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Are there any climate change sceptics out there?
May 11th, 2012
If so I strongly recommend that you read here the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. That’s quite a mouthful, which is why the authors have shortened the title to SREX. If that reminds you of the popular name for Tyrannosaurus Rex – T-Rex – then perhaps it might also realise that if we don’t wake up to what’s going on around us we may end up like the dinosaurs – extinct! Read the full entry
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Europe Day 2012: how will you remember it?
May 10th, 2012
If it is what was in the news on this day, you will remember post-election anxiety. Greece is struggling to form a government, and analysts are all over the place guessing about France’s future. And about the future of the euro. And of Europe.
It was a celebration during anxious times, and I felt this all the way through this Europe’s Day: from my visit to the bTV studio, where questions on Europe’s future poured, through my participation, together with President Rossen Plevneliev and students at Sofia University, in an discussion titled “Is the European project exhausted?” to my conversations with my Facebook friends and other citizens I met in Sofia. Read the full entry
Number of views: 894
I got the first news of the two strong earthquakes in the Indian Ocean yesterday. The images of the 2004 disaster that caused huge destruction in the same area and killed more than 230,000 people jumped in my mind. Like observers world over, I prayed that we wouldn’t be seeing similar images on yesterday’s evening news.
Luckily, we didn’t: the tsunami wave which the two earthquakes could have triggered, did not come and a potentially huge suffering and loss of life was avoided. Banda Aceh – and many other places – celebrated that they were spared this time. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3257
Football against hunger comes to a stadium near you
March 28th, 2012Bill Shankly, the late great Liverpool manager, once said: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that”.
Even the great Shankly himself couldn’t have known how true his famous phrase would turn out to be: during this weekend of Matches Against Hunger (Click here for the list of matches) the beautiful game can make the difference between life and death for millions of people. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3261
ECHO@20 – celebrating two decades of service to humanity
March 20th, 2012
Dear friends,
Today, as we launch ECHO’s 20th anniversary celebrations, we recognise the service to humanity we in the European Commission deliver on behalf of the European citizens.
Our gratitude goes to you, the ordinary men and women, whose generosity funds our work. Even in times of hardship at home you support us in helping people in their most dire moments of need around the world – and this support has gone up over the last years. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3360
Dear friends,
Today is International Women’s Day. As we celebrate our mothers and daughters, as we pay tribute to the important achievements of women scientists and artists, leaders and activists, this is also an occasion to reaffirm our resolve to help the billions of women who face tremendous risks and enjoy few opportunities.
I am spending this International Women’s Day with women in Bukavu, the Democratic Republic of Congo, who do face tremendous risks: poverty, violence, mass rapes, lacking development, poor healthcare and education. But they also an example of resilience and courage which can inspire us all. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3427
Smiling faces, suffering people
March 7th, 2012
I have just visited an extraordinary market on a muddy hillside in South Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thousands of men and women queued to buy everything from transistor radios to corrugated sheet roofing. The atmosphere was festive – I even danced! – and warm-hearted.
It was all the more remarkable to see smiling animated faces among people who have suffered so much. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3476
A lesson of our world’s fragility – my impressions from Brazzaville
March 5th, 2012
I am just back from Brazzaville, where I walked through the ruins of Mpila. This was the densely populated neighbourhood which took the brunt of the massive explosions which rocked the Congolese Republic’s capital on Sunday.
The scenes of devastation were dramatic. Houses had collapsed like decks of cards, destroying everything and everybody within. People were gathering up what personal belongings they could salvage. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3314
First reaction to the Brazzaville disaster
March 4th, 2012
When I boarded a flight Sunday morning for Kinshasa I was receiving the first news of explosions rocking Brazzaville, the capital of Congo. By the time I arrived, the news had got a lot worse: reports that hundreds of people had died and many more were injured by what was being reported as an accident at a military munitions dump.
The explosions were so huge they even rocked areas of Kinshasa, separated by six kilometres of the Congo River from Brazzaville.
My deepest sympathies go out to all those killed, injured and affected by these terrible events. I am closely following how this develops and looking at how we can help as quickly and urgently as possible.
It’s late here and the full picture won’t be revealed until tomorrow but I am terribly concerned to hear that among the victims were people at a hospital and a church, where a mass was being celebrated.
It’s another terrible reminder that disasters, man-made and natural, can strike at any time and when least expected. My heart goes out to all those caught up in this dreadful disaster.
Number of views: 3323
Today I had a fantastic guest whose name you surely know – Raúl González, the football star of Real Madrid and Schalke 04. He is goodwill ambassador for the campaign against hunger that the European Commission leads together with the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the European Professional Football Leagues. We just launched the campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the plight of hunger and the efforts to solve it.
We will focus the campaign on the Sahel region in Africa. I told Raúl about my recent trip to Niger and Chad, where 300,000 kids die from hunger-related diseases each year. Hunger will kill even more children in 2012 as a new food crisis looms. This is why we are acting now to prevent a bigger disaster. In this effort, the help of ambassadors like Raúl, like Hristo Stoichkov, like Roberto Baggio, is indispensable. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3281
