Tsunami

Ref nazarhayatkhan #45

[(US has allocated $ 10 million in aid. It is spending $ 1 billion a week in Iraq)]

It was reported that the US offered Rs. 44.5 lakhs to India (the equivalent of US$100,000. No, I am NOT kidding). It seems India turned it down and pointed out that it is capable of managing the tragedy on its own while helping Maldives and Sri Lanka at the same time.

It is quite interesting to see different viewpoints here that lead us into the psychology of the interlocutors. Some interlocutors here contend that US should do more to aid the victims of such disasters whereas the apologists are providing statistics to prove that America is benevolent - for some reason these statistics do not rise above the level of the murmur. The underlying truth here, however, is that US is sitting on most of the world resources like a cobra; in their hearts everybody including Americans are convinced of this fact. That is the reason every news channel in US is working over time to convince Americans that they are benevolent. The truth, however, is bitter than that - a time has come that world is not looking for American handouts and its largesse, it wants equity and just distribution of resources. The media can work its magic to only certain extent. In this day and age when a family living in a shanty town in Columbo and a man surfing the web in Pindigheb sees that there is a country out there where even dogs and cats have health insurance and grocery stores that have food sections for animals, which are as big as that for humans he begins to question. When US slaps its $35 mil of largesse in the face of humanity, people question.

dost-mittar:

In love of India what is it that you wouldn`t do.
The emphasis here, buzurgjee, is as the headline says:
And this is the Jama`aat and the Masjid : The Fundamentalists, the Mullahs, the fanatics.

India is just the backdrop. An incidental here.

Islam & muslims will ALWAY be a priority in my posts. Nothing gets ``embedded`` here. So either read or move on.Nothing is a `lead-on here as some charlatans try to package their `articles` [feature-writer types:anglicised scum] here. The most Zaleel person on earth is a munafique . It is a muslim`s sacred duty to un-earth a munafique from amongst the fold. A clear kafir like yourself is respected and acknowledged as such in under Muslim Law, but a munafique (hidden murtid) should always expect lightening retributions from fellow muslims. Sleeper-cell `tolerance` are a no no in ANY honourable society.

Always always retain THIS & THIS perspective in mind when talking to a muslim. There is nothing obscure here. [This is, sorry to say, secular westernised trash-talk. Won`t work with me].

What does dost-mittar mean here? Echoboom ? blah blah blah. Are these not obscure sources? This word shows contempt towards Islam & religion in general. It gives one away. It is a SECULARISTS & ATHEISTs word.Please just go by CONTENTS & content alone and if possible DO try to get influenced by the contents--that is why they get posted here.

Unfortunately you belong to baboo-generation & some remnants of that I see in the Indo-Pakis of today as well(caste-curse I presume). It is the paper-pushing jobbery mentality which are the diseases of having contacted ``Universitisis`` [ University ``higher`` education which turns `free` people into `working-class` types ( ever noticed the contempt in this phrase by the `white-collared` ones, who never realised that they themselves are really the slogging & sweating class who only recently found the `value` of unionism & associationism)

It is only Professors of the ``gheto`` subjects[like sociology, pol-sci, econmics , psychology, Lit-leechuRR and other such societal-manipulating (``black-magic``: sorcery--the religion of paganism secularism) who need ibids & et als. The wretched ones have to earn a living. Those whop do not need anyones ``approval`` ``appreciation`` and ``job`` NEVER ever resort to such kind of ``scholarly`` stooping.

echoboom#77

Thanks for posting that message. It does more for the image of islam than the many long articles you publish from obscure sources. It shows the humane and compassionate image of islam. It is also heartwarming that the news is getting a wide coverage in the Indian mainstream media, which counters the image of Indian muslims spread by the Togadias and Singals, etc. Ironically, I got this also in the email from two people who I know are BJP supporters.

............ it takes a rare breed to turn a human tragedy into a tamasha ......... years ago, i remember an accident on murree road when a taxi knocked over an old woman ........... while the woman lay in the middle of the road moaning and groaning, the crowd busied itself mercilessly beating the taxi driver ......... the poor taxi driver, with his clothes tattered and bleeding from the head and nose, begged for mercy but the crowd was in no mood to listen .............

rakaposh sahiba - its good to see you interacting. you write well and from heart. hope to see you more often on these boards, if possible.

re tAhmed#81:

The US contributes less than one quarter of one percentage point of its budget to foreign aid. And it contributes less than half the development aid contributed by the EU.
Whether these numbers are justified or not is upto personal viewpoints. I just marvel at the hypocricy when European countries are chided for not paying their ``share`` of reconstruction aid required for Afghanistan or when they are derided for not forgiving Iraq`s debts owed to them.
The sheer audacity with with Powell and Bush tried to contradict the UN official`s statement speaks volumes about the moral bankruptcy of the ruling elite in this country.

later
-sac

sac #68 I agree that in percentage terms the US official aid is much less than what EU contributes, and indeed would support the target of 1% of the GNP that was once set for foreign aid many years ago.

However, it is important to keep in mind that foreign aid is only a means to an end, the end being peace and progress for ALL humanity. Keeping this in mind, I would say the following:

1. As I mentioned earlier, while official aid from the US is low, unofficial aid from the US is twice the amount and workers remittances from the US are several times the amount of official aid - thus, in total (as I said earlier, and those figures seem to cross-check with what Raka also indicates) funds flowing from the US to developing countries is about $35 billion (or more than 10 times the official aid).

2. Official aid is a mixed blessing. See chaltahai`s post #72 for example - and I would agree that Pakistan doesnt need F-16s. It needs peace. And peace is best obtained by settling differences. Like MasterCard, while F-16`s are expensive, peace is priceless. And doesnt require foreign aid. Only requires a responsible government that looks for the interest of Pakistanis, not of itself.

3. Official aid is one of the poorest ways to promote peace and progress, imho. There are two far better ways, as follows:

i. More trade (by eliminating trade barriers, as being going to happen in just a couple of days for textiles as a result of the WTO agreement) is a far, far better way - it not only eliminates this giver-taker relationship and replaces it with one of equal partners (a far better arrangement for both parties), it also provides the foundation for long term prosperity. The US has played a leading role in the elimination of trade barriers.

ii. Offshoring: Again, technologies created in the US, and policies of the US government, have played a leading role in the offshoring boom.

I rest my case. :-)

Ijaz Gul ,

Sadly for you , the reactor is safe. Military facilities are in shape too. Thanks for your interest.

=== Interact Filtered ===
view this users filtered interacts

Rakaposh :``Countries like Thailand and others with great tourist income could have eaisly afforded the warning mechanism and even India. Few less missiles and few less planes and more on safety of its citizens. ``

First of all , India has like more money than Thailand and others ..to say the least.

Secondly , India has some excellent world class early warning satellite systems but they are geared towards predicting cyclones , mansoons and watching out for signs of river flooding . Unfortunately , there was never one for prediction of a tsunami as tsunamis have NEVER struck India before this. Henceforth an appropriate mechanism will be put in place.

Lastly , even the nastiest natural calamity can at best take away a few thousand lives. Knowing the nature of the neibourhood that Indians live in , failure to invest adequetely in planes and missiles could easily compromise the safety and freedom of a few hundred million....thanks for the concern and advise anyway.

aid is used by many donor (not all) to control interest they have in their previous colonies, and that is why EU aid is much higher. EU stated like france still regard west africa as their raj. americans pretty much focused on giving aid to israel, egypt, jordan and pakistan. and then the great marshal plan and post-ww help to korea, japan, thailand etc..

chaltahai,
sarcasm noted but yes I agree if the funding to Pakistan had been for education, vaccinations , clean drinking water, health issues , I would have been all for the US aid. But if you notice all the funding is there after 9/11 ( previously we were on sanctions if you remember ), mainly for antiterrorist and strategic help...

We can do with less missiles and so can you.

This is not to invoke a south asian contest.

What has happened to the Indian Power Reactor in Chennai, the fast breeder reactor and military facilities in Nicobar etc. Is it because India does not want the world to know that it refuses international assistance, or does it run counter to her great power status.

Just and inquiry
Cheerios

And this is the Jama`aat and the Masjid : The Fundamentalists, the Mullahs, the fanatics.

For the lapdogs of the US thugs, brought up in the Kennel Colonies of Pak army and who consider it a ``kufr`` to yelp a single tiaoooon to condemn their masters.

The jingle of an American Lap-puppy:
``Happy Happy is me now, I`m an Abdool-Amreeka
See my tail is all-a-wagging & lifted for his plaayyaa*
I lick his boots & then shine it with my own slurpy tongue
It`s the muslim & his mullah who puts bhung in my rUng``

* pleasure`` : The way Ba Ba Blacksheep, from cantonements, pronounce when in
missionary position!

Whoever sees himself in this mirror will soon bark and yelp.

---

Mosque works overtime to take care of Hindu, Christian fisherfolk
Indian Express: December 30, 2004

RAJEEV P I

Posted online: Thursday, December 30, 2004 at 0255 hours IST

CUDDALORE, DECEMBER 29: Rahmatullah is a tired man. He and his nephew have just returned to their masjid after burying an unknown Christian man, identifiable by the black thread with the little cross around the neck. They had not forgotten to put a makeshift bamboo cross on the burial mound.

He now needs to take the infant daughter of Shivakumar, both staying in the masjid, to the doctor. ‘‘Maaf karna, kaam bahut pada hai. Hamara president Younus saab se baath keejiye,’’ he says in Hindi, before going out.

In Cuddalore, the second hardest-hit town in Tamil Nadu when the killer waves came, a masjid and the local jamaat have emerged as the rallying point for thousands of fisherfolk—almost all of them Hindus and Christians. There are hardly any Muslim fishermen in Cuddalore, and most of the local Muslims are either traders—which explains the Hindi—or have NRI sons in the Gulf. There have been no Muslim casualties.

‘‘We came to know when people came running to the masjid, minutes after it happened. We decided to do what we could do,’’ says Mohammed Younus, president of the United Islamic Jamaat. ‘‘Isme kya badi baath hai?’’ he asks.

The administration is grateful. Says District Collector Gagandeep Singh Bedi: ‘‘They have been doing wonderful work, I was with them the whole last night.’’ Once the relief and rescue work is over, Bedi plans to write to the state government about their work.

Within minutes of the tsunami striking Pudukuppam, Samayarpettah, Chinnoor and other little villages along the Cuddalore coast on Sunday morning, Younus had summoned his flock. Within half an hour, his men had left their shops and homes for the beaches in their goods vans, cars, two-wheelers and cycles, picking up and rushing the injured to hospitals.

By noon the Jamaat on its own had organised milk for a few hundred babies, and food for over 3,000 survivors. By evening, about 3,000 Muslim men were tending to over 10,000 Hindus and Christians in makeshift camps in the local schools.

A few hundred of the survivors were invited to stay in the masjid, where they still stay. Many more are in the Jamaat’s school, and dozens occupy its office building.

For the last three days, the Jamaat has employed 24 cooks working round the clock to feed about 9,000-odd survivors. Some in the relief camps and others in the five battered villages. The administration provides the rice and milk, and the Jamaat buys the vegetables and everything else on its own. There are about 20,000 men under the Jamaat, and the huge community kitchens that it had been using for its frequent community feasts were immediately turned into relief kitchens.

As the bodies began piling up, Younus asked his men not to hesitate. And, for the last three days, they have been doing what might be unthinkable for many Muslims: carrying bodies on their own shoulders and cremating them. ‘‘To the possible extent, we have been making sure that the Hindu bodies are burnt, and Christians are buried. They should not feel offended in death,’’ Younus reasons.

Younus says he hadn’t slept or eaten well after the tragedy stuck. He has been running around five villages guiding his men, looking after the survivors, making things work.

It was only when the Army moved in yesterday to Pudukuppam, which suffered the heaviest toll, that the Jamaat withdrew from that village. But for the other four, it is still the only solace. ‘‘It’s all God’s will. Inshallah, they will all begin life well in a few weeks,’’ he says.

Younus says none of his over 3,000 men will leave until the survivors are back on their feet. ‘‘We will continue to raise money to feed them for as long as they need. They are welcome to be with us as long as they want,’’ Younus says.

Romair #52 While you are welcome to your views, you are not welcome to twist logic and facts or to make up your own facts. In this case, you falsely claim that I am cheering on the killing of people in Iraq. I assume this twisting of facts (or lying, to put it accurately) comes naturally to you, and is not something you learnt at the PMA. Although I think you have disgraced that army uniform already (as have some better known military officers, I may add) when you broke immigration laws of the US and tried to stay here illegally until forced to leave. All I can say is that there are many honorable men who also once wore the Pakistan Army uniform, and who would never play fast and lose with the facts the way you do (nor, I may add, consider themselves above the law and the constitution of Pakistan as some of the abovementioned better known officers have done).

If you wish to disprove that you are lying, I suggest you cut and paste from that article I wrote before the Iraq war or anywhere else I have ever written and show exactly where I am cheering the killing of people.