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Donate to the Pakistan Flood appeal. NOW. Every one of you 3

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 11 Aug 2010

The level of public and governmental generosity to the flood-afflicted millions of Pakistan is not good enough, says Celina Ribeiro.

I know it is not politic for fundraisers, charities and the Disasters Emergency Committee to do anything but thank, thank, and thank again those people who have donated to the £9.5m raised by the DEC so far. Aid agencies must appreciate the “overwhelming generosity”, particularly in these “difficult times”.

Bah. These are difficult times for Brits, but so was January when Haiti was devastated by its earthquake. It did not stop people from giving more than £100m to the torn-apart country. To be fair, the £100m was over the course of the appeal - but maybe I am being too fair. 

Tomorrow will mark a week since the DEC launched its Pakistan appeal. A week after it launched its Haiti appeal in January, £42m had been donated to the effort. More was donated to Haiti in one 24 hours than after six days to Pakistan.

£9.5m after ten days of crisis? It is a lot of money, but in light of the scale of human suffering and precedent, it is disgusting.

It is unfortunate for the already impoverished populations of Pakistan that the week before the floods started to sweep away their homes, livelihoods, parents, children, neighbours leaving them facing epidemics of tragically curable diseases that their country was in the international media for complicity in Islamic terrorism and the jihadi resistance in Afghanistan.

Pakistan 11 days ago was the world’s bad guy, its security forces outed for decades-long involvement in Islamist movements in south Asia.

What is tragic, and fatal, for the entirely innocent 14 million Pakistani people that the public appears not to be able to muster enough sympathy for them as they did for the good victims of Haiti.

And what is more tragic for the rest of the world in the geo-political long-term, is that in the absence of an adequate aid effort funded by international governments and NGOs that it is these same Islamist organisations that are stepping into the breech. What future is there for a people of a country where extremists are the ones who are saving lives while the international community fails to respond? Where are their loyalties to lie?

This is one time when our compassion matches our self-interest, and I for one am giving today. 

And hats off to Oxfam for going public about the issue yesterday.

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Directory: Disasters Emergency Committee | Oxfam