As summer fruits and vegetables ripen across U.S. farmland, the work of harvesting them depends on illegal immigrants.
Americans are sharply divided over what to do about illegal immigration in the United States. Conservatives have been harshly critical of the Obama administration for blocking a controversial Arizona law intended to identify and deport more illegal immigrants, who critics say are taking American jobs.
But farmers across the country have a different view. As Americans have moved away from agriculture, farm employers say they have come to rely on illegal immigrants to harvest the fresh fruits and vegetables on the nation's dinner tables.
The squash harvest is underway in the eastern state of Virginia. A crew of Hispanic workers are picking, washing, and packing the bright yellow vegetables destined for supermarkets across the East Coast.
Like generations of immigrants before them, they came to America seeking economic opportunities.
Many come illegally. One worker — called simply Martinez to protect his identity — says he paid a Mexican smuggler two thousand dollars to transport him across the U.S.- Mexico border. He walked across the desert for eight nights and slept by day before making his way here to Virginia.
"We come to advance ourselves, more than anything," Martinez says. "And in our country, we can't do anything. For a better future, I came to this side. And the truth is, we really suffer a lot to get across."
'They come for work'
Loreto Ventura first crossed the border illegally 30 years ago to work in the fields. He's a farm crew boss now, and a U.S. citizen.
"They come to work," he says. "They pay a lot of money to come here, and they risk [their] lives for work. And for work that's hard work."
Farm workers are up before dawn every morning and work all day in the hot sun. They spend the day stooping over picking vegetables and carrying heavy loads.
Of the roughly one million farm workers in the United States, most are immigrants, and an estimated one-quarter to one-half of them are illegal.
Farm work? No, thanks
With U.S. unemployment near 10 percent, many believe illegal immigrants are taking jobs from Americans. But when the United Farm Workers union launched a campaign offering to connect unemployed people to farm jobs, only three people accepted -- out of thousands of inquiries.
Union president Arturo Rodriguez says most balked at the difficult working conditions.
"They really don't have any idea what it is to work in agriculture today," he says. "We've just gotten so far away from that type of society that people have forgotten."
The United States has a guest worker program that would allow farm employers to hire immigrants legally. But farmers like this one — who asked to remain anonymous — describe it as a bureaucratic nightmare.
"Every farmer I know would gladly use the program and be legal," he says. "Every Hispanic would love to be legal. But the program is so onerous, it's so hard to use, and so expensive....And you don't necessarily get your people. [If] the crop is ready, [and] the people are not here, boom, it's a loss. Most growers will not take that chance."
He says he's tried to hire Americans, but he simply can't find enough able and willing do the work.
"The truth is, nobody is raising their kids to be farm workers," he says.
Lower wages?
But Jack Martin with the Federation for American Immigration Reform says that's not the whole story.
"I think it's true that parents have higher aspirations for their kids than agricultural labor," he says. "Nevertheless, there are a lot of unemployed people who, if they could make a living wage working in agriculture, I think, would do so."
Martin says wages, benefits and labor conditions for farm workers have remained relatively poor for decades because of the steady stream of illegal immigrant labor.
As for the guest worker program, he says, "It is true that it is more expensive than hiring the illegal immigrant that shows up with fake documents because of the fact that there are protections for the American workers — they have to hire American workers if they are available first — and there are protections for the foreign workers."
Without those protections, Martin says, illegal immigrants are at risk of exploitation.
A bill that would reform the immigration system is stuck in Congress. Meanwhile, farmers are increasingly concerned about losing their workforce to immigration crackdowns. They say without workers to pick the crops, fresh fruits and vegetables will rot in the fields of American farms.
And eventually, they say, those farms would wither away, too.
M WAQAR..... "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --Albert Einstein !!! NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.'' تل ده وی پثتونستآن
Friday, August 13, 2010
US New Jobless Claims Highest in Six Months
U.S. unemployment claims hit their highest level in nearly six months last week, evidence that the job market is not recovering as fast as economists had hoped.
Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed the number of people signing up for unemployment assistance rose 2,000 to hit a total of 484,000 across the country.
Economists say the slow and uneven recovery of the job market hurts the consumer spending that drives most U.S. economic activity. Weak consumer spending is slowing overall economic recovery and growth.
The jobs data follows earlier reports that disappointed investors, including one showing the U.S. trade deficit getting worse.
U.S. President Barack Obama has said his administration is doing everything it can to bolster the economic recovery that he says "has a long way to go."
The economy is likely to play a key role in November's mid-term elections that will determine how many seats Mr. Obama's Democratic Party allies will hold and how much power will go to opposition Republicans
Thursday's report from the Labor Department showed the number of people signing up for unemployment assistance rose 2,000 to hit a total of 484,000 across the country.
Economists say the slow and uneven recovery of the job market hurts the consumer spending that drives most U.S. economic activity. Weak consumer spending is slowing overall economic recovery and growth.
The jobs data follows earlier reports that disappointed investors, including one showing the U.S. trade deficit getting worse.
U.S. President Barack Obama has said his administration is doing everything it can to bolster the economic recovery that he says "has a long way to go."
The economy is likely to play a key role in November's mid-term elections that will determine how many seats Mr. Obama's Democratic Party allies will hold and how much power will go to opposition Republicans
Kerry Sets Visit to Pakistan as US Boosts Flood Aid
The State Department says Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry will visit Pakistan next week to survey damage from the country's flood disaster. Kerry is a key sponsor of the long-term U.S. civilian aid plan for Pakistan approved by Congress last year.
The United States has sent scores of civilian and military relief workers and experts to Pakistan, but Senator Kerry will be the highest-level U.S. political figure to visit since the flooding began last month.
Kerry was a co-sponsor of the five-year, $7.5-billion civilian aid program to Pakistan approved by Congress last year.
State Department officials say the Kerry visit is intended to help raise awareness of Pakistani relief needs among the U.S. public, and to discuss how the Kerry-Lugar-Berman aid plan might be recalibrated to deal with flood related needs.
The State Department said Thursday that the U.S. financial commitment to Pakistan flood relief has reached $76 million, and that discussions are underway on how the Kerry-Lugar-Berman program might help in Pakistan's long-term flood recovery.
At a news briefing, the U.S. Agency for International Development's acting disaster-assistance director Mark Ward said the world community's commitment to Pakistan must remain long after the flood waters recede.
"The United States will," said Mark Ward. "And you can get that we will use all of our resources to keep the other nations behind us. The Kerry-Lugar-Berman funding is robust, and the people in the field who are deciding how to spend that money are re-thinking their plans because of the flood. Almost everything they were planning to do in terms of you know, better energy, better water, better infrastructure, has been impacted by the floods."
U.S. officials are pressing for more flood relief contributions from American corporations and private citizens.
The State Department's Deputy Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Dan Feldman said sudden natural disasters, such as the 2004 East Asian tsunami and Pakistan's 2005 earthquake generated far more early contributions.
Feldman said the poor global economic picture and so-called donor fatigue after this year's Haiti earthquake are problems, but said the fund-raising for Pakistan flood relief should increase as the dimensions of the damage and losses become clearer.
"The story, as a story, is very different. It is incremental in nature," said Dan Feldman. "And it takes quite a while for people to focus in on it and see what the implications are, especially - as we keep noting - the ramifications may well be medium-term and longer term in nature as well as more immediate."
The first two of 19 U.S. military helicopters ordered to Pakistan this week by Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived at an air base near Islamabad Thursday.
They will replace six U.S. helicopters and crews diverted to Pakistan from Afghanistan duty several days ago, and which are credited with helping rescue more than 3,000 people.
The United States has sent scores of civilian and military relief workers and experts to Pakistan, but Senator Kerry will be the highest-level U.S. political figure to visit since the flooding began last month.
Kerry was a co-sponsor of the five-year, $7.5-billion civilian aid program to Pakistan approved by Congress last year.
State Department officials say the Kerry visit is intended to help raise awareness of Pakistani relief needs among the U.S. public, and to discuss how the Kerry-Lugar-Berman aid plan might be recalibrated to deal with flood related needs.
The State Department said Thursday that the U.S. financial commitment to Pakistan flood relief has reached $76 million, and that discussions are underway on how the Kerry-Lugar-Berman program might help in Pakistan's long-term flood recovery.
At a news briefing, the U.S. Agency for International Development's acting disaster-assistance director Mark Ward said the world community's commitment to Pakistan must remain long after the flood waters recede.
"The United States will," said Mark Ward. "And you can get that we will use all of our resources to keep the other nations behind us. The Kerry-Lugar-Berman funding is robust, and the people in the field who are deciding how to spend that money are re-thinking their plans because of the flood. Almost everything they were planning to do in terms of you know, better energy, better water, better infrastructure, has been impacted by the floods."
U.S. officials are pressing for more flood relief contributions from American corporations and private citizens.
The State Department's Deputy Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan Dan Feldman said sudden natural disasters, such as the 2004 East Asian tsunami and Pakistan's 2005 earthquake generated far more early contributions.
Feldman said the poor global economic picture and so-called donor fatigue after this year's Haiti earthquake are problems, but said the fund-raising for Pakistan flood relief should increase as the dimensions of the damage and losses become clearer.
"The story, as a story, is very different. It is incremental in nature," said Dan Feldman. "And it takes quite a while for people to focus in on it and see what the implications are, especially - as we keep noting - the ramifications may well be medium-term and longer term in nature as well as more immediate."
The first two of 19 U.S. military helicopters ordered to Pakistan this week by Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived at an air base near Islamabad Thursday.
They will replace six U.S. helicopters and crews diverted to Pakistan from Afghanistan duty several days ago, and which are credited with helping rescue more than 3,000 people.
Why is the world unmoved by the plight of Pakistan?
Surrounded by brown, fast-shifting water on all sides, the 40 or so families in the village-turned-island had received no food, no medicine and no news as to when they might be rescued.
"We're dying of hunger," shrieked the woman, Sughra Bibi, as volunteers on the boat handed over plastic bags of lentils and cartons of milk to the villagers who gathered around her. One of them shouted out: "We don't care if it's the chief minister or the prime minister, but no one is sending anything to us. We are only waiting for God's help."
Across a huge swathe of central Punjab, Pakistan's famously fertile agricultural belt, now besieged by unprecedented floods, such scenes are being played out a thousand times or more. While countless numbers have by now been rescued from the waters, hundreds remain cut off from dry land
Both the rescued and the stranded are hot and angry, tired and bewildered, having seen their livelihoods destroyed and struggling now with just the barest of assistance from the authorities. Even if they had heard the news, few would have been moved by President's Asif Ali Zardari's belated return to the country and his appearance at a photo opportunity yesterday in the south, where he handed out supplies.
Here, amid the small villages west of the city of Multan, home of the country's Prime Minister, Yousaf Gilani, everyone tells the same story as to what happened four days ago: the waters came silently during the night, like a thief slipping into the village. Those who heeded warnings of the anticipated surge had gathered together what they could, and moved themselves to higher ground. Others awoke to find themselves scrambling for their lives amid a landscape of shimmering water where once there had been fields. All they could do was wait for the rescue boats.
The boat which The Independent accompanied flew the black and white banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the supposedly banned Islamic charity, accused by the UN Security Council of being a front for militants who allegedly planned and carried out the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai.
In this natural disaster, as in several before, the Lahore-based group has played a central role delivering aid, rescuing people and providing emergency medical help. With the army and civilian rescue teams utterly overstretched by the scale of the disaster – now estimated to affect a quarter of the country – the charity's efforts have been embraced by the public. When they deliver food or rescue somebody, they ensure that people know who is providing this help.
"We are taking out food to people who are stranded," said Navid Umar, a friendly but serious young man from Lahore, who was the group's leader. "We're doing 25 trips a day."
The journey to reach the stranded villagers cut through an unlikely landscape of flooded buildings and verdant date palms, half-submerged by the water, past houses on scraps of land where people lay on charpoy beds and waited for the water to recede.
Elsewhere, small groups struggled through the floods to try and reach help, belongings balanced on their heads, feeling their feet uncertainly in the current. At one point, a man guided his wife, who was covered in a bright white burqa, through a long stretch of water that came up to their waists. Children, oblivious to the nature of the crisis, splashed and played.
It was blisteringly hot, even by the furnace-like standards of a south Asian summer, and on one journey a young woman lifted into the boat to be transported to the "mainland" fainted from the heat. It was suggested that her family try and cool her down by fanning her, but the only thing to use was a slightly sodden Jamaat-ud-Dawa pamphlet, proclaiming the charity's good deeds. The family gladly took it and started to waft it back and forth in front of her face as she lay quietly, her head tilted back.
Aside from the heat, the rescue mission was made more difficult, said Mr Umar, by the likelihood of snakes in the water and the amount of weeds and debris that kept becoming entangled around the propeller shaft of the boat's outboard motor. He said that several times the boat had become grounded and that on one occasion they found themselves stuck on the roof of a flooded house.
In addition, yesterday was also the first day of Ramadan, the month-long fast during which Muslims are not permitted to eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. Islamic teaching makes exceptions for the ill, or else those involved in such emergencies, but the volunteers on the boat said they were observing the fast. Indeed, even though he was delivering food to those in need, Mr Umar appeared a little unsure whether they should actually be taking it.
"Are you fasting," he asked a little sternly of one man who was standing in dirty brown water up to chest. The man, seemingly bewildered, replied: "No, not in these conditions."
Mr Umar was not convinced and demanded to know why. The man sheepishly smiled and headed off with his bag of lentils.
Indeed, Mr Umar appeared to relish the challenge that confronted him and felt no need in any way to dilute his religious obligations. He said that on occasions he and his team had been unable to fulfil all of the five daily prayers according to schedule – catching up the missed one later, as is permitted – but often they would steer their boat towards a piece of land, get out and pray. Asked why a merciful God would permit such deadly, devastating floods, he replied without hesitation: "It is a test for the pious. For those who are not pious, it is a punishment."
While the men from Jamaat were at the forefront of the rescue efforts, they were not the only ones helping the needy of central Punjab. Civilian rescue teams were in attendance, as were the army and, rather incongruously, a group of adult, uniformed Scouts, complete with scarves and woggles.
While followers of Lord Baden-Powell may have had the best uniforms, it was the army that had the best equipment, and a large green truck of the 9th Balouch Regiment thundered through the flood waters, carrying people and sacks of food that had been donated by the local Lions Club.
"The water on this side is going down but on the other side it may be rising," said Mohammed Arshad, a 25-year army veteran, who was also not eating or drinking. "Just two days ago the water was up to the windscreen."
Yet while the water may be slowly receding, at least here, the anger and frustration of people is not. Tens of thousands of people, who had little before the floods arrived, have been evacuated, dropped off at emergency camps in Multan and nearby Muzaffargarh, or, more likely, forced to find shelter on the side of the road leading away from the floods where countless families are camped out. Elsewhere across Pakistan, more rain is predicted and several cities in the southern province of Sindh still risk having their flood defences breached.
About five miles from the floodwater's edge, a group of 38 families from Baseera, all of them kiln-workers, had taken over a sandy hillock. There was no water, no shade, and unlike other families who had managed to save their livestock – buffalo, camels and cattle – this community had just two tethered goats. Each family was occupying a tiny makeshift home constructed from two rope beds and a mat. "All we are left with is what you can see," said Mehboob Ahmed, one of the villagers.
Everyone agreed that they would return as soon as they could, as soon as the water that had taken their homes had gone. They also agreed that these terrible floods were like nothing anyone had ever witnessed before.
Except, perhaps, for Mallick Yaru. Across the string of besieged communities, people spoke of the elderly man who had witnessed the floods of 1929, which also devastated this area and other parts of the country. He was 85, 90 perhaps even 100 years old, they said, and he lived in a village called Chowkgodar, eight miles away, where he had built a mosque on land that he owned.
At the mosque, Mr Yaru was indeed to be found, a wispy, white-haired old man who said he was 85 and resting on a charpoy. Yes, he said, he remembered the floods of 1929. There were fewer people here back then, but the waters had torn through the villages. He was only a boy of four or five at the time, but he insisted that he remembered the floods very clearly. "Those floods that came in 1929 were nothing like this," he declared. "These are very much worse."
www.independent.co.uk
"We're dying of hunger," shrieked the woman, Sughra Bibi, as volunteers on the boat handed over plastic bags of lentils and cartons of milk to the villagers who gathered around her. One of them shouted out: "We don't care if it's the chief minister or the prime minister, but no one is sending anything to us. We are only waiting for God's help."
Across a huge swathe of central Punjab, Pakistan's famously fertile agricultural belt, now besieged by unprecedented floods, such scenes are being played out a thousand times or more. While countless numbers have by now been rescued from the waters, hundreds remain cut off from dry land
Both the rescued and the stranded are hot and angry, tired and bewildered, having seen their livelihoods destroyed and struggling now with just the barest of assistance from the authorities. Even if they had heard the news, few would have been moved by President's Asif Ali Zardari's belated return to the country and his appearance at a photo opportunity yesterday in the south, where he handed out supplies.
Here, amid the small villages west of the city of Multan, home of the country's Prime Minister, Yousaf Gilani, everyone tells the same story as to what happened four days ago: the waters came silently during the night, like a thief slipping into the village. Those who heeded warnings of the anticipated surge had gathered together what they could, and moved themselves to higher ground. Others awoke to find themselves scrambling for their lives amid a landscape of shimmering water where once there had been fields. All they could do was wait for the rescue boats.
The boat which The Independent accompanied flew the black and white banner of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the supposedly banned Islamic charity, accused by the UN Security Council of being a front for militants who allegedly planned and carried out the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai.
In this natural disaster, as in several before, the Lahore-based group has played a central role delivering aid, rescuing people and providing emergency medical help. With the army and civilian rescue teams utterly overstretched by the scale of the disaster – now estimated to affect a quarter of the country – the charity's efforts have been embraced by the public. When they deliver food or rescue somebody, they ensure that people know who is providing this help.
"We are taking out food to people who are stranded," said Navid Umar, a friendly but serious young man from Lahore, who was the group's leader. "We're doing 25 trips a day."
The journey to reach the stranded villagers cut through an unlikely landscape of flooded buildings and verdant date palms, half-submerged by the water, past houses on scraps of land where people lay on charpoy beds and waited for the water to recede.
Elsewhere, small groups struggled through the floods to try and reach help, belongings balanced on their heads, feeling their feet uncertainly in the current. At one point, a man guided his wife, who was covered in a bright white burqa, through a long stretch of water that came up to their waists. Children, oblivious to the nature of the crisis, splashed and played.
It was blisteringly hot, even by the furnace-like standards of a south Asian summer, and on one journey a young woman lifted into the boat to be transported to the "mainland" fainted from the heat. It was suggested that her family try and cool her down by fanning her, but the only thing to use was a slightly sodden Jamaat-ud-Dawa pamphlet, proclaiming the charity's good deeds. The family gladly took it and started to waft it back and forth in front of her face as she lay quietly, her head tilted back.
Aside from the heat, the rescue mission was made more difficult, said Mr Umar, by the likelihood of snakes in the water and the amount of weeds and debris that kept becoming entangled around the propeller shaft of the boat's outboard motor. He said that several times the boat had become grounded and that on one occasion they found themselves stuck on the roof of a flooded house.
In addition, yesterday was also the first day of Ramadan, the month-long fast during which Muslims are not permitted to eat or drink between sunrise and sunset. Islamic teaching makes exceptions for the ill, or else those involved in such emergencies, but the volunteers on the boat said they were observing the fast. Indeed, even though he was delivering food to those in need, Mr Umar appeared a little unsure whether they should actually be taking it.
"Are you fasting," he asked a little sternly of one man who was standing in dirty brown water up to chest. The man, seemingly bewildered, replied: "No, not in these conditions."
Mr Umar was not convinced and demanded to know why. The man sheepishly smiled and headed off with his bag of lentils.
Indeed, Mr Umar appeared to relish the challenge that confronted him and felt no need in any way to dilute his religious obligations. He said that on occasions he and his team had been unable to fulfil all of the five daily prayers according to schedule – catching up the missed one later, as is permitted – but often they would steer their boat towards a piece of land, get out and pray. Asked why a merciful God would permit such deadly, devastating floods, he replied without hesitation: "It is a test for the pious. For those who are not pious, it is a punishment."
While the men from Jamaat were at the forefront of the rescue efforts, they were not the only ones helping the needy of central Punjab. Civilian rescue teams were in attendance, as were the army and, rather incongruously, a group of adult, uniformed Scouts, complete with scarves and woggles.
While followers of Lord Baden-Powell may have had the best uniforms, it was the army that had the best equipment, and a large green truck of the 9th Balouch Regiment thundered through the flood waters, carrying people and sacks of food that had been donated by the local Lions Club.
"The water on this side is going down but on the other side it may be rising," said Mohammed Arshad, a 25-year army veteran, who was also not eating or drinking. "Just two days ago the water was up to the windscreen."
Yet while the water may be slowly receding, at least here, the anger and frustration of people is not. Tens of thousands of people, who had little before the floods arrived, have been evacuated, dropped off at emergency camps in Multan and nearby Muzaffargarh, or, more likely, forced to find shelter on the side of the road leading away from the floods where countless families are camped out. Elsewhere across Pakistan, more rain is predicted and several cities in the southern province of Sindh still risk having their flood defences breached.
About five miles from the floodwater's edge, a group of 38 families from Baseera, all of them kiln-workers, had taken over a sandy hillock. There was no water, no shade, and unlike other families who had managed to save their livestock – buffalo, camels and cattle – this community had just two tethered goats. Each family was occupying a tiny makeshift home constructed from two rope beds and a mat. "All we are left with is what you can see," said Mehboob Ahmed, one of the villagers.
Everyone agreed that they would return as soon as they could, as soon as the water that had taken their homes had gone. They also agreed that these terrible floods were like nothing anyone had ever witnessed before.
Except, perhaps, for Mallick Yaru. Across the string of besieged communities, people spoke of the elderly man who had witnessed the floods of 1929, which also devastated this area and other parts of the country. He was 85, 90 perhaps even 100 years old, they said, and he lived in a village called Chowkgodar, eight miles away, where he had built a mosque on land that he owned.
At the mosque, Mr Yaru was indeed to be found, a wispy, white-haired old man who said he was 85 and resting on a charpoy. Yes, he said, he remembered the floods of 1929. There were fewer people here back then, but the waters had torn through the villages. He was only a boy of four or five at the time, but he insisted that he remembered the floods very clearly. "Those floods that came in 1929 were nothing like this," he declared. "These are very much worse."
www.independent.co.uk
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa accuses NDMA of diverting relief goods
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has accused the National Disaster Management Authority of being more generous in dispatching relief goods to Multan, the hometown of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
According to documents of the provincial government, Multan and Sukkur districts have received the lion’s share of goods donated by different countries and charity organisations.
Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain described response of the federal government and NDMA to the crisis as pathetic and said his province had been ignored in distribution of relief goods.
“NDMA’s distribution of relief goods is not equitable and the province has received aid not commensurate with the losses it has suffered. The United Nations and other donor agencies say that 95 per cent of the damage has taken place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the NDMA is sending relief goods to areas where magnitude of devastation is comparatively small,” Mian Iftikhar told Dawn on Thursday.
“NDMA is a national institution, but people are losing trust in it,” he said, adding that the KP government protested against unequal distribution of relief goods because it had received only a small quantity of assistance from the NDMA. “The authority should mend its ways.”
The devastating floods hit northern districts and Peshawar valley on July 28 and over 700,000 people have been rendered homeless. But instead of helping hundreds of thousands of affected people in KP, the NDMA airlifted relief goods to Multan and Sukkur.
The KP documents show that two water purification plants, 20 power generators and a large quantity of medicines were taken to Multan and Sukkur on Aug 4. Besides, 140 bags of beans, 150 cartons of milk, 100 bags of rice, 224 bags of pulses, 100 tins of cooking oil, 90 cartons of water bottles, tents, tarpaulin and medicines were sent to the two cities on Aug 7.
Also, 150 cartons of food, three water purification units, a water tank of 3,500 litres capacity, a 15KV power generator and other relief goods were dispatched by air to the prime minister’s hometown.
For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, however, the NDMA had little to offer. According to the documents, the authority distributed only 3,616 packets of ready-to-eat meal in Riasalpur, Kohistan and Abbottabad. The packets provided by the US government were airlifted from the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, sources said.
Senior officials of the provincial government have levelled similar allegations but decline to be identified. One of them said the authority had diverted much of the relief goods to less affected areas. He said the province had received nothing from the NDMA, except a few thousands food packs. “The provincial government has received 12,000 tents from the Emergency Response Cell of the Cabinet Division and there is no evidence that the NDMA has sent a single tent for the flood-affected people since July 28,” the official said, adding that the NDMA should not take credit of relief goods received by the provincial government from the US, Saudi Arabia and charity organisations.
About 10,000 tents were stored at the warehouse of the Special Support Group in Dera Ismail Khan. The tents had been purchased for internally displaced persons from South Waziristan. But 5,000 of the tents were distributed among the displaced people in D.I. Khan on the directives of the ERC, and the rest were sent by the NDMA to Punjab.
The official said the provincial government had made desperate calls to the NDMA for mobilising its resources to rescue thousands of people stranded in Malakand division and Peshawar valleys, but to little avail.
“The Provincial Disaster Management Authority requested the NDMA and the federal government to provide helicopters, boats and relief goods, but it received no response,” said another official. “The federal government and the NDMA are offering only lip service,” he said. The NDMA’s website shows that it has provided a variety of items to the PDMA, including 41,266 tents, 10,000 mats, 15,000 ration packs, 89,150 food packets, 86,000 cooked meals and Rs21 million in cash.
But provincial officials reject the NDMA’s claim. “I can say with authority that all these statistics are absolutely wrong,” said an official.
When contacted, NDMA’s media coordinator Amal Masud said the figures shown on the website were authentic, adding that the authority had mobilised its resources to provide relief wherever needed.
According to documents of the provincial government, Multan and Sukkur districts have received the lion’s share of goods donated by different countries and charity organisations.
Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain described response of the federal government and NDMA to the crisis as pathetic and said his province had been ignored in distribution of relief goods.
“NDMA’s distribution of relief goods is not equitable and the province has received aid not commensurate with the losses it has suffered. The United Nations and other donor agencies say that 95 per cent of the damage has taken place in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, while the NDMA is sending relief goods to areas where magnitude of devastation is comparatively small,” Mian Iftikhar told Dawn on Thursday.
“NDMA is a national institution, but people are losing trust in it,” he said, adding that the KP government protested against unequal distribution of relief goods because it had received only a small quantity of assistance from the NDMA. “The authority should mend its ways.”
The devastating floods hit northern districts and Peshawar valley on July 28 and over 700,000 people have been rendered homeless. But instead of helping hundreds of thousands of affected people in KP, the NDMA airlifted relief goods to Multan and Sukkur.
The KP documents show that two water purification plants, 20 power generators and a large quantity of medicines were taken to Multan and Sukkur on Aug 4. Besides, 140 bags of beans, 150 cartons of milk, 100 bags of rice, 224 bags of pulses, 100 tins of cooking oil, 90 cartons of water bottles, tents, tarpaulin and medicines were sent to the two cities on Aug 7.
Also, 150 cartons of food, three water purification units, a water tank of 3,500 litres capacity, a 15KV power generator and other relief goods were dispatched by air to the prime minister’s hometown.
For Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, however, the NDMA had little to offer. According to the documents, the authority distributed only 3,616 packets of ready-to-eat meal in Riasalpur, Kohistan and Abbottabad. The packets provided by the US government were airlifted from the Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, sources said.
Senior officials of the provincial government have levelled similar allegations but decline to be identified. One of them said the authority had diverted much of the relief goods to less affected areas. He said the province had received nothing from the NDMA, except a few thousands food packs. “The provincial government has received 12,000 tents from the Emergency Response Cell of the Cabinet Division and there is no evidence that the NDMA has sent a single tent for the flood-affected people since July 28,” the official said, adding that the NDMA should not take credit of relief goods received by the provincial government from the US, Saudi Arabia and charity organisations.
About 10,000 tents were stored at the warehouse of the Special Support Group in Dera Ismail Khan. The tents had been purchased for internally displaced persons from South Waziristan. But 5,000 of the tents were distributed among the displaced people in D.I. Khan on the directives of the ERC, and the rest were sent by the NDMA to Punjab.
The official said the provincial government had made desperate calls to the NDMA for mobilising its resources to rescue thousands of people stranded in Malakand division and Peshawar valleys, but to little avail.
“The Provincial Disaster Management Authority requested the NDMA and the federal government to provide helicopters, boats and relief goods, but it received no response,” said another official. “The federal government and the NDMA are offering only lip service,” he said. The NDMA’s website shows that it has provided a variety of items to the PDMA, including 41,266 tents, 10,000 mats, 15,000 ration packs, 89,150 food packets, 86,000 cooked meals and Rs21 million in cash.
But provincial officials reject the NDMA’s claim. “I can say with authority that all these statistics are absolutely wrong,” said an official.
When contacted, NDMA’s media coordinator Amal Masud said the figures shown on the website were authentic, adding that the authority had mobilised its resources to provide relief wherever needed.
UN chief to visit Pakistan Saturday
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will arrive in Pakistan on Saturday (tomorrow) to assess relief and rescue work in the flood-hit country.
Pakistan is grappling with its worst ever floods that have left over 1,600 people dead and affected over 14 million people.
The secretary-general will assess losses due to the floods and oversee relief and rescue operations.
President Asif Ali Zardari has welcomed Ban’s visit and said he is happy that the secretary-general is visiting Pakistan when the nation is facing such a tough situation.
The UN has also appealed for nearly $460 million in aid for victims of the devastating floods.
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry will also visit Pakistan Aug 18 to review the situation, officials said.
Pakistan is grappling with its worst ever floods that have left over 1,600 people dead and affected over 14 million people.
The secretary-general will assess losses due to the floods and oversee relief and rescue operations.
President Asif Ali Zardari has welcomed Ban’s visit and said he is happy that the secretary-general is visiting Pakistan when the nation is facing such a tough situation.
The UN has also appealed for nearly $460 million in aid for victims of the devastating floods.
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry will also visit Pakistan Aug 18 to review the situation, officials said.
Disease threatens Pakistani flood victims anew
Fever, stomach problems and skin diseases are spreading among Pakistani flood victims, officials said Friday, adding another dimension of danger to a crisis that could get even worse, with the U.N. warning that dams in the south may burst.
Aid workers warn that waterborne diseases and other illnesses could raise the death toll from more than two weeks of flooding to well past the estimated 1,500 people who have perished so far.
The U.S. said Friday that it would give $3 million to help establish 15 treatment centers for waterborne illnesses in the aftermath of the floods, which are estimated to have directly or indirectly affected some 14 million people.
In the Multan area of Punjab province, medical workers have seen at least 1,000 children with illnesses such as gastroenteritis in the last three days, said Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the main government hospital.
"The situation is alarming as the diseases can infect other survivors," Hussain said. The hospital is treating victims at its main facility but also has set up 12 medical camps in the area.
The floods have been described as the worst natural disaster in independent Pakistan's 63-year history.
Up to a quarter of the country has been affected by the floods, though not all those areas were necessarily under water, U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said. The hardest-hit region has been the northwest, where farms and infrastructure were badly damaged.
The U.N. warns that the crisis was far from over, saying dams in southern Sindh province could still burst in the coming days as bloated rivers gush through. More rains are expected over the weekend, and monsoon season is forecast to last several more weeks.
U.N. officials have launched an immediate appeal for $460 million in aid for Pakistan. The U.S. has donated more than $70 million and has sent a ship and helicopters to assist relief efforts.
To help stop the spread of illness, the U.S. is distributing hand soap and has provided mobile water treatment units that can provide clean drinking water for 10,000 people a day, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
Aid workers warn that waterborne diseases and other illnesses could raise the death toll from more than two weeks of flooding to well past the estimated 1,500 people who have perished so far.
The U.S. said Friday that it would give $3 million to help establish 15 treatment centers for waterborne illnesses in the aftermath of the floods, which are estimated to have directly or indirectly affected some 14 million people.
In the Multan area of Punjab province, medical workers have seen at least 1,000 children with illnesses such as gastroenteritis in the last three days, said Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the main government hospital.
"The situation is alarming as the diseases can infect other survivors," Hussain said. The hospital is treating victims at its main facility but also has set up 12 medical camps in the area.
The floods have been described as the worst natural disaster in independent Pakistan's 63-year history.
Up to a quarter of the country has been affected by the floods, though not all those areas were necessarily under water, U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said. The hardest-hit region has been the northwest, where farms and infrastructure were badly damaged.
The U.N. warns that the crisis was far from over, saying dams in southern Sindh province could still burst in the coming days as bloated rivers gush through. More rains are expected over the weekend, and monsoon season is forecast to last several more weeks.
U.N. officials have launched an immediate appeal for $460 million in aid for Pakistan. The U.S. has donated more than $70 million and has sent a ship and helicopters to assist relief efforts.
To help stop the spread of illness, the U.S. is distributing hand soap and has provided mobile water treatment units that can provide clean drinking water for 10,000 people a day, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
Disease threatens Pakistani flood victims anew
Fever, stomach problems and skin diseases are spreading among Pakistani flood victims, officials said Friday, adding another dimension of danger to a crisis that could get even worse, with the U.N. warning that dams in the south may burst.
Aid workers warn that waterborne diseases and other illnesses could raise the death toll from more than two weeks of flooding to well past the estimated 1,500 people who have perished so far.
The U.S. said Friday that it would give $3 million to help establish 15 treatment centers for waterborne illnesses in the aftermath of the floods, which are estimated to have directly or indirectly affected some 14 million people.
In the Multan area of Punjab province, medical workers have seen at least 1,000 children with illnesses such as gastroenteritis in the last three days, said Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the main government hospital.
"The situation is alarming as the diseases can infect other survivors," Hussain said. The hospital is treating victims at its main facility but also has set up 12 medical camps in the area.
The floods have been described as the worst natural disaster in independent Pakistan's 63-year history.
Up to a quarter of the country has been affected by the floods, though not all those areas were necessarily under water, U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said. The hardest-hit region has been the northwest, where farms and infrastructure were badly damaged.
The U.N. warns that the crisis was far from over, saying dams in southern Sindh province could still burst in the coming days as bloated rivers gush through. More rains are expected over the weekend, and monsoon season is forecast to last several more weeks.
U.N. officials have launched an immediate appeal for $460 million in aid for Pakistan. The U.S. has donated more than $70 million and has sent a ship and helicopters to assist relief efforts.
To help stop the spread of illness, the U.S. is distributing hand soap and has provided mobile water treatment units that can provide clean drinking water for 10,000 people a day, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
Aid workers warn that waterborne diseases and other illnesses could raise the death toll from more than two weeks of flooding to well past the estimated 1,500 people who have perished so far.
The U.S. said Friday that it would give $3 million to help establish 15 treatment centers for waterborne illnesses in the aftermath of the floods, which are estimated to have directly or indirectly affected some 14 million people.
In the Multan area of Punjab province, medical workers have seen at least 1,000 children with illnesses such as gastroenteritis in the last three days, said Mumtaz Hussain, a doctor at the main government hospital.
"The situation is alarming as the diseases can infect other survivors," Hussain said. The hospital is treating victims at its main facility but also has set up 12 medical camps in the area.
The floods have been described as the worst natural disaster in independent Pakistan's 63-year history.
Up to a quarter of the country has been affected by the floods, though not all those areas were necessarily under water, U.N. spokesman Maurizio Giuliano said. The hardest-hit region has been the northwest, where farms and infrastructure were badly damaged.
The U.N. warns that the crisis was far from over, saying dams in southern Sindh province could still burst in the coming days as bloated rivers gush through. More rains are expected over the weekend, and monsoon season is forecast to last several more weeks.
U.N. officials have launched an immediate appeal for $460 million in aid for Pakistan. The U.S. has donated more than $70 million and has sent a ship and helicopters to assist relief efforts.
To help stop the spread of illness, the U.S. is distributing hand soap and has provided mobile water treatment units that can provide clean drinking water for 10,000 people a day, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.
What's behind the weather chaos?
(CNN) -- Is the record-shattering heatwave that has been blamed for the death of thousands in Russia somehow related to the devastating flooding in Pakistan?
Are these disasters happening more frequently -- and are they a result of global warming?
Sometimes these connections can clearly be observed and understood. At other times they are more complex, taking place across time scales much longer than we are able to observe.
Muscovites will long remember the summer of 2010 as the hottest and most extreme weather summer in the city's long history. The all-time temperature record was set, and re-set, five different times during a two-week span from late July to early August. In that period the temperature climbed above 30 degrees Celsius (87 degrees Fahrenheit) for 29 consecutive days (and still counting). In addition to the extreme heat, which reached up to 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on multiple days in a city that averages an August high of 22 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit), the capital was shrouded in a thick layer of smoke from area wildfires.
The combination of extreme heat and lack of rainfall left western Russia vulnerable to wildfires, which burned out of control southeast of Moscow.
Nearly 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) away in Pakistan, monsoon rains fell with an intensity that had never before been observed.
Peshawar, a city in northern Pakistan 140 km (87 miles) west of the capital Islamabad, received six times the monthly average rainfall in only 24 hours.
Heavy rain has continued to occur throughout Pakistan since the initial heavy downpour on July 29, and the flooding has impacted an estimated 14 million people, killing over 1,300 at time of writing.
Though these disasters are different and vary by great distances, they could have both been the result of a large area of high pressure centered over western Russia.
The high pressure, also known as a "blocking high," can influence weather patterns over great distances by altering the jet stream.
The jet stream is an area of fast-moving air that occurs high in the atmosphere, at an altitude roughly where commercial airliners cruise, and it acts like a highway for storms.
As the name suggests, a "blocking high" is exceptionally strong and blocks the jet stream, which forces the jet stream to move around it. These scenarios normally last for a couple of days, but can last for weeks, as we have seen in Russia.
Areas under the high pressure will see drought and heat, as seemingly endless days of sun bake the earth. As the jet stream is continually forced around the high pressure zone, flooding can result from areas that see storms continually move over the same areas.
We saw this in Central Europe last week, as storm systems that could not advance into Eastern Europe and Russia continued to rain over parts of Germany and Poland, causing flooding.
The area of high pressure that has been parked over western Russia for the last several weeks also forced part of the jet stream south to Pakistan, an area where it normally would not be found during mid-summer.
An interaction between the jet stream and the seasonal southwest monsoon currents over southeast Asia could have led to the intense bursts of rainfall experienced there.
So what caused this area of high pressure in western Russia to be so strong and last for so long?
As we continually stress, one extreme weather event, or even a series of weather events, is not caused by global warming or climate change. Weather extremes such as floods or heat waves happen every year, all over the globe.
Many climate scientists believe, however, that these events will become more common, as the Earth warms because of global warming. Others will point to more distinct and shorter-scale cycles such as El Nino and La Nina, which commonly lead to extremes in weather around the globe.
So, while we can tie many of these global weather disasters together around a common meteorological trigger, we cannot say for certain if climate change is helping to pull that trigger, or perhaps loading the gun more frequently.
One thing is for sure: as global weather disasters will continue to happen, and our knowledge and coverage of them continues to improve, we will continue to question if they are related, and what is really causing them.
Are these disasters happening more frequently -- and are they a result of global warming?
Sometimes these connections can clearly be observed and understood. At other times they are more complex, taking place across time scales much longer than we are able to observe.
Muscovites will long remember the summer of 2010 as the hottest and most extreme weather summer in the city's long history. The all-time temperature record was set, and re-set, five different times during a two-week span from late July to early August. In that period the temperature climbed above 30 degrees Celsius (87 degrees Fahrenheit) for 29 consecutive days (and still counting). In addition to the extreme heat, which reached up to 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit) on multiple days in a city that averages an August high of 22 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit), the capital was shrouded in a thick layer of smoke from area wildfires.
The combination of extreme heat and lack of rainfall left western Russia vulnerable to wildfires, which burned out of control southeast of Moscow.
Nearly 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) away in Pakistan, monsoon rains fell with an intensity that had never before been observed.
Peshawar, a city in northern Pakistan 140 km (87 miles) west of the capital Islamabad, received six times the monthly average rainfall in only 24 hours.
Heavy rain has continued to occur throughout Pakistan since the initial heavy downpour on July 29, and the flooding has impacted an estimated 14 million people, killing over 1,300 at time of writing.
Though these disasters are different and vary by great distances, they could have both been the result of a large area of high pressure centered over western Russia.
The high pressure, also known as a "blocking high," can influence weather patterns over great distances by altering the jet stream.
The jet stream is an area of fast-moving air that occurs high in the atmosphere, at an altitude roughly where commercial airliners cruise, and it acts like a highway for storms.
As the name suggests, a "blocking high" is exceptionally strong and blocks the jet stream, which forces the jet stream to move around it. These scenarios normally last for a couple of days, but can last for weeks, as we have seen in Russia.
Areas under the high pressure will see drought and heat, as seemingly endless days of sun bake the earth. As the jet stream is continually forced around the high pressure zone, flooding can result from areas that see storms continually move over the same areas.
We saw this in Central Europe last week, as storm systems that could not advance into Eastern Europe and Russia continued to rain over parts of Germany and Poland, causing flooding.
The area of high pressure that has been parked over western Russia for the last several weeks also forced part of the jet stream south to Pakistan, an area where it normally would not be found during mid-summer.
An interaction between the jet stream and the seasonal southwest monsoon currents over southeast Asia could have led to the intense bursts of rainfall experienced there.
So what caused this area of high pressure in western Russia to be so strong and last for so long?
As we continually stress, one extreme weather event, or even a series of weather events, is not caused by global warming or climate change. Weather extremes such as floods or heat waves happen every year, all over the globe.
Many climate scientists believe, however, that these events will become more common, as the Earth warms because of global warming. Others will point to more distinct and shorter-scale cycles such as El Nino and La Nina, which commonly lead to extremes in weather around the globe.
So, while we can tie many of these global weather disasters together around a common meteorological trigger, we cannot say for certain if climate change is helping to pull that trigger, or perhaps loading the gun more frequently.
One thing is for sure: as global weather disasters will continue to happen, and our knowledge and coverage of them continues to improve, we will continue to question if they are related, and what is really causing them.
Pakistan Flood Disaster Relief Video
A shipload of U.S. Marines and helicopters have arrived to boost relief efforts in flooded Pakistan.
The "USS Peleliu" arrived off the coast near Karachi along with helicopters and about 1,000 Marines. The United States has pledged $71 million in emergency assistance to Pakistan.
Meanwhile Pakistan's government has been sharply criticized at home for a slow response to the floods, which have killed 1,500 people and left an estimated 7 million people needing emergency assistance, their homes destroyed or damaged.
President Asif Ali Zardari made his first visit to victims of the disaster on August 12 and visited the flood-hit town of Sukkur.
Zardari came under fierce criticism for failing to cut short a visit to Europe last week in order to deal personally with what is now the country's worst humanitarian crisis.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)