Dear colleagues, Sometimes I'm content to sit in my cubicle and make maps and web pages. Other times I feel compelled to do more. An earthquake (in Taiwan), landmines (in Kosovo), landslides (in Honduras), drought (in East Africa), floods (in Eastern U.S.), and violence (in East Timor) are just a few of the miseries which have occured in the past week 'round the world. I just made a contribution through the American Red Cross web site. www.redcross.org (In fact, I had a problem with the online form, so I'd recommend making your contribution by phone instead of online. If you choose only one fund: Local OR National OR International, you probably won't have any trouble using the web form. If you want to support more than one, definitely use the phone): 1-800-HELP-NOW 1-800-435-7669 Additional relief organizations can be found at: http://dir.lycos.com/Society/Organizations/Humanitarian/ or http://www.reliefnet.org/org.html I excerpted the information below from The Humanitarian Times * To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] LEVEL 7.6 EARTHQUAKE HIT TAIWAN YESTERDAY, KILLING APPROX 2,000 & rendering over 100,000 homeless. It struck early Tuesday morning in Central Taiwan, toppling buildings in Taichung, Chunghwa & Yunlin counties; most of the dead were in Taichung and nearby Nantou. Search & rescue teams have been lent to Taiwan by various countries. As in the case of the mutual aid between Greece & Turkey in their recent earthquakes, there may be some easing of tensions with the People's Republic, as mainland China's red cross has offered aid & expressions of sympathy. - LANDMINES IMPAIR KOSOVAR USE OF FUELWOOD & LIVESTOCK - finds a study just released by UNICEF. Landmines & unexploded ordnance (bombs dropped by NATO) will continue to cause winter energy & nutrition shortages, according to surveys with Kosovo residents, indicating the slow pace of intl. efforts to de-mine & demarcate mine-polluted areas. An estimated 50% of Kosovo's livestock is dead or missing from the crisis. - HURRICANE RAINFALL CAUSED HEAVY FLOODING & LANDSLIDES IN HONDURAS this week, forcing a state of emergency, though few are reported dead. - FOOD, WATER, TRANSPORT & VACCINE RELIEF FOR DROUGHT IN DJIBOUTI (E Africa) was urgently requested by UN OCHA this week: 80,000 are at risk due to a protracted drought which has already led to substantial decreases in livestock herd sizes, food shortages, & inadequate & overly saline water. - ESTIMATES PUT E TIMOR DISPLACED POPULATION AT 90% according to the Red Cross. MSF, CARE, World Vision, & other NGOs are delivering some aid to camps in West Timor. The World Food Programme is working with the Indonesian govt to move rice to displaced persons camps, supplementing Indonesian stocks with intl. food aid. UNICEF is gearing up water tank delivery. The UN assigned Ross Mountain to be humanitarian aid coordinator, while Ian Martin continues to head the overall UN (UNAMET) effort. _________________________________________________________ Marjorie Roswell, Spatial Analyst UMBC Center for Health Program Development and Management 1000 Hilltop Circle Fx: (410)455-6850 Baltimore, MD 21250 E: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: (410)455-6802 _________________________________________________________ MapInfo Resources http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/mipage.html Health Geographics Resources http://cgi.umbc.edu/~chpdm/healthgeo/ _________________________________________________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe MAPINFO-L" in the message body, or contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
