Security

Update: Attacks on WHO Healthcare Workers in Nzerekore Region of Guinea

Thu, 2014-09-18 15:26 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The flutrackers forum has been an excellent source of Ebola-related information. Here is a summary of their updates on the attacks on WHO healthcare workers in the Nzerekore region of Guinea (see actual flutrackers posts in the link below).

Last month (in August 2014) the general market area of Nzerekore was sprayed (to disinfect) by healthcare workers during the night, without the people being informed that the spraying would be taking place.

The people of Nzerekore were angered by this action, so a riot broke out the following morning. Since then, the people of Nzerekore have had an aversion to healthcare workers.

When the WHO healthcare workers arrived (this week) to educate the people on Ebola, they were quickly surrounded and their bodyguards were overcome by large numbers of youth from the village. The WHO healthcare workers and the bodyguards were assaulted, and had to flee for their lives. The number of injured and deaths from this attack has not yet been determined. Some may still be in hiding, or being held hostage.

Healthcare workers should not enter this epicenter region until an understanding with the people of the village is reached.

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Liberian Security Forces Seal Slum

Wed, 2014-08-20 09:20 — JSole

Associated Press

Security forces deployed Wednesday to enforce a quarantine around a slum in the Liberian capital, stepping up the government's fight to stop the spread of Ebola and unnerving residents.

Liberia has the highest death toll of the four West African countries affected by the dreaded disease, and its number of cases is rising the fastest. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf ordered the quarantine and imposed a nighttime curfew that begins Wednesday, saying that authorities have not been able to curtail the spread of Ebola in the face of defiance of their recommendations.

"These measures are meant to save lives," she said in an address Tuesday night.

During the raid this weekend in West Point slum, bloody items were stolen and potential Ebola patients fled, raising fears the disease would spread out of control in a densely populated area. It was not clear why people would steal items that might spread infection, but there are still many misconceptions about how dangerous the disease is and how it is spread.

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Grain Harvest Fact Sheet

Tue, 2014-08-19 20:58 — Maeryn Obley

Rice grains.

Image: Rice grains.

earth-policy.org - August 19th, 2014

With grain providing much of the calories that sustain humanity, the status of the world grain harvest is a good indicator of the adequacy of the food supply.

More than 2 billion tons of grain are produced each year worldwide, nearly half of it in just three countries: China, the United States, and India.

Corn, wheat, and rice account for most of the world’s grain harvest.

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Nigeria Food Security Alert August 8, 2014

Sat, 2014-08-09 09:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

fews.net - August 8, 2014

Summary

A food security crisis persists in northeast Nigeria as the ongoing Boko Haram conflict continues to displace populations and disrupt markets, livelihoods and nutrition services. An estimated three quarters of people living in areas worst affected by conflict have fled their homes due to violence since 2013. In Borno, Yobe and northern Adamawa States, Crisis (IPC Phase 3) acute food insecurity will persist through December, despite the main harvest beginning in October. Approximately one million people in areas worst affected by conflict will continue to face food consumption gaps. Access to households affected and/or displaced by conflict needs to improve in order to ensure that food and nonfood assistance reaches food insecure households.

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World Refugee Day: Global Forced Displacement Tops 50 Million for First Time in Post-World War II Era

Sun, 2014-06-22 21:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Photo: UNHCR

unhcr.org - June 20, 2014

GENEVA, June 20 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency reported today on World Refugee Day that the number of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced people worldwide has, for the first time in the post-World War II era, exceeded 50 million people.

UNHCR's annual Global Trends report, which is based on data compiled by governments and non-governmental partner organizations, and from the organization's own records, shows 51.2 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2013, fully 6 million more than the 45.2 million reported in 2012.

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(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

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An American’s View from a Foxhole in Sudan

Sat, 2014-06-14 18:55 — Kathy Gilbeaux

highcountryhealth.com - by C. Louis “pj” Perrinjaquet, MD - June 12, 2014

As may become clear if you continue reading… I’m a doctor not a writer. But, just as I was compelled to volunteer the past 6 weeks in the Nuba Mts. of Sudan, I am compelled to write and tell the story of what is happening there.

Since May 2011 when the government on Sudan in Khartoum launched a campaign “to exterminate the Nuba people like bugs”, the civilian population has been subjected to daily aerial bombardment and has been denied access to humanitarian aid. Unable to plant crops people are starving to death or surviving on bugs and grass, risking death to venture outside their caves in search of food and water.

The one hospital in the entire Nuba Mts, Mother of Mercy in Gidel, staffed by one fulltime physician, Dr. Tom Catena, have been spared bombardment… until last month.

The following is taken directly from my journal written when the events were fresh.

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Video - Sudan Targets Only Hospital in Nuba Mountains

Sat, 2014-06-14 18:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

nubareports.org - May 5, 2014

On May 1, 2014 the Sudanese Air Force dropped five bombs on the Mother of Mercy Hospital in Gidel - the only hospital in the war-torn Nuba Mountains of South Kordofan State. This is the first time the hospital has been targeted. Doctors and patients alike fear follow-up attacks as a government offensive to the north bears down on the region.

http://nubareports.org/sudan-targets-only-hospital-in-nuba-mountains/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Ly9iW1-t4

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Mob attacks Ebola treatment centre in Guinea, suspected cases reach Mali

Sat, 2014-04-05 09:20 — Elhadj Drame

BAMAKO/CONAKRY, April 4 (Reuters) - An angry crowd attacked an Ebola treatment centre in Guinea on Friday, accusing its staff of bringing the deadly disease to the town, Medecins Sans Frontieres said, as Mali identified its first suspected cases.

More than 90 people have already died in Guinea and Liberia in what medical charity MSF, or Doctors without Borders, has warned could turn into an unprecedented epidemic...

Please click HERE for more of this article

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Ecological Footprint of Consumption Compared to Biocapacity

Sat, 2014-03-15 11:50 — Kathy Gilbeaux

via chartsbin.com

This map compares each country's total consumption Footprint with the biocapacity available within its own borders.

Many countries rely, in net terms, on the biocapacity of other nations to meet domestic demands for goods and services. For example: Japan imports Ecuadorian wood to make paper; Europe imports meat fed on Brazilian soy; the United States imports Peruvian cotton; and China obtains lumber from Tanzania.

World Total Biocapacity: 1.78 gha per capita
World Ecological Footprint of Consumption: 2.7 gha per capita (i.e. we are using more resources than the Earth can provide.)

Currently less than 20 percent of the world's population living in countries that can keep up with their own demands.

What is a global hectare (gha)?

A global hectare is a common unit that encompasses the average productivity of all the biologically productive land and sea area in the world in a given year. Biologically productive areas include cropland, forest and fishing grounds, and do not include deserts, glaciers and the open ocean.

Data source: Global Footprint Network's 2010 Edition.

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Nasa-Funded Study: Industrial Civilisation Headed for Irreversible Collapse?

Sat, 2014-03-15 01:31 — Kathy Gilbeaux

This Nasa Earth Observatory image shows a storm system circling around an area of extreme low pressure in 2010, which many scientists attribute to climate change. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Natural and social scientists develop new model of how 'perfect storm' of crises could unravel global system

(SEE LINKS TO SUPPORTING DOCUMENTATION BELOW)

theguardian.com - by Nafeez Ahmed - March 14, 2014

A new study sponsored by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center has highlighted the prospect that global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.

Noting that warnings of 'collapse' are often seen to be fringe or controversial, the study attempts to make sense of compelling historical data showing that "the process of rise-and-collapse is actually a recurrent cycle found throughout history." Cases of severe civilisational disruption due to "precipitous collapse - often lasting centuries - have been quite common."

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