Hesitation to donate

This is with reference to your coverage of the flood. As the unabated flooding of huge areas of Pakistan continues in its fourth week, international aid to millions of acutely poverty-hit Pakistanis is still coming in slowly. Even in a country like the Netherlands, which is only too familiar with flooding disasters, the public at large has so far hesitated to donate.

Why? Regrettably, the overall image of Pakistan as portrayed by the media in many western countries is not a positive one. The country is generally seen as harbouring dangerous fundamentalist organisations, and being ruled by often corrupt leaders, whether civilian or military. At the same time, the tremendous scale of suffering by millions of powerless, innocent civilians in Pakistan stirs the hearts of many. Their biggest question: in which deep pockets does the money I give disappear?

Thus, the bulk of the Pakistani population, overwhelmingly of moderate religious orientation, continues to pay the extra price for so often having been governed by tarnished civilian governments or military dictators. At the same time, most of their relatively well-to-do co-citizens choose to discretely turn their backs on them, as well. In an effort to bring some urgently required change in this sorry state of affairs, utmost transparency is needed. Make it clear to which aid organisations donations should go to, how and where they spent it on, and above all, make sure no pockets are filled.

Olivier Immig

Published in The Express Tribune, August 29^th, 2010.