Floods

Ladakh: the Buddhist part of Indian Kashmir, and apparently one of the only parts of India not affected by the monsoon. According to Lonely Planet, it receives about as much rainfall as the Sahara desert. Imagine our surprise then, when, two days before we were due to go there was torrential rain causing mudslides: 80% of the infrastructure of the city of Leh was damaged or destroyed, and 150 people were killed. So we had to quickly change our holiday plans. More of that in another blog entry. But I can’t talk about floods and strange weather patterns without mentioning Pakistan, although I am almost at a loss to know what to say. This time two years ago I was in Ghizer, in the mountains of the Hindu Kush enjoying the beauty of the blue skies unaffected by monsoon rain. Now I am getting emails from friends in that area saying the roads are destroyed, there is no clean water, little power and little food in the markets. And even friends who are in areas not flooded are struggling with inflation. I have never felt so powerless to be able to help friends in trouble.

The media have been highlighting the slowness of international aid in comparison with the extent of the need – the Secretary General of the UN has said that more people are have been affected than the tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake and the earthquake in Haiti combined. It is thought that international aid has been slow because of concerns about terrorism, and, combined with this, possible misuse of aid (although the UK public have been one of the most generous donors). I have read several good articles arguing that because of the negative image Pakistan has, the crisis has been viewed first through the lens of the threat of terrorism, and then as a humanitarian catastrophe, which has affected the response of the international community and therefore is compounding the suffering of those affected. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8931886.stm
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/19/why_doesnt_the_world_care_about_pakistanis The vast majority of Pakistanis - those who have lost everything in the floods - have not only been victims of terrorism for many years, but now are trying to survive and keep their families alive. The Pakistan that I remember is not constituted solely by corruption, Islamic extremism and terrorism: it was the most beautiful place with the most hospitable people I have ever visited. Not only is the suffering that they are experiencing heartbreaking, but it is even worse that this is compounded by such a negative image. These are some of my memories of Pakistan:

To finish – here are some things my friends have been emailing me from Pakistan: ‘all the bridges are gone, there are many communication problems’, ‘may God help us get through it all’, ‘there is no water, no electricity, no food available in the market and life is miserable. The flood has swept away most of our beautiful lands’, ‘our country is being pushed back to the stone age’.

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