Why has the most devastating natural disaster in recent memory generated such a tepid response from the international community?
Do you know what disaster I'm referring to? How about if I give the hint that it has to do with flooding. Still no? Well, I didn't know about any natural disaster either until I just read the article I'm quoting: Why Doesn't the World Care About Pakistanis?
Apparently, the floods in Pakistan are causing more damage than "the 2004 Asian tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, and the 2010 Haiti earthquake combined."
Obviously, lack of media coverage has a lot do with it. I don't know any one in Haiti or Pakistan... but I certainly knew about Haiti earthquake the day after it happened. Yet I didn't even know about the floods in Pakistan until now, 3 weeks later! And think of all those campaigns to "donate $10 now via txt msg" - Red Cross raised $31 million from those campaigns for Haiti. A similar campaign for Pakistan has barely raised $10,000.
It's donor fatigue. It's Pakistan fatigue. It's because the Pakistani government is corrupt and can't be trusted. It's because the victims are Muslim. It's because people think a nuclear power should be able to fend for itself. It's because floods -- particularly these floods -- spread their destruction slowly, over a period of time, rather than instantaneously. It's because of the tighter budgets of Western governments. It's because of the lingering effects of the financial crisis.
There's a degree of truth to all these explanations.
But there is something more going on... somehow there is a lot of ingrained contempt or at least suspicion towards the country of Pakistan. And unfortunately the people in need there are suffering for it.
The loss of life, disease, poverty, and human misery themselves are going to take years to overcome. But the costs of desilting, cleaning up, and reconstructing Pakistan's most fertile and potent highways, canals, and waterworks will be exhausting just to calculate. The actual task of building back this critical infrastructure is a challenge of unprecedented proportions.
As always, mass media loves focusing on negative events and perspective.
You'd be hard pressed to find a news story anywhere that celebrates the country's incredible scenery, diversity, food, unique brand of Islam, evolving and exciting musical tradition, or even its arresting array of sporting talent, though all those things are present in abundance.
I'm gonna go do some reading about Pakistan now. And see if there even is an aid organization that I can donate to who is or will be working in Pakistan on the recovery effort.
Twenty million people are now struggling to find a dry place to sleep, a morsel of food to eat, a sip of clean water to drink -- and the questions we are asking have to do with politics and international security. The problem is not in Pakistan. It is where those questions are coming from.
