Will donors leave quake victims in the cold?
Staff Report

ISLAMABAD—All human beings are equal but they are treated differently by rich countries when a natural calamity like earthquake, storm or hurricane strikes a country.
If you are living in a rich country, an early warning system will provide you an efficient protection, however, if you are an inhabitant of a remote place, forget it. In December 2004, the tsunami inflicted heavy damage on the population of Indonesia and Thailand. Had a comparable tsunami occurred in Japan, the death toll would have been less, thanks to the preventive measures.Japan has the money for it, but not Thailand and Indonesia.
Hurricane Katrina first lashed at the poor neighbour-hoods whose inhabitants did not have a car to leave the city. Unfortunately, these inequalities also exists in humanitarian operations. We could have hoped that in front of human distress, generosity and compassion would beuniversal.
Nowadays, with globalization we are aware of other people's sufferings. Western citizens like to prove their consideration for other's misfortune. But even when they are generous they make a choice that is not motivated by the needs of the affected population.
A month ago, a terrible earthquake devastated NWFP and Azad Kashmir in northern Pakistan. The death toll has mounted to between 90,000 and 100,000. There are thousands of wounded people still waiting for urgent help.
If nothing is done for them at the earliest, then they too will soon form part of the death statistics. Sadly, the fatalities would be due to lack of assistance rather than the impact of the earthquake.
We must add to these figures between 3 and 4 million people whose housing was destroyed. With the onset of the harsh Himalayan winter, the number of dead could surge. As per government estimates, it requires at least $5 billion to rehabilitate the victims. It may be exaggerated because you need to askfor more to get something. But for the time-being, donors have pledged only one billion dollars.
And with lessons from the previous crisis we know that only ten per cent of such promises have been fulfilled. So the quake victims could now hope for about $100 million from the international community.
Compare that to the tsunami for which nearly $12 billion was pledged in the first few days when the death figures were much lower. It did not prevent the international community from digging deep into their pockets.
How to explain these double standards? The tsunami took place at the end of the year, a period in which the media have little information to deliver. It made front page news because it hit places where Westerners spend their holidays. Some of them were also killed. Compassion was at its peak. On the other hand the earthquake in the country has occurred in an unknown and unfamiliar place. Moreover, Pakistan has a mixed image in the West. It is rightly or wrongly associated with the Taliban, radical Islamists and even with terrorism.
As such it is difficult to mobilize public opinion in its favour, even on moral grounds. Although President General Pervez Musharraf is a strong American ally in its "war on terror", it has not helped to change the country's perception. That's why Oct. 8 earthquake victims are twice victims. First from the earthquake and second from lack of international solidarity.