Donor Fatigue

Do you remember when the tsunami hit Indonesia and killed thousands of people back in 2002? We were all glued to our TV's, simply amazed at the human tragedy ...plus we all dug deep into our pockets and gave $$ billions of dollars to that Muslim nation.

Now 8 years later another Muslim nation, Pakistan, is going through something that WILL prove to be worse than the tsunami when it comes to death, suffering and cost....but yet most in America are unaware that it is happening....and most of us have not opened up our wallets to give to the relief effort in Pakistan. Why??

The United Nations calls it "Donor Fatigue". Simply put, the disasters on earth are coming so frequently that we have tuned them out and now think of them as just part of life. Earthquake in Haiti, floods in China, earthquake in China, earthquake in Iran, massive floods in Europe....

ISLAMABAD, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Only a small fraction of the six million Pakistanis desperate for food and clean water have received any help as the United Nations battled donor fatigue and appealed urgently on Tuesday for more funds.

With hundreds of villages marooned and highways and bridges cut in half by swollen rivers, food rations and access to clean water have only been provided to around 500,000 flood survivors, the U.N. said.

The United Nations has warned that up to 3.5 million children could be in danger of contracting deadly diseases carried through contaminated water and insects in a crisis that has disrupted the lives of at least a tenth of Pakistan's 170 million people.

"We have a country which has endemic watery diarrhoea, endemic cholera, endemic upper respiratory infections and we have the conditions for much much expanded problems," UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia Daniel Toole told a news conference.

"We cannot spend pledges. We cannot buy purification tablets, we cannot support Pakistan with pledges. I urge the international community to urgently change pledges into cheques."

See it here; http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SGE67G084.htm

I gotta be honest....I ask myself today, where are all the Muslim nations rushing in to care for the Pakistani cousins? Where is the Saudi Arabian oil wealth? How about Qatar and Kuwait? Those desert kingdoms could write instant checks for $billions and fly it down to Pakistan tomorrow! I remember scenes of protesters in Pakistan chanting, "Down with USA!" and then burning US flags....but now they desperately want The West to come quickly to save them.

Yes, I do have donor fatigue. And I am realizing that my cynical thoughts probably don't line up with what Jesus would say about loving, feeding, praying for and clothing your enemies.