Jan 31 2010

Peru: The World Needs To Notice This Disaster

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Yesterday, I put up an essay about a natural disaster in Peru.  I wrote about the devastation caused by the rain: flooding, mudslides, loss of homes, loss of crops, deaths, displacement of families.  And I urged that readers make donations to Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross.

Today on reflection I think I underestimated the situation in Peru.  Today I found two videos that capture conditions in the Sacred Valley of Peru so you can see them yourself.  Conditions are even worse than I thought.  Please watch these videos.  And please help me to bring the severity of this disaster to awareness in the U.S.  Peruvians need our help.

The first video:    

The second video:

I realize that the Internet can be a powerful tool in circumstances like this.  Please do what you can to be of help.

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simulposted at The Dream Antilles and daily Kos.

11 comments

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  1. please help me to get this story out and to get aid to these people.  I don’t really know what else I can do in this moment to be of help to them.

  2. Peru’s mountain people fight for survival in a bitter winter

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…

    The high altitudes (14,000 feet and above, about as high as any human beings can exist at, only if they are extremely skilled and have a cohesive community and culture)  are alternating between flooding and extreme cold and drought, which is killing their llamas and alpacas by starvation, and destroying their houses and crops.   The constant cold and wet and malnutrition is killing the small children, too.


    Ignacio Huamani says that the main problem his village faces is a lack of water, as more extreme temperatures mean there is no grass or drinking water for the alpaca that people breed for wool and meat. “If the alpaca die, then we all die,” he says. He works with his neighbours to build shelters for the alpaca to give some protection from the elements, but he is fighting a losing battle.

    Since 2007, alpaca mortality in Huancavelica has more than doubled, with pregnant animals aborting their calves, a huge psychological as well as economic blow to people who rely on their ability to keep their herds alive.

    “The welfare of children is sidelined because the situation is so bad that everything has become about the survival of the animals, both for the families themselves and the agencies who are trying to support them,” says Teresa Carpio, director of Save the Children Peru. She expects to see child mortality in the region rise this year.

    “In the west we tend to think that children take priority above all else, but when there is this level of desperation, children can be the last to get the attention they so badly need – until it is too late.”

  3. I will try to give a little something!

    There is no end of sadness, such as Haitians being denied “air-flights” for critical medical care — it’s all about the money — I thought Obama pledged $100 million to the Haitians!????!  Where and what is it being used for?  The Military?  The “mercenaries?”  It’s simply another, but massive “Katrina.”  

    Sometimes, I think either I’m super-paranoia at this point, or, just maybe have the right picture.  What do I mean?  Well, there were two “earthquakes” in Haiti, one in Venezuela, and another in Argentina, within the same week as that of Haiti!  Thinking further ahead, particularly, with respect to all the military/mercenaries in Haiti, you don’t suppose, by any chance, that the U.S. will deliberately attempt (have already) to do away with Haitians (“Katrina” style), in order to establish yet another MILITARY BASE?  Afterall, the U.S. ain’t happy with Venezuela, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Argentina — in fact, none of the Latin American countries that we did everything to devastate, and who are now becoming stronger and more self-reliant — and, in fact, Haiti, was becoming closer to Venezuela!  

    Sorry to have run on so, but I recall John Perkins’, “I Was An Economic Hit Man.”  WE did everything to devastate Latin American countries.  

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