Earthquake survivors in the southern Turkish city of Gaziantep say they are afraid to sleep and cannot find food and water after Monday's disaster.
Some villages near Gaziantep, which is 80km from the epicentre of the earthquake, have been "erased from the map", said one resident, Murat, who declined to give his last name.
The quake has claimed more than 11,000 lives in Turkey and Syria.
Murat told The National he had slept for only three hours on Tuesday night, unable to rest properly as fear reigns in the region.
At 4am, he awoke to feed the hundreds of people left destitute, without food and desperate for help to arrive.
“Search and rescue personnel are coming from the West but the roads are blocked and bridges have collapsed on this side of the city,” he told The National. People haven’t seen any organisations on the street.
“Some villages have been erased from the map. The others are alone. No one is there to help.
“People are hungry 24 hours a day and can’t find any water. Markets are selling water at very, very high prices.”
For more than a decade, Gaziantep has been a refuge for almost 500,000 Syrians fleeing the civil war just across the border. The city is also home to a large Kurdish community and is an economic hub.
It historic castle was destroyed by the earthquake, which brought down an 11-storey building in one nearby neighbourhood.
Most of the devastation lies between Gaziantep and the city of Kahramanmaras, an hour to the north.
“We have suffered a terrible disaster,” councillor Hasan Sencan told The National. “Survivors are having difficulty meeting their essential needs such as food and shelter.”
Murat’s parents are living in their car on the side of a motorway, fearful more tremors will destroy their home. Temperatures outside have fallen to minus 6°C and they rely on food from passers-by, he said.
“Their house was fine in the first quake, but damaged in the second. It could collapse with a third.”
'The airport is a luxury'
The airport’s VIP lounge is now a shelter, with women and their young children sleeping in the director's office.
About 100 people wrapped in blankets slept in one lounge of the terminal, visited by AFP, normally used to welcome Turkish politicians and celebrities.
“The airport is luxury now,” says Murat, who is now sheltering in a nearby village where the situation is dire.
On Twitter, residents are appealing for emergency aid for people stuck without food or water. Some are outside mosques, unable to go inside due to the sheer demand for shelter.
About 200 people waited outside one mosque, one Twitter user wrote.
“No tents, no blankets. The children are waiting hungry … only one police vehicle has stopped by since yesterday,” the post said.
In a nearby village, people are struggling with no electricity, water or blankets.
“People are struggling outside, cold and hungry,” said another.
How to improve Arabic reading in early years
One 45-minute class per week in Standard Arabic is not sufficient
The goal should be for grade 1 and 2 students to become fluent readers
Subjects like technology, social studies, science can be taught in later grades
Grade 1 curricula should include oral instruction in Standard Arabic
First graders must regularly practice individual letters and combinations
Time should be slotted in class to read longer passages in early grades
Improve the appearance of textbooks
Revision of curriculum should be undertaken as per research findings
Conjugations of most common verb forms should be taught
Systematic learning of Standard Arabic grammar
Breast cancer in men: the facts
1) Breast cancer is men is rare but can develop rapidly. It usually occurs in those over the ages of 60, but can occasionally affect younger men.
2) Symptoms can include a lump, discharge, swollen glands or a rash.
3) People with a history of cancer in the family can be more susceptible.
4) Treatments include surgery and chemotherapy but early diagnosis is the key.
5) Anyone concerned is urged to contact their doctor
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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