The most ignored story of the day continues to be ignored; hardly news, I know.
First, a few maps courtesy of the BBC to give a sense of the magnitude of the 2010 version of Waterworld. The yellow area represents the land seriously affected in Pakistan by the flooding.
http://howbigreally.com/...
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Second: The disturbing intentional burying of the story by the Trad Med in the US:
Juan Cole: The media’s failure to cover "the great Pakistani deluge" is "itself a security threat" to America
Time magazine removes its Pakistan story -- titled "Through Hell And High Water" from the cover of its U.S. edition
Ah, yes. We love our happy endings here in 'Merka. Yay, School! We're Number One!
Help Pakistan is a group dedicated to getting needed humanitarian support to flood ravaged Pakistan, and disseminating information pertaining to the floods to the dailykos community at large. Our goal is getting donations to those people who need it most.
If you have a negative comment pertaining to Pakistan, its people, its culture, or its relationship with the United States, please refrain from making it here. If you would like to be a part of our group, please click the picture at the very bottom of this diary. We would love more volunteers to help us with the burden of getting a diary up every day.
Below are a few more pixels of evidence that the world as a whole, but America in particular, loves to disregard what the U.N. Secretary-General called "the worst disaster I've ever seen."
For those of you more visually-oriented types, check out a few more images to give you a sense of the scale of the devastation. It's a device I've employed before with some success.
The heat wave (certainly not caused by global warming) this summer carpeted the east coast. Imagine that as a wave of water, and you get the idea.
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You think the Middle East has problems now?
Maybe if the entirety of it was 2 meters underwater they could come together at last.
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Hey, LaFem:
I don't live in France like you do, but does this image cover a large area?
Just askin'...
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Not to diminish the losses people suffered with the recent quake, but if the Kiwis were to have this tragedy instead, they would have literally lost their entire nation.
Perhaps if we continue to ignore global warming, this image will be more than imaginary before too long.
Speaking of which...
So it's not just the bigotry of the Islamophobes that have hurt the victims in need not getting help, but the fact that the corporate media is burying the climate change story of the century in its ongoing"fair and balanced" reporting about whether or not the Earth is flat.
Just like pretending climate change is no big deal is a national security threat, so is ignoring the people of Pakistan during their time of need.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/...
The scale of the devastation is unimaginable in the low lands. Entire villages have been wiped out without a trace.
Everything they had now lies buried under heaps of mud including their ancestral graveyards. The stench of death and the hot and humid conditions pose a serious threat of epidemics and diseases.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/...
Yet only a single reporter -- the heroic Carlotta Gall of the New York Times -- has thought to focus on the subject of how the Biblical-style floods in Pakistan might affect the U.S. war effort and the overstretched supply lines that play a major role in supporting U.S. troops there.
The Great Pakistani Deluge Never Happened Don’t Tune In, It’s Not Important
By Juan Cole
The Great Deluge in Pakistan passed almost unnoticed in the United States despite President Obama’s repeated assertions that the country is central to American security. Now, with new evacuations and flooding afflicting Sindh Province and the long-term crisis only beginning in Pakistan, it has washed almost completely off American television and out of popular consciousness....
The likely tie-in of these floods (of a sort no one in Pakistan had ever experienced) with global warming was seldom mentioned.
In the United States, the contrast with the wall-to-wall cable news coverage of the Haitian earthquake in January and the consequent outpouring of public donations was palpable. Not only has the United Nations’ plea for $460 million in aid to cover the first three months of flood response still not been met, but in the past week donations seem to have dried up.
The great Pakistani deluge did not exist, it seems, because it was not on television, would not have delivered audiences to products, and was not all about us. As we saw on September 11, 2001, and again in March 2003, however, the failure of our electronic media to inform the public about centrally important global developments is itself a security threat to the republic.
Thanks you to everyone who has paid attention, made a donation, rec'd these diaries, and so on
You are making a difference!
Shelterbox tents being used by Pakistani flood victims today.
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If you can spare a couple lattes' worth of cash, you will be making a big difference in someone's life today.
Greg (Three Cups of Tea, Stones Into Schools) Mortenson's non-profit (CAI ) recommends supporting a local (Pakistani) group to which donations will likely have a large, immediate, and lasting impact-
Human Development Foundation
http://www.hdf.com
(800) 705 1310
DONATE
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Other groups that deserve support as well.
Doctors without Borders (MSF):
DONATE
OXFAM:
DONATE
Direct Relief International:
DONATE
Mercy Corps:
DONATE
UNICEF:
DONATE
Toll free: 1-800-FOR-KIDS (1-800-367-5437)
Text: "Text FLOODS to 864233 (UNICEF) to donate $10"
Shelterbox:
DONATE
ShelterBox tents in Shishkat upper Hunza, Pakistan
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From the US State dept.
How You Can Help:
Text "FLOOD" to 27722. Your $10 will go to the State Department Fund for Pakistan Relief that Secretary Clinton announced August 19, and is part of a new effort to bring attention to the need for aid.
Text "SWAT" to 50555 ; $10 goes to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees fund for flood victims
Don't have money to spare?
That's OK.
Please consider signing this petition to forgive Pakistan's debt so they can instead use their scant resources to aid the suffering millions of people in their country.
Sign the Avaaz.org Petition
Click
< ===== HERE
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Some of us at Daily Kos use a Google group to help organize relief for the crisis in Pakistan. Anyone who would like to get involved, share resources, or get alerts when a new HELP PAKISTAN diary is posted, please join.
<==== CLICK THE PIC </p>
h/t to RLMiller for the climateprogress link/Juan Cole story