Massive floods across Pakistan | Thousands Killed

[fawwaxs]

Angelina Jolie in Pakistan to meet flood victims

ISLAMABAD: Hollywood star Angelina Jolie Tuesday visited Pakistan to draw world attention towards the plight of 21 million people affected by the country’s worst-ever floods, the UN refugee agency said.

“UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie arrived in Pakistan today to meet people affected by the floods and to highlight the continued urgent need for help,” the agency said in a statement.

Jolie, the 34-year-old actress and roving envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, would be travelling to affected communities in the northwest and would meet those involved in the relief efforts, it said.

This is the fourth visit by Jolie to Pakistan since she became a UNHCR goodwill ambassador in 2001.

Last week Jolie released a video message appealing for greater public support for Pakistan’s relief efforts, and she has herself donated 100,000 dollars to the flood appeal.

The UNHCR is providing relief aid including shelter materials to those displaced by the disaster, which has killed 1,760 people by the official toll. —AFP

 

[fawwaxs]

I love Angelina and Brad for all they do to help their fellowman. This is Jolie's fourth visit to Pakistan.

 

[fawwaxs]

Angelina Jolie visits refugees in Pakistan

BBC News - Angelina Jolie visits refugees in Pakistan

 

[Solomon2]

I missed this article from three weeks ago. Note the praise for Islamic Relief.

August 22, 2010

American Jews begin response to Pakistan floods

By Jonah Lowenfeld

The monsoon rains that flooded Pakistan’s northwest region started nearly a month ago and have killed more than 1,000 people. Millions more are homeless. Roads and railways have been damaged, along with schools and other civic infrastructure. The impact on the country’s crops is still being calculated and could run into the billions of dollars. And although heart-wrenching pictures of Pakistanis wading through waters have been on the front pages of newspapers for a couple of weeks, aid from Americans, including from Jews, has only just begun to arrive.

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) both responded within 24 hours to the earthquake in Haiti this past January. The two groups took longer in the case of Pakistan: Each organization put out an appeal for donations just last week.

American Jews are now responding to the call. AJWS, which has been working with grassroots organizations in Pakistan for years, by the end of last week had raised $42,000 and is delivering aid bags with food, water, pots, pans and clothes to families in the region, sufficient to sustain families for up to 10 days. JDC has also worked in Pakistan before—it responded to earthquakes that hit the region in 2005 and 2008—and the organization has allocated $20,000 from its revolving disaster relief fund, which it plans to use to distribute medicines and other supplies. It hasn’t yet raised enough to cover that amount, but officials hope to meet or exceed the goal as their campaign progresses.

“Checks take time to come in, “ said Will Recant, assistant executive vice president in charge of international development at JDC. “Not everything is done electronically, and a lot of what we do is done through federations.” American Jewish Committee contributed an undisclosed amount from its humanitarian fund to the JDC effort, and a spokesman for the group said it is encouraging donors to give to JDC directly.

How much people donate can depend heavily on media coverage of a disaster. “The biggest challenge right now is that this has been going on for two weeks, and the media is just now starting to pay attention,” AJWS spokesman Joshua Berkman said, adding that coverage of Pakistan’s floods has paled in comparison with attention immediately given to the Haitian earthquake. “Those images, it was nonstop for weeks. People knew what was going on. They saw the images; they felt connected. That hasn’t really happened in Pakistan,” Berkman said.

Larger non-sectarian American aid organizations are also reporting a slow response to the Pakistani flooding. “Haiti is the obvious comparison. This response is far slower,” said Susan Kotcher, vice president for development at the International Rescue Committee. Kotcher said the IRC, which made its first calls to donors on July 29, is now getting hundreds of daily donations for Pakistan and has raised a total of $1.4 million from individuals in the U.S. By contrast, in the first few days after the earthquake in Haiti, the group was getting thousands of donations each day, and raised over $4 million in the first two weeks.

Some, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have attributed the slow response to the economic hardship facing the U.S., as well as a feeling of fatigue among donors who have contributed to other recent relief efforts. Others say the slow response may be caused by the fact that the devastation from floods, unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, develops over time. The ravaging of Pakistan grew slowly, and the effects are still developing. “Its destructive power will accumulate and grow with time,” said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

But others suspect political factors at play. “I can’t help but have my suspicions,” said Edina Lekovic, communications director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. “The first media coverage that I saw about the floods had more to do with whether the victims were going to rely on extremist groups for aid and relief,” Lekovic said. She was referring to news stories reporting that Islamic charities with connections to terrorist groups were distributing aid to people in flood-affected areas. “That their basic humanity and suffering comes second to questionable aid sources is insulting, and misses the point,” Lekovic said.

The slowness of the global response is also being noticed in Pakistan. “Many right-wing organizations have been raising their voices over the slow response of Americans to the disaster,” Aoun Sahi, a journalist in Lahore, Pakistan, wrote in an email. “Many of them have been comparing the response of Americans to the Pakistani tragedy with the one faced by Haiti, and have been trying to make it a religious issue.”

The aid from the U.N., U.S., and Europe ,in addition to being insufficient to meet Pakistan’s needs, is “being portrayed both by media and some American officials” as a way “to counter the charitable activities of the banned Islamic aid organizations and militant outfits,” Sahi wrote. “This notion has been demonizing the American aid efforts.”

Asked what might account for the slowness of the Jewish response to the Pakistani floods so far, Rabbi Harold Schulweis of Temple Valley Beth Shalom responded, “I don’t think that is an anti-Muslim deal. I think it’s a deeper question of overload.” Schulweis said that American Jews have witnessed existential threats being made against them as a people, particularly (although not exclusively) by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “That may account for hoarding of energy to direct itself to the particular,” Schulweis said. “If I’m scared that somebody is threatening me, I’m not going to listen to the cries of the neighbors.”

“That’s too bad,” Schulweis added, “because in the course of that parochialism, we lose one of the most uplifting values in Judaism itself, which is to be a light unto the nations.”

Rains are expected to continue in Pakistan through mid-September, and the dimensions of the crisis are still growing. But no matter what quantity of aid ultimately makes its way from the American Jewish community to Pakistan, only some of the beneficiaries will know that they are being helped by Jews.

AJWS works with small groups doing community development in 36 countries around the world. “Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of the countries, due to security reasons, where we don’t disclose the names of our grantee organizations,” Berkman said. He told of one organization supported by AJWS that is providing clothing and scarves to women whose belongings were washed away by the floods, but would not give the group’s name.

“We have to keep a very low profile for the safety and security of the organizations,” Berkman said.

JDC, by contrast, requires that its beneficiaries announce the source of the funding, no matter where their projects are located—which is why there’s an ambulance in Haiti with the JDC’s name on the side of it. “I have a letter from former [Pakistani] President [Pervez] Musharraf,” said Recant of JDC, “thanking the Jewish community and the [JDC]” for its help establishing a village in the aftermath of Pakistan’s 2008 earthquake.

JDC often works with other large international nonprofits like the International Rescue Committee and the Clinton Global Initiative, which makes printing the words “American” and “Jewish” on the sides of water tanks and buildings less problematic. The question of how to announce the provenance of donations, however, is not unique to Jewish organizations. Los Angeles-based Operation USA has had issues with its name, too. “We have had instances where we’ve worked with local partners where we’ve not had our name on [the project],” said Alison Deknatel, Operation USA’s director of communications.

Operation USA, which has so far raised $7.9 million in donations and in-kind contributions for Haiti, and has been working in Pakistan since the 2005 earthquake, has seen very little contributed for Pakistan in the wake of the ongoing flooding. Deknatel said she can’t say what exactly has been keeping people from contributing. “It’s hard to know exactly. It could be donor fatigue. It could be general unease with working in that region,” Deknatel said.

In light of the dire situation, Sahi said he believes Pakistanis wouldn’t object to receiving aid from the U.S., “but there will be some problems with the word ‘Jewish’ if printed on clothing especially,” he wrote. “It will not be easy for them to accept aid from Jewish groups from Israel, but they will be OK with American Jewish groups’ aid.”

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles said she knew of no aid that has gone from Israel to Pakistan during this crisis, and could not comment on whether any had been offered. Israel was widely recognized for the medical services it sent to Haiti after the earthquake.

“I think this is good opportunity for different Jewish groups to establish links with some Pakistani groups,” journalist Sahi added, from Pakistan.

One organization that has been very successful in its fundraising efforts for Pakistan is Islamic Relief USA. The group has raised over $2 million from an appeal that began July 30. Part of a 25-year-old worldwide network of relief organizations, Islamic Relief USA responds to disasters all over the world (they worked with the Church of Latter-Day Saints to respond to the Haitian earthquake); its biggest effort came in the aftermath of the war in Gaza in 2008, when the group procured and distributed more than $3 million worth of medical, food and other aid.

The group’s vice president is in Pakistan helping with the aid efforts, and it’s clear where he’s coming from. “Our logos are on the products that we send over, so people in Pakistan know that there is an American Muslim group there helping with relief efforts,” said Islamic Relief USA spokesperson Rabiah Ahmed.

And the timing of the disaster has actually worked to increase the responsiveness of Muslim donors. Ramadan, the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, began on Aug. 4, and Iftar, the nightly meal at which Muslims break their fast, is often a group gathering, providing a natural forum for fundraising.

Zakah, a central tenet of the Islamic faith that requires one to give about 2.5 percent of one’s wealth to those in need, is also acting as a catalyst to fundraising. Ramadan, Ahmed said, is considered a more blessed season in which to give Zakah. “Many of the donations that we’re getting for the flood has been from people giving Zakah money,” Ahmed said.

To help support the relief efforts in Pakistan, please visit the websites of any of the below organizations:

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
JDC Home

American Jewish World Service:
American Jewish World Service

International Rescue Committee
https://www.theirc.org/

 

[GUNNER]

Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi says Iran has allocated $100 million worth of humanitarian aid for the flood-hit people of Pakistan.

The Leader expressed deep sorrow over the catastrophic floods in Pakistan and the lingering humanitarian crisis it has brought to the country.

Earlier on Sunday, Supervisor of Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation Hossein Anvari declared the coming Thursday as the 'Solidarity Day' with the flood-stricken people of Pakistan.

Anvari said that on September 16 Iranians can extend their humanitarian aid, in cash or goods, to the Pakistani nation.

Iran was among the first countries to dispatch relief supplies to Pakistan and has announced its readiness to help reconstruct Pakistan's flood-ravaged regions.

 

[GUNNER]

No PR384/2010-ISPR

Rawalpindi - September 14, 2010

Pakistan’s most destructive flood in memory have claimed over 1,700 lives. The flood inundated 5436601 acres of land in all Provinces of country including Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. A total of 6359 towns / cities and small villages were inundated due this Pakistan’s worst natural disaster since the creation of country.

KPK is the worst hit province with 24 districts while 19 districts of Sindh, 12 of Punjab and 10 of Balochistan, 7 each of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan have been affected due to these floods.

As many as 474 Bridges and 1237343 buildings have been completely washed away due to these floods in the country. 282 Bridges alone in KPK and 182 in Gilgit Baltistan have been completely destroyed.

Within no time after the deadly floods, relief and rescue operations were started by the Pakistan Army on war footing.

A total of 72000 troops are deployed for rescue and relief operations alongwith 943 boats and 70 helicopters in flood hit areas of the country.

As many as 217 relief camps have been established where 13.2 lacs people are being provided cooked food and medical facilities.

Army Jawans and Aviation Pilots took some daring missions to rescue stranded people and managed to rescue over 8 lacs of people to safer places.

Besides that 2391 Tons of dry rations have also been distributed till date among the affectees. Pakistan Army troops are also busy in collection of relief items at Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Gujranwala and Quetta. 445 Trucks, 2 Trains and 8 C-130 aircrafts full of relief goods have been dispatched to flood hit areas.

Pakistan Army doctors are second to none in providing relief to the needy people. As many as 180 doctors alongwith 310 paramedics have treated 215114 patients. 7 Field Hospital and 22 Mobile Medical Teams are working day in and day out in flood affected areas to provide relief to the needy people.

Some friendly countries have also sent their medical and rescue teams for relief work in flood affected areas. An Australian filed hospital comprising 138 men has been established at Kot Addu, Chinese field hospital is established at Thatta, Japanese hospital at Multan, Palestinian at D I Khan, Sri Lankan hospital at Charsada and two Saudi Arabian Hospitals.

 

[COBener]

I'm very sad after what happened in Pakistan, my prayings was always with my brothers. When Turkey, Iran and another muslim states helped Pakistan, I'm very shameful that my country Kosovo, not helped nothing... In Turkey, in Friday prayers peoples donates a money for Pakistan, but in Kosovo as far as I know,there was no action against sending an Aid to Pakistan...

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

kanka....keep Pakistan in your hearts and that alone means something

 

[COBener]

kanka....keep Pakistan in your hearts and that alone means something

Abu Kardes Pakistan is always in our hearts...

 

[alibaz]

Food, relief items distributed among flood victims

Under the umbrella of the Jeevay Pakistan Jeevay Maqami Hakoomat (JPJMH), the Local Councils Association (LCA), Sindh chapter, civil society organisations and district press and bar bodies on Tuesday distributed food and relief items among the flood victims at the Dhamdamu and Haleji relief camps, said a press release.

The flood relief activity was led by Daniyal Aziz, the former chief of the National Reconstruction Bureau (NRB). The JPJMH has formed committees comprising LCAs. These committees have chalked out a list of 600 most deserving families from Thatta district for provision of food and relief items. In the first phase the JPJMH is going to distribute relief and food items worth around Rs 35 million among the victims and the JPJMH sources said that a foolproof mechanism ensuring transparency had been devised.

Speaking on the occasion, Daniyal Aziz said that the local government representatives would not leave their calamity-hit brothers and sisters alone in this their hour of trial.

He invited media representatives to monitor the mechanism and come up with suggestions for further improvement. He said that had there would have been no difficulty in coping with the crisis had local governments been in place.

He lamented that the government had left the flood victims at the mercy of administrators and Patwaris. Aziz called on the government to restore the local governments and hold fresh local government elections to hand over responsibility for relief and rehabilitation of the victims to the local leadership.

 

[alibaz]

Additional US water purification equipment for flood victims arrive

ISLAMABAD: Two more US-organised relief flights arrived here over the weekend carrying additional water purification equipment and related supplies for the flood victims.

The flights, organised by the US Agency for International Development (USAid), brought 19,200 10-litre water containers, two large water storage bladders and more than 15 million water purification tablets. The water purification supplies are sufficient to chlorinate 150 million litres of water.

Previously, the USAid provided 13 mobile water treatment units, each of which could produce enough safe drinking water for 20,000 people a day, 10 storage bladders of 20,000-litre water, and more than 200,000 water containers of 10 litres.

The US has provided more than $261 million in emergency humanitarian assistance to the Pakistanis. The US has also provided other civilian and military in kind assistance in the form of meals, pre-fabricated steel bridges and other infrastructure support as well as air support to and within Pakistan to transport goods and rescue people, valued at approximately $40 million.

The News

 

[Solomon2]

I've said over and over that whatever aid the international community provides, however great, won't be enough because of the immense scale of this disaster. Now it's official:

Pakistan must raise billions after floods: Holbrooke

Thursday, 16 Sep, 2010

US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke. — Photo by AP

KARACHI: Pakistan's allies will only do so much to rebuild the country after devastating floods so the government must raise tens of billions of dollars for reconstruction itself, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Thursday.

The floods, triggered by heavy monsoon rain in late July, killed more than 1,750 people, forced at least 10 million people from their homes and caused up to $43 billion in damage.

“The international community is not going to be able to raise tens of billions of dollars,” Holbrooke told a meeting of newspaper editors in Karachi.

“You have to figure out a way to raise the money,” he said.

A massive cascade of waters swept through the country, washing away homes, roads, bridges, crops and livestock, sending the vital US ally in the campaign against militancy reeling in one of the worst natural disasters in recorded history.

Pakistan's economy was already fragile and the cost of rehabilitation will likely push the 2010/11 fiscal deficit to between six and seven per cent of gross domestic product (GPD) against an original target of four per cent.

The floods are “going to put your government to the test”, Holbrooke said.

Reconstruction worry

Pakistan's tax to GDP ratio is about 10 per cent, one of the lowest in the world, and while the government has called for greater revenue collection, it has done little to broaden a very narrow tax base.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday approved as expected $451 million in emergency funding to help the country rebuild. That amount is separate from an $11 billion IMF-backed economic programme agreed in 2008.

The IMF programme includes energy sector reforms and measures to boost revenue.

If Pakistan does not increase its tax revenue and eliminate energy subsidies to cut expenditure, future IMF funds could be in danger.

For now, the focus is on getting help to flood victims, 10 million of whom are in urgent need of food and shelter. Aid agencies warn that water-borne diseases and hunger could kill many more.

“I've never seen anything on the scale of this,” Holbrooke, who also visited flood-hit areas, said at a meeting with the American Business Council, including representatives of major US companies such as IBM and Procter & Gamble.

“This is what we need to convey to the international community. It's the reconstruction stage that I'm most worried about.”

The United Nations says it has received $307 million, or about 67 per cent, of $460 million it appealed for in emergency aid last month, and plans to a launch a new appeal this week in New York.

The United States has taken the lead in providing emergency aid, contributing $261 million for relief and security.

The United States wants to make sure the floods do not create political turmoil in Pakistan, which faces a Taliban insurgency at home and is under US pressure to tackle militants who cross the border to attack US-led Nato troops in Afghanistan.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

I found this REALLY touching.

A gesture of Turkish love​

According to a news report, a nine-year old Turkish girl has donated her one year’s pocket money of 150 Turkish liras and her doll (which must be her most cherished toy) to the flood-affected children of Pakistan.

The Pakistani people, especially the children are thankful to the little angel for showing so much love and affection for her small friends in Pakistan.

She wrote a hand-written letter to our president promising to keep on sending more help because she says the Turks are the best friends of the Pakistanis.

Our President should bestow the highest medal of honour to the little angel who has given everything she had to the flood-affected children of our country. We, Pakistanis should follow her foot-steps and should always remember her gesture of love.





DR KHURRUM FIAZUDDIN
Karachi

DAWN.COM | Letters to the Editor | A gesture of Turkish love



people here should remember that in 2005 earthquake, all the public and private schools were issuing PSA statements to the students that they must help their Pakistani friends in trouble. Within their means, kids and their parents donated cash and belongings like jewelry to the earthquake affectees.


Bless their hearts, may Allah SWT reward them.

 

[alibaz]

Pakistan's allies will only do so much to rebuild the country after devastating floods so the government must raise tens of billions of dollars for reconstruction itself, US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said on Thursday.

Very right, its we ourselves who shall rebuild Pakistan,no one will come and do everything for us and am sure we can do it. The only requirement is, we start improving our character as an individual, society will be improved automatically. I think we have touched the bottom of maximum possible depth, now its time to rise out of ashes. Its time to amend ourselves and appreciate others even for their small little good deeds.

 

[Solomon2]

I don't doubt rebuilding Pakistan can be done. The phrase "Marshall Plan" has been over-used, but when it comes to rebuilding it is an appropriate comparison; the MP applied American capital so West Europeans could rebuild their own shattered economies. The differences between that and development were that (1) the skills of the West Europeans still existed after the war, (2) they had a good idea, from pre-war trade, what they needed to produce, (3) save for the Jews and Germans, pre-war property rights remained mostly intact, and (4) European countries had competent bureaucracies capable of applying and modifying capital as necessary.

For Pakistan, (1) and (2) are in good shape, and (3) is a bit shaken by the flood mess, but (4) is the biggie.

Perhaps Pakistan can take a few halting steps in the right direction by sending a team to the Marshall Plan's successor outfit, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, to join the ranks as an Enhanced Engagement Country. It can't hurt, can it?