Education, Terrorism and Floods

In the face of floods of an "unprecedented" scale in Pakistan the aid agencies are seeing a pitiful and underwhelming response.

Why is this?

Well it could have a lot to do with the less than spectacular spending that occurred after the 2005 earthquakes, luxury cars appearing in the driveways of people charged with distributing aid, money disappearing etc. Or it could be because the death toll is relatively low.

How about the perspective is changed slightly?

There are more people who have had their homes destroyed or have been displaced than there are people in Australia. We whine about our housing shortage, but can you even imagine our entire country being without housing overnight?

But all of this is not the main reason that we should be trying to help out our fellow human beings in Pakistan, the main reason is fundamentalists, fundamentalists that are aligned with extreme groups like the Taliban. They are already in Pakistan providing aid and establishing more of a foothold in otherwise non-fundamentalists areas. This is dangerous because the more presence they have in these areas the more people they have the ability to indoctrinate.

But you don't have to take my word for this. I urge you to read Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time it is an incredible story that begins some 20 years ago with a mountain climber that fails to make it to the top of K2 and finishes with a man who single mission in life is to educate Pakistan and the whole of Central Asia. In particular his vision is to educate the girls. It is his belief that through secular education we can address two of the most pressing issues in the world today, poverty and terrorism and he has achieved remarkable success.

So, while an immediate response is needed in Pakistan to address such things as water borne diseases, a long term view is needed to ensure that Pakistan recovers properly from this disaster and moves its population from below to above the poverty line.

So, go buy the book or read about what this guy has said and achieved. If you use the link above a percentage of the sale goes to the Central Asia Institute and to assist in building schools and providing educational supplies to the region. Before you go and read the book think about donating directly to the Central Asia Institute or to one of the various charities collecting for Flood Relief, such as Unicef or World Vision.