Monthly Archives: April 2010

China’s Quake: Avoiding the Political Aftershocks

TIME Magazine, 9 April 2010

On the high plains of Qinghai province … a massive earthquake killed hundreds.

The provincial government asked Foggin, whose NGO has operated in Yushu for nearly a decade and opened 11 village clinics in the area, to send help from Xining as quickly as possible. His organization has organized a website for donations (http://yushuearthquakerelief.com) and is dispatching teams to the disaster zone. “Basic supplies are in need, accommodation is in need, and of course there’s the medical situation,” he says. On Thursday afternoon Plateau Perspectives sent five people, including two doctors, overland to Yushu from Xining. With luck, they will make it by morning.

Marc Foggin [is] chief representative of Plateau Perspectives, an NGO in Qinghai’s provincial capital Xining that focuses on sustainable development in China’s mountainous west.

科嘎哇畜牧专业合作社简介

科嘎哇畜牧专业合作社成立于 2010年4月1日,地处素有“长江之源、百川之祖、牦牛之地、一江九河十大滩”之称的玉树藏族自治州治多县境内,平均海拔4600米左右。治多县草地畜牧业的发展历史源远流长,古为原始牦牛产地之一。据有关记载,早至4千多年以前,活动在长江源头的人类就经营着简单的畜牧业,成为世界上古老的游牧民族之一。

因草原退化、全球经济一体化等等不断影响着当地牧民的生活,当地牧民对现代生活追求的渴望与现有生活的条件形成巨大的落差,这不仅仅是一种变化,而是对一个时代中的民族和环境,产生前所未有的危机。

所以本社以谋求牧民的利益,但并不是纯粹的经济效益为主导,而是让牧民互相支持,共同解决当前面对的困境,也配合现代科学技术与教育,以平衡牧民及生态移民的经济需求。更希望恢复及传承游牧民族的活根文化,提高生态自信和文化自信。让牧业成为具有精神文化的一种专业,一种追求·····