Thread: Why is no one helping Pakistan ?

How the Floods Help the Taliban

It showed ordinary Pakistanis that the government isn’t there for them.

by Ron Moreau and Sami YousafzaiAugust 12, 2010

Paula BronsteinFire and Flood: Asia's Climate Calamities
Fire and Flood: Asia's Climate Calamities

Besides sharing the wrenching loss of loved ones, homes, possessions, farms, livestock, livelihoods, and businesses, many of Pakistan’s millions of flood victims also seem to have another loss in common: their faith in government and its ability to help them. More than a score of those displaced by the raging floodwaters in the hard-hit northwestern district of Nowshera, some 90 miles west of Islamabad, told NEWSWEEK today that they had received no aid from the government, nor any visits from officials in the more than two weeks since they were driven from their homes.


“We haven’t seen, or heard from, or been helped by the government,” says Inayat Ali, a tall, 25-year-old driver who pointed toward a large lake of brown water less than one mile away. His house and all his possessions, he says, rest somewhere under that body of water that has been formed by the swollen Kabul River. “We don’t expect any official help,” he adds stoically. But he and his family of 10 have been fortunate. A U.K.-based Islamic charity, the Ummah Welfare Trust, has provided Ali’s family and 150 others with tents that are precariously perched by the side of a road on the outskirts of Nowshera town, much of which is still partially or completely submerged. The charity provides tents, two meals a day, and medical care.


But there are so many who need help: this crisis is worse even than the earthquakes of Kashmir (in 2005) and Haiti (this past January). The deadly flooding has swept down the Indus River corridor from the Himalayan foothills in the north to Arabian Sea in the south. Along the way the rush of rising floodwaters have swept away or inundated everything in its path, killing at least 1,600 people. The U.N. estimates some 300,000 homes have been destroyed, and many more have been badly damaged, rendered uninhabitable. Some 6 million people are in need of some kind of aid, and 14 million lives have been disturbed. And those are only preliminary estimates. As more rain falls during this monsoon season, until the end of August, more destruction is likely on the way. Many communities in northwest Pakistan, particularly in the hard-hit Swat Valley, are isolated and have received little or no aid. The country’s barely adequate infrastructure has been ravaged: hundreds of bridges have been destroyed or made impassible; electricity generation, transformers, and power lines are down; schools and medical facilities have crumbled.



Near Inayat Ali and his family of 10, Sher Zaman, who says he is between 25 and 30 years old, is desperately searching for a tent. Three years ago, the cobbler was forced to flee his home in the northwestern tribal district of Bajaur, near the Afghan border, as the Pakistani military launched an offensive against Pakistani Taliban militants. It is still too dangerous to return, he says. Since then he and his extended family of 18 had been living in a displaced-persons camp near Nowshera until the floodwaters drove them out on July 29. Now they are camping under a tree with only some blankets for protection from the sun and continuing rain. “We have nothing, nothing,” he says. “And no one to help us.”


Even the spirits of once relatively well-to-do Nowshera shopkeepers seem broken. Gul Zaman, wearing a mud-streaked gray shalwar kameez and a white prayer cap, removes soaked, muddy bundles from his flooded shop on Nowshera’s once bustling main commercial street. The only sign of aid downtown is a station set up by the Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami political party that is distributing relief goods out of an abandoned shop. Zaman, 27, says he has lost his entire inventory of $100,000 worth of imported clothes and textiles, and that he fears his business is finished. “I’m afraid 90 percent of the merchants here like me won’t be able to restart their businesses,” he says. What about aid from Islamabad? “The government can’t help anyone,” he says coldly. “The government itself is a disaster.”


The mood of frustration, even anger, is both palpable and understandable among the many flood victims. They have been desperately in need of food, clean water, shelter, and medical assistance since these floods of biblical proportions—caused by the heaviest monsoon rains on record for eight decades—began. Some of the mounting antigovernment criticism may be unfair: even a well-organized, well-equipped, and resourceful government would have probably not been able to cope quickly with the scope of this massive disaster. “I think that no government could have responded to it adequately,” says Ayaz Amir, an opposition member of Parliament and a respected political columnist. “Look at how the Bush administration failed to deal with Hurricane Katrina’s victims, and that was just one city.”


What’s more, Pakistani officials also have complained that the international community has not been pledging and delivering enough aid and money. (International aid pledges seem to be running behind those made for the Haitian quake, for example.) The U.N. is urgently appealing for some $460 million in badly needed aid. The U.S. has pledged and delivered the most so far, some $71 million, and has several helicopters flying relief missions when weather permits. It has also dispatched the USS Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship carrying 19 helicopters, to beef up the airlift to isolated areas. The Pakistani military—with its helicopters, C-130s, and other assets spread across the country—has delivered food and water, rescued tens of thousands of stranded people, and even set up some tent camps to house victims. As a result, the military—which has discipline and resources—has gained in public standing. “Clearly the military’s reputation is now slightly better than it was,” says political scientist Hasan Askari Rizvi.


But in the eyes of most Pakistanis, flood victims and the urban middle class as well, Islamabadhas fallen way short in responding to one of the biggest crises in the nation’s history. And it could snowball into a political crisis for the government, led by President Asif Ali Zardari. “To put it mildly, the government has not shown the energy and vigor that was called for in these serious circumstances,” says Amir. Not only is Islamabad being seen largely as a no-show during the disaster, but Zardari went a step too far by leaving the country as the flooding began on a previously scheduled trip to France and the U.K.—even reportedly against the advice of senior leaders in his party. Many saw his flight to Europe, and his foolish side trip to visit his 16th-century chateau in Normandy, as the action of a detached and uncaring leader. “He has really proved he is inept, out of his depth, and uncomprehending,” says Amir. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece this week, Zardari—defending his foreign junket—says he chose “substance over symbolism” in order to “mobilize foreign assistance” for flood victims. Few Pakistanis seem to believe that.


And so once again the lack of a strong government response to a national disaster has allowed Islamist groups to fill the vacuum. They are casting themselves as the most caring parties for the victims. As in the 2005 earthquake response, Islamist and jihadi groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (which is believed to have been behind the November 2008 massacre in Mumbai), along with its several charity fronts, are the most visible providers of aid that is delivered with a militant message. Even the Pakistani Taliban got into the act by exhorting the government not to accept Western assistance. “We urge the government not to take Western aid,” a Taliban spokesman told Reuters. He also accused government officials of accepting the foreign aid money not to help flood victims but to “make their bank accounts bigger.”


As libelous as that accusation is, it could resonate with desperate people who are living on the edge without adequate shelter, food, and water, and with little hope for the future—and arguably draw them closer to the militants. Amir, however, dismisses the appeal of the militants. He says they may make some political gains in remote areas, but that the most important political game will be played out in the living rooms of urban Pakistanis. “Not long ago people were resigned to having to endure this thing [the Zardari government] until the next election [in three years],” says Amir. “That is now gone … It has been replaced by a feeling that we can’t go on like this.” In that sense, he adds, “the government has been dangerously undermined.”


Zardari just made his first trip to visit the flood victims today (in the southern province of Sindh, where Islamists are not as acute a threat to his credibility). If the government cannot soon establish strong leadership and vision in leading Pakistan out of this crisis—and if it continues steadily to lose moral authority—the militants can’t help but make political gains. That would deal a setback to what already seems to be a flagging campaign against extremism.

^ 53 ^

The US are already on the ground with a shipload of Marines and approx $460m being rubber stamped, with more to come because as we know whatever they give is never enough. Anyway, at least 5% is estimated to reach the needy.

I'm floored that the Saudis and other more local Islamic nations have not flooded the region with money and aid, since it is Islam's guidance to help a brother in trouble, though that may be just a cool soundbite. Or, could be that this holiest month of the Islamic year, Ramadan, is for prayer and cleansing and not getting involved with wet Pakis.

Anyway, once the waters subside I guess we can watch more peaceful protests about the continued existence of the Great Satan.


Update: Well here's something for the apologists' 'you couldn't make it up' file: It seems the Taliban are calling for flood victims to boycott Western aid. Yep, so much better to suffer and die and watch your family and community perish than be helped by the infidel. And if that doesn't take the cake, this has sent shivers down dhimmi US political spines, knowing that if they don't do the donkey work then Islamist groups might, or nobody will and many more will die, but either way when the dust settles it will be justifiably scapegoated.

Surreal!


Marines arrive to help Pakistan flood efforts as Zardari finally arrives - Telegraph

Taliban calls for boycott of Western aid as Swat Valley ravaged by floods - Telegraph

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

It's full of Muslims that want to kill us?

Pakistani law demands the death penalty if you leave the Islamic faith for another religion - be a cold day in hell before they get any sympathy or assistance from me as an infidel!

Originally Posted by keda

^ 53 ^



I'm floored that the Saudis and other more local Islamic nations have not flooded the region with money and aid, since it is Islam's guidance to help a brother in trouble, though that may be just a cool soundbite. Or, could be that this holiest month of the Islamic year, Ramadan, is for prayer and cleansing and not getting involved with wet Pakis.

I agree, the Saudis and Kuweitis, as America's allies, should follow up.

Originally Posted by keda

Anyway, once the waters subside I guess we can watch more peaceful protests about the continued existence of the Great Satan.

And why not. To my mind this shows the Muslims' superior fortitude compared with Western pussies.

Originally Posted by keda

Update: Well here's something for the apologists' 'you couldn't make it up' file: It seems the Taliban are calling for flood victims to boycott Western aid. Yep, so much better to suffer and die and watch your family and community perish than be helped by the infidel. And if that doesn't take the cake, this has sent shivers down dhimmi US political spines, knowing that if they don't do the donkey work then Islamist groups might, or nobody will and many more will die, but either way when the dust settles it will be justifiably scapegoated.

Surreal!

Again, fortitude.

And they probably got that idea from the Burmese.

Originally Posted by Thaiguy

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

It's full of Muslims that want to kill us?

Pakistani law demands the death penalty if you leave the Islamic faith for another religion - be a cold day in hell before they get any sympathy or assistance from me as an infidel!

The treatment of Christains in Pakistan.

A few years back..

A Church in the Pakistani village of Dajkot was attacked during a prayer service by a mob of Muslims shouting. "You infidels, stop praying and accept Islam"

The Muslim mob entered the Church and started beating the worshipers.
Then set about breaking everything in the Church, and desecrated the Holy Bible.

The Police refused to lodge a complaint, and report.

At the local Hospital the badly injured Christains, were refused treatment by the Muslim doctors, at the direction of an influential local Muslim.

Source
Pakistan Christain Post.

So, you send money to Christian Pakis? You think they're much better than Muslim Pakis?

^ 54 ^

Hymie, I'm not even sure it's fair to blame the Paki president or government. Pakistan is an Islamic nation, a poor and backward one, near as dammit to a basket case, and it has neither the infrastructure nor the will or obligation to look out for its people to anything near Western expectations.

You won't find many Muslims daring to question Allah's will, which in this case was to kill some hundreds or thousands and leave millions more destitute. Otoh, it should be easier to find Muslims extolling the religious duty to die rather than be spared the Compassion of Allah, especially if salvation is delivered by the infidel. Hard for liberals to swallow; never mind, don't bother.

Zardari legged it when the waters came. So what. His government will fall or not for that; but the next government would enjoy the same backward ideology, culture and regard for life as this one, which the people have probably well sussed, and which may be his saving grace with some pleasing noises and the distribution of a few cups of rice in front of the right cameras.

But with Paki nukes in the equation, Western leaders are back on the high wire in gale force winds without a safety net. Powerful and wealthy, they are also egotistical, self-deceiving and clueless on virtually everything to with Arab/Islam. So, my main concern is not whether Zardari should go or stay, because I don't know, but that the outcome may be influenced by the US, narrowed to the whim of the POTUS.

For three years, the young Pakistani had been taking his brief vacations at this country inn. The last time he'd finally

managed an affair with the innkeeper's daughter. Looking forward to an exciting few days, he dragged his suitcase up the

stairs of the inn, then stopped short. There sat his lover with an infant on her lap! "Helen, why didn't you write when you

learned you were pregnant?" he cried."I would have rushed up here, we could have gotten married, and the baby would have my

name!" "Well," she said, "When my folks found out about my condition, we sat up all night talkin' and talkin' and decided it

would be better to have a bastard in the family than a Pakistani."

Originally Posted by Jet Gorgon

Ramadan is upon them anyway, so they aren't allowed to eat.

They don't stop eating, they just don't eat or drink from dawn till dusk.

I spent a month in the Qatari desert during ramadan, they'd have their food ready, bottles of water, cigarettes the lot back at the staff place. Soon as the noise came on the loudspeakers outside they light a smoke, start guzzling water and eat all at the same time. I'm saying 'fucking hypocrytes, you've all been stealing my water, smokes and sarnies all fucking day you cvnts!'

We’ve only funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the ISI since 9/11, we even paid for their brand new headquarters to be built in Islamabad and they want more?

Pakistanis are outraged that western aid is late !!!

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

We’ve only funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the ISI since 9/11, we even paid for their brand new headquarters to be built in Islamabad and they want more?

"You" have been robbed blind by your own people. From the very top.

"The much-maligned defense contractor Halliburton is moving its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. "
Halliburton Moves Its Headquarters Abroad - ABC News

How ironic. How pathetic !

Pakistan's extraordinarily weak state leaves flood victims on their own
Owen Bennett Jones
Friday 13 August 2010

Ever since Pakistan was created, the army has been the only institution capable of responding to natural disasters


Many of Pakistan's flood victims will survive only because their poverty has rendered them extraordinarily tough and resourceful.
Photograph: K.M.Chaudary/AP

Many millions of Pakistanis have long believed their politicians to be corrupt and venal. That it took their president, Asif Ali Zardari, two weeks before he managed to meet some flood victims has simply confirmed their view.

Pakistanis know Zardari's record all too well. For years he has used political influence and a team of lawyers to stave off convictions in the many alleged corruption cases he faces. His election to the presidency resulted in the most advanced of all the international cases against him – in Switzerland – being abandoned.

In Pakistan rumours abound about dinners in the presidential palace in which he is said to entertain his business cronies into the small hours.

But Zardari's personality is only part of the problem. Ever since Pakistan was created, the army has been the only institution capable of responding to natural disasters. One of the reasons that the military has been so politically dominant is that successive civilian governments have relied on the generals to help them deal with national crises.

In the immediate aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake of 2005, for example, the army was called upon to reopen devastated roads and distribute supplies. The scale of the disaster meant many victims were left pleading for more help. But, for all that, many acknowledged that the army did a pretty good job in atrociously difficult circumstances.

This time it's different. Hundreds of thousands of military personnel are fighting the Taliban in the north-west of the country. The constraints this has placed on the military's response to the flood has only served to expose more clearly the incapacity of the civil administrative structures.

The weakness of the state has reached extraordinary levels. Fewer than 5% of Pakistanis pay any tax. The government is unable to provide schools and medical care for tens of millions of people.

But even if the flood has heightened the level of criticism they face, the politicians will not be unduly concerned. They are so used to being viewed as incompetent and self-serving that they are largely immune to public criticism.

Some Pakistanis fear that hardline Islamists could exploit the state's failure by mounting relief programmes. But past experience has shown that the religious organisations also lack the ability to deliver aid on a national scale.

Except for a lucky few, Pakistan's flood victims are on their own. Many will survive only because their poverty has rendered them extraordinarily tough and resourceful.

Owen Bennett Jones is a former BBC Pakistan correspondent and author of Pakistan: Eye of the Storm

guardian.co.uk

Now there's a cholera epidemic looming. Guess the rich muslim brethren are too busy fasting and eating to help.

The BNP have just donated 300 crocodiles.

^
Nice to see my donations are going to a good cause.

Hard-Line Islam Fills Void in Flooded Pakistan


The floods have opened a fresh opportunity for the Islamic charities to demonstrate that they can provide what the government cannot, much as the Islamists did during the earthquake in Kashmir in 2005, which helped them lure new recruits to banned militant groups through the charity wings that front for them.


In just two districts in this part of the northwest, three Islamic charities have provided shelter to thousands, collected tens of thousands in donations and served about 25,000 hot meals a day a since last Saturday — six full days before the government delivered cooked food.



................
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/07/wo...n.html?_r=3&hp

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

I guess Terror-Islam-Pakistan are stuck in peoples head. There is not a real donation rally going on like in Haiti. And leaving it up to the government or muslim brothers ain't much help to count on. Even though its Ramadan !!!!!

UN: Number Affected By Pakistan Floods Exceeds Those Of Tsunami, Haiti And Kashmir Quakes



(AP) ISLAMABAD (AP) - The number of people suffering from the massive floods in Pakistan exceeds 13 million - more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the United Nations said Monday.

The death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the 1,500 people killed so far in the floods that first hit Pakistan two weeks ago. But the U.N. estimates that 13.8 million people have been affected - over 2 million more than the other disasters combined.

The comparison helps frame the scale of the crisis, which the prime minister said Monday was the worst in Pakistan's history. It has overwhelmed the government, generating widespread anger from flood victims who have complained that aid is not reaching them quickly enough or at all.

"The number of people affected by the floods is greater than the other three disasters combined," Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press.

UN: Pakistan Flood Misery Exceeds Tsunami, Haiti - CBS News

...and there is more rain on the way.

kidding right?

Anyone know where all the Tsunami cash went in the end?