Photo: Erica Silverman/IRIN

Gaza City resident Shahrazad AbuThuria with her mentally disabled son, Belal

GAZA CITY, – As reports come in that the USA may be preparing to cut a substantial portion of the aid it gives to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if the Palestinian statehood bid is successful, people in the occupied Palestinian territory are bracing for possible consequences.

Still branded a “terrorist” organization by the Quartet (European Union, UN, US and Russia), the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip is developing programmes to assist the poorest families as the threat of sanctions by Israel and/or the USA looms.

“We are seeking alternative aid to Gaza from Arab nations,” said Omar Al-Derbi, assistant deputy social affairs minister in Gaza. A new programme under the ministry to begin in October pairs Gaza families in need directly with families from Gulf countries. Ten thousand Gaza beneficiaries will receive 1,000 shekels (US$267) every three months for the coming year. Beneficiaries, interviewed by over 200 social workers in Gaza, include widows and the unemployed.

Shahrazad AbuThuria, 41, from Gaza City, and her six children live in a two-room garage without insulation. Her husband left her 16 years ago, and she is now unemployed. As a refugee Shahrazad receives food assistance from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) every three months, but it is not enough to feed her family, she says.

She applied to the Gaza social affairs ministry for assistance a year ago, and says a social worker visits periodically, but her case is still under review.

“My daughter, Nida, 15, had to stop attending school, since I can’t afford uniforms,” she said. “It will for sure get worse. The siege will tighten and donor funds will decrease.”

The USA has been giving about US$200 million annually for PA budget support and roughly $350 million to support humanitarian and development projects – mainly channelled through the US State Department, the US Agency for International Development and NGOs – and not through the PA, said Ghassan Al-Khatib, spokesperson for the PA in Ramallah.

One in four Palestinians lives below the “poverty line” (defined as $609 per month for a household of two adults and three children), according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), including 18 percent of Palestinians living in the West Bank and 38 percent living in the Gaza Strip. PCSB also found that 14 percent of Palestinians were living in “deep poverty” ($478 per month for a household of two adults and three children), with 8 percent in the West Bank and 23 percent in Gaza.

These are the people most likely to be affected by possible sanctions.

“[Palestinian president Mahmoud] Abbas’s move to the UN may make our situation worse, the siege may tighten,” said Majda Bedawi, a 36-year-old refugee from Beach Camp in Gaza. She has nine children and her husband has been unemployed for five years.

Abbas’s move to the UN may make our situation worse, the siege may tighten

“We are borrowing from relatives to pay for groceries,” she added. Her family applied for social assistance last week.

EU, World Bank assistance

At present, the plight of many of the poorest families is being eased thanks to interventions by the European Union (EU), the World Bank, and the PA.

In terms of direct financial support to the recurrent costs of the PA, the EU disbursed $213 million from January to September 2011, including $174 million for salaries/pensions and $39 million for social support. In 2010, about $345 million was disbursed to the Palestinians by the EU.

Some 87,000 Palestinian families – 47,000 in the West Bank and 40,000 in Gaza – are receiving social assistance in 2011 from a “national cash transfer programme” administered by the EU, World Bank, and the PA social affairs ministry in the West Bank, says the PA – an increase on previous years.

About 55,000 families receive EU assistance, 5,000 receive assistance from the Bank, and 27,000 from the PA (this latter group has increased in the past year).

The full integration of Gaza beneficiaries under the programme is expected by the end of 2011. As of June 2011, payments to beneficiaries in the West Bank have been transferred into individual bank accounts. For Gaza beneficiaries, benefits will continue to be paid over-the-counter until the transition to the national programme is effective. This year’s third quarterly payment was made on 3 October.

Gaza-PA rift

Lack of communication between the PA social affairs ministry and its counterpart in Gaza is affecting the ability of impoverished families in Gaza to enter the system – although, there is greater cooperation between the two ministries than in other sectors like health care. The EU and the Bank only deal with the PA on an official level, and limit contact with the Gaza government to coordination on logistics.

The USA has been giving about US$200 million annually for PA budget support and roughly $350 million to support humanitarian and development projects – mainly channelled through the US State Department, the US Agency for International Development and NGOs – and not through the PA, said Ghassan Al-Khatib, spokesperson for the PA in Ramallah.

According to a Reuters report, the Obama administration is asking Congress to unblock its freeze on budget support assistance, imposed by the lawmakers as punishment for the PA’s bid for UN recognition of statehood.

Meanwhile, Gaza officials have been complaining about the lack of assistance from the PA. “The PA is not transferring sufficient funds as a result of the internal political conflict,” said Al-Derbi. “The ministry requested 18,000 additional families in Gaza receive assistance,” he added.

Gaza was not consulted on the statehood proposal to the UN.

es/cb source http://www.irinnews.org

Photo: Phuong Tran/IRIN

Haiti’s earthquake measured 7.0 in magnitude, but was more destructive than other similarly strong quakes due to its shallow depth, and other factors

BANGKOK,  – While the Richter scale is the most easily recognized measure of an earthquake’s magnitude, seismologists say several more dynamic measurement methods have eclipsed it since it was developed more than 70 years ago.

IRIN considers current best practices around the world -from the standard magnitude indicators that replaced the Richter scale to prediction models that estimate an earthquake’s economic impact on society.

Moment magnitude scale (Mw)

Today, the most common calculation method for magnitude – the amount of energy released by an earthquake at its source – is the moment magnitude scale (Mw).

Developed in the 1970s by Hiroo Kanamori, professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, Mw was designed to succeed several magnitude scales, including the 1930s-era Richter scale, whose model was solely based on the geology of California, where earthquakes are mostly shallow.

By taking into account the actual area of fault line ruptured, Mw gives a more consistent measurement to earthquakes no matter how deep.

“The media still say Richter scale in news reports, but seismologists use magnitude only. Magnitude can be calculated with different formulas,” Takeshi Koizumi, seismologist at the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA), told IRIN.

Koizumi said these data are very important for seismologists to predict tsunamis and other earthquake-induced hazards.

Modified Mercalli intensity scale (MMI)

Unlike the Richter scale and Mw, which assess the earthquake’s size in terms of magnitude, the MMI describes earthquakes in terms of intensity. Numbers are used to describe magnitude; Roman numerals are used to express intensity.

Intensity – a completely different concept – indicates how much shaking is felt and the level of damage in a specific location, according to Peeranan Towashiraporn, an earthquake engineer at the Bangkok-based Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).

“Many people think high-magnitude earthquakes must result in greater damage, but this is not always the case, it depends on location. If you are far from the epicentre, intensity can be low and you may feel very little shaking,” Towashiraporn explained.

Amod Dixit, general secretary of Nepal’s National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET), says it is easier for non-scientists to understand earthquakes in terms of intensity. “Magnitude is a scientist’s language. You and I are more concerned with the practical implications of an earthquake,” he said.

As a result, using magnitude to measure earthquakes often causes people to underestimate their impact. “Engineers here [in Nepal] claim to build houses that can withstand magnitude-7.0 earthquakes, but that doesn’t mean it can withstand intensity IX. Low-magnitude earthquakes can also bring high intensity of shaking,” Dixit said.

Citing the magnitude-6.1 earthquake near Christchurch in New Zealand in February 2011 as an example, Towashiraporn agreed that magnitude alone can be misleading. “A moderate magnitude-6.1 earthquake can still cause significant damage and loss of life if it happens at a shallow depth and is very close to a highly populated area,” he said.

At least 181 people were killed, 1,500 injured and about 100,000 buildings destroyed or damaged, according to figures from the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale (JMA)

The JMA scale measures intensity in the units of “Shindo”, and is analogous to the MMI. The only difference is JMA measures intensity from 0 to 7 and the MMI runs from I to XII.

While the MMI is applied worldwide, JMA is only used in Japan and Taiwan. Koizumi said JMA gives the world’s fastest intensity information.

“The initial estimation comes in 1.5 minutes after an earthquake occurs. Then after a few seconds, a warning is issued to the general public on TV,” he explained, adding that seismic intensity meters have been installed throughout the country, making calculation much faster.

According to David Wald, seismologist at USGS, the USGS-developed ShakeMaps – an automatically generated shaking and intensity map that combines instrumental measurement and local geology and earthquake information of a region – can also compute earthquake intensity in near real-time.

Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER)

Against the decades-old debate of whether the magnitude scale or the intensity scale gives better earthquake measurement, the USGS developed this new technology in 2010.

Taking into account the demographics, building types and economic and casualty data collected from past earthquakes, PAGER estimates the shaking distribution, the number of people and settlements affected, and the possible fatalities and economic losses experienced.

PAGER is still new to most people, but the information it offers is useful to governments and aid agencies. “The PAGER turns the estimates of damage into colour-coded alert levels, so local, national and international actors know what level of response is needed,” Wald said.

Apart from providing data for post-disaster mitigation, PAGER tops the other scales by generating information that helps prepare for earthquakes. “The PAGER highlights the most vulnerable structures that need improvement. This is especially important for developing countries where people don’t always follow building codes,” he said.

“The system still awaits more awareness from governments, the scientific community and the media,” Wald said. “To communicate the seriousness of earthquakes, magnitude and intensity alone are not enough.”

sh/nb/mw source http://www.irinnews.org

Photo: Contributor/IRIN

Somaliland flag

HARGEISA,  – A humanitarian delegation from the Republic of Somaliland donated relief aid for 9,000 drought-displaced families in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, during a recent visit, the first such visit since the region declared unilateral independence from the rest of the country in 1991.

“We plan to distribute food for 9,000 families and medicine for four hospitals,” Hasan Abdi Awed, chairman of Somaliland’s Chamber of Commerce and leader of the eight-member delegation, said on 30 September. “The food we are distributing will last the beneficiary families for one month.”

Awed said the Somaliland government had announced in late August that it would participate in the international efforts to provide humanitarian aid to Somalia, which has been hit by famine and drought across most of its south-central regions.

Mohamed Shugri Jama, a spokesman for the delegation, told a news conference in Hargeisa before the visit: “We collected about US$700,000 donated by the people and the government of Somaliland, and we have split into two delegations, one will be in Mogadishu distributing the food aid there, while another will go to the refugee camps [in Dadaab] in Kenya.”

Receiving the Somaliland delegation at the Mogadishu international airport, the governor and mayor of Mogadishu, Mohamed Ahmed Nur Tarsan, said: “We are glad to receive the delegation from Somaliland, which is here in response to the humanitarian crisis. It is not the amount of their contribution that matters but their empathy is more important.”

Somaliland, in the north of the country, is a former British protectorate that joined Italian Somaliland to form the Republic of Somalia in 1960. In 1991, the northwestern region declared its independence from the rest of Somalia and has enjoyed relative stability and peace unknown in Mogadishu.

maj/js/mw source http://www.irinnews.org