Cuba provides 300 doctors to Pakistan
By
G. Dunkel
Published Nov 6, 2005 8:48 PM
A massive disaster is building in the foothills of
the Himalayas, mainly in northern Pakistan, Kashmir and, to a lesser degree, in
neighboring India. On Oct. 8, a severe earthquake, measuring 7.6 on the Richter
scale, hit the area. Tens of thousands of people died in the building collapses
caused by the quake.
The area is so remote and the destruction of roads
and bridges due to rock slides so complete that the full number of deaths from
the quake is not known, but on Nov. 1 the Pakistani government revised its
official figure sharply upward to over 73,000. Those severely injured numbered
perhaps twice or three times the number of people killed.
Pakistani
officials had not reached at least 30 percent of the area affected by the
earthquake as late as Oct. 30. Even roads arduously opened by the army have
frequently been closed by aftershocks.
Many of the injuries have become
gangrenous because the wounds couldn’t be pro perly cleaned. Even many
survivors whose wounds were properly treated have broken bones not yet properly
set. As survivors reach field hospitals, the medical staffs have performed
thousands of amputations to keep gangrene from killing the patients.
Two
to four million people are homeless, with no shelter. The earthquake has
destroyed farmers’ granaries. In an area already grindingly poor, at least
1 million additional people lost their jobs, according to the International
Labor Organi zation. The ILO also said that each person with a job in this part
of Pakistan supported two people without one.
Winter begins in
mid-November, with heavier snows than usual predicted. The snow line is already
creeping down the mountains surrounding the valleys where people live. Roads
that are now hard to travel are going to become impassible so people without
shelter, food or fuel for warmth face death by freezing.
Who is
responding to the crisis?
The response to this developing crisis has
varied.
The day after the earthquake struck, the National Trade Union
Federation of Pakistan, representing 106 unions, and the Pakistan Trade Union
Defense Campaign, two leading labor confederations in Pakistan, met and
resolved to get all their members to contribute one day’s salary to
ongoing relief efforts. Relief convoys were organ ized that took vitally needed
supplies into devastated areas and set up relief camps.
Islamic groups,
opposed to the government, also sprang into action and provided their own relief
in separate convoys and camps.
The Pakistani government, unprepared and
overwhelmed by the magnitude of the crisis, put out a cry for help. Its closest
neighbor, India—which has fought four wars with Pakistan over some of the
area struck by the quake—provided medical supplies, bedding, food and
transportation. India has also agreed to open five border crossings.
From
outside the stricken countries, some of the best help came from socialist Cuba,
which has already sent 300 doctors, including 15 surgical teams, to Pakistan.
Cuba also has medical teams in Guatemala aiding recovery after a recent
hurricane there. On the Oct. 27 “Round Table,” a regularly televised
discussion program in Cuba, President Fidel Castro challenged the United States
and the European Union to adopt a similar position based on solidarity with the
survivores.
China also immediately sent aid to Paki stan. By Oct. 29, when
China handed over 150,000 blankets and 3,380 tents, its aid amounted to $20.5
million.
According to the Daily Times, an English -language Pakistani
newspaper, over 900 U.S. personnel—from FEMA, medi cal teams and
engineers—are helping with the relief effort. Twenty-nine U.S. helicopters
are currently operating to support relief efforts. Washington has pled ged $156
million, but only $50 million of that is for humanitarian relief.
The
international Oxfam organization, in an Oct. 28 press release, said that the
U.S. had delivered only $14.5 million, or 6.9 percent of its “fair share
of the UN-requested donations.” Oxfam calculates “fair share”
based on the size of the donating countries’ economy. The U.S.
contribution at that point was less than China’s, which has a much smaller
economy.
UN agencies—the World Health Org anization, UNESCO, the
Food and Agri culture Organization—are supplying most of the aid and
assistance to Pakistan. The donations promised them by the wealthy imperialist
countries have not yet started to flow.
The Communist Workers and Peasants
Party of Pakistan, in an Oct. 28 appeal for international solidarity, wrote:
“Progres sive people in Pakistan are doing the best that they can but the
enormity of the problem is overwhelming. Real meaningful assistance can only be
provided through internationally coordinated relief efforts.”
The
party called on people in the wealthy countries to “put pressure on their
governments not only to increase their pledges but more importantly to deliver
these relief funds to the UN before Nov. 15, which is the date that closes the
window of opportunity for millions of people.”
The UN helicopters
will be grounded soon because the airlift is running out of money. “It is
now or never,” Jan Vande moortele, the UN’s earthquake relief
coordinator, said.
“We will not have a second chance. Tomorrow will
be too late for thousands and thousands of victims,” he added,
“especially babies and small children vulnerable to pneumonia, diarrhea
and malnutrition.”
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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