Right now I'm going to take a trip into the "Way Back Machine" to December 1984.
A song came out right before Christmas, Band-Aid's "Feed the World."
Band-Aid was a charity supergroup featuring British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia by releasing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market that year
Wikipedia
There were many criticisms. . .
Some criticized the song as promoting the idea of Christian hegemony. These detractors rightly point out that a great portion of Africa, in fact the world, wasn't and isn't Christian. So why should they know it's Christmas, it's not important to them.
But the intent of the song was clear, to help Africa. It was a success and raised a lot of money that year.
The single surpassed the hopes of the producers to become the Christmas number one on that release. Wikipedia
To borrow and modify a question from the song, knowing that the whole world isn't Christian. . . "Do you know it's Eid-ul-Fitr?"
It is in many parts of Pakistan. Eid ul-Fitr began for Northern Pakistan last night with the sighting of the new crescent moon. The Southern part of Pakistan will see that moon tonight.
Eid ul-Fitr celebrates the end of the month long fast, Ramadan (or as it's said in Pakistan, Ramazan). The Muslims in Pakistan, like Muslims all over the world have for a month, eaten their breakfast before the sunrises, and have not eaten or drunk anything again until the sunset.
There are exceptions for the fast; children, travelers, the sick, airplane pilots, nursing/pregnant/menstruating women, etc. and this year flood survivors. Those who are in that state temporarily make up their days missed fasting later in the year. Zakat, alms, are given during Ramadan, calculated as a portion of all assets (cash on hand, money in the bank, land value, value of jewelry, etc.)
The Eid celebrations lasts for three days.
In many places when Eid comes, whether it's the "baby" Eid of Eid ul-Fitr, or the "great Eid" of Eid ul-Adha, family gatherings are planned, feast (much like our Thanksgiving) are cooked and eaten, parties are attended, fireworks fill the sky, food is given to the poor, tips are given to the mailman/milkman/your employees etc., gifts are given, a new set of clothes are worn, holiday lights are strung up on buildings, jewelry and toys are given, women and girls decorate their hands and feet with henna (called mendhi in Pakistan), you get the idea.
An Internally displaced Pakistani girls shows her palm decorated with henna or mendhi as she queues to receive a package for Eid Al-Fitr at a camp in Sukkur on September 10, 2010. Pakistan's devastating floods have left 10 million people without shelter, the United Nations said on September 7, as authorities rushed to bolster river defences to save two towns from catastrophe. - Getty Images
This year as Eid approached a debate began in Pakistan, "Should we celebrate?", and it has been along the same lines as debates about celebrations in the midst of crisis and calamity go here.
Would the money spent on gifts and feasts be better more wisely spent on the suffering?
Should we celebrate at all in the midst of suffering?
We have been going through such a terrible ordeal we all need the release of a celebration.
We can tone down our celebrations and gift giving this year, giving half the money to relief agencies.
We can volunteer during the days of Eid and help bring food, clothing, hope to the victims of the flood.
etc.
Sound familiar? This type of debate goes on here all the time. Remember the 2008 inaugural celebrations debate.
Many Pakistanis, involved in many organizations, including Rotary will do what my family has done for the birthdays that have happened in these past 6 weeks, including my brother-in-law's on Monday. They will take a small break from the pain and misery to celebrate in small parties and then donate time, food and money, and themselves to get aid, and "deliver Eid" to flood victims.
A Pakistani boy plays with a toy race car that was given to him as a gift for Eid at a camp for people affected by floods in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan on Friday Sept. 10, 2010. - AP Photo
A Pakistani girl who survived floods wears a new dress provided on the occasion of Eid, which ends the fasting month of Ramadan, at a camp set up for displaced people in Nowshera, near Peshawar, Pakistan, Friday, Sept. 10, 2010. - AP Photo
Eid has already begun in Northern Pakistan, there are 2 more days. Eid will begin tomorrow in Southern Pakistan.
Pakistani boys play with their gifts that was given to them in preparation for Eid at a camp for people affected by floods in Muzaffargarh district, Punjab province, Pakistan on Friday Sept. 10, 2010 - AP Photos
An Internally displaced Pakistani man walks towards a tent after receiving a package for Eid Al-Fitr from donors organised by Institute Business and Administration (IBA) at a camp in Sukkur on September 10, 2010. While most of the Muslim world celebrated Eid on September 10, the festival falls on September 11, in [Southern] Pakistan. Bringing an end to the fasting month of Ramadan, it should be an occasion for family celebration and gift-giving, but for Pakistan's poor and hungry flood survivors, this year's holiday offers more rain and little joy. - Getty Images
Friday September 10, 2010
Dawn (Pakistan)
KARACHI: Fresh rains hampered rescue efforts in Pakistan's south Friday as thousands of people trying to leave flood-threatened towns remained stranded, Sindh’s irrigation minister Jam Saifullah Dharejo said.
The catastrophic flooding that has inundated vast swathes of Pakistan, killing 1,760 people so far, has continued to flow south towards the Arabian Sea and still threatens to submerge more towns and villages in its path.
"Fresh rains have affected rescue and relief efforts and thousands of people are still stranded in different towns of Dadu district," Dharejo said.
He said that more rain was due Saturday, further endangering the strained river embankments as officials, military and local residents worked to bolster the defences around Dadu district.
It's Eid, and despite a seeming American media black out about Pakistan this community (DailyKos) has already given (in the past 3 weeks) over $8,000.* Many Pakistanis have been reading this site your comments, emailed and shared these diaries on Facebook, "liked" Dailykos on Facebook, given them hope and helped them in their relief efforts, they know from you, they are not alone .
. .
The Great Deluge in Pakistan passed almost unnoticed in the United States despite President Obama’s repeated assertions that the country is central to American security. Now, with new evacuations and flooding afflicting Sindh Province and the long-term crisis only beginning in Pakistan, it has washed almost completely off American television and out of popular consciousness.
Don’t think we haven’t been here before. In the late nineteen nineties, the American mass media could seldom be bothered to report on the growing threat of al-Qaeda. In 2002, it slavishly parroted White House propaganda about Iraq, helping prepare the way for a senseless war. No one yet knows just what kind of long-term instability the Pakistani floods are likely to create, but count on one thing: the implications for the United States are likely to be significant and by the time anyone here pays much attention, it will already be too late.
Few Americans were shown — by the media conglomerates of their choice — the heartbreaking scenes of eight million Pakistanis displaced into tent cities, of the submerging of a string of mid-sized cities (each nearly the size of New Orleans), of vast areas of crops ruined, of infrastructure swept away, damaged, or devastated at an almost unimaginable level, of futures destroyed, and opportunistic Taliban bombings continuing. The boiling disgust of the Pakistani public with the incompetence, insouciance, and cupidity of their corrupt ruling class is little appreciated.
[snip]
Today, almost six million Pakistanis are still homeless, and many have not so much as received tents for shelter. In large swaths of the country, roads, bridges, crops, power plants — everything that matters to the economy — were inundated and damaged or simply swept away. Even if the money proves to be available for repairs (and that remains an open question), it will take years to rebuild what was lost and, for many among those millions, the future will mean nothing but immiseration, illness, and death.
Why the Floods Weren’t News
In the United States, the contrast with the wall-to-wall cable news coverage of the Haitian earthquake in January and the consequent outpouring of public donations was palpable. Not only has the United Nations’ plea for four hundred and sixty million dollars in aid to cover the first three months of flood response still not been met, but in the past week donations seem to have dried up. The U.S. government pledged two hundred million dollars (some diverted from an already planned aid program for Pakistan) and provided helicopter gunships to rescue cut-off refugees or ferry aid to them.
What of American civil society? No rock concerts were organized to help Pakistani children sleeping on highways or in open fields infested with vermin. No sports events offered receipts to aid victims at risk from cholera and other diseases. It was as if the great Pakistani deluge were happening in another dimension, beyond the ken of Americans.
A number of explanations have been offered for the lack of empathy, or even interest, not to speak of a visible American unwillingness to help millions of Pakistanis. As a start, there were perfectly reasonable fears, even among Pakistani-Americans, that such aid money might simply be pocketed by corrupt government officials. But was the Haitian government really so much more transparent and less corrupt than the Pakistani one?
- Juan Cole (you should read the whole blog post)
. . . they are not alone . . . in coping and dealing with a disaster that is displacing more than 10 million people, in an area the size of California. How would we cope if this were us?
You care, you're helping and you're donating, and they see that.
It's Eid, show them they are not alone again. That their plight has not been lost to at least one American community, those of us on DailyKos.
Please donate today to save a life (1 million are at risk of water borne diseases, all are at risk of vector borne diseases), to provide hope and shelter (over 2 million are still without tents), and hope.
Let them know YOU know . . . WE know it's Eid.
Please give.
If you wish to send a kind wish, an Eid Mubarak! (Eid greeting means "may you enjoy a blessed festival"), words of hope to Pakistani, Pakistani aid workers you can send a note to PakistanEidWish@gmail.com and I will send them along to my brother-in-law and to a Pakistani newspaper.
From the Pakistani band, Laal
They translated the song after I wrote to them telling them of all we and YOU were and are doing.
My house with its earthen courtyard, my sanctuary
My lifeline of support, my home village
The shadows of my every memory, and every moment, are here.
My blood, my sweat, my death and life are all here.
(But now)
Everything has drowned
Everything has drowned
If you were in my stead?
You'd have no option but to voice your pain.
If you were in my stead?
You'd have no option but to spread your hands to beg.
Everything has drowned
Everything has drowned
• • • • • •
In the early days we focused on organization that gave direct support. That list is here:
• • • • • •
Greg (Three Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) Mortenson's non-profit (CAI) recommends supporting a local (Pakistani) groups to which donations will likely have a large, immediate, and lasting impact-
Human Development Foundation
http://www.hdf.com
(800) 705 1310
DONATE
• • • • • •
Doctors without Borders (MSF):
DONATE
Shelterbox
DONATE
Mercy Corps:
DONATE
OXFAM:
DONATE
Islamicrelief
DONATE
UNICEF:
DONATE
Toll free: 1-800-FOR-KIDS (1-800-367-5437)
Text: "Text FLOODS to 864233 (UNICEF) to donate $10"
Shelterbox:
DONATE
ShelterBox tents in Shishkat upper Hunza, Pakistan
• • • • • •
From the US State dept.
How You Can Help:
Text "FLOOD" to 27722. Your $10 will go to the State Department Fund for Pakistan Relief that Secretary Clinton announced August 19, and is part of a new effort to bring attention to the need for aid.
Text "SWAT" to 50555 ; $10 goes to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees fund for flood victims
• • • • • •
We are looking at what may be the worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in a century, and the worst Climate Change disaster yet.
Some of us at Daily Kos use a Google group to help organize for the crisis in Pakistan. Anyone who would like to get involved or get alerts when a new HELP PAKISTAN diary is posted, please join
( CLICK THE PIC )
• • • • • •
* This amount is the total amount of donations reported in the comment sections of Help Pakistan diaries. Many more have donated but did not report the amount, the total thus far donated by kossaks is most probably over $10,000.