{"id":838,"date":"2010-08-15T21:33:21","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T04:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.larryjohnsononline.com\/?p=838"},"modified":"2010-08-15T21:53:12","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T04:53:12","slug":"guest-blog-by-ethan-casey-pakistan-floods-why-should-we-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.larryjohnsononline.com\/?p=838","title":{"rendered":"Guest blog by Ethan Casey: Pakistan Floods: Why Should We Care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

(From Ethan Casey’s blog: Reporting with Respect<\/a>, used with permission.)<\/p>\n

SEATTLE, AUGUST 13 \u2013 Yesterday a non-Pakistani friend here emailed me: \u201cI wanted to ask you which you think would be the best organization to make a donation to for the current crisis in Pakistan. We usually give to MSF, but their website doesn\u2019t seem to offer the opportunity to give specifically for Pakistan. Can you offer advice?\u201d<\/p>\n

This friend is British and greatly prefers British media outlets, but I need to believe that there are many Americans who also want to help flood victims in Pakistan \u2013 or who would want to, if they knew the scale and severity of the disaster.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Workers from a local NGO distribute cooked food to flood victims. (ONLINE Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Why don\u2019t they know? We can, and I do, blame \u201cthe media,\u201d but that\u2019s unhelpful and ultimately a cop-out. Each of us individually has the opportunity and responsibility to be aware of every tragedy in our world, and we should be willing to exert ourselves to redress them. We\u2019re all in this together. But the real problem is that there\u2019s too much tragedy, and it\u2019s happening too fast, and these days Americans are distracted and confused and worried about serious problems close to home, like our own jobs and mortgages.<\/p>\n

This is understandable. But you need to know that all indicators are pointing toward an enormous, long-term human tragedy unfolding in Pakistan, and we need to do something about it, for several good reasons. The New York Times acknowledged one of these when \u2013 belatedly, in its first significant coverage of the floods that I noticed \u2013 it headlined an August 6 article \u201cHard-Line Islam Fills Void in Flooded Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

A related point is that we Americans owe Pakistanis a measure of basic human respect and compassion, as well as gratitude specifically for the sacrifices they\u2019ve made at our behest in several wars in Afghanistan. When we repay this debt, it will also redound to our benefit. \u201cIt\u2019s high time we showed Pakistanis the best of America,\u201d a disaster relief specialist told me last year. \u201cIf you\u2019re a true friend, you don\u2019t run out on somebody when you don\u2019t need them anymore. \u2026 Pakistanis don\u2019t trust America anymore. We need to show Pakistanis who we really are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd Shea runs a charity hospital in the Pakistan-administered portion of the disputed region of Kashmir, where he has been working since the October 2005 earthquake that killed 80,000 people. He also responded urgently and effectively to the World Trade Center attack, the Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, and the earthquake this January in Haiti. He\u2019s currently on the ground in Pakistan, running medical camps and providing drinking water, food, and other relief. An August 11 update on the floods suggests the scale of the challenge:<\/p>\n

In a recent statement appealing for more aid to Pakistan, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said: \u201cWhile the death toll may be much lower than in some major disasters, taking together the vast geographical area affected, the numbers of people requiring assistance and the access difficulties currently affecting operations in many parts of the country, it is clear that this disaster is one of the most challenging that any country has faced in recent years.<\/p>\n

Thousands of people are camped out on roads, bridges and railway tracks \u2013 any dry ground they could find \u2013 often with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and perhaps a plastic sheet to keep off the rain. \u201dI have no utensils. I have no food for my children. I have no money,\u201d said one survivor, sitting on a rain-soaked road in Sukkur along with hundreds of other people. \u201dWe were able to escape the floodwaters, but hunger may kill us.\u201d \u2026<\/p>\n

There is a desperate need to send more well-equipped medical teams to the flood-hit areas to prevent the further spread of disease. The victims of the flood have lost everything and cannot cope with potential epidemics on their own.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m writing this article because I live and work between two worlds: the mainstream North America that I come from, and the Pakistani immigrant community. My job is to help bridge the gulf in awareness and sympathy between those worlds. What I\u2019m seeing right now is that Pakistani-Americans and their admirable and effective nonprofit groups are jumping once more into the breach, as they always do. And, as always, they\u2019re confined \u2013 and confining themselves \u2013 to soliciting funds from each other.<\/p>\n

The flooding is \u201cwell timed\u201d in the sense that the fasting month of Ramadan has just begun, and many Muslims will be directing their annual charity contributions toward flood relief. Pakistani-Americans are generally an affluent community, but there\u2019s a limit to what they can do. Wealthy Pakistanis in Pakistan also need to help, and surely are helping. Just as important, we non-Pakistani Americans and Canadians must help. We also must somehow self-raise our own awareness, given the paucity of decent media coverage. This is important both for obvious-enough political reasons, and simply because it\u2019s the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

I see troubling contrasts between the outpouring of generosity and attention that followed the earthquake in Haiti and the averting of eyes from the flooding in Pakistan. I see several reasons for this: Haiti is nearby; the earthquake killed 200,000 or more people all at once. In addition, though, there\u2019s the fact that Haiti is not a Muslim country. The earthquake fit right in with the story we were already telling ourselves about Haiti, which is all about poverty and tragedy. Dr. Paul Farmer sums it up pithily in the title of his book The Uses of Haiti<\/em>. The uses of Pakistan are different. We need to move beyond the uses of both countries and toward understanding them accurately and respectfully, in their own terms. Our awareness of Haiti should be more political and of Pakistan less so, or differently so.<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to my friend\u2019s question. The short answer is that, as always, grassroots groups are more nimble and effective, and your money will be put to better use if you give it to groups that are nearer the ground. This is why the nonprofit groups founded and run by Pakistani-Americans are crucially important. I\u2019m including links to several of these below, and I recommend them all.<\/p>\n

I was jolted the other day when another friend suggested that being asked to donate to the excellent Islamic Medical Association of North America \u201ccould possibly turn some people off.\u201d He\u2019s probably right, but shame on them if so. We need to get over our knee-jerk aversion to the word \u201cIslamic.\u201d Your doctor might be a member of IMANA. As a Haitian woman told Paul Farmer years ago, \u201cTout moun se moun\u201d \u2013 all people are people. We\u2019re all in this together.<\/p>\n

Please contribute to flood relief in Pakistan through one of these organizations (listed in alphabetical order):<\/p>\n

APPNA<\/a><\/p>\n

The Citizens Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

Edhi Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

Human Development Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

IMANA<\/a><\/p>\n

Islamic Relief USA<\/a><\/p>\n

Relief International<\/a><\/p>\n

SHINE Humanity<\/a><\/p>\n

UNICEF<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\nEthan Casey is the author of the travel books  <\/a>Alive and Well in Pakistan: A Human Journey in a Dangerous Time<\/a><\/em> (2004) and Overtaken By Events: A Pakistan Road Trip (2010)<\/a>  He is currently writing Bearing the Bruise: A Lifetime in Haiti<\/a><\/em> for publication in spring 2011. He can be emailed at ethan@ethancasey.com and his books and articles are available online at www.ethancasey.com\/books<\/a> and www.facebook.com\/ethancaseyfans<\/a>. Until further notice, he is donating 20% of profits from sales of his Pakistan books to flood relief in Pakistan, and from his Haiti book to the Colorado Haiti Project.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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