Wants and needs

Imagine the roof on your head disappearing. Then imagine your laptop, your phone, your bed, your house, all gone in the blink of an eye. You are left with nothing. Who do you ask for help? Imagine all your relatives and contacts you could run to are in the same situation as you. Worst is the plight of those left homeless, landless, helpess because of the floods. Try as we may, we cannot imagine ourselves in their position. We crib when we lose a mobile phone, we are spoilt to the core, would we survive such a scenario?

As I boarded the plane to visit Nowshera and Muzaffargarh I was afraid that I would not be able to relate to the people I met. That I would be an idiot in a Pajero, bottled water and camera in hand. That even if I sympathised with them while I was there, I would soon be back on a place, back to my comfort zone, the little niche that is my life in Karachi where lights still don trees and Eid clothes exhibitions go on as normal. That’s not to take away credit from the wonderful relief work people are doing, but as a nation we have developed thick skin. We may write about it, take part in the occasional protest or make a donation but we will not mourn with our countrymen in the true sense of the word. We will still splurge on Eid celebrations, all-you-can-eat iftaris and all-night-till-sehri parties. I urge everyone to think hard about what is a ‘need’ and what is a ‘want’, and give the money usually spent on the latter to flood victims.

Yes, 20 million people have been affected. But the 160 million that have not can be mobilised to help them. There is no shortage of cheap labour which can slowly but steadily help rebuild damaged infrastructure. I get text messages everyday saying that tons of food has been collected to send to flood victims but there is a great shortage of volunteers who need to sort through the groceries before they are sent off; it is much easier to give money than to give time.

We know long-term rehabilitation will be difficult. But an army brigadier we met on the trip told us that even in the short-term, what victims need other than food is help with disposing off dead animals, rebuilding drainage and sewage systems and fumigation. He recommends that NGOs adopt a street in any affected village and pledge to do whatever it takes to bring it back to the way it was, be it cleaning up or rebuilding houses. I would go one step further and say that those who, for instance, offer fumigation services should do so willingly at discounted prices.

But despite the problems that remain, what we have achieved in terms of national support is remarkable and shows our potential to unite when we need it most. Unfortunately, it takes a crisis as big as the current one to highlight our strengths. If we were as involved financially and physically in helping those in need the whole year round, if our ‘josh and jazba’ did not peak in times of crisis and were a near flat-line the rest of the time, there is no limit to what we could achieve despite our problems, be they a flawed-but-democratically-elected government, military rule or just plain ol’ corruption.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2010.