Comments on: Blog Quake Day

By: Ahmer Azam

Ahmer Azam — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 02:48:10 +0000

I recently attended a discussion hosted by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr. Shaukat Aziz during which he throughly covered the Earthquake crisis. He shared with us that the total cost of earthquake is close to $5 BN and the international pledges have been in excess of $6 BN.

We are very proud of the efforts of the present Government.

Ahmer Azam

By: Ahmer Azam

Ahmer Azam — Sun, 20 Nov 2005 17:51:47 +0000

I am a US based Pakistani and would like to inform of another way to raise some funds for the earthquake, that worked really well for us.

We organized a “Earthquake Mela”/ fair for the community (Pakistani/ non-Pakistani) in NJ yesterday. The hall rental was highly subsidized ($1500) since it was for a charitable cause. The food was largely donated by restaurants in NJ. Volunteers organized games/ face painiting/ hena paining etc. Funds were raised as follows:

1. Entrance Fee that was $3 per person.

2. Food items were being sold at restaurant rates. We spent close to $8-$10 per person just on food.

3. Children games etc. were another $20 or so…

4. Tables were sold by vendors (banks, mortgage companies, books sellers etc) who paid for the tables.

I believe that an average family of 4 would have spent close to $80-$100 dollars on fun things, but all that money went towards Fund raising.

If there were, lets say, 500 families (conservative estimate) who attended, that translated to $50,000 of funds. In addition to that, people also wrote checks and donated money for the quake victims.

Sometimes people find redirecting their existing entertainment towards fun things like this easier than to put there hands into their pockets, which are not very deep for everybody.

I believe that other communities should do that too.

Ahmer Azam

By: Jonathan Dresner

Jonathan Dresner — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I think it’s a bit less sinister. Katrina was close by, and obviously disastrous for populations to which (many of us) had close connections. The Indonesian Tsunami, while distant, was SO powerful that the scale of the disaster, the depth of suffering, was immediately obvious.

The Kashmir earthquake has been relatively inaccessible. Most Americans, if they think about Kashmir at all except as a catchphrase for Indian-Pakistani tensions, would probably expect it to be a relatively sparsely populated mountain region. So the initial death and injury tolls coming out were pretty much in line with what many thought was a low-impact region. It’s only with a bit of time (and dedicated reportage) that we’ve realized that there really was a huge human toll to the quake and that our initial impressions were wrong.

Wilma, being closer (there’s an inverse square law of disasters, though I don’t remember who first articulated it), has overshadowed some of the followup reporting from Pakistan and India, which makes it harder.

It’s timing, and perception, I think.

By: Ali Hanafi

Ali Hanafi — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Petition: Save lives by urging media to provide coverage for earthquake in South Asia

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/448983019

By: Zak

Zak — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I agree with Jonathan..there are multiple factors playing a role..also South Asia and Kashmir in particular is perceived differently in the world..it’s sad but the response ..often despite the medias best efforts seems to be losing steam

By: ahmer azam

ahmer azam — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

This is a great and thought provvoking article. After 1 month, its unfortunate but the earthquake victims who are not reached, will probably die. My question is: Have we started thinking about all the people, especially the thousands of orphaned infants and handicapped who will require an organized system to help them… We should start thinking about that otherwise, we will have another catastrophy to deal with in the enxt 2-3 months.

Ahmer Azam

By: me

me — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

there is some updates on the situation in pak earthquake zone by a brother who is currently visiting the area

http://islamiblog.blogspot.com

By: sepoy

sepoy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the link. It is essential reading.

By: Ali Hanafi

Ali Hanafi — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

There are pictures from Operation Heartbeat’s medical mission at http://www.saquake.org/saquake/2005/10/operation_heart.html.

Once you’re there you can see pictures from photojournalist Bruno Stevens as well.

By: emullah

emullah — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

We have just started second round of earthquake fundraising. This time we are collecting tents. I encourage you to spread the word and link to the post so that people can replicate the same idea. Still there is lot to be done.
Tents for Pakistan