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For Immediate Release
October, 09 2009, 03:45pm EDT
Friday October, 09 2009, 03:45pm EDT
Contact:
Jason Garman, jason@oxfam.org.nz, mob +64 (0)21 202 5096 or
Prue Smith, prue@oxfam.org.nz, +64 (0)21 140 0825.
Samoa Tsunami: Relief Is Only the First Step on the Road to Building Back Better
WASHINGTON
WASHINGTON - Just over a week after
tsunami waves scoured the southern coast of Samoa, killing one per cent
of the population and seriously affecting one out of every six people,
the relief effort is still urgent. International agency Oxfam is
stressing that recovery is not just about immediate relief - it is
about longer-term development.
There are survivors who do not yet have clean drinking water and the
threat of disease still hangs over the islands. Women and children are
particularly at risk. Oxfam yesterday air freighted two large water
bladders to Samoa and continues to access isolated family groups who
have taken refuge in the hills, delivering emergency drinking water,
sleeping bags and food.
Yesterday Oxfam was allocated $110,000 (NZD$150,000) from the New
Zealand government's Humanitarian Action Fund to support its Samoan
recovery work over the next six months. Combined with public donations,
ongoing fundraising and offers of support from Canada and Germany, the
agency is planning for up to a $730,000 project.
"It's wonderful to hear how generous the public has been. I hope
donations continue to come in, because helping these people rebuild
their lives will take a big effort. When this disaster fades from the
media spotlight, the hard work really begins," said Oxfam aid worker
Janna Hamilton speaking from Apia.
Tinned fish, bottled water and mats are necessary to get survivors
through the immediate aftermath, but a successful recovery requires a
long-term commitment. Oxfam has a 12-24 month rehabilitation plan and
is working with local communities and groups.
Throughout the response, Oxfam will support our local partner
organization, Women in Business Development (WIBDI), in helping people
to regain their livelihoods. Seeds have already been planted and
seedlings will be distributed to WIBDI's network of organic farmers,
along with tools, to replace crops lost in the tsunami and rebuild
successful markets delivering organic banana, taro and coconut oil.
In the next six months, Oxfam will also work with the Samoan Water
Authority and Department of Health to secure sanitation and safe water
supplies for the communities of Saleapaga, Siumu and Manono Island.
"People here are still in shock. To top it off, yesterday's
earthquake near Vanuatu triggered another tsunami warning across the
Pacific," said Hamilton. "We should do everything we can for the
families I saw today running for higher ground, to help them become
more resilient to future disasters. This is a chance to build back
better."
Oxfam International is a global movement of people who are fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. We are working across regions in about 70 countries, with thousands of partners, and allies, supporting communities to build better lives for themselves, grow resilience and protect lives and livelihoods also in times of crisis.
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Trump EPA 'Hitting New Heights of Absurdity' With Plan to Reapprove Pesticide Dicamba
"This is what happens when pesticide oversight is controlled by industry lobbyists," said one campaigner.
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Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's supposed goal to "Make America Healthy Again," his administration is moving to reregister dicamba, a pesticide twice banned by federal courts, for use on genetically engineered cotton and soybeans.
In response to legal challenges from the Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, National Family Farm Coalition, and the Pesticide Action Network, courts ruled against the herbicide's registration in 2020 and again last year.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced its latest push to allow the use of dicamba on Wednesday, detailing proposed mitigation efforts—including temperature restrictions and the use of drift reduction agents—that EPA spokesperson Molly Vaseliou told The Washington Post would "minimize impact to certain species and the environment."
The EPA's proposed registration is now open for public comment until August 22, but supporters and critics are already weighing in. While the pesticide companies welcomed the agency's attempt to allow dicamba products from BASF, Bayer, and Syngenta, the advocacy groups behind the court battles sharply called out the Trump administration.
"EPA has had seven long years of massive drift damage to learn that dicamba cannot be used safely with GE dicamba-resistant crops," said Bill Freese, science director at the Center for Food Safety, in a statement.
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Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, declared that "Trump's EPA is hitting new heights of absurdity by planning to greenlight a pesticide that's caused the most extensive drift damage in U.S. agricultural history and twice been thrown out by federal courts."
"This is what happens when pesticide oversight is controlled by industry lobbyists," he charged. "Corporate fat cats get their payday and everyone else suffers the consequences."
The centers pointed out that "the decision to seek reapproval comes less than a month after Kyle Kunkler, a former lobbyist for the American Soybean Association, was installed as the deputy assistant administrator for pesticides in the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention. The ASA has been a vocal cheerleader for dicamba since its initial approval for use on soybeans in 2016, despite the fact that soybeans have been the most widely damaged crop."
The Post asked the EPA whether Kunkler's recent appointment influenced the dicamba decision. In response, Vaseliou said that the "EPA follows the federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act when registering pesticides" and any insinuation otherwise was "further 'journalism' malpractice by The Washington Post."
After Kunkler's new job was made public last month, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) also flagged his "years of advocating against restrictions on farm chemicals such as glyphosate and atrazine," and stressed that "these are the very pesticides singled out in Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' report for their potential links to chronic illness in children."
"The appointment of Kyle Kunkler sends a loud, clear message: Industry influence is back in charge at the EPA," said EWG president Ken Cook at the time. "It's a stunning reversal of the campaign promises Trump and RFK Jr. made to their MAHA followers—that they'd stand up to chemical giants and protect children from dangerous pesticides."
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A congressional subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the U.S. Department of Justice to hand over files related to deceased convicted child sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, thwarting an apparent effort by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to delay further action on the matter until after summer recess.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement voted 8-2 on a motion by Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) to subpoena the DOJ for all records related to the investigation into Epstein. The longtime former friend of President Donald Trump was convicted of procuring a child for prostitution in 2008 and faced federal child sex trafficking charges at the time of his suspicious 2019 jailhouse death, which was officially ruled a suicide.
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In addition to Lee, the motion was backed by Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Reps. Wesley Bell (D-Mo.), Brian Jack (R-Ga.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.).
"Today, Oversight Democrats fought for transparency and accountability on the Epstein files and won," Garcia said in a statement. "House Republicans didn't make it easy, but the motion was finally passed to force the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files."
"Let's be clear: This is a huge win for the American people," he added. "The public deserves to know who was complicit in Epstein's heinous crimes, including people with immense power in our government. Today's vote was just the first step toward accountability, and we will continue pushing for the truth."
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) must now sign the subpoena so it may be officially issued to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Comer agreed to subpoena Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell—who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes as part of Epstein's alleged operation—following a separate Oversight subcommittee's vote on Tuesday.
Johnson (La.) on Tuesday said the lower chamber would adjourn on Wednesday, one day earlier than scheduled. Critics called the move a blatant attempt to thwart a vote on the Epstein documents, pointing to other recent moves, including the House Rules Committee blocking an amendment that would have forced the DOJ to release the full files to the public, as proof of GOP stonewalling.
Epstein allegedly ran a sex trafficking network involving underage girls, whom he is accused of flying aboard his personal jet—dubbed the "Lolita Express"—to his private island, Little St. James in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the billionaire financier and his guests abused the children.
Trump partied with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s and flew on the "Lolita Express" numerous times—although there is no evidence that he ever visited Little St. James or was involved in any of Epstein's crimes. Still, the president has appeared eager to move on from the issue after he and key members of his administration repeatedly advocated for the release of the Epstein files. Trump has accused Democrats of amplifying the Epstein "hoax" and has derided his supporters demanding full disclosure of all related documents as "weaklings."
Apparently confirming what estranged Trump adviser Elon Musk and others have asserted, Bondi informed the president in May that his name appears in the Epstein files, according to Wall Street Journal reporting published Wednesday. Trump is suing the paper and two reporters, as well as parent company News Corp and its founder Rupert Murdoch, over reporting about a bawdily illustrated letter Trump allegedly wrote for Epstein.
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Vanuatu's government on Wednesday hailed the landmark International Court of Justice advisory opinion that countries have a legal obligation to take cooperative action against the "urgent and existential threat" of human-caused planetary heating, while demanding an end to the impunity enjoyed by major polluters including the United States, which is leading an ecocidal fossil fuel expansion under President Donald Trump.
The ruling by the ICJ—a United Nations organ also known as the World Court—states that "climate change is a common concern" and "cooperation is not a matter of choice for states but a pressing need and a legal obligation."
Furthermore, the tribunal underscored that "nompliance with emission-reduction commitments by a state may constitute an internationally wrongful act," suggesting a legal mechanism for reparations for countries suffering loss and damage from climate harms caused by wealthier polluters.
Vanuatu Minister of Climate Change Adaptation, Meteorology and Geo-Hazards, Energy, Environment, and Disaster Management Ralph Regenvanu said in a statement that "the ICJ ruling marks an important milestone in the fight for climate justice."
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"Even as fossil fuel expansion continues under the U.S.' influence, along with the loss of climate finance and technology transfer, and the lack of climate ambition following the U.S.' withdrawal from the Paris agreement, major polluters—past and present—cannot continue to act with impunity and treat developing countries as sacrifice zones to further feed corporate greed," he continued.
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Vanuatu was the first nation to endorse the FFNPT, having done so in 2022.
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