floods

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Photo of the week: why have we left Pakistan stranded?

20 August 2010 by Archie Law | 3 comments

The devastating floods in Pakistan have killed less people than that of the Haiti earthquake or the 2004 tsunami. But it does and will continue to impact twenty million people that are trying to flee the area – larger than Italy (check out the comparison against Australia) – still underwater.

The reaction to the unprecedented scale of disaster has been slow, including from Pakistan’s own government. For example, to date, US$251 million dollars has been provided for Pakistan while at the same point in time, the Haiti earthquake had raised $637 million.

UN secretary, Ban Ki-Moon has said, “Pakistan is facing a slow-motion tsunami. Its destructive powers will accumulate and grow with time”. So why has the international community been so slow to react?

Setting up ActionAid’s distribution point in Jharo, Upper Swat, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Pakistan. A local person has volunteered his hujira to our partner to be used as a storage and distribution point.

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“We have nothing to eat now”

17 August 2010 by Archie Law | 6 comments

The disaster in Pakistan is unprecedented and over 14 million people are struggling to survive as a result of the floods. I thought I would share a brief report from ActionAid’s Communciations Manager in Pakistan, Javeria Malik, on her recent visit to to Punjab Province to give a sense of the devastation facing the people of Pakistan.

“Abdul Qayyum was crying as he told me his story. Previously a prosperous owner of a grocery shop, he had seen all his hard work and family’s wealth washed away when floods hit the Punjabi city of Kot Addu.

Like millions of others, he despaired at the government’s lack of help.

‘We’ve been totally on our own,’ he said. ‘Now we’re going back home – and God knows how long it will take us to repair.’

Abdul’s story has been repeated many times in the three weeks I’ve travelled across Pakistan, visiting the badly hit areas, meeting families escaping the flood waters. At first I saw people stranded in upper Swat due to washed away bridges and roads, and more recently met those returning to their collapsed homes in Southern Punjab, who were attempting to recover at least some of their belongings.

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Photo of the week: Pakistan needs your help

3 August 2010 by Archie Law | 1 comment

Over the past few days, Pakistan has been affected by some of its worst floods in eighty years. Over a thousand people have died and more than two million people have been affected by these floods.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced to shelter on rooftops, trees and electricity poles.

An estimated 70 percent of the region’s livestock is gone as thousands of acres of crops, schools, homes and infrastructure has been washed away by the floods.

So far, the Pakistani government has delivered little immediate aid.

A young girl stands next to a building in Bazargai, Pakistan. Six months after the devastating 2005 earthquake, people continued facing new obstacles in rebuilding their communities.

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The time has come to say fair’s fair

16 November 2009 by Archie Law | 3 comments

“How can we dance when our earth is turning, how do we sleep while our bed’s are burning?” – Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil

peter-garrett-flagI remember my first onstage encounter well. The year was 1984 and the Oils were at the peak of their game and they were awesome! 10…1 had recorded amazing sales throughout Australia and my band (Huxton Creepers) were playing at the Entertainment Centre in Melbourne before the Oil’s, who were on their “Red Sails in the Sunset” tour.

So there we were, four 20 year olds who six months earlier had been playing to 15 of their friends in a tiny pub and now six months later we had record companies chasing us and we were about to go onstage in front of 10,000 people. The dream sorta stopped there, as soon as the stage lights went up and our singer said “Hi we’re the Huxton Creepers” an orange went flying by his head and just missed my head and then the Oils fans spent the rest of our set throwing coins at us during the songs and then chanting “Oils, Oils” between the songs. It was a rough initiation but at least our road crew got to buy cigarettes with all the change that landed on the stage!!

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