Exposed — to the elements
Ramazan was not observed - the usual greed and selfishness that afflicts the nation from top to bottom prevails.
Abstinence, charity, good thoughts and good deeds, all are expected during the month of Ramazan and of calamitous floods. Much of what makes up ‘civil society’ rose to the occasion, raking up money, goods, medical assistance and whatever was needed to attempt to bring relief to the 20 million or so flood victims, the majority of whom in their previous lives subsisted under the poverty line as they have done for decades. That was the up-side.
We then have the downside. Schizophrenia rearing its usual ugly head. The Tehreek-i-Taliban was unmoved. The holy warriors bombed and blew up, killing and maiming, regardless. That is how they are and will be. Lahore, Quetta, Kohat and Fata were not spared. And to boot, almost on a daily basis we read of the destruction of schools up north.
A Reuters report of September 5 tells of how Ramazan was not observed, the usual greed and selfishness that afflicts the nation from top to bottom prevailing.
On sale in the open market in Peshawar were bags of flour and tins of cooking oil stamped with the logos of the World Food Program, USAID and other international agencies who had stepped in to help. Spotted by the reporter was one truck marked ‘Relief Goods for Flood Affected People, from Islamic Relief’ which was being unloaded in a market.
Apart from the normal filching, apparently, some victims sell what they are given to get money to buy other goods needed more urgently. Customers are rife, the goods are of higher quality than available locally and are sold at a cheaper rate. Warehouses have been located, well stocked with aid supplies. It stands to reason that this trading cannot happen without the involvement of the government and administration.
Another news item listed some goods that were being collected by relief organisations in the US for dispatch to Pakistan — tinned tuna, tinned spaghetti and other such goodies. Heaven knows how the hapless haris were supposed to deal with it all — that is, if it ever gets to them.
We also had tales from Punjab and from Sindh of how whatever little was abandoned by those that had to flee was looted by people living outside the flood-affected areas. When those that fled finally return they will find less than nothing, as basically all they ever had was nothing. The poorest of the poor are the victims of nature’s inglorious revenge.
One sad observation made by a much respected and well known head of a medical institution in Karachi who has set up medical camps all over Sindh and who visits and treats the ailing with commendable regularity, with disgust in his voice he told how the SUV do-gooders roar around the province distributing relief packets they have collected and put together, presumably in all goodness and with all the right intent, unless they are merely making a statement and doing a bit of PR. But why do they just chuck packages and sacks out of their windows? Why do they scatter their food parcels like bird-seed? Why can they not halt their vehicles, descend, and treat their fellow citizens with dignity and some form of equality?
And what the floods have done is to expose the utter shallowness of this leadership, its corruption and ineptitude and its lack of any will to pay back to the people what is owed to them for having half-filled the ballot boxes. The feudal so-called elite run political parties that are sinkholes of corrupt practices which have no link at all with democracy, and a goodly number have turned out to be perjurers. They, and the others, the military usurpers and those who operate parties with a pseudo-religious or fascistic bend have sunk this country as have the floods.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2010.
We then have the downside. Schizophrenia rearing its usual ugly head. The Tehreek-i-Taliban was unmoved. The holy warriors bombed and blew up, killing and maiming, regardless. That is how they are and will be. Lahore, Quetta, Kohat and Fata were not spared. And to boot, almost on a daily basis we read of the destruction of schools up north.
A Reuters report of September 5 tells of how Ramazan was not observed, the usual greed and selfishness that afflicts the nation from top to bottom prevailing.
On sale in the open market in Peshawar were bags of flour and tins of cooking oil stamped with the logos of the World Food Program, USAID and other international agencies who had stepped in to help. Spotted by the reporter was one truck marked ‘Relief Goods for Flood Affected People, from Islamic Relief’ which was being unloaded in a market.
Apart from the normal filching, apparently, some victims sell what they are given to get money to buy other goods needed more urgently. Customers are rife, the goods are of higher quality than available locally and are sold at a cheaper rate. Warehouses have been located, well stocked with aid supplies. It stands to reason that this trading cannot happen without the involvement of the government and administration.
Another news item listed some goods that were being collected by relief organisations in the US for dispatch to Pakistan — tinned tuna, tinned spaghetti and other such goodies. Heaven knows how the hapless haris were supposed to deal with it all — that is, if it ever gets to them.
We also had tales from Punjab and from Sindh of how whatever little was abandoned by those that had to flee was looted by people living outside the flood-affected areas. When those that fled finally return they will find less than nothing, as basically all they ever had was nothing. The poorest of the poor are the victims of nature’s inglorious revenge.
One sad observation made by a much respected and well known head of a medical institution in Karachi who has set up medical camps all over Sindh and who visits and treats the ailing with commendable regularity, with disgust in his voice he told how the SUV do-gooders roar around the province distributing relief packets they have collected and put together, presumably in all goodness and with all the right intent, unless they are merely making a statement and doing a bit of PR. But why do they just chuck packages and sacks out of their windows? Why do they scatter their food parcels like bird-seed? Why can they not halt their vehicles, descend, and treat their fellow citizens with dignity and some form of equality?
And what the floods have done is to expose the utter shallowness of this leadership, its corruption and ineptitude and its lack of any will to pay back to the people what is owed to them for having half-filled the ballot boxes. The feudal so-called elite run political parties that are sinkholes of corrupt practices which have no link at all with democracy, and a goodly number have turned out to be perjurers. They, and the others, the military usurpers and those who operate parties with a pseudo-religious or fascistic bend have sunk this country as have the floods.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2010.