BREAKING -- People are dying in Pakistan.
I don't know how serious these guys are, but they claim they will donate 10 cents per view on this YouTube video and 25 cents if you comment. Watch it right now. It's a good song.
Update: please click the link an go directly to YouTube so that we are sure the view gets counted. Thanks.
If they are serious, let's give them some plays.
Remember when we were all horrified during Katrina in 2005? How about Tennessee and Haiti this year? The Boxing Day tsunami in 2004? Well this trumps them all.
I'm going to channel GlowNZ here and say screw the politics and religious differences. These are people -- women, children, the elderly, the sick. They are dying. They will continue to die as disease festers in the aftermath of the floods. According to the United Nations, the floods have killed 1,200 people and left as many as 20 million homeless, more than ten percent of the country's population.
And they will starve:
Pakistan floods cause 'huge losses' to crops
Pakistan's floods have caused "huge losses" to its crops, the country's food minister has told the BBC.
Nazar Muhammad Gondal said significant amounts of the grain, sugarcane and rice harvests had been washed away.
Meanwhile a senior religious scholar has said that flood victims living in difficult conditions should not have to fast over the Muslim Ramadan period.
And Pakistan's UK envoy has denied that most of the money given for flood defences has been lost to corruption.
Incidentally, this is also the face of Global Warming.
Official government aid has been trickling in to Pakistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the United States will increase its relief pledge by $60 million to $150 million. The United States already gives Pakistan $7.5 billion in non-military aid.
She also kicked in $10 of her own money:
Clinton urged people to text the word "SWAT" to the number, 50555, and reply "yes" when asked to confirm, in order to make a $10 donation to help the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Donate at these places:
ShelterBox
Save the Children
Islamic Relief
Oxfam
Red Cross/Red Cresent
UN High Commissioner for Refugees
UNICEF
Doctors Without Borders
World Food Program USA
and see Laughing Planet's comment here.
I'll end with this information from the New York Times.
Western Donations Lag for Pakistan Flood Victims
UNITED NATIONS -- Public and private funding for the international response to Pakistan flooding has been trickling in, compared to the rush of support for Haiti following its January earthquake.
Why? Aid workers and officials at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, say Pakistan's reputation as a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida, among other extremist groups, is leading some would-be Western donors to pause before offering support that experts say is desperately needed. Donors have also expressed concern over possible corruption and theft of resources, concerns that the humanitarian community is working hard to dispel.
Desperation leads to extremism. To call the floods, "desperate" is to make this decade's understatement. Just a hunch here, but I'm pretty sure Americans will be more appreciated if the aid packages and building material rather than the bombs are labeled "Made in USA."
I'm completely broke right now, but I'm going to scrape up a few bucks for this effort.
Updates: First, thanks for the rec list, but I want to repeat what I said on Twitter:
RT @CasualWednesday: Hey. Help me get on the #DailyKos rec list. Not for my own glory, but for the people of Pakistan shar.es/0Hvdw #pkflood
And I just retweeted this:
RT @Alyssa_Milano Help lifesaving supplies get DIRECTLY to the CHILDREN of #Pakistan. Text FLOODS to 864233 to donate $10 to @UNICEFusa.
