From mentor at alb-net.com Wed Sep 29 18:30:40 2004 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Albanians in Macedonia Crisis Center News & Information) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 22:30:40 -0000 Subject: [Gostivari-L] [AMCC-News] Report Finds Macedonia Has Third Most Toxic Waste in World Message-ID: --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMCC http://www.alb-net.com/amcc/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/features/setimes/features/2004/09/29/feature-02 Report Finds Macedonia Has Third Most Toxic Waste in World 29/09/2004 According to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO), Macedonia has the world's third largest volume of toxic waste. The environmental consequences could be disastrous, experts warn. By Marija Lazarova for Southeast European Times in Skopje - 29/09/04 A report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation ranks Macedonia third in terms of toxic waste. [UNFAO] A recently published report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) ranks Macedonia third worldwide in terms of toxic waste, with over 10,000 tonnes. Only Ukraine and Poland rank higher, with 19,500 tonnes and 15,000 tonnes respectively. According to UNFAO Director Mark Davis, the problem is mainly caused by the circumstances in which chemicals are kept. "This is about very old and toxic materials because they have been kept for a long time and are often held in poor conditions and in outdoor areas," Davis told the daily Utrinski Vesnik. "They may be already exuding and polluting water in rivers and lakes, agricultural lands and air." In fact, Davis said, the problem may be much worse than the UNFAO figures indicate. "Experience has shown that when an elaborate study of a country is made, the figures are at least twice as higher." Toxic waste has been implicated in a range of health problems -- including birth defects, lung disease and cancer -- with children being particularly vulnerable. According to the UN, the worst affected are often impoverished rural communities whose residents may not be aware of the toxic effects of chemicals in their environment. The Macedonian Environment Ministry has also presented evidence that the amounts of toxic waste are higher than indicated in the report. A study commissioned by the ministry found that in 1999, the total amount of toxic waste in the country exceeded 45,000 tonnes. Of that, household waste accounted for 4,800 tonnes, commercial waste for 3,000 tonnes and medical waste for 1,000 tonnes. Construction debris accounted for 6,000 tonnes, industrial waste for 30,000 tonnes and agricultural waste for 200 tonnes, according to the study. A feasibility study has been conducted for reducing environmental pollution in Macedonia. According to UN estimates, it costs $3,500 to clean up one tonne of toxic pesticides, while the total cost of cleaning up the waste in Macedonia would be approximately $35m. ______________________________________________________________ If you wish to unsubscribe, send a blank message to: amcc-news-unsubscribe at alb-net.com , or visit AMCC-NEWS's page at: http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/amcc-news From mentor at alb-net.com Wed Sep 29 18:31:24 2004 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Kosova Crisis Center News and Information) Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 22:31:24 -0000 Subject: [Gostivari-L] [Kcc-News] Teen refugee sending books to homeland [Kosova] Message-ID: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Kosova Crisis Center (KCC) News: http://www.alb-net.com/index.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/living/community/9770085.htm Posted on Wed, Sep. 29, 2004 Teen refugee sending books to homeland Now a U.S. citizen, she raises money to help libraries in Kosovo By Cathy Gilkey HERALD-LEADER CORRESPONDENT Ardena Gojani remembers when Serbian soldiers stormed her apartment complex and gave her family five minutes to leave the building or be killed. She remembers spending days in a 10-mile line of fleeing refugees, watching old men die and hearing hungry children crying for food and water. And she remembers moving to the United States and leaving her friends and family behind. But perhaps her most moving memories are of her trip back to Kosovo to see her war-torn country again. Those memories have-driven Ardena, now 17 and a junior at Lexington Catholic High School, to lead a drive to raise $5,000 to buy books and ship them to her hometown of Gjakova to help refill the shelves of a library burned down during the war. "We want to do what we can," Ardena said. "It hurts to see how much they don't have." She and her family returned to Gjakova, now Gjakovica, in 2000 to visit their family, almost all whom remained in Kosovo despite the wars. Seeing her country for the first time after living in the United States for more than a year opened Ardena's eyes to just how much she has and how much her homeland does not. "There were four kids to a desk made for two, and they all shared one textbook," she said of a school her friends attend. Since then, Ardena and her family have been working to send books to Kosovo with the help of the International Book Project, a Lexington group that sends donated books to poor countries. In 2002, Ardena's cousin, Rubik Rudi, carried dozens of books to Kosovo. Because he could not afford to ship the books, he left his clothes and personal belongings behind and packed two large suitcases full of books from the International Book Project office. In March, Ardena's father also packed two suitcases with books. Every one was checked out in the first few days he was in Kosovo, she said. Cathy Anderson, president of the International Book Project, encouraged Ardena to write a letter in the organization's quarterly newsletter to raise awareness of libraries like the one in Gjakovica. Formed in 1966, the International Book Project receives encyclopedias, technical books and journals from donors, then distributes them to more than 100 countries. Sponsors like Ardena pay the shipping costs. "The demand for materials in English is high as Kosovars strive to modernize their communities," Anderson said in the newsletter. Ardena's experiences in her homeland and Lexington have influenced and matured her beyond her 17 years. Like many of her peers, she has a job, a cell phone and loves instant messaging her friends, but she is more aware of the fragilities of life. Ardena was 11 when she was forced to leave her home at gunpoint. "My mother held my hand so tight, pulling me out of the house as fast as she could, without taking any belongings with us," Ardena said. They fled to Macedonia, an independent republic south of Kosovo, and stood in line with other refugees with no food and very little water. "I saw a baby being born and old men die," she said. "Children were hungry and crying for food." Serbian soldiers robbed people of what belongings they did have and kidnapped some people from the line, she said. The Red Cross brought food a few days after they arrived, and after four days of waiting, they were allowed to enter Macedonia. Ardena's cousin Rudi sponsored the Gojanis, which allowed them to immigrate to the United States. Ardena, her brother, her sister and her parents recently became U.S. citizens, she said. Ardena keeps in contact with friends in Kosovo through infrequent phone calls and, more often, e-mails and instant messaging. "It's hard to talk about what it's like here," she said. "Here, if we need something, we buy it or it's donated. There, there is no one to help." So Ardena is doing her best to help any way she can. The money she raises will help buy books and ship them to Kosovo. She hopes the books will be shipped next spring, and she plans to travel back to Gjakovica to help unpack and present the books to the library. Ardena's classmates and teachers at Lexington Catholic have been very supportive, she said. They pray for her fund-drive in class, and classmates routinely donate what they can. She said she raised $100 in a week at school. "It just felt so good to have them support me like that," she said. "It feels good to be doing something." ______________________________________________________________ If you wish to unsubscribe, send a blank message to: kcc-news-unsubscribe at alb-net.com , or visit KCC-NEWS's page at: http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/kcc-news