Differences between the last two earthquakes Part 2

We have more earthquake compare and contrast in this post, this time coming from CARE. From CARE's Notes from The Field blog, Rick Perera gives a reaction to the Chilean earthquake from Haiti. Perera also tries to explain why the Chilean earthquake did so much less damage than the Haitian one despite being three times more powerful.

Haitians understand all too well what the people of Chile are enduring. The desperate search for missing loved ones … sleepless nights in the street outside unstable houses … lack of communication to the outside world … the fear of what the future holds. The terror does not subside easily.

And yet, there's an additional heartache for Haiti in hearing this news. Why was it so much worse here? Chile's quake registered at 8.8, about 500 times more powerful than Haiti's. But the numbers of Haitian dead have already surpassed 220,000 – close to the horrendous toll of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Chile's dead, at last report, number some 700 – a tragic loss, but orders of magnitude fewer than Haiti's. What explains this deadly disparity?

The answer lies partly in bad luck, but largely in poverty and human frailty. Where Chile had strict building codes, Haiti suffered from haphazard construction. Poor, rural people had for years flooded into the capital, living in precariously built shantytowns. Lack of enforcement, corruption and weak governance all contributed to grossly magnify the proportions of the catastrophe. It's easy enough to see the exceptions here, which might have been the rule if earthquake-resistant building codes had been enforced: a few solid structures still tower above the rubble – scarred and cracked, to be sure, but standing all the same.

"A Powerful Noise" screens tonight

We wanted to give this movie another mention as it's a great story about women fighting poverty. The movie "A Powerful Noise" will be shown in theaters across the country tonight. The film profiles three women, who not only hav to overcome poverty in their own lives, but help others who struggle as well.

The event is sponsored by CARE, and will be shown nationwide tonight at 8pm. You can find out more by going to the movie's website.

From the Boston City Guide Examiner, entertainment reporter Charlene Peters tells us about the viewings in the Boston Area.

“A Powerful Noise” is so much more than just a film. It is a catalyst for change and a compelling reminder that the solution to global poverty and injustice lies in the ability of women and girls to have a voice in their societies.

"The world isn't living up to its potential right now because most women and girls lack basic human rights and opportunities we often take for granted in the United States," says Christy Turlington Burns, CARE advocate for maternal health and contributing editor for Marie Claire magazine. "But like the three women featured in ‘A Powerful Noise,’ you can become a champion in your own community to help impact the lives of other women in our world. You can start taking action by joining us on March 5 to really learn about the issues facing women and girls in poor countries."

Powerful Noise Live will take viewers into the lives of three women: a young widow in Vietnam, a mother in Bosnia and a matriarch in Mali. During the LIVE event, movie theaters across the country will turn into community forums as experts and celebrities give their personal insight into the problems – and solutions – facing women and girls in the global fight against poverty.

A film on Women in poverty to be shown nationwide March 4th

"A Powerful Noise" a new documentary from Unify Films and director Tom Cappello will be shown nationwide on March 4th. The charity CARE is sponsoring the nationwide event.

The movie focuses on three women from different parts of the world. The women from Vietnam, Mali and Bosnia, not only struggle with poverty themselves, but strive to make lives easier for others.

In this story that we found in the Chicago area's Pioneer Local, writer Myrna Petlicki gives us more details on the women featured in the film.

Hanh, a Vietnamese woman with HIV who lost her husband and child to the disease, works to prevent AIDS and destigmatize its sufferers. In a town whose population and buildings were decimated by the Bosnian war, single mother Nada creates an agricultural co-op run by Serbs and Bosniaks united to rebuild their home. And in one of the world's poorest countries, matriarch Madame Urbain educates and represents exploited migrant girls in the slums of Bamako, Mali.

"These women are making a powerful noise. They're instigating change up against all odds," said ABC 7 Entertainment reporter Janet Davies, the local ambassador for international humanitarian organization CARE. "It makes a difference in their world, and eventually it makes a difference in our world."

"A Powerful Noise" will be shown in dozens of local movie theaters on one night only, March 5, in conjunction with hundreds of cinemas around the nation. The event is sponsored by CARE and an impressive coalition of international aid groups, and concludes with a live town hall meeting held in New York City but simulcast to the local theaters.

During the post-film discussion, Chicago-area audiences will be able text their questions to panelists -- including former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, activist/model Christy Turlington Burns and actress Natalie Portman -- as they discuss the role of women in the fight against global poverty.

"CARE has evolved over its 64 years into being an organization that targets women and children, because they are most marginalized in this world," Davies said. "It's the women and children who, when given the tools, thrive and survive."

Aid groups view on how the credit crisis effects them

A good story came out overnight about the major aid organizations worldwide and how the credit crisis will effect them.

Some groups have already starting cutting back on their efforts, while others don't know yet if it will effect donations.

All aid groups agree that this will trickle down to the poor at the bottom. The poor will have less help to fend of malnutrition, disease and more.

We boiled down our snippet to the actual reactions from the leaders of top aid organizations. But there is much more in this Associated Press article by Alexander Higgins. We came across the article from the Enquirer Herald website from Eastern New York.

Philippe Guiton of World Vision told The Associated Press that his agency plans to cut back hiring, which will have implications for delivering aid to the needy overseas.

"What we are going to do now is to issue an order to reduce spending, to delay recruitment, delay purchases of capital assets, etc., until we can see clearer how much our income has dropped," he said.
[..]
Robert Glasser, secretary-general of CARE International, said the agency has "a number of major donors who have invested heavily in the markets and have now seen their portfolios take a big hit."

What that will mean on the ground could take months or more to gauge - and perhaps years for a complete recovery, aid groups say.
[..]
In impoverished Haiti, funding for projects to rebuild from tropical storms that killed nearly 800 people and destroyed more than half the nation's agriculture hangs in the balance.

"It's too soon to tell yet because we haven't heard back positively or negatively from our major donors," Greg Elder, deputy head of programming for U.S-based Catholic Relief Services, said by telephone from the battered southern port of Les Cayes.

The group is waiting for word from the U.S. Agency for International Development on whether it will get $2 million for 10 new food-for-work projects, which provide Haitians with rations in exchange for building roads, irrigation systems and environmental projects.
[..]
Medecins Sans Frontieres, which runs AIDS clinics in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha in South Africa, said it's "far too early" to determine the impact the crisis would have on donations.

"The money we're spending now was collected some time ago," said Henrik Glette, a South Africa-based spokesman for the group.
[..]
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said "the increases in the budget we had hoped for will not be forthcoming."

Alan Bernstein, head of Global Vaccine Enterprise, said the financial meltdown is "not good news for research in general and vaccine research in particular."