Please donate to the Pakistan flood appeal via DEC
With almost 20 million affected by flooding in Pakistan, and the sad news of the death of medical staff in Afghanistan who have previously been off limits, the issue of international aid is hugely important politically as well as to the individuals whose survival depends on it. Does it matter who delivers the aid?
In the case of the international group of doctors, dentists and others murdered in Afghanistan, the answer should have been no.
According to a beautiful piece on Radio 4 “From our Own Correspondent” this morning, some of the individuals in the group had been in Afghanistan for 20 years, raising their own children there. They were Christian but were motivated to help not by a wish to spread their faith but by a wish to help the poor and most vulnerable people in the world. Their work was, alongside general helathcare, in dentistry (identified by Terry Pratchett’s denture-wearing barbarian hero Cohen as one of the three greatest things in life along with hot water and soft lavatory paper) and which clearly brings great relief, and with maternity care.
And that’s why it iseems they had been allowed to carry out their work in the past – their contacts and networks meant that they were able to give these vital services to people in desperate circumstances. Women and doctors were previously generally safe. According to the report I heard, this no longer matters and the unwritten rules of the conflict have changed.
They were killed for being foreign, for being Christian and, in the case of the Afghani in the party that was killed, for being the wrong type of muslim. The report called these killings racist, pure and simple. Only the men with the guns, and those giving the orders, know why this was allowed to happen. Because it is not just the individuals that were killed, not just their families, friends and the supporters of their charities that are affected. It’s the individuals that were being helped or would have been helped. It’s the children and mothers that may now have birth complications. It’s the village elder with the rotting tooth that forms and absess and dies from blood poisoning. There was no human kindness in this violent act. Was it really Allah’s will that this support should not be brought to them?
Switch focus to the enormous humanitarian disaster in Pakistan. While the rest of the world tries to get its act together and get emergency aid out, there are reports that “hardline groups” are filling the aid vaccuum.
So does this aid delivery matter?
Well, yes. The shaky political balance in Pakistan may well be affected by the after effects of this natural disaster, and the knock-on consequences will potentially be felt worldwide.This potentially means a swing in public opinion away from the slow and remote-feeling official response to the crisis towards gratitude and support for more extremist groups (such as those favouring close links with the Taliban) who are actually getting the job done on the ground.
I’m not clear whether there are strings attached. I’m not sure if they’re offering aid only to those of their version of Islam. I’m not clear what they think about women being made to wear burkas – can only assume they’re pro given the positive towards the Taliban nature of the politics.
But if I was a Pakistani muslim on the ground, and it was my house and animals gone, my child falling ill from dirty water, my parents starving, I’m not sure how much I’d care about those things in the short term. If they were willing to give the aid to me now, I’d take what they offer gratefully rather than wait for a government-approved response that might come too late.
But ultimately the response to these situations can and should only be humanitarian.
That’s aid with no strings, fast, from those who have something, to those who need it.
Whether you’re Christian, Muslim, of no faith or any faith, as a human being you surely have a social responsibility to give what you can.
You can do so via the link to DEC above.
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