Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Going further then Zardari - John Kerry on floods

An email sent out in mass to those who subscribe to Kerry’s mailing list is noteworthy for a couple of reasons. 
 
Firstly because I am more then certain that he has trudged through areas that our prime ponies in the President’s house haven’t so much as thought of. 
 
Because it was an open, honest note that was sent out to Americans who lets face it have a lot of reasons to not want to get involved from donor drain to militant fright and then to their own economic crisis. 
 
And then because there are yet more trustworthy resources here to help out.
 
Also, I would like to add that I have removed the Citzen's Foundation as a resource because of mixed reviews about their credibility. 
 
— x — 
I just got home to Massachusetts from seeing the floods in Pakistan -- and what I saw there was as devastating and gripping as the last humanitarian crisis I emailed you about. Even as I sit here I'm shaken by the fact that this is Pakistan's Katrina. 
 
It's not just that one fifth of the country - an area larger than all of New England, New York, New Jersey and Maryland combined - is submerged under historic flooding, or that with weeks left in the monsoon season, it could get even worse.
None of that captures what I saw and heard when our helicopter touched down. I went to Multan in the Punjab plains. This is no isolated hamlet, but an ancient city, a district capital with a population of over 1.5 million. And it's inundated with water.
I spoke to the people, heard their stories, their desperation for food and water. They talked of the joy when they saw American Chinook helicopters - distinctive for their two big rotors - because they knew help was arriving. But the scale of the disaster hit me as I flew over the city and surrounding valley, mile after mile of Punjabi plains turned into a massive lake, this large city covered in water. Roads were washed out, vehicles abandoned, tall buildings turned into places of desperate refuge.  Any flat surface high enough to escape the waters became a life-raft, often packed with people willing to bake in the hot sun rather than face the barrier of the flood-waters.  The scene stretched on and on.
You can get a look at some of this - just get a small sense of it - watching this NBC News piece: MSNBC
 
In the face of all of this suffering, so much remains to be done - and the world isn't keeping up with the size of the challenge.  The United States government is doing its part by leading international donor efforts with $150 million so far, including funds from the "Kerry-Lugar-Berman" aid package for Pakistan that we passed in Congress last year.  But today, we need your help to do more.
This is a hard time to ask Americans to give money -- yes these are tough economic times for so many here at home -- but what I saw in Pakistan calls out for the very best that we are as Americans, that we dig down and pitch in because if we don't, people will die. It's just that simple. Already more than 20 million people are affected, more than the Pacific Ocean tsunami, the Haitian earthquake, and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake combined.
And the political and economic consequences for Pakistan - a nuclear-armed country in a volatile region - will be catastrophic if we don't act.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the creation of the Pakistan Relief Fund to give you a chance to help.  You donations will go directly to help the people of Pakistan. With a donation of $5, you can buy 50 high energy bars providing much needed nutrition; $10 can provide a child or mother with a blanket; and about $40 can buy material to shelter a family of four.
Please please click here to donate.
 
Or -- send $10 through your mobile phone by texting the word FLOOD, F-L-O-O-D, to 27722. You can also donate directly to many of the great non-profit organizations supporting the effort.  
 
A list of qualified organizations can be found online here: 
http://www.interaction.org/crisis-list/interaction-members-respond-floods-pakistan
 
Thank you for your time and contributions. Sincerely, John Kerry
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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Watered down


I started, scrapped and re-started this note many times tonight. Not because I don’t know enough about the issue up front. My quandary concerns how to get my thoughts across without anyone setting this aside because of yet another issue about the country that I grew up in yet hardly recognize anymore.

A little more then a decade ago Pakistan was still relatively unknown. When my cousins moved to the US some 15 or so years ago I remember laughing because a kid at their school asked if Pakistan was a ship. Such was the ignorance of the younger generation about the Country. A ship!

Today though ask any - excuse my lack of tact - ignoramus about Pakistan and a switch (however dim) is immediately turned on. Of course they know Pakistan! It’s the new Taliban hot bed. The home to an ex-convict President who lives in the luxury of a palace. That place that the world repeatedly gives aid to that disappears in to the black hole that is the government. The land of no freedom (god I hate that word now). And, of course, the dysfunctional, bankrupt neighbor of India.

What we tend to forget though is that Pakistan is also home to Pakistanis. Of real people that face the corruption of a government that chooses to vacation in suites that cost 7,000 pounds a night while the country is wrecked by floods. Who are vulnerable to the threat of radical militants on one hand and drone attacks from a foreign land on the other. Who have no access to a decent education to learn and explore and break the ties of social classes. Who are bound to society riddled with so many negative labels by the media that it’s difficult for the general world to focus on the people that make up the country. Every day, normal Pakistanis.


So yes Pakistan has its problems and I will be the first to admit that there is no end or solution in sight. But while the world may be tired of yet another issue in a country smaller then Texas, we can't ignore what’s important at hand. And that is real people who are facing all the havoc wreaked by the one of the worst natural disasters ever seen.


With 14 million people displaced, more then 15,000 dead, no clean water or hot food accessible, entire villages washed away,  disease on the rise, farmlands (primary source of income for most) lost, and the government response being almost laughable, there is only one thing you need to know about Pakistan that is relevant at the moment; Pakistan - Pakistani's - need help.

I may be rambling here. So in a nutshell I’ll quote an  analysis of this same note by a favorite blogger “Okay, you know Pakistan as a despotic, corrupt country harboring militants and criminals but don’t let that cloud your judgment because there are real people there who need your help.”


Don't trust the government - hell I don't! Some research has helped put together what I think are pretty reliable ways to donate;

Imran Khan flood relief:

Pakistani American Culture Center :

Oxfam:
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