Floods in Thailand

Floods in Thailand

Approximately 250 people have been killed in Thailand over the past two months, as the worst monsoon rains in decades have led to deadly flooding. Much of the country has been affected; this footage is from the eastern city of Pattaya.

The authorities are trying to deal with the crisis in various ways and in particular by keeping citizens updated via interactive maps. This site is updated using satellite images, and highlights which areas have been hit by the flooding which is affecting millions of people.

The government has also published this map on the Internet to inform web users on the state of roads across the country. Those completely out of use are shown in red and those which are under water but still open to traffic are shown in green.

This site has been set up to provide aid for the many regions that have become cut off from the rest of the world. Those who have Internet access and need help can identify themselves online. Here the person in charge of a village north of Bangkok describes the situation at the scene. He says the water levels have risen to three and half meters and the 350 households in the village are lacking food and drinking water.

With flooding due to hit Bangkok over the next few days, the government is doing its upmost to protect the capital and ensure the safety of the 12 million people that live there. In these photos, taken by amateurs, we can see that sand bags have been stacked along the banks of the river which runs through the city, in anticipation of the expected flood waters.

Yemen: women and the revolution

Tawakul Karman has been extremely involved in Yemen’s popular uprising ever since it began around 8 months ago. Here we see her addressing a large crowd of protesters during a rally in April. On Friday she was awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle for women’s rights and for democracy in Yemen. The award highlights the significant role women are playing in Yemen’s revolution.

Women have made a particularly active contribution to the revolution ever since the unrest began at the end of January. As this video illustrates, last week hundreds of women returned to the streets of opposition stronghold Taez, to demand an end to the violence and the ouster of President Saleh.

Women activists have organized similar anti-government demonstrations in Dhamar, in south west Yemen. This footage is from the end of September when women gathered to protest against the government punishing citizens by disconnecting their electricity or water supply.

Last week women organized a mass demonstration in the capital Sanaa to show president Saleh that the protest movement is as strong as ever. Thousands of women took to the streets, voicing their anger with the regime and exercising their right to protest peacefully.

And Yemeni women living abroad are also supporting this fight for freedom. Afrah Nasser is a journalist and blogger living in Sweden and in this video blog she says how happy she is that her fellow citizen has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and she hopes the women and men of Yemen will be able to bring the revolution to a successful conclusion.

Audiobook to show solidarity with the visually impaired

The Valentin Haüy Association has started a project for an audiobook for the blind and visually impaired and want French web users to get involved by recording themselves reading from the best seller “Tell no-one” by American author Harlan Coben. A number of well-known figures, like the actor Lambert Wilson have already shown their support and web users have until the 3rd of November to follow suit and send in their recordings, and help raise awareness about visual impairments.

A website to promote democracy in China

A website to promote democracy in China: this project was launched in Taiwan by Wang Dan, one of the student leaders in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. The activist has been living in exile since 1998, and is taking political education to the Internet. The site will most probably be censored by the communist authorities, but Wang Dan has said he hopes it will help teach the thousands of Chinese citizens studying abroad about democracy. 24

Video of the day

Page Stephenson from America attached a camera to a helium balloon and then let it float up into the skies above the state of Oregon. The footage is quite simply incredible...  the balloon traveled around 5O kilometers before coming back down to earth …Part of the thinking behind Page’s project was to inspire people to dream big and have fun, and this proves that you do not need a lot of money to this; just a bit of imagination.