RAF aid to Pakistan - the irony and the pity
Milgeek
2 Comments
Right, get it over with - call me 'Scrooge'. You see I must be the only person I know who has remained a little unmoved and skeptical about the British publics huge generosity and charity in their donations for Pakistan during it's current crisis.
Why, I hear you say, are your concerns (I will get to those in a minute) being voiced on Milgeek of all places?
Well - here come my concerns - first of all doesn't anyone find it strange that we are giving huge amounts of aid to a country that has been embroiled in some very mixed messages about it's dealings with the Taliban? I mean, on the one hand Pakistan continues to be a safe haven and source of man power and support for the Taliban in their campaign against our service men and women in Afghanistan, and on the other hand it is cajoling the West to send it more aid (as an 'alley' in the war on terror).
Yes, I know there is a big difference between the skitzophrenic Pakistani state and the poor people who are being affected by these terrible floods - but when you see these same people on news media *still* criticising the West *despite* for not doing enough despite the huge amount of aid sent you have to ask shouldn't charity begin at home (as clearly the Pakistani governemnet is not making it clear - for it's own reasons - that the West *is* donating very generously)?
Which brings me to my second issue - Pakistan is a nuclear power. It spends absolutely ginormous amounts of its money on maintaining this hugely expensive weapon and maintains an enormous military machine in its ridiculous spat with India.
When the Pakistani intelligence service (the ISS) has been directly implicated in supporting the Taliban why is it we are not telling the Pakistanis that they should be digging into their own pockets to provide for it's own people when it is clear that they can obviously afford it?
Tell me this - will the current flood crisis divert one rupee away from the advance weapons systems that Pakistan is purchasing in its arms race with India?
I quote Janes Defence News...
"The Pakistan government has announced a Fiscal Year 2010-11 (FY10-11) defence budget of PKR442.2 billion (USD5.2 billion). This represents a 17 per cent increase over the revised military expenditure for FY09-10 and a climb of 29 per cent over the original allocation last year of PKR342.9 billion.
The defence expenditure represents 13.5 per cent of the total national outlay for FY10-11 and about 3 per cent of GDP."
I am not saying all this - but could do - because we in Britain are in the midst of an economic recession, but rather I find it somewhat morally hypocritical that we should be giving money to a state so that it can ring fence its defence spending while at the same time that same state is colluding in a war against our own troops.
No - I do not like the idea of the ordinary Pakistani people suffering and I am very proud that once again the British public has been so very generous in their giving BUT I do think very real questions should be being asked about Pakistan's claim not to be able to help itself when it does support such a expensive military machine.
<rant over>
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Reader Comments (2)
[watches as fuse is lit and stand well back!]
not a particularly politically correct sentiment to put down on paper (metaphorically) but I suspect one most of us feel. The elephant in the room is that a majority of the people who clamour for our help (read our money) would happily see our way of life destroyed and give sustenance to our enemies whilst supporting a government that spends billions on nuclear weapon development and refuses to sign the non-proliferation treaty. Pakistan is consistently in the top 10 countries receiving aid from the DFID (£110million on average annually for last 3 years - http://www.dfid.gov.uk/About-DFID/Finance-and-performance/Aid-Statistics/Statistics-on-International-Development-2009/Tables-index/)
All so they can spend money pursuing a nuclear program to get one over on India, meanwhile we struggle to provide university places, an NHS and adequately resourced forces.
Simply wrong. Time for the post-colonial guilt trip to end.
Yes, Spider. I cannot claim my view is that which is held in the majority in the UK - nor, and this is the irony, do I say that this view should STOP us giving to the Pakistani relief effort...
I merely contest that question should be asked of the Pakistani government.
'Elephant in the room' is a phrase I have seen used a lot in discussions about this issue. People generally seem to realize that there is *something* wrong here but likewise grudgingly accept that there isn't much we can do about it.
After all nobody wants the poor PAkistani people to suffer because of our political machinations.
BUT - surely these questions are exactly the questions that should have been raised by our ministers and even our PM when the Pakistani President recently visited our shores.
I notice that China has not asked for and has not been given ANY aid whatsoever even though it has suffered badly from similar flooding. It's ordinary provincial Chinese citizens are in many cases just as poor as the ordinary Pakistanis but there does not seem to be any rush to help them.
China's self-reliance is a model countries like Pakistan - with thier large military - should be adopting.
Aid should be reserved for countries - like Bangladesh and Haiti for example - who quite obviously do not have the infrastructure or economy to deal with natural disasters.
Should Pakistan not have 'the readies' then some sort of *aid loans* should be arranged in the understanding these will be repaid from the next defence budget (which would still be a drop in teh ocean)...
UN SAYS $460 million is needed by Pakistan to support flood relief - Pakistans defence budget is $5.2 BILLION!
Hmmmmmmmmmm...Go figure!