Sexta-feira, 31 de Dezembro de 2004
FELIZ 2005!
Desejos de um Feliz 2005 para os leitores do Fumaças!Agora, é tempo de pausa. Voltarei daqui a alguns dias. Até!
HAPPY NEW YEAR ! JOYEUSE ANNÉE!
CUBA - ENVÍA PRISIONERO POLÍTICO MENSAJE POR EL FIN DE AÑO
via:
CUBANETLA HABANA, 30 de diciembre (Richard Roselló / www.cubanet.org) - Camilo Pérez Villanueva, uno de los principales portavoces del boletín informativo La Patria Libre, órgano manuscrito del Comité Local del Presidio Político Cubano "Jorge Mas Canosa", creado en mayo de 1997, envió un mensaje dirigido a los compatriotas de Cuba y del exilio."
Otro año se va lleno de violaciones de derechos humanos contra nuestro pueblo y contra el presidio político", señala Pérez en su mensaje, y añade: "Hemos tenido el consuelo necesario, el privilegio, el orgullo de contar con el exilio necesario. Ese que cada vez se agiganta más. Cada vez nos apoya más. A ese exilio le damos las manos, el abrazo y la gratitud eterna. De manera que los exhortamos a continuar adelante con esos dignificantes ejemplos de patriotismo".Agradece Pérez en su mensaje las muestras de solidaridad y apoyo recibidas de organizaciones en el exilio, entre ellas Plantados hasta la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba, el Consejo por la Libertad de Cuba, el Directorio, el Puente Informativo Cuba Miami, Ned por Cuba Internacional, Mar por Cuba, el movimiento 30 de Noviembre.Finaliza Pérez Villanueva su mensaje deseando un feliz año a los prisioneros políticos y a sus familiares.
"Que la paz, la libertad toquen más temprano que tarde las puertas de sus corazones. Que no cesen en su lucha que es la de todos, es la de Cuba, su pueblo y de la humanidad. Viva Cuba Libre. Libertad para el Presidio Político Cubano sin destierro".
LISBOA DESCONHECIDA
Muito em breve, uma nova rúbrica, sobre Lisboa e algumas maravilhas que são desconhecidas da maioria dos que cá moram ou trabalham!Um pequeno aperitivo, para começar...Alguém sabe onde é?

Quinta-feira, 30 de Dezembro de 2004
MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE
"Nothing fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it." Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist.
BLOG - THE SOUTH-ESTA ASIA EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
via:
O JUMENTOUm blog criado na Ásia, relativo à catástrofe:
The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami The SEA-EAT blog for short. News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts.
AMI NO SRI LANKA
Assistência Médica Internacional
Sri Lanka 30 de DezembroPartem às 2h00 três membros da equipa da AMI uma médica, um enfermeiro e um logístico -- num avião fretado pela AMI. O voo parte da Base Aérea de Figo Maduro. No avião seguem 10 toneladas de ajuda humanitária, designadamente 1 tonelada de açúcar, 3 toneladas de arroz, leite, óleo, enlatados e outros géneros alimentares, bem como 1 tonelada de soros, medicamentos diversos, antibióticos e luvas esterilizadas. Vestuário, calçado e cobertores fazem também parte da carga enviada para o Sri Lanka. Esta operação de emergência desencadeada pela AMI conta com o precioso apoio da Caixa Geral de Depósitos, da Fundação Oriente e da Fundação Gulbenkian. Perante a pior catástrofe natural que atingiu o sudeste asiático nos últimos 40 anos, a sociedade civil portuguesa reagiu também de imediato, correspondendo ao apelo lançado pela AMI.29 de Dezembro de 2004Dois voluntários (uma médica e um enfermeiro) partem do aeroporto da Portela para Colombo.A equipa da AMI no Sri Lanka vai partir para o Sul da ilha onde, em conjunto com a Caritas local, vai prestar assistência às cidades costeiras de Galle e Kalutara, fortemente atingidas pelos sismos e maremoto que ocorreram no passado domingo.A equipa que partiu na madrugada de ontem, liderada pelo médico Fernando Nobre, já se encontra na capital do Sri Lanka, Colombo, tendo participado numa reunião com representantes do Ministério da Saúde do país. À chegada a Colombo, o presidente e o director do departamento logístico da AMI foram recebidos por um padre da Caritas local, organização com a qual a AMI vai coordenar esforços no sentido de fornecer uma ajuda rápida e eficaz à população do país. O Sri Lanka debate-se actualmente com uma vaga de 2 milhões de deslocados e com uma massa de cadáveres por enterrar. Segundo os últimos dados oficiais, existem 22 mil mortos confirmados no país. Com a maior parte das estradas cortadas, os dois elementos da AMI no terreno procederam ao aluguer de dois jeeps para transporte da equipa da organização não-governamental portuguesa para Galle e Kalutara, a cerca de 120 km a Sul de Colombo. Os restantes cinco membros da equipa são aguardados amanhã em Colombo. 28 de Dezembro de 2004No dia 28 de Dezembro de 2004 parte uma equipa da AMI em missão de ajuda às populações atingidas pelo sismo e maremoto ocorridos no dia 26 de Dezembro.Esta primeira equipa é composta pelo presidente da AMI, o médico Fernando Nobre, e o director do departamento logístico, José Luís Ribeiro Nobre. O objectivo é ultimarem os preparativos para a chegada dos restantes elementos da equipa da Assistência Médica Internacional. No terreno, os dois elementos da AMI vão procurar alojamento e um armazém para manter a ajuda humanitária que a AMI vai enviar para Colombo.
Veja aqui como pode ajudar as vítimas desta catástrofe natural.
SOMÁLIA
Também este já muito sacrificado país de África sofreu os efeitos dos tsunamis:
Yahoo newsU.N. Struggles to Get Aid to Somali Town Wed Dec 29, 2:01 PM ET By TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer NAIROBI, Kenya - A fishing town in northeastern Somalia was nearly demolished by a tsunami from Indonesia's devastating earthquake, and 500 families are living in unhealthy conditions while sheltering in huts built from debris, U.N. officials said Wednesday. The United Nations (news - web sites) also raised the death toll for Somalia to 114 and said "many more people" and more than 100 fishing boats were missing from swamped villages along the Somali coast. The Horn of Africa nation was the worst hit country on Africa's east coast, where Tanzania counted 10 dead, Kenya had one drowned and Seychelles reported two fishermen missing from the huge waves generated by Sunday's quake 2,800 miles on the other side of the Indian Ocean. Alhaji Bah, an official with UNICEF (news - web sites) in Nairobi, said a U.N. team found about 80 percent of the buildings wrecked in Hafun, a town of 4,500 people about 715 miles northeast of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. He said survivors reported 12 people killed but said an unknown number of fishermen were at sea when the waves hit and had not been heard from. "They basically have nothing," Bah said. "The water is all contaminated and there is evidence of waterborne diseases." He said UNICEF planned to truck in clean drinking water, plastic sheeting for shelter, blankets and cooking pots from Bossaso, the main port in northeastern Somalia about 200 miles away. But another U.N. official said the world body's food agency was having trouble getting 34 tons of food to Hafun because the road had been washed out. Laura Melo of the World Food Program described Hafun as a scene of total desolation. "Most of the houses in town have been destroyed. Personal belongings lay scattered around town. Boats are beached in the middle of town. Even money is strewn on the ground," she said in a statement. The United Nations' acting humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Elballa Hagona, said it was difficult to assess the needs of Somalis, whose country has been wracked by years of civil war and tribal fighting. "Our efforts to even gauge the full extent of the damage are being hampered by the poor transport and communication networks, which also affect the delivery of emergency relief as we piece together a complete picture of the situation," she said in a statement. Melo said the United Nations planned to send a plane along Somalia's coast Thursday to make an inventory of all damaged areas. Also on Wednesday, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder called for a moratorium on debt repayments by Somalia and Indonesia, the only two nations struck by Sunday's disaster that owe substantial amounts to the Paris Club of wealthy creditor countries. Somalia's newly elected interim prime minister, Ali Mohammed Gedi, said Tuesday that his country's northeast was hit hardest by the tsunami waves. Gedi, whose transitional government and parliament are temporarily based in Nairobi because Mogadishu is still too dangerous, said he had formed a disaster committee of lawmakers and U.N. representatives to oversee relief efforts. Elsewhere in East Africa, Tanzania's government said 10 people were known dead from the ocean surge, most of them while swimming off Dar es Salaam, the country's commercial capital. Alfred Tibaigana, regional police commander, said others in a capsized boat were feared dead. On the island nation of Seychelles, two fishermen were missing and four people were hospitalized, said Alain Payette, a top official in President James Michel's office. In Kenya, one person died in Malindi, about 260 miles southeast of Nairobi, and 50 fishing boats were destroyed, police spokesman Jaspher Ombati said.
Quarta-feira, 29 de Dezembro de 2004
NATION.SC - SEYCHELLES
Os efeitos dos tsunamis em países bastante mais longe de onde se iniciou a catástrofe. Nest caso as Seychelles, que foram bastante afectadas mas apenas materialmente.
Seychelles Nation.scOfficials trace tidal wave path through Seychelles - 29.12.04Sundays (December 26) tidal waves bent around the edges of both Mahe and Praslin to swing inland toward the southern and western areas of the islands at an even greater force than that of its original impact.
Environment principal secretary Rolph Payet said this Tuesday December 28 when describing to reporters at the Botanical Gardens how the tidal waves originated and spread on Sunday, and why much of the coasts on Seychelles two biggest islands sustained severe damage.The tidal waves on Sunday resulted from an earthquake off the northern coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which caused the sea floor to shift 10 metres upwards along a 1,000 km rift.While 10 metres may not seem like much, Mr Payet said that across such a distance an enormous amount of water was displaced, causing sea water to whip out across the ocean.And it was only ocean that stood between Sundays massive Indonesian earthquake and Seychelles with no barriers to slow it down the tidal waves spanned more than 4,200 kilometres to cause havoc on Mahe and Praslin in ways few, if any, could have predicted.The waves moved rapidly from the epicentre, first through Sri Lanka where thousands were killed, then on to the Maldives just a few hours later before hitting Seychelles from the Northeast shortly after mid-day.Mr Payet said officials were still calculating the force at which the tidal wave hit the local islands, but indicated that an estimate would be released later.Officials at Tuesdays press briefing also detailed how the tidal waves refracted around Mahes southern and western peninsulas around Takamaka and Port Glaud, respectively.Acting director of the National Meteorological Services (NMS) Denis Chang-Seng said when the tidal waves refracted around the island, more and more water began to accumulate and rush towards West and South Mahe.He said this was why areas like Port Glaud, Grand Anse, Anse Boileau and others in the Southwest were severely affected while Anse aux Pins, situated on the east coast but lying parallel to the direction of the tidal wave, was spared from the worst of the disaster.A similar phenomenon was observed on Praslin, where the tidal wave swept inland at Grand Anse and other areas in the islands Southwest despite the fact that it was sheltered from any direct impact the wave would have had coming from the Northeast.The nature of a wave is determined by the coastline and any barriers there may be, he said. He noted that large bays like Anse a la Mouche and Anse Boileau are especially vulnerable since more water is able to accumulate and gather strength.The impact of barriers, however, were more noticeable in Northeast Mahe, where it was confirmed by Mr Payet that the reclaimed islands sitting just off the coast saved much of Ma Constance, Pointe Conan and Ma Joie from major flooding.Mr Payet said this was especially important because as the wave travelled in between Mahe and Ste Anne it began to change as the passage narrowed the wave grew higher and thus more dangerous, he explained.This is the same reason that Victoria was hit as hard as it was, Mr Payet added, noting that the ship channel into the port made for a stronger wave as it pushed through the harbour and into town.As for North Mahe which was the first to feel the effects of the tidal wave it is believed that the large rock formations around Glacis and Northeast Point helped to absorb much of the waves impact.Mr Payet said the outer islands were not as affected because unlike the inner islands, they lie beyond the continental shelf where the impact of the tidal waves were not as severe.
BAY OF BENGAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMIS - FAMILY NEWS NETWORK
Um site que já existia da Cruz Vermelha Internacional, para busca de familiares em crises ou conflitos, que agora é utilizado no caso do terramoto e tsunamis, para Sri Lanka, Indonésia, Tailândia e India.Bay of Bengal earthquake and tsunamisFamily News Network for persons affected by the natural disaster in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and India. As a result of the strongest earthquake in 40 years and massive tidal waves in the Bay Bengal on December 26, 2004, tens of thousands of people in the area are dead, missing or separated from their relatives. Families all over the world have lost contact and are without news of their loved ones in the region. In an effort to bring relief to the families in terms of re-establishing family links, this web site is geared to assist all concerned persons, whether in the affected countries or elsewhere in the world, in obtaining information about their loved ones.The information available on the website may be displayed on lists in public places, or broadcasted by radio in order to be accessible to all persons with no access to internet. All information on this website is provided by relatives of persons sought or persons who register themselves, thus the ICRC cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the personal data given.
FamilyLinks