for you all that have noticed that this is a bigger disaster as Tiunami, haiti and earthquake Chna TOGETHER!!!

Thanks for your Thread this must be one more worthwile, for every posted I will sponsor 1 Frank (as i always do with my glocal activities, see former activities of mine) Than we can talk about this more,

we need more helicopters in pakistan as in afganistan to get the pictures to us and food and medicines to there

kind regards

John

Thank you very much John. This is a fantastic idea. I will do the same. I will also donate 1 CHF for each post to this thread (with a limit of 200 CHF because I am just a PhD student).

I hope many people will join this thread and discuss about this topic.

BR, Maher

this is worrying..... it seems mother nature is getting tired of us and our cavemen like ways..... I'm sure even cavemen were more eco-friendly.

mother nature versus man, and you know who's gonna win at the end.

Thank you very much for this thread! There can´t be done enough to make people aware! It is for sure that Mother Earth strikes back... as I always say "we all get back what we give..."

than we are already 2 PhD to get online for

http://www.msf.ch/news/articles/detail/intensification-des-operations-et-evaluation-de-nouvelles-regions-a-larrivee-de-nouvelles-pluies/

i did two tours already, that is why, I hope that (para-) medics are prepaired to go for a tour as well, we need you all!!! for all the others pls donate for each post in this tread also one frank for this or an other aid for pakistan. We are one world. And medical aid is now needed not n 10 months.

by the way this is 6 so we are getting some where, Charlie were are you??

John

hi hon..

so da vinci's tonight. gonna bea blast lol sooooo looking forward to it!!!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JStOPpNI4Tk&feature=related

good thread! thanks for your efforts.

Thank you for the support.

I hope more people get involved here and post more pictures and videos if possible.

We should also spend more attention on the disasters of China and India  They might be smaller than the one of Pakistan, but they are still big disasters.

thank you maher, what you have done is really respectable. Tomorrow will be the national mourning day for chinese victims of the landslide(i don't know if it's called in english). let's pay attention to and try to do sth for all victims of the disaters around the world

we will,,,, for all

john

I saw this thread Friday and it prompted me to donate to one of my favorite charities. But if posting here will help send more money,  I can do that.

They're reporting outbreaks of cholera already, so sadly, I imagine this tragedy has yet to peak and it will get much, much worse before it begins to get better.

Ive seen some of the media coverage and it is pathetic. The area flooded is roughly the same area as the UK with over 20 million affected.

Im also dismayed by a lot of comments Ive read on various 'have your say' type boards. Reasons for not helping range from 'The Taliban is there'. 'The government is corrupt' to 'They should not be spending on nuclear weapons' and 'They should have been better prepared'. 

Of course such comments are always made but what I find disturbing is the proportion of such comments against those who can only express sympathy.

Whatever bad press the country has, most of it is way over the heads of people whose main concern is (normally) food and clean water.

We in the west cant imagine the suffering thats going on there.

Terrible.

As to "donor apathy"... think of the children, and the innocent women, and the hard working families that have lost everything. Whatever your view about religeon, taliban, opium traders, corruption... it pales into insignificance when a child drowns, or dies from stomach cramps due to typhiod or cholera.

I have given, and I urge you to do so too.

as you can see charlie allother treads are MUCH more frequented as this one. Can you pls be pusher of this tread?

as a wellknow blogger, smile it would help.

by the way I am prepairing myself to go to the regions ccordinator in Geneva, to go there.

now  right on this moment the people have NOTHING,...

see the pics

john

Its ironic that the same media that bring us these images also supply the reasons (excuses) not to donate.

The initial amount needed for support is around 459 million US dollars (Reuters). The money itself is useless until converted to food, medical aid and means of transport and all that before adressing the logistcal nightmare of delivery.

20 million affected to be given 459 million in aid. Thats less than 23 dollars per person. Sounds like someone is doing a remarkable job despite the claims of aid being hived off in to the pockets of unscupulous individuals. Donations so far are about a quarter of what is needed.

Cholera has already broken out. The rain continues and is likely to stay that way. No one in the photographs here looks hungry but that will change over the next few days.

Any donation we make comes directly from our pockets and is a measure of our direct support for the people there. That support will carry 1000 times more weight than the billion dollars the US alone spent on military aid in that region last year.

My message to the media is : 'Show us where the aid is making a difference so we know its working and cut-it with the messages of corruption. We in the West are especially good at being cynical but its getting weary and passé. Show us the kids that wont get cholera because our mean efforts gave them enough clean water to see them through. Show us these people when they are back on their feet......follow the story through. Please, no thanks expected but its makes a difference for the next time.

Please take the time to read this

We talk on another forum about fears, but the sad truth is that we don't know what fear is compared to the experiences that are happening in Pakistan. Today is Swiss Solidarity's National Fund Raising Day.  Go to www.swiss-solidarity.org to find out how to donate. PLEASE. Here's an extract from their site:

On Wednesday 18 August 2010, Swiss Solidarity will hold a national fundraising day for the benefit of victims of the floods in Pakistan and the bordering regions.

The appeal is being made in close cooperation with eight partner relief organizations: Caritas Switzerland, the Christoffel Mission for the Blind (CMB), HEKS, Terre des hommes Child Relief, the Swiss Red Cross (SRC), Handicap International, the Salvation Army and the Swiss Labour Assistance (SAH) have already begun working in the affected areas with their local partners.

On fundraising day, 18 August 2010, donations can be made from 6 o’clock in the morning to midnight via freephone Tel. 0800 87 07 07.

Donations can also be made at any time, either online or to postal account 10-15000-6 (marked «Asian floods») – Swiss Solidarity paying-in slips are found in every post office.

As the previous post says, today 18th August is a national fundraising day.

Please visit https://www.swiss-solidarity.org/en.html and donate.

Or donate to Médecins sans frontière www.msf.ch or to any other respectable charity.

Thanks you S99_Geneva and Mimi_crobe for posting more information about the relief funds.

It is really too sad to see some people using politics to make excuses why not to donate, especially now when children are dying from cholera and other diseases.

I mean if people really care about politics and do not want this disaster to be used by radical groups (through their relief organizations) to gain more power then they should start donating to independent NGOs that also help there. Don't you agree with that?

To everyone please visit https://www.swiss-solidarity.org/en.html and donate.

hi here to all, did my donation so money is there, now we need helicopters. will work on that one now, pls continue to do so here

signing of here

John

Have donated and thanks for kicking me out of my apathy but someone commented not many visiting this website. The title is wrong.  I only visited because I recognised the name of one of the bloggers.  The post I am replying to is the clearest but in my opinion it should be started as a new thread.

Hi Paul, thank you very much for your tip. You are right. Maybe the title is not clear enough to get peoples attention. I will see what to do about that

A musician I know donates proceeds from the CD to the victims of the flood:

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/sufimoon

Sufi Moon is a Swiss Pakistani musical project interweaving alphorns with Qawwali music.

For more information, please visit the website:

http://www.bordermeetings.com/SUFI_MOON/SUFI_MOON_WELCOME.html

My company (large multi-national) has just agreed to match employees' contributions to this relief effort, and set up a system to do so.  This only came about because employees were asking the company what it was doing to help.

So for those of you who work in similar large multi-national orgs, it is worth asking the same questions to your companies.

The disaster in Pakistan is a huge issue, unfortunatly I think there is a general fatigue in the hearts of people when it comes to world disasters. There have been so many big disasters over the past few years and we are asked to give generously. I think the world is good at responding to the pain of others but the systems for delivering the relief are too slow to react. No sooner do we hear of relief accounts being open we hear of abuse of the funds or failure for the help to get where its really needed.

Thank you for the thread, I think its good to try raise peoples awareness. 

Hello All,

This is my first post. I'm a phd student in EPFL and im a Pakistani national

On behalf of my country I would really thank you all for helping us out in our time of need.

The crises is not over yet, the crops have vanished and disease is spreading. If you guys are thinking about sending charity and have questions about where to send it let me know.