Was reading the following news item this morning – how effective will tin sheets be in the winter? They cant take care of the insulation – but nevertheless, at least there’s an alternative while we await winterproof tents.

From Dawn:
KARACHI, Oct 30: Leader of the opposition in the Azad Kashmir Assembly Sultan Mehmoud Chaudhry has stated that in this transition phase, quake victims immediately required tin sheets to raise temporary shelters for the surviving members of their families in the wake of snowfall and harsh winter. He pointed out that the tents being used for the purpose at present would lose their utility in the next two weeks or so. He urged the Pakistan government to withdraw sales tax on construction material, particularly tin sheets and supporting material, to facilitate construction of temporary shelters in the quake-hit areas. He said that the tin sheet, available in local market at a rate of Rs300-400 400 per sheet, could be imported from India or China at a cost of Rs150-200 per sheet.

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Never ending credit card bills, that way.

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I can’t recall if anyone’s posted this link earlier, but I just came across Earthquake Pakistan, which has detailed lists of relief goods required, contact numbers of various hospitals, etc. The telephone directory is quite detailed, so please pass on the link to all those who are thinking of volunteering, etc.

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You know the water supply issues in DHA are getting to your relatives [and their wallets!] when they start gazing enviously at the gardener who sprayed water on half the lane in PECHS while watering the plants and ask: ‘you guys don’t have water supply issues, right?’

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The 3.3 Million people affected by the Earthquake have the right to complain that their govt was unable to help them efficiently during the crisis. The suffering is endless, these poor people were already strapped for cash before the tragedy and are now simply devastated. Having lost members of their family, their possessions including their shelter which for many took a lifetime to accumulate was vanished in seconds and now this purdah’dar society is forced to expose its women to the open, still awaiting the arrival of more tents to provide some semblance of security for these women. These people have been through a lot and any help or assistance from us may seem too little too late for a number of victims.

I feel these emotional frustrations if allowed to linger can and will hurt Pakistan in the long run. These people have literally lost faith in our establishment we saw the desperation with the initial looting of aid trucks in the the first few days (that was acceptable considering the suffering) but later this looting took the shape of an organized mafia, with the bullies stormed the vehicles hence stranding the innocent, weak, hungry and needy to watch food being looted away in front of their eyes.

The innocent have no where to go, no work to do and are hungry to return to normal life. Simply said they are devastated and there is a chance that this depression if it lasts long has the potential to turn into anger and frustration against the country. I would stress to everyone if you can dig deeper into your pockets please do so, as the People of Pakistan still need your support.

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For your viewing pleasure.

ps. it’s just a coincidence that Imtiaz and I happened to post similar pics of same building.

Read the following news item in Dawn a few days back, forgot to post it earlier. Does anyone know what were the reasons for the ‘transfer’? Something doesnt feel quite right, somehow..

KARACHI, Oct. 28: The City Police Chief Tariq Jamil on Friday was transferred and made OSD. A notification issued by the Establishment Division Islamabad, said that Mr Tariq Jamil, a grade 20 PSP officer, has been transferred and directed to report to the Establishment Division and posted as OSD to the Establishment Division at Karachi. Mr Jamil might relinquish his charge on Saturday or next week, handing over his office to DIG Administration Zafar Ahmed Farooqi, a spokesman for the Sindh police said. The transfer orders came as surprise to many senior police officers. Mr Jamil was appointed as third CCPO taking charge from Asad Ashraf Malick in June 2004. Prior to his posting as CCPO Karachi, Tariq Jamil was serving as DIG Operations. Provincial Police officer Asad Jehangir is due to retire on Dec 25.

Jus got this mail, and I ain’t sure about the situation. Can anyone help, please? Apart from this, if you have any other info, please send to helppakistan.netATgmail.com or update on the wiki helppakistan.net. Thanks!

P.S. It’s urgent.

The mail:

We are a group of 6 travelers in India coming to volunteer. We have phoned JAC and they directed us to bring as much equipment that they needed in with us.

We have gathered supplies and donations and have tents and sleeping bags and medicine to bring in. We believe that we are going to have problems at the amistar – lahore boarder. We will be carrying expensive equipment about 15 foreign made tents and medicine.

Do you have suggestions so that we can get this equipment across safely and without problems? We are coming on tourist visas do you know if volunteers working there have had a problem with this?

looks nice at night…….doesnt it?

A number of doctor teams that I knew were stationed at Muzzafarabad inside Neelam Ground. They did a commendable job in their few weeks of work, almost doing a 24-hour OT with upwards of 500 surgeries a day, surely a super human effort. The surgeries initially ranged from the first aid type fractures and other deep wounds, and later was gangrenous tissue amputations and other sepsis wounds. An interesting point they observed that probably due to the high nature of immunity of these people it was remarkable to see only one death due to sepsis, which should have been higher in other locations, surely higher immunity will help them out. The surgeries were ghastly and many surgeons claim that the smell of gangrenous tissue still haunts them today despite a serious scrubbing with hydrogen peroxide. I feel these heroic volunteers did what they can with the limited resources but proudly served their nation in this crisis

An important observation was also noted by these doctors that they saw many secondary injuries like paralysis and other injuries that were not directly related to the Earthquake but due to mishandling by the illiterate rescuers, who lugged and carried these people improperly to the hospital. This is not to point a blaming finger at the people but more so as a lesson to the govt to educate the people on simple basic life support. God Forbid if we ever have to go through this again, we should be a little more prepared.

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