Oct. 29, 2005 - 21:32 MDT

WAS BARE

An Associated Press article in this morning's Rocky Mountain News pretty well tells it like things are. By Zarar Kahn In full:

QUAKE QUICKLY EMPTYING U.N. POCKETS

Muzaffarabad, Pakistan

"-- U.N. helicopters ferrying supplies to South Asia's earthquake survivors will be grounded within a week and relief operations cut back unless aid agencies receive more funding and donors make good millions of dollars in pledges, officials said Friday."

"The warning comes with winter just weeks away and meteorologists forecasting a harsher-than-normal season in the Himalayan mountain regiion worst hit by the magnitude 7.6 quake."

"Hundreds of thousands of people in Pakistani-ruled Kashmir are likely to face the frigid cold without shelter, and Micahel Jones of the U.N. World Food Program in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said 2.3 million are in desperate need of food."

"The United Nations has received $70.6 million in cash and $46.4 million in pledges for earthquake relief. That adds up to to 20 percent of the $550 million it says it needs for the next six months."

"A donor's conference in Geneva this week drew an additional $580 million in pledges for victims of the October 8 quake, but those funds were not earmarked for the U.N. appeal."

"The world body is pressing donors to specify where that money is going. They also want those who already promised money to U.N. agencies to make good on their pledges immediately."

"The situation is quite grim. With the money we have already, and much of it obtained from our own internal emergency reserves, we can keep the helicopters running for one week," Jones said."

"With debris from landslides still blocking roads, helicopters have become lifelines for isolated towns and villages, delivering supplies and bringing injured to hospitals."

"Halting flights would be calamitous for hundreds of mountain communities."

"Muhammed Hanif of the Pakistan Meterological Department said his agency was expecting 18 feet of snow in the high Himalayas this winter, compared with a usual 10 feet. Avereage temperatures are predicted to be a few degrees below normal, as low as minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit."

"The United Nations has eight helicopters now in Pakistan, said Elisabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva. It expects 44 more to arrive soon, of which 14 should be available for U.N. use, she said."

"The U.N. aircraft are among as many as 91 hellicopters, including 22 from other nations and 18 from aid agencies, currently being used for aid missions, according to the Pakistani military."

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The old saying, "It never rains but it pours," seems to be so true, especially in the weather and geologic events this year.

Wouldn't it have been just peachy if right after World War One and the devastation was still in mind that the world got together and outlawed WAR ? ? ? ? Devoting at least fifty percent of things spent militarily to be set aside for disaster relief and the rest in improving working conditions and wages of folks ?

Through the foregoing article runs a thread of apparent non-compliance with pledges of monetary aid. I expect that same thing is happening in regard to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as well as Florida.

Our men, materiel, equipment are overseas fighting a pre-emptive war while they and their equipment and fuel could be much better used for relief of stricken countrymen here. But the White House (excuse me) Somewhat Spattered House is still pushing the spin of deceit.

I guess it is not just our country, or any other country, that is wholly to blame. Contention, fighting and looting have been going on probably before the first history was memorized to be recited to tribes before writing was invented. And charitable relief is truly a late comer to the world, and is struggling to do good. Just seems to be fighting the tide of self interest and egotism of the biggies and their petty little projects.

Maybe it is the same as Old Mother Hubbard, who went to the cupboard . . . . . . and the cupboard WAS BARE . . . . . . . . . . .

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