobi this week to address the problem.
‘‘This is a global phenomenon. This is a global marketplace. These are global syndicates, criminals that are engaging in this trade,’’ said Steiner, who labeled the problem ‘‘a rapidly escalating environmental crime wave.’’
The demand for ivory by China’s rising middle class is fueling the deaths of thousands of elephants across Africa, say experts. An estimated 17,000 elephants were illegally killed in Africa in 2011, according to the UN group.
Officials in China this week reported busting two smuggling rings responsible for trafficking nearly $100 million worth of elephant ivory from Africa, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said.
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Also see: Ivory crushed to highlight slaughter of elephants
Sunday Globe Special: Soup For Supper
Speaking of supper....
