In the media

New Lands Act in Kenya Set for August, says Swazuri

Published in Monday May 20th, 2013 In In the media

Kenyans will have to wait up to August before their land problems will begin to be effectively tackled, the National Land Commission chairman has said. Mohamed Swazuri yesterday said the Lands Act will be fully functional only after it is passed by the national assembly. Swazuri said they are still collecting views from the public that will be used in forming a credible Lands Act.

Angry mob rejects eviction in East Jakarta

Published in Monday May 20th, 2013 In In the media

May 20, 2013 Hundreds of residents of Sumur village in Klender, East Jakarta, blocked a road to prevent a housing developer and personnel from the public order agency (Satpol PP) from evicting them from their residences. East Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Mulyadi Kaharni said on Saturday that the angry mob stopped dozens of vehicles […]

Ivory Coast finding reconstruction easier than reconciliation

Published in Monday May 20th, 2013 In In the media

Construction sites loom at every twist and turn of the super six-lane highways that weave around the Ébrié lagoon in the heart of Abidjan. Roads are being widened. New apartment blocks and shopping malls are joining 1970s skyscrapers on the skyline. And the final touches on a shiny new high-rise tower signal the African Development Bank’s return after more than a decade. Two years after the post-election conflict, when more than 3,000 people were killed, Ivory Coast’s economy is bouncing back. With the country relieved of nearly $8bn (£5bn) in debt after reaching completion point of the heavily indebted poor countries initiative, investors are returning and GDP climbed to 9.8% last year.

Tags

UK spends £2bn housing homeless in B&Bs, hostels and shelters

Published in Monday May 20th, 2013 In In the media

The UK has spent almost £2bn housing vulnerable homeless families in short-term temporary accommodation, according to figures that demonstrate the scale of Britain’s housing crisis.

Tags , ,

Five Years After A Quake, Chinese Cite Shoddy Reconstruction

Published in Tuesday May 14th, 2013 In In the media

The fear is that the post-quake buildings may also have been built with substandard materials and too hastily, since they were completed in just two years, one year ahead of the target date, as local officials vied to impress their superiors with their efficiency.

Tags ,

Land disputes spark eviction fears in Haiti displacement camps 3 years after quake

Published in Tuesday May 14th, 2013 In In the media

The camp residents managed to protect their homes the day they were menaced but they also brought to life a far-reaching problem. In the few weeks since the confrontation, their plight has become a symbol for what many say is the growing use of threats and sometimes outright violence to clear out sprawling displaced person camps, where some 320,000 Haitians still live.

The standoff set off a chain of events that left several shelters burned and a camp resident dead. It occurred a little more than a week before the human rights group Amnesty International issued a report on the jump in camp evictions in Haiti over the past year.

Tags , , , ,

Floods in Bukoba, Tanzania, Kill Two and Displace 300 Families

Published in Friday May 10th, 2013 In In the media

Flooding in Bukoba, the capital of Tanzania’s Kagera region, has killed two people and displaced more than 300 families after several of their homes were destroyed, Tanzania’s Daily News reported Wednesday.

Tags ,

Property and the Lady

Published in Friday May 10th, 2013 In In the media

THE halo has slipped from Aung San Suu Kyi’s head, at least in the eyes of the monks and villagers of Ah Lay Daw. The Nobel peace prizewinner, who has resumed her career as a working politician in Myanmar, dismayed villagers earlier this month by giving her backing to the development of a copper mine on nearby Letpadaung Mountain, on land that was confiscated from them by the government.

Angola’s poor people hit hard by urbanisation crackdown in Luanda

Published in Friday May 10th, 2013 In In the media

The Angolan government says it is waging “a sustained war against chaotic urbanisation”, but this appears to have become a war against poor people. The most extreme examples are in Luanda, a city bursting at the seams. Around half a million people lived in Angola’s capital in 1975, when the Portuguese moved out. Now, with many forced into the city to escape the country’s 27-year civil war, 5 million jostle for space, of whom three-quarters live in informal settlements with little or no documentation or land tenure.

Tags ,

New York to sue banks in mortgage settlement case

Published in Wednesday May 8th, 2013 In In the media

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Monday he intends to sue Bank of America and Wells Fargo, saying they violated terms of last year’s $25 billion mortgage settlement. Schneiderman said his office has documented 210 violations by Wells Fargo and 129 involving BofA since October. The banks have “flagrantly violated” the settlement’s standards, he said.

Tags ,