Category Archives: Viva!

Joe Biden & Michelle Obama Join Global Citizen Fest In Central Park Saturday

Joe Biden & Michelle Obama Join Global Citizen Fest In Central Park Saturday The Global Citizen Festival will take over Central Park’s Great Lawn on Saturday, delivering a free for a good cause concert to New Yorkers. Coldplay will kick things off at 4 p.m., followed by Ed Sheeran, Beyonce, and Pearl Jam. The whole thing is hosted by Stephen Colbert, and the special guests range from Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Malala Fund co-founder Malala Yousafzai, to Leonardo DiCaprio and Kerry Washington, to the newly announced Michelle Obama and Joe Biden. [ more › ]

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Hajj Tragedy: 450 Killed, 700+ Injured In Stampede

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Credit Directorate of the Saudi Civil Defense

UPDATED:  As of 10:25 EDT the latest reports indicate  Stampede kills more than 700 at Hajj pilgrimage near Mecca.

 

# 10,559

 

The numbers are still coming in, but less than two weeks after the crane accident in Mecca which killed 107 and injured nearly 400,  a stampede reportedly has claimed the lives of at least 453 people, and injured another 700, today in Mina.
  

This update from Reuters:

 

Death toll at Saudi stampede rises to 453 – Saudi civil defence


DUBAI (Reuters) – The death toll from a stampede during the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia on Thursday has risen to 453 people of various nationalities, the Saudi civil defence said.

It said that the crush, caused by large numbers of people gathering at Mina, outside the Muslim holy city of Mecca, had left 719 people injured.

 

Stampedes, sadly, occur fairly frequently around the world, often at sporting events, concerts, or religious gatherings – anyplace you put a huge number of people into a confined area.

  • In 1979, a crush incident at a rock concert in Cincinnati, Ohio where The Who were playing resulted in 11 deaths and 26 injuries.
  • In 1989, 96 people were killed during a crush at a football match in Sheffield, England
  • In 2006, the Hajj saw a crush that killed 345  at Jamarat Bridge in Mecca during the stoning of the devil
  • At least 36 people were killed, and 47 injured during the 2014 New Year’s celebration in central Shanghai.
  • Earlier this year at least 27 Hindu pilgrims died in a stampede on the banks of the Godavari River, in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
  • But the deadliest stampede in modern times took place in 1900, when nearly 1,500 were killed in Mecca.

Crowdfunder: Saving animals in the Amazon

Latina Lista: News from the Latino perspective Latina Lista: News from the Latino perspective – News from the Latino perspective. Crowdfunder: Saving animals in the Amazon by Latina Lista

LatinaLista —

Campaign: The Nature Project -Amazon & Animal Conservation

 

Véronique Grand and Yvan Bouvier, of Swiss nationality, went to live in the Ecuadorian Amazonia in 2002. As many, they were worried for the environment and the treatment toward the animals. 

In 2007, they created the Swiss-Ecuadorian foundation “Los Monos, Selva y Vida” which is devoted to the conservation of the fauna, the flora and the amazon indigenous traditions.

The Ecuadorian Amazonia has the biggest biodiversity in the world and we should take action now.

Today, Paseo de los Monos is a wildlife shelter located near the city of Puyo in the province of Pastaza, Ecuador. The refuge has one hectare of native forest and has been receiving orphaned wild animals, the victims of trafficking, since 2005.

The shelter’s first goal is to offer the animals a new family in an adequate space appropriate to their natural mode of life. The animals are living inside big parks of native vegetation.

The refuge shelters species in critical danger of extinction, for example primates like: Woolly monkeys (Laothrix poepiggi) and Spider monkeys (Ateles Belzebuth) which are intensively hunted for human consumption, while the babies are sold in towns or cities.

Monkey meat is considered a delicacy in some regions. Sadly, these animals have a relatively short life expectancy and their rate of reproduction is very low: they live until 25 years old and can only have one baby every two or three years.

In  2013 the massive destruction of the Amazon from Brazil to Ecuador started.

The oil and mining companies and agricultural farming are incrementing their activities and as a result the forests are being fragmented. 

This is a hard situation for the wildlife, since they are not able to follow their ancestral paths in order to find food and shelter.

The agony of the tropical forests are the first cause of extinction of animal and vegetable species which are necessary to preserve the fragile ecosystems. 

The more vulnerable will disappear first, and if the destruction of the ¨Lungs of the World¨ goes on, all life will be endangered including humans.

The construction of highways, poaching, traffic of wildlife, the illegal trade of wood, development of places for human necessities like houses, fields for cropping and farming etc, will provoke the extinction of the forests and the contamination of the principal water resources.

For this, the campaign’s organizers are working with The Paseo de los Monos, those involved in the reception and rehabilitation of animals in unnatural conditions and / or in danger of extinction in Puyo. 

The land will be preserved and the animals who have been rehabilitated can be liberated in this protected area. This will allow Paseo de los Monos to shelter more wild animals who are being currently victims of traffic and dispersed in cities or zoos under poor conditions, chained or in cages. 

The campaign’s goal is to raise $36,000 to help the wildlife shelter acquire land of virgin forest at the borders of Parque Nacional Sangay of 50 hectares for nature conservation and to rehabilitate animals into the wild.

In the beginning, the goal was to shelter and rehabilitate orphan animals in order to form groups with them and free them into protected areas. 

It is important to preserve these rescued animals as a genetic resource and their reproduction will allow them to re-inhabit the devastated zones in the future. 

Once the animals are back into their habitat, they will be able to achieve their role in nature, which is the dispersion of seed and preserve the equilibrium of the ecosystems.