Wow.
I just saw an extremely powerful story on 60 Minutes regarding the aftermath of the Pakistan earthquake. Seems as though conditions have gotten much worse over the past few weeks and the death toll is now at 90,000.
It discusses the destruction that is continuing but presents a story of 13 New York City paramedics who have volunteered to come to a deserted and dangerous region in order to provide medical assistance to thousands of homeless and helpless Pakistanis.
What a powerful statement about how America and Americans can win the hearts and minds of the Muslim community.
Amazing story below:
The
story is here if you want to read it, but first it describes the conditions:
the situation in Pakistan is worsening by the day. The death toll continues to rise and is now close to 90,000.
Three million people are still living without shelter and a harsh winter is weeks away. The United Nations says conditions in Pakistan are worse than after the tsunami and it is the biggest humanitarian nightmare the UN has ever dealt with.
The towns look like they had been bombarded by a brutal air force for weeks. It's hard to believe that this happened five weeks ago. It could have been yesterday. Nothing has changed. Even the horizon is still strewn with rubble.
There are sights which defy belief. Streets are littered with clothing, sent up by charities and discarded by people. They don't need tattered shirts. They need shelter, food, water, medical care.
The story focuses on a region near Kashmir where "....this is Osama bin Laden country, dotted with training camps for jihadists, where Islam is at its most radical and America is seen as the enemy."
And the real story here is how 13 self-described "knuckleheads from New York" have saved countless lives and made a positive difference in the lives of generations of Pakistanis who they have treated medically, provided food or supplies to or operated on.
And Bu$hCo talks about winning the hearts and minds? Contrast the "democracy at the barrel of a gun" or freeing them with white phosphorus approach by Darth Cheney with this story of a few Americans' selflessness that can show what us REAL Americans are all about....
But go up into the mountains and you will find a different story. Helicopters drop food to villages, but there are no relief workers on the ground. Except for 13 paramedics from New York City.
They came to Pakistan with no backing or support or agenda except to help. They wound up in Pakistani Kashmir, a disputed territory of undisputed beauty.
When they were dropped off here, Chris Summers was surprised to learn they were the only aid workers there. "I can't believe we haven't seen anyone else in this valley," Summers says. "There's such a need here. You know? And we're isolated here. I don't really know what's happening in the rest of the country. But in this valley, Jeelum Valley, an enormous need and how is it possible that it's just us, you know, 13 knuckleheads from New York here?"
And, as you would figure, kindness leads to people thinking you aren't total megalomaniacal assholes hell bent on taking over the world:
Yaser Bashir Coker brought his little sister to the clinic and says he had never seen Americans before coming to the clinic.
His first impression? "They are very cooperative, beautiful and handsome."
DID YOU HEAR THAT, GEORGIE? DID YOU HEAR THAT, DICK?
People like it when you actually show compassion. They know when you are just talking out of your ass. These 13 paramedics have done more in a few weeks to change the perception among the Muslim world of America than I can even put into words.
and the obvious conclusion? As eloquently put by one of the 13 knuckleheads:
And, as it learned in Indonesia, when the U.S. military went in after the tsunami, nothing does this as well as helping people after a disaster.
This is not why the New York medics came here, of course. They didn't come to win hearts and minds, but to save lives. Hearts and minds just seemed to follow, and that's fine with Steve Muth.
"We can inoculate an entire valley, if we're lucky, against radical Islam," says Muth. "And it's so simple. I'm just a paramedic. It's just a bandage. It's not a $100 million dollar ad campaign from Madison Avenue. It's not, you know, it's not complicated. Could something work better to change somebody's mind? I can't think of anything."
He hit it right on the head. It's so simple.
UPDATE Juliesie was kind enough to find the link to help these paramedics: here is the link to donate