Photo by Eric Seddon from Pexels
NGOs and the International Community to the Rescue
The World Central Kitchen (WCK), in collaboration with the US military and an European/Emirati coalition, is set to deliver the first 200 tonnes of aid via a new Maritime Corridor (i.e. via boat); assuming that they’re able to build a pier on the coast of Gaza in time, using rubble from destroyed buildings. The first ship to set sail from Cyprus with aid, the Open Arms (operated by a Spanish NGO of the same name), will hopefully arrive in Gaza in the coming days. The WCK has delivered 35 million meals to displaced Palestinians since they started their operations in the region (the WCK was founded in 2010).
The intentional collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza via an official, state sponsored, blockade needs at least a passing mention. 200 tonnes of aid is about 5 trucks worth, something in the region of 200 trucks per day would be closer to a reasonable expectation of meeting demand. The Israelis continue to hinder deliveries of aid by road. On the ground, Israeli citizens have been trying to physically blockade entry points. Tragically, airdropped aid also failed to satisfy the standards of the hippocratic oath (“First do no harm”) when a malfunctioning parachute killed 5 people and injured many more. This is all in addition to various incidents involving civilians being shot at, run over or otherwise killed, while trying to receive desperately needed aid.
The WCK draws attention to the significant portion of Gaza’s population that does not have access to food or water in virtue of a prolonged siege by Israel. 1.7 million Palestinians have been displaced and hundreds of thousands of children face malnutrition. With the population on the brink of famine (~20 children have died of hunger), and events such as the “Flour Massacre” (on February 29th over 100 civilians were and almost 1,000 injured when Israeli troops opened fire on civilians desperately seeking aid from a convoy) and Tuesday’s attacks on civilians seeking aid (killing 9 and injuring 20), the aid cannot arrive soon enough.
“At Open Arms, we refuse to stand idly by in the face of the inhumane conditions experienced by the Palestinian civilian population.”
Open Arms Joint Humanitarian Initiative World Central Kitchen
“You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”
John Barnett, a 62 year old retired Boeing Quality Manager, appears to have killed himself (with a gun) on March 9th in South Carolina while going through legal interviews. Barnett was appealing the denial of his report to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) focusing on alleged harassment and retaliation for Barnett’s whistleblowing, which Barnett said led him to early retirement due to stress. Barnett worked for Boeing for over 3 decades before retiring in 2017. Some have observed that 7 years is a very long time for whistleblowing administration without the merits of the quality control concerns being properly addressed.
Barnett’s family warned that he was so stressed out upon his final days at Boeing that his doctor had been concerned about his heart. After highlighting numerous safety concerns that posed risks of “potentially catastrophic” failure for aircraft, Barnett decried a culture of concealment, profit over all else and labelling anyone who spoke up about Quality Assurance issues a “trouble-maker”.
Boeing has been under heightened scrutiny after a door-plug blew off a 737 and landed in a Portland, OR resident’s garden after a fairly extensive period of uncertainty about where the door-plug had landed. There were various issues surrounding Flight 1282 (operated by Alaska Airlines) such as previous instances of a Cabin Decompression sensor throwing a FAIL error, which led the Airline to restrict the plane to flights that didn’t involve going over large bodies of water until more thorough maintenance could be completed. Anyway, it looks like the door plug flew out because the bolts that were meant to hold it in place were actually missing entirely! Note: the plugs are mostly held in place by the pressure differential, not the plugs, though the plugs are still necessary for holding the door in place.
More Spaces to be German (i.e. frolic naked in the woods)
The EU’s Nature Restoration will be one part among many of a multi-pronged strategy to improve “degraded” ecosystems across Europe, preserve and replenish biodiversity and mitigate uncontrolled climate change. The new law aims to restore 20% of Europe’s (“degraded”) land and sea by 2030; with incremental targets including forests and wetlands for 2040 & 2050.
How is Europe’s wildlife doing? Well, the EU reckons that “81% of EU-protected habitats were in poor condition, with 36% deteriorating and only 9% improving”.
A Senior Biodiversity Policy professional at the World Wildlife Fund, Sabien Leemans, compared the Nature Restoration act to the EU’s habitat directive of the early 90’s, which aimed to protect and conserve Europe’s wild flora and fauna. The Nature Restoration Act still needs to be approved by the EU council before it’s fully efficacious.
“For nature, with a proposal that would really impact how we use land and sea in Europe, I think this is really historic and [it is] not happening even every decade.”
Sabien Leemans, WWF: “Q&A: What does the EU ‘nature restoration’ law mean for climate and biodiversity?”
The European Green Deal is also underway, with the ambitious aim of making Europe the world’s first carbon neutral continent by 2050.
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