Cyclone Ivy: Red Cross Sends Aid Worker To Vanuatu

New Zealand Red Cross is sending an experienced relief worker to Vanuatu, to assist communities devastated by Cyclone Ivy. Cyclone Ivy battered the small Pacific nation on 26 February, with winds of 130-150 km/h in Vanuatu’s northern and central islands.

Latest reports suggest up to 2500 families are homeless or seriously affected, mainly in the north of Vanuatu, with one death reported to date.

NZRC Director General, Flora Gilkison, said experienced relief worker, Peter Scott, from Marlborough, would fly to Vanuatu on Thursday to manage the relief distributions to affected people.

In Vanuatu, he will join New Zealander, David Neal, who is Acting Director General for the Vanuatu Red Cross, who is co-ordinating the overall relief effort.

“Vanuatu has only limited resources available to cope with the impact of Cyclone Ivy. As a good neighbour, we are committed to doing all we can to help.”

She said the Red Cross relief programme had been boosted by a donation of $70,000 from the New Zealand Government for 3,000 family kits containing tarpaulins, water tablets, water containers, kitchen utensils and hygiene items. New Zealand Red Cross has also donated $10,000 for the purchase of relief items locally.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>