* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
By Rajeet Ghosh In the last week the planet has been ravaged by multiple natural disasters. In Asia, a third of Pakistan is under water and in India 170 people have died in floods, while China is still struggling with the aftermath of massive mudslides in
By Rajeet Ghosh
In the last week the planet has been ravaged by multiple natural disasters. In Asia, a third of Pakistan is under water and in India 170 people have died in floods, while China is still struggling with the aftermath of massive mudslides in the west. In Europe, Russia is devastated by peat land fires, and the same is true in Portugal. Not to be outdone, Ecuador in the Americas notched up a 6.9 earthquake last Thursday.
Surely now more than ever it is time to give to your fellow man, to help a friend in need and to stand up and be counted as someone who cares.
But it seems that the well of human compassion and philanthropy is drying up.
According to the Belgium-based Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters, the floods in Pakistan are already the second-deadliest in a decade, killing 1,600 people.
They are only surpassed by the 2004 floods in Haiti. Donations from governments for the victims of that disaster topped $495 per affected person, according to Oxfam. The floods in Pakistan have been making headlines worldwide for more than two weeks and yet so far donations are only around $3 per person.
The reasons for such thrift are multiple.
"There are concerns expressed within the Pakistani community both here and back home (Britain) with the level of corruption in the country. People feel that if they give, it will not go to the people in need," Neva Khan, Oxfam's Pakistan director, told AlertNet by telephone from Islamabad.
She added that there is a "perception of Pakistan that has something to do with it - the media is very much focused around the war on terror and Pakistan's role in supporting that".
Rooful Ali, who founded a British-based Muslim networking group which has raised money for several disasters, EmeraldNetwork, agreed that the British public had so far been less responsive than during previous catastrophes.
"Whether that is politically related, or for reasons simply unknown, it is disheartening to see," he said.
At any rate, politics does not explain the whole story. For example, efforts to help hundreds of thousands of people in West Africa who are at risk of starvation after a drought destroyed crops are seriously underfunded: by July, international donors had only provided one third of the money required to save lives, Oxfam said in a recent statement.
Maybe one problem is that there are so many bomb blasts, terrorist attacks, conflicts and natural calamities these days that it is difficult for any one disaster to grab our attention and open our pockets.
Whatever the reasons though, none of them are really good enough when 1,600 people have been killed and 2 million left homeless, Khan said.
"These are everyday people like you and me and now - through no fault of their own, just because of the location they live in - they are dealing with a massive flood."
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
