[Vision2020] Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon: Pakistan Floods “one of the greatest calamities ever to befall mankind.”

[Ted Moffett]

The impacts of the massive record setting 2010 floods in Pakistan did
not receive a focus in Western media commensurate with the magnitude
of the disaster, an ongoing humanitarian crisis, as the India Times
article from Oct. 19, and the New York Times article from Oct. 15,
referenced below, indicates.

It is an important question why the Pakistan flooding did not and
still is not receiving the extent of Western media coverage it
deserves.

While the 33 miners trapped in Chile were dominating the news,
millions of people in Pakistan were still suffering from the impacts
of the floods.  The Wikipedia website at the bottom of this post,
which is a huge web page, with over 300 references, can offer the
reader a sense of the massive scale of this disaster.

Imagine if three fourths of Idaho were catastrophically flooded,
wiping out agriculture, homes, roads, bridges, cities, hundreds of
communities stranded without access to food, safe drinking water,
medical care, shelter.  The area affected by the floods in Pakistan is
approximately 62000 sq. mi., Idaho's total area is 83574 sq. mi.

The quote in the subject heading is from the first website below:

Actual Pakistan flood death toll unknown

http://www.canada.com/news/Actual+Pakistan+flood+death+toll+unknown/3424309/story.html
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Seven Million Still Lack Shelter

Oct. 19, 2010

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/Seven-million-still-lack-shelter-after-Pakistan-floods-UN/articleshow/6774766.cms
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Scale of Disaster, Security Risks, Spotty Organization Overwhelm
Pakistan Aid Efforts

Oct. 15, 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/10/15/15climatewire-scale-of-disaster-security-risks-spotty-orga-17001.html-

Excerpt from NYT article above:

"Government and U.N. officials say the 2010 flood crisis in Pakistan
was partly caused by climate change, though the vast extent of the
flooding has also exposed how the human activities in the developing
world are making it more vulnerable to extreme weather events.

At the same time, the spotty relief and recovery operation in Pakistan
provides a glimpse of how greater frequency of such natural disasters
-- something predicted by many climate scientists -- could fray the
capacity of the world to cope.

With some 20 million people affected and at least 7 million left
homeless, aid workers from Pakistan and abroad are now openly saying
that it is unlikely everyone will get enough support. Many will be
left to completely fend for themselves, though exactly how many is
unknown, experts admit."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Pakistan_floods
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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett