The Kashmir earthquake: Failures on the road to disaster

[Angry Girl]

Time is running out for Yassir Batt. A month on from the Kashmir earthquake, he still has no shelter to sleep under. When night falls, he and his brothers huddle together around a fire beside the ruins of their home in the mountains above Muzaffarabad.

In a week or two, the snow will arrive here. Higher up the valley, the locals predict that the next time it rains, it will be as snow. Yassir is 13 years old. If he does not have any shelter when the snow comes, he will die.

<snip>

The speed and size of the response of outside countries appears small compared with the response to the 26 December tsunami. A month after that, the UN appeal was 80 per cent complete; the Pakistan appeal is only 24 per cent complete a month after the quake.

Oxfam has calculated the amount of money contributed by the main donor countries as a percentage of their economies, arriving at a "fair share" figure.

By this measure, Sweden, with 170 per cent of its fair share, tops the table. Britain is 12th at 24 per cent and the US 16th at 6.9 per cent. However, the US tops the list of individual donors. Spain, Portugal, Greece, Finland and Austria have contributed nothing.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article326039.ece

I am so very impressed that the American people (and NOT the imaginary American people Snotty McClellan is always referring to) have been so generous.

For those of you who don't already know, please check out the DU Quake Donation thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5251724&mesg_id=5251724

[uppityperson]

1. People are very generous, realizing we need to help each other

can't rely on the administrations of anywhere to help. We are on our own, must help each other.

[ShockediSay]

2. I heard good things about Oxfam

and made a modest contribution online.

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/