Truss has committed 1.5 million.
(The UN wants 160M)
"Unfortunately, despite significant investment, Pakistani military and intelligence services are still linked to terrorist groups."
External Link/Members Only. Their ex -Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing terrorism charges. His party denies it. There have been so many charges of terrorism and links to terrorist groups there that the constantly pure face for trade rather beggars belief. The U.S. calls Pakistan a terrorist safe haven. How on earth do you supply humanitarian assistance to a country that will statistically grow up to attack you? We don't speak theor language. We don't have common ground on right and wrong (girls can marry
or be married off at 16). 'Blasphemy' is illegal with significant criminal penalties up to and including the death penalty. Homosexuality is illegal. Pakistan was a former British colony so guilt-ache says we 'owe' them. A bit like Algeria to the French. So we welcome them with special treatment. Their nuclear power is from China.
I mean, be kind to everyone.
Choose who you want to help. But pick your mates for goodness sake.
They say send books, that books can't be used for terrorism (really??)
External Link/Members Only asked 1,668 UK adults whether immigrants from various parts of the world had made a positive or negative contribution to British life. While immigrants from India received a healthy positive figure of +25, their South Asian counterparts are in negative territory. Bangladeshis have a net figure of -3. Pakistanis fare even worse at -4. Net figures are calculated by taking away the figure for “negative contribution” from the figure for “positive contribution”.
But the flooding is horrific. A thousand people dead. Millions affected. And for all the terrorist and other shit levelled at Pakistan I've had occasions of incredible warmth and kindness from Pakistani neighbours. There's no racism here. Their country simply seems to be continually torn in half, good guys and bad guys. And
we don't have a bureaucracy capable of telling which is which.
Here's the Red Cross ('Red Crescent' -- I doubt if they can use their proper name there):
£20 could help to provide a hygiene kit to one family that includes things like toothbrushes, soap and toilet paper
£40 could help to provide ten families with a jerry can so that they can store clean water for drinking and cooking
£65 could help to provide one household with financial support so they can meet their basic needs like buying food and clean drinking water
£100 could help to provide a family of seven with a winterisation kit to protect them from the upcoming winter with things like warm coats and shoes
£335 could help to provide an emergency tent for a family who have lost their home in the flooding
How deep are your pockets?
How deep are our national pockets?I was pretty close to a social worker once. One day she broke down in tears, almost hysterical (Bear in mind they don't get paid that much...). She gave portions of her income to various charities. Yet new leaflets constantly flooded her letterbox. Dramatic pictures of starving children covered in flies and malnourished asking her to give just this... just that... Guilt trips on legs. She was sobbing.
"I can't give any more" she cried helplessly." I put my arm round her shoulders. I didn't know what the fuck else to do.
Mods: I'm just trying to voice some different thoughts that may be going through people's heads. Please move to the politics thread if you think it's too close to the line.
Personally I think it's about, how do we respond to disasters abroad?