Over his 45 years, Siddique Ur-Rahman, a Bangladeshi rice farmer, has watched as his world has been gradually swallowed by water.
During his youth his family cultivated 7.2 acres along the Kholpotua River, a waterway then so narrow that villagers standing on one bank could call across to those on the other side. But as the riverbed silted up, the waters rose and spread, submerging vast swathes of low-lying paddy land, including Mr Rahman’s family’s fields.
Millions of impoverished Bangladeshis are barely sustaining a hand-to-mouth existence that would be wrenched from their grasp by any fresh “economic shock,” according to the UN food aid agency.
World Food Programme (WFP) country head John Aylieff said two million children aged under five in Bangladesh are suffering from acute malnutrition, which by World Health Organization standards represents a “nutritional emergency.”
“The population is beyond the razor’s edge, so that any other economic shock is going to have an immediate and direct impact on malnutrition,” Aylieff told Agencies.
Bangladesh was cushioned from the worst ravages of the global financial meltdown, but experts warn remittances and exports Read the rest of this entry »
Guttenberg is moving freely and talking to his supporters without any body guards.
Bonn, Germany: It is a sunny afternoon. People of all ages are roaming around the Bonn city center. Temporary beer bars are full of them. It seems like a summer party, no visible security. I am confused, is this really an election campaign spot?
The tiny stage for the election campaign of Mr. Dürig is at the center of Bonn. Thousands of people are there to enjoy the campaign. Unlike many politicians, Mr. Guttenberg, who is a member of CDU’s sister party CSU (Christian Social Union), started Read the rest of this entry »
Rising seas, a rapid weakening of the Indian monsoon and spiralling costs of adapting to a warmer, drier world are just some of the looming risks from rapid climate change, a report for the Australian government says.
The report, “Climate change 2009, faster change and more serious risks”, examines the rapid progress of climate Read the rest of this entry »
In the searing heat of a July morning, 13-year-old Sultan Nasiruddin Molla set off for his first day of work on the seemingly endless stretch of muddy coastline in Chittagong, Bangladesh, where young men armed with wrenches and blow torches swarm like ants over rusting skeletons of beached ships.
Sultan, excited at the prospect of joining the world of grown-ups and earning his first working wage, never made it back home. Hours after signing up to join the rag-tag brigade of workers dismantling a 5,000-ton vessel with a scrap value of more than 4 million US Read the rest of this entry »
