Masopher's Mind

The Pakistan flood assistance can not be compared too heavily with the Haiti earthquake assistance for several reasons. Size, and proximity are two very important ones but the other is that no one want to support the bad guy.
Before I get to the last topic let me talk about the first 2. Aid comes from Atlantic nations. The UK France USA and Canada feel very strongly about funnelling tax payer dollars to other parts of the world usually to great benefit of local individuals not least among them the politician that is seen to be allocating the cash. What’s unfortunate about a country in the far east is that it is pretty far. A hour out of fort lauderdale takes you right to the earthquake zone and as far as I know the psychological ties that bind francophonic countries and countries under the hegemonic umbrella of the USA are quite strong. So when a fellow French or fellow Caribbean or fellow American is in trouble help is on the way.
Not so for Asia and the East. Squabbling is rife among people who are very similar and tribalism and nationalism is strong and violent. Hedgemonic ambition is highly resented despite the three very strong and large economies in the area. One (iran) is a global pariah the other(China) a global player and the third(India) is Pakistan’s sworn enemy. Pakistan is also a country with the 7th largest population on the planet. several Haitis could fit inside it geographically and demographically. if all the population of Haiti were helped in Pakistan it would still barely scratch the surface. Those in need are not very accessible either, even after you get past the Taliban, al Qaeda, kidnappers and flood waters you still have to brave the terrain and elements.

Lastly let’s not be naive, Pakistan is the badguy. Nuclear proliferation, war with India, support for terrorists, harbouring al Qaeda, harbouring the Taliban, being uncooperative. Pakistan has not done itself any favours. Many people are probably rooting for the floods to kill as many of them as possible and save us all a lot of trouble. Only the UK, home to a lot of them partly in fear is rushing to help them, but in truth not even the Pakistani elite really care about those that died.

Back in Uni life wasn’t tweetable and the only friends I had were the ones that sat with me on the hill overlooking the campus. We “liked” video games girls gym and the thought of graduating all things that were in front of us.
The Internet existed but we used it for stealing music looking at bios of our favourite musician. I remember during the days of Notoriuos Big I did a yahoo search (not google!) for bad boy( as in badboy entertainment, the home of puff daddy ma$e qnd the notorious big) and finding myself on a gay porn site. I discovered there and then that porn was a very easy thing to find even when you aren’t looking.
Email existed but we used it for receiving lecture notes and stalking girls, many of whom used emails for non stalking or lecture purposes.
The Internet was also there for looking up facts to help me write papers, look for games pictures fonts and icons to “pimp” my computer.
The Internet remained for some time a means to enhance my techno-philic life. That is until I discovered online communities. My first experience with online community was yahoo chat which was a mix of text and audio chat rooms. I never had “friends” but there were familiar names including the likes of Mr Pregnant. People talked about a lot of stuff. Sexuality, sex, relationships, jokes…actually that’s pretty much all there was. After a few months I drifted away from online communities and back to my first loves video games and girls in that order.
And that’s pretty much how it stayed until my second love jealously banned my first. All my girlfriends hated my Internet gaming and in the end the need for a real life companionship outweighed my need for kicking pixellated ass.
I’ve been using the internet for more than 1.5 decades now, I am reintroduced to online communities. I use the Internet for research and news but for lolz as well. I have friends and followers in the Internet sense of the words but music and video games play very little part in my life. There is still the gym though.

Now might be a good time to catch Osama bin Laden.

If he is still in Pakistan he will be outside out and about helping people and promoting his cause via his construction background.

Pakistan is reaping the rewards of its infamy. For years it has taken all its aid money and bought weapons to combat India. They were well proud of their joint produced air superiority fighter right until the point that rain proved itself superior to airplanes.

Pakistan has been like, ” dont fuck with us we have nukes” and hasn’t allowed the USA to properly chase the Taliban down so now no body really likes them worst of all their neighbours.

Now that trouble has come not from spies and conspiracies but from nature itself Pakistanis find out what life is really about. Its not about James Bond the ISI and geopolitics, life is about life, eating, drinking, shelter and sleep. Probably some lunatics are still blaming India and America for causing the floods and cholera. In fact I wouldnt be surprised is  the semi mythical HAARP is floated soon. It did get airplay during Katrina. If George Bush  used it on Black people, Obama might use it on Pakistan.

Too bad one cannot shoot or explode away poverty.

If bin Laden is still alive, he’s a smart and compassionate guy, he’s out there helping, and good thing too, Pakistan needs all the help it can get.