Posted on 08/23/2010 7:13:51 PM PDT by Immerito
Displaced people are camping everywhere. Shelters of canvas and plastic sheeting line the edges of the highways linking Islamabad to Peshawar in the north-west of the country.
The roads are raised, a precious strip of dry land in a sea of stagnant floodwater and thick mud.
I stopped at one makeshift camp and a group of men rushed forward as soon as I got out of the car, crowding round.
One was a thin-faced man in his 40s called Iftikhar.
He pointed to the swamped ground beyond the railway tracks and the remains of his village. His house had been badly damaged, he said.
Even though the waters were starting to recede, it was too unstable for him to move back there with his six daughters.
We desperately need help from the government, so we can rebuild," he told me.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Getting damn tired of paying for the bullets they will kill us with.
But there is a new sheriff in town, and he's ever so distracted by his golf game.
If we are able to show the Paki’s that the US stands behind their misery, and truly wishes to help them out, the potential goodwill may just pay itself back many, many times over.
One other little detail....no matter how much we help - or pander - they will take, but they will not appreciate. That doesn't matter since we do it out of Christian charity, but don't misunderstand the motivations at play here.
>>>What’s $500 milllion in aid to these desperate people...
About five $100 million Swiss bank accounts for corrupt Pakistan leaders.
>>>If we could convert Paki to some form of democratic rule...
No offense, but “Hah-hah-hah!” This sounds like GWB wanting to “bring democracy to the Middle East.” Not in your or my lifetimes.
We (the US) should have a standard $/victim value for culture sensitive food, tents, blankets, clothes, water (in kind) that U.S. military hands out directly to non-armed victims (no UN, or non-profit groups doing the handouts). NO CASH to governments. NO THIRD PARTIES. And... get out of the ridiculously worthless UN.
For a great review of the failure of foreign aid, please refer to William Easterly’s interview in “From Poverty to Prosperity” by Kling and Schulz. Ex-foreign aid proponent, Easterly, explains why foreign aid always fails.
That is why I said it scares me to have thoughts of pulling out of foreign entanglements like he wants to do. Our support should be contingent on a defined list of things that will kill the deal. This is definately one of them. Do it overnight and leave a note on what was the embassy telling them and the world why.
Speaking of pictures; don’t those gents have rather elegant coifs to be fighting in a bread line?
"Take up the white man's burden,
The savage wars of peace,
Fill full the mouth of famine,
And bid the sickness cease,
And when your goal is nearest,
Your hope for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen folly,
Bring all your works to nought."
The man knew whereof he spoke.
My kind compassionate response would be, “Why isn’t your filthy country advanced enough to do more for yourself?”
Now that is funny...sad, but funny.
"The United States dollar took another pounding on German, French and British exchanges this morning, hitting the lowest point ever known in West Germany. It has declined there by 41% since 1971 and this Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least-appreciated people in all the earth.
As long as sixty years ago, when I first started to read newspapers, I read of floods on the Yellow River and the Yangtse. Who rushed in with men and money to help? The Americans did.
They have helped control floods on the Nile, the Amazon, the Ganges and the Niger. Today, the rich bottom land of the Misssissippi is under water and no foreign land has sent a dollar to help. Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy, were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of those countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When the franc was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When distant cities are hit by earthquakes, it is the United States that hurries into help... Managua Nicaragua is one of the most recent examples. So far this spring, 59 American communities have been flattened by tornadoes. Nobody has helped.
The Marshall Plan .. the Truman Policy .. all pumped billions upon billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now, newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent war-mongering Americans.
I'd like to see one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplanes.
Come on... let's hear it! Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tristar or the Douglas 107? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all international lines except Russia fly American planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or women on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy and you find men on the moon, not once, but several times ... and safely home again. You talk about scandals and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everyone to look at. Even the draft dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, most of them ... unless they are breaking Canadian laws .. are getting American dollars from Ma and Pa at home to spend here.
When the Americans get out of this bind ... as they will... who could blame them if they said 'the hell with the rest of the world'. Let someone else buy the Israel bonds, Let someone else build or repair foreign dams or design foreign buildings that won't shake apart in earthquakes.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old caboose. Both are still broke. I can name to you 5,000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble.
Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbours have faced it alone and I am one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles.
I hope Canada is not one of these. But there are many smug, self-righteous Canadians. And finally, the American Red Cross was told at its 48th Annual meeting in New Orleans this morning that it was broke.
This year's disasters .. with the year less than half-over… has taken it all and nobody...but nobody... has helped."
See the second article in post #26. It lists what countries have given what.
There has been criticism of Muslim countries not giving enough, which seems to have stung some to reach into their pockets. Saudi Arabia has delivered $44 million, while Turkey is to give $11 million.
Many energy-rich Middle Eastern countries are being less than generous, however. Qatar has pledged just $400,000. Pakistan's neighbor to the west, Iran, is giving $800,000, while the United Arab Emirates has no pledge that the Pakistani authorities have recorded.
Looks like Freeper 'Free in Texas' said it best. "We hate everything about you, America. Now give us money."
I thought that writing style looked familiar. What's his stance on the illegal Mexican problem? That was Danes Waterloo.
Yeah, using FReepmail to say “I’ll fight you anytime anywhere!” is usually a sign of Johnny Warper saturation.
I'm having a hard time time even feeling sorry for them with crappy attitudes like that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.