← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · DakotaBlue
Thread ID: 20609 | Posts: 19 | Started: 2005-10-11
2005-10-11 13:48 | User Profile
Don't know about you, but I think this rush to send millions of disaster relief dollars to countries that despise us, is getting almost comical. It's as if we've entered a popularity contest that's rigged against us no matter what we do, but that doesn't stop us from trying harder every time. What exactly does this aid buy us in terms of international currency. Absolutely nothing. And if you want to look at it on purely humanitarian grounds, where the hell is that bastion of bleeding heartdom, the UN? Look at it's contribution and then try hard to recall what its global mission is.
Case in point, Pakistan. True, this earthquake is off the scale in terms of human suffering, but what if the US didn't exist. How would Pakistan cope and survive? Surely it would, somehow. How much is this country obligated to do for those suffering from natural disasters especially if they've made it clear they hate everything about us. Well, this president has just answered that question. He's allowed this Third World nation to shame us into giving more money than the UN, more money than the entire EU, more money than any Muslim nation except the UAE. So where are BinLaden's billions? No sign of them.
The way I see it, if you consistently keep the American military out of the your country when it's fighting a war with your neighbor, when you harbor the enemy that the US is fighting and pretend you're not, and then criticize the US because it didn't send enough money fast enough to help your Muslim citizens, then you should be told to take a long walk on a short pier.
More: [url]http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article318644.ece[/url]
2005-10-11 14:40 | User Profile
[QUOTE=DakotaBlue]Should the US Send Millions to Pakistan?
Absolutely not.
2005-10-11 15:15 | User Profile
Definitely not millions of taxpayer dollars. If people want to donate privately out of kindness then that's great, but no one should be forced to donate. That really goes for all foreign aid as far as I'm concerned.
I do have a lot more of a problem with aid to foreign militaries than with humanitarian aid. If part of my paycheck is going to be stolen for use by foreign nations, then I'd much rather have it go to feed or house some homeless kid than be used to arm child-murdering kikes in Israel.
2005-10-11 15:36 | User Profile
Why are they even bothering the US? They should simply borrow it directly from the Red Chinese like we would have to do.
2005-10-11 15:45 | User Profile
A few million less kumars and rajesh's wont be a bad thing...
oh im sorry, wheres the luv this morning ? :wub:
2005-10-11 15:48 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Sertorius]Why are they even bothering the US? They should simply borrow it directly from the Red Chinese like we would have to do.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, where are those mongoloid commies in the financial aid rankings and how come the vaunted 'world opinion' never criticizes them for not giving enough, if anything at all?
2005-10-11 20:34 | User Profile
here is another paki who complain about the lack aid USA france germany gave
[url="http://www.counterpunch.org/"]http://www.counterpunch.org/[/url]
[font=Times New Roman][size=+2][color=#990000]Things are Bad and Getting Worse[/color][/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=+2]Pakistan Will Never Forget This Horror[/size][/font]
[font=Times New Roman][size=+2]By TARIQ ALI [/size][/font][font=Times New Roman][size=+1]in Lahore[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=+3][color=#990000]T[/color][/size][/font][font=Verdana][size=-1]he scale of the disaster has traumatized the entire country or perhaps not quite. Here in Lahore a group of people collecting funds for earthquake relief were apprehended and charged. They were amassing money for themselves. Even in the midst of disaster, life goes on. Like a giant vulture flock, the global media has descended on the country. The same images repeated every few minutes over three days. The same banal comments. Soon they will get tired and move on. When they are really needed, to monitor relief efforts and reconstruction, to maintain a watch on the funds and alert viewers to the inevitable corruption (in the past blankets and tinned food designed for victims of the floods earlier this year were being openly sold in the black-market) they will not be there. The South is only worth a disaster. Emote and disappear. And as the media circus moves on the citizens of the West--they with the short memory spans--also forget. Pakistan will never forget this horror.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=-1]The picture in the North-West of the country is much worse than has been reported. The Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, a World Bank favourite, lost his cool at local journalists for reporting the destruction of schools and the deaths of hundreds of children. "Why are you being sensationalist? Be optimistic!" The defensiveness was unnecessary. Nobody blames the regime for the earthquake and even the normally loquacious Frontier province and Afghan mullahs, eager to pronounce Katrina as God's punishment for US wars, have fallen silent. Why would Allah punish the Islamist strongholds in Pakistan?[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=-1]The death toll has been underestimated. Balakot, a small city which is the gateway to the beautiful Kaghan valley and heavily dependent on seasonal tourism, has been destroyed. Corpses litter the streets. According to today's estimates, at least half of the city's population of 100,000 is now dead. A whole generation has been wiped out. Survivors were, till yesterday, without food or water because the roads had been wrecked and helicopters were in short supply.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=-1]It is the same story in Muzaffarabad, in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. Everything is wrecked. Here there have been anti-Government manifestations and citizens have looted shops in search of food, just like in New Orleans. Further up on the Indo-Pak border where a state of permanent tension is deliberately kept alive by both sides, there was another tragedy. 400 Pakistani soldiers, sitting in their trenches were crushed to death as the mountain wall protecting them crashed and buried them alive.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=-1]What of the relief effort? The government is doing its best, but it is not enough. The lack of a proper infrastructure, no serious reserve funds in the budget to deal with unexpected tragedies and a total lack of preparedness despite annual disasters on a lesser scale, has cost innumerable lives. To watch General Musharraf on state television bemoaning the shortage of helicopters was instructive. A few miles to the north of the disaster zone there is a large fleet of helicopters belonging to the Western armies occupying parts of Afghanistan. Why could the US, German and British commanders not dispatch these to save lives? Is the war so fierce that these were needed every single day? Five days after the earthquake, the US released 8 helicopters from war duty to help transport food and water to isolated villages. Too little, too late.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=-1]The Pakistan Army has been put into action, but armies here and elsewhere, are not suited to relief effort. They are not trained to save lives and reports today that aid convoys are being attacked and seized by angry crowds long before they reach their destination is an indication of the chaos. Even in normal times the poor have limited access to doctors and nurses. The state-of-the-art hospitals in the big cities are exclusively for the wealthy. The shortage of medical staff has been a curse for the last fifty years. No regime, military or civilian, has succeeded in creating a proper social infrastructure, a safety net for its less privileged citizens who compose a large majority of the population. At times like this the entire country feels the need, but it will soon be forgotten, till the next disaster. In a privatized world, the state is not encouraged to buck the system. Things are bad here this week, but they will get worse when rescue teams arrive in areas still out of reach.[/size][/font]
[font=Verdana][size=-1]Tariq Ali [/size][/font][font=Verdana][size=-1]is author of the recently released [url="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844670295/counterpunchmaga"][color=#0000ff]Street Fighting Years[/color][/url] (new edition) and, with David Barsamian, [url="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/156584954X/counterpunchmaga"][color=#0000ff]Speaking of Empires & Resistance. [/color][/url]He can be reached at: [email="tariq.ali3@btinternet.com"][color=#0000ff]tariq.ali3@btinternet.com[/color][/email][/size][/font]
2005-10-11 22:10 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Five days after the earthquake, the US released 8 helicopters from war duty to help transport food and water to isolated villages. Too little, too late.[/QUOTE] I love this. Recrimination instead of thanks for the help which is offered. Same old song. We've bailed out virtually every country on this planet at one time or another, yet most hate our guts. Why bother. Washington warned of foreign entanglements, far past time to return to an American First Isolationist Policy.
2005-10-11 22:25 | User Profile
If those people in that area of the World want to exercise their freedoms and Pray to Allah for help then don't look for the USA for help!Enough is Enough money needs to stay in America:wallbash:
2005-10-12 00:34 | User Profile
Personally, I would say no to taxpayer dollars being sent over there. However, I would donate money out of my own pocket to help Pakistan. I have just as much in common with the people of Pakistan as I do with your modern American liberal or neo-conservative. Politically speaking though, it would be a disaster not to send money over to a country that is a hot bed for terrorism, it would add fuel to the fire (as if it doesn't have enough already). It wonder how terrorists will justify this natural disaster "from God", since hurrican Katrina was a response to the war in Iraq.
2005-10-12 01:05 | User Profile
[QUOTE=adam 1860]...Politically speaking though, it would be a disaster not to send money over to a country that is a hot bed for terrorism, it would add fuel to the fire (as if it doesn't have enough already)....[/QUOTE]
[B]I think history has proven that money alone isn't a panacea. Billions were poured into Africa over the decades and still the communists have managed to get a toehold. Money doesn't transcend the country's history, culture, paranoia and vulnerability. Individual Pakistani Muslims might be grateful for American aid but their govt. and those who prop it up would never allow an all-out acknowledgment of our charitable nature nor would it disspell their covert distrust for us as a nation, so what exactly do we gain. As to private donations, that would make sense except for the fact there's no way to ever know if your money is going to the truly needy or into the hands of the truly greedy. Oil rich Muslim nations should be helping Pakistan in every way possible and they aren't. Why call on us at this time?[/B]
2005-10-12 02:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE=jeffersonian]I love this. Recrimination instead of thanks for the help which is offered. Same old song. We've bailed out virtually every country on this planet at one time or another, yet most hate our guts. Why bother. Washington warned of foreign entanglements, far past time to return to an American First Isolationist Policy.[/QUOTE] Indeed. Nothing is good enough. So why do we try?
2005-10-12 02:23 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Should the US Send Millions to Pakistan?[/QUOTE] I don't know about the US, but the UK should certainly send millions (of Pakistanis back) to Pakistan.
2005-10-12 02:24 | User Profile
[font=Times New Roman][size=4]HELL NO. The money will end up being used to kill Americans.
I swear, the way the criminal bastards in DC throw fiat around makes them look akin to some sort of crack whore. Anything to feel good.
Oh God, where did equity and JUSTICE go?[/size][/font]
2005-10-12 02:25 | User Profile
I think Western countries should help out through private charity donations.
2005-10-12 04:06 | User Profile
the group sipah e sahaba have an answer to why pakistan was hit by the earthquake
because pakistan is allowing shite muslims to remain in in the country:rolleyes:
2005-10-13 03:12 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Texas Dissident]Absolutely not.[/QUOTE] US already is sending millions, Tex, as part of The War Against Terror. This earthquake aid, a decent gesture as most humanitarian aid is, amounts to a modest supplemental.
Of course, I don't see what long term good it will do, earthquakes have been killing people in that part of the world for millenia, but there may be a short term advantage.
AE
2005-10-13 20:01 | User Profile
One thing I'd like to see done is let all the hospitals in the US send teams of doctors and nurses to help those most in need.
Then get the giant pharmaceutical companies to contribute medicine requested by the medical teams.
Let the thousands of supermarkets in this country contribute as much non-perishable food as is possible.
Let Jimmy Carter and his Habitat for Humanity bring the nails, hammers and building supplies and put them to work, like the Peace Corps.
I'd be very happy to see that happen.
2005-10-14 22:16 | User Profile
NO... because it's unconstitutional. I find no provision for sending American taxpayer dollars abroad for foreign aid.