Via Save the Children @ Flickr. Photo Credit: Jason Tanner
The government in Islamabad has admitted that cannot cope with such a catastrophe, but the international response has been lukewarm. … Radical Islamic groups are jockeying to fill the vacuum left by government incompetence and relative international indifference.
The disaster has destroyed roads, infrastructure, homes, crops and livestock. Women and girls face a cultural shock as they live in camps amongst unrelated men for the first time in their lives. Shmyalla Jawad visited a government camp with no bathing facility and was appalled by the horrific conditions she found there.
Many are wearing what they left home in and without being able to wash and women’s hygiene in particular has deteriorated. The situation is even worse for menstruating and pregnant women.
The people of Pakistan urgently need help to rebuild their lives and their health. If you are willing and able to contribute, here is a list of agencies that plan to provide relief.
You have to wonder what the chances are of any aid actually reaching the people for whom it’s intended.
(“Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups” – Nietzsche) It’s sad when you think of the underlying motives for the slow response. Mankind never ceases to amaze me in their total disregard for animals of the same species.
@mischiefmanager: Yeah, but you could say the same of many countries with humanitarian crises and poor infrastructure. Why single out Pakistan?
Hell, it’s not like the Feds or the state of Louisiana did a very good job of getting aid to the people who needed it, either.
I just posted about this on my facebook wall. I was like, Be a good american! Fight terrorism! Donate money! Real patriots fight the taliban! This is the only way we’ll ever win against terrorism! And so on.
Perhaps it’s cheap, but all the people I know who have money to send (which I sadly don’t, as I’m literally stealing internet right now and have no money in my bank account…) are the type who REALLY like to be patriots. Like, Sarah Palin patriots. So I’m playing to their tastes to get them to donate money.
I wanted to include the following in my message, but decided it would alienate rather than help:
“Real patriots fight the Taliban, not American Muslims who want to build community centers in Manhattan. What would Jesus do? He’d donate! What would JFK do? He’s donate!”
And then I got all worked up and wanted to continue in this “great americans (like jesus and JFK!)” vein, and started typing, “What would Thomas Jefferson do? Well, to be honest he’d probably rape a slave first, but then he’d donate!”
And then I was like, Ok I have to stop. I can’t start undermining the whole concept of patriotism and America being Awesome if I’m using that as a ploy to get my republican family members to donate money.
Thanks for the list SMC.