1. 7500 people need to be relocated within 10 days because they are at high risk of flooding or mudslides in the makeshift camps at the Petionville golf course. 6000 were moved. The remaining 1500… not moved yet.
“It has been a challenge because we’ve had less than a week to prepare,” said Laura Bank, a spokeswoman for World Vision.
It is unclear where the remaining 1,500 people in high-risk areas will be moved, because there is no room for them at the Corail-Cesselesse camp, which covers nearly 11 square miles.
A lot of time was lost searching for adequate land, Liz Satow, World Vision’s acting response manager, said in a statement this week.
2. Well, not to worry. Shakira is also looking for land in Haiti too, to build a school for needy children. What do you think? Do you think Shakira will find suitable land to build a school for needy children? I bet she will. NPR is on the story.
Hip-shaking Colombian pop star Shakira is meeting with Haitian earthquake survivors living in makeshift camps and she says she is searching for suitable land to build a school for needy children.
Arriving Sunday, the singer waved to onlookers and greeted infants living on a Haitian golf course that has turned into a sprawling makeshift camp for 50,000 quake survivors.
Her Barefoot foundation provides nutrition to more than 6,000 children in Colombia, and she is member of the ALAS foundation that advocates for children across Latin America.
Shakira was greeted by actor Sean Penn, who is providing humanitarian aid at Haitian refugee camps. The two stars spoke about challenges confronting Haiti since the Jan. 12 disaster.
3. Actually Shakira is a role model. She has done this sort of thing before.
Singer Shakira is shedding her wardrobe, for a good cause.
The hip-swinging Colombian pop sensation is auctioning off more than 40 articles of clothing she wore on her 2007 Oral Fixation tour to benefit her Bare Feet Foundation, which is building a school for impoverished children in her homeland.
A shiny lavender skirt with turquoise and coral beading; a bright red dress with a plunging neckline and huge, winglike sleeves; a blue tank top emblazoned with the slogan “For Those Who Love to Rock”; and other items are up for bid on the eBay’s Giving Works website.
The auction began on Friday and continues for 10 days.
“We have bids from all over the world. It’s very exciting,” said Eric Gazin, president of Auction Cause, the Los Angeles company running the auction.
While most auctions start out slow, bids for Shakira’s clothing have already been flooding in, Mr Gazin said.
Last November, Shakira auctioned off clothing from the 2007 film Love in the Time of Cholera, which won her nomination for a Golden Globe for the original song Despedida.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/shakira-sheds-her-shreds/2008/02/06/1202233925943.html
4. meanwhile, as mentioned, officials are rushing to provide tents for Haitians before rainy season starts
PORT-AU-PRINCE, April 8 (AFP) - More than a million Haitians, about 90 percent of those made homeless in January’s devastating earthquake, have received tents or other means of shelter, UN officials said Thursday.
At the current pace, all Haitians who lost their homes in quake will have some form of shelter by May 1, said officials from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA has been racing to get shelter for Haitians still without homes ahead of the start of the rainy season.
5. one of the companies supplying tents is ShelterBox. read all about it. ShelterBox is headquartered in Cornwall UK.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-84CLKR?OpenDocument
“The President and Royal Patron of ShelterBox, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cornwall, visited the charity’s HQ in Cornwall last month to than staff and volunteers for their relief efforts in Haiti.”
Do you know who the Duchess of Cornwall is? Camilla Parker Bowles. The Prince and Duchess of Cornwall are very fond of the Caribbean.
Last Friday, February 8, 2008, it was released from the Governor’s Office here in Montserrat that Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall were scheduled to visit Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Montserrat and Jamaica on a tour of the Caribbean from 4th to 14th March, 2008.
This visit by Prince Charles and his second wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall to the Caribbean, it is said will reinforce Britain’s ties with the important Commonwealth countries of Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia and Jamaica and the UK Overseas Territory of Montserrat. It will advance key British Government priorities in the promotion of sustainable development, environmental protection and youth opportunity.
This will be the Prince’s first official visit to Montserrat, having visited Jamaica three times previously, in 1966, 1993 and 2000. The Prince had visited Montserrat aboard a British naval vessell previsously.
But, according to a story from the ‘British’ Telegraph.co.uk newspaper by Andrew Pierce, titled, “Prince Charles hires a lavish yacht to cut costs”, the Prince of Wales has hired one of the world’s most expensive private yachts to sail round the Caribbean - as a cost-cutting measure.
The article says “the Prince, sensitive to criticisms of the costs of his overseas tours which are funded by the taxpayer, will travel with his entourage to Trinidad on a scheduled flight rather than a chartered plane”.
http://www.themontserratreporter.com/index.pl/article_local?id=1301560
“youth opportunity”
6. 3/15/10: and just last month, Prince Charles and Camilla visited Poland! what a coincidence.
WARSAW, Poland - Britain’s Prince Charles arrived in Poland on Monday with his wife, Camilla, to start a nine-day tour that will take them through central Europe.
Charles, wearing a dark suit, and Camilla, dressed in red and clutching a handbag, were welcomed in the afternoon in the courtyard of Poland’s presidential palace by President Lech Kaczynski and the first lady, Maria Kaczynska.
The couples shook hands on a red carpet, posed for photographs, then walked into the palace, passing through a door festooned with British flags.
Later, Charles and Camilla laid a wreath at the grave of the Rev. Jerzy Popieluszko, a priest who was kidnapped and killed in 1984 by Poland’s communist-era secret police. Popieluszko, who was aligned with the anti-communist Solidarity movement of Lech Walesa, is considered a martyr for the faith by the Vatican and is to be beatified in June.
The royal couple also met with Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
After three days in Poland, they will travel to Hungary and the Czech Republic, a trip aimed at promoting Britain’s relations with the three ex-communist countries, all of whom are now European Union members.
http://omg.yahoo.com/news/prince-charles-and-camilla-begin-visit-to-poland/37445
7. and now, weirdly, Charles and Camilla come under a cloud of secrecy regarding the legality of their wedding. what’s this all about? do some people have an interest in putting up a firewall between Charles and Camilla when he becomes king? why?
The Government was accused of a cover-up last night after it was ruled that the legal advice that enabled Prince Charles to marry the Duchess of Cornwall must remain secret until after his death.
Doubts about the legality of the wedding have long persisted, with some constitutional experts arguing that legislation prevented the couple from taking part in a civil ceremony.
In the latest development, it was decided to withhold details of the legal advice because of its constitutional ‘sensitivity and significance’. Justice Secretary Jack Straw blocked a Freedom of Information request to make public the advice given to the then Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer before he gave the wedding the go-ahead.
….
In 2008 a senior Ministry of Justice official told Mr Jones that secret information relating to Lord Falconer’s decision had been found in Government files.
But it could not be revealed because it was against the public interest - and could lead to the legality of the Government’s decision being challenged in court.
The Justice Department told him: ‘The disclosure of legal advice has a high potential to prejudice the Government’s ability to defend its legal interests by unfairly exposing its legal position to challenge.
‘We recognise that there is a public interest in citizens knowing that decisions of this nature have been taken with the benefit of sound legal advice. However, in the circumstances of this case, the public interest does not outweigh the opposing public interest in maintaining the current convention.’
A Clarence House spokesman said: ‘This is not something we would wish to comment on.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1265095/Charles–Camilla-marriage-Legal-advice-sealed-Princes-death.html
