Pakistan Floods August 2010

One Smiling Face

It is being named as the worst floods in living memory of Pakistan. There is desperate need for rescue, shelter, clean water and food. Aid is rushing in from all over world with relief to help victims of this flood disaster.

It is now the 2nd week into the disaster and Pakistan is still only in the middle of the monsoon season. The floods have spread to Pakistani Punjab, a vast grain growing region, and to Sind and part of Indian Ladak. To date 1,600 lives have been lost, and those are only that could be accounted for. More than 12 million people are displaced. 80% of the country’s food stock has been washed away, water logged or contaminated. Access to most places gone with roads and bridges washed away. Villages totally submerged. The people are now exposed to waterborne diseases.

Pictures of families wading with children and possessions on their heads, shoulder deep in water fill TV screens as the rest of world watches in horror.

But amidst all this there is joy: A smiling face we see. The face of the country’s leader in London, President Asif Ali Zardari smiling for the cameras .

One Pakistani
Not present
Not crying for his people
Not experiencing the suffering
Not counting the dead
Of his Pakistan.