A true debate

A topic of great concern: the flooding in Pakistan. Almost three weeks ago, heavy monsoon rains flooded the provinces of Punjab and Sindh and now almost 1/5 of the entire country is under water. Millions and millions of people have been affected by this, with more and 4 million now homeless, and the death toll is unknown. Not only is this affecting people now, the long-term effects may be even worse. There is a large fear that due to sub-par conditions, a cholera breakout is likely.


Aid has been slow to pour in. Whether this has to do with the Pakistani government is unclear, but either way, let's compare:

• Back during Haiti, over 2.4 billion dollars in aid was sent, with the US contributing 4.6 million.
• Currently, totals for aid going to Pakistan are about 3.17 million, with the UN appealing for 4.59 million (I am unsure if this has been factored in already or if this will be in addition to the 3.17.) So far, the US has contributed 1.5 million.

Doing some basic math here: if you divide the totals, so far Pakistan has not received even 1% of the amount of aid that Haiti did.  As far as size, Haiti is a country of about 9.8 million people, so basically the state of Georgia (but obviously much more crammed.) Pakistan has a population of around 166 million people, which is about half of the USA. For the sake of argument, let's pretend that you handed each person their share of the aid (around 3 million were affected in Haiti, around 4 million so far in Pakistan.) Each person in Haiti would have received $800, and each person in Pakistan would be given 79¢. 

Have I made my point yet?

I feel that a large part of the reason Pakistan is not getting nearly the amount of help it needs is two-fold. First is the lack of media coverage. Back when the earthquake in Haiti happened, you could not turn on a TV without hearing about it. I do not want to try to undermine the situation to be any less worse than it was, but the coverage after a while became borderline rediculous and overdone (as usually happens.) The coverage of Pakistan's crisis has not even reached a tenth of that. The second reason is probably obvious to some: they are the enemy. Pakistan is definitely known as a terrorist nation and has been said to harbor them. In the mountainous terrain of Pakistan, it is easy for terrorists to hide out and train and go undetected from a lax-enough-anyways government. But this is where the debate comes in...

If you had to choose: Which nation should we be helping out more? The Bible tells us to love thy enemy as thyself. Haiti was never our enemy, and if they ever were it was definitely not to the calibre of Pakistan. Not that it was un-noble of us to help out Haiti, but both nations are just as poor and in need of other countries' help. If we are to take that teaching to heart, shouldn't we be helping out our enemies? Easier said than done, obviously, but still worth thinking about. I acknowledge there is definitely a real dilemma in sending aid to Pakistan. More than likely, there will be extremists receiving this aid. The exact people that wish us dead will be saved by our contributions. But we also forget one important thing: we are all human. We all have families that we care for, pets that we look forward coming home to, houses to clean, children to raise. Does the fact that their views radically clash with our own merit them unworthy or our help, of our love?

It has been argued that the fact that so little is being done over there is actually going to make the chance for terrorism worse, which makes perfect sense really. Those who are wanting to push their extreme agendas are being given the exact kind of situation to do just that; people are desperate and if they [extremists] come along and point out all that is wrong with this, more people are likely to tag on to it and join them.  Wouldn't it be beneficial, from a political stance, for them to see or hear that the US is helping them out? We all know that Islamist teaching can be very "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" so... need I say more? If you haven't read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortinsen, (first of all, I advise you to, it's very good) he shows that education and a little bit of care go a long way. The people he has helped in Pakistan are extrememly grateful and they are not the terrorists we envision.

So I now open it up to you. What are your thoughts on this? Is it a noble thing to send aid to our enemies or would that make matters worse? I'm interested to hear some thoughts. Discuss.