Our world. People are people .. wherever and whoever they are.
Photo by Paula Bronstein, Getty Images, Pakistan floods (which began on 2nd August)
I've been thinking about this quite a lot for .. at least two weeks, and the recent earthquake in New Zealand, and responses to disasters, now prompt this post.
Whilst no-one would wish any disaster on anyone anywhere, they are always going to happen. Large or small. Indiscriminately. When we had the floods here in 2007, it was inconvenient for me not to have any water for two weeks, and loss of power for a short time, but that was all. That is dealable with. And it makes you realise how much we take every day services for granted. It was a lot worse for those whose houses were uninhabitable for months and are now probably unsellable (and uninsurable), except for a much reduced price. Yes, I get pissed off (because I am a spoilt first world person) when the power goes in St Kitts, but that is a 3rd world country and is to be expected there. Ditto Nepal.
So, New Zealand had an earthquake around Christchurch 2 days ago. Luckily no-one died. Lots of damage yes, but that can be mended. And I'm glad the people I know who live there are safe, and I hope nothing worse happens in days to come.
This article, I'm glad to see, says that NZ has gratefully declined aid from UN and US. Not that I don't want them to have aid, but I think if any money is spare then it can be better used elsewhere .. like in Pakistan. NZ has a population of less than 5 million, is the world's 123rd most populated nation, and is relatively affluent. Pakistan has a population of nearly 170.5 million (in a fairly small space) and is the world's 6th most populated nation, and is decidedly poor. (I did not know some of these facts and I am having to do some research as I write this.) These facts I am learning make it even more eye-opening. Nice Wiki page with all the populations of all countries. Haiti and Pakistan are almost equally poor if you look at tax revenue as a % of GDP (9.6 and 10.6) whereas on that scale, US, UK (population 62 million), and NZ are 28.2, 39.0 and 36.5 relatively. (We last two pay rather a lot of tax it seems.) Anyway, you can see there is a big difference on the affluence scale.
How strange it is, that within a couple of days of this disaster the US is jumping in with offers of help to NZ, whilst in Pakistan, where they really needed help, and fast, that America was slow to offer assistance. Yes, I see that now a large sum has been pledged by Hillary Clinton, but .. it took a while. At least 14 million people are affected there .. that is more than 3 times the population of NZ and just under a quarter of the UK population .. to put it in some kind of perspective, but only a fraction of the US population. Less than 5%. Maybe this explains things in some kind of context. But not really. There are possibly 300,000 Haitians more than Pakistanis living in US according to current figures, at around a million only. The US has business interests in Haiti, but I doubt it has many in Pakistan.
I am glad to be able to say that the UK public (yes, we have the largest Pakistani population outside Pakistan at 1.2 million but that isn't that many) has so far donated more than £45 million to the DEC appeal. More than any other country from the public, I think.
more facts and figures but dated 24th August
If you can be bothered to read this article here entitled 'Tepid Response to US public to Pakistan relief' you will begin to see why I get angry about all this. If you can't be bothered to read it, an interesting paragraph is this one:
"The American Red Cross, traditionally the biggest recipient of disaster relief donations, has collected about $2 million for Pakistan and is dipping into a contingency fund to support its work there. At the same stage, it had raised about $100 million in response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, more than $670 million for Hurricane Katrina and about $230 million for the Haiti quake."
Now .. a month or so on, the US Government, note Government, has been the largest contributor to the relief effort - good for them - but then you would possibly expect that from the world's most affluent and 3rd most populous nation. Wouldn't you? Hell, it was bad enough at helping its own citizens after Katrina, so .. one should not expect too much. This is the Gov't note, not private citizens. Hell, if a dollar was donated for every American that would be $310 million right there.
But that isn't what this post is about. It's about ignorance and racism and selfishness. I have spent quite a lot of time in that part of the world .. so I know, first hand, what daily life is like there. It is not you, whoever reads my journal these days, that I am writing about.
I am no saint, but I have always donated to disaster funds where I think it's appropriate .. because I can .. and because I hope the money will get where it's needed most. I see that I wrote on my Facebook on 5th August a link to the DEC donation page, because I could see that money was needed, and I had donated some money that day, because by then it was becoming apparent that it was badly needed. What I have found extraordinary since then, is that apart from me, not ONE, and I repeat, not ONE person on facebook that I know, or that their friends know has even mentioned it .. not once. Or commented on that link. That says it all really. Which is why I am writing this now. I've been waiting for a whole month for someone to mention it, but they haven't. When the disaster in Haiti occurred there were many posts urging people to give money for Haiti. So why the silence on Pakistan?
Do you seriously think that things in Haiti are any less corrupt than in Pakistan? Or America, or UK for that matter? This is a reason trotted out for not donating "because it might not get where it's meant to, because of inherent corruption'. Oh please. If you have any intelligence, you will know the reason, and I find it pretty disgusting.
I will save my thoughts (which have been fermenting for quite a while) about the Ground Zero Muslim Center controversy (two blocks away, it already exists, it just wants to expand) for another day.
People who desperately need help are people .. like you and me .. whoever they are and whoever they happen to be. Only a very relative few of them are terrorists, and only a very few of those manage to cause actual damage thanks to the ceaseless efforts of all our security services.