Category: News

Categories
News

Snowden Controversy Continues with New Report

He has been called a hero and a villain, a patriot and a traitor. However he will be judged in history, Edward Snowden’s actions have nevertheless caused something of a ruckus for one of the largest intelligence organizations in the United States, the National Security Agency, and has reopened conversation on the ethics and lawfulness of government surveillance.

Courtesy of guim.co.uk
Courtesy of guim.co.uk

The leaks obtained by Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA, represent one of the largest breaches in security that the United States government has experienced in its history. Snowden’s critics warn that these leaks will threaten American security and interests and will enable terrorist organizations throughout the globe. On the other hand, privacy advocates say that Snowden has performed an important act of civil disobedience.

The full 58,000 files that Snowden leaked to the Guardian (a British newspaper) and the Washington Post last summer have not, as of yet, been fully revealed. The Guardian’s editor, Alan Rusbridger, reporting to a parliamentary committee investigating the newspaper’s handling of the Snowden leaks, explained that the Guardian has only published one percent of the files and has withheld the rest, mostly on account of the sensitive nature of the information. “I would not expect us to be publishing a huge amount more,” Rusbridger also said to the committee.

Nevertheless, some of the information that Snowden provided is still forthcoming. On Wednesday, the Washington Post published a report that revealed the details of NSA’s cell phone tracking program, in which the agency monitors the data of individuals – wherever they happen to be in the world – using their personal mobile devices. The NSA accomplishes this by tapping into cell towers and tracking the movements of individuals using the signals from their cell phones to the towers. From this information, the NSA can also track the movements of possible associates, called “co-travelers”, if they pass through a number of the same cell tower zones. Furthermore, if monitored for a period of time, a target’s relationships and patterns of movements can also be uncovered using this information.

Though the NSA has said that it has no desire to map everyone’s movements, this is nonetheless the byproduct of tracking down target individuals that the NSA deems as dangerous or potentially dangerous. The Washington Post reports that the NSA is collecting almost 5 billion cell phone records every day throughout the globe, which in turn amounts to 2 trillion per year.

Throughout the course of the “Snowden scandal”, the US government has insisted that these measures are lawful, but they have been challenged by many privacy advocates – seeing a boost in support and attention – who argue that these measures violate civil liberties and privacy of American citizens. Other groups think that Snowden’s actions have put the United States in peril.

The American public remains divided, however, according to a survey put forward by the Huffington Post in late October. According to the survey, 51% of respondents described Snowden as “something of a hero,” while 49% described him as “more of a traitor.”

Who is Edward Snowden and what will his actions prove? Only time will tell.

Categories
News

Venezuela’s Maduro Receives Special Powers

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro received special powers from the country’s National Assembly on Tuesday in a bid to tackle corruption and a spiraling economy.

Courtesy of inserbia.info
Courtesy of inserbia.info

Maduro’s powers, authorized under the Enabling Act, allow him to rule by decree without consulting Venezuela’s Congress for twelve months. According to Reuters, Maduro is already planning on implementing two laws very soon. One will limit businesses’ profit margins from fifteen to thirty percent as part of an “economic offensive” against price-gouging. The other would create a new state body to oversee dollar sales by Venezuela’s currency control board. The laws are a response to a growing demand for hard currency in Venezuela’s black market after the Bolivar fuente, the national currency, hit an inflation rate of 54 percent.

Although a member of the oil cartel OPEC, analysts believe that not even the country’s oil revenues can cushion the blow of years of economic mismanagement. Maduro’s predecessor, the late Hugo Chávez, used the Enabling Act to nationalize large portions of Venezuela’s oil industry all in the name of socialism. Under his command, Chávez used the oil revenues to buy votes among the poor with handouts such as refrigerators and reward those who supported his policies. Maduro, as Chávez’s hand-picked successor, has vowed to continue the socialist revolution in Venezuela and punish those he has coined “barbaric… capitalist parasites.” According to the Washington Post, dozens of business owners were arrested after being accused of speculating and hoarding supplies as the country faces severe shortages of basic goods, including bananas and toilet paper. Soon after, Venezuela’s government slashed prices at appliance dealers, auto-mechanic stores and toy shops, prompting a rush on businesses across the country as shoppers hunted for bargains.

Along with fears of further damage to Venezuela’s economy, critics claim that Maduro will also use his special powers to silence critics of his rule in the name of anti-corruption. According to the BBC, Maduro’s powers come just before local elections in the country on December 8 and members of the opposition parties in the National Assembly fear Maduro will target them in order to consolidate his regime’s hold on power. Reuters reports that Maduro’s “war on corruption” has already led to the downfalls of an opposition advisor accused of running a transvestite prostitution ring and an opposition legislator stripped of parliamentary immunity for allegedly mismanaging a state-owned stadium. Maduro’s opponents say that he should be chasing military generals and other senior officials they blame for turning Venezuela into a major supply route for Colombian drugs. But the government denies this is the case, saying that narcotic seizures are on the rise.

Political analyst Luis Vicente León believes that Maduro is trying to follow in Chávez’s footsteps and “demolish the idea that he is weak…. He does this with populist actions that can connect him to the people.” Whether or not Maduro’s special powers will be a benefit to his rule and help him to connect with many poor Venezuelans who supported Chávez. Unlike Chávez, whose fiery, charismatic temper helped him to sustain vast support among Venezuelans despite a bad economy, the less bombastic Maduro has struggled to maintain a fraction of this support.

 

Categories
News

Buddy’s Place Now Open for Business

This past November 9th saw the opening of yet another venture aimed to bring more business to the town of Houghton. Buddy’s Place, which had its first open house then, currently offers spaces for rent to community members, students, and other interested renters in the area to retail artisan crafts and other goods.

Buddys_PlaceAlthough the establishment has received support from the Houghton Group, a collection of professors and community members interested in bringing business and further economic development to the Houghton area, the venture itself was spearheaded by Ralph Kerr, Houghton Group member and owner of the upcoming Genesee Rapids baseball team. Ken Bates, business professor at Houghton and Houghton Group member, said, “We began considering this about three months ago if my recollection is correct. When Ralph brought up the ideas there was an immediate positive reaction and several began suggesting possible businesses that would be interested possibilities.” Added Kerr, “We kind of play off each other and if somebody has an idea, we may just throw it out there.”

The name comes from Buddy Keith, a member of the Houghton community member who passed away about a year ago. “”Buddy was the headmaster of the Houghton Academy for years and years and he and his wife–this was their family home,” explained Kerr. “To the people that live in this area, Buddy Keith was like an icon.”

With eight total rooms open for rental, Buddy’s Place offers spaces at rates per square foot as well as deals on full-, half-, and quarter-room rentals. Several community members have expressed interest in renting spaces. Stephanie Wittenrich, administrative assistant for the Genesee Rapids who is also involved with the project, described the visitors as “a lot of local crafters, just a lot of community members that are crafty but … want to team up with other people. There’re a lot of people in the community that are creative and belong to little groups, so they just do crafts on their own. So, they’re all trying to look at forming groups to rent out spaces together.”

According to Wittenrich and Kerr, two of the available rooms have already been taken. “The first people in this morning… they run a place called ‘Tracy’s Delightfuls.’ They do gift baskets and sell candles and home decorating kinds of things and they also run the Tuxedo Junction tuxedo rental shop…” said Kerr during the open house. Other interested parties have come from the local Allegany Artisans. In addition to accommodating community members, Kerr has also expressed a willingness to work with college faculty and students in putting their pieces up for sale. “We know that, particularly for the students, they’re not going to be in a place where they can commit to a rental,” said Kerr. “But, we’d like to work out something where we could give them a wall to display their stuff and leave it here under consignment or something.”

Categories
News

College Investigates Performance with Decennial Review

Every ten years, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) requires Houghton College to conduct an extensive review on different aspects of the college. Houghton completed its last review in 2005; the next, already in progress, will reach completion in 2015.

FancherThe review is labeled a self-study, conducted by Houghton for the benefit of Houghton. The MSCHE website describes the review as “a voluntary, non-governmental, membership association” and contains a manual asserting the commission’s fourteen “characteristics of excellence” that affiliated institutions strive to meet.

Each institution is required to create a missions statement. Each characteristic of excellence in turn must line up with that statement. One standard of excellence specified by the manual reads, “The human, financial, technical, facilities, and other resources necessary to achieve an institution’s mission and goals are available and accessible.”

The MSCHE provides a resource containing similar information collected by other institutions involved in the commission. Any previous MSCHE study conducted at a given institution may be accessed through the website at any time.

In order to facilitate the self-study process, Houghton collected what is called the Self-Study Steering Committee, comprised of both students and faculty. Paul Young, Chair of the Self Study Steering Committee, works with the president and the dean of the college to select the students and faculty who serve as members.

The committee then works to collect information.  Young said, “We’re doing what’s called a comprehensive review… we’re looking at every one of the fourteen standards to see how well Houghton meets the standards.”

During the self-study, the committee appoints seven groups of information gatherers, each of which gather information on two of the fourteen standards. “They are responsible for gathering information, then analyze what the information means, evaluate it, and write a chapter for the final report,” said Young.  Each chapter consists of analysis of evidence in regards to how well Houghton is meeting the specified objectives, and will in turn make recommendations based on that evidence.

According to the Self-Study Design, a document created by Young to outline the purpose and instructions of the Self-Study Steering Committee, each group must “locate existing evidence, collect new evidence as necessary, and analyze evidence relevant to the research questions assigned to the group” as well as “answer each research question, identifying issues critical to Houghton College.”

One of the seven groups, for example, collects information on faculty and educational offerings. Some research questions outlined by the design analyze the qualification of specific faculty in their current roles, current hiring practices and their effectiveness, as well as the efficiency of educational offerings.

Houghton uses the information found through conducting the self-study to improve certain aspects of the college that may prove lacking.  In the last survey, results suggested that a full time institutional research position was necessary to Houghton. In 2007, that change was enacted.

Categories
News

Sodexo Opts for Local Food Suppliers

Courtesy of sodexoeducation.com

Sodexo has recently made an effort to use locally- and regionally-produced and grown foods.  Within the last school year, over 23% of the produce served in the dining hall, from potatoes to lettuce, was grown within 250 miles of Houghton. Despite a decrease in students, there has been a steady increase in the local and regional produce being served.

However, there is a limit to the local places from which Sodexo make make purchases. For instance, there are guidelines that prevent Sodexo from purchasing food from farms that have not gone through a process of meeting safety regulations. These regulations help companies track the source of contaminated foods as well as other routine safety measures that benefit consumers’ health. Tina Powers, general manager, stressed that Sodexo loves the small farmer and small businesses. These are the places that are making new things and doing it with quality. A large company like Sodexo has the means to purchase large amounts of product that can greatly benefit a local economy.

Many of the gluten-free products available in the dining hall comes from a shop in Ithaca, NY. All of the dairy products used by Sodexo at Houghton are from a local company. Sodexo is also willing to work with any small farm that wants to make the transition to become a Sodexo supplier.  For example, Powers shared an anecdote of a sunflower farmer who wanted to sell his sunflower oil to Houghton and they helped him make connections with the people who could help him be inspected and regulated. However, when safe, sometimes Sodexo finds ways to work around the strict guidelines. During homecoming, Powers went out and purchased bags of potatoes from a local farmer to make the dining hall’s salt potatoes.

Two students who have worked for Sodexo for multiple years expressed the significance of local foods and in-house processed foods in the dining hall’s offerings. Emily Raczelowski, junior, sees the value value of using more local products in its reduced cost and reduced environmental impact because of transportation. Jonathan Hardy, senior, said, “Over the last four years I noticed a gradual increase in quality and variety of offerings.  This year is, of course, the largest change yet.”

This semester, the dining hall made a change to serving more foods that have been processed in-house. The rationale behind this was that the food had to be processed somewhere and that food is the best quality when it is processed as close as possible to the time it is served. Raczelowski said that “the benefit of processing whole foods in-house is that as an employee I can see firsthand what is being done to my food.” Most of the salad bar as well as ingredients in the soup and other areas are now all prepared in the kitchen. This is of nutritional and other health benefits. Powers mentioned the shredded carrots on the salad bar. They are not as good when they have been pre-shredded and packaged and have added ingredients to keep them fresh. One might have also noticed the lettuce on the salad bar is not the same lettuce that comes mixed with carrots and cabbage in a bag.  Powers discussed the fact that the salad is now often browning on the salad bar. This is because it is fresh and has not been treated to prevent browning.

Cafeteria workers have also been trying to find ways to process whole foods as close to the serving time as possible. The drawback to this new policy is that, even though they save on money on produce because they are not paying someone else to process it, they have had to increase labor and pay for more waste removal. Powers feels that the benefits strongly outweigh the increased cost.

Categories
News

Houghton Pops Cancels Activities for Semester

www.houghton.edu

Two weeks ago Houghton Pops Orchestra (HPO) director Nathaniel Efthimiou (class of ’14) informed the members of the Houghton Pops orchestra that he and the board had decided to cancel the concert scheduled for the 22nd of this week. The performance planned for next semester is still planned for; however, there will be no performances by HPO this semester. “We simply didn’t have the resources or personnel this semester,” said Efthimiou concerning the decision.

HPO has faced a number of challenges this semester which, in the end, proved to be too much for the orchestra to overcome. One reason given by Efthimiou for the cancellation this semester was the music the group was forced to choose. “Our budget this semester was zero dollars,” said HPO president Ian Love, senior. “We had to use scores borrowed from the Philharmonia library,” said senior clarinettist Toni Bliemeister. “With the size of our group we just couldn’t pull some of them off.  And most of it just isn’t us.  It’s not music HPO should be playing.” As a club, HPO is still in the “provisional” stage, making SGA funding requests somewhat unclear. Next semester, however, they are scheduled to be approved as an official club. Orchestra members are hopeful this will allow the club to put on a more cohesive and accessible concert.

Another issue causing the concert cancellation is the extremely small size of the orchestra this semester.  “We have more cellos than violins this year,” reported one member. Other commitments and schedule conflicts have made it difficult or impossible for past members to participate.  Some former members are student teaching or studying abroad while others simply do not have time.  “With the musical this semester and everything else I just didn’t have time,” said cellist Chad Sell, sophomore, who starred in the HMTP production of The Drowsy Chaperone earlier this semester.  Efthimiou also had other commitments which took away from HPO, including conducting the pit orchestra for a musical as well as conducting pieces for composition students’ recitals.  Many other members of the group were also involved in these productions, leaving little to no time for them left for HPO.

Members are hopeful about next semester, however. “Canceling this semester was sad, but the right choice. Next semester will be better, though, with new music and without Christmas Prism to take so much time at the end of the year,” said Bleimeister. When asked to comment on plans for next semester, Efthimiou replied that, “The HPO board and I are taking time to explore new ways by which the success of the orchestra can be ensured so that future productions by our members are of the highest possible level. There is no reason to worry about the health of the Houghton Pops.”

 

Categories
News

College Looks to Hire Forest Manager

Houghton_Forest_CMYK

This month, Houghton College is interviewing to hire a forest manager. Tasked with culling mature tree growth on the college’s 533 acres of forested land, they will produce and execute a plan that increases revenue and pays mind to the local environment.

The four-man panel directing this operation consists of Dr. James Wolfe, Dave Smith, Brian Webb, and Don Haingray. Their intent is to take on tree harvesting in the forests as both an economic and environmentally benefiting endeavor. “While logging is typically thought of as a negative in ecological terms, it can actually be good for a forest if done correctly,” said Brian Webb, Sustainability Coordinator for the college. Don Haingray echoed this statement, “This is about the health of the forest.  It is the right thing to do if we are to be good stewards of the land.”

In a meeting with the college’s board of trustees, the panel described their goals for forest management: improve forest health by cutting and selling overgrowth, facilitate sustained timber production at 15-year intervals, minimize logging-related erosion, improve and protect wildlife habitats, and avoid disturbing everyday use of the property.

The first step in this process is contacting the Department of Environmental Conservation and meeting with the New York State Forester, Robert K. Davies. Davies has reviewed the college’s extant forestry plan from 2002 and surveyed the property. He verified the current plan to be in depth and needing only minor revision. He also provided the college with a list of cooperative foresters to be interviewed for the role of forestry manager.

In mid-November, the panel will meet with several candidates to decide which one is right for the position. While each member of the board has his own concept of an ideal forest manager, the overall consensus seems to focus on sustainability as a priority. “Hiring a forest manager who is committed to sustainable forestry practices will enable us to preserve the long-term value of our woods – not just economically, but ecologically as well,” said Webb.

The selected candidate will take on the role of forestry manager and several key responsibilities. These include updating the college’s 11 year-old forestry plan, marking trees that will be harvested, managing bidding and contracts with a logging company, and overseeing the actual logging process with a mind towards protecting the environment. The forestry manager will be paid a percentage of the earnings from harvesting.

Updating the forestry plan will involve working through about 100-pages of documentation and editing its contains based on current observations of the forested land. Before now, said Webb, “Our forests really hadn’t really been maintained.” There is very little growth due to older trees dominating the ecosystem. This logging process will help to remove those older specimens and encourage new ones.

Once trees are marked to be logged, the forest manager will take bids from logging companies to enter into contract with the college. Special considerations will be taken to ensure that the college is hiring a company that will preserve the forest’s natural ecology. The company that will win the bid will be the company that best balances monetary investment with environmental provisions.

The panel is approaching this process with caution, however. There have been many instances, both locally and nationally, of logging practices being poorly handled. Oftentimes, the harvesting process can damage roadways, habitats, and soils. Smith, said that he will not permit a logging company to treat the land that way, “We don’t see any benefit to clear cutting our forests to make some temporary money. That’s not our goal.”

Properly executed, the panel would set up a sustained process for small-scale timber production in the forest. At 15-year intervals, the forest will be reexamined much as it is today. At such time, logging practices will be enacted only where it is both ecologically and economically sensible. The panel sees a long-term investment as far more beneficial than a short-term payoff.

In Webb’s words, “While this process was initiated by a desire to create income through logging, I believe we can do so in a manner that maintains the beauty, as well as the ecological health of the Houghton woods. My goal is to ensure that we demonstrate responsible stewardship by caring for the forest that God has blessed us with.”

Categories
News

Rastrelli Quartet Performs for Houghton Artist Series

This past Friday the Wesley Chapel was filled with a moderately sized but enthusiastic audience to hear the Rastrelli Cello Quartet, an ensemble of four Russian cellists who have toured the world and received much critical acclaim in the 12 years since their creation. Their performance here several years ago left a strong impression on the community. According to former music faculty Dr. Robert Galloway who organized Artist Series concerts in the past, “[They] were a tremendous hit;… and I had students begging me to bring them back.” The Rastrelli Quartet’s repeat performance was certainly not a disappointment and had the audience cheering, begging for an encore which the performers generously provided.

The quartet members were equally pleased to be coming back to Houghton. “The second time back in this beautiful region feels like home,” said Kira Kraftzoff, the group’s artistic director.  “In Russia, young people go to the classical music concerts before going to clubs.  Seeing college students at concerts is wonderful.” They loved not just the audience but the hall, “We’ve played all over the world and this is one of our favorite halls to play in.  You have one of the 5 best stages in the world.”

Courtesy of http://www.1erang.nl
Courtesy of http://www.1erang.nl

“They truly are world class,” said Dr. Stephen Plate, Director of the Greatbatch School of Music who is now in charge of the Artist Series as well. The Irish Times of Dublin says of them, “…each is a virtuoso in his own right, and together they play with a sense of musical purpose and personal camaraderie that is infectious.” Indeed, among their members the quartet possesses numerous awards, honors, and contest prizes and their technical proficiency is truly incredible. However the most inspiring part of their playing is their unity and the deep passion they express in their performances. Whether a tarantella, tango, swings, classical or opera arias, Rastrelli handles all genres with energy and masterful interpretation.

“The artist series is about performances which are otherworldly,” said Plate about his vision of the Artist Series concerts in my interview with him, “They are to inspire us to think larger than we are.” While classical concerts will still be the primary focus as they have been in the past the broader goal is to bring in world-class performers in any genre not easily accessible in Allegany county. “Artists come in all different shapes and sizes… I hope to bring in some excellent jazz performers among other less represented events.” The repertoire of the Rastrelli Cello Quartet is ideal to this goal of a broader definition of “artist.” Their program on Friday contained opera excerpts, arrangements of folk music of various kinds, and modern and jazz music, all the arrangements exquisitely done by the quartet’s own Sergio Drabkin.  “It’s not about ‘classical’ vs. ‘jazz’ vs. ‘popular,’” said Kraftzoff. “What are these anyway? Just names. 150 years ago it wasn’t ‘classical’ music, it was just… music. For me it is simply good music versus bad music whether ‘jazz,’ ‘classical,’ or ‘popular.’”

The next Artist Series event is pianist Ning An, who will perform January 24th.

Categories
News

Honors Undergoes Revampment

Despite a recent program cut back in September, the college is looking to reinstate and perhaps add another honors program to its offerings as well as renovate the current structure of honors at Houghton. During a meeting with the college board of trustees in late October, it was strongly suggested by the members that a third honors program with a European focus be reinstated. “We had already been working on revisions to honors before the board of trustees met in October. We’ve been concerned that despite the quality of our three first-year honors offerings, enrollments have been weaker than we would like over the past three years,” said Linda Mills Woolsey, dean of the college and one of those who met with the board. She cited the current economic climate and increased competition with other schools’ honors programs as likely causes.

Courtesy of londonandpartners.com
Courtesy of londonandpartners.com

In a recent proposal for a comprehensive revamp of the honors program, Benjamin Lipscomb, professor of philosophy and director of honors programs at Houghton, explained that although “[t]he students we have enrolled remain (by and large) impressive, … there have been too few of them to populate our three gateway programs, and we have not been able to be as highly selective as we were in the past.” In an interview he added, “We did form a waiting list for the first time in a while this last year… but there had been a couple of years in which basically there was no waiting list. We had … a three-tiered system [for admission] in which there was ‘yes,’ ‘maybe,’ and ‘no.’ We had a year or two there after we switched from London to Contemporary Contexts … at which it was basically, ‘yeah, probably, we think you’re a yes’ or ‘no.’”

Although not set in stone, under consideration as replacement for a third honors program is a semester-long study abroad option similar to the London honors program cut back in 2011. “A number of trustees look back to the recruiting success of London Honors and would like to see us have a distinctive program with the same recruiting power,” said Woolsey. She added that the program “will probably be a return to a semester abroad with a focus on modern and contemporary culture, a stronger global focus, and some service components.” Eric Currie, vice president of admissions, also added that “in trying to recruit some of the students who have had significant scores that go for full tuition at other schools … some of this semester abroad opportunity … has an engagement level that seems to spark their interest.” Such a program will take a while to redevelop, however. “I reported to the board that we were undertaking revisions and their request was that we speed up the timeline,” Woolsey said, adding that the intent was to have the new freshman honors program available to students in 2015-2016.

In addition to a third freshman honors program, also under consideration by the college is a full four-year honors program. Starting with one of the three main “gateway” honors programs (Science Honors, East Meets West, or a third new program), students completing one of the programs will be offered the opportunity to take one-credit “seminar” classes on a specific topic. Completion of a predetermined number of seminars will allow students to graduate with an honors diploma and transcript. Seminar topics will be varied, but will most likely be in the social sciences or humanities. However, it was stressed that it was hoped that honors students from all disciplines might be able to participate in the seminars. “Arts could be in it too, and there’s every possibility for people in the natural sciences, mathematics to pick one or two works that would be accessible to someone who hadn’t been through the whole curriculum,” said Lipscomb. “We’re going to try to make that set of offerings as diverse as possible. … The point is mix and mingle, not to extend the gateway programs as segregated phenomena.”

While Lipscomb says the four-year honors program has been approved “in principle” by the board, obtaining official approval is still in the works. However, it is expected that proposals for seminars will be submitted this spring and will be included in the course offerings for the next academic year. “We’re going to send out an email blast the beginning of December to prospective students who are thinking about honors, letting them know … there’s this extension of the program … and we’ll be talking about it on the recruitment weekends.”

Also in development, but still not yet in the works, is a potential honors program for transfer students and Houghton students who display honors potential later on in their undergraduate careers. “As we predict, watching national trends, we might see more and more of … people for cost reasons doing a couple years at a community college and getting an associate’s degree,” said Lipscomb, and the intent of a transfers program would be to accommodate such trends. Also included in the target demographic for such a program would be so-called “late bloomers:” students who, according to Lipscomb, “get a ‘no’ in the honors recruitment process because they clam up in their interview… [when] it turns out they… get into college coursework and discover themselves and turn out to be really excellent students.” For now, the idea of a transfers honors program is still very much in its infancy, with the reinstatement of a third honors program and the creation of a four-year program being among the current priorities of the college.

Categories
News

Philippines Faces Crisis After Typhoon

In the week following the impact of the deadly Typhoon Haiyan, the Philippines has struggled to recover from the aftermath. The typhoon left, at current estimates, more than 2,300 dead, with many more injured or displaced, and flattened major population centers. Haiyan made impact on the Philippines on November 7. According to statements made by the UN, a total of 11 million people have been affected by the storm.

The typhoon has thrown the country into disarray, prompting officials to declare a state of crisis. Looting and raiding have become commonplace in the affected areas which are mostly in the central Philippine islands. According to CBS, thousands of desperate Filipinos stormed a government-owned rice warehouse (an event that killed eight people) and made off with roughly 100,000 sacks of rice to feed themselves and their families. Access to clean water is also hard to obtain for the survivors. Reports say that people have dug up water pipelines, regardless of safety, in order to access drinking water. Shelter is also scarce and many have been forced to live in the open.

typhoon_haiyan_houses
Courtesy of http://l.yimg.com/

According to a report covered by Al-Jazeera America, another major obstacle facing the Filipino population in coming weeks is the lack of basic medical supplies and facilities. The storm damaged hospitals and interrupted the supply of medicine due to damaged infrastructure, leaving only scanty resources behind. In Tacloban, a city about 360 miles from Manila and one of the major sites of destruction, the current medical center is a run-down, single-story building at the city’s damaged airport. Along with treating pregnant women, children, elderly, and those with injuries from the storm, medics expect to be treating infections, pneumonia, diarrhea, and dehydration in the coming weeks as the effects of the storm and lack of clean water and food take their toll on the population.

Meanwhile, aid to the struggling country has been trickling in slowly, mostly due to damaged infrastructure. The first sign of international assistance appeared Wednesday with 25 tons of biscuits delivered by US military jets. More aid is expected to come to the Philippines soon, but it may take a while to distribute to the more inaccessible areas on the islands. The damaged roads from the storm are a problem. Looting and lack of order is also making the process difficult. A report from The Guardian said that a Philippine Red Cross convoy was attacked by armed men and its drivers were killed.

Typhoon Haiyan is one of the deadliest typhoons ever recorded in Philippine history. The typhoon, which a mature tropical cyclone, arose from the lower Pacific (near Micronesia) and made its way to the Philippine islands in about three days, making landfall in the country on November 7. At its peak, its winds were 195 mph. A few days later it receded in intensity on November 10 when it struck Vietnam as a severe tropical storm.

The American Red Cross and other aid organizations are currently accepting donations to help aid the Filipino people as they begin the process of recovery from this disaster.