By Arindom Borah
The earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan - two tragic natural calamities with an approximate figure of 29 million people affected, of which 20 million is Pakistan's share. In the aftermath of the mayhem, newspapers, columnists, and social scientists have carried out autopsies galore of the two natural calamities, from all possible perspectives. From these autopsies, what most people have now agreed to is that "humanitarian aid provided to Pakistan was insufficient". Further, taking Haiti's case and considering the aid which it received, people have even agreed that Haiti has indeed received much more aid then Pakistan. We today hear arguments such as "So, is this not social injustice? The US and its allies have allowed politics to influence the grant of aid to Pakistan, which is unethical" Someone even says" Can the US consider itself an advocate of free will and human rights, after this incident". In short, accusations are being hurled against the US and the West European developed countries because of this "Humanitarian Aid" issue.
Is this actually so? Are the western developed countries really guilty of social injustice? In this short composition, we will look a little deeply into these two incidents and try to see whether there has indeed been a violation of social justice and ethics, or whether this is nothing but propaganda.
Haiti & Pakistan: from the West's perspective
Let us first examine the evidence. On one hand, we have Haiti - a small Caribbean island nation, having its own share of villains from Papa Doc Duvalier to Baby Doc. Haiti is an apt example of the so called 'banana republic'. The world views Haiti as a nation of corruption, where fatal diseases prowl, lethargy is the national pastime and voodoo Voodoo and other occult practices are said to be popular in Haiti. However, against all these negatives, Haiti has an immense positive. This is that Haiti has neither interest nor the potential to oppose the US and/or NATO, despite its geographical location. It is true that at intervals, dictators like Papa Doc come into power, rule for a certain period, forced to make way for democracy, which is then forced to make way for dictatorship and so on and so forth. This phenomenon is something like the orbit of say Haley's comet, which in its intergalactic exploration highway, come near the earth at certain intervals, but then goes away again.
On the other hand, there is Pakistan-the 'terror nation', the nation where Bin-Laden was located and killed by US 'Seals' and with whom the word 'Islamic Terrorism' is inevitably linked. You cannot think of Pakistan without thinking of Terrorism. Pakistan is today on the brink of disaster socially, politically and economically. But they continue to talk big. The attack on Mumbai by terrorists from Pakistan has not been forgotten by the world, and neither has 9/11 The lone terrorist Kasab, who was captured alive by the Indian security forces during the Mumbai raids, is still undergoing trial in Indian Courts and should be sentenced to death very soon. Everyone who matter has now come to terms with the truth that Kasab is from Pakistan.
However, Pakistan's Islamic radicals continue to talk big, unable to understand that fiery rhetoric is not effective at all times. People of all nations are now slowly and sub-consciously applying the faulty logic that since most terrorists are Muslim and Pakistan is an Islamic country, all Pakistani citizens are Islamic terrorists. It is in this misconception, that the reason lies for the insufficient aid received by Pakistan. Will an American who has suffered trauma in 9/11 support donating his money for relief of a nation where the 9/11 terrorists were trained? The answer is obvious.
Can Humanitarian Aid be demanded?
Aid and charity cannot be demanded, but can only be requested or pleaded for. A hypothetical nation "X" has every right to help Haiti and not Pakistan or vice-versa, because after all, it is "X"'s money. No country has any obligation to justify its foreign policy to the world community or to explain why Haiti is being aided more than Pakistan. Foreign policy is an internal matter of all nations and it is the prerogative of each nation to decide how much aid they give to a country. It is a pity that today not only the recipients of aid, but also the donors have forgotten this basic fact.
We can now conclude that the allegations may be true but even if so, social justice has got nothing to do with it.Instead of pointing fingers, Pakistan will do well if it disbands all terrorist organizations head quartered in the nation, which will show the world community that Pakistan does not support terrorism. But will Pakistan do so? We can only wait and see.
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