It must be donation solicitation season.
Well, that’s not true — more likely there is no season, but the call for donations is omnipresent, coming at us from everywhere and at all times. But nonetheless, in the last few days I have received calls from organizations asking for immediate contributions for summer camps I first heard about five seconds previous when I picked up the phone and said “Hello” — the last word I would get in for minutes.
Not to sound all curmudgeonly, but I am hesitant to take the hammer to my piggy bank without seeing or knowing anyone affected or even having any knowledge of an organization’s history or what it does.
When everything is laid out right in front of you though, it is mighty hard not to find a reason to help. That is the case with the recent disaster in Pakistan.
For weeks now, photographs and video footage have shown the calamity in the Asian nation. Extensive rainfall has bombarded the country, swelling the River Indus and causing widespread flooding, leaving some 20 million people directly affected and many more faced with impending problems, notably food shortages or rising prices.
Since the flooding began almost one month ago, at least 1,500 people have perished and massive cholera outbreaks are feared among the population. The death count is significantly lower than caused by the Haitian earthquake of earlier this year, but United Nations estimates show that more people have been affected in this natural disaster than in the earthquake, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and the 2005 Kashmir earthquake combined.
Juxtaposed with the hellish Haiti disaster though, the donor response to Pakistan has been agonizingly slow. Where $3.5 million was raised by Canadian charities for Haiti within a week, only $200,000 was raised for Pakistan in the same time frame. Up to Monday, approximately $2 million (U.S.) had been donated worldwide, including $33 million from the Canadian government. The UN has said $460 million is needed immediately, with billions more required once the flood waters recede and the country begins to rebuild.
Why has money been so slow to flow then? The pictures are there, the desperation identified, but the urgency unrealized.
The relatively low death count surely has kept a few pocketbooks tucked away, as has the type of disaster. Especially here in Saskatchewan, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis are foreign and scary, but we see floods within our own borders, even if the danger to human lives here is minuscule.
The time frame is no doubt another factor. Not only is something slow moving unlikely to maintain prominence within the ever-shortening attention spans of the populace, but the media loses its compelling “Everything changed in an instant” narrative when it comes to a gradual crisis.
The current crisis lacks celebrity endorsement as well. Major telethons, concerts, and song collaborations do work, but have yet to happen for the flood victims.
Where the Haitian disaster had a pseudo-celebrity in Wyclef Jean trumpeting the cause and many other blacks identifying with their grief-stricken citizens of the same race, there are few well-known Canadians or Americans of Pakistani origin who could rake in funds. Rahim Jaffer could try, but judging by his unpopularity, that might result in the first telethon to actually lose money.
(Side note: why doesn’t Justin Bieber organize telethons for every cause known to man? The allowances of 10 million teenage girls would add up pretty fast).
Are we just experiencing disaster fatigue, tired of hearing about natural disasters and being asked to help people in far-flung areas around the world? It is quite possible. Let’s hope it is that momentary affliction and not something far worse — racism.
Pakistan is an Islamic state, and its millions of Muslims do constitute the ‘Other’ in contemporary society. The millions in need must be seen for what they are — human beings in need — and not for what they are commonly, and unjustly, associated with, which is religious extremism and terrorism.
With summer vacations ending and kids heading back to school where they can plan fundraisers, there is hope that the donation situation will improve. And if the government commits to matching individual donations, as they did for the Haitian earthquake, Canada’s contribution should immediately skyrocket.
The world stepped up for Haiti, there is no reason it should not for Pakistan too.
Myles Fish can be reached at 691-1263
