REPORT FROM PERVEZ HOODBHOY: Pakistan Earthquake Relief

[Guest guest]

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 17:00:22 -0700 (PDT)Yvette Rosser

<yvetterosser >REPORT FROM PERVEZ HOODBHOY: Pakistan

Earthquake ReliefYvette C Rosser <yvetterosser >I am forwarding

this message of grave importance:--------REPORT FROM PERVEZ HOODBHOY:

Pervez Hoodbhoy Pervez Hoodbhoy Earthquake - Balakot and

BeyondThu, 13 Oct 2005 09:12:25 -0400 (EDT)Dear All,I am back from

Balakot. We spent some of last nightin ferrying the injured to Abbottabad at

the requestof the army. A second QAU team went to Muzzafarabadand beyond.

Tomorrow 2 other teams will head back tothese places. We hope to keep this

going, althoughclasses are scheduled to restart on Monday. This isthe first

time I can

recall of ever wanting theuniversity to stay shut longer.My report is below. But

first, the following urgentpoints:1. I hope you will concur with the conclusion

at theend of my report. What you and I can do is but a dropin the bucket.

Please, let us not go for microdrops.Handing out relief supplies just isn't

enough, and itleft me with a sense of much dissatisfaction. Since itis the use

of your money that I am suggesting, feelfree to suggest or object. The

responsibility ofadministering the program will be undertaken by othersat QAU,

and we might even need to hire local peoplededicated to the job. I shall retain

a distantsupervisory role at most. No portion of the funds youhave committed to

me will be spent on administrationand will be raised separately if necessary.2.

You have clear instructions at the end of thisemail as to where to send money. I

will be gone againtomorrow and not available for

3 days. If there areremaining questions, please contact Zia Mian in the US

of decaying corpsesnow fills the town. The rats have it good; the one

Iaccidentally stepped upon was already fat. If there isindeed a plan to clear

the concrete rubble in andaround the town, nobody seems to have any clue.

Butthe Balakotis are taking it in their stride - nosemasks are everywhere.There

is good news. The Mansehra to Balakot roadstretch, finally forced open by huge

army bulldozersand earth moving machinery, is now available to relieftrucks.

Goods donated across the country are piled tothe truck roofs. If there ever was

a time when thepeople of Pakistan moved together, this is it. Eventhe armed

bandits who waylay relief supplies - toguard against whom soldiers with

automatic weaponsstand at alert every few hundred yards - cannotdestroy the

euphoria of having this solitary moment ofunspoiled national unity.Aid from

across the world is making its way, and theUnited States is here too.

Double bladed Chinookhelicopters, diverted from fighting Al-Qaida inAfghanistan,

weave their way through the mountains.They fly over the heartland of jihad and

the militanttraining camps in Mansehra to drop food and tents afew miles

beyond. Temporarily birds of peace insteadof war, they do immensely more to

soothe the highlyIslamic, highly conservative, bearded mountain peoplethan the

reams of silly propaganda on glossy paper putout by the US information services

in Pakistan.Visibility makes relief choppers terrific propaganda,for good or for

worse. This is undoubtedly why thePakistani government refused an Indian offer

to sendin helicopters for relief work in and aroundMuzzafarabad, the flattened

capital of Pakistaniadministered Kashmir. In spite of a much celebratedpeace

process, Pakistan has also not issued visas toIndian peace groups and activists

that seekparticipation in the relief effort. Sandeep

Pandey andother Indian activists are very frustrated.Islamic groups from across

the country have arrived invast numbers. Some bring relief supplies,

otherssimply harangue poor goat herders and simple tillersof the soil to tell

them that their misdeeds broughtabout this catastrophe. None seem to have

anexplanation for why God's wrath was especiallydirected to mosques, madrassas,

and schools - all ofwhich have collapsed in huge numbers. And none say

whythousands of the faithful have been buried alive inthis sacred month of

fasting.Bad news: the aid is still too little, often of thewrong kind, and is

not getting to those most affected.Hundreds of destroyed communities lie

scattered deepin the mountains. We saw helicopters attempt aerialdrops; landing

is impossible in most places. Butpeople told us that they often miss and the

suppliesland up thousands of feet below or in deep forests.Distribution is

haphazard and uncoordinated, done withlittle thought. In Balakot we saw relief

workerssimply throw packets of food and clothes from the topof trucks, and a

subsequent riot. Hustlers thrive, theweak watch passively. Tons of clothes,

lovinglydonated and packed by citizens around Pakistan, butmostly useless

because of specific cultural andclimatic conditions, are mixed and scattered

withgarbage and rubble throughout the town.I have mixed feelings about the army

role. I did notsee enough to validate a previous observation thatthey were

shirking. But certainly, I did not seesenior officers anywhere. The Edhi Trust

gets fullcredit and more.For me personally, there was a sense of dejavu.

Nearly31 years ago, on 25th December 1974, a powerfulearthquake had flattened

towns along the KarakorumHighway killing nearly 10,000 people. I had

traveledwith a university team into the same mountains forsimilar relief

work. Prime Minister Zulfiqar AliBhutto had made a passionate appeal for funds

aroundthe world, taken a token helicopter trip to thedestroyed town of Besham,

and made fantastic promisesfor rehabilitation. But then hundreds of millions

ofdollars in relief funds received from abroadmysteriously disappeared. Some

well-informed peoplebelieve that those funds were used to kick offPakistan's

secret nuclear program.Shall the present government do better? This will onlybe

if citizens, and international donors, demandtransparency and accounts are

available for publicaudit. The clock is ticking. In barely two monthsfrom now,

the mountains will get their first snowfalland temperatures will plummet below

zero. There aresimply not enough tents, blankets, and warm clothes togo around.

Hundreds of tent clusters have come up, butthousands of families remain out

under the skies,facing rain and hail, and with dread in their

hearts.These families have lost everything but the tatteredclothes on their

backs. Some even lost the land theyhad lived upon for generations - the top

soil simplyslid away, leaving behind hard rock and rubble. Thosewithout shelter

will die. From a special universityfund we have pledged a dozen families to

rebuild theirhouses. This number can be pushed up to fifty with theamount you

have pledged so far (assuming Rs 50K perhouse, where the cost is for wood and

stone mostly).But ten thousand or more will be needed in

theMansehra-Balakot-Kaghan area alone, not to speak ofadjoining Kashmir. That's

all for now.---------------Pervez HoodbhoyProfessor of PhysicsQuaid-e-Azam

UniversityIslamabad 45320, Pakistan.Phone ®: 92-51-2824257Phone (O):

92-51-2829914---------- Forwarded message ----------Tue, 11 Oct 2005

15:09:46 -0400 (EDT)Pervez Hoodbhoy

Pervez Hoodbhoy

Mian

crisis passes, we willuse the remainder to rebuild infrastructure. Severalof you

are not Pakistanis, and your solidarity inthese desperate moments is appreciated

even more. Itreinforces hope in our shared humanity.With warm

regards,Pervez---------------Pervez HoodbhoyProfessor of PhysicsQuaid-e-Azam

UniversityIslamabad 45320, Pakistan.Phone ®: 92-51-2824257Phone (O):

92-51-2829914---------- Forwarded message ----------Tue, 11 Oct 2005

00:24:54 -0400 (EDT)Pervez Hoodbhoy

counsel: better to have it routedthrough the Eqbal Ahmad Foundation, registered

as atax-exempt non-profit organization registered in theUS. Else I may be

docked with having the above asincome! So please let me check with EAF and get

backto you. Its midnight in the US, so I can't expect tohear for many hours. In

any event, I will use $2.5K ofabove for today (+2.5K local) and expect

reimbursementfrom EAF. Thanks to you, we have enough to set thefirst van

going.As I was typing the above, I received a call from nearRawalakot, about

100 miles away from here. Apparentlycell phones have now started working again

but inlimited areas only. Bodies under rubble, no supplies,almost no houses

standing. The man (Yunus), anemployee of Hajra's school, said that no aid

hasreached any village that he knows of although he cansee helicopters flying

towards Rawalakot. Hajra, whocalled from Abbottabad last night, says that

relieftrucks are being attacked by desperate survivors. Thearmy simply watches.

She could not return last night.The question of what to do after the immediate

crisispasses will remain. More later.Warm regards,Pervez---------------Pervez

HoodbhoyProfessor of PhysicsQuaid-e-Azam UniversityIslamabad 45320,

Pakistan.Phone ®: 92-51-2824257Phone (O): 92-51-2829914---------- Forwarded

message ----------Mon, 10 Oct 2005 23:37:04 -0400 (EDT)Pervez

Hoodbhoy

Abbotabad.It all depends on the road conditions. Massivelandslides all around.We

need to take foodstuff, blankets, medicines. TodayI prevailed on the QAU

administration to release auniversity van. No large bus, because it would

beuseless there. We want to fill it up with stuff, thengo again and again.I

think we could use up to 300,000 a trip($5000/trip). We are limited by having a

singleuniversity van only. We have collected enough for onetrip, which is not a

bad achievement given that theuniversity is now closed and there are hardly

anypeople around. The number of trips will depend on thesum collected. If you

want to contribute, say so now.It will have to be a solid promise, and the

money willhave to be transferred into my personal bank accountin the US. I will

then give the rupee equivalent tothe team. It is not the ideal way of doing

things, butthe only one I can think of given the time

constraint.Please remember that if you do not transfer, then Ilose the money.

Also, that I cannot provide youreceipts. At most, I can ask the president of

theAcademic Staff Association at QAU to write you an acknowledgement letter

stating that the sum was usedfor purchase of relief items.From my office I can

hear military helicoptersconstantly passing overhead. Hopefully they

aredropping supplies in the right places.Hajra is in Abbotabad with senior

students of KhaduniaHigh School. They felt that they really wanted to

dosomething after two of their colleagues had beenkilled in the collapse of

Margalla Towers. She willreturn tonight sometime.Pervez---------------Pervez

HoodbhoyProfessor of PhysicsQuaid-e-Azam UniversityIslamabad 45320,

Pakistan.Phone ®: 92-51-2824257Phone (O): 92-51-2829914------Dear friends,You

are receiving this email either because you are

inthe USA or you have friends and family in the USA.This is an appeal to help in

the Pakistan EarthquakeRelief efforts in the USA. FOllowing is a list ofoptions

how you can help. In the end there is apersonal account of a visit to affected

areas by areputed university professor and thinker, PervezHoodbhoy.Best

regards,AurangzebOPTION AINSTRUCTIONS FOR DEPOSIT>>1. Please make CHECKS

payable to " EAF - EARTHQUAKERELIEF FUND ">>2. Please PRINT OUT, SIGN and MAIL

the followingform, along with>your>check :>>Enclosed is a donation of ________

to the EAF -Earthquake Relief>Fund.>I understand that this money will be used

solely forthe purpose of>purchasing and distributing earthquake relief

andrehabilitation>supplies>in Pakistan.>> Name (please

print):>_______>>Signature:_______________>>

Address :_____3. Please mail your check and

this form to: EqbalAhmad FoundationP.O. Box 222Princeton, NJ 08542>The Eqbal

Ahmad Foundation is a tax-exemptorganization under section 501©(3) of the

internalrevenue code. Therefore, your donation is taxdeductible. If you wish to

receive a letteracknowledging your donation for tax purposes, pleaseinclude your

mailingaddress.For tax purposes, all donation over $250 must includeyour name

and mailing address.Should you have any questions about how to make orsend a

donation,please contact the Foundation's VicePresident, Zia Mian,

atzia (AT) princeton (DOT) eduOPTION BIf you wish, makesome donation to the President's

fund for relief ofearthquake to National

Bank of Pakistan, USA branches.The deatails are on this

webpage:http://www.nbpusa.com/aid.htmlOPTION COr, you can choose to contact a

reputed Pakistani NGOwith international network on this address in NYC:USA Edhi

International Foundation42-07 National StreetCorona, New York, 11368 USATel:

(718)(6395120)Fax: (718)(3351978)OPTION DFor sending some goods, WARM CLOTHES

etc, Pakistaninternational Airlines offerS to carry free of chargeto the

affected areas. Their toll free number in USAis:USA 1-800-578-6786

Music Unlimited - Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.