Severe Earthquake Devastates Haiti

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A powerful earthquake, measuring 7.0 in the Richter scale, struck an area 16 kilometers (10 miles) away from Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, on January 12, 2010, causing destruction of thousands of buildings and infrastructures and innumerable deaths. The government of Haiti at this moment estimated the death toll to be around 100,000. The number of deaths is expected to rise to several hundred thousands in future.

The earthquake was just 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) below the earth's surface. This shallowness of the earthquake shook the ground more dangerously causing widespread devastation in the capital city, where most of the building were constructed without following strict building codes necessary for an earthquake-prone zone.

Haitian President Rene Preval told the CNN, " You have to see it to believe it. Lots of houses destroyed, hospitals, schools, personal homes -- a lot of people in the street dead." The President said that he himself has been affected by the earthquake. "I cannot live in the palace; I cnnot live in my own house [palace]. The two collapsed. But now I am working on how to rescue the people."

President Preval appealed to the international community to be generous: "We need doctors, we need medicine, we need medical help in general, " he told the CNN. The President mentioned that in the meantime, Argentina, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Israel, Venezuela, and the United States started to provide help for the earthquake victims.

Canadian Presence in Haiti

Prime Minister Stephen Harper promised a generous help for Haiti. The CTV reports that the Canadian government has a large presence in Haiti. Canadians are also attached to the United Nations Stabilization Mission there. A good number of Canadian Mounted Police and members of the Department of National Defense also work in that country.

Michaelle Jean, the Governor General of Canada is originally from Haiti. She came to Canada when she was a child. In a statement she said: "This natural disaster has hit a country with an extremely fragile infrastructure, where many buildings are already unstable, and where living conditions are often very difficult. I fear for its people. I would like all Haitians to know that they are not alone and that the people of Canada will respond to this emergency."

Background of Haiti

Haiti is a rugged and mountainous country of 27,750 kilometres and a population (80% Roman Catholic and 16% Protestant) of over eight million. Presently it is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.

When Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Hispaniola (presently the same island divided into the two countries -- Dominican Republic and Haiti), Arawak Amerindians populated there. The Spanish administration almost decimated the Arawak people within 25 years. In 1697, due to French presence and pressure in the island, the Spanish gave the third part of the island to the French which later took the name of Haiti.

Since the Arawaks were almost extinct, the French brought African slaves to work in the forestry and sugar industries. Later the slaves under Toussaint L'Ouverture revolted against the French and in 1804 declared Haiti's independence. Haiti was the first black republic.

The Quotation of the Week (January 10 - 16, 2010)

Some apartments near Sherbourne, Toronto (1999)

Photo © Jerome D'Costa

Canada to Withdraw Troops from Afghanistan by End of 2011

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Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an interview with the Canwest News Service and the National Post on January 6, said all Canadian soldiers will leave Afghanistan by the end of 2011, reports the National Post.

He was interviewed mostly on Canadian politics. When asked about Canadian troops withdrawal from Afghanistan, Mr. Harper said: "...the bottom line is that the military mission will end in 2011. There will be a phased withdrawal, beginning in the middle of the year. We hope to have that concluded by the end of that year."

He further said: "We will continue to maintain humanitarian and development missions, as well as important diplomatic activity in Afghanistan. But we will not be undertaking any activities that require any kind of military presence, other than the odd guard guarding an embassy. We will not be undertaking any kind of activity that requires a significant military force protection, so it will become strictly civilian mission. It will be a significantly smaller mission than it is today."

The Prime Minister also expects that Afghanistan at the end does not become a failed state.

Canadian Soldiers in Afghanistan

Canada militarily got involved in Afghanistan when troops of the USA and some other NATO countries started the war against the incumbent Taliban government that provided shelter and training to Al Qaeda terrorists, some of whom destroyed the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. Canadian soldiers since then have been playing a vital role in that country in combating the ousted Talibans and other insurgents.

So far, more than 2,500 Canadian soldiers are involved in Afghanistan. Of them, 138 soldiers died there by December 31, 2009.

The psychological cost of the war in Afghanistan is immeasurable. Let's hope that our soldiers complete their mission and return to their near and dear ones without much more loss and psychological cost.

Stricter Air Travel Security Coming

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It was December 25, 2009, Christmas Day. It happened inside a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to Detroit, USA. Umar Farouk Addulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian engineering student-turned-jihadi tried to detonate powdery explosives hidden in his underwear little before the plane was to land. Due to aggressive interference of fellow passengers Umar failed in his mission but was seriously burned from partially-ignited explosives. This act of terrorism brought about an international row about airport and airlines security.

Stricter Measures by the USA and Canada

In the light of the above-mentioned incident, USA, Canada and some other countries have decided to gear up their new strict security measures.

New security measures include:

• Additional precaution about and extra searches on passengers traveling to the USA via or from these 14 countries: Afghanistan, Algeria, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The USA considers these countries having some kind of links to terrorism.
  
• Introduction of full-body and invasive security scanners at airports dealing with international flights.
• Increased electronic scanning of passenger baggage for arms and explosives.
• Prohibition of certain items in carry-ons: such as pocket knives, box cutters, cork screws, liquids and the like.
• Strengthening and strictly following of the no-fly lists.
• More use of sniffing dogs for detecting explosives in luggage.
• No getting up from one's seat in the plane for the last one hour of the flight.
• Items that could be mistaken for explosives in the scanning machines should be taken as hand luggage.
• Suitcases should not be locked.
• Books should be laid flat, not stacked.
• International flights entering the USA will have their baggage checked at their first landing airport, even if the final destination of the flight is elsewhere in the USA.
  

Concerns Over the Stricter Measures

Civil libertarians and privacy advocates are expressing concerns over these measures. They say that:

• These measures will cause extraordinary delays of flights leading to serious inconveniences to passengers.
• The use of full-body and invasive scanners will invade the privacy and decency of persons and the photos taken thereby might get misused by some unscrupulous scanning machine operators.
• In certain countries, especially in Britain, taking of scanner-based photos of underage children is liable to breach child protection laws that ban creation of indecent images of children.
• Citizens of those 14 countries may feel specially discriminated in world airports because of extra security measures to be taken against them.

New Airport Scanning Machines

To learn more of the new airport scanners, you may visit the following:

• Canada to use controversial body scanners in airports
• New airport scanners too revealing?
• Health fear over new airport scanners
• New scanners break child porn laws
  

Snow Culture

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"Happy New Year" snow-writing
Photo (Toronto: January 2, 2010) © Jerome D'Costa

Snow or snowfall has created a culture of its own. It has influenced people to adapt themselves to snow or snowfall, even in extreme situations. People also celebrate snowfall in different ways -- by skiing, snowboarding, snowshoeing, ice skating, snowballing, snow-writing, snow-angeling and the like.

Toronto has been experiencing snowfall from the beginning of the new year. The above photo shows a sample of snow-writing.

The Quotation of the Week (January 3 - 9, 2010)

Sunset over the Buriganga River
near Sadarghat, Dhaka, Bangladesh (1975)

Photo © Jerome D'Costa

Happy New Year to You All!

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Graphic Design (Toronto: Dec., 2009) © Joachim Romeo D'Costa

Today is the New Year! A year with all the ups and downs is gone, a new one is on the doorstep. We hope that the year 2010 will be a more peaceful one. Let all the negativity of the past year be gone and give way to more positivity and optimism. Let the world citizens be more tolerant of each other, let the attitude of give-and-take bring about more mutual respect, cooperation and solidarity. Let the hope sprout into a strong determination to do more good.

Happy New Year to you all!