Eathquake Hits India And Pakistan

If I was in a positon of influence in Pakistan I would have offered the services of Pakistan Army`s mobile hospital units for the immediate relief of the vicitms.

Natural calamities knows no boundaries.

From this distance I can only offer heartfelt condolences and prayers for those who suffered the ordeal and some paltry donations.

Am saddened....

---t

My check is on the way...I feel ashamed not being able to do more than contribute money but I hope it helps...

Incidents like this force us to confront our own mortality...and in doing that I hope it makes each of us realize how precious human life is...that earthquake was in Turkey last year, in El Salvador last month, and is in India today...who knows where it will be tomorrow.

Further, tragedies like this are particularly heart-breaking in poor countries like our`s. Especially with the incompetent leaders we are cursed with who have once again managed to get the blood of hundreds on their hands...the rescue and relief process is utterly pathetic.

My check is on the way. Wish I could do more...

Ras


On another more positive note,
From The Hindustan Times today:


Seismopolitics: Sink differences, help
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri
(New Delhi, January 27)

NOTHING LIKE a tragedy to bring neighbours closer together. General Pervez Musharraf may be hoping so. His condolence message over the Gujarat earthquake was among the first to reach Atal Bihari Vajpayee. While this is standard, Musharraf has gone an extra yard by offering relief to the victims.

The Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi has told the media he is ready and waiting to coordinate relief activities with Indian authorities.

Given Musharraf`s repeated attempts to thaw the diplomatic freeze that descended on Indo-Pakistani relations after Kargil, some analysts say it is not unlikely that the condolence message carries a subtext.

When Moscow decided to accept US assistance after the December 1987 Armenian earthquake, it was a sign the Cold War was over. The then US President, George Bush, sent his son Jeb and 12-year-old grandson along with blankets and medicine. Mikhail Gorbachev said later that seeing Bush family members weeping at Armenia`s devastation led Russians to feel ``that Americans genuinely cared about their suffering.``

When Turkey was flattened by a quake in August last year, everyone was surprised when rival Greece dispatched aid within hours. The following month Mother Nature shook up Greece, and Ankara gave as good as it got. The diplomatic aftershock: for the first time ever, the two co-sponsored a UN resolution. ``Seismopolitics,`` said a Greek policy magazine.

The effusiveness with which aid is sent can be a measure of bilateral comfort levels. The normally restrained Chinese have already given money to the Red Cross for Bhuj, continuing the upbeat aura surrounding Li Peng`s recent visit.

New Delhi is reportedly in a quandary about Taiwan`s offer. India doesn`t recognise the Taipei regime.

Morocco`s condolence message speaks of the ``friendly country`` of India and its ``friendly people.`` It helps that India last year derecognised the Sahrawi rebel government, which opposes Rabat.

The politics of humanitarian assistance is not always about the milk of human kindness. Consider the vitriol Baghdad and Washington toss at each other about the use and abuse of the oil-for-food exchange Iraq is allowed under UN sanctions.

Musharraf`s opponents have used Bhuj to take a poke at him. The exiled Muttahida Quami Movement sent Vajpayee a condolence message that rhetorically outdoes Islamabad`s. And pointedly adds that it does so on behalf of ``the people of Pakistan.``

At least the days when the third world refused emergency aid out of pride are gone. ``This is no longer seen as a diminution of national sovereignty,`` said one former Indian foreign secretary.

It`s interesting to see everyone get so warm and brotherly in the wake of this catasptrophe -- even as they otherwise propagate xenophobia all year round that-- the same xenophobia that places weapons of mass destruction in the hands of their leaders.

Oh well... whatever it takes for us to show that we really are good, caring human beings inside... never mind that 10 times more people die of hunger and dieases because 36 percent of the GDP goes toward defense because we can`t trust those who worship a different god/s.

Aga Khan offers 500,000 dollars to quake victims

PARIS, 27 jan (AFP) -



The spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, the Aga Khan, will donate 500,000 dollars (460,000 euros) of aid to victims of the earthquake in India, his office said in a statement.

The Aga Khan, one of the world`s richest men, said he had sent a message of condolence to India`s Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and to the Indian people in name of the Ismaili community.

PM #4:


[...It`s interesting to see everyone get so warm and brotherly in the wake of this catasptrophe -- even as they otherwise propagate xenophobia all year round that-- the same xenophobia that places weapons of mass destruction in the hands of their leaders....]

Please check a dictionary of your choice for the meaning of EVERYONE and XENOPHOBIA.

Show me one instance where I have succumbed to this alleged xenophobia --- here on Chowk or anywhere else for that matter.

I am perturbed you are using this forum for an otherwise legitimate beef that needs to be discussed amongst us.

Wrong time, Pat, and wrong place...

rgds,

t

Very sad indeed.

Hope Pakistan, being in close proximity, can be of some assitance.

I can only imagine what relatives of the people missing are going through and Indians abroad who can`t get in touch with their loved ones.

My prayers are with everyone affected by this tragedy.

Heartfelt condolences to all those directly affected by this disaster (for indeed, such a disaster affects all of us at some level, even if purely intellectual).

Ras Siddiqi # 3

Yaar, as a journalist you should verify your facts and information before publishing them!

George Bush was the president from 1988-92(more accurately from 1989-1993, when he was succeded by William Jefferson Clinton on 20th January 1993 after winning the general election of 1988) and he was Reagan`s vice-president in 1987 when he dispatched his son and grandson to aid the victims of the Armenian disaster!

Ciao!

Re: Ferozk # 9

Sorry folks...that was the general election of 1992 and not 1988!

That was a faux pas sans comparé on my part! :)

Ciao!

As one of my mentor put it succintly when my brother was very sick.

He told me:

``Although I may not feel the same as you do. But I will help you in whatever way in your ordeal``.

Political fight aside, this is a great human tragedy (I heard more than 25,000 died) and victims need to be taken care of.

On another note it was few hundred miles from cities in Pakistan and we should be thankful to God that it did not produce havoc in Pakistan.

Chowk Staff,

Thanks

PM #10:

``Oh well... whatever it takes for us to show that we really are good, caring human beings inside... never mind that 10 times more people die of hunger and dieases because 36 percent of the GDP goes toward defense because we can`t trust those who worship a different god/s.``

I think you are over-simplifying issues here. The current estimate of the people that died, due to this earthquake, in India is around 15,000. CNN showed bird`s eye pictures of the whole city, and there wasn`t a building standing. I don`t think 150,000 (10 times as many) people die due to hunger in India and Pakistan. I believe the current drought in Pakistan was the first time, after a very long time, when someone actually died due to hunger. I am assuming the same for India. Quite a few people do die due to disease, but not due to hunger.

The issues leading to war between India and Pakistan are related to geographical problems, rather than, ``different god/s.`` If those geographical problems are solved, then I don`t think anyone is going to really care about the different god/s issues.

On the whole, I think there was genuine sympathy amongst Pakistan during the Indian aircraft hijacking, and there is genuine sympathy now, during the earthquake. The average human being, regardless of the god he/she believes in, does in these type of situations, realizes that it could just as easily happen to him/her. Hence there is always some level of genuine sympathy.

Your comments about defence budgets are correct, though somewhat simple. I agree that any amount of money spent, in access of that needed to for self-defence, is a waste. It just takes away from the money that could be spent on situations like this.

One of the Indians whom I just hired is from Gujrat. He was the first to ask me whether my family had been effected. Considering the fact, that only a few people died in Pakistan, and thousands died in India, I should have asked him first. So there is mutual sympathy.

My condolences to everyone who has been effected by this earthquake, even if he/she believes in a different god.

Re: Ferozk`s quite valid critique

``Seismopolitics: Sink differences, help

Pramit Pal Chaudhuri

(New Delhi, January 27) ``

Hi Fk,

While your critique is absolutely spot on, I fail to see the necessity of such given that Ras was merely forwarding someone else`s article, with some relevance to the current natural debacle. .

``Mio amico, excusa mei, sono molto occupato con questa disastro grande. Perfavore lasciare questo ``sotto vocce`` per una altre approprio momente. Il presidente di uniti stati non e importante addesso. mille grazie!

Ciao e arrivederci,

Asim

I would be placing on this site, in a very short while, some ideas on how I plan to coordinate a chowk fund initiative . . . but need to know, is that a good idea?

it was 8:16 am ,friday, january 2001. hyderabad sindh. i was sleeping in my room. suddenly i was wake up as whole room was shook up by a powerful tremor. the realization that it was an earthquake took a second and i ran out of my room. on that particular moment i thought O God! Have mercy on us. then it was over. we were safe and sound. but those few seconds of quake have changed the way i look at life. we take so many things for granted. the house where i live could have been collapsed. i might have not alived. the city i love so much could be in ruins. it needs just seconds to destroy all the thngs which we think are so valuable to us.jobs, businesses, assets, future plans all came to naught as we went in the open sky and left our house to safe our selves from expected more jolts on friday. and when the news of devastation and destruction and human tragedy and calamity started coming in fromgujarat in india i felt a bond of attachment with indian people,because they were suffering from the same quake which had hit us as well. it could have been the same tragedy here. we are so close and yet so apart. i hope that this natural disaster would bring the two people of same mass of land ie subcontinent would help each other in this hour of great suffering.