UN (General Assembly) to meet (Thursday) on Pakistan aid as fears mount for survivors

[Turborama]

Source: AFP

Fears mounted for the survivors of floods in Pakistan as the UN prepared Thursday to drum up more aid and John Kerry became the first senior US policymaker to visit since the crisis which has affected millions. The United Nations has described Pakistan's worst humanitarian crisis as one of the world's biggest disasters, but while foreign aid is now reaching some of the 20 million flood victims, criticis have slammed the response as too slow.

About six million survivors are dependent on humanitarian assistance to survive, in desperate need of food, shelter and clean drinking water, with concerns growing over potential outbreaks of cholera, typoid and hepatitis.

The UN General Assembly meets in New York on Thursday in an effort to hasten the delivery of aid after receiving just over half of the 460 million dollars appealed for last week.

The Asian Development Bank is reportedly ready to offer a two-billion-dollar emergency loan to repair the nation's damaged infrastructure and the World Bank has promised to lend 900 million dollars.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jwSS6ghHwvydNkUdzt_g0eMwu_Dw

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Check out these BEFORE and AFTER satellite photos of Pakistan...(Dialup Warning)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8970355

Also, direct link to my Journal for previous articles regular updates on the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Turborama

[sabrina 1]

1. Good news. Thanks Turborama for staying

on top of this story. I see people on other blogs, like HuffPo eg, are doing great work also, getting people organized to start getting donations of food and clothing and water and other basic needs directly to the people.

There is also a Google group starting and several other groups forming as people realize that so much time has been lost and there are groups on the ground there who are asking for help.

I will try to gather some links tomorrow and post them but I am encouraged to see more and more people beginning to pay attention to the disaster.

[Turborama]

2. I'm glad to hear that people are starting to take it seriously, it's very encouraging to hear that

Thanks for the update. I haven't been on Huffpo for a while, I spend most of my time here, lol.

Please let me know as soon as you post your OP.

[sabrina 1]

3. Yes, it is encouraging. There is a diary

on the rec list on Daily Kos tonight eg which turned into an organizing diary for coordinating groups who are donating and helping in any way they can. Lots of links in the comments also.

They plan to post a diary every night to keep the story alive there from what I understand.

And as I said other groups are working on donations also. So things are beginning to pick up despite the efforts of some to prevent it.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. K&R! Why am I only hearing about this huge story on DU?!

It should be all over the news, but I haven't heard a thing. I have MSNBC on most of the time when I'm home and they're currently reporting on two mummified fetuses found in some basement... :shrug: :crazy:

[sabrina 1]

5. It's a shame, the media is ignoring this story. Can you believe

it has been going on for nearly three weeks and it is so critical to the War in Afghanistan you would think they would at least cover that aspect of it. All the NATO supplies go through Karachi eg and if the government falls, it would be a disaster for so many, many reasons.

Maybe the Government hasn't yet figured out how to handle this development as it wasn't in the 'surge' plans. Sometimes the best laid plans make nature laugh or whatever. But maybe that's why the media isn't covering it. They are waiting for word from above??

[Turborama]

6. Good points

As soon as Anderson Cooper gets the word and flies out there, suddenly everyone will be concerned and there'll be a telethon.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. I finally saw a short piece on MSNBC this afternoon...

Probably because of the U.N. involvement. They said that these poor people desperately needed help "yesterday..." Ya think?! So why are you just reporting on this?! And that was the only thing that I've seen. It's all about the mosque that isn't a mosque and the troops who are leaving Iraq. With all the generals that they've had weigh in on Iraq, you'd think that they'd at least mention this disaster... :(

[sabrina 1]

8. I think they don't know what to do about it.

It's as if Nature has disrupted all their plans over there, the Surge, their supplies for the War come through Pakistan, and now the Pakistani Government is too involved trying to help their own people to help the U.S. with the fighting on the border etc.

So, maybe they don't want too much coverage to draw attention to all these new developments that will have a huge impact on the war.

I hope it ends that war and all efforts go to rebuilding both countries.