Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site

Keywords: Humanitarian Aid

  • INTERNATIONAL

    Burmese refugees' Christmas story

    • Duncan MacLaren
    • 13 December 2010
    3 Comments

    Outside: the fish factory that never sleeps. The people working in it are illegal migrants, paid a pittance and treated as sub humans. Only the strong return from the fishing trips. If you are ill and cannot work, you can be tipped into the sea along with the other rubbish for the seagulls.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    U2's way to God

    • Tim Kroenert
    • 09 December 2010
    8 Comments

    A ridiculously wealthy humanitarian, Bono is an object of scorn among grassroots human rights advocates. But a U2 show may be as close to church as a rock concert gets. Nowhere outside a church would you find so many voices declaring in unison: 'I believe in the kingdom come.'

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Kevin Rudd and 'harmless' WikiLeaks

    • Tony Kevin
    • 07 December 2010
    6 Comments

    Rudd's showing off to Hilary Clinton reveals Australian insecurity and diplomatic immaturity, and little of what he said would shock the Chinese. WikiLeaks' cable trawl can do no great harm and may in the long run do some good.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Why we should aid 'bizarre' North Korea

    • Duncan MacLaren
    • 25 November 2010
    5 Comments

    I have two lasting memories of North Korea. The first was the obstetrics unit of a hospital; it looked like a medieval torture chamber. The second was orphanages where malnourished 14-year-olds looked only eight. The latest escalation of tension can only mean such sights will become more frequent.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Communities confront flood fallout

    • Ben Fraser
    • 28 September 2010
    4 Comments

    Amid the horror and gloom there have been moments of inspiration in the flood crisis that have largely gone unreported. While they warmly accept the staples of relief, they know through a history of crippling food insecurity and mass displacement that they are masters of their own destiny.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Natural disaster and human greed in Pakistan

    • Simon Roughneen
    • 01 September 2010
    5 Comments

    The name Sukkur is derived from the Arabic word for intense. For aid workers, the epithet seems apt. This disaster seems as vast as the swollen country-long lake that the Indus River has become. But the real human suffering and loss can be obscured by or sanitised into mere statistics.

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Why we're slow to help Pakistan

    • Michael Mullins
    • 30 August 2010
    4 Comments

    The Australian public is being delivered a profoundly misleading subliminal message that, because the Taliban are active in the region, they are tied up in providing relief for flood victims. We need to forget politics for a while and think about the part we can play in helping Pakistanis through their crisis.

    READ MORE
  • ARTS AND CULTURE

    Cat Stevens' call to prayer

    • Anne Doyle
    • 24 June 2010
    17 Comments

    In 1975, during a near death experience, Cat Stevens called out to God. 'The moment I became a Muslim I found peace,' says the man now known as Yusuf Islam. He appears, solitary at the microphone, and begins an older man's rendition of a younger man's songs.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Freedom Flotilla and Israeli 'pirates'

    • Binoy Kampmark
    • 02 June 2010
    31 Comments

    Turkey has condemned the attacks on a flotilla carrying humanitarian supplies to Gaza as piracy. Branding activists as terrorists and denying the human situation in Gaza will not help an Israeli cause that is proving increasingly alienating.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    The Western origins of Hati's 'curse'

    • Adele Webb
    • 04 March 2010
    3 Comments

    The story of Haiti, even from the earliest decades of its independence, is one of a downward spiral into debt and underdevelopment. It has been at the short end of the stick, time and time again, in its relationships with richer and powerful countries. Haiti, it turns out, never stood a chance.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Haiti faces the best and worst of Christianity

    • Beth Doherty
    • 20 January 2010
    4 Comments

    Pat Robertson's comments about Haiti's 'pact with the devil' are unhelpful, when deeply religious Haitians are themselves wondering about God's role in the earthquake. A more welcome image of Christianity is visible in the aid agencies that are assisting in the relief efforts.

    READ MORE
  • INTERNATIONAL

    Empathy for the Haiti I know

    • Kent Rosenthal
    • 18 January 2010
    9 Comments

    In 2006 while living in Haiti I wrote about the plight of human trafficking victims. But the same issue of justice doesn't enter the picture when talking about an earthquake. What light could I shed on the enormity of suffering and destruction with my slight contribution?

    READ MORE